John Gay

John Gay was an English poet and dramatist of the early 18th century. He is best remembered for 'The Beggar's Opera' (1728), a ballad opera that satirized the contemporary government and society of England. Gay was a member of the Scriblerus Club, alongside notable writers like Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Despite facing financial difficulties, his work remains influential in the landscape of English literature.

June 30, 1685

December 4, 1732

English

John Gay

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The Mastiff.

        Those who in quarrels interpose
        Must often wipe a bloody nose.

        A mastiff of true English mood
        Loved fighting better than his food.
        When dogs were snarling o'er a bone
        He wished to make their war his own;
        And often found (where two contend)
        To interpose, obtained his end:
        The scars of honour seamed his face;
        He deemed his limp endued with grace.

        Once on a time he heard afar
        Two dogs contend with noisy jar;
        Away he scoured to lay about him,
        Resolved no fray should be without him.
        Forth from the yard - which was a tanner's -
        The master rushed to teach him manners;
        And with the cudgel tanned his hide,
        And ...

John Gay

The Monkey Who Had Seen The World.

        A monkey, to reform the times,
        Resolved to visit foreign climes;
        For therefore toilsomely we roam
        To bring politer manners home.
        Misfortunes serve to make us wise:
        Poor pug was caught, and made a prize;
        Sold was he, and by happy doom
        Bought to cheer up a lady's gloom.
        Proud as a lover of his chains
        His way he wins, his post maintains -
        He twirled her knots and cracked her fan,
        Like any other gentleman.
        When jests grew dull he showed his wit,
        And many a lounger hit with it.
        When he had fully stored his mind -
        As Orpheus once for human kind, -
        So he away would homewards steal,
        To civilize the monkey weal.

John Gay

The Owls And Sparrow.

        Two pompous owls together sat
        In the solemnity of chat:

        "Respect to wisdom, all is fled;
        The Grecian sages all are dead.
        They gave our fathers honour due;
        The dignity of owls they knew.
        Upon our merit they conferred
        The title of 'The Athenian bird.'"

        "Brother, they did; you reason right,"
        Answered his chum with winking sight.
        "For Athens was the seat of learning.
        Academicians were discerning.
        They placed us on Minerva's helm,
        And strove with rank to overwhelm
        Our worth, which now is quite neglected, -
        Ay, a cock-sparrow's more respected."

        A sparrow who was passing by,
        And heard the speech,...

John Gay

The Pack-Horse And The Carrier.

        (To a Young Nobleman.)


        Begin, my lord, in early youth,
        To bear with, nay encourage, truth.
        And blame me not, for disrespect,
        That I the flatterer's style reject.

        Let Virtue be your first pursuit;
        Is not the tree known by its fruit?
        Set your great ancestry in view;
        Honour the title from them due.
        Assert that you are nobly born,
        Viewing ignoble things with scorn.

        My lord, your ancestry had not
        The wealth and heirlooms you have got;
        Yet was their conscience aye their own,
        Nor ever pandered to the throne.
        With hands by no corruption stained
        They ministerial bribes disdained;
        They served ...

John Gay

The Persian, The Sun, And The Cloud.

        Lives there a bard for genius famed
        Whom Envy's tongue hath not declaimed?
        Her hissing snakes proclaim her spite;
        She summons up the fiends of night;
        Hatred and malice by her stand,
        And prompt to do what she command.

        As prostrate to the orb of day
        A Persian, invocating, lay:

        "Parent of light, whose rays dispense
        The various gifts of Providence,
        Accept our praise, accept our prayer,
        Smile on our fields, and bless our year."

        A cloud passed by - a voice aloud,
        Like Envy's, issued from that cloud:

        "I can eclipse your gaudy orb,
        And every ray you ask absorb.
        Pray, then, to me - where praise is due -
   ...

John Gay

The Ratcatcher And Cats.

        The rats by night the mischief did,
        And Betty every morn was chid.
        The cheese was nibbled, tarts were taken,
        And purloined were the eggs and bacon;
        And Betty cursed the cat, whose duty
        Was to protect and guard the booty.
        A ratcatcher, of well known skill,
        Was called to kill or scotch the ill;
        And, as an engineer, surveyed
        Their haunts and laid an ambuscade.
        A cat behold him, and was wrath,
        Whilst she resolved to cross his path;
        Not to be beaten by such chaps,
        She silently removed his traps.
        Again he set the traps and toils,
        Again his cunning pussy foils.
        He set a trap to catch the thief,
        And pussy she got caught i...

