Husbands

A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical periods, reflecting a global perspective on this role.

I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And by the way, in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity? Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your sex; regard us then as Beings placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.
- Abigail Adams in a letter to John Adams (31 March 1776), published in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams (1875) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 147

But O ye lords of ladies intellectual,
Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all?
- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto I, Stanza 22.

And truant husband should return, and say,
"My dear, I was the first who came away."
- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto I, Stanza 141.

Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
- 1 Corinthians 7:3 (First Letter of Saint Paul to Corinthians, 7:3).

The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
- 1 Corinthians 7:4 (First Letter of Saint Paul to Corinthians, 7:4).

An obedient wife commands her husband.
- Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732), No. 640.

God give me a rich husband, though he be an ass.
- Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732), No. 1670.

Conjugal government requires its treatises. A young woman setting out in life lacks a printed guide. Her cookery-book, however, may afford some useful hints till one be actually directed to the important subject just mentioned. Many well-known receipts are equally available for a batterie de cuisine or du cœur. Your roasted husband is subdued by the fire of fierce words and fiercer looks — your broiled husband, under the pepper and salt of taunt and innuendo — your stewed husband, under the constant application of petty vexations — your boiled husband dissolves under the watery influences — while your confectionized husband goes through a course of the blanc mange of flattery, or the preserves and sweets of caresses and smiles.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Lady Anne Granard, Volume 1, Chapter 9, p113.

The lover in the husband may be lost.
- George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, Advice to a Lady (1731), line 112.

God is thy law, thou mine.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IV, line 637.

The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks,
Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,
Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IX, line 267.

And to thy husband's will
Thine shall submit; he over thee shall rule.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book X, line 195.

With thee goes
Thy husband, him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil.
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 290.

Let the husband render to his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
- Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:3 (as quoted in World English Bible).

The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
- Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:4 (as quoted in Catholic Bible Douay-Rehims).

Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- Saint Paul in Ephesians 5:28 (as quoted in www.ewtn.com).

The stoic husband was the glorious thing.
The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,
And lov'd his country.
- Alexander Pope, Epilogue to Rowe's Jane Shore (1714).

Well, if our author in the wife offends
He has a husband that will make amends;
He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And sure such kind good creatures may be living.
- Alexander Pope, Epilogue to Rowe's Jane Shore (1714).

No worse a husband than the best of men.
- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act II, scene 2, line 131.

I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office.
- William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act V, scene 1, line 98.

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty.
- William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 1, line 103.

If I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands.
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 2, line 67.

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance.
- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act V, scene 2, line 146.

Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband.
- William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act V, scene 2, line 155.