Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I am not feeling very well myself.

The line appears as part of a short after-dinner-style remark in which the speaker says he is uneasy about being grouped with “great authors” because so many canonical writers are already dead, then ends by joking that he himself is not feeling well either. Quote Investigator reports Twain used this form in the 1890s and prints a 1899 instance from a speech associated with Twain.

A self-deprecating way to puncture lofty praise: being placed among the immortals is reframed as a reminder that fame doesn’t prevent death, and the speaker humorously implies he may be next.

I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I am not feeling very well myself.

Homer is dead; Virgil is dead; Shakespeare is dead; and I am not very well.

All the great men are dead, and I don’t feel very well myself.