From The Gentleman's Magazine, by Sylvanus Urban (pseud.) (London: Printed by John Nichols, Vol. 48, Part 1, No. 5, May, 1798), page 426:


SONG.

How hard is the fortune of all womankind!
For ever subjected, for ever confin'd!
The parent controuls us until we are wives;
The husband enslaves the rest of our lives.

If fondly we love, yet we dare not reveal,
But secretly languish our sighs to conceal;
Deny'd, ev'ry freedom of life to enjoy;
Asham'd if we're kind, and condemn'd if we're coy.