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diff --git a/13790-0.txt b/13790-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a653dff --- /dev/null +++ b/13790-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6621 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13790 *** + +[Illustration: JOHN GAY + +_From a sketch by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery. +Photo by Emery Walker Ltd._] + + +LIFE AND LETTERS OF + +JOHN GAY(1685-1732) + +AUTHOR OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA" BY LEWIS MELVILLE + +PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY DANIEL O'CONNOR, NINETY GREAT RUSSELL STREET, +W.C.I: 1921 + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + +THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. + +THE THACKERAY COUNTRY. + +SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY. + +VICTORIAN NOVELISTS. + +THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAURENCE STERNE. + +THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM BECKFORD OF FONTHILL. + + * * * * * + +THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM COBBETT. + +THE BERRY PAPERS: Being the Life and Letters of Mary and Agnes Berry. + +THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PHILIP DUKE OF WHARTON. + +THE FIRST GEORGE. + +"FARMER GEORGE." + +"THE FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE." + +AN INJURED QUEEN: CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK. + +THE BEAUX OF THE REGENCY. + +SOME ECCENTRICS AND A WOMAN. + +THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. + +THE WINDHAM PAPERS. With an Introduction by the Earl of Rosebery, K.G. + +THE WELLESLEY PAPERS. + +BATH UNDER BEAU NASH. + +BRIGHTON: ITS FOLLIES, ITS FASHIONS, AND ITS HISTORY. + +ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS. + + + + +To GEORGE MAIR + + + + +PREFACE + + +John Gay was a considerable figure in the literary and social circles +of his day. He was loved by Pope; Swift cared for him more than for +any other man, and the letter in which Pope conveyed to him the sad +tidings of Gay's death bears the endorsement: "On my dear friend Mr. +Gay's death. Received December 15th [1732], but not read till the +20th, by an impulse foreboding some misfortune." Gay was on intimate +terms with Arbuthnot and Lord Burlington, and Henrietta Howard, Lady +Suffolk, was devoted to him and consulted him in the matter of her +matrimonial troubles. He was the _protégé_ of the Duke and Duchess of +Queensberry. His "Fables" and "The Beggar's Opera" have become +classics; his play "Polly" made history. Though he persistently +regarded himself as neglected by the gods, it is nevertheless a fact +that the fates were unusually kind to him. A Cabinet Minister made him +a present of South Sea stock; Walpole appointed him a Commissioner of +Lotteries; he was granted an apartment in Whitehall; Queen Caroline +offered him a sinecure post in her Household. Because he thought Gay +ill-used, the greatest man of letters of the century quarrelled with +Lady Suffolk; for the same reason a Duchess insulted the King and +wiped the dust of the Court from her shoes, and a Duke threw up his +employment under the Crown. All his friends placed their purses and +their houses at Gay's disposal, and competed for the pleasure of his +company. Never was there a man of letters so petted and pampered. + +It is somewhat strange that there should be no biography of a man so +well-known and so much beloved. It is true that no sooner was the +breath out of his body than Curll published a "Life." "Curll (who is +one of the new horrors of death) has been writing letters to everybody +for memoirs of his (Gay's) life," Arbuthnot wrote to Swift, January +13th, 1733: "I was for sending him some, which I am sure might have +been made entertaining, by which I should have attained two ends at +once, published truth and got a rascal whipped for it. I was +over-ruled in this."[1] Curll obtained no assistance from Gay's +friends, and his book, issued in 1733, is at once inadequate and +unreliable. Of Curll, at whose hands so many of Gay's friends had +suffered, the poet had written in the "Epistle to the Right Honourable +Paul Methuen, Esquire":-- + + Were Prior, Congreve, Swift, and Pope unknown, + Poor slander-selling Curll would be undone. + +Of some slight biographical value is the "Account of the Life and +Writings of the Author," prefixed to the volume of "Plays Written by Mr. +Gay," published 1760; but there is little fresh information in the +"Brief Memoir" by the Rev. William (afterwards Archdeacon) Coxe, which +appeared in 1797. More valuable is the biographical sketch by Gay's +nephew, the Rev. Joseph Baller, prefixed to "Gay's Chair" (1820); but +the standard authorities on Gay's life are Mr. Austin Dobson +("Dictionary of National Biography," Vol. XXI., 1890) and Mr. John +Underwood ("Introductory Memoir" to the "Poems of John Gay" in the +"Muses' Library," 1893). + +Among Gay's correspondents were Pope, Swift, Lady Suffolk, Arbuthnot, +the Duchess of Queensberry, Oxford, Congreve, Parnell, Cleland, Caryll +and Jacob Tonson, the publisher. Unpublished letters to Caryll and +Tonson, and to and from Lady Suffolk, are in the British Museum; letters +which have appeared in print are to be found in the correspondence of +Pope, Swift, and Lady Suffolk, in Nichols' "Literary Anecdotes of the +Eighteenth Century," and in the Historical Commission's Report on the +MSS. of the Marquis of Bath. Biographical information is also to be +found, as well as in the works mentioned above, in Gribble's "Memorials +of Barnstaple," Mrs. Delany's "Autobiography," Hervey's "Memoirs," +Colley Cibber's "Apology," and Spence's "Anecdotes"; in the works and +biographies of Pope, Swift, Steele, Addison, and Aaron Hill; in +contemporary publications such as "A Key to 'The What D'ye Call It,'" "A +Complete Key to the New Farce 'Three Hours After Marriage,'" Joseph +Gay's "The Confederates"; and in numerous works dealing with dramatic +productions and dramatic literature. A bibliography is printed in the +"Cambridge History of English Literature" (Vol. IX., pp. 480-481; 1912); +and a more detailed bibliography is being compiled by Mr. Ernest L. Gay, +Boston, Mass., U.S.A., who has informed the present writer that he "has +collected about five hundred editions of Gay's works, and also over five +hundred playbills of his plays, running from the middle of the +eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century." The most +valuable criticisms of Gay as a man of letters are by Johnson in the +"Lives of the Poets" and Thackeray in the "English Humourists of the +Eighteenth Century." An interesting article on Gay by Mr. H.M. Paull +appeared in the _Fortnightly Review_, June, 1912. + +I am much indebted for assistance given to me during the preparation of +this work by Sydney Harper, Esq., of Barnstaple, the happy possessor of +Gay's chair; Professor J. Douglas Brude, of the University of Tennessee; +C.J. Stammers, Esq.; and Ernest L. Gay, Esq., of Boston, Mass., U.S.A. I +am especially grateful to W.H. Grattan Flood, Esq., Mus.D., who has +generously sent me his notes on the sources of the tunes in "The +Beggar's Opera," which are printed in the Appendix to this volume. The +extracts from Gay's poetical works in this volume have been taken, by +permission of the publishers, Messrs. George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., +from the "Poems of John Gay," edited by Mr. John Underwood, in "The +Muses' Library." Mr. John Murray has kindly allowed me to quote +correspondence to and from Gay printed in the standard edition of Pope's +works, edited by the late Rev. Whitwell Elwin and Professor Courthope, +and published by him. + +LEWIS MELVILLE. LONDON, _April_, 1921. + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 65.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + +PREFACE vii + +I.--EARLY YEARS 1 + +II.--GAY COMMENCES AUTHOR 7 + +III.--"RURAL SPORTS"--"THE FAN"--"THE WIFE OF +BATH"--ETC. 18 + +IV.--"THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK"--"A LETTER TO A LADY" 24 + +V.--"THE WHAT D'YE CALL IT"--"AN EPISTLE TO THE +RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF BURLINGTON"--"TRIVIA, +OR, THE ART OF WALKING THE STREETS OF +LONDON"--"THREE HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE" 36 + +VI.--"POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS"--GAY INVESTS +HIS EARNINGS IN THE SOUTH SEA COMPANY--THE +SOUTH SEA "BUBBLE" BREAKS, AND GAY LOSES ALL +HIS MONEY--APPOINTED A COMMISSIONER OF THE +STATE LOTTERY--LORD LINCOLN GIVES HIM AN +APARTMENT IN WHITEHALL--AT TUNBRIDGE +WELLS--CORRESPONDENCE WITH MRS. HOWARD 50 + +VII.--"THE CAPTIVES"--THE FIRST SERIES OF +"FABLES"--GAY AND THE COURT--POPE, SWIFT AND +MRS. HOWARD 65 + +VIII.--"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA" 78 + +IX.--"POLLY" 92 + +X.--CORRESPONDENCE (1729) 105 + +XI.--CORRESPONDENCE (1730) 115 + +XII.--CORRESPONDENCE (1731) 126 + +XIII.--DEATH 133 + +APPENDIX:-- +I.--NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF THE TONES OF +"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA," by W.H. GRATTAN +FLOOD, Mus.D. 150 + +II.--A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE CORRESPONDENCE +OF JOHN GAY 156 + +III.--PROGRAMME OF THE REVIVAL OF "THE BEGGAR'S +OPERA," LYRIC THEATRE; HAMMERSMITH, +JUNE 7th, 1920 162 + +INDEX 163 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +1685-1706 + +EARLY YEARS + + +The Gays were an old family, who settled in Devonshire when Gilbert le +Gay, through his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Curtoyse, +came into possession of the manor of Goldsworthy, in Parkham. This they +held until 1630, when it passed out of their hands to the Coffins.[1] +Subsequently they were associated with the parish of Frittelstock, near +Great Torrington. In the Parish Registers of Barnstaple the name appears +from time to time: in 1544 is recorded the death of Richard Gaye, and +later of John Gaye, "gentill man," and Johans Gay. From other sources it +is known that Richard Gay was Mayor of the town in 1533, and Anthony Gay +in 1638.[2] The records of the family have not been preserved, but at +some time early in the seventeenth century there was at Frittelstock one +John Gay, whose second son, William, was the father of the poet. + +William Gay resided at Barnstaple, and since he lived in a large house, +called the Red Cross, at the corner of Joy Street, facing Holland +Street, it is reasonable to assume that he was in easy circumstances. He +married a daughter of Jonathan Hanmer, the leading Nonconformist divine +of the town, and by her had five children. The first-born was a girl, +who died in 1685; then came Katherine, born in 1676, who married +Anthony Baller, whose son Joseph issued in 1820 the slim volume bearing +the title of "Gay's Chair";[3]in 1778, Jonathan; and three years later, +Joanna, who married John Fortescue--possibly a relation of William +Fortescue, afterwards Master of the Rolls, who is still remembered as a +friend of Pope. The youngest child was John, the subject of this memoir, +stated by his earlier biographers to have been born in 1688, but now +known, from an entry in the Barnstaple Parish Register, to have been +baptised in the Old Church on September 16th, 1685. + +Mrs. Gay died in 1694, her husband a year later; and the custody of the +four surviving orphaned children devolved upon their uncles. William +Gay's brothers were John and Richard, who resided at Frittelstock; +James, Rector of Meeth; and Thomas, who lived at Barnstaple. Mrs. Gay's +only brother was John Hanmer, who succeeded to his father's pastoral +office among the Congregational or Independent Dissenters at Barnstaple. +Jonathan, the elder son of William Gay, who inherited the family +property, was intended for the Church, but "severe studies not well +suiting his natural genius, he betook himself to military pursuits,"[4] +and, probably about the time of his father's death, entered the army. +Who took charge of the two girls is not known; but it is on record that +John, after his father's death, and then in his tenth year, went to live +at Barnstaple with his paternal uncle, Thomas Gay. It is interesting to +note that in 1882, "among the pieces of timber carted away from the +Barnstaple Parish Church [which was then undergoing restoration] has +been found a portion of a pew, with the name 'John Gay,' and the date, +1695, cut upon it.... No other John Gay appears in the Parish +Register."[5] + +Gay attended the Free Grammar School at Barnstaple, and among his +schoolfellows there with whom he cemented an enduring friendship, were +William Fortescue, to whom reference has been made above, and Aaron +Hill.[6] William Raynor was the headmaster when Gay first went to the +Grammar School, but soon he removed to Tiverton, and was succeeded by +the Rev. Robert Luck. Luck subsequently claimed that Gay's dramatic +instincts were developed by taking part in the amateur theatricals +promoted by him, and when in April, 1736, he published a volume of +verse, he wrote, in his dedication to the Duke of Queensberry.[7] Gay's +patron and friend:-- + + "O Queensberry! could happy Gay + This offering to thee bring, + ''Tis he, my Lord' (he'd smiling say), + 'Who taught your Gay to sing.'" + +These lines suggest that an intimacy between Gay and Luck existed long +after their relations as pupil and master had ceased, but it is doubtful +if this was the case. It is certainly improbable that the lad saw much +of the pedagogue when he returned to Barnstaple for a while as the guest +of the Rev. John Hanmer, since Luck was a bitter opponent of the +Dissenters and in open antagonism to John Hanmer. + +How long Gay remained at the Grammar School is not known. There are, +indeed, no records upon which to base a narrative of his early years. It +is, however, generally accepted that, on leaving school, he was +apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London. This was not so unaccountable a +proceeding then as appears to-day, for we know from Gibbon's "Memoirs" +that "our most respectable families have not disdained the +counting-house, or even the shop;... and in England, as well as in the +Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare that +gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade": for example, the +historian's great grandfather, son of a country gentleman, became a +linen-draper in Leadenhall Street. + +Gay had no taste for trade, and did not long remain in this employment. +According to one authority, "he grew so fond of reading and study that +he frequently neglected to exert himself in putting oft silks and +velvets to the ladies";[8] while his nephew, the Rev. Joseph Bailer, +says: "Young Gay, not being able to bear the confinement of a shop, soon +felt a remarkable depression of spirits, and consequent decline of +health; he was, therefore, obliged to quit that situation, and retire to +Barnstaple, in the hope of receiving benefit from his native air."[9] No +doubt the mercer was willing enough to cancel the indentures of an +apprentice so unsatisfactory as Gay probably was. Anyhow, Gay returned +to Barnstaple, and stayed awhile with his maternal uncle, the Rev. John +Hanmer. + +It has been said that it was during this visit to Barnstaple that Gay +began to write verses; and as most men who take to poetry began to +dabble in ink in their youth, this statement may well be accepted. +Only, so far no bibliographer has traced any of these early writings. +Some poems, said to have been written by him in these days have been +printed in the volume to which reference has already been made, "Gay's +Chair: Poems never before printed, written by John Gay.... With a +Sketch of his Life from the MSS. of the Rev. Joseph Bailer, his +nephew. Edited by Henry Lee ... 1820," but the authenticity of these +cannot definitely be accepted. A chair, said to have been the property +of Gay at Barnstaple, was sold early in the nineteenth century to +Henry Lee, who sent it to be repaired. "On taking out the drawer in +front, which was somewhat broken," so runs the story, "I found at the +back part of the chair a concealed drawer, ingeniously fastened with a +small wooden bolt;... it was full of manuscript papers, some of which +appeared to have slipped over, as I found them stuck to the bottom or +seat of the chair."[10] The poems in question are: "The Ladies' +Petition to the Honorable the House of Commons," the longest and most +ambitious of the pieces; "To Miss Jane Scott," "Prediction," +"Comparisons," "Absence," "Fable," "Congratulation to a Newly-married +Pair," "A Devonshire Hill," "Letter to a Young Lady," and "To My +Chair." Of this small collection, Mr. John Underhill, who includes it +in his admirable edition of Gay's poems in the "Muses' Library," +writes: "The evidence in support of their authenticity is (1) the fact +that they were found in a chair which was always spoken of by Gay's +'immediate descendants' as 'having been the property of the poet, and +which, as his favourite easy chair, he highly valued'; and (2) that +'The Ladies' Petition' was printed nearly _verbatim_ from a manuscript +in the handwriting of the poet ... If really Gay's, they [the verses] +may, we think, a great many of them, be safely regarded as the +production of his youth, written, perhaps, during the somewhat +extended visit to Devonshire which preceded his introduction to the +literary world of Pope. The least doubtful piece, 'The Ladies' +Petition' was probably 'thrown off' upon the occasion of his visit to +Exeter in 1715." + +If the verses are genuine, they have such biographical interest as is +afforded by an allusion to a youthful love-affair. There are lines "To +Miss Jane Scott":-- + + The Welsh girl is pretty. + The English girl fair, + The Irish deem'd witty, + The French _débonnaire_; + + Though all may invite me, + I'd value them not; + The charms that delight me + I find in a SCOT. + +It is presumedly to the same young lady he was referring in the verses +written probably shortly after he returned to London after his visit to +Devonshire:-- + + ABSENCE. + + Augustus, frowning, gave command. + And Ovid left his native land; + From Julia, as an exile sent. + He long with barb'rous Goths was pent. + + So fortune frown'd on me, and I was driven + From friends, from home, from Jane, and happy Devon! + And Jane, sore grieved when from me torn away;-- + loved her sorrow, though I wish'd her--GAY. + +That another girl there was may be gathered from the "Letter to a Young +Lady," who was not so devoted as Jane Scott, for the poet writes: + + Begging you will not mock his sighing. + And keep him thus whole years a-dying! + "Whole years!"--Excuse my freely speaking. + Such tortures, why a month--a week in? + Caress, or kill him quite in one day, + Obliging thus your servant, JOHN GAY. + + +[Footnote 1: Risdon: _Survey of Devon_ (1811), p. 243.] + +[Footnote 2: Gribble: _Memorials of Devonshire_.] + +[Footnote 3: _Gay's Chair_, p. 12.] + +[Footnote 4: _Gay's Chair_, p. 13.] + +[Footnote 5: _Notes and Queries_, N.S. VI, 488, December 16th, 1882, +from the _North Devon Herald_ of December 7th.] + +[Footnote 6: Aaron Hill (1685-1750), dramatist and journalist.] + +[Footnote 7: Charles Douglas, third Duke of Queensbury and second Duke +of Dover (1698-1777), married Catherine, second daughter of Henry Hyde, +Earl of Clarendon and Rochester.] + +[Footnote 8: Ayre: _Pope_, pp. 11, 97.] + +[Footnote 9: _Gay's Chair_, p. 13.] + +[Footnote 10: _Gay's Chair_, p. 5.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1706-1712 + +GAY COMMENCES AUTHOR + + +Gay's health was improved by his stay in his native town, and presently +he returned to London, where, according to the family tradition, he +"lived for some time as a private gentleman."[1] Mr. Austin Dobson has +pointed out that this is "a statement scarcely reconcilable with the +opening in life his friends had found for him";[2] but it may be urged +against this view that Gay and his sisters had each a small +patrimony.[3] If it is assumed that he returned to the metropolis after +he came of age in September, 1706, he may have been possessed of a sum +of money, small, no doubt, but sufficient to provide him with the +necessaries of life for some little time. When his brother, Jonathan, +who had been promoted lieutenant at Cologne by Marlborough, under whom +he served at Hochstadt and elsewhere, and captain by Queen Anne, +committed suicide in 1709, after a quarrel with his colonel, John may +have inherited some further share of the paternal estate. + +When Gay was one-and-twenty, ginger was hot in his mouth. Wine, woman, +and song appealed to him. It is not on record that he had any +love-affair, save those indicated in the verses in "Gay's Chair"; but +the indelicacy of many passages in his writings suggests that he was +rather intimately acquainted with the bagnios of the town. No man whose +sense of decency had not been denied could possibly have written the +verses "To a Young Lady, with some Lamphreys," and this, even after +making allowance for the freedom of the early eighteenth century. He +certainly frequented the coffee-houses of Covent Garden and Pall Mall. +Also, he roamed about the metropolis, and became learned in the highways +and byways, north and south, and east and west--a knowledge which bore +excellent fruit in "Trivia." + + But I, who ne'er was bless'd by Fortune's hand, + Nor brighten'd plough-shares in paternal land. + Long in the noisy town have been immured, + Respired its smoke, and all its cares endured. + Where news and politics divide mankind, + And schemes of state involve th' uneasy mind.[4] + +Gay was then, as ever, a great eater. "As the French philosopher used +to prove his existence by _cogito, ergo sum_," Congreve wrote to Pope +long after, "the greatest proof of Gay's existence is _edit, ergo +est_."[5] He ate in excess always, and not infrequently drank too +much, and for exercise had no liking, though he was not averse from a +ramble around London streets. As the years passed, he became fat, but +found comfort in the fact that some of his intimates were yet more +corpulent. To this, he made humorous reference in "Mr. Pope's Welcome +from Greece":-- + + And wondering Maine so fat, with laughing eyes, + (Gay, Maine and Cheney,[6] boon companions dear, + Gay fat, Maine fatter, and Cheney huge of size). + +Gay had a passion for finery. To this foible Pope, in the early days of +his acquaintance with the young man, made reference in a letter to +Swift, December 8th, 1713: "One Mr. Gay, an unhappy youth, who writes +pastorals during the time of Divine Service, whose case is the more +deplorable, as he hath miserably lavished away all that silver he should +have reserved for his soul's health, in buttons and loops for his +coat." Gay was not only well aware of this weakness, but he deplored it, +though he could never contrive to overcome it. He made allusion to it in +some lines known as the "Epigrammatical Petition," addressed to Lord +Oxford,[7] in June, 1714, and also in the prologue to "The Shepherd's +Week":-- + + I sold my sheep and lambkins too, + For silver loops and garments blue: + My boxen hautboy sweet of sound, + For lace that edged mine hat around; + For Lightfoot and my scrip I got + A gorgeous sword, and eke a knot. + +Gay now renewed his acquaintance with his old schoolfellow, Aaron +Hill, who, it is said, though on doubtful authority, employed him as +an amanuensis when setting on foot the project of answering questions +in a paper, styled the _British Apollo, or, Curious Amusements for the +Ingenious_.[8] The first number of this publication appeared on March +13th, 1708, and it was issued on Wednesdays and Fridays until March +16th, 1711. Gay referred to it in his pamphlet, "The Present State of +Wit," published in May 1711: "Upon a review of my letter, I find I +have quite forgotten the _British Apollo_, which might possibly have +happened from its having of late retreated out of this end of the town +into the country, where I am informed, however, that it still +recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards and giving good advice +to shopkeepers and their apprentices." Whether or no Gay ever +contributed to the _British Apollo_, it seems likely that it was +through the good offices of Hill that in May, 1708, Gay's poem, +"Wine," was published by William Keble at the Black-Spread-eagle in +Westminster Hall, who, about the same time, brought out a translation +by Nahum Tate, the Poet Laureate, and Hill, of a portion of the +thirteenth book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses." + +"Wine," a subject on which Gay, even at the age of twenty-two, could +write with some authority, secured a sufficient popularity to be paid +the doubtful compliment of piracy in 1709, by Henry Hill, of +Blackfriars, on whom presently the author neatly revenged himself in his +verses, "On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott," by the following +reference:-- + + While neat old Elzevir is reckon'd better + Than Pirate Hill's brown sheets and scurvy letter. + +This blank-verse poem, which may have been suggested by John Philips' +"Cider," published in 1708, is written in the mock-heroic strain, and +although it has no particular value, shows some sense of humorous +exaggeration, of which Gay was presently to show himself a master. + + Of happiness terrestrial, and the source + Whence human pleasures flow, sing, Heavenly Muse, + Of sparkling juices, of th' enlivening grape, + Whose quick'ning taste adds vigour to the soul. + Whose sov'reign power revives decaying Nature, + And thaws the frozen blood of hoary age, + A kindly warmth diffusing--youthful fires + Gild his dim eyes, and paint with ruddy hue + His wrinkled visage, ghastly wan before-- + Cordial restorative to mortal man, + With copious hand by bounteous gods bestow'd. + +These are the opening lines. The concluding passage describing the +tippling revellers leaving the tavern suggests, as has more than once +been pointed out, the hand that afterwards wrote "Trivia." + + Thus we the winged hours in harmless mirth + And joys unsullied pass, till humid night + Has half her race perform'd; now all abroad + Is hush'd and silent, now the rumbling noise + Of coach or cart, or smoky link-boy's call + Is heard--but universal Silence reigns: + When we in merry plight, airy and gay. + Surprised to find the hours so swiftly fly. + With hasty knock, or twang of pendent cord. + Alarm the drowsy youth from slumb'ring nod; + Startled he flies, and stumbles o'er the stairs + Erroneous, and with busy knuckles plies + His yet clung eyelids, and with stagg'ring reel + Enters confused, and muttering asks our wills; + When we with liberal hand the score discharge, + And homeward each his course with steady step + Unerring steers, of cares and coin bereft. + +So far as is known, Gay preserved a profound silence for three years +after his publication of "Wine," and then, on May 3rd, 1711, appeared +from his pen, "The Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a Friend in +the Country," sold at the reasonable price of three-pence. This +attracted the attention of Swift. "Dr. Freind[9] ... pulled out a +two-penny pamphlet just published, called 'The State of Wit', giving +the characters of all the papers that have come out of late," he wrote +in the "Journal to Stella," May 12: "The author seems to be a Whig, +yet he speaks very highly of a paper called the _Examiner_, and says +the supposed author of it is Dr. Swift. But, above all things, he +praises the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, and I believe Steele and +Addison were privy to the printing of it. Thus is one treated by the +impudent dogs." In this unambitious little sketch, as the author puts +it, he gives "the histories and characters of all our periodical +papers, whether monthly, weekly or diurnal," and it is, therefore, of +value to the student of the early days of English journalism. He +claimed to write without political bias: "I shall only promise that, +as you know, I never cared one farthing either for Whig or Tory, so I +shall consider our writers purely as they are such, without any +respect to which party they belong." In "The Present State of Wit" +most of the better-known periodical writers are introduced. Dr. +William King is mentioned, not he who was the Archbishop of Dublin, +nor he who was the Principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, but he of whom +it was said that he "could write verses in a tavern three hours after +he could not speak," who was the author of the "Art of Cookery" and +the "Art of Love," and who in 1709 had fluttered the scientific +dovecotes by parodying the "Philosophical Transactions" in the _Useful +Transactions in Philosophy and Other Sorts of Learning_, of which, +however, only three numbers were issued. John Ozell was pilloried as +the author of the _Monthly Amusement_, which was not, as the title +suggests, a periodical, but was merely a title invented to summarise +his frequent appearances in print. "It is generally some French novel +or play, indifferently translated, it is more or less taken notice of, +as the original piece is more or less agreeable." Defoe takes his +place in the gallery as the editor and principal contributor to the +weekly _Poor Review_, that is, the _Weekly Review_ (which was +published weekly from February 19th, 1704, until 1712) which, says +Gay, "is quite exhausted and grown so very contemptible, that though +he has provoked all his brothers of the quill round, none of them will +enter into a controversy with him." + +The periodical publications of the day are passed under review: the +_Observer_, founded in 1702 by John Tutchin, and after his death five +years later, conducted by George Ridpath, editor of the _Flying Post_, +until 1712, when it had almost entirely ceased to please, and was +finally extinguished by the Stamp Tax; the weekly _Examiner_, set up +in August, 1710, in opposition to the Whig _Taller_, numbering among +its contributors Dr. King, St. John, Prior, Atterbury, and Freind, and +managed by Swift from No. 14 (October 26th, 1710); the _Whig +Examiner_, the first issue of which appeared on September 14th, 1710, +its five numbers being written by Addison; the _Medley_, another Whig +paper, which ran from August, 1710, to August, 1711, and was edited by +Arthur Mainwaring, with the assistance of Steele, Oldmixon, and +Anthony Henley (a wit and a man of fortune, to whom Garth dedicated +"The Dispensary," and who distinguished himself by describing Swift as +"a beast for ever after the order of Melchisedec"). The _Tatter_, +which appeared three times a week from April 12th, 1709, to January +2nd, 1711, was of course mentioned, and well-deserved tributes were +paid to Steele and Addison. Of Addison he wrote with appreciation, but +briefly: "This is that excellent friend to whom Mr. Steele owes so +much, and who refuses to have his pen set before those pieces which +the greatest pens in England would be proud to own. Indeed, they could +hardly add to this gentleman's reputation, whose works in Latin and +English poetry long since convinced the world that he was the greatest +master in Europe of those two languages." Of Steele, Gay wrote at +greater length: "To give you my own thoughts of this gentleman's +writings, I shall, in the first place, observe that there is a noble +difference between him and all the rest of our polite and gallant +authors. The latter have endeavoured to please the age by falling in +with them, and encourage them in their fashionable views and false +notion of things. It would have been a jest, some time since, for a +man to have asserted that anything witty could be said in praise of a +married state, or that devotion and virtue were any way necessary to +the character of a fine gentleman. Bickerstaff ventured to tell the +town that they were a parcel of fops, fools and coquettes; but in such +a manner as even pleased them, and made them more than half-inclined +to believe that he spoke truth. Instead of complying with the false +sentiments and vicious tastes of the age--either in morality, +criticism, or good breeding--he has boldly assured them that they were +altogether in the wrong; and commanded them, with an authority which +perfectly well became him, to surrender themselves to his arguments +for virtue and good sense. It is incredible to conceive the effect his +writings have had on the town; how many thousand follies they have +either quite banished, or given a very great check to! how much +countenance they have added to virtue and religion! how many people +they have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if +they were not so! and, lastly, how entirely they have convinced our +young fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of learning! +He has indeed rescued it out of the hands of pedants and fools, and +discovered the true method of making it amicable and lovely to all +mankind. In the dress he gives it, it is a welcome guest at tea-tables +and assemblies, and is relished and caressed by the merchants on the +'Change. Accordingly there is not a lady at Court, nor a banker in +Lombard Street who is not verily persuaded that Captain Steele is the +greatest scholar and best casuist of any man in England. Lastly, his +writings have set all our wits and men of letters on a new way of +thinking, of which they had little or no notion before: and, although +we cannot say that any of them have come up to the beauties of the +original, I think we may venture to affirm, that every one of them +writes and thinks much more justly than they did some time since." + +Gay's agreeable personality secured him many friends. Not later than the +spring of 1711 he made the acquaintance of Henry Cromwell, whom he later +described as "the honest hatless Cromwell with red breeches," by whom he +was introduced to Pope, who was at this time a member of Addison's +circle, and generally recognised as a rising man of letters. Pope +evidently liked Gay, who was his senior by nearly three years, but was +as a child in worldly wisdom. On July 15th, 1711, Pope wrote to +Cromwell, "Pray give my service to all my friends, and to Mr. Gay in +particular";[10] and again, nine days later, addressing the same +correspondent, he said: "My humble services, too, to Mr. Gay, of whose +paper ['The Present State of Wit'] I have made mention to [Erasmus] +Lewis."[11] Gay, ever anxious to please those whom he liked and, +perhaps, especially those who might be of use to him, when writing the +verses, "On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott" (which appeared in +that publisher's _Miscellany_ issued in May, 1712), eagerly took +advantage to ingratiate himself with a number of people, in so far as he +could do this by means of compliments. Gay tells the publisher that if +he will only choose his authors from "the successful bards" praised by +the author, then "praise with profit shall reward thy pains"; and-- + + So long shall live thy praise in books of fame, + And Tonson yield to Lintott's lofty name; + +but, since an author should not praise one publisher at the expense of +another, he has already had a kindly word for that more celebrated +publisher, Jacob Tonson--"Jacob's mighty name." It may be mentioned in +passing that Gay's "Poems on Several Occasions" bear the joint imprint +of Lintott and Tonson. Gay waxed eloquent in these verses, when +writing of the other contributors to the _Miscellany_, and bestowed +praise upon his brother-poets in no measured quantity:-- + + Where Buckingham will condescend to give + That honour'd piece to distant times must live; + When noble Sheffield strikes the trembling strings, + The little loves rejoice and clap their wings. + Anacreon lives, they cry, th' harmonious swain } + Retunes the lyre, and tries his wonted strain, } + 'Tis he,--our lost Anacreon lives again. } + But when th' illustrious poet soars above + The sportive revels of the god of love, + Like Maro's muse he takes a loftier flight, + And towers beyond the wond'ring Cupid's sight. + + If thou wouldst have thy volume stand the test, + And of all others be reputed best, + Let Congreve teach the list'ning groves to mourn, + As when he wept o'er fair Pastora's urn.[12] + + Let Prior's muse with soft'ning accents move, + Soft as the strain of constant Emma's love: + Or let his fancy choose some jovial theme. + As when he told Hans Carvel's jealous dream; + Prior th' admiring reader entertains, + With Chaucer's humour, and with Spenser's strains.[13] + + Waller in Granville lives; when Mira sings + With Waller's hands he strikes the sounding strings. + With sprightly turns his noble genius shines, + And manly sense adorns his easy lines. + + On Addison's sweet lays attention waits, + And silence guards the place while he repeats; + His muse alike on ev'ry subject charms, + Whether she paints the god of love, or arms: + In him pathetic Ovid sings again, + And Homer's "Iliad" shines in his "Campaign." + Whenever Garth shall raise his sprightly song, + Sense flows in easy numbers from his tongue; + Great Phoebus in his learned son we see, + Alike in physic, as in poetry. + + When Pope's harmonious muse with pleasure roves, + Amidst the plains, the murm'ring streams and groves. + Attentive Echo, pleased to hear his songs, + Thro' the glad shade each warbling note prolongs; + His various numbers charm our ravish'd ears, } + His steady judgment far out-shoots his years, } + And early in the youth the god appears. } + +It was in reference to these complimentary lines (which Pope saw in +manuscript) that, on December 21st, 1711, Pope wrote to Cromwell: "I +will willingly return Mr. Gay my thanks for the favour of his poem, and +in particular for his kind mention of me."