The Old Bachelor: A Comedy

SCENE: _Sylvia’s Lodgings_.

HEARTWELL _and_ BOY.

Heart. Gone forth, say you, with her maid?

BOY. There was a man too, that fetched them out—Setter, I think they called him.

Heart. So-h—that precious pimp too—damned, damned strumpet! could she not contain herself on her wedding-day? not hold out till night? Oh, cursed state! how wide we err, when apprehensive of the load of life.

We hope to find That help which Nature meant in womankind, To man that supplemental self-designed; But proves a burning caustic when applied, And Adam, sure, could with more ease abide The bone when broken, than when made a bride.