Poetry Codex

Restoration & Augustan

George Alexander Stevens

1710–1784

George Alexander Stevens (1710–1784) was an English actor, dramatist and songwriter, born in London. After years as a strolling player he made his name on the London stage and, above all, as a solo entertainer: his comic monologue 'A Lecture upon Heads' (1764) was a long-running success in Britain and abroad.

His convivial and topical songs were performed at taverns, clubs and his own entertainments, and he gathered them in 'Songs, Comic and Satyrical' (1772). They mock fashion, politics, quackery and fashionable folly in the broad manner of the Augustan ballad, and many were set to popular tunes of the day.

Poems (135)

  1. Prologue
  2. Origin of English Liberty
  3. Origin of Faction
  4. The Race
  5. The Worms
  6. The Picture
  7. Silenus and Cupid
  8. The Divorce
  9. Nunc Est Bibendum
  10. English Litany
  11. The Marine Medley
  12. Reason
  13. The Railers
  14. The Artists
  15. The Dream
  16. Independency
  17. Toll, Loll, Loll
  18. Toll, Loll de Roll
  19. The Origin of Toll, Loll, Loll
  20. The Nabob
  21. True Blue
  22. Ditto
  23. The Wine Vault
  24. A Pastoral
  25. Extravaganza
  26. Time's Defeat
  27. The Briton
  28. The Trio
  29. The End
  30. Castles in Air
  31. Repentance
  32. Elixir L'Argent
  33. Gaming
  34. The Jolly Soul
  35. To-Day and To-Night
  36. To Drink
  37. Kissing
  38. Bartleme Fair
  39. Rural Felicity
  40. The Toper
  41. The Times
  42. Ad Infinitum
  43. The Raree Shew
  44. The Connoisseur
  45. Here Goes
  46. Dick and Doll
  47. A Simple Pastoral
  48. The Cabal
  49. The Question
  50. The Songster's Horn-Book
  51. Common Sense
  52. A Fore-Castle Song
  53. The Whim
  54. The Scurvy
  55. The Demirep; or, I Know Who
  56. May
  57. The Briton's Wish
  58. Mutual Love
  59. A Time for All Things
  60. The Veteran
  61. A New Roast Beef
  62. The Pipe of Love
  63. Not as It Shou'd Be
  64. Beauty and Wine
  65. A Love Song
  66. What's That to Me?
  67. The Sentiment Song
  68. The Damn'd Honest Fellow
  69. Liberty-Hall
  70. Amelia
  71. The Humbug
  72. Doodle Doo
  73. The Comet
  74. The Blood
  75. Do the Same
  76. Love and Wine's Partnership
  77. Courtship
  78. God Save the King
  79. The Vision
  80. Transit of Venus
  81. Maria
  82. Administration
  83. Fair Play
  84. Circe
  85. Chastity
  86. The Specific
  87. The Griskin Club
  88. Beef Steak Club
  89. Jack Tar's Song
  90. Prejudice
  91. Freedom
  92. Honour
  93. Fools-Hall
  94. Politics
  95. A Caricature
  96. Beaume de Vie
  97. The Norfolk Farmer
  98. The Auction
  99. The Bottle
  100. The Masquerade; or, Labour in Vain
  101. The Marquis of Granby
  102. Conclusion of the Humbug
  103. Sleep
  104. The London Hunt
  105. The Man
  106. My Nose
  107. Seriosity
  108. The Squabble
  109. The Portrait; or, La, La, La
  110. A Toast
  111. The World
  112. Beef and a Bumper
  113. Spring
  114. A Wonder
  115. The Parade
  116. The Fright
  117. Time Killers
  118. The Funeral
  119. The Cobler of Cripplegate
  120. Mum
  121. The Parent
  122. The Hum
  123. Self
  124. The Point
  125. Tom O' Bedlam
  126. Semele
  127. Contentment
  128. Give the Devil His Due
  129. Present Taste
  130. Nobody and Nothing
  131. Water
  132. Mediocrity
  133. The Sweethearts
  134. A Lesson of Love
  135. Song the Last; or, Epilogue

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