And joys unsullied pass, till humid night
Has half her race perform'd; now all abroad
Is hush'd and silent, now the rumbling noise
Of coach or cart, or smoky link-boy's call
Is heard--but universal Silence reigns:
When we in merry plight, airy and gay.
Surprised to find the hours so swiftly fly.
With hasty knock, or twang of pendent cord.
Alarm the drowsy youth from slumb'ring nod;
Startled he flies, and stumbles o'er the stairs
Erroneous, and with busy knuckles plies
His yet clung eyelids, and with stagg'ring reel
Enters confused, and muttering asks our wills;
When we with liberal hand the score discharge,
And homeward each his course with steady step
Unerring steers, of cares and coin bereft.

So far as is known, Gay preserved a profound silence for three years
after his publication of "Wine," and then, on May 3rd, 1711, appeared
from his pen, "The Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a Friend in
the Country," sold at the reasonable price of three-pence. This
attracted the attention of Swift. "Dr. Freind[9] ... pulled out a
two-penny pamphlet just published, called 'The State of Wit', giving
the characters of all the papers that have come out of late," he wrote
in the "Journal to Stella," May 12: "The author seems to be a Whig,
yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and says
the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But, above all things, he
praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, and I believe Steele and
Addison were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by the
impudent dogs." In this unambitious little sketch, as the author puts