Each night, once the candle is out, Mrs. Caudle takes up the day’s grievances with her long-suffering husband: the five pounds he lent a friend, the club called the Skylarks, the family umbrella lent away, his joining the Masons, staying up till one with a friend. Mr. Caudle tries to sleep; she does not let him.
First run in Punch in 1845, one of the great comic monologues of Victorian England. Download the free EPUB.