Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; but now I know it.
John Gay (1685-1732), "My Own Epitaph" from The Oxford Book of Death, ed. D. J. Enright, 1983, p. 322.
Exercise for the reader: Explain the connection between John Gay and Bobby Darin. Answer below the fold.
Malcolm Pollack writes, "Why, that's an easy one, Bill.
John Gay wrote A Beggar's Opera, in which the principal character is the scoundrel MacHeath; MacHeath, of course, is the "Mack" in Darin's hit version of the Weill/Brecht song "Mack the Knife", from the musical version The Threepenny Opera."