William Oldys
William Oldys (14 July 1696 – 15 April 1761) was an English antiquarian and bibliographer.
Quotes
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Gently drink, and drink as I;
Freely welcome to my cup.
- Busy, curious, thirsty Fly,
Gently drink, and drink as I;
Freely welcome to my Cup,
Could’st thou sip, and sip it up;
Make the most of Life you may,
Life is short and wears away. Just alike, both mine and thine,
Hasten quick to their Decline;
Thine’s a Summer, mine’s no more,
Though repeated to threescore;
Threescore Summers when they’re gone,
Will appear as short as one.- "The Fly. An Anacreontick", in The Scarborough Miscellany (1732), pp. 15–16
- According to Dr. Ducarel, Oldys wrote in the Scarborough Miscellany, 1732–4. John Taylor, the author of Monsieur Tonson, informed Isaac D'Israeli that "Oldys always asserted that he was the author of the well-known song, 'Busy, curious, thirsty fly!' which first appeared in the Scarborough Miscellany for 1732.
- Cf. Anacreon; Anacreontea
- Being at Leeds in Yorkshire, soon after Mr. Ralph Thoresby the antiquary died, anno 1725, I saw his museum; and in it, among his other rarities, what himself has publicly called (in the catalogue thereof, annexed to his Antiquities of that town) sir Walter Ralegh's tobacco box. From the best of my memory, I can resemble its outward appearance to nothing more nearly than one of our modern muff-cases; about the same height and width, covered with red leather, and opened at top (but with a hinge, I think) like one of those. In the inside there was a cavity for a receiver of glass or metal, which might hold half a pound or a pound of tobacco; and from the edge of the receiver at top, to the edge of the box, a circular stay or collar, with holes in it, to plant the tobacco about, with six or eight pipes to smoke it in. This travelling box, with the MSS. medals, and other rarities in its company, descending to a young clergyman, the son of the deceased, was soon after reported to have been translated to London.
- Life of Raleigh (1736), p. xxxi, note
