Algernon: Why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.
Lane: I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.
Algernon: Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?
Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest. London: Smithers (1898)
As an aside, the witty dialogues of the play remind us that in “traditional marriages,” consent was mainly to be asked from the young woman’s guardian.
Thoughts?