[14] That letter is +interesting also as being the last exchanged between Pope and his old +friend; and it is instructive, as showing how the acquaintance between +the poets was already ripening, that Pope turned to Gay in his distress +at the defection of his earlier friend. "Our friend, Mr. Cromwell, too, +has been silent all this year. I believe he has been displeased at some +or other of my freedoms, which I very innocently take, and most with +those I think my friends," he wrote to Gay on November 13th, 1712. "But +this I know nothing of; perhaps he may have opened to you, and if I know +you right, you are of a temper to cement friendships, and not to divide +them. I really very much love Mr. Cromwell, and have a true affection +for yourself, which, if I had any interest in the world, or power with +those who have, I should not be long without manifesting to you."[15] + +If Pope had lost the friendship of Henry Cromwell, he was certainly +anxious to strengthen the bond that was beginning to be forged between +himself and Gay, to whom he wrote again: "I desire you will not, either +out of modesty, or a vicious distrust of another's value for you--those +two eternal foes to merit--imagine that your letters and conversation +are not always welcome to me. There is no man more entirely fond of +good-nature or ingenuity than myself, and I have seen too much of these +qualities in Mr. Gay to be anything less than his most affectionate +friend and real servant."[16] That the intimacy between the poets waxed +apace is evident, for when Pope wrote "A Farewell to London in the year +1715," the concluding stanza was:-- + + Adieu to all but Gay alone. + Whose soul, sincere and free. + Loves all mankind, but flatters none. + And so may starve with me. + + +[Footnote 1: _Gay's Chair_, p. 13.] + +[Footnote 2: _Dictionary of National Biography._] + +[Footnote 3: _Gay's Chair._] + +[Footnote 4: _Rural Sports_.] + +[Footnote 5: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 13.] + +[Footnote 6: George Cheyne (1671-1743), physician, practised first at +London, and then at Bath.] + +[Footnote 7: "The Epigrammatical Petition" is printed on p. 29 of this +work,] + +[Footnote 8: "_Key to 'Three Hours after Marriage_,'" p. 7.] + +[Footnote 9: John Freind (1675-1728), physician.] + +[Footnote 10: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 123.] + +[Footnote 11: _Ibid_., VI, p. 124.] + +[Footnote 12: A reference to "The Mourning Muse of Alexis: A Pastoral +Lamentary on the Death of Queen Mary." In this piece the Queen is spoken +of as "Pastora."] + +[Footnote 13: The references are to "Henry and Emma" and "Hans Carvel."] + +[Footnote 14: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 15: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 408.] + +[Footnote 16: _Ibid_., VII, p. 409.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1713 + +"RURAL SPORTS," "THE FAN," "THE WIFE OF BATH," ETC. + + +There has been preserved a letter written by Aaron Hill to Richard +Savage, June 23rd, 1766, which contains information concerning the +life of the poet during the next two years. "I would willingly satisfy +the curiosity of your friend, in relation to Mr. Gay, if it were not +easy to get much further information than I am able to give, from Mr. +Budgell or Mr. Pope; to the first of whom, the beginning of his life +was best known, and to the last, its afternoon and evening," Hill +wrote. "As to your question, whether Mr. Gay was ever a domestic of +the Duchess of Monmouth, I can answer it in the affirmative; he was +her secretary about the year 1713, and continued so, till he went over +to Hanover, in the beginning of the following year, with Lord +Clarendon, who was sent thither by Queen Anne. At his return, upon the +death of that Queen, all his hopes became withered, but Mr. Pope (who +you know, is an excellent planter) revived and invigorated his bays, +and indeed, very generously supported him, in some more _solid_ +improvements; for remember a letter, wherein he invited him, with a +very impoetical warmth that, so long as he himself had a shilling, Mr. +Gay should be welcome to sixpence of it, nay, to eightpence, if he +could but contrive to live on a groat."[1] + +It is now happily possible to elaborate the information given in this +letter. Owing to the kindly offices of one or other of his friends, +Gay had secured the appointment of domestic secretary to the Duchess +of Monmouth. Anne Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch in her own right, had +in 1663 married the Duke of Monmouth. He was executed for high treason +in 1683, and three years later his widow married Charles, third Baron +Cornwallis. Though she had not long mourned her first husband, she did +not forget that he was on his father's side of the blood royal, and to +the end of her days she preserved a regal state, which, however, did +not make her unpopular at Court. "The Princess," wrote Lady Cowper, +"loved her mightily, and certainly no woman of her years ever deserved +it so well. She had all the life and fire of youth, and it was +marvellous to see that the many afflictions she had suffered had not +touched her wit and good nature, but at upwards of three-score she had +both in their full perfection." Upon this appointment Dr. Johnson +commented: "By quitting a shop for such service Gay might gain +leisure, but he certainly advanced little on the boast of +independence." As has been seen, however, there was an interval of +several years between Gay's apprenticeship and his taking up this +position as the Duchess's amanuensis--for it is doubtful if he ever +attained to an office more responsible than this--he secured board and +lodging, a little pocket money, and no doubt ample leisure. It was +necessary for Gay to earn his livelihood, for he had spent his +patrimony, and the earnings of his pen were as yet negligible. Indeed, +the situation was almost ideal for an impecunious young man of +letters. Anyhow, Gay was delighted, and Pope not less so. "It has been +my good fortune within this month past to hear more things that have +pleased me than, I think, in all my time besides," Pope wrote to Gay, +December 24th, 1712; "but nothing, upon my word, has been so homefelt +a satisfaction as the news you tell me of yourself; and you are not in +the least mistaken when you congratulate me upon your own good +success, for I have more people out of whom to be happy, than any +ill-natured man can boast of." Pope, now well aware of Gay's natural +indolence, was careful in this same letter to urge him to devote +himself to literary labours in his leisure hours. "I shall see you +this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the last, and I +hope as much of your time as your Duchess will allow you to spare to +any friend will not be thought lost upon one who is as much so as any +man," he added. "I must also put you in mind, though you are now +secretary to this lady, you are likewise secretary to nine other +ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to +live wholly upon those ladies' favours is indeed in as precarious a +condition as any who does what Chaucer says for subsistence; but they +are very agreeable companions, like other ladies, when a man only +passes a night or so with them at his leisure, and away."[2] + +Gay, the most amiable of men, never resented advice, perhaps because +he so rarely followed it. In this case, however, he was surprisingly +amenable. During the short time he was in the service of the Duchess +of Monmouth, he drove his quill with some assiduity, and, indeed, at +this period of his life he, who was presently distinguished as the +laziest of men, worked diligently. + +Before joining the household of the Duchess, he had written "Rural +Sports: A Georgic," and this was published on January 13th, 1713, by +Jacob Tonson, with an inscription to Pope:-- + + You, who the sweets of rural life have known, + Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town; + In Windsor groves your easy hours employ, + And, undisturb'd, yourself and Muse enjoy. + +During 1713 Gay wrote such trifles as papers on "Reproof and Flattery," +and "Dress," which were printed in the _Guardian_ on March 24th and +September 21st respectively; and some verses, "Panthea," "Araminta," "A +Thought on Eternity," and "A Contemplation on Night," which appeared in +Steele's "Poetical Miscellany." A more ambitious work was "The Fan," +which had occupied him during the earlier part of the year. He was +greatly interested in its composition, and corresponded with Pope while +it was being written. "I am very much recreated and refreshed with the +news of the advancement of 'The Fan,' which I doubt not will delight the +eye and sense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine shall play +in the hands of posterity," Pope wrote to him, August 23rd, 1713: "I am +glad your Fan is mounted so soon, but I would have you varnish and glaze +it at your leisure, and polish the sticks as much as you can. You may +then cause it to be borne in the hands of both sexes, no less in Britain +than it is in China, where it is ordinary for a mandarin to fan himself +cool after a debate, and a statesman to hide his face with it when he +tells a grave lie."[3] Again, on October 23rd, Pope wrote: "I shall go +into the country about a month hence, and shall then desire to take +along with me your poem of 'The Fan.'" The most ambitious as yet of +Gay's writings, there are few to-day, however, who will question the +judgment of Mr. Austin Dobson, "one of his least successful efforts, +and, though touched by Pope, now unreadable." + +Gay had thus early a leaning to the theatre, where presently he was to +score one of his greatest successes, and he wrote "The Wife of Bath," +which was produced at Drury Lane on May 12th, 1713. Steele gave it a +"puff preliminary" in No. 50 of the _Guardian_ (May 8th). + +Gay was now become known as a man of letters, and had made many friends. +Johnson says: "Gay was the general favourite of the whole association of +wits; but they regarded him as a playfellow rather than as a partner, +and treated him with more fondness than respect."[4] There is some truth +in this view, but of the affection he inspired there is no doubt. To +know him was to love him. Wherein exactly lay his charm it is not easy +now to say; but his gentle good-nature and his utter helplessness seems +to have appealed to those of sterner mould. The extracts already given +from Pope's correspondence show the affection with which he was inspired +for his brother of the pen. Pope took him so completely under his +massive wing that he remarked later, "they would call him one of my +_éleves_."[5] Pope accepted the position, and introduced him to his +circle. He made him known to Swift, and that great man loved him as he +loved no other man; and to Parnell, Arbuthnot, Ford--the "joyous Ford" +of "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece"--and Bolingbroke, in all of whom he +inspired an affection, which endured through life. Parnell and Pope +wrote jointly to him, and while in 1714 Pope was still addressing him as +"Dear Mr. Gay," Parnell had already thrown aside all formality and +greeted him as "Dear Gay." His old schoolfellow, William Fortescue, +cleaved to him, and they were in such constant communication that when +Pope wanted to see Fortescue, it was to Gay he appealed to arrange a +meeting. The terms on which Gay was with the set is shown in Pope's +letter to him, written from Binfield, May 4th, 1714: "Pray give, with +the utmost fidelity and esteem, my hearty service to the Dean, Dr. +Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and to Mr. Fortescue. Let them also know at +Button's that I am mindful of them."[6] Erasmus Lewis Gay knew now, and +Caryll too, and the rest of the small literary set, who, with gusto, +made him welcome among them. Indeed, when the "Memoirs of Scriblerus" +were in contemplation, and, indeed, begun in 1713, Gay, then +comparatively unknown, was invited to take a hand in the composition +with the greatest men of the day. "The design of the Memoirs of +Scriblerus was to have ridiculed all the false tastes in learning, under +a character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art +and science, but injudiciously in each," we have been told. "It was +begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age. Lord Oxford, +the Bishop of Rochester, Mr. Pope, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Swift, and +others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it well enough, and +was not disinclined to come in to it."[7] It does not transpire whether +Gay had at this time met Swift, but that soon after they were in +correspondence, appears from a letter from Pope to Swift, June 18th, +1714: "I shall translate Homer by the by. Mr. Gay has acquainted you +with what progress I have made in it. I cannot name Mr. Gay without all +the acknowledgments which I shall owe you, on his account."[8] + + +[Footnote 1: Hill: _Works_ (ed. 1754), I, p. 325.] + +[Footnote 2: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 409.] + +[Footnote 3: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 412.] + +[Footnote 4: Johnson: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 268.] + +[Footnote 5: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 145.] + +[Footnote 6: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 415.] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 123.] + +[Footnote 8: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 10.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1714 + +"THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK," "A LETTER TO A LADY." + + +The outstanding literary event in Gay's career in 1714 was the pastoral, +"The Shepherd's Week," which was published by R. Burleigh on April 15th, +which contained a "Proeme to the Courteous Reader," and a "Prologue to +the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Bolingbroke," which was, in fact, +a dedication:-- + + Lo, I who erst beneath a tree + Sung Bumkinet and Bowzybee, + And Blouzelind and Marian bright, + In apron blue or apron white, + Now write my sonnets in a book, + For my good lord of Bolingbroke. + +The author then states that he had heard of the Queen's illness and how +the skill of Arbuthnot had restored her to health:-- + + A skilful leech (so God him speed) + They said had wrought this blessed deed, + This leech Arbuthnot was yclept, + Who many a night not once had slept; + But watch'd our gracious Sov'reign still: + For who could rest when she was ill? + O may'st thou henceforth sweetly sleep! + Shear, swains, oh shear your softest sheep + To swell his couch; for well I ween, + He saved the realm who saved his Queen. + + Quoth I, please God, I'll his with glee + To court, this Arbuthnot to see. + +Such loyalty, of course, the hardest heart must touch, but loyalty in +this case had its reward, and the journey to Court was well worth the +pains:-- + + There saw I ladies all a-row + Before their Queen in seemly show. + No more I'll sing Buxoma brown, + Like goldfinch in her Sunday gown; + Nor Clumsilis, nor Marian bright, + Nor damsel that Hobnelia hight. + But Lansdown fresh as flowers of May, + And Berkely lady blithe and gay, + And Anglesea, whose speech exceeds + The voice of pipe or oaten reeds; + And blooming Hyde, with eyes so rare, + And Montague beyond compare. + Such ladies fair wou'd I depaint + In roundelay or sonnet quaint. + +But charming as were these ladies, there was still a better sight in +store for the visitor:-- + + There saw I St. John, sweet of mien. + Full steadfast both to Church and Queen. + With whose fair name I'll deck my strain, + St. John, right courteous to the swain. + + For thus he told me on a day, + Trim are thy sonnets, gentle Gay, + And certes, mirth it were to see + Thy joyous madrigals twice three, + With preface meet and notes profound. + Imprinted fair, and well y-bound. + All suddenly then home I sped, + And did ev'n as my Lord had said. + +It was not Bolingbroke who inspired the pastorals, though he accepted +the dedication. The true history of the origin of "The Shepherd's Week" +is well set out by Mr. Underhill. "These pastorals, it should be +explained, were written at the instigation of Pope," he has written. +"The sixth volume of Tonson's 'Miscellany' had concluded with Pope's +Pastorals and begun with those of Ambrose Philips. A few years after its +publication a writer in the _Guardian_[1] (probably Tickell[2]) +discussed the Pastoral in a series of papers, and gave the most +extravagant praise to Philips. 'Theocritus,' he remarked, 'left his +dominions to Virgil; Virgil left his to his son Spenser; and Spenser was +succeeded by his eldest born, Philips.' Pope was not mentioned, and he +set himself to redress the injustice by a device of characteristic +subtlety. He wrote a sixth paper, in which he continued to illustrate +the true principles of pastoral poetry from Philips' practice, but in +such a way as to show the judicious reader by the examples given either +the absurdity of Philips or the superior merit of Pope. The article was +anonymously or pseudonymously forwarded to the _Guardian_, and was in +due course published. Philips was furious, and providing himself with a +birch rod, threatened to flog Pope. The latter, not content with his +ingenious revenge, prevailed upon his friend Gay to continue the warfare +and to burlesque Philips' performances in a series of realistic +representations of country life."[3] Gay entered into the sport with +joy--it was a game after his own heart, and one for which his talent was +particularly fitted. He begins his "Proeme to the Gentle Reader" with a +most palpable hit: "Great marvel hath it been (and that not unworthily) +to diverse worthy wits, that in this our island of Britain, in all rare +sciences so greatly abounding, more especially in all kinds of poesie +highly flourishing, no poet (though other ways of notable cunning in +roundelays) hath hit on the right simple eclogue after this true ancient +guise of Theocritus, before this mine attempt. Other Poet travelling in +this plain highway of Pastoral I know none." Presently comes an attack +but little disguised on Philips: "Thou will not find my shepherdesses +idly piping on oaten reeds, but milking the kine, tying up the sheaves, +or if the hogs are astray driving them to their styes. My shepherd +gathereth none other nosegays but what are the growth of our own fields, +he sleepeth not under myrtle shades, but under a hedge, nor doth he +vigilantly defend his flocks from wolves, because there are none, as +maister Spenser well observeth:-- + + Well is known that since the Saxon King + Never was wolf seen, many or some, + Nor in all Kent nor in Christendom." + +Yet a third extract from this satirical "Proeme" must be given, and +this in connection with the language of these eclogues: "That +principally, courteous reader, whereof I would have thee to be +advertised (seeing I depart from the vulgar usage) is touching the +language of my shepherds; which is soothly to say, such as is neither +spoken by the country maiden or the courtly dame; nay, not only such as +in the present times is not uttered, but was never uttered in times +past; and, if I judge aright, will never be uttered in times future. It +having too much of the country to be fit for the court, too much of the +court to be fit for the country; too much of the language of old times +to be fit for the present, too much of the present to have been fit for +the old, and too much of both to be fit for any time to come. Granted +also it is, that in this my language, I seem unto myself, as a London +mason, who calculateth his work for a term of years, when he buildeth +with old material upon a ground-rent that is not his own, which soon +turneth to rubbish and ruins. For this point, no reason can I allege, +only deep learned examples having led me thereunto." + +All this is pretty fooling; but Gay, who in the beginning intended "The +Shepherd's Week" to be merely a burlesque, according to the suggestion +of Pope, was carried away by his interest in the subject-matter, and +produced a poem of undoubted value as a picture of rural life in his own +day. With it he won approval as an original poet in his own day, and +three centuries after critics still write in praise of it. + +"These Pastorals were originally intended, I suppose, as a burlesque on +those of Philips'; but, perhaps without designing it, Gay has hit the +true spirit of pastoral poetry," Goldsmith said; and Dr. Johnson wrote: +"The effect of reality of truth became conspicuous, even when the +intention was to show them grovelling and degraded. These pastorals +became popular, and were read with delight, as just representations of +rural manners and occupations, by those who had no interest in the +rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of the critical disputes."[4] +Southey, too, had a kind word to say: "In attempting the burlesque Gay +copied nature, and his unexpected success might have taught his +contemporaries a better taste. Few poets seem to have possessed so quick +and observing an eye"[5]; and, coming to the present critics, Mr. Austin +Dobson utters commendation: "The object went far beyond its avowed +object of ridicule, and Gay's eclogues abound with interesting folk-lore +and closely studied rural pictures."[6] + +With all his unworldliness Gay always had an eager, if not very keen, +eye on the main chance, and finding himself surrounded by men of +influence, he not unnaturally, in a day when men of letters often found +their reward in Government places or in sinecures, looked to his +acquaintances to further his interests. Great Britain was at this time +represented at the Court of Hanover by a Mission which was from 1709 in +charge of the Secretary, J. D'Alais, except when Special Missions were +dispatched. Lord Rivers was Minister Plenipotentiary in 1710, and Thomas +Harley went there as Ambassador Extraordinary in July, 1712, and again +in the following February. Henry Paget, first Lord Burton, was appointed +Ambassador in April, 1714, but resigned before he set forth, and Lord +Clarendon was nominated in his stead. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, June 8th, 1714. + +"Since you went out of town, my Lord Clarendon was appointed +Envoy-Extraordinary to Hanover in the room of Mr. Paget, and by making +use of those friends, which I entirely owe to you, he has accepted me +for his Secretary. This day, by appointment, I met his Lordship at Mr. +Secretary Bromley's office; he then ordered me to be ready by Saturday. +I am quite off from the Duchess of Monmouth. Mr. Lewis was very ready to +serve me upon this occasion, as were Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Ford. I am +every day attending my Lord Treasurer [Oxford] for his bounty, in order +to set me out, which he has promised me upon the following petition, +which I sent him by Dr. Arbuthnot:-- + + I'm no more to converse with the swains, + But go where fine folk resort: + One can live without money on plains. + But never without it at Court. + + If, when with the swains I did gambol, + I array'd me in silver and blue: + When abroad, and in Courts, I shall ramble, + Pray, my Lord, how much money will do? + +We had the honour of the Treasurer's company last Saturday, when we sat +upon Scriblerus. Pope is in town and has brought with him the first book +of Homer. I am this evening to be at Mr. Lewis's with [Dr. Benjamin +Pratt] the Provost [of Dublin College], Mr. Ford, Parnell, and Pope." + +"It is thought my Lord Clarendon will make but a short stay at Hanover. +If it was possible that any recommendation could be procured to make me +more distinguished than ordinary, during my stay at that Court, I should +think myself very happy if you could contrive any method to prosecute +it, for I am told that their civilities very rarely descend so low as to +the Secretary. I have all the reason in the world to acknowledge this as +wholly owing to you. And the many favours I have received from you, +purely out of your love for doing good, assures me you will not forget +me during my absence. As for myself, whether I am at home or abroad, +gratitude will always put me in mind of the man to whom I owe so many +benefits."[7] + + * * * * * + +These tidings were confirmed to Swift by Arbuthnot, who wrote from St. +James's on June 12th: "You know that Gay goes to Hanover, and my Lord +Treasurer has promised to equip him. Monday is the day of departure, and +he is now dancing attendance for money to buy him shoes, stockings, and +linen. The Duchess [of Monmouth] has turned him off, which I am afraid +will make the poor man's condition worse instead of better."[8] As +Arbuthnot reported fourteen days later, Gay received a hundred pounds +from the Treasury, and "went away a happy man."[9] Lord Clarendon, +whose mission it was formally to offer to the Elector George Lewis the +condolences of Queen Anne on the death of his aged mother, the Electress +Sophia, the heiress-presumptive to the British throne, who had passed +away on June 8th, 1714, arrived at Hanover on July 16th. + +Despite Gay's forebodings, the civilities of the Court of Hanover did +happily "descend so low as to the Secretary." That he was presented to +the royal circle and held converse with the highest in the land, is +clear from a sentence in a letter from Arbuthnot to Swift, August 13th, +1714: "I have a letter from Gay, just before the Queen's death. Is he +not a true poet, who had not one of his own books to give to the +Princess that asked for one?"[10] Here it was that Gay first made the +acquaintance of Henrietta Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, with +whom he was presently on a footing of intimate friendship. + + +JOHN GAY TO DR. ARBUTHNOT. + + Hanover, August 16th, 1714. + +"You remember, I suppose, that I was to write you abundance of letters +from Hanover; but as one of the most distinguished qualities of a +publician is secrecy, you must not expect from me any arcanas of state. +There is another thing that is necessary to establish the character of a +politician, which is to seem always to be full of affairs of State; to +know the consultations of the Cabinet Council when at the same time his +politics are collected from newspapers. Which of these two causes my +secrecy is owing to I leave you to determine. There is yet one thing +more that is extremely necessary for a foreign minister, which he can no +more be without than an artisan without his tools; I mean the terms of +his art. I call it an art or a science because I think the King of +France has established an academy to instruct the young Machiavelians of +his country in the deep and profound science of politics. To the end I +might be qualified for an employment of this nature, and not only be +qualified myself, but (to speak in the style of Sir John Falstaff) be +the cause of qualification in others, I have made it my business to read +memoirs, treatises, etc. And as a dictionary of law-terms is thought +necessary for young beginners, so I thought a dictionary of terms of +State would be no less useful for young politicians. The terms of +politics being not so numerous as to swell into a volume, especially in +times of peace (for in times of war all the terms of fortifications are +included), I thought fit to extract them in the same manner for the +benefit of young practitioners as a famous author has compiled his +learned treatise of the law, called the 'Doctor and Student.' I have not +made any great progress in this piece; but, however, I will give you a +specimen of it, which will make you in the same manner a judge of the +design and nature of this treatise. + +"_Politician_: What are the necessary tools for a Prince to work with? + +"_Student_: Ministers of State. + +"_Politician_: What are the two great qualities of a Minister of +State? + +"_Student_: Secrecy and despatch. + +"_Politician_: Into how many parts are the Ministers of State divided? + +"_Student_: Into two. First, Ministers of State at home; secondly, +Ministers of State abroad, who are called Foreign Ministers. + +"_Politician_: Very right. Now as I design you for the latter of these +employments I shall waive saying anything about the first of these. +What are the different degrees of Foreign Ministers? + +"_Student_: The different degrees of Foreign Ministers are as follows: +First, Plenipotentiaries; second, Ambassadors-Extraordinary; third, +Ambassadors in ordinary; fourth, Envoys-Extraordinary; fifth, +Envoys-in-ordinary; sixth, Residents; seventh, Consuls; and eighth, +Secretaries. + +"_Politician_: How is a Foreign Minister to be known? + +"_Student_: By his credentials. + +"_Politician_: When are a Foreign Minister's credentials to be +delivered? + +"_Student_: Upon his first admission into the presence of the Prince +to whom he is sent, otherwise called his first audience. + +"_Politician_: How many kinds of audience are there? + +"_Student_: Two, which are called a public audience and a private +audience. + +"_Politician_: What should a Foreign Minister's behaviour be when he +has his first audience? + +"_Student_: He should bow profoundly, speak deliberately, and wear +both sides of his long periwig before, etc. + +"By these few questions and answers you may be able to make some +judgment of the usefulness of this politic treatise. Wicquefort, it is +true, can never be sufficiently admired for his elaborate treatise of +the conduct of an Ambassador in all his negotiations; but I design +this only as a compendium, or the Ambassador's Manual, or _vade +mecum._ + +"I have writ so far of this letter, and do not know who to send it to; +but I have now determined to send it either to Dr. Arbuthnot, the Dean +of St. Patrick's, or to both. My Lord Clarendon is very much approved of +at Court, and I believe is not dissatisfied with his reception. We have +not very much variety of divisions; what we did yesterday and to-day we +shall do to-morrow, which is to go to Court and walk in the gardens at +Herrenhausen. If I write any more my letter will be just like my +diversion, the same thing over and over again."[11] + +Lord Clarendon stayed at Hanover even a shorter time than he had +expected. On July 30th Lord Oxford was dismissed, and the white staff +was given to the Duke of Shrewsbury, one of whose first acts was to +recall the Tory Ambassador. Two days later Queen Anne died, and the +Elector George Lewis succeeded to her throne under the style of George +I. Lord Clarendon returned at once to England, and with him came Gay, +saddened by the blasting of his hopes of advancement. + +He was welcomed back by his friends, and received in particular an +enthusiastic greeting from Pope, who wrote on September 23rd: "Welcome +to your native soil! Welcome to your friend! Thrice welcome to me! +whether returned in glory, blessed with Court interest, the love and +familiarity of the great, and filled with agreeable hopes, or melancholy +with dejection, contemplative of the changes of fortune, and doubtful +for the future--whether returned a triumphant Whig or a desponding Tory, +equally all hail! equally beloved and welcome to me! If happy, I am to +share in your elevation; if unhappy, you have still a warm corner in my +heart and a retreat at Binfield in the worst of times at your service." +In this same letter Pope, always anxious to assist Gay, added: "Pardon +me if I add a word of advice in the practical way. Write something on +the King, or Prince or Princess. On whatever foot you may be with the +Court, this can do no harm."[12] + + * * * * * + +The change of Government having dashed to the ground his hopes of +advancement in the diplomatic service, Gay thought that he could not do +better than follow Pope's suggestion. Like the majority of men of +letters of his day, and not having the independence of spirit of Swift +and Pope, he hungered after a patron--a Minister might be good, but +Ministers go out of office, and a member of the reigning family would be +better. Remembering the kindly welcome given him at Hanover by the royal +lady who was now Princess of Wales, he had indulged in a dream that a +place would be offered him in her household. "Poor Gay is much where he +was, only out of the Duchess [of Monmouth]'s family and service," +Arbuthnot wrote to Swift, October 19th, 1714. "He has some confidence in +the Princess and Countess of Picborough; I wish it may be significant to +him. I advised him to make a poem upon the Princess before she came +over, describing her to the English ladies; for it seems that the +Princess does not dislike that. (She is really a person that I believe +will give great content to everybody). But Gay was in such a grovelling +condition as to the affairs of this world, that his Muse would not stoop +to visit him."[13] + +No proposal, however, being made to him, Gay, following the advice of +Pope and Arbuthnot, proceeded to remind the new Court of his existence, +and in November published "A Letter to a Lady, occasioned by the arrival +of Her Royal Highness "--the "Lady" being, it is generally assumed, Mrs. +Howard. In these verses he gave the assurance that he had desired the +elements to arrange for the Princess an agreeable passage to England:-- + + My strains with Carolina's name I grace. + The lovely parent of our royal race. + Breathe soft, ye winds, ye waves in silence sleep; + Let prosp'rous breezes wanton o'er the deep, + Swell the white sails, and with the streamers play, + To waft her gently o'er the wat'ry way. + +With true poetic exaggeration he extolled Caroline's virtues, and then, +so that there should be no excuse for misunderstanding, said in plain +terms that he had desired a post at Court, and made it perfectly clear +that he was still prepared to accept such employment, if so be as it was +coupled with suitable remuneration:-- + + Since all my schemes were baulk'd, my last resort, + I left the Muses to frequent the Court; + Pensive each night, from room to room I walk'd, + To one I bow'd, and with another talk'd; + Inquir'd what news, or such a lady's name, + And did the next day, and the next, the same. + Places I found, were daily giv'n away, + And yet no friendly _Gazette_ mention'd Gay. + +Gay's protestations of delight at the accession to the throne of the +House of Hanover would probably have been regarded as more sincere if, +unfortunately, he had not a few months before dedicated "The Shepherd's +Week" to Bolingbroke. His very outspoken hint in the "Letter to a Lady" +was ignored; but Caroline, who liked eulogy as much as anyone, received +him kindly; and when in February, 1715, he produced "The What D'ye Call +It" at Drury Lane Theatre, she and her consort attended the first +performance. But still, no place was found for him at Court. "Tell me," +Swift asked him so much later as 1723, "are you not under original sin +by the dedication of your Eclogue to Lord Bolingbroke?" + + +[Footnote 1: _The Guardian_, No. 32; April 17th, 1713.] + +[Footnote 2: Dr. Johnson in his "Lives of the Poets" attributes the +authorship to Steele (_Works_, ed. Hill), III, p. 269.] + +[Footnote 3: Introductory Memoir by John Underhill, in his edition of +the _Poems of John Gay_ ("The Muses' Library"), I, xxxi.] + +[Footnote 4: _Works_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 269.] + +[Footnote 5: _Specimens_, I, p. 298.] + +[Footnote 6: _Dictionary of National Biography_, article, Gay.] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., XVI, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 9: _Ibid_., XVI, p. 123.] + +[Footnote 10: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 193.] + +[Footnote 11: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 204.] + +[Footnote 12: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 415.] + +[Footnote 13: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 213.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1715-1719 + + + "The What D'ye Call It"--An Epistle to the Right Honourable the + Earl of Burlington--"Trivia, or, The Art of Walking the Streets of + London"--"Three Hours After Marriage." + +Undismayed by the failure of his first play, "The Wife of Bath," Gay +made another bid for theatrical success with "The What D'ye Call It," +which was performed at Drury Lane Theatre in February, 1715, and +published in March of that year. In the preface Gay wrote: "I have not +called it a tragedy, comedy, pastoral, or farce, but left the name +entirely undetermined in the doubtful appellation of 'The What D'ye Call +It' ... but I added to it 'A Tragi-Comi-Pastoral Farce,' as it contained +all these several kinds of drama." Pope saw the play and wrote about it +to Congreve, March 19th, 1715: "The farce of 'The What D'ye Call It' has +occasioned many different speculations in the town, some looking upon it +as a mere jest upon the tragic poets, others as a satire upon the late +war. Mr. Cromwell, hearing none of the words, and seeing the action to +be tragical, was much astonished to find the audience laugh, and says +the Prince and Princess [of Wales] must doubtless be under no less +amazement on the same account. Several Templars and others of the more +vociferous kind of critics went with a resolution to hiss, and confessed +they were forced to laugh so much that they forgot the design they came +with. The Court in general has come in a very particular manner into the +jest, and the three nights, notwithstanding two of them were Court +nights, were distinguished by very full audiences of the first quality. +The common people of the pit and gallery received it at first with great +gravity and sedateness, and some few with tears; but after the third day +they also took the hint, and have ever since been very loud in their +claps. There are still sober men who cannot be of the general opinion, +but the laughers are so much the majority that one or two critics seemed +determined to undeceive the town at their proper cost, by writing +dissertations against it to encourage them in this laudable design. It +is resolved a preface shall be prefixed to the farce, in vindication of +the nature and dignity of this new way of writing."