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Marry in haste and repent at leisure.

This proverb probably came to us from Italy;ssss1 but, alas! it happens too often in all countries that "Wedlock rides in the saddle, and repentance on the croup" (French).ssss1 There is a joke in the Menagiana not unlike this:—A person meeting another riding on horseback with his wife behind him, applied to him the words of Horace—"Post equitem sedet atra cura."ssss1 "Marriage is a desperate thing," quoth Selden. "The frogs in Æsop were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well because they could not get out again." Consider well, then, what you are about before you put yourself in a condition to hear it said,—

You have tied a knot with your tongue you cannot undo with your teeth.

Some go so far as to say that "No one marries but repents" (French).ssss1 The Spaniards exclaim, in language which reminds us of the custom of Dunmow, "The bacon of paradise for the married man that has not repented!"ssss1