Isaac Bickerstaffe

Isaac Bickerstaffe (26 September 1733 – 1812?) was an Irish playwright who arrived in London in 1755 and produced many successful comedies and opera librettos.

Quotes

 * Hope! thou nurse of young desire.
 * Love in a Village (1762), Act i, scene 1.


 * There was a jolly miller once, Lived on the river Dee; He worked and sung from morn till night:  No lark more blithe than he.
 * Love in a Village (1762), Act i, scene 2.


 * And this the burden of his song Forever used to be,— I care for nobody, no, not I,  If no one cares for me.
 * Love in a Village (1762), Act i, scene 2. Compare: "If naebody care for me, I'll care for naebody", Robert Burns, I hae a Wife o' my Ain; "I envy none, no, no, not I, And no one envies me", Charles Mackay, The King and the Miller.


 * Young fellows will be young fellows.
 * Love in a Village (1762), Act ii, scene 2.


 * 'Tis a sure sign work goes on merrily, when folks sing at it.
 * The Maide of the Mill (1765), Act i, scene 1.


 * By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.
 * The Maide of the Mill (1765), Act i, scene 2.


 * Fine feathers, they say, make fine birds.
 * The Padlock (1768).


 * Ay, do despise me! I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
 * The Hypocrite (1768), Act v, scene 1.


 * Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love, But - why did you kick me downstairs?
 * An Expostulation (1789).


 * Health is the greatest of all possessions; a pale cobbler is better than a sick king.
 * Reported in Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), p. 221.