John Gay
John Gay
John Gaywas an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera, a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 June 1685
maid plays simple
How, like a moth, the simple maid / Still plays about the flame!
dear happy neither tease thus word
How happy could I be with either, / Were t'other dear charmer away! / But while ye thus tease me together, / To neither a word will I say.
break cheating father handsome hath lectures morality mother pitied pleasure
How the mother is to be pitied who hath handsome daughters! Locks, bolts, bars, and lectures of morality are nothing to them: they break through them all. They have as much pleasure in cheating a father and mother, as in cheating at cards.
women passion wind
Woman's mind Oft' shifts her passions, like th'inconstant wind; Sudden she rages, like the troubled main, Now sinks the storm, and all is calm again.
hills far-away over-the-hill
If with me you'd fondly stray Over the hills and far away.
She who has never lov'd, has never liv'd.
praise
Praising all alike, is praising none.
friendship dog pride
Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.
happiness dear charmers
How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear charmer away!
mother thinking should-have
Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married? Baggage!
jealousy believe frenzy
What frenzy dictates, jealousy believes
book learning oil
Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
envy pay spurs
Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
men views statistics
Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.