John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
3816 John Gay 1685-1732 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 3816 |
| AUTHOR: | John Gay (1685–1732) |
| QUOTATION: | So comes a reckoning when the banquet ’s o’er,— The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | The What d’ ye call it. Act ii. Sc. 9. |
| Note 1. The time of paying a shot in a tavern among good fellows, or Pantagruelists, is still called in France a “quart d’heure de Rabelais,”—that is, Rabelais’s quarter of an hour, when a man is uneasy or melancholy.—Life of Rabelais (Bohn’s edition), p. 13. [back] |