John Taylor Quotes

:* The syntax of "a mad world (my masters)" may indicate allusion to and/or acknowledgement of Nicholas Breton's 1603 tract "A Mad World, my Masters".

:* The veteran BBC journalist John Simpson used "A Mad World, My Masters" as the title for memoirs published in 1999/2000.

In paper, many a poet now survives

God sends meat, and the Devil sends cooks.

:** The play A Mad World, My Masters by Thomas Middleton, published in 1608, is recorded as being performed in 1605.

: Wanderings to See the Wonders of the West, 1649; reported in Esther Moir, The Discovery of Britain: The English Tourists 1540-1840, page 26.

: Works, vol. ii, p. 85 (1630). Compare the 1735 Poor Richard's Almanack.

Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel
(Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel)

'Tis a mad world (my masters) and in sadnes / I travail'd madly in these dayes of madnes.