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Who hath not heard the rich complain Of surfeits, and corporeal pain? He barr'd from every use of wealth, Envies the ploughman's strength and health.

John Gay

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John Gay
Age: 47 †
Born: 1685
Born: June 30
Died: 1732
Died: December 4
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Barnstaple
Devon
Use
Complaining
Every
Envy
Strength
Barr
Health
Ploughman
Wealth
Envies
Heard
Corporeal
Rich
Complain
Pain
Hath

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My lodging is on the cold ground, And hard, very hard, is my fare, But that which grieves me more Is the coldness of my dear.
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In beauty faults conspicuous grow The smallest speck is seen on snow.
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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?
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Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!
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Praising all alike, is praising none.
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Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.
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Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married? Baggage!
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Music might tame and civilize wild beasts, but 'tis evident it never yet could tame and civilize musicians.
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I must have women - there is nothing unbends the mind like them.
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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.
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Fair words cost nothing.
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What will not luxury taste? Earth, sea, and air, Are daily ransack'd for the bill of fare. Blood stuffed in skins is British Christians' food, And France robs marshes of the croaking brood.
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Learning by study must be won 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son.
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Envy is a kind of praise.
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Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine, No blood of living insect stain my line Let me, less cruel, cast the feather'd hook, With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook, Silent along the mazy margin stray, And with the fur-wrought fly delude the prey.
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay.
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No retreat. No retreat. They must conquer or die who've no retreat.
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Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother Wits are gamecocks to one another.
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Can love be controll'd by advice?
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The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets.
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