[1] The fact is that, +as Johnson put it, "the images were comic and the action grave," and +there were many mock-heroic passages which parodied tragedies, including +Addison's "Cato" and Otway's "Venice Preserved," well-known in that day. +Also it contained several ballads, of which perhaps the best is "'Twas +when the seas were roaring" (Act II., Scene 8). + +"The What D'ye Call It" was not a piece of much value, but it pleased +the audience, and Gay was highly delighted. "Now my benefit night is +over, it should be my first care to return my thanks to those to whom I +am mostly obliged, and the civilities I have always received from you, +and upon this occasion too, claims this acknowledgment," the author +wrote to Caryll on March 3rd: "'The What D'ye Call It' met with more +success than could be expected from a thing so out of the common taste +of the town. It has been played already five nights, and the galleries, +who did not know at first what to make of it, now enter thoroughly into +the humour, and it seems to please in general better than at first. The +parts in general were not so well played as I could have wished, and in +particular the part of Filbert, to speak in the style of the French +Gazette. Penkethman did wonders; Mrs. Bicknell performed miraculously, +and there was much honour gained by Miss Younger, though she was but a +parish child."[2] Filbert was played by Johnson, Jonas Dock by +Penkethman, Joyce ("Peascod's daughter, left upon the parish") by Miss +Younger, and Kitty by Mrs. Bicknell, mentioned by the author in "Mr. +Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + And frolic Bicknell, and her sister young. + +The welcome given by the public to the play brought in its train some +annoyance to the author: "I find success, even in the most trivial +things, raises the indignation of scribblers," he wrote to Parnell on +March 18th, "for I, for my 'What D'ye Call It' could neither escape the +fury of Mr. Burnet or the German doctor. Then, where will rage end when +Homer is to be translated? Let Zoilus hasten to your friend's +assistance, and envious criticism shall be no more."[3] A more biting +attack than that of Thomas Burnet's _Grumbler_ (No. 1, February 14th, +1715) or that of Philip Horneck in "The High German Doctor" was the "Key +to 'The What D'ye Call It,'" written by the actor Griffin in +collaboration with Lewis Theobald. About this Gay wrote to Caryll in +April: "There is a sixpenny criticism lately published upon the tragedy +of 'The What D'ye Call It,' wherein he with much judgment and learning +calls me a blockhead and Mr. Pope a knave. His grand charge is against +'The Pilgrim's Progress' being read, which, he says, is directly +levelled at Cato's reading Plato. To back this censure he goes on to +tell you that 'The Pilgrim's Progress' being mentioned to be the eighth +edition makes the reflection evident, the tragedy of 'Cato' being just +eight times printed. He has also endeavoured to show that every +particular passage of the play alludes to some fine part of the tragedy, +which he says I have injudiciously and profanely abused."[4] + +Still, Gay could really afford to laugh at those who attacked or +parodied him, for the play brought him, if not fame, at least +notoriety. It also brought him some much-needed money. Pope told Caryll +in March that Gay "will have made about £100 out of this farce"; and it +is known that for the publishing rights Lintott gave him on February +14th £16 2s. 6d. + +Gay, now a popular dramatist as well as an intimate friend of many of +the leading men in literary circles, became known to people of high +social rank, who, like his brethren of the pen, took him up and made a +pet of him. In the summer of 1715 Lord Burlington, the "generous +Burlington" of "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece," invited him to +accompany him to Devonshire, and Gay repaid the compliment by describing +his "Visit to Exeter" in a poetical "Epistle to the Right Honourable the +Earl of Burlington," the first lines of which are:-- + + While you, my Lord, bid stately piles ascend, + Or in your Chiswick bowers enjoy your friend; + Where Pope unloads the boughs within his reach, + The purple vine, blue plum, and blushing peach; + I journey far.--You know fat bards might tire. + And, mounted, sent me forth your trusty squire. + +During his stay in Devonshire Gay began the composition of "Trivia, or +The Art of Walking the Streets of London." It was to this that Pope made +allusion when writing to Caryll, January 10th, 1716: "Gay's poem [is] +just on the brink of the press, which we have had the interest to +procure him subscription of a guinea a book to a tolerable number. I +believe it may be worth £150 to him on the whole."[5] In addition to the +subscriptions, Gay received from Lintott £43 for the copyright of the +book, the copies of which were sold to the public at one shilling and +sixpence each; and as, with humorous exaggeration, Arbuthnot wrote to +Parnell: "Gay has got as much money by his 'Art of Walking the Streets' +that he is ready to set up his equipage; he is just going to the bank to +negotiate some exchange bills."[6] The "Advertisement" prefaced to the +poem runs:-- + +"The world, I believe, will take so little notice of me that I need not +take much of it. The critics may see by this poem that I walk on foot, +which probably may save me from their envy. I should be sorry to raise +that passion in men whom I am so much obliged to, since they allowed me +an honour hitherto only shown to better writers: that of denying me to +be author of my own works. I am sensible this must be done in pure +generosity; because whoever writ them, provided they did not themselves, +they are still in the same condition. Gentlemen, if there be any thing +in this poem good enough to displease you, and if it be any advantage to +you to ascribe it to some person of greater merit, I shall acquaint you +for your comfort, that among many other obligations, I owe several hints +of it to Dr. Swift. And if you will so far continue your favour as to +write against it, I beg you to oblige me in accepting the following +motto:-- + + --Non tu, in triviis, indocte, solebas + Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen?" + +Whether Swift gave any direct assistance is doubtful. Mr. Austin +Dobson thinks that it is not improbable that "Trivia" was actually +suggested by the "Morning" and "City Shower" which Swift had +previously contributed to Steele's _Tatler_. Probably these are among +the "several hints" which Gay had in mind. + +"Trivia" was published on January 26th, 1716, and was the one +outstanding feature in the year in the biography of Gay. In the +following March 26th there appeared a volume of "Court Poems," +published by J. Roberts, who advertised them as from the pen of Pope, +though the preface makes the authorship doubtful between Pope, Gay, +and a Lady of quality, who was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. To the +volume Lady Mary Wortley Montagu contributed "The Drawing Room," Pope +"The Basset Table," and Gay "The Toilet." This last has been +attributed to Lady Mary, and it has actually been printed among her +poems; but, according to Pope, it is "almost wholly Gay's," there +being "only five or six lines in it by that lady." + +In 1716 Gay paid a second visit to Devonshire, and during the year he +composed the "sober eclogue," "The Espousal," which probably arose out +of a suggestion of Swift. "There is an ingenious Quaker[7] in this +town, who writes verses to his mistress, not very correct, but in a +strain purely what a poetical Quaker should do, commending her looks +and habit, etc." Swift wrote to Pope on August 30th, 1716: "It gave me +a hint that a set of Quaker pastorals might succeed if our friend Gay +could fancy it, and I think it a fruitful subject. Pray hear what he +says. I believe farther, the pastoral ridicule is not exhausted, and +that a porter, footman, or chairman's pastoral might do well; or what +think you of a Newgate pastoral, among the whores and thieves +there?"[8] This letter is of especial importance in the biography of +Gay, as it may well have sown in his mind the seed of "The Beggar's +Opera." + +About this time Gay was labouring on another play, "Three Hours After +Marriage," which he wrote in collaboration with Pope and Arbuthnot. It +is a sorry piece of work, and unworthy of any one, much less of the +three distinguished men associated in the authorship. In the Epilogue +it is written:-- + + Join then your voices, be the play excused + For once, though no one living is abused; + +but as a matter of fact one purpose of the play was, as Dr. Johnson +said, "to bring into contempt Dr. Woodward, the fossilist, a man not +really or justly contemptible." Woodward was the author of a "History of +Fossils," and his name survives in the Woodwardian Professorship of +Geology at Cambridge. He was introduced as Dr. Cornelius in "Martin +Scriblerus":-- + + Who nature's treasures would explore, + Her mysteries and arcana know. + Must high as lofty Newton soar, + Must stoop as delving Woodward low. + +The bridegroom in the play is called Fossile, and there was no mistaking +the intention. Dr. Woodward had many friends, and these made known their +disgust in the most unmistakable manner when "Three Hours After +Marriage" was produced on January 16th, 1717, at Drury Lane Theatre. It +ran for seven nights. "It had the fate which such outrages deserved," +Dr. Johnson has written; "the scene in which Woodward was directly and +apparently ridiculed by the introduction of a mummy and a crocodile, +disgusted the audience, and the performance was driven off the stage +with general condemnation."[9] The farce was not only dull, it was +vulgar. And the geologist (played by Johnson) was not the only person +introduced for the purpose of ridicule. Dennis was brought in as Sir +Tremendous, and it was believed that Phoebe Clinket (played by Mrs. +Bicknell) was intended for Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea, who, says +Mr. Austin Dobson, "was alleged to have spoken contemptuously of Gay." +Of this farce, Mr. Dobson writes: "It is perhaps fairer to say that he +bore the blame, than that he is justly charged with its errors of +taste"; and it is very probable that, while Gay generously accepted +responsibility, Pope and Arbuthnot were equally culpable. "Too late I +see, and confess myself mistaken in relation to the comedy; yet I do not +think had I followed your advice and only introduced the mummy, that the +absence of the crocodile had saved it," Gay wrote to Pope. "I cannot +help laughing myself (though the vulgar do not consider it was designed +to look ridiculous) to think how the poor monster and mummy were dashed +at their reception; and when the cry was loudest I thought that if the +thing had been written by another I should have deemed the town in some +measure mistaken; and, as to your apprehension that this may do us +future injury, do not think it; the Doctor [Arbuthnot] has a more +valuable name than can be hurt by anything of this nature, and yours is +doubly safe. I will, if any shame there be, take it all to myself, as +indeed I ought, the notion being first mine, and never heartily approved +of by you.... I beg of you not to suffer this, or anything else, to hurt +your health. As I have publicly said that I was assisted by two friends, +I shall still continue in the same story, professing obstinate silence +about Dr. Arbuthnot and yourself."[10] + +The publication in book form of "Three Hours After Marriage" by Lintott, +who paid £16 2s. 6d. for the copyright, a few days after the production, +did nothing to arrest the torrent of abuse. "Gay's play, among the rest, +has cost much time and long suffering to stem a tide of malice and +party, that certain authors have raised against it," Pope wrote to +Parnell. Amongst those foremost among the attackers was Addison, who +perhaps had not forgotten or forgiven the parody of some of the lines in +his play "Cato," which was introduced by Gay in "The What D'ye Call It." +Gay, the most easy-going of men, was always stirred by criticism, and in +this case he, with unusual energy, sat down to reply to his detractors. +"Mr. Addison and his friends had exclaimed so much against Gay's 'Three +Hours After Marriage' for obscenities, that it provoked him to write 'A +Letter from a Lady in the City to a Lady in the Country' on that +subject," so runs a passage in Spence's Anecdotes of Pope. "In it he +quoted the passages which had been most exclaimed against, and opposed +other passages to them from Addison's and Steele's plays. These were +aggravated in the same manner that they served his, and appeared worse. +Had it been published it would have made Addison appear ridiculous, +which he could bear as little as any man. I therefore prevailed upon +Gay not to print it, and have the manuscript now by me."[11] In Spence's +Anecdotes there is another passage bearing on the same matter: "A +fortnight before Addison's death, [12] Lord Warwick [13] came to Gay and +pressed him in a very particular manner 'to go and see Mr. Addison,' +which he had not done for a great while. Gay went, and found Addison in +a very weak way. He received him in the kindest manner and told him, +'that he had desired this visit to beg his pardon, that he had injured +him greatly, but that if he lived he should find that he would make it +up to him.' Gay, on his going to Hanover, had great reason to hope for +some good preferment; but all his views came to nothing. It is not +impossible but that Mr. Addison might prevent them, from his thinking +Gay too well with some of the great men of the former Ministry. He did +not at all explain himself, in which he had injured him, and Gay could +not guess at anything else in which he could have injured him so +considerably."[14] It seems, however, more probable that Addison really +had in mind the part he had taken in connection with "Three Hours After +Marriage." Two critical publications, "A Complete Key to 'Three Hours +After Marriage,'" and "A Letter to John Gay, Concerning his late Farce, +entitled a Comedy," annoyed Gay; while Pope, too, and, in a minor +degree, Arbuthnot, were attacked for their share in the farce. John +Durand Breval, writing over the signature of Joseph Gay, published in +1717 "The Confederates: A Farce," in which he introduced a humorous +caricature print of Pope, Gay and Arbuthnot, so that, says Professor +Courthope, "Pope, at the height of his fame, found himself credited, +though he seems to have had little to do with it, with the past +paternity of a condemned play."[15] Another incident, recorded by +Professor Courthope, further angered Pope: "While he was still sore at +the mishap, Colley Cibber, playing in 'The Rehearsal,' happened to make +an impromptu allusion to the unlucky farce, saying that he had intended +to introduce the two kings of Brentford, 'one of them in the shape of a +mummy, and t'other in that of a crocodile.' The audience laughed, but +Pope, who was in the house, appeared (according to Cibber's account) +behind the scenes and abused the actor in unmeasured terms for his +impertinence. Cibber's only reply was to assure the enraged poet that, +so long as the play was acted, he should never fail to repeat the same +words. He kept his promise, thus committing the first of that series of +offences which, in the poet's vindictive memory, marked him down for +elevation to the throne of Dulness which was rendered vacant by the +deposition of King Tibbald."[16] There is a rumour that Gay, in revenge +for Cibber's banter of "Three Hours After Marriage," personally +chastised the actor-dramatist,[17] but there is nothing definitely known +about this. Anyhow, Gay was so irritated by the failure of this play +that he did not produce anything at a theatre during the next seven +years. + +How Gay managed to exist through the three years after the production of +"Three Hours After Marriage" is one of the stumbling blocks for the +biographer. Of literary achievement during this period his life was +barren. It is true that when he was abroad or in the country he was a +guest, but even with this his expenses must have amounted to something. +As he earned nothing by his pen, unless his friends provided him with +money as well as giving him hospitality, it looks as if some relative +must have died and left him a small sum. "As for Gay," Pope wrote to +Caryll, June 7th, 1717, "he is just on the wing for Aix-la-Chapelle, +with Mr. Pulteney, the late Secretary (at War)."[18] Pulteney who had +resigned office when there was a split in the Ministry, had in December, +1714, married a very beautiful woman, Anne Maria Gumley, daughter of a +wealthy glass manufacturer. With them Gay went abroad for some months, +and perhaps the solution of the problem above stated, is that while he +went nominally as their guest, he was actually paid a salary as +companion or secretary. + +It is evident from Gay's "Epistle to the Right Honourable William +Pulteney, Esq." (published in 1717) that the party stayed some while at +Paris, for therein is an account of that city, an account in which the +author betrays a sad insularity; and he was certainly at Aix in +November. "I should not forget to acknowledge your letter sent from Aix. +You told me that writing was not good with the waters, and I find since, +you are of my opinion, that it is as bad without the waters. But, I +fancy, it is not writing, but thinking, that is so bad with the waters; +and then you might write without any manner of prejudice if you write +like our brother poets of these days." Pope wrote to him on November +8th: "... That Duchess [of Hamilton],[19] Lord Warwick, Lord Stanhope, +Mrs. Bellenden, Mrs. Lepell, and I cannot tell who else, had your +letters ... I would send my services to Mr. Pulteney, but that he is out +at Court, and make some compliment to Mrs. Pulteney, if she was not a +Whig."[20] + +From this letter it is evident that Gay was becoming well known in +fashionable circles, and it is also clear that he had friends in the +Court circle. "Gay is well at Court, and more than ever in the way of +being served than ever.... Gay dines daily with the Maids of Honour," +Pope had written to Martha Blount in December, 1716; and Gay, who would +rather have had a place in the Household with nothing to do and no +responsibility than anything else in the world, was not the man to +refrain from endeavouring to improve the occasion. Mrs. Howard he had +first met at Hanover, and in London contrived to turn the +acquaintanceship into friendship. Knowing Gay's character and his +ambition, it is probably doing him no injustice to say that he was first +drawn to the lady by the belief that she might further his aims. +However, it is only fair to say that he soon came to like her for +herself, and long after he was convinced that she could be of no service +to him he remained a very loyal and intimate friend. He was taken +entirely into her confidence, as will presently be seen, and she even +called him in to assist her when she was conducting an elaborate and +stilted epistolatory flirtation with Lord Peterborough. It was most +probably she who introduced him to Mrs. Bellenden, Mrs. Lepell, and the +other ladies of the Court. Of Mrs. Howard and Gay, Dr. Johnson wrote: +"Diligent court was paid to Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, +who was much beloved by the King and Queen, to engage her interest for +his promotion; but solicitations, verses, and flatteries were thrown +away; the lady heard them and did nothing." This, however, is manifestly +unfair, for it is now known that Mrs. Howard's influence was negligible. + +To the ladies of the Court and others of Pope's friends, Gay paid +tribute in "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + What lady's that to whom he gently bends? + Who knows her not? Ah, those are Wortley's eyes. + How art thou honour'd, number'd with her friends; + For she distinguishes the good and wise. + The sweet-tongued Murray near her side attends: + Now to my heart the glance of Howard flies; + Now Hervey, fair of face, I mark full well + With thee, youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell. + + I see two lovely sisters hand in hand, + The fair-hair'd Martha and Teresa brown; + Madge Bellenden, the tallest of the land; + And smiling Mary, soft and fair as down. + Yonder I see the cheerful Duchess stand, + For friendship, zeal, and blithesome humours known: + Whence that loud shout in such a hearty strain? + Why all the Hamiltons are in her train. + See next the decent Scudamore advance + With Winchelsea, still meditating song, + With her perhaps Miss Howe came there by chance. + Nor knows with whom, nor why she comes along. + +Gay was now on intimate terms with Lord Harcourt, whom he presently +introduced into "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + Harcourt I see, for eloquence renown'd, + The mouth of justice, oracle of law! + Another Simon is beside him found, + Another Simon like as straw to straw; + +and early in 1718 he visited him, first at Cockthorpe and then at +Stanton Harcourt, at which latter seat Pope was staying, working on the +fifth volume of the "Iliad." In the following year Gay again crossed the +Channel, possibly for the second time with the Pulteneys, but the only +record of this trip is to be found in the following letter:-- + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + Dijon, September 8th, 1719. + +"If it be absolutely necessary that I make an apology for my not +writing, I must give you an account of very bad physicians, and a fever +which I had at Spa, that confined me for a month; but I do not see that +I need make the least excuse, or that I can find any reason for writing +to you at all; for can you believe that I would wish to converse with +you if it were not for the pleasure to hear you talk again? Then why +should I write to you when there is no possibility of receiving an +answer? I have been looking everywhere since I came into France to find +out some object that might take you from my thoughts, that my journey +might seem less tedious; but since nothing could ever do it in England I +can much less expect it in France. + +"I am rambling from place to place. In about a month I hope to be at +Paris, and in the next month to be in England, and the next minute to +see you. I am now at Dijon in Burgundy, where last night, at an +ordinary, I was surprised by a question from an English gentleman whom I +had never seen before; hearing my name, he asked me if I had any +relation or acquaintance with _myself_, and when I told him I knew no +such person, he assured me that he was an intimate acquaintance of Mr. +Gay's of London. There was a Scotch gentleman, who all supper time was +teaching some French gentlemen the force and propriety of the English +language; and, what is seen very commonly, a young English gentleman +with a Jacobite governor. A French marquis drove an Abbé from the table +by railing against the vast riches of the Church, and another marquis, +who squinted, endeavoured to explain transubstantiation: 'That a thing +might not be what it really appeared to be, my eyes,' says he, 'may +convince you. I _seem_ at present to be looking on you; but, on the +contrary, I see quite on the other side of the table.' I do not believe +that this argument converted one of the heretics present, for all that I +learned by him was, that to believe transubstantiation it is necessary +not to see the thing you seem to look at. + +"So much I have observed on the conversation and manners of the +_people_. As for the _animals_ of the country, it abounds with bugs, +which are exceedingly familiar with strangers; and as for _plants_, +garlick seems to be the favourite production of the country, though +for my own part I think the vine preferable to it. When I publish my +travels at large I shall be more particular; in order to which, +to-morrow I set out for Lyons, from thence to Montpelier, and so to +Paris; and soon after I shall pray that the winds may be favourable, I +mean, to bring you from Richmond to London, or me from London to +Richmond; so prays, etc., JOHN GAY. + +"I beg you, madam, to assure Miss Lepell and Miss Bellenden, that I am +their humble servant."[21] + + +[Footnote 1: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), IV, p. 412.] + +[Footnote 2: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., VII, p. 455.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., VI, p. 227.] + +[Footnote 5: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 237.] + +[Footnote 6: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 460.] + +[Footnote 7: George Rooke, a Dublin linendraper.] + +[Footnote 8: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 251.] + +[Footnote 9: Johnson: _Works_ (ed. Hill), II, p. 271.] + +[Footnote 10: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 418.] + +[Footnote 11: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 202.] + +[Footnote 12: Addison died on June 17th, 1719.] + +[Footnote 13: Stepson of Addison.] + +[Footnote 14: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 149.] + +[Footnote 15: _Life of Pope_, p. 126.] + +[Footnote 16: _Life of Pope_, p. 126.] + +[Footnote 17: Cibber's _Apology_ (ed. Lowe).] + +[Footnote 18: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 244.] + +[Footnote 19: Daughter of Lord Gerard, widow of the Duke of Hamilton, +who in 1712 was killed in a duel with Lord Mohun.] + +[Footnote 20: Pope: Works (ed. Elwin and Courthope) VII. p. 420.] + +[Footnote 21: _B.M._, Add MSS., 22626, f. 22.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1720 + + + "Poems on Several Occasions"--Gay Invests His Earnings in the South + Sea Company--The South Sea "Bubble" Breaks, and Gay Loses all His + Money--Appointed a Commissioner of the State Lottery--Lord Lincoln + Gives Him an Apartment in Whitehall--At Tunbridge + Wells--Correspondence with Mrs. Howard. + +Gay in 1720 was in his thirty-fifth year, and he had commenced author +some twelve years before this date. During this period his output had +been very small, and his success not conspicuous. As a dramatist he had +been a complete failure--his first play, "The Wife of Bath," was +still-born, and the others, "The What D'ye Call It" and "Three Hours +After Marriage," had practically been hooted off the stage, and had +brought him in their train a considerable degree of unpopularity. Of his +poems, the only ones of any marked merit were "The Shepherd's Week," and +"Trivia," and even these were unambitious, though not without merit. Gay +now bethought him of collecting his poems, published and unpublished, +and they were issued in two quarto volumes early in 1720, with the joint +imprint of Jacob Tonson and his old publisher, Bernard Lintott, and with +a frontispiece by William Kent. + +The "Poems on Several Occasions," as the collection was styled, were +issued by subscription. His friends supported him admirably. Lord +Burlington and Lord Chandos each put down his name for fifty copies, +Lord Bathurst for ten copies; in all Gay made more than £1,000 by the +publication. To this success he alluded in his "Epistle to the Right +Honourable Paul Methuen, Esq."[1] + + Yet there are ways for authors to be great; + Write ranc'rous libels to reform the State; + Or if you choose more sun and readier ways, + Spatter a minister with fulsome praise: + Launch out with freedom, flatter him enough; + Fear not, all men are dedication-proof. + Be bolder yet, you must go farther still, + Dip deep in gall thy mercenary quill. + He who his pen in party quarrels draws, + Lists an hired bravo to support the cause; + He must indulge his patron's hate and spleen, + And stab the fame of those he ne'er has seen. + Why then should authors mourn their desp'rate case? + Be brave, do this, and then demand a place. + Why art thou poor? exert the gifts to rise, + And vanish tim'rous virtue from thy eyes. + + All this seems modern preface, where we're told + That wit is praised, but hungry lives and cold: + Against th' ungrateful age these authors roar, + And fancy learning starves because they're poor. + Yet why should learning hope success at Court? + Why should our patriots virtue's cause support? + Why to true merit should they have regard? + They know that virtue is its own reward. + Yet let me not of grievances complain. + Who (though the meanest of the Muse's train) + Can boast subscriptions to my humble lays, + And mingle profit with my little praise. + +What to do with the thousand pounds--a sum certainly far larger than any +of which he had ever been possessed--Gay had not the slightest idea. He +had just enough wisdom to consult his friends. Erasmus Lewis, a prudent +man of affairs, advised him to invest it in the Funds and live upon the +interest; Arbuthnot advised him to put his faith in Providence and live +upon the capital; Swift and Pope, who understood him best, advised him +to purchase an annuity. Bewildered by these divergent counsels, he did +none of these things. Just when he was confronted with the necessity of +making up his mind, Pope's friend, James Craggs the younger, of whom he +wrote in "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + Bold, generous Craggs, whose heart was ne'er disguised, + +made him a present of some stock of the South Sea Company, at the same +time, no doubt, telling him that in all probability it would rise in +value. Here was a chance, dear to the heart of this hunter after +sinecures, of getting something for nothing--or next to nothing. With +his thousand pounds he purchased more South Sea stock. At what price Gay +bought it is impossible to say, but it is not unlikely that Craggs' +present was made in April, 1720, when the first money-subscription was +issued at the price of £300 for each £100 stock. The poet's good fortune +was at this moment in the ascendant. A mania for speculation burst over +the town, and everybody bought and sold South Sea stock. In July it was +quoted at £1,000. If Gay had then sold out he would have realised a sum +in the neighbourhood of £20,000. His friends implored him to content +himself with this handsome profit, but in vain. As Dr. Johnson put it, +"he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his +own fortune."[2] He who a few months ago had been practically penniless, +could not now bring himself to be satisfied with an income of about a +thousand a year. Realising that it was impossible entirely to overcome +his obduracy, his friends then begged him at least to sell so much as +would produce even a hundred a year in the Funds, "which," Fenton said +to him, "will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton +every day." Gay was not to be moved from his resolve to become a great +capitalist. Arguments were of no avail. The wilful man finally had his +way. Almost from the moment he refused to yield to his friends' +entreaties the price of South Sea stock declined rapidly. The "Bubble" +burst, and in October South Sea stock was unsaleable at any price. Gay +lost not only his profit but his capital, and was again reduced to +penury. + +Gay spoke his mind about the "Bubble" in "A Panegyrical Epistle to Mr. +Thomas Snow, Goldsmith, near Temple Bar: Occasioned by his Buying and +Selling of the Third Subscriptions, taken in by the Directors of the +South Sea Company, at a thousand per cent," which was published by +Lintott in 1721:-- + + O thou, whose penetrative wisdom found + The South-Sea rocks and shelves, where thousands drown'd, + When credit sunk, and commerce gasping lay, + Thou stood'st; nor sent one bill unpaid away. + When not a guinea chink'd on Martin's boards, + And Atwill's self was drain'd of all his hoards, + Thou stood'st (an Indian king in size and hue) + Thy unexhausted shop was our Peru. + + Why did 'Change-Alley waste thy precious hours, + Among the fools who gaped for golden showers? + No wonder if we found some poets there, + Who live on fancy, and can feed on air; + No wonder they were caught by South-Sea schemes + Who ne'er enjoy'd a guinea but in dreams; + No wonder they their third subscription sold, + For millions of imaginary gold: + No wonder that their fancies wild can frame } + Strange reasons, that a thing is still the same, } + Tho' changed throughout in substance and in name. } + But you (whose judgment scorns poetic flights) + With contracts furnish boys for paper kites. + +One of the immediate results of the disaster was Gay's inability to +fulfil his obligations to one of the publishers of his "Poems on Several +Occasions":-- + + +JOHN GAY TO JACOB TONSON. + + Friday morning [_circa_ October, 1720]. + +"Sir,--I received your letter with the accounts of the books you had +delivered. I have not seen Mr. Lintott's account, but shall take the +first opportunity to call on him. I cannot think your letter consists of +the utmost civility, in five lines to press me twice to make up my +account just at a time when it is impracticable to sell out of the +stocks in which my fortune is engaged. Between Mr. Lintott and you the +greatest part of the money is received, and I imagine you have a +sufficient number of books in your hands for the security of the rest. +To go to the strictness of the matter, I own my note engages me to make +the whole payment in the beginning of September. Had it been in my +power, I had not given you occasion to send to me, for I can assure you +I am as impatient and uneasy to pay the money I owe, as some men are to +receive it, and it is no small mortification to refuse you so reasonable +a request, which is that I may no longer be obliged to you."[3] + + * * * * * + +The loss of his fortune was, of course, a very severe blow to Gay, but +as ever, his friends gathered round him. Instead of being angry with him +for his folly--but no one of his friends was ever angry with him--they +looked upon him, and treated him, just as a spoilt child who had +disobediently tried to get over a hedge and had scratched himself in the +endeavour. They put their heads together to find "something" for him. +Gay, of course, was not easy to deal with; it was difficult to make him +listen to reason. He could not be brought to believe that it was not his +due to receive something for nothing. He had been secretary to Lord +Clarendon's brief Mission to Hanover; why had not diplomacy something to +offer him? The Princess of Wales had asked for a copy of a set of his +verses; was there no place for him at Court? He had praised members of +the Royal Family in verse; was there somewhere--somehow--a sinecure in +the Household for him? It seems that Gay really could not understand the +position. Could not Mrs. Howard do something in his interest? Could not +the friends of Pope do aught to secure that little post? Or Lord +Burlington, or Lord Bathurst, or William Pulteney, or some one of the +rest? He became petulant, and it is a tribute to his charm that not one +of these persons was ever disgusted with him, but continued to feed him, +keep him, and pet him, and made their friends and their friends' friends +do likewise. In fact, this delightful, whimsical, helpless creature +leant upon all who were stronger, and each one upon whom he leant loved +him to his dying day. + +Gay's health, which was never robust, gave way under his bitter +disappointment, and in 1721 he went in the early autumn to Bath, where +Mrs. Bradshaw wrote to Mrs. Howard, September 19th: "He is always with +the Duchess of Queensberry." In the following year he was again ill, and +went again to recuperate at the Somersetshire watering place. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, December 22nd, 1722. + +"After every post-day, for these eight or nine years, I have been +troubled with an uneasiness of spirit, and at last I have resolved to +get rid of it and write to you. I do not deserve you should think so +well of me as I really deserve, for I have not professed to you that I +love you as much as ever I did; but you are the only person of my +acquaintance, almost, that does not know it. Whomever I see that comes +from Ireland, the first question I ask is after your health ... I think +of you very often; nobody wishes you better, or longs more to see you +... I was there [at Bath] for near eleven weeks for a colic that I have +been troubled with of late; but have not found all the benefit I +expected ... I lodge at present at Burlington House, and have received +many civilities from many great men, but very few real benefits. They +wonder at each other for not providing for me, and I wonder at them all. +Experience has given me some knowledge of them, so that I can say, that +it is not in their power to disappoint me."