Of fifty, and such husbands are in plenty;
And yet, I think, instead of such a one
’Twere better to have two of five-and-twenty.
Don Juan, lxii.
And still earlier by Gay in Equivocation. In the colloquy between a bishop and an abbot, the bishop advises:—
These indiscretions lend a handle
To lewd lay tongues to give us scandal
For your vow’s sake, this rule I give t’ye,
Let all your maids be turned of fifty.
The priest replied, I have not swerved,