The Man between Two Ages, and his Two Mistresses

A man of middle age, whose hair / Was bordering on the grey, / Began to turn his thoughts and care / The matrimonial way. / By virtue of his ready, / A store of choices had he / Of ladies bent to suit his taste; / On which account he made no haste. / To court well was no trifling art. / Two widows chiefly gain'd his heart; / The one yet green, the other more mature, / Who found for nature's wane in art a cure. / These dames, amidst their joking and caressing / The man they long'd to wed, / Would sometimes set themselves to dressing / His party-colour'd head. / Each aiming to assimilate / Her lover to her own estate, / The older piecemeal stole / The black hair from his poll, / While eke, with fingers light, / The young one stole the white. / Between them both, as if by scald, / His head was changed from grey to bald. / 'For these,' he said, 'your gentle pranks, / I owe you, ladies, many thanks. / By being thus well shaved, / I less have lost than saved. / Of Hymen, yet, no news at hand, / I do assure ye. / By what I've lost, I understand / It is in your way, / Not mine, that I must pass on. / Thanks, ladies, for the lesson. '[1]

[1]: Phaedrus, II.2: Aesop.