XXIII.

THE HENPECKED HUSBAND.

[A lady who expressed herself with incivility about her husband's potations with Burns, was rewarded by these sharp lines.]

Curs'd be the man, the poorest wretch in life, The crouching vassal to the tyrant wife! Who has no will but by her high permission; Who has not sixpence but in her possession; Who must to her his dear friend's secret tell; Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell! Were such the wife had fallen to my part, I'd break her spirit, or I'd break her heart; I'd charm her with the magic of a switch, I'd kiss her maids, and kick the perverse b----h.

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