What things have we seen, Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtil flame, As if that every one from whence they came, Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolv'd to live a fool, the rest Of his dull life.

-Beaumont, Francis
  Letter to Ben Jonson, verses prefacing  Jonson's Volpone.

Sweetest love I do not go, For weariness of thee, Nor in hope the world can show A fitter Love for me; But since that I Must die at last,'tis best, To use myself in jest Thus by feigned deaths to die.

-Donne,John
c.1595^1605  'Song: Sweetest love I do not go', collected in Songs and Sonnets (1633).

In squandering wealth was his peculiar art: Nothing went unrewarded, but desert. Beggared by fools, whom still he found too late: He had his jest, and they had his estate.

-Dryden,John
Absalom and  Achitophel, pt.1, l.559^62.

Nice philosophy May tolerate unlikelyarguments, But heaven admits no jest.

-Ford,John
  ' Tis Pity She's a Whore, act1, sc.1.

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.

-Gay,John
  'My Own Epitaph'.

Love taught me that your honour did but jest.

-Greene, Robert
c.1589  Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (published1594), sc.8.

Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

-Pope, Alexander
  An Essay on Man, epistle 2, l.15^18.

   What is our life? a play of passion; Our mirth the music of division; Our mothers' wombs the tiring-houses be Where we are dressed for this short comedy. Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is, That sits and marks still who doth act amiss; Our graves that hide us from the searching sun Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest, Only we die in earnestöthat's no jest.

-Raleigh, Sir Walter
  'On the Life of Man'.

Imyself haveheard averygood jest, and havescornedto seem to have so sillya wit as to understand it.

-Webster,John
  The Duchess of Malfi, act1, sc.1.