From Apollo’s cabinet: or the muses delight., p143, 1757.
The Ladies Case. Set by Mr. GOUGE.
How hard is the fortune of all woman kind? For ever subjected, for ever confin'd: The parent controuls us until we are wives, The husbands enslave us the rest of their lives. [How] fondly we love, yet we dare not reveal, [We] secretly languish, compell'd to conceal; Deny'd e'ery freedom of life to enjoy, We're sham'd if we're kind, we're blam'd if we're coy.