[4] + +This was certainly ungrateful of Gay, but allowance may perhaps be made +for him on the ground that he was, as Coxe has written, "of a sanguine +disposition, was easily raised and as easily depressed. He mistook the +usual civilities of persons of distinction for offers of assistance, and +argued from the common promises of a Court certain preferment." He +accordingly always suffered from mortification, about which he was prone +to discourse. This was a foible well known to his friends, and even Pope +could not refrain from gently chaffing him: "I wish you joy of the birth +of the young Prince,[5] because he is the only prince we have from whom +you have had no expectations and no disappointments."[6] + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, January 8th, 1723. + +"Although I care not to talk to you as a divine, yet I hope you have not +been the author of your colic. Do you drink bad wine or keep bad +company?... I am heartily sorry you have any dealings with that ugly +distemper, and I believe our friend Arbuthnot will recommend you to +temperance and exercise ... + +"I am extremely glad he [Pope] is not in your case of needing great +men's favour, and could heartily wish that you were in his. + +"I have been considering why poets have such ill success in making their +court, since they are allowed to be the greatest and best of all +flatterers. The defect is, that they flatter only in print or in +writing, but not by word of mouth; they will give things under their +hand which they make a conscience of speaking. Besides, they are too +libertine to haunt antechambers, too poor to bribe porters and footmen, +and too proud to cringe to second-hand favourites in a great family. + +"Tell me, are you not under original sin by the dedication of your +Eclogues to Lord Bolingbroke? + +"I am an ill judge at this distance, and besides am, for my case, +utterly ignorant of the commonest things that pass in the world; but if +all Courts have a sameness in them (as the parsons phrase it), things +may be as they were in my time, when all employments went to +Parliament-men's friends, who had been useful in elections, and there +was always a huge list of names in arrears at the Treasury, which would +at least take up your seven years' expedient to discharge even one-half. + +"I am of opinion, if you will not be offended, that the surest course +would be to get your friend [Lord Burlington] who lodgeth in your house +to recommend you to the next Chief Governor who comes over here, for a +good civil employment, or to be one of his secretaries, which your +Parliament-men are fond enough of, when there is no room at home. The +wine is good and reasonable; you may dine twice a week at the +Deanery-house; there is a set of company in this town sufficient for one +man; folks will admire you, because they have read you, and read of you; +and a good employment will make you live tolerably in London, or +sumptuously here; or, if you divide between both places, it will be for +your health."[7] + + * * * * * + +Gay's friends, who had persistently been on the look-out to help him, at +last met with some small measure of success. "I am obliged to you for +your advice, as I have been formerly for your assistance in introducing +me into business," Gay wrote to Swift from London, February 3rd, 1723. +"I shall this year be Commissioner of the State Lottery, which will be +worth to me a hundred and fifty pounds. And I am not without hopes that +I have friends that will think of some better and more certain provision +for me."[8] In addition to this post, the Earl of Lincoln was persuaded +to give him an apartment in Whitehall. The Commissionship and the +residence to some small extent soothed Gay's ruffled vanity, and were +beyond question convenient. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, February 3rd, 1723. + +"As for the reigning amusements of the town, it is entirely music; real +fiddles, bass-viols and hautboys; not poetical harps, lyres and reeds. +There's nobody allowed to say, I sing, but an eunuch or an Italian +woman. Everybody is grown now as great a judge of music, as they were in +your time of poetry, and folks that could not distinguish one tune from +another now daily dispute about the different styles of Handel, +Bononcine, and Attilio. People have now forgot Homer and Virgil and +Cæsar, or at least they have lost their ranks. For in London and +Westminster, in all polite conversations, Senesino is daily voted to be +the greatest man that ever lived. + +"Mr. Congreve I see often; he always mentions you with the strongest +expressions of esteem and friendship. He labours still under the same +affliction as to his sight and gout; but in his intervals of health he +has not lost anything of his cheerful temper. I passed all the last +season with him at Bath, and I have great reason to value myself upon +his friendship, for I am sure he sincerely wishes me well. Pope has just +now embarked himself in another great undertaking as an author, for of +late he has talked only as a gardener. He has engaged to translate the +Odyssey in three years, I believe rather out of a prospect of gain than +inclination, for I am persuaded he bore his part in the loss of the +South Sea. I supped about a fortnight ago with Lord Bathurst and Lewis +at Dr. Arbuthnot's."[9] + + * * * * * + +During the summer of 1723 Gay, still troubled with the colic, went to +Tunbridge Wells, where he carried on a vigorous correspondence with Mrs. +Howard. + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + Richmond Lodge, July 5th, 1723. + +"I was very sorry to hear, when I returned from Greenwich, that you had +been at Richmond the same day; but I really thought you would have +ordered your affairs in such a manner that I should have seen you before +you went to Tunbridge. I dare say you are now with your friends, but not +with one who more sincerely wishes to see you easy and happy than I do; +if my power was equal to theirs the matter should soon be determined. + +"I am glad to hear you frequent the church. You cannot fail of being +often put in mind of the great virtue of patience, and how necessary +that may be for you to practise I leave to your own experience. I +applaud your prudence (for I hope it is entirely owing to it) that you +have no money at Tunbridge. It is easier to avoid the means of +temptation than to resist them when the power is in our own hands.... + +"The place you are in has strangely filled your head with cures and +physicians; but (take my word for it) many a fine lady has gone there to +drink the waters without being sick, and many a man has complained of +the loss of his heart who has had it in his own possession. I desire you +will keep yours, for I shall not be very fond of a friend without one, +and I have a great mind you should be in the number of mine." + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS HOWARD. + + Tunbridge Wells, July 12th, 1723. + +"The next pleasure to seeing you is hearing from you, and when I hear +you succeed in your wishes I succeed in mine--so I will not say a word +more of the house. + +"We have a young lady, Mary Jennings, here that is very particular in +her desires. I have known some ladies who, if ever they prayed and +were sure their prayers would prevail, would ask an equipage, a title, +a husband or matadores; but this lady, who is but seventeen and has +but thirty thousand pounds, places all her wishes in a pot of good +ale. When her friends, for the sake of her shape and complexion, would +dissuade her from it, she answers, with the truest sincerity, that by +the loss of shape and complexion she can only lose a husband, but that +ale is her passion. I have not as yet drank with her, though I must +own I cannot help being fond of a lady who has so little disguise of +her practice, either in her words or appearance. If to show you love +her you must drink with her she has chosen an ill place for followers, +for she is forbid with the waters. Her shape is not very unlike a +barrel, and I would describe her eyes, if I could look over the +agreeable swellings of her cheeks, in which the rose predominates; nor +can I perceive the least of the lily in her whole countenance. You see +what £30,000 can do, for without that I could never have discovered +all these agreeable particularities. In short, she is the _ortolan_, +or rather _wheat-ear_, of the place, for she is entirely a lump of +fat; and the form of the universe itself is scarce more beautiful, for +her figure is almost circular. After I have said all this, I believe +it will be in vain for me to declare I am not in love, and I am afraid +that I have showed some imprudence in talking upon this subject, since +you have declared that you like a friend that has a heart in his +disposal. I assure you I am not mercenary and that £30,000 have not +half so much power with me as the woman I love." + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + Richmond Lodge, July 22nd, 1723. + +"I have taken some days to consider of your _wheat-ear_, but I find I +can no more approve of your having a passion for that, than I did of +your turning parson. But if ever you will take the one, I insist upon +your taking the other; they ought not to be parted; they were made +from the beginning for each other. But I do not forbid you to get the +best intelligence of the ways, manners and customs of this wonderful +_phenomène_, how it supports the disappointment of bad ale, and what +are the consequences to the full enjoyment of her luxury? I have some +thoughts of taking a hint from the ladies of your acquaintance who +pray for matadores, and turn devotees for luck at ombre, for I have +already lost above £100 since I came to Richmond. + +"I do not like to have you too passionately fond of everything that +has no disguise. I (that am grown old in Courts) can assure you +sincerity is so very unthriving that I can never give consent that you +should practise it, excepting to three or four people that I think may +deserve it, of which number I am. I am resolved that you shall open a +new scene of behaviour next winter and begin to pay in coin your debts +of fair promises. I have some thoughts of giving you a few loose hints +for a satire, and if you manage it right, and not indulge that foolish +good-nature of yours, I do not question but I shall see you in good +employment before Christmas." + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + Tunbridge Wells, August, 1723. + +"I have long wished to be able to put in practice that valuable worldly +qualification of being insincere. One of my chief reasons is that I hate +to be particular, and I think if a man cannot conform to the customs of +the world, he is not fit to be encouraged or to live in it. I know that, +if one would be agreeable to men of dignity one must study to imitate +them, and I know which way they get money and places. I cannot indeed +wonder that the talents requisite for a great statesman are so scarce in +the world, since so many of those who possess them are every month cut +off in the prime of their life at the Old Bailey. + +"Another observation I have made upon courtiers is that if you have any +friendship with any particular one, you must be entirely governed by his +friendship and resentments, not your own; you are not only to flatter +him but those that he flatters, and, if he chances to take a fancy to +any man whom you know that he knows to have the talents of a statesman, +you are immediately to think both of them men of the most exact honour. +In short, you must think nothing dishonest or dishonourable that is +required of you, because, if you know the world, you must know that no +statesman has or ever will require anything of you that is dishonest or +dishonourable. + +"Then you must suppose that all statesmen, and your friend in particular +(for statesmen's friends have always seemed to think so) have been, are, +and always will be guided by strict justice, and are quite void of +partiality and resentment. You are to believe that he never did or can +propose any wrong thing, for whoever has it in his power to dissent from +a statesman, in any one particular, is not capable of his friendship. +This last word, friendship, I have been forced to make use of several +times, though I know that I speak improperly, for it has never been +allowed a Court term. This is some part of a Court creed, though it is +impossible to fix all the articles, for as men of dignity believe one +thing one day and another the next, so you must daily change your faith +and opinion; therefore the mood to please these wonderful and mighty men +is never to declare in the morning what you believe until your friend +has declared what he believes--for one mistake this way is utter +destruction. + +"I hope these few reflections will convince you that I know something of +the art of pleasing great men. I have strictly examined most favourites +that I have known, and think I judge right, that almost all of them have +practised most of these rules on their way to preferment. I cannot +wonder that great men require all this from their creatures, since most +of them have practised it themselves, or else they had never arrived to +their dignities. + +"As to your advice that you give me in relation to preaching and +marrying and ale, I like it extremely, for this lady [Mary Jennings] +must be born to be a parson's wife, and I never will think of marrying +her till I have preached my first sermon. She was last night at a +private ball--so private that not one man knew it till it was over, so +that Mrs. Carr was disturbed at her lodgings by only a dozen ladies, who +danced together without the least scandal. + +"I fancy I shall not stay here much longer, though what will become of +me I know not, for I have not, and fear never shall have, a will of my +own." + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + August, 1723. + +"After you have told me that you hate writing letters, it would be very +ungrateful not to thank you for so many as you have written for me. +Acting contrary to one's inclinations, for the service of those one +likes, is a strong proof of friendship; yet, as it is painful, it ought +never to be exacted but in case of great necessity. As such I look upon +that correspondence in which I have engaged you. + +"Perhaps you think I treat you very oddly, that while I own myself +afraid of a man of wit [Lord Peterborough] and make that a pretence to +ask your assistance, I can write to you myself without any concern; but +do me justice and believe it is that I think it requires something more +than wit to deserve esteem. So it is less uneasy for me to write to you +than to the other, for I should fancy I purchased the letters I received +(though very witty) at too great an expense, if at the least hazard of +having my real answers exposed. + +"The enclosed[10] will discover that I did not make use of every +argument with which you had furnished me; but I had a reason, of which I +am not at this time disposed to make you a judge. Conquest is the last +thing a woman cares to resign; but I should be very sorry to have you in +the desperate state of my _Knight-errant_. No! I would spare you, out +of self-interest, to secure to me those I have made by your assistance." + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + August 22nd [1723]. + +"I am very much pleased to find you are of my opinion. I have always +thought that the man who will be nothing but a man of wit oftener +disobliges than entertains the company. There is nothing tries our +patience more than that person who arrogantly is ever showing his +superiority over the company he is engaged in. He and his fate I think +very like the woman whose whole ambition is only to be handsome. _She_ +is in continual care about her own charms and neglects the world; and +_he_ is always endeavouring to be more witty than all the world, which +makes them both disagreeable companions. + +"The warmth with which I attack wit will, I am afraid, be thought to +proceed from the same motive which makes the old and ugly attack the +young and handsome; but if you examine well all those of the character +I have mentioned you will find they are generally but pretenders to +either wit or beauty, and in justification of myself I can say, and +that with great sincerity, I respect wit with judgment, and beauty +with humility, whenever I meet it. + +"I have sent the enclosed[11] and desire an answer. I make no more +apologies, for I take you to be in earnest; but if you can talk of +sincerity without having it, I am glad it is in my power to punish +you, for sincerity is not only the favourite expression of my +knight-errant, but it is my darling virtue. + +"If I agree with you, that wit is very seldom to be found in +sincerity, it is because I think neither wit nor sincerity is often +found; but daily experience shows us it is want of wit, and not too +much, makes people insincere." + + +[Footnote 1: Paul Methuen (1672-1757), diplomatist; Comptroller of the +Household 1720-1725; K.B., 1725.] + +[Footnote 2: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 273.] + +[Footnote 3: _B.M._, Add. MSS., 28275, f. 8.] + +[Footnote 4: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 385.] + +[Footnote 5: George William, born November 2nd, 1717, died February 6th, +1722.] + +[Footnote 6: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 422.] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, 390.] + +[Footnote 8: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 398.] + +[Footnote 9: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 297.] + +[Footnote 10: Probably a letter from Lord Peterborough to Mrs. Howard.] + +[Footnote 11: Probably a copy of a letter from Mrs. Howard to Lord +Peterborough]. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1724-1727 + + + "THE CAPTIVES"--THE FIRST SERIES OF "FABLES"--GAY AND THE + COURT--POPE, SWIFT AND MRS. HOWARD. + +During 1723 Gay wrote a tragedy, "The Captives," which at the end of the +year he read to the royal circle at Leicester House. "When the hour +came," Johnson has recorded, "he saw the Princess [of Wales] and her +ladies all in expectation, and, advancing with reverence, too great for +any other attention, stumbled at a stool, and, falling forward, threw +down a weighty Japanese screen. The Princess started, the ladies +screamed, and poor Gay, after all the disturbance, was still to read his +play."[1] "The Captives" was produced at Drury Lane Theatre in January, +1724, and according to the _Biographica Dramatica_ was "acted nine +nights with great applause," the third, or author's night, being by the +command of the Prince and Princess of Wales. According, however, to +Fenton, "Gay's play had no success. I am told he gave thirty guineas to +have it acted on the fifth night."[2] When it was published, Gay +prefaced it with the following dedication:-- + + +TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS OF WALES. + +"Madam, + +"The honour I received from your Royal Highness in being permitted to +read this play to you before it was acted, made me more happy than any +other success that could have happened to me. If it had the good fortune +to gain your Royal Highness's approbation, I have often been reflecting +to what to impute it, and I think it must have been the catastrophe of +the fall, the rewarding virtue and the relieving the distressed. For +that could not fail to give some pleasure in fiction, which, it is +plain, gives you the greatest in reality, or else your Royal Highness +would not (as you always have done) make it your daily practice. + +"I am, Madam, +"Your Royal Highness's most dutiful +and most humbly devoted servant, +"JOHN GAY." + +Of what Gay did, or where he went during 1724, next to nothing is known. +Presumably he spent most of his time in his apartment at Whitehall, +eating much and drinking more than was good for him, and, to judge by +results, writing nothing. The only trace of him during 1724 is in the +following letter:-- + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + [Bath, 1724.] + +"Since I came to the Bath I have written three letters; the first to +you, the second to Mr. Pope, and the third to Mr. Fortescue. Every post +gives me fresh mortification, for I am forgot by everybody. Dr. +Arbuthnot and his brother went away this morning, and intend to see +Oxford on their way to London. The talk of the Bath is the marriage of +Lord Somerville and Mrs. Rolt. She left the Bath yesterday. He continues +here but is to go away to-day or to-morrow; but as opinions differ I +cannot decide whether they are married or no. Lord Essex gives a private +ball in Hamson's great room to Mrs. Pelham this evening, so that in all +probabilities some odd bodies being left out, we shall soon have the +pleasure of being divided into fractions. I shall return to London with +Lord Scarborough, who hath not as yet fixed his time of leaving the +Bath. Lord Fitzwilliam this morning had an account that a ticket of his +was come up £500. Lady Fitzwilliam wonders she has not heard from you, +and has so little resolution that she cannot resist buttered rolls at +breakfast, though she knows they prejudice her health. + +"If you will write to me you will make me cheerful and happy, without +which I am told the waters will have no good effect. Pray have some +regard to my health, for my life is in your service." + + * * * * * + +There is no mention of Gay during the first nine months of the year +1724, after which it has been possible to gather scant information. +Apparently, encouraged by the kindly interest displayed by the Princess +of Wales, Gay, still obsessed with his desire for a place, went +frequently to Court. "I hear nothing of our friend Gay, but I find the +Court keep him at hard meat. I advised him to come over here with a +Lord-Lieutenant,"[3] Swift wrote to Pope, September 29th, 1725. To this +Pope replied on October 15th: "Our friend Gay is used as the friends of +Tories are by Whigs, and generally by Tories too. Because he had humour +he was supposed to have dealt with Dr. Swift; in like manner as when +anyone had learning formerly, he was thought to have dealt with the +devil. He puts his whole trust at Court in that lady whom I described to +you."[4] "That lady," presumably was Mrs. Howard. But Gay, unable to +secure the interest of the politicians, and getting weary of waiting on +his friends, suddenly bethought himself of making a direct appeal to +royalty. "Gay is writing tales for Prince William,"[5] Pope wrote to +Swift on December 10th. "Mr. Philips[6] will take this very ill for two +reasons, one that he thinks all childish things belong to him, and the +other because he will take it ill to be taught that one may write things +to a child without being childish." Than which last few prettier +compliments have been paid to Gay. + +Though they had long been in correspondence, Swift and Gay had not yet +met. Swift, of course, had often in his mind a visit to London--he +admitted the temptation, but resisted it. "I was three years reconciling +myself to the scene, and the business to which fortune had condemned me, +and stupidity was what I had recourse to,"[7] he had written to Gay from +Dublin, January 8th, 1723. "Besides, what a figure should I make in +London, while my friends are in poverty, exile, distress, or +imprisonment, and my enemies with rods of iron?" At last, however, in +March, 1726, he did come to London, and he was the guest of Gay, whom he +subsequently referred to as "my landlord at Whitehall." He saw much of +Gay. "I have lived these two months past for the most part in the +country, either at Twickenham with Mr. Pope, or rambling with him and +Mr. Gay for a fortnight together. Yesterday Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. +Congreve made up five at dinner at Twickenham,"[8] Swift wrote to +Tickell from London on July 7th. Like the rest, Swift came to love Gay +dearly, and Gay was no whit less attracted to the great man, who +promised on his next visit to stay again in Whitehall. "My landlord," he +wrote in a letter addressed jointly to Pope and Gay, October 15th, 1726, +"who treats me with kindness and domesticity, and says that he is laying +in a double stock of wine."[9] Swift had been introduced to Mrs. +Howard--it may be by Gay--and she too wished to entertain him. "I hope +you will get your house and wine ready, to which Mr. Gay and I are to +have access when you are at Court; for, as to Mr. Pope, he is not worth +considering on such occasions,"[10] he wrote to her from Dublin, +February 1st, 1727. + +Gay had become more and more on good terms with the Duke and Duchess of +Queensberry, especially with the Duchess, who treated him as a sort of +pet lap-dog. "Since I wrote last," Gay told Swift in a letter dated +September 16th, 1726, "I have been always upon the ramble. I have been +in Oxfordshire with the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, and at +Petersham, and wheresoever they would carry me; but as they will go to +Wiltshire[11] without me on Tuesday next, for two or three months, I +believe I shall then have finished my travels for this year, and shall +not go further from London than now and then to Twickenham."[12] It was +as well that Gay remained in London, else probably his "Fables" would +never have appeared. Gay, who had begun to compose the "Fables" in 1725, +was, according to the habit of the man, not to be hurried. "I have of +late been very much out of order with a slight fever, which I am not yet +quite free from," he wrote to Swift in October, 1726. "If the engravers +keep their word with me I shall be able to publish my poems soon after +Christmas." But of course the engravers did not keep their word. Swift, +a more energetic person, became almost fractious at the repeated delays +in the publication, and wrote to Pope on November 17th: "How comes Gay +to be so tedious? Another man can publish fifty thousand lies sooner +than he can publish fifty fables."[13] And still there were delays. "My +Fables are printed," he told Swift on February 18th, 1727; "but I cannot +get my plates finished, which hinders the publication. I expect nothing +and am likely to get nothing."[14] At last, in the spring, the volume +appeared, with the imprint of J. Tonson and J. Watts, and with this +dedication: "To His Highness William Duke of Cumberland these new +Fables, invented for his amusement, are humbly dedicated by His +Highness's most faithful and most obedient servant, John Gay." + + * * * * * + +Gay, of course, expected some reward for this courtier-like attention to +the son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the poet and his +friends again believed that his future was assured when they heard that +Her Royal Highness had said, or at least was reported to have said, that +she should "take up the hare"--an allusion to the "Fable" of "The Hare +and Many Friends":-- + + A Hare who in a civil way, + Complied with ev'ry thing, like Gay, + Was known by all the bestial train, + Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain. + Her care was never to offend. + And ev'ry creature was her friend. + +On June 12th, 1727, George I. died, and Gay felt sure that at last the +hour had struck when the "place" so long and diligently sought, would be +bestowed on him. The new Queen did not, indeed, forget him; she did what +in his eyes was far worse, she offered him the sinecure post of +Gentleman Usher to the Princess Louisa,[15] then two years old, with a +salary of £200 a year. Gay's disappointment was bitter, and for a person +usually so placid, his indignation tremendous. What ground for hope he +had had, he, as Dr. Johnson has said, "had doubtless magnified with all +the wild expectation and vanity,"[16] "The Queen's family is at last +settled," Gay wrote bitterly to Swift on October 22nd, "and in the list +I was appointed Gentleman Usher to the Princess Louisa, the youngest +Princess, which, upon account that I am so far advanced in life, I had +declined accepting, and have endeavoured, in the best manner I could, to +make my excuses by a letter to her Majesty. So now all my expectations +are vanished and I have no prospect, but in depending wholly upon +myself and my own conduct. As I am used to disappointments I can bear +them, but as I can have no more hopes I can no more be disappointed, so +that I am in a blessed condition."[17] Pope, than whom no man loved Gay +better, could not bring himself to sympathise with his irate brother +poet. + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO JOHN GAY. + + October 6th, 1727. + +"I have many years ago magnified, in my own mind, and repeated to you, a +ninth beatitude, added to the eight in the Scripture: "Blessed is he who +expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. I could find in my +heart to congratulate you on this happy dismission from all Court +dependance. I dare say I shall find you the better and the honester man +for it many years hence; very probably the healthfuller, and the +cheerfuller into the bargain. You are happily rid of many cursed +ceremonies, as well as of many ill and vicious habits, of which few or +no men escape the infection, who are hackneyed and trammelled in the +ways of a Court. Princes, indeed, and Peers (the lackies of Princes) and +Ladies (the fools of Peers) will smile on you the less; but men of worth +and real friends will look on you the better. There is a thing, the only +thing which kings and queens cannot give you, for they have it not to +give--liberty, which is worth all they have, and which as yet Englishmen +need not ask from their hands. You will enjoy that, and your own +integrity, and the satisfactory consciousness of having not merited such +graces from Courts as are bestowed only on the mean, servile, +flattering, interested and undeserving. The only steps to the favour of +the great are such complacencies, such compliances, such distant +decorums, as delude them in their vanities, or engage them in their +passions. He is their greatest favourite who is the falsest; and when a +man, by such vile graduations arrives at the height of grandeur and +power, he is then at best but in a circumstance to be hated, and in a +condition to be hanged for serving their ends. So many a Minister has +found it." + +"I can only add a plain uncourtly speech," Pope wrote again to Gay ten +days later. "While you are nobody's servant you may be anybody's friend, +and, as such, I embrace you in all conditions of life. While I have a +shilling you shall have sixpence, nay, eightpence, if I can contrive to +live upon a groat." But if Pope took the matter calmly, Swift, on the +other hand, completely lost his temper and wrote as if voluntary +attendance at Court made it obligatory upon the Queen to provide for the +courtier. + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, November 27th, 1727. + +"I entirely approve your refusal of that employment, and your writing to +the Queen. I am perfectly confident you have a firm enemy in the +Ministry. God forgive him, but not till he puts himself in a state to be +forgiven. Upon reasoning with myself, I should hope they are gone too +far to discard you quite, and that they will give you something; which, +although much less than they ought, will be (as far as it is worth) +better circumstantiated; and since you already just live, a middling +help will make you just tolerable. Your lateness in life (as you so soon +call it) might be improper to begin the world with, but almost the +eldest men may hope to see changes in a Court. A Minister is always +seventy; you are thirty years younger; and consider, Cromwell did not +begin to appear till he was older than you."[18] + + * * * * * + +Swift could not forgive the Court for the offer, Mrs. Howard for not +exerting her influence to get a better post for her protégé. "I desire +my humble service to Lord Oxford, Lord Bathurst, and particularly to +Miss Blount, but to no lady at Court. God bless you for being a greater +dupe than I. I love that character too myself, but I want your charity," +he wrote to Pope, August 11th, 1729; but Pope replying on October 9th +said: "The Court lady[19] I have a good opinion of. Yet I have treated +her more negligently than you would do, because you will like to see the +inside of a Court, which I do not ... after all, that lady means to do +good and does no harm, which is a vast deal for a courtier." + + * * * * * + +More than once Swift took up his pen to avenge his friend for the slight +that he considered had been passed upon him. In "A Libel on the Rev. Mr. +Delany and His Excellency Lord Cartaret," he wrote in 1729:-- + + Thus Gay, the hare with many friends. + Twice seven long years the Court attends; + Who, under tales conveying truth, + To virtue form'd a princely youth; + Who paid his courtship with the crowd, + As far as modest pride allow'd; + Rejects a servile usher's place, + And leaves St. James's in disgrace. + +Two years later he returned to the attack in "An Epistle to Mr. Gay ":-- + + How could you, Gay, disgrace the Muse's train, + To serve a tasteless Court twelve years in vain! + Fain would I think our female friend sincere, + Till Bob,[20] the poet's foe, possess'd her ear. + Did female virtue e'er so high ascend, + To lose an inch of favour for a friend? + Say, had the Court no better place to choose + For thee, than make a dry-nurse of thy Muse? + How cheaply had thy liberty been sold, + To squire a royal girl of two years old: + In leading strings her infant steps to guide, + Or with her go-cart amble side by side! + +It is a little difficult at this time of day to understand Swift's +indignation. Gay was already in the enjoyment of a sinecure of £150 a +year; he was offered another of £200 a year--for the post of +Gentleman-Usher involved no duties save occasional attendance at Court, +and to this the poet had shown himself by no means averse. A total gift +of £350 a year for nothing really seems rather alluring to a man of +letters, and it is difficult to understand why Gay refused the offer, +unless it was, as the editors of the standard edition of Pope's +Correspondence suggest: "The affluent friends who recommended Gay to +reject the provisions were strangers to want, and with unconscious +selfishness they thought less of his necessities than of venturing their +spleen against the Court." + + * * * * * + +Swift, unable effectively to vent his anger on Caroline, chose to regard +Mrs. Howard as the cause of the mortification of his friend. Mrs. +Howard, however, not only had nothing to do with the offer of the place +of Gentleman-Usher to Gay, the patronage being directly in the Queen's +hands, but, as has been indicated, was unable to secure for him, or +anyone else, a place at Court of any description. Certainly she was in +blissful ignorance of having given offence, for as Gay wrote to the Dean +so late as February 15th, 1728: "Mrs. Howard frequently asks after you +and desires her compliments to you." + +All the matters affected not a whit the relations between Mrs. Howard +and Gay; against her he had no ill-feeling, and their correspondence +continued on the same lines of intimacy as before. + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + October, 1727. + +"I hear you expect, and have a mind to have, a letter from me, and +though I have little to say, I find I don't care that you should be +either disappointed or displeased. Tell her Grace of Queensberry I don't +think she looked kindly upon me when I saw her last; she ought to have +looked and thought very kindly, for I am much more her humble servant +than those who tell her so every day. Don't let her cheat you in the +pencils; she designs to give you nothing but her old ones. I suppose she +always uses those worst who love her best, Mrs. Herbert excepted; but I +hear she has done handsomely by her. I cannot help doing the woman this +justice, that she can now and then distinguish merit. + +"So much for her Grace; now for yourself, John. I desire you will mind +the main chance, and be in town in time enough to let the opera[21] have +play enough for its life, and for your pockets. Your head is your best +friend; it could clothe, lodge and wash you, but you neglect it, and +follow that false friend, your heart, which is such a foolish, tender +thing that it makes others despise your head that have not half so good +a one upon their own shoulders. In short, John, you may be a snail or a +silk-worm, but by my consent you shall never be a _hare_ again. + +"We go to town next week. Try your interest and bring the duchess up by +the birthday. I did not think to have named her any more in this letter. +I find I am a little foolish about her; don't you be a great deal so, +for if _she_ will not come, do you come without her." + + * * * * * + +Gay was not the man to keep his feelings of disappointment to himself, +and his feelings were so widely known that at the time the following +copy of verses was handed about in manuscript [22]:-- + + A mother who vast pleasure finds, + In forming of the children's minds; + In midst of whom with vast delight, + She passes many a winter's night; + Mingles in every play to find, + What bias nature gives her mind; + Resolving there to take her aim. + To guide them to the realms of fame; + And wisely make those realms their way, + To those of everlasting day; + Each boist'rous passion she'd control, + And early humanise the soul, + The noblest notions would inspire, + As they were sitting by the fire; + Her offspring, conscious of her care, + Transported hung around her chair. + Of Scripture heroes would she tell, + Whose names they'd lisp, ere they could spell; + Then the delighted mother smiles, + And shews the story in the tiles. + At other times her themes would be, + The sages of antiquity; + Who left a glorious name behind, + By being blessings to their kind: + Again she'd take a nobler scope, + And tell of Addison and Pope. + + This happy mother met one day, + A book of fables writ by Gay; + And told her children, here's treasure, + A fund of wisdom, and of pleasure. + Such decency! such elegance! + Such morals! such exalted sense! + Well has the poet found the art, + To raise the mind, and mend the heart. + Her favourite boy the author seiz'd, + And as he read, seem'd highly pleas'd; + Made such reflections every page, + The mother thought above his age: + Delighted read, but scarce was able, + To finish the concluding fable. + "What ails my child?" the mother cries, + "Whose sorrows now have fill'd your eyes?" + "Oh, dear Mamma, can he want friends + Who writes for such exalted ends? + Oh, base, degenerate human kind! + Had I a fortune to my mind, + Should Gay complain; but now, alas! + Through what a world am I to pass; + Where friendship's but an empty name, + And merit's scarcely paid in fame." + Resolv'd to lull his woes to rest. + She told him he should hope the best; + That who instruct the royal race. + Can't fail of some distinguished place. + "Mamma, if you were queen," says he, + "And such a book was writ for me; + I know 'tis so much to your taste, + That Gay would keep his coach at least." + "My child, what you suppose is true, + I see its excellence in you; + Poets whose writing mend the mind, + A noble recompense should find: + But I am barr'd by fortune's frowns. + From the best privilege of crowns; + The glorious godlike power to bless, + And raise up merit in distress." + + "But, dear Mamma, I long to know. + Were that the case, what you'd bestow?" + "What I'd bestow," says she, "My dear, + At least five hundred pounds a year." + + +[Footnote 1: Johnson: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 274.