Explore "One Ralph Blossom Soliloquizes" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
("It being deposed that vij women who were mayds before he knew them have / been brought upon the towne [rates? ] by the fornicacions of one Ralph / Blossom, Mr Major inquired why he should not contribute xiv pence weekly / toward their mayntenance. But it being shewn that the sayd R. B. was / dying of a purple feaver, no order was made. "-_Budmouth Borough Minutes_: / 16–.)
WHEN I am in hell or some such place, / A-groaning over my sorry case, / What will those seven women say to me / Who, when I coaxed them, answered "Aye" to me?