John Gay

The Raven, Sexton, And Worm.

        (To Laura.)


        My Laura, your rebukes are prudish;
        For although flattery is rudish,
        Yet deference, not more than just,
        May be received without disgust.
        Am I a privilege denied
        Assumed by every tongue beside?
        And are you, fair and feminine,
        Prone to reject a verse benign?
        And is it an offence to tell
        A fact which all mankind knows well?
        Or with a poet's hand to trace
        The beaming lustre of your face?
        Nor tell in metaphor my tale,
        How the moon makes the planets pale?
        I check my song; and only gaze,
        Admiring what I may not praise.

        If you reject my tribute due,
        I'll moralise - despite...

John Gay

The Scold And Parrot.

        A husband said unto his wife:
        "Who deals in slander deals in strife;
        Are we the heralds of disgrace,
        To thunder, love, at all our race -
        And, indiscriminate in rage,
        To spare nor friend nor sex nor age?
        Your tongue, love, is a rolling flood
        That thundering onwards stirs up mud,
        And, like to fame and human woes,
        Progressing, strengthens as it flows."

        "My husband," so the tongue replies,
        "So philosophic and so wise,
        Am I to be - so wisdom ridden -
        A parrot's privilege forbidden?
        You praise his talk - smile at his squalling
        Yet in your wife you deem it brawling:
        Dear husband, must it still belong
        To man ...

John Gay

The Setter And The Partridge.

        The setting dog the stubble tried,
        And snuffed the breeze with nostrils wide;
        He set - the sportsmen from behind,
        Conscious of game, the net unwind.

        A partridge, which as warder stood,
        Warned, and the covey sought the wood.
        But, ere she followed from her cover,
        Thus she discharged her mind on Rover:

        "Thou fawning slave and sneaking cheat,
        Subservient unto man's deceit!
        Disgrace unto thy honest race,
        Unto the race of dogs disgrace;
        Who ere to men they bent the knee
        Were noted for fidelity."

        The dog retorted with a sneer:
        "Since you are safe, enjoy your jeer;
        Rustic alike in kind and mind,
        And igno...

John Gay

The Shaven And Shorn Goat.

        'Tis strange to see a new-launched fashion
        Lay on the soul and grow a passion.
        To illustrate such folly, I
        Proffer some beast to the mind's eye.
        Now I select the goat. What then?
        I never said goats equal men.

        A goat of singularity -
        Not vainer than a goat need be -
        Lay on a thymy bank, and viewed
        Himself reflected in the flood.
        "Confound my beard!" he thought, and said;
        "How badly it becomes my head;
        Upon my honour! women might
        Take me to be some crazy wight."
        He sought the barber of the place, -
        A monkey 'twas, of Moorish race,
        Who shaved mankind, drew teeth, and bled.
        A pole diagonal - striped red,
  ...

John Gay

The Spaniel And Chameleon.

        A spaniel mightily well bred,
        Ne'er taught to labour for his bread,
        But to play tricks and bear him smart,
        To please his lady's eyes and heart,
        Who never had the whip for mischief,
        But praises from the damsel - his chief.

        The wind was soft, the morning fair,
        They issued forth to take the air.
        He ranged the meadows, where a green
        Cameleon - green as grass - was seen.

        "Halloa! you chap, who change your coat,
        What do you rowing in this boat?
        Why have you left the town? I say
        You're wrong to stroll about this way:
        Preferment, which your talent crowns,
        Believe me, friend, is found in towns."

        "Friend," said the syc...

John Gay

The Tamed Fawn.

        A young stag in the brake was caught,
        And home with corded antlers brought.
        The lord was pleased: so was the clown.
        When he was tipped with half-a-crown.
        The stag was dragged before his wife;
        The gentle lady begged its life:
        "How sleek its skin! how specked like ermine!
        Sure never creature was more charming."

        At first within the court confined,
        He fled and hid from all mankind;
        Then, bolder grown, with mute amaze
        He at safe distance stood to gaze;
        Then munched the linen on the lines,
        And off a hood or whimple dines;
        Then steals my little master's bread,
        Then followed servants to be fed,
        Then poked his nose in fists for m...

