“O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed, by keeping men off, you keep them on.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera
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Famous John Gay Quotes
“Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.”
Source: Gay's Fables, etc
“Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”
Source: The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera. By John Gay. Adapted for Theatrical Representation, as Performed at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane. Regulated from the Prompt-book, ...
“If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera
“Lest men suspect your tale untrue, Keep probability in view.”
Source: The Second Part of The Beggars Opera ...
Source: The Beggar's Opera
“Here Shock, the pride of all his kind, is laid, Who fawned like man, but ne'er like man betrayed.”
Source: The Beggar's Opera and Polly
Source: The Beggar's Opera
Source: The Beggar's Opera: A Comic Opera
Source: The Poetical Works of John Gay: In Three Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:
“So comes a reck'ning when the banquet's o'er, The dreadful reckn'ning, and men smile no more.”
“To cheat a man isnothing; but the womanmust have fine parts indeed who cheats a woman!”
Source: The Fables of John Gay Illustrated
Source: Gay's Fables and other poems: Cotton's visions in verse ; Moore's Fables for the female sex ; with sketches of the authors' lives