[Page 41]

A Gentleman's Request to the Author on Reading The Happy Husband and the Old Batchelor:

1 Great Soul! and good! Unequal'd Poetrix!
2 The Phoenix of your Age, Station and Sex!
3 Resume the Quill; And let us see display'd
4 The Happy Wife And discontented Maid.
5 So by your Strong persuasives you may win
6 Virgins to fix their love on Virtuous Men.
HER ANSWER.
7 Your Compliments return'd, for I protest
8 I truly think that you deserve them best,
9 And to Obey Shou'd be my Humble aim,
10 Only I fear 'twill prove a barren Theme:
11 Most Men are now so viciously inclin'd
12 That happy Wives are very hard to find;
13 And as for discontented Maids I own,
14 Any Such persons are to me
* Observe the Author is herself an Old Maid.
unknown,
15 Nor can persuasives be of any use,
16 Virgins I think for Virtuous Men would chuse,
17 Only there are so very few of late,
18 Maids will grow old, if they for Such should wait.
19 So Rev'rend Sir, I hope you will excuse
20 The ignorance, And freedom of the Muse.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): A Gentleman's Request to the Author on Reading The Happy Husband and the Old Batchelor:
Author: Mary Collier
Themes:
Genres: heroic couplet; answer/reply

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Source edition

Collier, Mary, c.1690-c.1762. Poems, on Several Occasions, by Mary Collier, Author of the Washerwoman's Labour, with some remarks on Her Life. Winchester: Printed by Mary Ayres; for the Author. MDCCLXII., 1762, p. 41. 68p. (ESTC T125590)

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