There was a jolly miller once

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Love in a Village (1762), Act i, scene 2..

English (original)

There was a jolly miller once, Lived on the river Dee; He worked and sung from morn till night: No lark more blithe than he.

— Isaac Bickerstaffe

By candle-light nobody would have taken you for above five-and-twenty.

Young fellows will be young fellows.

'Tis a sure sign work goes on merrily, when folks sing at it.

Hope! thou nurse of young desire.

And this the burden of his song Forever used to be,— I care for nobody, no, not I, If no one cares for me.

Ay, do despise me! I'm the prouder for it; I like to be despised.