- affordsverbChapter 1 →
Provides or offers something — here used to say that marriage gives or supplies only a small amount of ease or comfort to those in it.
“A married state affords but little ease: / The best of husbands are so hard to please.”
- easenounChapter 1 →
A state of comfort, freedom from difficulty or worry, and the ability to live without strain or hardship.
“A married state affords but little ease: / The best of husbands are so hard to please.”
- shunverbChapter 1 →
To deliberately avoid or stay away from something, treating it as dangerous or undesirable.
“Then shun, oh shun that wretched state, / And all the fawning flatterers hate.”
- wretchedadjectiveChapter 1 →
Deeply miserable, full of suffering, or of very poor quality — used here to describe marriage as a pitiable and unhappy condition.
“Then shun, oh shun that wretched state, / And all the fawning flatterers hate.”
- fawningadjectiveChapter 1 →
Excessively flattering and eager to please in an insincere way, usually to gain something from the person being flattered.
“Then shun, oh shun that wretched state, / And all the fawning flatterers hate.”
- flatterersnounChapter 1 →
People who give excessive and insincere praise or compliments, typically to win someone's affection or to persuade them into something — here, suitors who use sweet words to lure women into marriage.
“Then shun, oh shun that wretched state, / And all the fawning flatterers hate.”
- ValueverbChapter 1 →
To recognise and appreciate the worth of something, treating it as precious and worth protecting rather than giving away lightly.
“Value the freedom you enjoy, / Which nothing can but choice destroy.”
- choicenounChapter 1 →
A deliberate personal decision — used here to argue that only a woman's own voluntary act of choosing marriage can take her freedom away from her.
“Value the freedom you enjoy, / Which nothing can but choice destroy.”
A Married StateShort story by Katherine Philips