Isaac Bickerstaffe (1733 – 1808)
Irish playwright who arrived in London in 1755 and produced many successful comedies and opera librettos.
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There was a jolly miller once,
Lived on the river Dee;
He worked and sung from morn till night:
No lark more blithe than he.
Ay, do despise me! I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.
'Tis a sure sign work goes on merrily, when folks sing at it.
Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,
But - why did you kick me downstairs?
Hope! thou nurse of young desire.
Health is the greatest of all possessions; a pale cobbler is better than a sick king.
Fine feathers, they say, make fine birds.
And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,—
I care for nobody, no, not I,
If no one cares for me.
Young fellows will be young fellows.
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