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This is not literally true; but perhaps no writer can easily be found that has borrowed so little, or that in all his excellencies and all his defects has so well maintained his claim to be considered as original,"

GAY.

JOHN GAY, descended from an old family that had been long in possession of the manor of Goldsworthy in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr. Luck. Being born without prospect of hereditary riches, he was sent to London in his youth and placed apprentice with a silk-mercer. It is said he was soon weary of either the restraint or servility of his occupation, and easily persuaded his master to discharge him.

The Dutchess of Monmouth in 1712 took Gay into her service as Secretary. Of the leisure which he had he made so good use that he published next year a poem on " Rural Sports," and inscribed it to Mr. Pope. Pope was pleased with the honour, and in consequence a friendship was formed between them, which lasted to their separation by death without any known abatement on either side.

Next year he published "The Shepherd's Week," six English pastorals. They were read with delight as just representations of rural manners and occupa tions. In 1713 he brought a Comedy called "The

Wife of Bath" upon the stage, but it received no applause. In the last year of Queen Anne's life he was made Secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, Ambassador to the court of Hanover. This was a station that naturally gave him hopes of kindness frome very party; but the Queen's death put an end to her favours.

On the arrival of the Princess of Wales he wrote a poem, and obtained so much notice, that both the Prince and Princess went to see his "What d'ye call it," a kind of mock tragedy, which was much favoured by the audience. Not long afterwards (1717) he endeavoured to entertain the town with "Three Hours after Marriage," a comedy written, as it is thought, by the joint assistance of Pope and Arbuthnot, but it was driven off the stage with general condemnation.

Gay is represented as a man easily incited to hope, and deeply depressed when his hopes were disappointed. In consequence of this last failure, he sunk into dejection. His friends tried to divert him. The Earl of Burlington sent him (1716) into Devonshire; the year after, Mr. Pulteney took him to Aix, and in the following year Lord Harcourt invited him to his seat, where, during his visit, two rural lovers were killed with lightning, as is particularly told in Pope's letters.

Being now generally known, he published (1720) his poems by subscription with such success that he raised a thousand pounds, by which he was advised by Pope and Swift to purchase an annuity. In that disastrous year he had a present from young

Craggs of some South Sea stock. His friends persuaded him to sell his share; but this counsel was rejected; the profit and principal were lost, and he sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger.

By the care of his friends, among whom Pope appears to have shewn particular tenderness, his health was restored; and, returning to his studies, he wrote a tragedy called "The Captives," which he was invited to read before the Princess of Wales. When the hour came, he saw the Princess and her Ladies all in expectation, and advancing with reverence, too great for any other attention, stumbled at a stool, and falling forwards, threw down a weighty japan screen. The Princess started, the ladies screamed, and poor Gay, after all the disturbance, was still to read his play.

It was acted at Drury-lane in 1723, but with very little success. In 1726 he undertook to write a volume of "Fables" for the improvement of the young Duke of Cumberland, for which he is said to have been promised a reward.

Next year the Prince and Princess became King and Queen, and Gay was appointed Gentleman Usher to the Princess Louisa. By this offer he thought himself insulted, his mind being fixed on higher promotion, and sent a message to the Queen that he was too old for the place. Great interest was made to gain him greater preferment; but solicitations, verses, and flatteries were thrown away.

His mind was now relieved from the pains of this neglect of the court by the unexampled success

of the "Beggar's Opera." This play, written in ridicule of the musical Italian drama, was first offered to Cibber, and rejected; being then carried to Rich, it had the effect, as was ludicrously said, of making Gay rich and Rich gay. Pope says in one of his notes in the " Dunciad," that it was acted in London sixty-three nights without interruption, and renewed the next season with equal applause; it also spread into all the great towns of England; and was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time; at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c. It made its progress into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where it was performed twentyfour days successively.

Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was by no means so great. Dr. Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury, among others, censured it as giving encouragement not only to vice but to crimes, by making a highwayman the hero, and dismissing him at last unpunished. This objection, or some other rather political than moral, obtained such prevalence, that when Gay produced a second part under the name of "Polly," it was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain; and he was forced to recompense his repulse by a subscription, which is said to have been so liberally bestowed, that what he called oppression ended in profit. The publication was so much favoured, that though the first part gained him four hundred pounds, near thrice as much was the profit of the second.

He received yet another recompense for his

supposed hardship, in the affectionate attention of the Duke and Dutchess of Queensbury, into whose house he was taken, and with whom he passed the remaining part of his life. The Duke, considering his want of economy, undertook the management of his money, and gave it to him as he wanted it. But it is supposed that the discountenance of the court sunk deep into his heart, and gave him more discontent than the applauses or tenderness of his friends could overpower. He soon fell into his old distemper, an habitual colick, and languished, though with many intervals of ease and cheerfulness, till a violent fit at last seized him, and hurried him to the grave, as Arbuthnot reported, with more precipitance than he had ever known. He died the 4th of Dec. 1732, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The letter which brought an account of his death to Swift was laid by for some days unopened, because when he received it he was impressed with the preconception of some misfortune.

His

After his death, was published a second volume of Fables more political than the former. opera of Achilles was acted, and the profits were given to two widow sisters, who inherited what he left as his lawful heirs, for he died without a will, though he had gathered three thousand pounds. There have also appeared under his name a comedy called the "Distrest Wife," and the "Rehearsal at Gotham," a piece of humour.

"As a poet, he cannot be rated very high. He was, as I once heard a female critic remark, of a

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