To hide her shame from ev’ry eye,

To give repentance to her lover,

And wring his bosom—is to die.


A Paraphrase.

“When Woman,” as Goldsmith declares, “stoops to folly,”

And finds out too late that false man can “betray,”

She is apt to look dismal, and grow “melan-choly,”

And, in short, to be anything rather than gay.

He goes on to remark that “to punish her lover,