Explore "The Naughty Man; or, Sir Thomas Brown" by Frank Chapman Bliss on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Things are somewhat reversed, when wisdom and age / Are counted as nothing -- as fools on the stage; / If a man wants to marry -- strange as it seems -- / Must he ask his dear children, still in their teens? / Must he say to them, "Children, please, may I marry?" / And if they refuse, should he raise the Old Harry?
If a widow would marry -- sometimes the case -- / Must she call in the neighbors as a preface, / And ask their consent that she wed Mr. Brown, / Or be laughed at -- defamed, throughout the town? / We will not attempt at this time to relate, / The dangers attending the marital state --