If weak women go astray
From Matthew Prior's poem "Hans Carvel"
(1700), a portrait of a weak-minded woman:
HANS CARVEL, Impotent and Old,
Married a Lass of LONDON Mould:
Handsome? enough; extreamly Gay:
Lov'd Musick, Company, and Play:
High Flights She had, and Wit at Will:
And so her Tongue lay seldom still:
For in all Visits who but She,
To Argue, or to Repartée?
She made it plain, that Human Passion
Was order'd by Predestination;
That, if weak Women went astray,
Their Stars were more in Fault than They....
(lines 1-12)
