playwright
and Librettist.
Isaac John Bickerstaff was born in Dublin, on 26 September 1733, where his father John Bickerstaff held a government position overseeing the construction and management of sports fields including bowls
and tennis courts. The office was abolished in 1745 and he received a pension
from the government for the rest of his life.
In his early years Isaac was a page
to Lord Chesterfield
, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
which allowed him to mix with fashionable Dublin society.
Hope! thou nurse of young desire.
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.
And this the burden of his song Forever used to be,—I care for nobody, no, not I, If no one cares for me.
Young fellows will be young fellows.
By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.
Fine feathers, they say, make fine birds.
Ay, do despise me! I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.
Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,But - why did you kick me downstairs?
Health is the greatest of all possessions; a pale cobbler is better than a sick king.