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter to Broome, January 30th, 1724 (Pope: _Works_ (ed. +Elwin and Courthope, VIII, p. 75.))] + +[Footnote 3: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 6.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 5: William Augustus (1721-1765), third son of George III; +created Duke of Cumberland, 1726.] + +[Footnote 6: Ambrose Philips, the poet.] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, 389.] + +[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., XIX. p. 283.] + +[Footnote 9: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 99.] + +[Footnote 10: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 94.] + +[Footnote 11: To Amesbury, the principal seat of the Duke of +Queensberry.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 66.] + +[Footnote 13: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 81.] + +[Footnote 14: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 96.] + +[Footnote 15: Louisa (1724-1751), the youngest of George II's children. +She married in 1743, Frederick, Prince (afterwards King) of Denmark,] + +[Footnote 16: Johnson: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 274.] + +[Footnote 17: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 42.] + +[Footnote 18: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 161.] + +[Footnote 19: Mrs. Howard.] + +[Footnote 20: Sir Robert Walpole.] + +[Footnote 21: An allusion to "The Beggar's Opera," which Gay was then +writing.] + +[Footnote 22: Printed for the first and only time in "An Account of the +Life and Writings of the Author," in _Plays Written by Mr. John Gay_, +1760.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1727 + +"THE BEGGAR'S OPERA" + + +The opera to which allusion is made in Mrs. Howard's letter of October, +1727, was "The Beggar's Opera," upon which Gay had been actively engaged +for some time past, and which was then nearing completion. "You +remember," Gay wrote to Swift, October 22nd, 1727, "you were advising me +to go into Newgate to finish my scenes the more correctly. I now think I +shall, for I have no attendance to hinder me; but my opera is already +finished."[1] To which Swift replied from Dublin on November 27th: "I am +very glad your opera is finished, and hope your friends will join the +readers to make it succeed, because you are ill-used by others."[2] + +It was natural that Swift should be especially interested in "The +Beggar's Opera," because the first suggestion of it had come from Swift +in a letter to Pope, written as far back as August 30th, 1716[3] "Dr. +Swift had been observing once to Mr. Gay, what an odd pretty sort of +thing a Newgate Pastoral might make," Pope once remarked. "Gay was +inclined to try at such a thing for some time, but afterwards thought +it would be better to write a comedy on the same plan. This was what +gave rise to 'The Beggar's Opera.' He began on it, and when first he +mentioned it to Swift, the Doctor did not much like the project. As he +carried it on, he showed what he wrote to both of us; and we now and +then gave a correction, or a word or two of advice; but it was wholly of +his own writing. When it was done neither of us thought it would +succeed. We showed it to Congreve, who, after reading it over, said: 'It +would either take greatly or be damned confoundedly."[4] + +Dilatory as Gay always was, he contrived to finish his opera by about +the end of the year. "John Gay's opera is just on the point of +delivery," Pope wrote to Swift in January, 1728. "It may be called, +considering its subject, a jail-delivery. Mr. Congreve, with whom I have +commemorated you, is anxious as to its success, and so am I. Whether it +succeeds or not, it will make a great noise, but whether of claps or +hisses I know not. At worst, it is in its own nature a thing which he +can lose no reputation by, as he lays none upon it."[5] Not only Swift, +Pope, and Congreve were doubtful as to the opera's chance of success. +Colley Cibber refused it for Drury Lane Theatre, and even when it was +accepted by John Rich for his theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Quin had +such a poor opinion of it, that he refused the part of Captain Macheath. +Very sound was the judgment of Rich, immortalised by Pope in "The +Dunciad" (Book III, lines 261-264):-- + + Immortal Rich! how calm he sits at ease, + 'Midst snows of paper, and fierie tale of pease; + And proud his Mistress's orders to perform, + Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm; + +and the opera, to repeat a well-known _mot_ of the day, "made Gay +rich and Rich gay." + +"The Beggar's Opera" was produced on January 29th, 1728, with the +following cast:-- + + _Peachum_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. HIPPISLEY + _Lockit_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. HALL + _Macheath_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. WALKER + _Filch_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. CLARK + _Jemmy Twitcher_... ... ... ... MR. H. BULLOCK + _Mrs. Peachum_ ... ... ... ... MRS. MARTIN + _Polly Peachum_ ... ... ... ... Miss FENTON + _Lucy Lockit_ ... ... ... ... MRS. EGLETON + _Diana Trapes_ ... ... ... ... MRS. MARTIN + +At the first performance the fate of the opera hung for some time in the +balance. Quin is recorded as having said that there was a disposition to +damn it, and that it was saved by the song, "O ponder well! be not +severe!" the audience being much affected by the innocent looks of +Polly, when she came to those two lines which exhibit at once a painful +and ridiculous image-- + + O ponder well! be not severe! + For on the Rope that hangs my Dear + Depends poor Polly's Life.[6] + +Pope, too, and the rest of Gay's friends were present. "We were all at +the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the event; till we were +very much encouraged by hearing the Duke of Argyll, who sat in the +next box to us, say: "It will do--it must do!--I see it in the eyes of +them," he said. "This was a good while before the first act was over, +and so gave us ease soon; for the Duke (besides his own good taste) +has a more particular knack than any one now living, in discovering +the taste of the public. He was quite right in this, as usual, the +good nature of the audience appeared stronger and stronger every set, +and ended in a clamour of applause."[7] + +The success of the opera was due to many causes. Some liked it for its +barely veiled allusions on politicians. "Robin of Bagshot, _alias_ +Gorgon, _alias_ Bluff Bob, _alias_ Carbuncle, _alias_ Bob Booty," was +very obviously intended for Walpole and his "dear charmers" for his +wife and Molly Skerrett. It may well be believed that the song, "How +happy could I be with either" brought down the house; and the +highwayman must have evoked a hearty laugh with-- + + And the statesman, because he's so great, + Thinks his trade as honest as mine. + +Certainly the songs had much to do in the matter of pleasing the +audience. As a literary work, "The Beggar's Opera" has no great claims, +but there is a spontaneous humour about it that has charm. But it was +the _milieu_ that, acting on the hint thrown out years before by Swift, +Gay chose that appealed to the public taste. Highwaymen and women of the +town are not romantic figures, but Gay made the highwaymen handsome and +lively, and the women of the town beautiful and attractive, and over +them all he cast a glamour of romance and sentimentalism. Even Newgate +seemed a pleasing place, for in this fantasy the author was careful to +omit anything of the horrors of a prison in the early eighteenth +century. Gay, in fact, did for the stage with "The Beggar's Opera" what, +a century later Bulwer Lytton and Harrison Ainsworth did for the reading +public with "Ernest Maltravers," "Jack Sheppard," and the rest. + +The morality of the opera was much discussed. Swift took the field, and +wrote in its favour in the _Intelligencer_ (No. 3):-- + +"It is true, indeed, that Mr. Gay, the author of this piece, has been +somewhat singular in the course of his fortune, for it has happened that +after fourteen years attending the Court, with a large stock of real +merit, a modest and agreeable conversation, a hundred promises, and five +hundred friends, he has failed of preferment, and upon a very weighty +reason. He lay under the suspicion of having written a libel, or +lampoon, against a great minister. It is true, that great minister was +demonstratively convinced, and publicly owned his conviction, that Mr. +Gay was not the author; but having lain under the suspicion, it seemed +very just that he should suffer the punishment; because in this most +reformed age, the virtues of a prime minister are no more to be +suspected than the chastity of Cæsar's wife. + +"It must be allowed, that 'The Beggar's Opera' is not the first of Mr. +Gay's works, wherein he has been faulty with regard to courtiers and +statesmen. For, to omit his other pieces, even in his 'Fables,' +published within two years past, and dedicated to the Duke of +Cumberland, for which he was promised a reward, he has been thought +somewhat too bold upon the courtiers. And although it be highly probable +he meant only the courtiers of former times, yet he acted unwarily, by +not considering that the malignity of some people might misinterpret +what he said to the disadvantage of present persons and affairs. + +"But I have now done with Mr. Gay as a politician and shall consider him +henceforth only as the author of 'The Beggar's Opera,' wherein he has, +by a turn of humour entirely new, placed vices of all kinds in the +strongest and most odious light, and thereby done eminent service, both +to religion and morality. This appears from the unparalleled success he +has met with. All ranks, parties, and denominations of men, either +crowding to see his opera, or reading it with delight in their closets; +even Ministers of State, whom he is thought to have most offended (next +to those whom the actors represented) appear frequently at the theatre, +from a consciousness of their own innocence, and to convince the world +how unjust a parallel, malice, envy, and disaffection to the Government +have made. + +"I am assured that several worthy clergymen in this city went privately +to see 'The Beggar's Opera' represented; and that the fleering coxcombs +in the pit amused themselves with making discoveries, and spreading the +names of those gentlemen round the audience. + +"I shall not pretend to vindicate a clergyman who would appear openly +in his habit at the theatre, with such a vicious crew as might probably +stand round him, at such comedies and profane tragedies as are often +represented. Besides, I know very well, that persons of their function +are bound to avoid the appearance of evil, or of giving cause of +offence. But when the Lords Chancellors, who are Keepers of the King's +Conscience; when the Judges of the land, whose title is reverend; when +ladies, who are bound by the rules of their sex to the strictest +decency, appear in the theatre without censure; I cannot understand why +a young clergyman, who comes concealed out of curiosity to see an +innocent and moral play, should be so highly condemned; nor do I much +approve the rigour of a great prelate, who said, 'he hoped none of his +clergy were there.' I am glad to hear there are no weightier objections +against that reverend body, planted in this city, and I wish there never +may. But I should be very sorry that any of them should be so weak as to +imitate a Court chaplain in England, who preached against 'The Beggar's +Opera,' which will probably do more good than a thousand sermons of so +stupid, so injudicious, and so prostitute a divine. + +"In this happy performance of Mr. Gay, all the characters are just, and +none of them carried beyond nature, or hardly beyond practice. It +discovers the whole system of that commonwealth, or that _imperium in +imperio_ of iniquity established among us, by which neither our lives +nor our properties are secure, either in the highways, or in public +assemblies, or even in our own houses. It shows the miserable lives, and +the constant fate, of those abandoned wretches: for how little they sell +their lives and souls; betrayed by their whores, their comrades, and the +receivers and purchasers of those thefts and robberies. This comedy +contains likewise a satire, which, without enquiring whether it affects +the present age, may possibly be useful in times to come; I mean, where +the author takes the occasion of comparing the common robbers of the +public, and their various stratagems of betraying, undermining and +hanging each other, to the several arts of the politicians in times of +corruption.... + +"Upon the whole, I deliver my judgment, that nothing but servile +attachment to a party, affectation of singularity, lamentable dulness, +mistaken zeal, or studied hypocrisy, can have the least reasonable +objection against this excellent moral performance of the celebrated Mr. +Gay." + +Of course, if "The Beggar's Opera" is taken as irony, there is really +nothing at all to be said against it; but the majority of any audience +do not understand irony, and to many the whole thing seemed vicious, an +approval of vice, and even an incitement to wrong-doing. Dr. Herring, +afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached against the Opera in, it +is said, Lincoln's Inn Chapel, and censured it as giving encouragement +not only to vice but to crimes, by making a highwayman the hero and +dismissing him at last unpunished. In the Preface to Dr. Herring's +"Sermons," it is added that "several street-robbers confessed in Newgate +that they raised their courage at the playhouse by the songs of +Macheath."[8] Others certainly shared the views of the clergyman. When +on September 15th, 1773, at the Old Bailey, fifteen prisoners were +sentenced to death, forty to transportation, and eight to a whipping, it +is recorded that the magistrate, Sir John Fielding, "informed the Bench +of Justices that he had last year written to Mr. Garrick concerning the +impropriety of performing 'The Beggar's Opera,' which never was +represented without creating an additional number of real thieves,"[9] +and that to this effect he not only wrote to Garrick at Drury Lane +Theatre, but also to Colman at Covent Garden Theatre. "Mr. Colman's +compliments to Sir John Fielding," the latter replied, "he does not +think his the only house in Bow Street where thieves are hardened and +encouraged, and will persist in offering the representation of that +admirable satire, 'The Beggar's Opera.'"[10] Sir John Hawkins, Chairman +of the Middlesex Bench of Justices, also held the view that the Opera +was harmful, and in 1776, wrote: "Rapine and violence have been +gradually increasing since its first representation."[11] Dr. Johnson +took a saner view, and one that was subsequently supported by Sir Walter +Scott, and is generally accepted to-day. "Both these decisions are +surely exaggerated," he wrote in reference to the opinions expressed by +Swift and Dr. Herring. "The play, like many others, was plainly written +only to divert, without any moral purpose, and is therefore likely to do +good; nor can it be conceived, without more speculation than life +requires or admits, to be productive of much wit. Highwaymen and +housebreakers seldom frequent the playhouse or mingle in any elegant +diversion; nor is it possible for anyone to imagine that he may rob as +safely because he sees Macheath reprieved upon the stage."[12] And +again, he said: "I do not believe that any man was ever made a rogue by +being present at its representation. At the same time I do not deny that +it may have some influence by making the character of a rogue familiar +and in some degree pleasing."[13] + +The success of the piece was immense, and its vogue tremendous. "The +famous 'Beggar's Opera' appeared upon the stage early in the ensuing +season; and was received with greater applause than was ever known: +besides being acted in London sixty-three nights without interruption, +and renewed the next season with equal applause, it spread into all the +great towns of England; was played in many places to the thirtieth and +fortieth time; and at Bath and Bristol fifty times," wrote the anonymous +editor of the 1760 edition of Gay's plays. + +"The ladies carried about with them the favourite songs of it in fans, +and houses were furnished with it in screens.... The person who acted +Polly, till then obscure, became all at once the favourite of the town; +her pictures were engraved and sold in great numbers; her life written; +books of letters and verses to her published, and pamphlets made even of +her sayings and jests. Furthermore, it drove out of England, for that +season, the Italian opera, which had carried all before it for several +years."[14] According to Richard's account book, the opera ran at the +theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields for sixty-two (not sixty-three) nights, +of which thirty-two nights were in succession, and these thirty-two +performances realised the total sum of £5,351, Gay's share amounting to +£693.[15] Swift, who was always anxious that Gay should do as well as +possible, wrote to Pope on March 5th: "I hope he [Gay] does not intend +to print his Opera before it is acted; for I defy all your subscriptions +to amount to eight hundred pounds, and yet I believe he lost as much +more, for want of human prudence."[16] The advice, however, came too +late, for Gay had already sold the copyright of the "Fables" and "The +Beggar's Opera" for ninety guineas. The opera was published on February +14th, 1728. + +Gay was in these days the happiest man in the world. His play was +successful, he was making money, and he had had his little dig at +Walpole. "John Gay ... is at present so employed in the elevated airs of +his Opera ... that I can scarce obtain a categorical answer ... to +anything," Pope wrote to Swift in February, "but the Opera succeeds +extremely, to yours and my extreme satisfaction, of which he promises +this post to give you a full account."[17] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Whitehall, February 15th, 1728. + +"I have deferred writing to you from time to time, till I could give you +an account of 'The Beggar's Opera.' It is acted at the playhouse in +Lincoln's Inn Fields with such success that the playhouse has been +crowded every night. To-night is the fifteenth time of acting, and it is +thought it will run a fortnight longer. I have ordered Motte[18] to send +the play to you the first opportunity. I have made no interest, neither +for approbation or money: nor has anybody been pressed to take tickets +for my benefit: notwithstanding which, I think I shall make an addition +to my fortune of between six and seven hundred pounds. I know this +account will give you pleasure, as I have pushed through this precarious +affair without servility or flattery. + +"As to any favours from great men, I am in the same state you left me, +but I am a great deal happier, as I have no expectations. The Duchess of +Queensberry has signalised her friendship to me upon this occasion in +such a conspicuous manner, that I hope (for her sake) you will take care +to put your fork to all its proper uses, and suffer nobody for the +future to put their knives in their mouths. Lord Cobham says, I should +have printed it in Italian over against the English, that the ladies +might have understood what they read. The outlandish (as they now call +it) Opera has been so thin of late, that some have called it the +Beggar's Opera, and if the run continues, I fear I shall have +remonstrances drawn up against me by the Royal Academy of +Music."[19][20] + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, February 26th, 1728. + +"I wonder whether you begin to taste the pleasures of independency; or +whether you do not sometimes leer upon the Court, _sculo retorto_? Will +you now think of an annuity when you are two years older, and have +doubled your purchase-money? Have you dedicated your opera, and got the +usual dedication fee of twenty guineas? Does W[alpole] think you +intended an affront to him in your opera? Pray God he may, for he has +held the longest hand at hazard that ever fell to any sharper's share, +and keeps his run when the dice are charged. I bought your Opera to-day +for sixpence--a cussed print. I find there is neither dedication nor +preface, both which wants I approve; it is the _grand gout_." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + March 20th, 1728. + +"'The Beggar's Opera' has been acted now thirty-six times, and was as +full the last night as the first; and as yet there is not the least +probability of a thin audience; though there is a discourse about the +town, that the directors of the Royal Academy of Music design to solicit +against its being played on the outlandish opera days, as it is now +called. On the benefit day of one of the actresses, last week, they were +obliged to give out another play, or dismiss the audience. A play was +given out, but the people called for 'The Beggar's Opera'; and they were +forced to play it, or the audience would not have stayed. + +"I have got by all this success between seven and eight hundred pounds, +and Rich (deducting the whole charge of the house) has cleared already +near four thousand pounds. In about a month I am going to the Bath with +the Duchess of Marlborough and Mr. Congreve; for I have no expectation +of receiving any favours from the Court. The Duchess of Queensberry is +in Wiltshire, where she has had the small-pox in so favourable a way +that she had not above seven or eight on her face; she is now perfectly +recovered. + +"There is a mezzotinto print published to-day of Polly, the heroine of +'The Beggar's Opera,' who was before unknown, and is now in so high +vogue that I am in doubt whether her fame does not surpass that of the +Opera itself."[21] + + * * * * * + +Pope and Swift were keenly interested in Gay's triumph, and in their +correspondence are many references to the piece. "Mr. Gay's Opera has +been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the +whole season," Pope wrote to Swift, March 23rd, 1728. "So he has more +than a fence about his thousand pounds; he will soon be thinking of a +fence about his two thousand. Shall no one of us live as we would wish +each other to live? Shall he have no annuity, you no settlement on this +side, and I no prospect of getting to you on the other?"[22] + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, March 28th, 1728. + +"We have your opera for sixpence, and we are as full of it _pro modulo +nostro_ as London can be; continually acting, and house crammed, and the +Lord-Lieutenant several times there, laughing his heart out. I wish you +had sent me a copy, as I desired to oblige an honest bookseller. It +would have done Motte no harm, for no English copy has been sold, but +the Dublin one has run prodigiously. + +"I did not understand that the scene of Lockit and Peachum's quarrel was +an imitation of one between Brutus and Cassius, till I was told it. + +"I wish Macheath, when he was going to be hanged, had imitated +Alexander the Great, when he was dying. I would have had his +fellow-rogues desire his commands about a successor, and he to answer, +'Let it be the most worthy,' etc. + +"We hear a million of stories about the Opera, of the encore at the +song, 'That was levell'd at me,' when two great ministers were in a box +together, and all the world staring at them. + +"I am heartily glad your Opera has mended your purse, though perhaps it +may spoil your Court. + +"I think that rich rogue, Rich, should in conscience make you a present +of two or three hundred guineas. I am impatient that such a dog, by +sitting still, should get five times more than the author. + +"You told me a month ago of £700, and have you not yet made up the +eighth? I know not your methods. How many third days are you allowed, +and how much is each day worth, and what did you get for copy? + +"Will you desire my Lord Bolingbroke, Mr. Pulteney, and Mr. Pope, to +command you to buy an annuity with two thousand pounds? that you may +laugh at Courts, and bid Ministers 'hiss, etc.'--and ten to one they +will be ready to grease you when you are fat. + +"I hope your new Duchess will treat you at the Bath, and that you will +be too wise to lose your money at play. + +"Get me likewise Polly's mezzotinto. + +"Lord, how the schoolboys at Westminster and university lads adore you +at this juncture! Have you made as many men laugh as ministers can make +weep." + + * * * * * + +Colley Cibber, in his "Apology" said that "Gay had more skilfully +gratified the public taste than all the brightest authors that ever +wrote before him," and although this was undoubtedly a piece of friendly +exaggeration, it is a fact that John Gay was now a personage. "Mr. Gay's +fame continues; but his riches are in a fair way of diminishing; he is +gone to the Bath," Martha Blount wrote to Swift, May 7th;[23] and two +months later, with great pride, Gay told Swift, "My portrait mezzotinto +is published from Mrs. Howard's painting."[24] Indirectly, he secured +further notoriety when, in the summer, Lavinia Fenton, who had played +the heroine in the Opera, ran away with a Duke. "The Duke of Bolton, I +hear," he wrote to Swift from Bath, "has run away with Polly Peachum, +having settled £400 a year on her during pleasure, and upon disagreement +£200 a year."[25] She had played in the whole sixty-three performances +of the Opera, the forty-seventh performance being set aside for her +benefit. The sixty-third performance took place on June 19th, and that +was her last appearance on the boards of a theatre. In 1751, shortly +after the death of his wife, the Duke married her, she being then about +forty-three, and he sixty-six.[26] + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Work_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 157.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 162.] + +[Footnote 3: _See_ p. 41 of this work.] + +[Footnote 4: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 159.] + +[Footnote 5: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 111.] + +[Footnote 6: Boswell: _Life of Johnson_ (ed. Hill), II, p. 368.] + +[Footnote 7: Spence: _Anecdotes_, p. 159.] + +[Footnote 8: Dr. Herring: _Sermons_ (1763), p. 5.] + +[Footnote 9: _Annual Register_ (1773), I, p. 132.] + +[Footnote 10: Genest: _History of the Stage_, III, p. 223.] + +[Footnote 11: _History of Music_, V, p. 317.] + +[Footnote 12: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 13: Boswell: _Life of Johnson_ (ed. Hill), II, p. 367.] + +[Footnote 14: _Plays Written by Mr. John Gay: With an Account of the +Life and Writings of the Author_ (1760), VIII.] + +[Footnote 15: _Notes and Queries_, First Series, I, 178.] + +[Footnote 16: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 216.] + +[Footnote 17: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 165.] + +[Footnote 18: Benjamin Motte, the bookseller.] + +[Footnote 19: The managers and patrons of the Italian Opera, with the +King at their head, had formed themselves into an association under this +title.] + +[Footnote 20: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 176.] + +[Footnote 21: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 22: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 183.] + +[Footnote 23: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 176.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 189.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 188.] + +[Footnote 26: "The Beggar's Opera" has been revived many times. The last +and most successful revival was produced by Mr. Nigel Playfair in June, +1920. At the moment of going to press the first anniversary of the +revival has just been celebrated. A copy of the programme of the first +performance of this revival is printed, by kind permission of Mr. +Playfair, on page 162 of this work.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +1728-1729 + +"POLLY" + + +The success of "The Beggar's Opera" heartened Gay, as a first great +success heartens any man. At once he conceived the idea of following up +this triumph with another opera, but, before actually getting to work, +he took things easily. In March he stayed at Cashiobury with Pulteney, +visiting from there Lord Bathurst and the Bolingbrokes. Shortly after he +went to Bath, where he found many friends, including Henrietta, Duchess +of Marlborough. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Bath, May 16th, 1728. + +"I have been at the Bath about ten days, and I have played at no game +but once, and that at backgammon with Mr. Lewis, who is very much your +humble servant. He is here upon account of the ill state of health of +his wife, who has as yet found very little benefit from the waters. Lord +and Lady Bolingbroke are here; and I think she is better than when I +came; they stay, as I guess, only about a fortnight longer. They both +desired me to make their compliments; as does Mr. Congreve, who is in a +very ill state of health, but somewhat better since he came here.... I +do not know how long I shall stay here, because I am now, as I have been +all my life, at the disposal of others. I drink the waters, and am in +hopes to lay in a stock of health, some of which I wish to communicate +to you.... 'The Beggar's Opera' is acted here; but our Polly has got no +fame, though the actors have got money. I have sent [you] by Dr. +Delany, the Opera, Polly Peachum, and Captain Macheath. I would have +sent you my own head (which is now engraving to make up the gang), but +it is not yet finished. I suppose you must have heard that I have had +the honour to have had a sermon preached against my works by a Court +chaplain, which I look upon as no small addition to my fame."[1] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Bath, July 6th, 1728. + +"In five or six days I set out upon an excursion to Herefordshire, to +Lady Scudamore's, but shall return here the beginning of August.... The +weather is extremely hot, the place is very empty; I have an inclination +to study, but the heat makes it impossible."[2] + + * * * * * + +"I suppose Mr. Gay will return from the Bath with twenty pounds more +flesh and two hundred pounds less in money," Swift wrote to Pope on July +16th. "Providence never designed him to be above two-and-twenty, by this +thoughtlessness and cullibility. He has as little foresight of age, +sickness, poverty, or loss of admirers, as a girl of fifteen."[3] From +this it may be deduced that Gay, whenever he was free from an attack of +colic, persevered in the pleasures of the table and of his favourite +quadrille. + + +JOHN GAY TO ALEXANDER POPE. + + August 2nd, 1728. + +"I have heard more than once from our friend at Court, who seemed, in +the letter she writ, to be in high health and spirits. Considering the +multiplicity of pleasures and delights that one is overrun with in those +places, I wonder how anyone has health and spirits enough to support +them. I am heartily glad she has, and whenever I hear so, I find it +contributes to mine. You see, I am not free from dependence, though I +have less attendance than I had formerly; for a great deal of my own +welfare still depends upon hers. Is the widow's house to be disposed of +yet? I have not given up my pretensions to the Dean. If it was to be +parted with, I wish one of us had it. I hope you wish so too, and that +Mrs. Blount and Mrs. Howard wish the same, and for the very same reason +that I wish it."[4] + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + Hampton Court, August [1728]. + +"I am glad you have passed your time so agreeable. I need not tell you +how mine has been employed; but as I know you wish me well, I am sure +you will be glad to hear that I am much better; whether I owe it to the +operation I underwent, or to my medicines, I cannot tell; but I begin to +think I shall entirely get the better of my illness. I have written to +Dr. Arbuthnot, both to give him a particular account, and to ask his +opinion about the Bath. I know him so well that, though in this last +illness he was not my physician, he is so much my friend, that he is +glad I am better. Put him in mind to tell me what he would have me do in +relation to Lady F.; and to send me a direction to write to her. + +"I have made Mr. Nash governor to Lord Peterborough, and Lord +Peterborough governor to Mr. Pope. If I should come to the Bath, I +propose being governess to the Doctor [Arbuthnot] and you. I know you +both to be so unruly, that nothing less than Lady P.'s spirit or mine +could keep any authority over you. When you write to Lady Scudamore, +make my compliments to her. I have had two letters from Chesterfield, +which I wanted you to answer for me; and I have had a thousand other +things that I have wanted you to do for me; but, upon my word, I have +not had one place to dispose of, or you should not be without one.... My +humble service to the Duchess of Marlborough and Mr. Congreve." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, December 2nd, 1728. + +"I have had a very severe attack of a fever, which, by the care of our +friend, Dr. Arbuthnot, has, I hope, almost left me. I have been confined +about ten days, but never to my bed, so that I hope soon to get abroad +about my business; that is, the care of the second part of 'The Beggar's +Opera,' which was almost ready for rehearsal; but Rich received the Duke +of Grafton's commands (upon an information that he was rehearsing a play +improper to be represented), not to rehearse any new play whatever, till +his Grace has seen it. What will become of it I know not; but I am sure +I have written nothing that can be legally suppressed, unless the +setting vices in general in an odious light, and virtue in an amiable +one, may give offence. + +"I passed five or six months this year at the Bath with the Duchess of +Marlborough; and then, in the view of taking care of myself, writ this +piece. If it goes on in case of success, I have taken care to make +better bargains for myself."