Nay, my contemporaries one and all
Gay played the mudlark till I joined their game;
Then was I first to change buffoonery
For wit, and stupid filth for cleanly sense,
Transforming pointless joke to purpose fine,
Transfusing rude enforcement of home-law—
"Drop knave's-tricks, deal more neighbor-like, ye boors!"—
With such new glory of poetic breath
As, lifting application far past use
O' the present, launched it o'er men's lowly heads