Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O’er books consumed the midnight oil?

These lines take the form of a teasing interrogation: the speaker asks where the addressee’s “learning” comes from and whether it was earned through studious, late-night labor—“books” and the proverbial “midnight oil.” The couplet contrasts genuine scholarship (painstaking reading and effort) with other, less rigorous sources of “learning,” such as hearsay, affectation, or social polish. In John Gay’s satiric vein, the question can be read as gently mocking pretensions to erudition, implying that true knowledge is costly in time and discipline, while claimed learning may be superficial. The archaic diction (“Whence,” “Hath,” “thy”) heightens the mock-solemn tone.