Her tambour-frame she leaves and diet spare,

Plain work and plenty with her house to share;

Till, all her varnish lost, in few short years,

In all her worth, the farmer's wife appears.

Yet not the ancient kind; nor she who gave

Her soul to gain—a mistress and a slave:

410

Who not to sleep allow'd the needful time;

To whom repose was loss, and sport a crime;

Who, in her meanest room (and all were mean),