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A TRUE PENITENT. The folly, sin, and danger of Marrying widows, and Old Women in General, demonstrated; And earnestly address'd to the Batchelors of Great Britain.

London. Printed for J. Robinson, [1746]. First edition.
31pp, [1]. ESTC T109649.

[Bound with:] A dialogue between King richard III. And his Adopted son richard IV. Dublin,
Printed: London, Re-printed for John Warner, 1744. [2], 5-30pp. ESTC T166081.

8vo. Later dark green roan-backed green paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Lightly rubbed, upper board heavily stained. Long horizontal tear to text leaf B1 of first mentioned work, without loss, slight loss to lower corners of leaves D2 and D4.
The sole edition of an anonymous pamphlet in which the author laments his abandonment of a fair young woman in favour of an affluent widow. The embittered gentleman proceeds, with excoriating zeal, to dismantle the supposed traits of the widow; notably that she will never have the same affection for her second husband as she felt for her first. He catalogues the 'causes of the degeneracy of the widow', principally her 'acquaintance with tattling wives, and buxom widows, as may very much viciate her conversation and manners' and the resulting way in which they 'industriously instruct each other' in all manner of 'tricks' and stratagems to make 'poor men lose the use of half their senses' such as 'heir receipts for washes, cordials, abortion, fainting-fits, paint, &c.' Anglican clergyman and schoolmaster Thomas Dilworth (d.1780) issued a scathing reply entitled An advocate for the ladies, concerning the sacred state of matrimony: in answer to a late, but scandalous pamphlet... (1746), which ran to twice the length of the work it critiqued.

ESTC records copies at just six locations (BL, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Trinity College Dublin, and Yale).
£ 1,250.00 Antiquates Ref: 29061