John Gay (1685 – 1732)
English poet and dramatist.
Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation:
Title and profit I resign;
The post of honour shall be mine.
That raven on yon left-hand oak
(Curse on his ill-betiding croak!)
Bodes me no good.
No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who’ve no retreat.
I don't enquire after your Affairs-- --so whatever happens, I wash my hands on't---- It hath always been my Maxim, that one Friend should assist another-- --But if you please----I'll take one of the Scarfs home with me. 'Tis always good to have something in Hand.
Adieu, she cried, and waved her lily hand.
While there is life there 's hope, he cried.
How happy I am, if you say this from your heart! For I love thee so, that I could sooner bear to see thee hang'd than in the Arms of another.
I hate the man who builds his name
On ruins of another's fame.
Thus prudes, by characters o'erthrown,
Imagine that they raise their own.
Thus Scribblers, covetous of praise,
Think slander can transplant the bays.
Were I laid on Greenland’s Coast,
And in my Arms embrac’d my Lass;
Warm amidst eternal Frost,
Too soon the Half Year’s Night would pass.
Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; and now I know it.
By outward show let's not be cheated;
An ass should like an ass be treated.
The charge is prepar'd, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,—a terrible show!
Youth's the season made for joys,
Love is then our duty.
'Twas when the seas were roaring
With hollow blasts of wind,
A damsel lay deploring,
All on a rock reclined.
Whence thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books consumed the midnight oil?
And when a lady's in the case,
You know all other things give place.
The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
How happy could I be with either,
Were t' other dear charmer away!
The charge is prepared; the lawyers are met;
The judges all ranged (a terrible show!)
I go, undismay'd.—For death is a debt,
A debt on demand.—So take what I owe.
If love be not his Guide,
He never will come back!