...versification, and a style e expression easy and apposite. The epitaph he proposed for himself, " Life's a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once, but now I know it" — in About BC 1209. Vide Judges, c. ix. is the flippant tribute of folly to irreligion. His friends,...

...versification, and a style of expression easy and apposite. The epitaph he proposed for himself, " Life's a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once, but now I know it" — LIFE OF JOHN GAY, is the flippant tribute of folly to irreligion. His friends, " Charles and Catherine,...

...creations of his immortal genius. Here, too, was Gay, with these odd lines engraved below his bust: — "Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it." There was, also, old Ben Johnson, with a countenance expressive of profundity and...

...him — liked it not — and died." OAY. — WBITTEN BY "HIMSELF. (ENORAVED IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.) "Life is a jest, and all things show it. I thought so once ; but now I know it." ON SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. "Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knew Which thou didat compass round, And...

...a manner most wonderful and unaccountable, Lord Palmerston has contrived to gather around his name. Life is a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once, and now I know it, would lie an appropriate epitaph wherewith to «leek the marble monument that the...

...author of the Beggar's Opera; the short and irreverent epitaph in front is his own composition : — " Life is a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once ; but now I know it !" the verses beneath it, are by Pope. Statue of Addison, by Sir Richard Westmacott, erected 1809. Honorary...

...child. The epitaph in Westminster Abbey, written for and by himself, consists of the following lines : Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know It And polish'd Cornbury woos the willing Muse. Slow let us trace the matchless vale...

...literature in which he excelled. The short epitaph by himself has been censured for its profane levity : Life is a jest and all things show it : I thought so once, and now I know it." Below this epitaph is another by his friend Pope. Next is ROWE, and his only daughter,...

...clumsy compliment, there an irreverent sneer, and on one—Gay's monument—an irreligious scoff:— " Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it." We have before us a thick folio volume by Tolderoy,—a collecVOL. VI.—NO. I. 11 tion of such epitaphs...

...buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument, bearing the following inscription, is erected : — " Life is a jest, and all things show it ; I thought so once ; but now I know it. GAY, Of manners gentle, of affections mild ; In wit a man ; simplicity a child : With native humour...