[5] + + * * * * * + +Gay was naturally greatly elated by the success of "The Beggar's Opera." +This recompensed him for the neglect, or, as undoubtedly he regarded it, +the ingratitude of the Court, and, what pleased him as much, it filled +his purse, which he always liked to fill, apparently for the joy of +emptying it as soon as possible. Also, it greatly enhanced his +reputation: from a writer of minor importance, he now took his place as +a personage. After a long apprenticeship, he had at length "arrived." + +Thus encouraged, he promptly composed a sequel to "The Beggar's Opera," +which he called by the name of the heroine of that piece, that is to +say, "Polly." The best summary of "Polly" has been given by Mr. Paull, +in his interesting paper on Gay[6]:-- + +"Macheath has been transported across the herring-pond ... He succeeds +in escaping from the plantations, and has become the leader of a band of +pirates, under an assumed name, and disguised as a black man. Jenny +Driver is now his mistress (presumably he has forgotten her treachery in +'The Beggar's Opera'). Polly sails across the ocean to find him, but is +entrapped by Mrs. Trapes, a procuress, who sells her to Ducat, a rich +merchant. Mrs. Ducat, who is jealous, helps Polly to escape; she assumes +a boy's dress and continues her search for Macheath. She is captured by +the pirates, and she and Macheath meet, neither recognising the other. +The pirates are attacking the English settlement; the Indians are +helping the settlers. At first the pirates are successful, and the young +Indian Prince is captured, but ultimately they are defeated, Polly +herself capturing Macheath, who is condemned to death by the Indian +Prince. Then she learns from Jenny Driver who the pirate chief is, and +his life is promised her as her reward; but his execution has already +taken place, and she has to console herself with the hand of the Indian +Prince, who has fallen in love with her. Even this skeleton will show +that the novelty and unity of design which counted for so much in 'The +Beggar's Opera' are changed for intricacy of plot. There is no cohesion +in the story: there is no reason why the catastrophe should be brought +about in one way rather than another; what interest there is turns on an +improbable story rather than on the development of character. Evidently +Gay reckoned largely on the opportunities he had afforded himself for +satire on the Court, and for contrasting the noble and untutored savage +with the man tainted by the vices of civilisation." + +"Polly" was accepted for production by Rich at the theatre in Lincoln's +Inn Fields: the subsequent proceedings are but told by the author +himself in his Preface, dated March 25th, 1729, to the printed version +of the book of the opera:-- + +"After Mr. Rich and I were agreed upon terms and conditions for +bringing this piece on the stage, and that everything was ready for a +rehearsal, the Lord Chamberlain sent an order from the country to +prohibit Mr. Rich to suffer any play to be rehearsed upon his stage till +it has been first of all supervised by his Grace. As soon as Mr. Rich +came from his Grace's secretary (who had sent for him to receive the +before-mentioned order) he came to my lodgings and acquainted me with +the orders he had received. + +"Upon the Lord Chamberlain's coming to town I was confined by sickness, +but in four or five days I went abroad on purpose to wait upon his +Grace, with a faithful and genuine copy of this piece, excepting the +_errata_ of the transcriber. + +"As I have heard several suggestions and false insinuations concerning +the copy, I take this occasion in the most solemn manner to affirm, that +the very copy I delivered to Mr. Rich was written in my own hand, some +months before at the Bath, from my own first foul blotted papers; from +this, that for the playhouse was transcribed, from whence Mr. Steele, +the prompter, copied that which I delivered to the Lord Chamberlain; +and, excepting my own foul blotted papers, I do protest I know of no +other copy whatsoever, than those I have mentioned. + +"The copy which I gave into the hands of Mr. Rich had been seen before +by several persons of the greatest distinction and veracity, who will do +me the honour and justice to attest it; so that not only by them, but by +Mr. Rich and Mr. Steele, I can (against all insinuation or positive +affirmation) prove in the most clear and undeniable manner, if occasion +required, what I have here upon my own honour and credit asserted. The +Introduction, indeed, was not shown to the Lord Chamberlain, which, as I +had not then settled, was never transcribed in the playhouse copy. + +"It was on Saturday morning, December 7th, 1728, that I waited upon the +Lord Chamberlain. I desired to have the honour of reading the Opera to +his Grace, but he ordered me to leave it with him, which I did upon +expectation of having it returned on the Monday following; but I had it +not till Thursday, December 12th, when I received it from his Grace with +this answer, '_that it was not allowed to be acted, but commanded to be +suppressed_.' This was told me in general, without any reason assigned, +or any charge against me, of my having given any particular offence. + +"Since this prohibition, I have been told, that I am accused, in general +terms, of having written many disaffected libels and seditious +pamphlets. As it hath ever been my utmost ambition (if that word may be +used on this ocasion) to lead a quiet and inoffensive life, I thought my +innocence in this particular would never have required a justification; +and as this kind of writing is what I have ever detested, and never +practised, I am persuaded so groundless a calumny can never be believed +but by those who do not know me. But as general aspersions of this sort +have been cast upon me, I think myself called upon to declare my +principles; and I do, with the strictest truth, affirm that I am as +loyal a subject, and as firmly attached to the present happy +establishment, as any of those who have the greatest places or pensions. +I have been informed too, that, in the following play, I have been +charged with writing immoralities; that it is filled with slander, and +calumny against particular great persons, and that Majesty itself is +endeavoured to be brought into ridicule and contempt. + +"As I knew every one of these charges was in every point absolutely +false and without the least grounds, at first I was not at all affected +by them; but when I found they were still insisted upon, and that +particular passages, which were not in the play, were quoted, and +propagated to support what had been suggested, I could no longer bear to +lie under those false accusations; so, by printing it, I have submitted +and given up all present views of profit which might accrue from the +stage; which undoubtedly will be some satisfaction to the worthy +gentlemen who have treated me with so much candour and humanity, and +represented me in such favourable colours. + +"But as I am conscious to myself, that my only intention was to lash, in +general, the reigning of fashionable vices, and to recommend and set +virtue in as amiable light as I could; to justify and vindicate my own +character, I thought myself obliged to print the Opera without delay, in +the manner I have done. + +"As the play was principally designed for representation, I hope, when +it is read, it will be considered in that light; and when all that hath +been said against it shall appear to be entirely misunderstood or +misrepresented; if, some time hence, it should be permitted to appear on +the stage, I think it necessary to acquaint the public that, as far as a +contract of this kind can be binding, I am engaged to Mr. Rich to have +it represented upon his theatre." + + * * * * * + +It cannot be denied that there was adequate ground for the Lord +Chamberlain's _veto_. In "The Beggar's Opera" Gay had beyond all +question lampooned Walpole, and in "Polly" he returned to the attack, +there being no doubt that in the opening scene, Ducat, the West Indian +planter, was intended for the Minister. The production might well have +led to disturbances if both political parties had been represented at +the first performance. Walpole was the least vindictive of men, as +witness his generous attitude towards Sunderland and the other ministers +involved in the scandal of the South Sea "Bubble," but he may well have +thought that Gay was going too far. Gay himself was harmless, but, as +Walpole knew, the author, either consciously or unconsciously, was +acting for the Opposition party; and Walpole, when he thought it worth +while, had a short and effective way with his political enemies. + +The prohibition being largely an affair of party, or at least being so +regarded, a battle royal ensued. "Polly" could not be performed in +public, but, there being no censorship of books, it could be printed. +Gay's friends, therefore, decided that the Opera should be published by +subscription. To a man and a woman the Opposition rallied round the +author. The Duchess of Queensberry "touted" for him everywhere, even at +Court. The King at a Drawing-room asked what she was doing. "What must +be agreeable, I am sure," she replied, "to anyone so humane as your +Majesty, for it is an act of charity, and a charity to which I do not +despair of bringing your Majesty to contribute." This, of course, was a +gratuitous piece of impertinence--for the Lord Chamberlain acts as the +official mouthpiece of the Sovereign--and it could not be overlooked. +Another story is: The Duchess was so vehement in her attempt to have the +embargo removed from Gay's play, that she offered to read it to His +Majesty in his closet, that he might be satisfied there was no offence +in it. George II escaped from this dilemma by saying, he should be +delighted to receive her Grace in his closet, but he hoped to amuse her +better than by the literary employment she proposed.[7] + +Whatever the true story, the day after the Duchess's interview with the +King (February 27th, 1729), William Stanhope, the Vice-Chamberlain, +carried to the Duchess a verbal message not to come to Court; whereupon +she sat down and wrote a letter for him to take to his Majesty. "The +Duchess of Queensberry," so ran her reply, "is surprised and well +pleased that the King hath given her so agreeable a command as to stay +from Court, where she never came for diversion, but to bestow a great +civility on the King and Queen; she hopes by such an unprecedented order +as this is, that the King will see as few as he wishes at his Court, +particularly such as are to think or speak truth. I dare not do +otherwise, and ought not, nor could have imagined that it would not have +been the very highest compliment that I could possibly pay the King to +endeavour to support truth and innocence in his house, particularly when +the King and Queen both told me that they had not read Mr. Gay's play. I +have certainly done right, then, to stand by my own words rather than +his Grace of Grafton's, who hath neither made use of truth, judgment, +nor honour, through this whole affair, either for himself or his +friends."[8] Stanhope read this, and begged the Duchess to reflect +before sending it. She consented to write another letter, did so, and +handed it to him. He chose the first. The Duke of Queensberry supported +his wife, and although the King pressed him to remain, resigned his +office of Admiral of Scotland--though Gay wrote to Swift,[9] "this he +would have done, if the Duchess had not met with this treatment, upon +account of ill-usage from the Ministers," and that this incident +"hastened him in what he had determined." The affair created an immense +sensation in Court circles. "The Duchess of Queensberry is still the +talk of the town. She is going to Scotland," Mrs. Pendarves wrote to +Mrs. Anne Granville, March 14th, 1729.... "My Lady Hervey told her the +other day that 'now she was banished, the Court had lost its chief +ornament,' the Duchess replied, 'I am entirely of your mind.' It is +thought my Lady Hervey spoke to her with a sneer, if so, her Grace's +answer was a very good one."[10] + +One of the immediate results of the campaign was that the apartments +that had been granted to Gay in Whitehall, which belonged to the Crown, +had, by order, to be surrendered. On the other hand, two large editions, +amounting to 10,500 copies, of "Polly, An Opera: being the Second Part +of 'The Beggar's Opera.' Written by Mr. Gay. With the Songs and Basses +engraved on Copper-plates," were printed in 1729, and from the sale Gay +derived between £1,100 and £1,200.[11] In 1777 Colman produced "Polly" +in a revised version, but it failed to attract. + +There was an end of Gay's hopes of Court preferment, that was clear to +every one. It was not unexpected. "I wish John Gay success in his +pursuit," Bolingbroke had written to Swift in June, 1727, "but I think +he has some qualities which will keep him down in the world."[12] When +the worst was known, Arbuthnot wrote to Swift on the following November +30th: "There is certainly a fatality upon poor Gay. As for hope of +preferment [at St. James's], he has laid it aside. He has made a pretty +good bargain (that is, a Smithfield one) for a little place in the +Custom-house, which was to bring him in about a hundred a year. It was +done as a favour to an old man, and not at all to Gay. When everything +was concluded, the man repented, and said he would not part with his +place. I have begged Gay not to buy an annuity upon my life; I am sure I +should not live a week."[13] + + * * * * * + +It may be that Gay thought that he might in time live down the disfavour +at Court in which he had been involved by the Duke and Duchess of +Queensberry and his other partisans. He may even have had a momentary +hope, in 1730, when the office of Poet-Laureate was vacant that the +position might be offered to him, who had written "Fables" for a young +Prince. When Colley Cibber was appointed, Gay probably had it brought +home to him that his day as a courtier had passed for good and all. +Certainly he is credited, though on what authority is not known, with a +share in the burlesque, "Ode for the New Year [1731]. Written by Colley +Cibber, Esq.," in which his disappointment is vented in somewhat coarse +expression. This begins, + + This is the day when, right or wrong, + I, Colley Bays, Esquire, + Must for my sack indite a song, + And thrum my venal lyre. + +The King is attacked, and there is a disgraceful reference to the +Queen:-- + + O may she always meet success + In every scheme and job, + And still continue to caress + That honest statesman Bob. + +That Gay was furious there is no question, and he attacked Walpole in +one of the second series of his "Fables" (which appeared posthumously in +1738), entitled "The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds," which +concluded: + + In days of yore (my cautious rhymes + Always except the present times) + A greedy Vulture, skill'd in game, + Inured to guilt, unawed by shame, + Approach'd the throne in evil hour, + And, step by step, intrudes to power. + When at the royal eagle's ear. + He longs to ease the monarch's care. + The monarch grants. With proud elate, + Behold him, minister of state! + Around him throng the feather'd rout; + Friends must be served, and some must out: + Each thinks his own the best pretension; + This asks a place, and that a pension. + The nightingale was set aside: + A forward daw his room supplied.[14] + This bird (says he), for business fit + Has both sagacity and wit. + With all his turns, and shifts, and tricks, + He's docile, and at nothing sticks. + Then with his neighbours, one so free + At all times will connive at me. + The hawk had due distinction shown, + For parts and talents like his own. + Thousands of hireling cocks attend him, + As blust'ring bullies to defend him. + At once the ravens were discarded, + And magpies with their posts rewarded. + Those fowls of omen I detest, + That pry into another's nest. + State lies must lose all good intent, + For they foresee and croak th' event. + My friends ne'er think, but talk by rote, + Speak when they're taught, and so to vote. + When rogues like these (a Sparrow cries) + To honour and employment rise + I court no favour, ask no place, + From such, preferment is disgrace: + Within my thatch'd retreat I find + (What these ne'er feel) true peace of mind. + +The animus is evident, and it is clear that Gay's sense of humour had +entirely deserted him. A man who had been a hanger-on at Court for more +than ten years, and bidding diligently all the time for a sinecure, +could but arouse laughter when, discarded at length by those in power, +he says proudly, "I court no favour, ask no place." + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_, XVII, p. 182.] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 188.] + +[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 189.] + +[Footnote 4: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 429.] + +[Footnote 5: Swift: _Works_, XVII, p. 205] + +[Footnote 6: _Fortnightly Review_, June, 1912] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 228 (note).] + +[Footnote 8: Hervey: _Memoirs_, I, p. 123.] + +[Footnote 9: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 228.] + +[Footnote 10: Mrs. Delany: _Memoirs_, I, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 11: Nichol: _Literary Anecdotes_, I, p. 405.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 114.] + +[Footnote 13: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 157.] + +[Footnote 14: This appears to be a reference to the appointment of +Cibber as Poet Laureate.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +1729 + +CORRESPONDENCE + + +With the composition of "Polly," the literary life of Gay came +practically to an end, although he survived until December 4th, 1732. +During these four years he worked not at all, save occasionally on the +second series of "Fables." + +After the prohibition of "Polly," Gay, who had been ill during 1728, had +a severe attack of fever, during which he was attended by the faithful +Arbuthnot, and carefully tended by the Duchess of Queensberry. + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO JOHN GAY. + + [_circa_ December, 1728.] + +"No words can tell you the great concern I feel for you; I assure you it +was not, and is not, lessened by the immediate apprehension I have now +every day lain under of losing my mother. Be assured, no duty less than +that should have kept me one day from attending your condition. I would +come and take a room by you at Hampstead, to be with you daily, were she +not still in danger of death. I have constantly had particular accounts +of you from the doctor [Arbuthnot], which have not ceased to alarm me +yet. God preserve your life, and restore your health! I really beg it +for my own sake, for I feel I love you more than I thought in health, +though I always loved you a great deal. If I am so unfortunate as to +bury my poor mother, and yet have the good fortune to have my prayers +heard for you, I hope we may live most of our remaining days together. +If, as I believe, the air of a better clime, as the southern part of +France, may be thought useful for your recovery, thither I would go with +you infallibly; and it is very probable we might get the Dean [Swift] +with us, who is in that abandoned state already in which I shall shortly +be, as to other cares and duties. Dear Gay, be as cheerful as your +sufferings will permit: God is a better friend than a Court: even any +honest man is a better. I promise you my entire friendship in all +events." + + * * * * * + +Gay gradually got well. "I am glad to hear of your recovery, and the +oftener I hear it, the better, when it becomes easy to you to give it," +Pope, who remained a regular correspondent, wrote to him in January, +1729. But, though Gay was better in health, his spirits were low. + + +JOHN GAY TO ALEXANDER POPE. + + [Feb. or March, 1729.] + +"My melancholy increases, and every hour threatens me with some return +of my distemper, nay, I think I may rather say I have it on me. Not the +divine looks, the kind favours, and the expressions of the divine +Duchess, who, hereafter, shall be in the place of a queen to me--nay, +she shall be my queen--nor the inexpressible goodness of the Duke, can +in the least cheer me. The Drawing-room no more receives light from +those two stars. There is now what Milton says is in hell--darkness +visible. Oh, that I had never known what a Court was! Dear Pope, what a +barren soil (to me so) have I been striving to produce something out of. +Why did I not take your advice before my writing Fables for the Duke, +not to write them! It is my very hard fate I must get nothing, write for +them or against them. I find myself in such a strange confusion and +depression of spirits that I have not strength enough even to make my +will, though I perceive by many warnings I have no continuing city here. +I begin to look upon myself as one already dead, and desire, my dear Mr. +Pope, whom I love as my own soul, if you survive me, as you certainly +will, that you will, if a stone should mark the place of my grave, see +these words put upon it:-- + + Life is a jest, and all things show it, + I thought so once, but now I know it, + +with what more you may think proper. If anyone should ask how I could +communicate this after death, let it be known, it is not meant so, but +my present sentiment in life. What the bearer brings besides this +letter, should I die without a will, which I am the likelier to do, as +the law will settle my small estate much as I should do so myself, let +it remain with you, as it has long done with me, the remembrance of a +dead friend; but there is none like you, living or dead." + +Both Swift and Pope remained faithful to Gay, and in their +correspondence there are many allusions to him. "Mr. Gay," wrote Swift +to Pope, "is a scandal to all lusty young fellows with healthy +countenances; and, I think, he is not intemperate in a physical sense. I +am told he has an asthma, which is a disease I commiserate more than +deafness, because it will not leave a man quiet either sleeping or +waking."[1] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + From the Duke of Queensberry's, + Burlington Gardens. + March 18th, 1729. + +"I am but just recovered from the severest fit of sickness that ever +anybody had who escaped death. I was several times given up by the +physicians, and everybody that attended me; and upon my recovery was +judged to be in so ill a condition, that I should be miserable for the +remainder of my life; but contrary to all expectation, I am perfectly +recovered, and have no remainder of the distempers that attacked me, +which were at the same time, fever, asthma, and pleurisy. + +"I am now in the Duke of Queensberry's house, and have been so ever +since I left Hampstead; where I was carried at a time that it was +thought I could not live a day. Since my coming to town, I have been +very little abroad, the weather has been so severe. + +"I must acquaint you (because I know it will please you) that during my +sickness I had many of the kindest proofs of friendship, particularly +from the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, who, if I had been their +nearest relation and nearest friend, could not have treated me with more +constant attendance then; and they continue the same to me now. + +"You must undoubtedly have heard, that the Duchess took up my defence +with the King and Queen, in the cause of my play, and that she has been +forbid the Court for interesting herself to increase my fortune, by the +publication of it without being acted. The Duke, too, has given up his +employment (which he would have done if the Duchess had not met with +this treatment) upon account of ill-usage from the Ministers; but this +hardened him in what he had determined. + +"The play ['Polly '] is now almost printed, with the music, words, and +basses, engraved on thirty-one copper-plates, which, by my friends' +assistance, has a possibility to turn greatly to my advantage. The +Duchess of Marlborough has given me a hundred pounds for one copy; and +others have contributed very handsomely; but as my account is not yet +settled, I cannot tell you particulars. + +"For writing in the cause of virtue, and against the fashionable vices, +I am looked upon at present as the most obnoxious person, almost, in +England. Mr. Pulteney tells me I have got the start of him. Mr. Pope +tells me that I am dead, and that this obnoxiousness is the reward for +my inoffensiveness in my former life. + +"I wish I had a book ready to send you; but I believe I shall not be +able to complete the work till the latter end of next week.... + +"I am impatient to finish my work, for I want the country air; not that +I am ill, but to recover my strength; and I cannot leave my work till it +is finished. + +"While I am writing this, I am in the room next to our dining-room, with +sheets all around it, and two people from the binder folding sheets. I +print the book at my own expense, in quarto, which is to be sold for six +shillings, with the music. + +"You see I do not want industry; and I hope you will allow that I have +not the worst economy. + +"Mrs. Howard has declared herself strongly, both to the King and Queen, +as my advocate. The Duchess of Queensberry is allowed to have shown more +spirit, more honour, and more goodness, than was thought possible in our +times; I should have added, too, more understanding and good sense. + +"You see my fortune (as I hope my virtue will) increases by oppression. +I go to no Courts, I drink no wine; and am calumniated even by Ministers +of State; and yet am in good spirits. + +"Most of the courtiers, though otherwise my friends, refused to +contribute to my undertaking. But the City, and the people of England, +take my part very warmly; and, I am told, the best of the citizens will +give me proofs of it by their contributions. + +"I cannot omit telling you, that Dr. Arbuthnot's attendance and care of +me showed him the best of friends. Dr. Hollins, though entirely a +stranger to me, was joined with him, and used me in the kindest and most +handsome manner."[2] + + * * * * * + +In consequence of this hubbub about "Polly," Gay became a notorious +character, as Arbuthnot in a letter to Swift (March 19th, 1729) remarks +very humorously. "John Gay, I may say with vanity, owes his life, under +God, to the unwearied endeavours and care of your humble servant; for a +physician who had not been passionately his friend could not have saved +him," he wrote. "I had, besides my personal concern for him, other +motives of my care. He is now become a public person, a little +Sacheverell; and I took the same pleasure in saving him, as Radcliffe +did in preserving my Lord Chief Justice Holt's wife, whom he attended +out of spite to her husband, who wished her dead. + +"The inoffensive John Gay is now become one of the obstructions to the +peace of Europe, the terror of Ministers, the chief author of the +_Craftsmen_, and all the seditious pamphlets which have been published +against the Government. He has got several turned out of their places; +the greatest ornament of the Court [the Duchess of Queensberry] banished +from it for his sake; another great lady [Mrs. Howard] in danger of +being _chasée_ likewise; about seven or eight Duchesses pushing forward, +like the ancient circumcelliones in the Church, who shall suffer +martyrdom upon his account at first. He is the darling of the City. If +he should travel about the country he would have hecatombs of roasted +oxen sacrificed to him. Since he became so conspicuous, Will Pulteney +hangs his head to see himself so much outdone in the career of glory. I +hope he will get a good deal of money by printing his play ['Polly']; +but I really believe he would get more money by showing his person; and +I can assure you, this is the very identical John Gay whom you formerly +knew, and lodged in Whitehall, two years ago."[3] + +Gay was now the avowed _protégé_ of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, +so he spent the greater part of his closing years either at their +country seat, Middleton Stoney, Amesbury, in Wiltshire, or at their +London house in Burlington Gardens. + +Gay, who really asked nothing better than to be a pet of the great in +this world, was happy enough. In May, 1729, he went to Scotland with the +Duke of Queensberry, and his only trouble was that the success of +"Polly" made it attractive to unscrupulous booksellers. "He has about +twenty lawsuits with booksellers for pirating his book,"[4] Arbuthnot +wrote to Swift on May 8th. In the following month, the same +correspondent, reports, "Mr. Gay is returned from Scotland, and has +recovered his strength of his journey."[5] + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + August 9th, 1729. + +"I desire you would send word whether white currants be proper to make +tarts: it is a point that we dispute upon every day, and will never be +ended unless you decide it. + +"The Duchess would be extremely glad if you could come here this day +se'nnight; but if you cannot, come this day fortnight at farthest, and +bring as many unlikely people as you can to keep you company. Have you +lain at Marble Hill since we left Petersham? Hath the Duchess an aunt +Thanet[6] alive again? She says there are but two people in the world +that love and fear me--and those are, Lord Drum[lanrig][7] and Lord +Charles [Douglas].[8] If they were awake, I would make them love those +that I love, and say something civil to you. The Duchess hath left off +taking snuff ever since you have; but she takes a little every day. I +have not left it off, and yet take none; my resolution not being so +strong. Though you are a water-drinker yourself, I daresay you will be +sorry to hear that your friends have strictly adhered to that liquor; +for you may be sure their heads cannot be affected with that. + +"General Dormer[9] refused to eat a wheat-ear, because they call it here +a fern-knacker; but since he knew it was a wheat-ear, he is extremely +concerned. You are desired to acquaint Miss Smith that the Duchess was +upon the brink of leaving off painting the first week she came here, but +hath since taken it up with great success. She hopes she will never +think of her and my Lord Castlemaine[10] on the same day. + +"The Duke hath rung the bell for supper, and says, 'How can you write +such stuff?' + + And so we conclude, + As 'tis fitting we should. + For the sake of our food; + So don't think this rude. + Would my name was 'Gertrude,' + Or 'Simon and Jude.'" + +It was an amusement of the Duchess of Queensberry and of Gay to write +joint letters. They thoroughly loved fooling, and frequently indulged +together in that pleasant pastime. + + +Middleton, August 27th, 1729. + +"... What is blotted out was nonsense; so that it is not worth while to +try to read it. It was well meant; the Duchess said it was very obscure, +and I found out that it was not to be understood at all, nor by any +alteration to be made intelligible; so out it went. + +"We have this afternoon been reading Polybius. We were mightily pleased +with the account of the Roman wars with the Gauls; but we did not think +his account of the Achaians, and his remarks upon the historian +Philarchus, so entertaining, as for aught we knew it might be judicious. + +"I know you will be very uneasy unless I tell you what picture the +Duchess hath in hand. It is a round landscape of Paul Brill, which Mr. +Dormer[11] lent her, in which there are figures very neatly finished. It +is larger than any she hath yet done; by the dead colouring I guess +(though her Grace is not very sanguine) it will in the end turn out very +well." + +J.G. + + +"I do not understand which of our correspondents this letter is fit for; +for there is neither wit, folly, nor solid sense, nor even a good +foundation for nonsense, which is the only thing that I am well versed +in. There were all these good things in the delightful letter you sent +us; but as all the different hands are not known, they are unanswerable: +for the future, then, pray sign or come,--the latter is best; for +whoever can write so well must speak so; but now I think we had better +always write for the good of posterity." + +C.Q. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Middleton Stoney, November 9th, 1729. + +"I have been in Oxfordshire with the Duke of Queensberry for these three +months, and have had very little correspondence with any of our friends. + +"I have employed my time in new writing a damned play, which I wrote +several years ago, called 'The Wife of Bath.' As it is approved or +disapproved of by my friends, when I come to town, I shall either have +it acted, or let it alone, if weak brethren do not take offence at it. +The ridicule turns upon superstition, and I have avoided the very words +bribery and corruption. Folly, indeed, is a word that I have ventured to +make use of; but that is a term that never gave fools offence. It is a +common saying, that he is wise that knows himself. What has happened of +late, I think, is a proof that it is not limited to the wise.... + +"Next week, I believe, I shall be in town; not at Whitehall, for those +lodgings were judged not convenient for me, and were disposed of. +Direct to me at the Duke of Queensberry's, in Burlington Gardens, near +Piccadilly. + +"You have often twitted me in the teeth with hankering after the Court. +In that you mistook me: for I know by experience that there is no +dependence that can be sure, but a dependance upon one's-self. I will +take care of the little fortune I have got.[12]" + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 2: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 232.] + +[Footnote 3: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XIX, p. 232.] + +[Footnote 4: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 244.] + +[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 245.] + +[Footnote 6: The great-aunt (not aunt) was Elizabeth, daughter of +Richard Boyle, first Earl of Burlington, who married Nicholas Tufton, +third Earl of Thanet. Elizabeth's sister, Henrietta, who married +Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, was a grandmother of the Duchess of +Queensberry.] + +[Footnote 7: Henry Douglas (1723-1754), known by the style of Earl of +Drumlanrig, the elder son of Charles Douglas, third Duke of Queensberry. +He predeceased his father.] + +[Footnote 8: Lord Charles Douglas (1726-1756), the younger son of the +Duke, who also survived him.] + +[Footnote 9: James Dormer (1678-1741), Colonel, 1720; +Envoy-Extraordinary to Lisbon, 1725; Lieutenant-General, 1737; a friend +of Pope.] + +[Footnote 10: Sir Richard Child, Bart., of Wanstead (d. 1749), created +Viscount Castlemaine, 1718; and Earl Tylney, 1731.] + +[Footnote 11: Mr. Dormer, of Rowsham, elder brother of General Dormer.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift: _Works_ (ed Scott), XVII, p. 277.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +1730 + +CORRESPONDENCE + + +There are few or no details to be discovered about Gay at this time, +except such deductions as can be drawn from his correspondence. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, March 3rd, 1730. + +"I am going very soon into Wiltshire with the Duke of Queensberry. Since +I had that severe fit of sickness, I find my health requires it; for I +cannot bear the town as I could formerly. I hope another summer's air +and exercise will reinstate me. I continue to drink nothing but water, +so that you cannot require any poetry from me. I have been very seldom +abroad since I came to town, and not once at Court. This is no restraint +upon me, for I am grown old enough to wish for retirement.... + +"I have left off all great folks but our own family; perhaps you will +think all great folks little enough to leave off us, in our present +situation. I do not hate the world, but I laugh at it; for none but +fools can be in earnest about a trifle."[1] + + * * * * * + +Earlier in the year Gay had revised his earliest play "The Wife of +Bath," which had been produced unsuccessfully at Drury Lane Theatre on +May 12th, 1713, and the new version was staged on January 19 of this +year at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. "My old vamped play has +got me no money, for it had no success," the author wrote to Swift in +the letter of March 3rd; to which Swift replied from Dublin sixteen days +later: "I had never much hopes of your vamped play, although Mr. Pope +seemed to have, and although it were ever so good; but you should have +done like the parsons, and changed your text--I mean, the title, and the +names of the persons. After all, it was an effect of idleness, for you +are in the prime of life, when invention and judgment go together." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + March 31st, 1730. + +"I expect, in about a fortnight, to set out for Wiltshire.... My +ambition, at present, is levelled to the same point that you direct me +to; for I am every day building villakins, and have given over that of +castles. If I were to undertake it in my present circumstances, I +should, on the most thrifty scheme, soon be straightened; and I hate to +be in debt; for I cannot bear to pawn five pounds' worth of my liberty +to a tailor or a butcher. I grant you this is not having the true spirit +of modern nobility, but it is hard to cure the prejudice of education. + +"I have been extremely taken up of late in settling a steward's account. +I am endeavouring to do all the justice and service I can for a friend, +so I am sure you will think I am well employed."