Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Henpecked
Cursed be the man, the poorest wretch in life,
The crouching vassal to the tyrant wife,
Who has no will but by her high permission;
Who has not sixpence but in her possession;
Who must to her his dear friend’s secret tell;
Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell.
Were such the wife had fallen to my part,
I’d break her spirit, or I’d break her heart.
Burns.—The Henpecked Husband.