John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.
Read more about John Gay: Early Life, Early Career, Patrons, The Beggar's Opera, Later Career, Partial List of Works
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“No such sermons have come to us here out of England, in late years, as those of this preacher,—sermons to kings, and sermons to peasants, and sermons to all intermediate classes. It is in vain that John Bull, or any of his cousins, turns a deaf ear, and pretends not to hear them: nature will not soon be weary of repeating them. There are words less obviously true, more for the ages to hear, perhaps, but none so impossible for this age not to hear.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Kringelein: I’m going to live. I’m going to have a good time while I can.
The Baron: That’s my motto, Kringelein. A short life and a gay one.”
—William A. Drake (1900–1965)