[2] + + * * * * * + +From this letter it will be seen that Gay was endeavouring to make some +return to his host and hostess for their kindness in looking after him +by acting as a private secretary to the Duchess. But it may be taken for +granted that his duties were merely nominal, and it may equally be taken +for granted that his assistance was of little value, and only accepted +nominally in order to lessen the weight of the obligation under which +they thought--probably erroneously--he might be suffering. Why Gay +should have led a life of dependence unless he liked it, it is not easy +to see, for when he died about thirty months later, he left the then not +inconsiderable sum of £6,000. Gay, who never did to-day what could by +any possibility be postponed, neglected, of course, to make a will. As +he died intestate, his fortune was divided between his surviving +sisters, Katherine Bailer and Joanna Fortescue. + +Gay until the end kept up his correspondence with Mrs. Howard, and his +letters to her are often delightful reading, especially when he had +nothing in particular to say, or when he was able to poke kindly fun at +his hostess and protectress. + + +JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + May 9th, 1730. + +"It is what the Duchess never would tell me--so that it is impossible +for me to tell you--_how she does_: but I cannot take it ill, for I +really believe it is what she never really and truly did to anybody in +her life. As I am no physician and cannot do her any good, one would +wonder how she could refuse to answer this question out of common +civility; but she is a professed hater of common civility, and so I am +determined never to ask her again. If you have a mind to know what she +hath done since she came here, the most material things that I know of +is, that she hath worked a rose, and milked a cow, and those two things +I assure you are of more consequence, I verily believe, than hath been +done by anybody else. + +"Mrs. Herbert was very angry with her Grace the night before she left +the town, that she could part with her friends with such an indecent +cheerfulness; she wishes she had seen you at the same time, that she +might have known whether she could have carried this happy indifference +through, or no. She is grown a great admirer of two characters in +Prior's poems, that of "Sauntering Jack and Idle Joan"[3]; and she +thinks them persons worthy imitation: at this very instant she herself +is in their way. She had a mind to write to you, but cannot prevail with +herself to set about it; she is now thinking of Mrs. Herbert, but is too +indolent to tell me to make her compliments to her. Just this minute she +is wishing you were in this very room; but she will not give herself the +trouble to say so to me: all that I know of it is, she looks all this, +for she knows I am writing to you. + +"There is, indeed, a very good reason for her present indolence, for she +is looking upon a book which she seems to be reading; but I believe the +same page hath lain open before her ever since I began this letter. Just +this moment she hath uttered these words: 'that she will take it as a +very great favour if you will speak to Mrs. Herbert to speak to Lord +Herbert, that he would speak to anybody who may chance to go by Mr. +Nix's house, to call upon him to hasten his sending the piece of +furniture, which, perhaps as soon as she receives it, may tempt her to +write to somebody or other that very little expects it';--for she loves +to do things by surprise. She would take it kindly if you write to her +against this thing comes here; for I verily believe she will try whether +or no it be convenient for writing, and perhaps she may make the trial +to you; she did not bid me say this, but as she talks of you often, I +think you have a fair chance. + +"As soon as you are settled at Marble Hill, I beg you will take the +widow's house for me, and persuade the Duchess to come to Petersham. +But, wherever you are, at present I can only wish to be with you: do +what you can for me, and let me hear from you till the Duchess writes +to you. You may write to me, and if you express any resentment against +her for not writing, I will let her know it in what manner you shall +please to direct me." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Amesbury, July 4th, 1730. + +"I have left off wine and writing; for I really think, that man must be +a bold writer, who trusts to wit without it. + +"I took your advice; and some time ago took to love, and made some +advances to the lady you sent me to in Soho, but met no return; so I +have given up all thoughts of it, and have now no pursuit or amusement. + +"A state of indolence is what I do not like; it is what I would not +choose. I am not thinking of a Court or preferment, for I think the lady +I live with is my friend, so that I am at the height of my ambition. You +have often told me there is a time of life that every one wishes for +some settlement of his own. I have frequently that feeling about me, but +I fancy it will hardly ever be my lot: so that I will endeavour to pass +away life as agreeably as I can, in the way I am. I often wish to be +with you, or you with me; and I believe you think I say true."[4] + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO JOHN GAY. + + Twickenham, July 21st, 1730. + +"If you consider this letter splenetic, consider I have just received +the news of the death of a friend, whom I esteemed almost as many years +as you--poor Fenton. He died at Easthampstead, of indolence and +inactivity; let it not be your fate, but use exercise. I hope the +Duchess [of Queensberry] will take care of you in this respect, and +either make you gallop after her, or tease you enough at home to serve +instead of exercise abroad. + +"Mrs. Howard is so concerned about you, and so angry at me for not +writing to you, and at Mrs. Blount for not doing the same, that I am +piqued with jealousy and envy at you, and hate you as much as if you had +a place at Court, which you will confess a proper cause of envy and +hatred, in any poet, militant or unpensioned." + + +JOHN GAY AND THE DUCHESS OF QUEENSBERRY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + Amesbury, August 20th, 1730. + +"The Duchess says she cannot say a word more, if I would give her the +world, and that her misery hath got the better of her pleasure in +writing to you. She thanks you for your information, and says, that if +she can bear herself, or think that anybody else can, she intends to +make her visit next week. Now, it is my opinion that she need never have +any scruples of this kind; but as to herself, you know she hath often an +unaccountable way of thinking, and, say what you will to her, she will +now and then hear you, but she will always think and act for herself. I +have been waiting three or four minutes for what she hath to say, and at +last she tells me she cannot speak one word more, and at the same time +is so very unreasonable as to desire you would write her a long letter, +as she knows you love it. + +"I have several complaints to make to you of her treatment, but I shall +only mention the most barbarous of them. She hath absolutely forbid her +dog to be fond of me, and takes all occasions to snub her if she shows +me the least civility. How do you think Lord Herbert would take such +usage from you, or any lady in Christendom? + +"Now she says I must write you a long letter; but to be sure I cannot +say what I would about her, because she is looking over me as I write. +If I should tell any good of her, I know she would not like it, and I +have said my worst of her already." + +J.G. + +"Do not think I am lazy, and so have framed an excuse, for I am really +in pain (at some moments intolerable since this was begun). I think +often I could be mighty glad to see you; and though you deserve vastly, +that is saying much from me (for I can bear to be alone) and upon all +accounts think I am much better here than anywhere else. I think to go +on and prosper mighty prettily here, and like the habitation so well +(that if I could in nature otherwise be forgetful) that would put me in +mind of what I owe to those who helped me on to where I wished to be +sooner than I feared I could be. Pray tell Miss Meadows that I was in +hopes she would have made a dutiful visit to her father. If anyone else +care for my respects, they may accept of them. I will present them to +Lord Herbert, whether he care or not. I hope by this time he is able to +carry himself and Fop wherever he pleases. If I had the same power over +you I would not write you word that I am yours, etc.; but since I can +only write, believe that I am to you everything that you have ever read +at the bottom of a letter, but not that I am so only by way of +conclusion." + +C.Q. + + +JOHN GAY AND THE DUCHESS OF QUEENSBERRY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + [Amesbury] Saturday, September, 1730. + +"I cannot neglect this opportunity of writing to you and begging you to +be a mediator between my lady duchess and me; we having at present a +quarrel about a fishing rod; and at the same time to give her your +opinion whether you think it proper for her to stay here till after +Christmas, for I find that neither place nor preferment will let me +leave her; and when she hath been long enough in one place, prevail with +her, if you can, to go to another. I would always have her do what she +will, because I am glad to be of her opinion, and because I know it is +what I must always do myself." + +J.G. + +"To follow one's fancy is by much the best medicine; it has quite cured +my face and left me no pain but the impossibility of being in two places +at once, which is no small sorrow, since one of them would be near you. +But the boys [Lord Drumlanrig and Lord Charles Douglas] are too lean to +travel as yet. Compassion being the predominant fashion of the place, we +are preserved alive with as much care as the partridges, which no one +yet has had the heart to kill, though several barbarous attempts have +been made. If I could write I would for ever, but my pen is so much your +friend that it will only let me tell you that I am extremely so. + +"I pray it may not be difficult for my dear Mrs. Howard to forgive, as +to read this provocation. By the next I hope to write plain." + +C.Q. + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO JOHN GAY. + + October, 1730. + +"I continue, and ever shall, to wish you all good and happiness. I wish +that some lucky event might set you in a state of ease and independency +all at once, and that I might live to see you as happy as this silly +world and fortune can make anyone. Are we never to live together more as +once we did?" + + +THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY. + + October 3rd, 1730. + +"I hear you have had a house full of courtiers, and, what is more +extraordinary, they were honest people; but I will take care, agreeably +to your desire, that you shall not increase the number. I wish I could +as easily gratify you in your other request about a certain person [the +Duchess of Queensberry]'s health; but, indeed, John, that is not in my +power. I have often thought it proceeds from thinking better of herself +than she does of anybody else; for she has always confidence to inquire +after those she calls friends, and enough assurance to give them +advice; at the same time, she will not answer a civil question about +herself, and would certainly never follow any advice that was given her: +you plainly see she neither thinks well of their heart or their head. I +believe I have told you as much before; but a settled opinion of +anything will naturally lead one into the same manner of expressing +one's thoughts." + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, November 10th, 1730. + +"I hope you have now one advantage that you always wanted before, and +the want of which made your friends as uneasy as it did yourself; I mean +the removal of that solicitude about your own affairs, which perpetually +filled your thoughts and disturbed your conversation. For if it be true, +what Mr. Pope seriously tells me, you will have opportunity of saving +every groat of the interest you receive; and so, by the time you and he +grow weary of each other, you will be able to pass the rest of your +wineless life in ease and plenty; with the additional triumphal comfort +of never having received a penny from those tasteless, ungrateful people +from which you deserved so much, and which deserve no better geniuses +than those by whom they are celebrated."[5] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Amesbury, December 6th, 1730. + +"The Duchess is a more severe check upon my finances than ever you were; +and I submit, as I did to you, to comply to my own good. I was a long +time before I could prevail with her to let me allow myself a pair of +shoes with two heels; for I had lost one, and the shoes were so decayed +that they were not worth mending. You see by this that those who are the +most generous of their own, can be the most covetous for others. I hope +you will be so good to me as to use your interest with her (for what +ever she says, you seem to have some) to indulge me with the +extravagance suitable to my fortune."[6] + + +DUCHESS OF QUEENSBERRY AND JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD. + + December 17th [1730]. + +"You cannot imagine in what due time your letter came; for I had given +you up, and with great pains had very near brought our friend Mr. Gay to +own that nobody cared for us, and a few more thoughts which shall now be +nameless. I am sincerely sorry that you have been ill, and very very +glad that you are better and think of life; for I know none whom one +could more wish to have life than yourself. I do not in the least +approve of your changing your way of thinking of me, for I was convinced +it was a good one, and when such opinions change, it is seldom for the +better; if it could on my account, I declare you would be in the wrong, +for to my knowledge I improve in no one thing. The best thing I can say +for myself is, that I feel no alteration in the regard and inclination I +have to you. I have no comprehension of what I said in my letter; but at +that time my body was distempered, and very likely my mind also.... I +know nothing of coming to town; I only know that when I do I shall not +be sorry to see you; and this is knowing a great deal; for I shall not +be glad to come, and shall only come if it be unavoidable: this is the +blunt truth. I own it would look less like indifference if I had written +some civil lie." + +C.Q. + + +"Everything that is above written is so plain and clear that it needs no +comment; the writer I know to be so strictly addicted to truth, that I +believe every word of it; if it is not written in the fashionable +expression, I conclude you will impute it to her manner. She was really +concerned very much, that, after she knew you were ill, we were so long +before we could get a letter from you: let her contradict this if she +can. You tell her you are riding for your life; I fancy she would do it +for yours, though she will not for her own. I believe that she will not +like that I should say anything more about her; so that I shall leave +you to your own thoughts about what she hath said herself; for I find +she doth not much care to be talked to, and as little likes to be talked +of: if she writes truth, I hope she will allow me the liberty to do the +same.... I have sometimes a great mind to answer the above letter, but I +know she will do what she will; and as little as she likes herself, she +likes her own advice better than anybody's else, and that is a reason, +in my opinion, that should prevail with her to take more care of +herself. I just before said I would say no more upon this subject; but +if I do not lay down the pen, I find I cannot help it. I have no desire +to come to town at all; for if I were there I cannot see you; so that +unless she turns me away I am fixed for life at Amesbury: so that, as to +everything that relates to me, I refer you to her letters." + +J.G. + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 292.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 295.] + +[Footnote 3: + + Neither good nor bad, nor fool nor wise, + They would not learn nor could advise; + Without love, hatred, joy, or fear, + They led a kind of--as it were; + Nor wish'd nor cared, nor laugh'd nor cried: + And so they lived, and so they died.] + +[Footnote 4: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 308.] + +[Footnote 5: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 319.] + +[Footnote 6: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 333] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +1731 + +CORRESPONDENCE + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, April 13th, 1731. + +"Your situation is an odd one. The Duchess is your treasurer, and Mr. +Pope tells me you are the Duke's. And I had gone a good way in some +verses on that occasion, prescribing lessons to direct your conduct, in +a negative way, not to do so and so, etc., like other treasurers; how to +deal with servants, tenants, or neighbouring squires, which I take to be +courtiers, parliaments, and princes in alliance, and so the parallel +goes on, but grew too long to please me."[1] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + April 21st, 1731. + +"Since I have got over the impediment to a writer, of water drinking, if +I can persuade myself that I have any wit, and find I have inclination, +I intend to write; though, as yet, I have another impediment: for I have +not provided myself with a scheme. Ten to one but I shall have a +propensity to write against vice, and who can tell how far that may +offend? But an author should consult his genius, rather than his +interest, if he cannot reconcile them."[2] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Amesbury, April 27th, 1731. + +"When I was in town (after a bashful fit, for having writ something like +a love-letter, and in two years making one visit), I writ to Mrs. +Drelincourt, to apologise for my behaviour, and received a civil answer, +but had not time to see her. They are naturally very civil: so that I am +not so sanguine as to interpret this as any encouragement. I find by +Mrs. Barber that she interests herself very much in her affair; and, +indeed, from everybody who knows her, she answers the character you +first gave me.... + +"You used to blame me for over-solicitude about myself. I am now grown +so rich, that I do not think myself worth thinking on."[3] + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, June 29th, 1731. + +"You are the silliest lover in Christendom. If you like Mrs. +[Drelincourt], why do you not command her to take you? If she does not, +she is not worth pursuing; you do her too much honour; she has neither +sense nor taste, if she dares to refuse you, though she had ten thousand +pounds. + +"I cannot allow you rich enough till you are worth £7,000, which will +bring you £300 per annum, and this will maintain you, with the +perquisite of spunging, while you are young, and when you are old will +afford you a pint of port at night, two servants, and an old maid, a +little garden, and pen and ink--provided you live in the country. And +what are you doing towards increasing your fame and your fortune? Have +you no scheme, either in verse or prose? The Duchess should keep you at +hard meat, and by that means force you to write."[4] + + +THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK TO JOHN GAY. + + Hampton Court, June 29th, 1731. + +"To prevent all further quarrels and disputes, I shall let you know that +I have kissed hands for the place of Mistress of the Robes. Her Majesty +did me the honour to give me the choice of Lady of the Bedchamber, or +that, which I find so much more agreeable to me, that I did not take one +moment to consider of it. The Duchess of Dorset resigned it for me; and +everything as yet promises more happiness for the latter part of my life +than I have yet had a prospect of. Seven nights' quiet sleep, and seven +easy days have almost worked a miracle upon me; for if I cannot say I am +perfectly well, yet it is certain even my pain is more supportable than +it was. I shall now often visit Marble Hill; my time is become very much +my own, and I shall see it without the dread of being obliged to sell it +to answer the engagement I had put myself under to avoid a greater evil. +Mr. H[oward] took possession of body and goods, and was not prevailed +upon till yesterday to resign the former for burial. Poor Lord Suffolk +took so much care in the will he made, that the best lawyers say it must +stand good. I am persuaded it will be tried to the uttermost. + +"I have at this time a great deal of business upon my hands, but not +from my Court employment. You must take as a particular favour. The +Duchess of Queensberry shall hear from me soon: she has a most +extraordinary way of making her peace; but she does tell truth, and I +told a lie when I said I hated her; for nothing is more true than that I +love her most sincerely. However, I put it into your hands to tell her +what you think proper; and if she can but feel half for me that I should +for her under the same circumstances, it will be punishment sufficient +for what I have suffered from her neglect of me. I shall certainly see +Highclere this summer, and shall expect some people to meet me there. I +hope the chairs will be done, for I do not know whether I ought to +expect to be preferred before them. If you find her inclined to think me +wrong in any particular, desire her to suspend her judgment till then; +and if not to please me, to satisfy her own curiosity, she may come. I +have taken care of what you desired me. I have done my best; I hope, for +my sake, it will succeed well, for I shall be more concerned, I dare +say, if it should not than you would be." + + +JOHN GAY TO THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK. + + July 8th, 1731. + +"Your letter was not ill-bestowed, for I found in it such an air of +satisfaction that I have a pleasure every time I think of it. I fancy +(though by her silence she seems to approve of your Ladyship's conduct) +the Duchess will meet you at Highclere; for those that have a real +friendship cannot be satisfied with real relations; they want to inquire +into the minutest circumstances of life, that they may be sure things +are as happy as they appear to be, and that is a curiosity that is +excusable. + +"I do not like lawsuits; I wish you could have your right without them, +for I fancy there never was one since the world began, that, besides the +cost, was not attended with anxiety and vexation. But as you descended +from lawyers,[5] what might be my plague, perhaps may be only your +amusement. Nobody but yourself hath let us know anything about you. +Judge, then, how welcome your ladyship's letter was to me. I find this +change of life of yours is a subject that I cannot so well write upon; +it is a thing that one cannot so well judge of in general. But as for +your Ladyship's conduct in this juncture, my approbation goes for +nothing, for all the world knows that I am partial. + +"When you have a mind to make me happy, write to me, for of late I have +had but very little chance, and only chance, of seeing you. If ever you +thought well of me, if ever you believed I wished you well, and wished +to be of service to you, think the same of me, for I am the same, and +shall always be so. + +"Mr. Pope, I fear, is determined never to write to me. I hope he is +well. If you see Miss Blount or Mr. Pope, I beg them to accept my +compliments." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + July 18th, 1731. + +"Your friend Mrs. Howard is now Countess of Suffolk. I am still so much +a dupe, that I think you mistake her. Come to Amesbury, and you and I +will dispute this matter, and the Duchess shall be judge. But I fancy +you will object against her; for I will be so fair to you, as to own +that I think she is of my side; but, in short, you shall choose any +impartial referee you please. I have heard from her; Mr. Pope has seen +her; I beg that you would suspend your judgment till we talk over this +affair together; for, I fancy, by your letter, you have neither heard +from her, nor seen her; so that you cannot at present be as good a judge +as we are. I will be a dupe for you at any time; therefore I beg it of +you, that you would let me be a dupe in quiet. + +"As to my being manager for the Duke, you have been misinformed. Upon +the discharge of an unjust steward, he took the administration into his +own hands. I own I was called in to his assistance, when the state of +affairs was in the greatest confusion. Like an ancient Roman I came, put +my helping hand to set affairs right, and as soon as it was done, I am +retired again as a private man."[6] + + +THE COUNTESS OF SUFFOLK TO JOHN GAY. + + Kensington, September 5th, 1731. + +"I was never more peevish in my life than I have been about this journey +of Bridgeman's. I am sure I took true pains that it should have been +just as the Duchess wished. I find upon enquiry that he did not go as +soon as I expected. He told me of the first letter which he wrote to +you. + +"I wish he had told me of Mr. Bloodworth's conversation, for that would +have prevented all mistakes. It is not in my power to do anything more, +for Bridgeman has been absent a week from hence; but if his servants +tell truth, there is no occasion, for they say he is gone to the Duke of +Queensberry's. + +"I shall be very uneasy till I hear how this matter has ended. A letter +from you was not necessary to make me remember you, but a letter was +absolutely necessary to make me think you deserved one. The Duchess did +not tell me why I did not see you at Highclere, but I do believe it was +a good one; because she knows bringing of you there would have pleased +us both. As I never knew what liberty was, I cannot tell you how much I +was delighted with this summer's expeditions. I never see Mr. Pope nor +Mrs. Blount, though I never go to Marble Hill without sending to them. +She has been ill, but was well last time I sent; but you know she has a +peculiar pleasure in refusing her friends. + +"Let me hear often from you. I am glad you think of coming to +Twickenham. I hope we shall meet at Marble Hill; but do not fail of +letting me know as soon as possible whether the Duchess is convinced I +was in no wise in fault, and that she does me the justice in believing I +can never willingly be so to me. If you do not leave off _ladyship_, I +shall complain to the Duchess, who shall make you go supperless to bed. +Exercise agrees so well with me, that I cannot advise you not to use it; +but if her Grace feeds you moderately, I should think your exercise +ought to be so. God bless you." + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + December 1st, 1731. + +"If your ramble was on horse back, I am glad of it on account of your +health; but I know your arts of patching up a journey between +stage-coaches and friends' coaches: for you are as arrant a cockney as +any hosier in Cheapside, and one clean shirt with two cravats, and as +many handkerchiefs, make up your equipage; and as for a nightgown, it is +clear from Homer that Agamemnon rose without one. + +"I have often had it in my head to put it into yours, that you ought to +have some great work in scheme, that may take up seven years to finish, +besides two or three under-ones, that may add another thousand pounds to +your stock; and then I shall be in less pain about you. + +"I know you can find dinners, but you love twelvepenny coaches too well, +without considering that the interest of a whole thousand pounds brings +you but half-a-crown a day." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + December 1st, 1731 + +"You used to complain that Mr. Pope and I would not let you speak: you +may now be even with me, and take it out in writing. If you do not send +to me now and then, the post-office will think me of no consequence, for +I have no correspondent but you. You may keep as far from us as you +please; you cannot be forgotten by those who ever knew you, and +therefore please me by sometimes showing I am not forgot by you. I have +nothing to take me off from my friendship to you: I seek no new +acquaintance, and court no favour; I spend no shillings in coaches or +chairs to levées or great visits, and, as I do not want the assistance +of some that I formerly conversed with, I will not so much as seem to +seek to be a dependant. + +"As to my studies, I have not been entirely idle, though I cannot say +that I have yet perfected anything. What I have done is something in the +way of those Fables I have already published. + +"All the money I get is saving, so that by habit there may be some hopes +(if I grow richer) of my becoming a miser. All misers have their +excuses. The motive to my parsimony is independence."[7] + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 358] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 342.] + +[Footnote 3: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 370.] + +[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., XVII, p. 382.] + +[Footnote 5: Lady Suffolk's great-great-great-grandfather was Sir Henry +Hobart, Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas.] + +[Footnote 6: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 385.] + +[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 436.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +1732 + +DEATH + + +As time passed Gay became less satisfied with his condition. It may have +been that his health became worse; or it may be that, like to many men +who are idle and make no effort to work, he became annoyed at the +_ennui_ which is so often the result of an unoccupied life. Anyhow, in +his letters there crept in a note of irritability, which has not +previously been sounded. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + March 13th, 1732. + +"I find myself dispirited for want of having some pursuit. Indolence and +idleness are the most tiresome things in the world. I begin to find a +dislike to society. I think I ought to try to break myself of it, but I +cannot resolve to set about it. I have left off almost all my great +acquaintance, which saves me something in chair hire, though in that +article the town is still very expensive. Those who were your old +acquaintance are almost the only people I visit; and, indeed, upon +trying all, I like them best.... + +"If you would advise the Duchess to confine me four hours a-day to my +own room, while I am in the country, I will write; for I cannot confine +myself as I ought."[1] + + +DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY. + + Dublin, May 4th, 1732. + +"It is your pride or laziness, more than chair-hire, that makes the town +expensive. No honour is lost by walking in the dark; and in the day, +you may beckon a blackguard boy under a gate [to clean your shoes] near +your visiting place (_experto crede_), save eleven pence, and get half a +crown's-worth of health ... + +"I find by the whole cast of your letter, that you are as giddy and +volatile as ever: just the reverse of Mr. Pope, who has always loved a +domestic life from his youth. I was going to wish you had some little +place that you could call your own, but, I profess I do not know you +well enough to contrive any one system of life that would please you. +You pretend to preach up riding and walking to the Duchess, yet from my +knowledge of you after twenty years, you always joined a violent desire +of perpetually shifting places and company, with a rooted laziness, and +an utter impatience of fatigue. A coach and six horses is the utmost +exercise you can bear; and this only when you can fill it with such +company as is best suited to your taste, and how glad would you be if it +could waft you in the air to avoid jolting; while I, who am so much +later in life, can, or at least could, ride five hundred miles on a +trotting horse. You mortally hate writing, only because it is the thing +you chiefly ought to do, as well to keep up the vogue you have in the +world, as to make you easy in your fortune: you are merciful to +everything but money your best friend, whom you treat with +inhumanity."[2] + + * * * * * + +In May was first performed at the Haymarket Theatre "Acis and Galatea," +of which he wrote the "book" and Handel the music; but this was not work +upon which he had been lately engaged--in fact, both words and music had +been ready for ten years. Gay, however, did occasionally put in some +time on literary work, and at his death left the "book" of an opera +"Achilles," which was produced on February 10th, 1733, at the scene of +his triumph with "The Beggar's Opera," the theatre in Lincoln's Inn +Fields; "The Distrest Wife" and a farce, "The Rehearsal at Goatham," +which last were printed, respectively, in 1743 and 1754. He was at this +time composing very leisurely a second series of "Fables," which were +ready for the press at the time of his death, but did not appear until +1738. + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + London, May 19th, 1732. + +"You seemed not to approve of my writing more Fables. Those I am now +writing have a prefatory discourse before each of them, by way of +epistle, and the morals of them mostly are of the political kind; which +makes them run into a greater length than those I have already +published. I have already finished about fifteen or sixteen; four or +five more would make a volume of the same size as the first. Though this +is a kind of writing that appears very easy, I find it the most +difficult of any I ever undertook. After I have invented one fable, and +finished it, I despair of finding out another; but I have a moral or two +more, which I wish to write upon. + +"I have also a sort of a scheme to raise my finances by doing something +for the stage: with this, and some reading, and a great deal of +exercise, I propose to pass my summer. + +"As for myself, I am often troubled with the colic. I have as much +inattention, and have, I think, lower spirits than usual, which I impute +to my having no one pursuit in life."[3] + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + Amesbury, July 24th, 1732. + +"I shall finish the work I intended, this summer,[4] but I look upon the +success in every respect to be precarious. You judge very right of my +present situation, that I cannot propose to succeed by favour: but I do +not think, if I could flatter myself that I had any degree of merit, +much could be expected from that unfashionable pretension. + +"I have almost done everything I proposed in the way of Fables; but +have not set the last hand to them. Though they will not amount to half +the number, I believe they will make much such another volume as the +last. I find it the most difficult task I ever undertook; but have +determined to go through with it; and, after this, I believe I shall +never have courage enough to think any more in this way."[5] + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO JOHN GAY. + + October 2nd, 1732. + +"Every man, and every boy, is writing verses on the royal hermitage: I +hear the Queen is at a loss which to prefer; but for my own part I like +none so well as Mr. Poyntz's[6] in Latin. You would oblige my Lady +Suffolk if you tried your muse on this occasion. I am sure I would do as +much for the Duchess of Queensberry, if she desired it. Several of your +friends assure me it is expected from you. One should not bear in mind +all one's life, any little indignity one receives from a Court, and +therefore I am in hopes, neither her Grace of Queensberry will hinder +you, nor you decline it." + + * * * * * + +The "royal hermitage" was a building erected by Queen Caroline in the +grounds of Richmond Palace, and decorated with busts of her favourite +philosophers. This letter of Pope seems extraordinary, and it is a +little difficult to guess what inspired the suggestion contained in it. +"This is but shabby advice," Croker has written, "considering the +general tone of Pope's private correspondence, as well as his published +satires, and seems peculiarly strange in the circumstances in which Gay +himself and the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, on his account, stood +with the Queen. If it were not for the introduction of Lady Suffolk's +name, I should have thought Pope's advice sheer irony, and a hint for a +libel on the Court. The Duchess and Gay were offended at the +proposition." It may be, however, that Pope thought it possible that +such a poetical effusion as he had in mind might restore Gay to favour +at Court. Gay, who received Pope's letter while he was on a visit to +Orchard Wyndham, the seat of Sir William Wyndham, in Somersetshire, +would do nothing in the matter, as will be seen from his reply. + + +JOHN GAY TO ALEXANDER POPE. + + October 7th, 1732. + +"I am at last returned from my Somersetshire expedition, but since my +return I cannot boast of my health as before I went, for I am frequently +out of order with my colical complaint, so as to make me uneasy and +dispirited, though not to any violent degree. The reception we met with, +and the little excursions we made, were in every way agreeable. I think +the country abounds with beautiful prospects. Sir William Wyndham is at +present amusing himself with some real improvements, and a great many +visionary castles. We are often entertained with sea-views, and sea +fish, and were at some places in the neighbourhood, among which I was +mightily pleased with Dunster Castle, near Minehead. It stands upon a +great eminence, and has a prospect of that town, with an extensive view +of the Bristol Channel, in which are seen two small islands, called the +Steep Holms and Flat Holms, and on the other side we could plainly +distinguish the divisions of fields on the Welsh coast. All this journey +I performed on horseback, and I am very much disappointed that at +present I feel myself so little the better for it. I have indeed +followed riding and exercise for three months successively, and really +think I was as well without it: so that I begin to fear the illness I +have so long complained of, is inherent in my constitution, and that I +have nothing for it but patience. + +"As to your advice about writing panegyric, it is what I have not +frequently done. I have indeed done it sometimes against my judgment +and inclination, and I heartily repent of it. And at present, as I have +no desire of reward, and see no just reason of praise, I think I had +better let it alone. There are flatterers good enough to be found, and I +would not interfere in any gentleman's profession. I have seen no verses +on these sublime occasions, so that I have no emulation. Let the patrons +enjoy the authors, and the authors their patrons, for I know myself +unworthy." + + +JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT. + + November 16th, 1732. + +"I am at last come to London before the family, to follow my own +inventions. In a week or fortnight I expect the family will follow me. + +"If my present project[7] succeeds, you may expect a better account of +my own fortune a little while after the holidays; but I promise myself +nothing, for I am determined that neither anybody else, nor myself shall +disappoint me."