MODERN MANNERS. Mary Alcock (née Cumberland) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T86344 Alcock [née Cumberland], Mary, 1741?–1798. Poems, &c. &c. by the Late Mrs. Mary Alcock [poems only]. London Printed for C. Dilly, Poultry 1799 pp. 81-83. vii,[25],183,[1]p.

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MODERN MANNERS . Or modern Manners let me sing , The gay Flirtilla cries — Manners , my dear ! there's no such thing — Her grandmamma replies . You say , cries Miss , in days of yore People were highly bred ; But , thank my stars , those days are o'er , Those people all are dead . The world is now at ease and gay , Improv'd in every art , Fraught with diversions night and day To charm and fire the heart . To live in these enlighten'd days Is surely life indeed ; Long may they last , Flirtilla prays , And joy to joy succeed ! The mind , left free and uncontroul'd , Makes pleasure all it's aim ; Youth will not now by age be told — My dear , you are to blame . Such Gothic parents , thanks to Heaven , Are now but rarely found ; Those , whom the fates to me have given , Live but in Pleasure's round . No tedious hours at home they pass In dull domestic care ; To think , they say , would soon , alas ! Bring wrinkles and grey hair . Oft have I heard them jeer and joke At wedlock's galling chain ; Then cry , Thank Heaven , 'tis now no yoke , We wed to part again . In former times indeed 'twas said , That hearts were join'd above , That women to their husbands paid Obedience , truth and love . But title , pin-money and dower Now join our hands for life , No other ties than these have power To couple man and wife . To these alone my thoughts aspire , On these I fix my heart ; A wealthy husband I require — I care not when we part .