1630–1680 (date of composition), 1759 (date of publication), Samuel Butler, Characters:
What he loses by Venus he thinks to recover by Mercury, but catches his cure as an after-clap, that commonly proves the worse disease of the two.
1782, letter from Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris, 9 January, 1782, published in The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin: volume VII (John Bigelow, editor; ISBN-13: 9781443755863) in 2008:
Sir:—I have long feared that by our continually worrying the ministry here with successive after-clap demands for more and more money, we should at length tire out their patience.
