John Gay – angielski poeta i dramaturg.
Najbardziej znany jako autor libretta do Beggar’s Opera , do której muzykę napisał Niemiec Johann Christoph Pepusch. Bohaterowie tej sztuki, tacy jak: kapitan Macheath czy Polly Peachum, stali się tak sławni, że nadawano sobie te imiona na chrzcie.
Sztuka Gaya w dwudziestym wieku stała się inspiracją dla Opery za trzy grosze Bertolda Brechta.
Poeta pisał też epigramaty. Wśród nich było Moje własne epitafium .
Wikipedia
„Życie to żart – po tamtej stronie podejrzenie
Miałem, że sąd to mylny. Widzę po tej, że nie.”
Źródło: Epitafium własne, tłum. Stanisław Barańczak
“Where yet was ever found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?”
Fable III, "The Mother, the Nurse, and the Fairy"
Fables (1727)
Lucy, Act II, sc. xv
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
“Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; and now I know it.”
My Own Epitaph, inscribed on Gay’s monument in Westminster Abbey; also quoted as "I thought so once; but now I know it".
Wariant: Life is a jest, and all things show it,
I thought so once, and now I know it.
“Fill it up. I take as large draughts of liquor as I did of love. I hate a flincher in either.”
Mrs. Trapes, Act III, sc. vi
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
“In beauty faults conspicuous grow;
The smallest speck is seen on snow.”
Fable XI, "The Peacock, Turkey, and Goose"
Fables (1727)
“When we risk no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.”
Fable X, "The Elephant and the Bookseller"
Fables (1727)
“I must have women—there is nothing unbends the mind like them.”
Macheath, Act II, sc. iii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Macheath, Act III, sc. xi, air 57
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
“Youth's the season made for joys,
Love is then our duty.”
Act II, sc. iv, air 22
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
“All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd.”
Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Fable XVII, "The Shepherd's Dog and the Wolf"
Fables (1727)
The What D'ye Call It (1715), Act II, sc. viii
Introduction, "The Shepherd and the Philosopher"
Fables (1727)
“T is woman that seduces all mankind;
By her we first were taught the wheedling arts.”
Act I, scene i
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Trapes, Act III, sc. vi
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Mrs. Peachum, Act I, sc. viii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Mrs. Peachum, Act I, sc. iv
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
Act II, sc. viii, air 26
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
My Lodging Is on the Cold Ground (1720), st. 1
“Those who in quarrels intepose
Must often wipe a bloody nose.”
Fable XXXIV, "The Mastiffs"
Fables (1727)
Fable XLIV http://books.google.com/books?id=8Q9IAAAAMAAJ&q=%22envy+is+a+kind+of+praise%22&pg=PA170#v=onepage, "The Hound and the Huntsman"
Fables (1727)
Mrs. Peachum, Act I, sc. viii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
“By outward show let's not be cheated;
An ass should like an ass be treated.”
XI, "The Packhorse and Carrier"
Fables (1727), Fables, Part the Second (1738)
Peachum, Act I, air 1
The Beggar's Opera (1728)
