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
snow faults grows
In beauty faults conspicuous grow; The smallest speck is seen on snow.
exercise youth lasting
Exercise thy lasting youth defends.
sweet gun men
Man may escape from rope and gun; Nay, some have outlived the doctor's pill: Who takes a woman must be undone, That basilisk is sure to kill. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets, So he that tastes woman, woman, woman, He that tastes woman, ruin meets.
love love-is advice
Can love be controll'd by advice?
wife devil very-good
Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.
love grows pursue
What then in love can woman do? If we grow fond they shun us. And when we fly them, they pursue: But leave us when they've won us.
love hate liquor
Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.
ignorance virtue eternity
Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.
luxury giving doing-good
The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.
wine glasses fire
Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us, And fires us With courage, love and joy. Women and wine should life employ. Is there ought else on earth desirous?
men animal pay
Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.
flirty kissing men
O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.
life sweet kissing
But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, that I languished and pined till I granted the rest.
envy may fool
Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.