A poem about a man with two wives of different temperament. Well, it is not the Aesop fable I will quote here. Mathew Prior, a poet-diplomatist, who wrote the poem in 1701, drew a parallel between the said poem of Aesop and the then current strife between parties in relation to the eminent war (of the Spanish Succession).
The parties henpecked William are thy wives
The hairs they plucked are thy prerogatives
Tories thy person hate, and Whigs thy power
and much thou yieldest and they tug for more
Till this poor man and thou are shorn
He without hairs and thou without a Crown.
Poor William.
The poem is quoted from England in the War of the Spanish Succession by John B. Hattendorf and published by Garland Publishing, Inc in 1987.
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