Broadside entitled 'A Lecture to the Ladies by a Disobliged Admirer of the Fair Sex'

Transcription

A LECTURE to the LADIES,

By a disobliged Admirer of the Fair Sex.

SATAN, to ruin Mankind in the Root,            
The universal Queen, betray'd with Fruit ;
A single Apple forfeits Adam's Crown;
The Curse of GOD went with the Apple down.
E'er since, that Sex, tho' fair, with charming Shapes,
Are Sodom's Apples, and Gommorrah's Grapes ;
They have Apple's ruddy Cheek and Skin :
But ah! the Serpent hides himself within.
Was't not enough to taste the damning Tree,
But you must guzzle down that cursed Tea;
A Plant Which in the Devil's Garden grew,
By Which a second Time he poisons you.
It's numerous Trains of Mischief who can tell ;
Tea hath dispatch'd a thousand Souls to Hell.
From whence doth starting of the Nerves proceed ?
Whence   comes the paraletick   Hand   and Head ?
Whence   does our Sloth   and Idleness arise?
What hatches all our Calumnies and Lies ?
What makes backbiting to be Alamode ?               
What spreads our lewd lascivious Songs abroad ?
What makes our Pride and poverty increase ?
What busks the Ladies in the Harlot's 'Dress?
What makes the Tollet overspread with Cards ?         
What makes our Daughters   Whores, and ruins Lairds?
What keeps the Whig and Tory in a Battle ?
What dwindles down good Sense to tittle tattle ?                     
What Makes young Miss lisp Oaths with English Air?
What makes the Matron loll in Elbow-Chair ;
Forget her BIBLE for her China Ware ?      
What blows, the Coal, and kindles all our Strife?
What gives a Husband Horns, and damns the Wife?
If whence these Mallieures, flow, you do not see,
Believe my Word, The Fountain-head is T E A.

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