John Gay

The Three Warnings: Mrs. Thrale.

        The tree of deepest root is bound
        With most tenacity to earth;
            'Twas therefore thought by ancient sages,
            That with the ills of life's last stages
        The love of life increased, with dearth
        Of fibres rooting it to ground.
            It was young Dobson's wedding-day,
        Death summoned him, the happy groom,
        Into a sombre private room,
            From marriage revelries away;
        And, looking very grave, said he:
        "Young Dobson, you must go with me."
            "Not if I know it," Dobson cried;
            "What! leave my Susan, - quit my bride?
        I shan't do any such a thing:
            Besides I'm not at all prepared, -
        My thoughts are all upon the wing.
        ...

John Gay

The Town Mouse And The Country Mouse.

        Æsop, Babrius, Horace, Prior, and Pope.


        Our friend Dan Prior had, you know,
        A tale exactly à propos;
        Name a town life - and, in a trice,
        He had a story of two mice.

        Once on a time (so runs the fable)
        A country mouse - right hospitable -
        Received a town mouse at his board,
        Just as a farmer might a lord.
        A frugal mouse upon the whole,
        Yet loved his friend, and had a soul;
        Know what was handsome, and would do 't.
        On just occasion coute qui coute.
        He brought him bacon nothing lean,
        Pudding that might have pleased a Dean;
        Cheese, such as men of Suffolk make,
        But wished it Stilton for his sake....

John Gay

The Turkey And The Ant.

        We blame the mote that dims the eye
        Of other men, whose faults we spy;
        But we ignore the beam that lies
        With stronger strain in one's own eyes.

        A turkey, who grew dull at home,
        Resolved in the wild woods to roam;
        Wearied she was of barn-door food,
        Therefore she chuckled round her brood,
        And said, "My little ones, now follow;
        We'll go and dine in yonder hollow."
        They first upon an ant-hill fell -
        Myriads of negro-ants, pell-mell -
        "O gobble, gobble - here's a treat!
        Emmets are most delicious meat;
        Spare not, spare not. How blest were we,
        Could we here live from poulterers free!
        Accursèd man on turkeys preys,
        ...

John Gay

The Turkey, Peacock, And Goose.

        As specks appear on fields of snow,
        So blemishes on beauty show.

        A peacock fed in a farm-yard
        Where all the poultry eyed him hard -
        They looked on him with evil eye,
        And mocked his sumptuous pageantry:
        Proud of the glories he inherited,
        He sought the praises they well merited.
        Then, to surprise their dazzled sight,
        He spread his glories to the light.
        His glories spread, no sooner seen
        Than rose their malice and their spleen.

        "Behold his insolence and pride -
        His haughtiness!" the turkey cried.
        "He trusts in feathers; but within
        They serve to hide his negro skin."

        "What hideous legs!" exclaimed the goose;

John Gay

The Two Monkeys.

        The scholar, of his learning vain,
        Beholds the fop with deep disdain:
        The fop, with spirit as discerning,
        Looks down upon the man of learning.
        The Spanish Don - a solemn strutter -
        Despises Gallic airs and flutter:
        Whilst the Gaul ridicules the Don,
        And John Bull looks with like disdain
        On manners both of France and Spain:
        They hold, indeed, a deed tripartite
        To see each other in a tart light.
        'Tis thus the bard is scorned by those
        Who only deal in learned prose:
        Whilst bards of quick imagination
        Are hipped by the dull prose oration.
        Men scoff at apes: apes scoff at them;
        And all - except themselves - contemn.

     ...

John Gay

The Universal Apparition.

        A rake who had, by pleasure stuffing,
        Raked mind and body down to nothing,
        In wretched vacancy reclined,
        Enfeebled both in frame and mind.

        As pain and languor chose to bore him,
        A ghastly phantom rose before him:

        "My name is Care. Nor wealth nor power
        Can give the heart a cheerful hour
        Devoid of health - impressed by care.
        From pleasures fraught with pains, forbear."

        The phantom fled. The rake abstained,
        And part of fleeing health retained.
        Then, to reform, he took a wife,
        Resolved to live a sober life.

        Again the phantom stood before him,
        With jealousies and fears to bore him.
        Her smiles to others he re...

John Gay

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