[8] + + * * * * * + +Neither the production of "Achilles," nor any other earthly project of +Gay's, took place, for, within a few weeks, on December 4th, after three +days' illness, he passed away in his forty-eighth year, at the Duke of +Queensberry's town house in Burlington Gardens. + +On the following day, Arbuthnot, who attended him, imparted the sad +tidings to Pope: "Poor Mr. Gay died of an inflammation, and, I believe, +at last a mortification of the bowels; it was the most precipitous case +I ever knew, having cut him off in three days. He was attended by two +physicians besides myself. I believed the distemper mortal from the +beginning."[9] Pope, in his turn, immediately wrote to Swift, and his +letter was found among Swift's papers, bearing the following +endorsement: "On my dear friend Mr. Gay's death. Received December +15th, but not read till the 20th, by an impulse foreboding some +misfortune." + + +ALEXANDER POPE TO DEAN SWIFT. + + December 5th, 1732. + +"It is not a time to complain that you have not answered me two letters +(in the last of which I was impatient under some fears). It is not now, +indeed, a time to think of myself, when one of the longest and nearest +ties I have ever had, is broken all on a sudden by the unexpected death +of poor Mr. Gay. An inflammatory fever burned him out of this life in +three days. He died last night at nine o'clock, not deprived of his +senses entirely at last, and possessing them perfectly till within five +hours. He asked of you a few hours before, when in acute torment by the +inflammation in his bowels and breast. His effects are in the Duke of +Queensberry's custody. His sisters, we suppose, will be his heirs, who +are two widows; as yet it is not known whether or no he left a will ... + +"I shall never see you now, I believe; one of your principal calls to +England is at an end. Indeed, he was the most amiable by far, his +qualities were the gentlest, but I love you as well and as firmly. Would +to God the man we have lost had not been so amiable nor so good: but +that's a wish for our own sakes, not for his. Surely, if innocence and +integrity can deserve happiness, it must be his. Adieu! I can add +nothing to what you will feel, and diminish nothing from it."[10] + + * * * * * + +Gay's body was removed from Burlington House on the morning of December +23rd, to Exeter Change, in the Strand, where it lay in state during the +day. At nine o'clock in the evening, it was taken for burial to +Westminster Abbey in a hearse with plumes of white and black feathers +and appropriate escutcheons, attended by three coaches, each drawn by +six horses. In the first coach was the principal mourner, Gay's nephew, +the Rev. Joseph Bailer, who is responsible for the above account of the +obsequies; in the second coach were the Duke of Queensberry and +Arbuthnot. The pall-bearers were Lord Chesterfield, Lord Cornbury, the +Hon. Mr. Berkeley, General Dormer, Mr. Gore, and Pope. The service was +read by the Dean of Westminster, Dr. Wilcox, Bishop of Rochester. Gay's +remains were deposited in the south cross aisle of the Abbey, over +against Chaucer's tomb.[11] Later a monument was erected to his memory. + + Here lie the ashes of Mr. John Gay, + The warmest friend; + The most benevolent man: + Who maintained + Independency + In low circumstances of fortune; + Integrity + In the midst of a corrupt age + And that equal serenity of mind, + Which conscious goodness alone can give, + Through the whole course of his life. + + Favourite of the Muses, + He was led by them to every elegant art; + Refin'd in taste, + And fraught with graces all his own; + In various kinds of poetry + Superior to many, + Inferior to none, + His words continue to inspire, + What his example taught, + Contempt of folly, however adorn'd; + Detestation of vice, however dignified; + Reverence of virtue, however disgrac'd. + +Charles and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Queensbury, who loved this +excellent man living, and regret him dead, have caused this monument to +be erected to his memory. Pope, than whom no man loved him better, +composed an epitaph for him:-- + + Of manners gentle, of affections mild, + In wit a man, simplicity a child; + With native humour, temp'ring virtuous rage, + Form'd to delight at once, and lash the age. + Above temptation in a low estate, + And uncorrupted e'en among the great. + A safe companion, and an easy friend, + Unblam'd through life, lamented in thy end: + These are thy honours! not that here thy bust + Is mix'd with heroes, or with Kings thy dust; + But that the worthy and the good shall say, + Striking their pensive bosoms--Here lies Gay. + +Of Gay's posthumous works, there are several references in the +correspondence of his friends. The first mention is concerning +"Achilles," in a letter written from Twickenham by Pope to Caryll: "Poor +Gay has gone before, and has not left an honester man behind him; he has +just put a play into the house, which the Duke of Queensberry will take +care of, and turn to the benefit of his relations. I have read it, and +think it of his very best manner, a true original; he has left some +other pieces fit for the press." Quite in keeping with his character Gay +had made no arrangements for the disposal of the manuscripts he left +behind him. "As to his writings, he left no will, nor spoke a word of +them, or anything else, during his short and precipitate illness, in +which I attended him to his last breath," Pope informed Swift, February +16th, 1733. "The Duke has acted more than the part of a brother to him, +and it will be strange if the sisters do not leave his papers totally at +his disposal, who will do the same that I would with them. He had +managed the comedy (which our poor friend gave to the playhouse a week +before his death) to the utmost advantage for his relations; and +proposes to do the same with some Fables he left unfinished."[12] The +play was much discussed in advance of its representation. + +"Mr. Gay has left a posthumous work, which is soon to be acted," Lady +Anne Irvine wrote to Lord Carlisle on January 6th, 1733. "Tis in the +manner of 'The Beggar's Opera,' interspersed with songs; the subject is +Achilles among the women, where he is discovered choosing a sword. The +design is to ridicule Homer's Odysses; 'tis much commended, and I don't +doubt, from the nature of the subject, will be much approved."[13] Gay's +play was put into rehearsal in December, 1732, about a fortnight after +his death,[14] and it was produced at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn +Fields in February, 1723, when a contemporary account says it "met with +a general applause the first night, when there was a noble and crowded +audience,"[15] and Pope wrote to Swift on February 16th: "The play Mr. +Gay left succeeds very well. It is another original of its kind."[16] It +ran for eighteen nights. The cast was as follows:-- + +_Lycomedes_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. QUIN +_Diphilus_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. ASTON +_Achilles_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. SALWAY +_Ulysses_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. CHAPMAN +_Diomedes_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. LAGUERRE +_Ajax_ ... ... ... ... ... ... MR. HALL +_Periphas_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. WALKER +_Agyrtes_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. LEVERIDGE +_Thetis_ ... ... ... ... ... MR. BUCHANAN +_Theaspe_ ... ... ... ... ... MRS. CANTREL +_Deïdamia_ ... ... ... ... ... MISS NORSA +_Lesbia_ ... ... ... ... ... MISS BINKS +_Philoe_ ... ... ... ... ... MISS OATES +_Antemona_ ... ... ... ... ... MRS. EGLETON + +"The Distrest Wife," another of the posthumous plays, was a poor thing, +and Swift was much annoyed that it was staged. "As to our poor friend, I +think the Duke of Queensberry has acted a very noble and generous +part," Swift wrote to Pope, March 31st, 1734. "But before he did it, I +wish there had been so much cunning used as to have let the sisters know +that he expected they would let him dispose of Mr. Gay's writings as +himself and other friends should advise. And I heartily wish his Grace +had entirely stifled that comedy, if it were possible, than do an injury +to our friend's reputation, only to get a hundred or two pounds to a +couple of, perhaps, insignificant women. It has been printed here, and I +am grieved to say it is a very poor performance. I have often chid Mr. +Gay for not varying his schemes, but still adhering to those he had +exhausted; and I much doubt whether the posthumous Fables will prove +equal to the first. I think it is incumbent upon you to see that nothing +more be published of his that will lessen his reputation for the sake of +adding a few pounds to his sisters, who have already got so much by his +death." "The Distrest Wife" was produced at Covent Garden Theatre on +March 5th, 1734,[17] and the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry were +present at the performance. "To-morrow will be acted a new play of our +friend Mr. Gay's; we stay on purpose now for that," the Duchess wrote to +Swift on the previous day.[18] The play was published in 1743, and a +second edition was issued in 1750. It was revived at Covent Garden, in +1772, with some alteration.[19] + +In a humorous piece, "The Rehearsal at Goatham," published in 1754, +which was written probably about 1729, Gay ventilated his grievance +against Walpole and the rest, _à propos_ of the suppression of "Polly." +This was Gay's King Charles's Head, and he never forgave the Minister +for this, or for not finding him a place. He made an attack on him, +obvious to all, in "The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds," which +was included in his second series of "Fables"[20] that appeared +posthumously in 1738. + + * * * * * + +The devotion of Gay's friends survived his death, and they vied with one +another in paying tribute to his memory. "As to himself, he knew the +world too well to regret leaving it; and the world in general knew him +too little to value him as they ought,"[21] the Duchess of Queensberry +wrote to Swift on February 21st, 1733; and, later, she addressed herself +to Lady Suffolk from Amesbury, on September 28th, 1734: "I often want +poor Mr. Gay, and on this occasion extremely. Nothing evaporates sooner +than joy untold, or even told, unless to one so entirely in your +interest as he was, who bore at least an equal share in every +satisfaction or dissatisfaction which attended us. I am not in the +spleen, though I write thus; on the contrary, it is a sort of pleasure +to think over his good qualities: his loss was really great, but it is a +satisfaction to have once known so good a man." Her affection endured +until the end. Although she was then a very old woman, when "Polly" was +produced at the Haymarket Theatre on June 19th, 1777, nothing would +content her but she must be present. Within a few weeks, on the +following July 17th, she passed away. + +Lord Bathurst, too, deplored the loss of Gay; he of whom the poet had +written in "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + Bathurst impetuous, hastens to the coast. + Whom you and I strive who shall love the most. + +"Poor John Gay!" he wrote to Swift on March 29th, 1733. "We shall see +him no more; but he will always be remembered by those who knew him, +with a tender concern." Arbuthnot, who also had had tribute paid him in +"Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":-- + + Arbuthnot there I see, in physic's art, + As Galen learned or famed Hippocrate; + Whose company drives sorrow from the heart + As all disease his medicines dissipate. + +knew him well and loved him deeply. "We have all had another loss of our +worthy and dear friend, Mr. Gay," he wrote to Swift on January 13th, +1733. "It was some alleviation of my grief to see him so universally +lamented by almost everybody, even by those who knew him only by +reputation. He was interred at Westminster Abbey, as if he had been a +peer of the realm; and the good Duke of Queensberry, who lamented him as +a brother, will set up a handsome monument upon him. These are little +affronts put upon vice and injustice, and is all that remains in our +power. I believe 'The Beggar's Opera,' and what he had to come upon the +stage, will make the sum of the diversions of the town for some time to +come."[22] + +By virtue of their fame, towering high above the rest of the select band +of Gay's dearest friends, were Pope and Swift:-- + + Blest be the great! for those they take away, + And those they left me; for they left me Gay, + +Pope had written in the "Epistle to Arbuthnot"; and Gay, as has been +said, had more than once entered the lists and broken a lance on his +brother poet's behalf, as when he parodied Ambrose Philips in "The +Shepherd's Week." His "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece," written when +Pope had finished his translation of the "Iliad," was a fine panegyric, +in which he had a sly dig at the rival editor:-- + + Tickell, whose skiff (in partnership they say) + Set forth for Greece, but founder'd on the way. + +and in his "Epistle to the Right Honourable Paul Methuen, Esq.," he +pilloried one of his friend's most violent critics:-- + + Had Pope with grovelling numbers fill'd his page, + Dennis had never kindled into rage. + 'Tis the sublime that hurt the critic's ease; + Write nonsense, and he reads and sleeps in peace. + +"You say truly," Pope wrote to Swift, on April 2nd, 1733, "that death is +only terrible to us as it separates us from those we love; but I really +think those have the worst of it who are left by us, if we are true +friends. I have felt more (I fancy) in the loss of Mr. Gay, than I shall +suffer in the thought of going away myself into a state that none of us +can feel this sort of losses. I wished vehemently to have seen him in a +condition of living independent, and to have lived in perfect indolence +the rest of our days together, the two most idle, most innocent, +undesigning poets of our age."[23] + +Through the long years Gay was present to the minds of these, his +dearest friends. "Dr. Arbuthnot's daughter is like Gay, very idle, very +ingenuous, and inflexibly honest,"[24] Pope wrote to Swift, May 17th, +1739; and two years earlier, on July 23rd, 1737, Swift had written to +Erasmus Lewis: "I have had my share of affliction in the loss of Dr. +Arbuthnot, and poor Gay, and others.[25] Such devotion, from such very +different people puts it beyond question that Gay was a very lovable +creature. How deeply he returned that devotion it is difficult to +say--gratitude he felt, no doubt, but of love ... a man of such weak +character, a man so devoted to the fleshpots, probably received more +than he could give." Perhaps Swift, whose affections never blinded his +intelligence, had some inkling of this when he said in the "Verses on +His Own Death," + + Poor Pope will grieve a month, and Gay + A week, and Arbuthnot a day. + +When Gay, in "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece," wrote:-- + + Thou, too, my Swift, dost breathe Boeotian air, + When will thou bring back wit and humour here? + +the formal tribute is agreeable, but in this set of verses, while there +is much that is complimentary, there is something perfunctory about the +tributes he paid. He wrote of Pope and Swift and the rest as witty or +humorous or generous or clever or learned or honest of mind: they wrote +of the love they bore him. The two great literary giants took him under +their wing, bore with his foibles, humoured him, championed him, and to +the utmost of their power sought to protect their weaker brother of the +pen from the rude buffetings of life. + + +[Footnote 1: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 498.] + +[Footnote 2: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVII, p. 502.] + +[Footnote 3: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 3.] + +[Footnote 4: Probably a reference to the Opera, "Achilles."] + +[Footnote 5: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 23.] + +[Footnote 6: S. Poyntz, Governor to the Duke of Cumberland. He married a +niece of Lord Peterborough.] + +[Footnote 7: Probably another reference to the Opera "Achilles."] + +[Footnote 8: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 51.] + +[Footnote 9: _Ibid_., XVIII, p. 54.] + +[Footnote 10: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 53.] + +[Footnote 11: _Gay's Chair_, p. 24.] + +[Footnote 12: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott). XVIII, p. 84.] + +[Footnote 13: Historical MSS. Commission Reports--Carlisle MSS.] + +[Footnote 14: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 57.] + +[Footnote 15: Historical MSS. Com. Reports--Bath MSS., I, p. 95.] + +[Footnote 16: _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1773, pp. 78, 85.] + +[Footnote 17: Genest: _History of the Stage_, III, p. 428.] + +[Footnote 18: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 180.] + +[Footnote 19: _Biog. Dram_., II, p. 168.] + +[Footnote 20: The "Advertisement" to the volume was as follows: "These +Fables were finished by Mr. Gay, and intended for the Press, a short +time before his death, when they were left, with his other papers, to +the care of his noble friend and patron, the Duke of Queensberry. His +Grace has accordingly permitted them to the Press, and they are here +printed from the originals in the author's handwriting. We hope they +will please equally with his former Fables, though mostly on subjects of +a graver and more political turn. They will certainly show him to have +been (what he esteemed the best character) a man of true honest heart, +and a sincere lover of his country."] + +[Footnote 21: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 82.] + +[Footnote 22: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVIII, p. 95.] + +[Footnote 23: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Hill), XVIII, p. 96.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid_., XIX, p. 200.] + +[Footnote 25: _Ibid_., XIX, p. 92.] + + + + +APPENDIX + +I. NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF THE TUNES OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA," BY W.H. +GRATTAN FLOOD, Mus.D. + +II. A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN GAY + +III. PROGRAMME OF THE REVIVAL OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA," LYRIC THEATRE, +HAMMERSMITH, JUNE 7TH, 1920 + + + + +I + +NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF THE TUNES OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA," BY W.H. +GRATTAN FLOOD, Mus.D. + +Air VI. VIRGINS ARE LIKE THE FAIR FLOWER-- + Was written by Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams. + +Air XXIV. GAMESTERS AND LAWYERS-- + Was written by Mr. Fortescue, Master of the Rolls. + +Air XXX. WHEN YOU CENSURE THE AGE-- + Was written by Dean Swift. + +Airs I and XLIV. THROUGH ALL THE EMPLOYMENTS OF LIFE--and THE MODES OF +THE COURT-- + Were written by Lord Chesterfield. + +All the songs, except I, VI, XXIV, XXX, and XLIV were written by Gay. + + + + +SOURCES OF THE TUNES. + + +I. AN OLD WOMAN CLOTHED IN GRAY. + Old English air first published in 1665. + +II. THE BONNY GRAY-EY'D MORN. + Composed by Jeremiah Clarke in 1695. + +III. COLD AND RAW. + Old Irish _air_, 1600. "The Irish Ho Hoane" _cir_. 1610. + +IV. WHY IS YOUR FAITHFUL SLAVE DISDAIN'D? + Composed by Bononcini. Published in Playford's _Banquet_. 1688 + +V. OF ALL THE SIMPLE THINGS WE DO. + Old Irish _air_, 1660. Introduced by Doggett into his _Country + Wake_, 1696; also known as "The Mouse Trap," 1719. + +VI. WHAT SHALL I DO TO SHOW HOW MUCH I LOVE HER? + Composed by Henry Purcell. _Bonduca_ in 1695. + +VII. OH! LONDON IS A FINE TOWN, + Old English. Published by Playford in 1665. + +VIII. GRIM KING OF THE GHOSTS. + Old Irish. Adapted by Henry Purcell to "Hail to the Myrtle Shades," + in _Theodosius_, 1680. Also adapted to "Rosalind's Complaint," by + Mr. Baker, in 1727. + +IX. O JENNY! O JENNY! + Old Irish air, 1600. Adapted to "May Fair," 1703. + +X. THOMAS, I CANNOT. + Sung in Weaver's _Perseus and Andromede_, 1717. Published in + Playford's _Dancing Master_, in 1719. + +XI. A SOLDIER AND A SAILOR. + Composed by John Eccles for Congreve's _Love for Love_, 1696. + +XII. NOW PONDER WELL. + Old English. "The Children in the Wood." Seventeenth Century. + +XIII. LE PRINTEMPS RAPPELLE. + Old French chanson. + +XIV. PRETTY PARROT, SAY. + Old English. Published by Playford in 1719. + +XV. PRAY, FAIR ONE, BE KIND. + Old English air, 1715. + +XVI. OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. + Old Irish. Atkinson's MS. in 1694. By Farquhar in his _Recruiting + Officer_, in 1706. Published by Durfey in 1709. + +XVII. GIN THOU WERT MINE AWN THING. + Old Scotch. Published by Ramsay in 1726, in his "Musick for the + Songs in the Tea Table Miscellany." + +XVIII. O THE BROOM! + Old Irish. Quoted by Bishop Wadding in 1680. + +XIX. FILL EVERY GLASS. + A _French_ Drinking Song. "Que chacun remplisse son verre"; adapted + by Durfey in 1710. + +XX. MARCH IN "RINALDO." + Composed by Handel. Produced in 1711. + +XXI. WOULD YOU HAVE A YOUNG VIRGIN? + Old Irish. Published as "Poor Robin's Maggot" in 1652. Adapted by + Durfey to a song in _Modern Prophets_ in 1709. + +XXII. COTILLON. + A _French_ Dance tune. Printed in a Frankfort book of the year + 1664, and by Playford as "Tony's Rant," in 1726. + +XXIII. ALL IN A MISTY MORNING. + Old English. "The Friar and the Nun" (Friar Foxtail). Printed by + Playford in 1651. Durfey's _Pills_, 1719. + +XXIV. WHEN ONCE I LAY WITH ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE. + Old English. Sung in Durfey's _The Wiltshire Maid_. + +XXV. WHEN FIRST I LAID SIEGE TO MY CHLORIS. + Old Irish. Adapted by Durfey in his _Pills_, 1720. + +XXVI. COURTIERS, COURTIERS, THINK IT NO HARM. + Old English air, 1720. + +XXVII. A LOVELY LASS TO A FRIAR CAME. + Old Irish. Printed in 1721. + +XXVIII. 'TWAS WHEN THE SEA WAS ROARING. + Composed by Handel. Sung in Gay's _What d'ye call it_ (1715). + +XXIX. THE SUN HAD LOOS'D HIS WEARY TEAMS. + Old English. "The Hemp Dresser." Published by Playford in 1651. + +XXX. HOW HAPPY ARE WE. + Composed by Dr. Pepusch. 1716. + +XXXI. OF A NOBLE RACE WAS SHENKIN. + Introduced in Henry Purcell's _Richmond Heiress_, 1693. + +XXXII. No name, but evidently intended for HOW SHOULD I YOUR TRUE LOVE +KNOW. Ophelia's song. + Published by Playford in 1713. + +XXXIII. LONDON LADIES. + Old English. + +XXXIV. ALL IN THE DOWNS. + Composed by Henry Carey. 1720. + +XXXV. HAVE YOU HEARD OF A FROLICKSOME DITTY. + Old Irish. "Molly Roe." Published as "The Rant" in Apollo's + Banquet, in 1690. + +XXXVI. IRISH TROT. + Old Irish. Printed as "Hyde Park," by Playford, in 1651. + +XXXVII. No name given, but evidently CONSTANT BILLY, published in 1726. + Sir H. Bishop says that it was composed by Geminiani. + +XXXVIII. GOOD-MORROW, GOSSIP JOAN. + Old English. Printed in 1705. + +XXXIX. IRISH HOWL. + Old Irish. Printed as "The Irish Howl," by Playford, in the third + volume of his _Dancing Master_, in 1726. + +XL. THE LASS OF PATIE'S MILL. + Old Scotch. Printed in _Orpheus Caledonius_. 1725. + +XLI. IF LOVE'S A SWEET PASSION. + Composed by Henry Purcell. _Fairy Queen_ (1692). + +XLII. SOUTH-SEA BALLAD. + Old English. Printed in 1720. + +XLIII. PACKINGTON'S POUND. + Old English. Melody in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. + +XLIV. LILLIBULLERO. + Old Irish. Printed in 1688. Adapted by Purcell. + +XLV. DOWN IN THE NORTH COUNTRY. + Old English. + +XLVI. A SHEPHERD KEPT SHEEP. + Old English. + +XLVII. ONE EVENING, HAVING LOST MY WAY. + Printed as "Walpole, or the Happy Clown," in 1719. Words by + Birkhead. The tune also occurs in the Overture. + +XLVIII. NOW, ROGER, I'LL TELL THEE BECAUSE THOU'RT MY SON. + Old English. + +XLIX. O BESSY BELL! + Old Scotch. Printed by Playford in 1700. + +L. WOULD FATE TO ME BELINDA GIVE. + Composed by John Wilford. Printed in 1710. + +LI. COME, SWEET LASS. + The tune was printed as "Greenwich Park," by Playford. 1688. Song + from _The Compleat Academy_ (1685). Music composed by Jeremiah + Clarke, 1685. + +LII. THE LAST TIME I WENT O'ER THE MOOR. + Old Scotch. Printed in Ramsay's _Tea Table Misc_. 1726. + +LIII. TOM TINKER'S MY TRUE LOVE. + Old English. Printed by Playford in 1664. + +LIV. I AM A POOR SHEPHERD UNDONE. + Old English. Printed by Playford in 1716. + +LV. IANTHE THE LOVELY. + Composed by John Barret, 1701. + +LVI. A COBLER THERE WAS. + Old English. + +LVII. BONNY DUNDEE. + Old Scotch. The melody is in the _Skene MS._, 1630. + +LVIII. HAPPY GROVES. + Adapted from "The Pilgrim," composed by J. Barret in 1701. + +LIX. OF ALL THE GIRLS THAT ARE SO SMART. + Composed by Henry Carey, in 1716. N.B.--The air was superseded by + another in 1790. + +LX. BRITONS, STRIKE HOME. + Composed by Henry Purcell. _Bonduca_, 1695. + +LXI. CHEVY CHASE. + Old English. Early Seventeenth century. Printed in 1710. + +LXII. TO OLD SIR SIMON THE KING. + Old English. Seventeenth century. Printed in 1652. + +LXIII. JOY TO GREAT CÆSAR. + Composed by Frescobaldi (1614). Adapted by Tom Durfey in 1682 or + 1683. + +LXIV. THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. + Old English. Printed as "Puddings and Pies," by Playford, in 1716. + +LXV. DID YOU EVER HEAR OF A GALLANT SAILOR? + Old Irish. "Youghal Harbour," in 1720. Also known as "Ned of the + Hill" (1700). + +LXVI. WHY ARE MINE EYES STILL FLOWING. + Old English. Seventeenth century. + +LXVII. GREEN SLEEVES. + Old English. Sixteenth century. + +LXVIII. ALL YOU THAT MUST TAKE A LEAP. + Composed by Lewis Ramondon. 1710. + +LXIX. LUMPS OF PUDDING. + Old Irish. Printed by Playford in 1701. Adapted by Durfey in 1697. + + +W.H. GRATTAN FLOOD. + +_June 7th_, 1915. + + + + +II + +A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN GAY. + +1712 + +Binfield, November 13 Alexander Pope to John Gay +December 24 Alexander Pope to John Gay + + +1713 + +London, January 13 John Gay to Maurice Johnson, junior. +April 23, 1713 John Gay to Maurice Johnson, junior. +August 23 Alexander Pope to John Gay +October 23 Alexander Pope to John Gay + + +1714 + +Binfield, May 4 Thomas Parnell and Alexander Pope to John Gay +London, June 8 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Hanover, August 16 John Gay to John Arbuthnot +September 23 Alexander Pope to John Gay + + +1715 + +London, March 3 Alexander Pope and John Gay to John Caryll +London, March 18 Alexander Pope and John Gay to Thomas Parnell +[March] Alexander Pope and John Gay to John Caryll +April 7 Alexander Pope and John Gay to William Congreve +London [April] John Gay and Alexander Pope to John Caryll +July 8 John Gay to Alexander Pope + + +1716 + +_Undated_ John Gay, Jervis, John Arbuthnot + (beginning: "I was and Alexander Pope to Thomas Parnell + last summer in + Devonshire"). + + +1717 + +_Undated_ John Gay to Alexander Pope + (beginning: "Too + late to see and + confess myself + mistaken") + +London, November 8 Alexander Pope to John Gay + + +1719 + +September 8 John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard + + +1720 + +[_circa_ October] John Gay to Jacob Tonson + + +1722 + +September 11 Alexander Pope to John Gay +[September or October] Alexander Pope to John Gay + (beginning: "I think + it obliging in you") +London, December 22 John Gay to Jonathan Swift + + +1723 + +Dublin, January 8 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +London, February 3 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +July 5 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +July 12 John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +July 13 Alexander Pope to John Gay +July 22 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +Tunbridge Wells, August John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +August The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +August 22 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay + + +1724 + +_Undated_ John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard + (beginning: "Since + I came to the Bath") + +Saturday night [autumn] John Gay to Alexander Pope + + +1725 + +Thursday, 10 at night John Gay to Alexander Pope + + +1726 + +London, September 16 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +October 15 Jonathan Swift to Alexander Pope and John Gay +Whitehall, October 22 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +November 17 John Gay and Alexander Pope to + Jonathan Swift + + +1727 + +Whitehall, February 18 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +London, March 3 John Gay to John Caryll +[October] (beginning: "I The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay + hear you expect and + have a mind to have, a + letter from me") +Twickenham, October 16 Alexander Pope to John Gay +October 22 John Gay and Alexander Pope to + Jonathan Swift + + +1728 + +February 12 John Gay to Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford +Whitehall, February 15 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +February 26 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +March 20 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, March 28 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +Bath, May 16 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +June 15 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +Bath, July 6 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +August 2 John Gay to Alexander Pope +August The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +London, December 2 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +[December, 1728 or Alexander Pope to John Gay + January 1729] + (beginning: "No words + can tell you the + great concern") + + +1729 + +[January] (beginning, "I Alexander Pope to John Gay + faithfully assure you") +Sunday night [January] Alexander Pope to John Gay +[January] (beginning: "I Alexander Pope to John Gay + am glad to hear of the + progress") +[1][February or March] John Gay to Alexander Pope + (beginning: "My + melancholy increases") +From the Duke of John Gay to Jonathan Swift + Queensberry's + in Burlington + Gardens, March 18 +Dublin, March 19 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +August 9 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +August 27 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +Middleton Stoney, John Gay to Jonathan Swift + November 9 +Dublin, November 20 Jonathan Swift to John Gay + +[Footnote 1: The authenticity of this letter is doubtful.] + + +1730 + +London, March 3 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, March 19 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +March 31 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +May 7 John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +Amesbury, July 4 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Twickenham, July 21 Alexander Pope to John Gay +July 31 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +August 18 Alexander Pope to John Gay +August 20 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +August 22 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +September 3 The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay +September 11 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to the Hon. Mrs. Howard +September 11 Alexander Pope to John Gay +October 1 Alexander Pope to John Gay +October Alexander Pope to John Gay +October 23 Alexander Pope to John Gay +Amesbury, November 8 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, November 10 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +Dublin, November 19 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensberry +Amesbury, December 6 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to Jonathan Swift +December 17 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry + to Hon. Mrs. Howard + + +1731 + +Dublin, March 13 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensberry +March 20 John Gay to Dean Swift +April 21 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensbury + to Jonathan Swift +Amesbury, April 27 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, June 29 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensbury +June 29 The Countess of Suffolk to John Gay +July 8 John Gay to the Countess of Suffolk +July 18 The Duchess of Queensbury and John Gay + to Jonathan Swift +"The Country," August 28 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensbury +September 5 The Countess of Suffolk to John Gay +[November] John Gay and the Duke of Queensbury to + Jonathan Swift +December 1 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duke and Duchess of Queensbury +December 1 John Gay and Alexander Pope to Jonathan + Swift +December 16 William Cleland to John Gay + + +1732 + +London, January 18 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +March 13 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, May 4 Jonathan Swift to John Gay +London, May 16 John Gay to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, July 10 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensberry +Amesbury, July 24 John Gay and the Duchess of + Queensberry to Jonathan Swift +Dublin, August 12 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensbury +Amesbury, August 28 John Gay and the Duchess of Queensbury + to Jonathan Swift +October 2 Alexander Pope to John Gay +Dublin, October 3 Jonathan Swift to John Gay and the + Duchess of Queensbury +October 7 John Gay to Alexander Pope +November 16 John Gay to Jonathan Swift + + +UNDATED. + +November 3 (beginning: The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay + "I have not been + well ")--B.M., Add. + MSS., 22626 f. 63 +December 7 (beginning: The Hon. Mrs. Howard to John Gay + "I write this to quiet + your conscience ")--B.M., + Add. MSS., 22626 f. 64 +(Beginning: "Most John Gay to the Hon. Mrs. Howard + honoured Roger ")--B.M., + Add. MSS., 22626 f. 59 +(Beginning: "You oblige The Countess of Suffolk to John Gay + me extremely in giving + me")--B.M., Add. + MSS., 22626 f. 61 +(Beginning: "Pray tell The Countess of Suffolk to John Gay + Mr. Pope ")--B.M., + Add. MSS.. 22626 f. 62 + + + + +III + +PROGRAMME OF THE REVIVAL OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA," LYRIC THEATRE, +HAMMERSMITH, JUNE 7TH, 1920. + + +THE BEGGAR'S OPERA + +By MR. GAY + +_New Settings of the Airs and Additional Music by Frederic Austin_. + +CAST + +_PEACHUM_.........................FREDERIC AUSTIN +_LOCKIT_..........................ARTHUR WYNN +_MACHEATH_........................FREDERICK RANALOW +_FILCH_...........................ALFRED HEATHER +_THE BEGGAR_......................ARNOLD PILBEAM +_MRS. PEACHUM_....................ELSIE FRENCH +_POLLY PEACHUM_...................SYLVIA NELIS +_LUCY LOCKIT_.....................VIOLET MARQUESITA +_DIANA TRAPES_....................BERYL FREEMAN +_JENNY DIVER_.....................NONNY LOCK + +_Drawer_: DAVID HODDER +_Turnkey_: JACK GIRLING + +_Members of Macheath's Gang_: + +ALAN TROTTER, +MALCOLM RIGNOLD, +JOHN CLIFFORD, +EDWARD BARRS, +CHARLES STAITE + +_Women of the Town_: + +VERA HURST, +ELLA MILNE, +WINIFRED CHRISTIE, +MILDRED WATSON, +SYDNEY LEON, +EDITH BARTLETT + + * * * * * + +PERIOD 1728 + +ACT I. PEACHUM'S HOUSE +ACT II. Sc. i. A TAVERN. Near Newgate + Sc. ii. NEWGATE +ACT III. Sc. i. A STREET + Sc. ii. NEWGATE + Sc. iii. THE CONDEMN'D HOLD + +_Scenes and Costumes designed by C. Lovat Fraser_. + + * * * * * +Produced by NIGEL PLAYFAIR + + + +INDEX + +"Absence," 5; _quoted_, 6 +"Achilles," 134, 135, 141, 142 +"Acis and Galatea," 134 +Addison, Joseph, 11, 12, 13-14, 16, 23, 37, 44 +Alais, J.D'., 28 +Anne, Queen, 24, 33 +"Araminta," 20 +Arbuthnot, Dr., 22, 23, 24, 29, 34, 41, 42, 44, 51, 58, 66, 94, 95, + 105, 109, 146; + _letters quoted_: + to Parnell, 39; + to Pope, 138; + to Swift, 30, 34, 102, 109, 111, 145 +Argyll, Duke of, 80 +Aston (actor), 142 +Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Rochester, 12, 23 + +Baller, Anthony (brother-in-law of the poet), 2 + Mrs. Anthony, _i.e.,_ Gay, Katherine (_q. v._) + Rev. Joseph (nephew of the poet), 2, 140; + his "Gay's Chair," _quoted_, 4 +Barber, Mrs., 127 +Bathurst, Lord, 50, 54, 58, 72, 92, 145; + letter to Swift, _quoted_, 145, + "Beggar's Opera, The," 41, 75, 78-91; + "Notes on the Sources of the Tunes of 'The Beggar's Opera,'" by W.H. + Grattan Flood, Mus. D., 150; + programme of the revival at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, June, 1920, 162. +Bellenden, Madge, 47 + Mary, 46, 47, 49 +Berkeley, Hon. George, 140 +Bicknell, Mrs., 37, 42 +Binks, Mrs., 142 +Bloodworth, Mr., 131 +Blount, Martha, 47, 72, 94, 130, 131 + Teresa, 47 +Bolingbroke, Viscount, 12, 24, 25, 35, 68, 90, 92 + Viscountess, 92 +Bolton, Duchess of, _see_ Fenton, Lavinia +Bradshaw, Mrs., 55 +Bridgeman, 131 +_British Apollo_, 9 +Bromley, Mr. Secretary, 29 +Buchanan (actor), 142 +Buckingham, Lord, 15 +Budgell, Eustace, 18 +Bullock, H., 80 +Burlington, Earl of, 39, 50, 54, 57 +Burnett, Thomas, 38 +Burton, Lord, 28 + +Cantrel, Mrs., 142 +"Captives, The," 65 +Caroline, Queen, 30, 34, 36, 67, 70, 103, 136 +Caryll, John, 22 +Castlemaine, Viscount, 112 +Chandos, Lord, 50 +Chapman (actor), 142 +Chesterfield, Earl of, 140 +Cibber, Colley, 45, 79, 102; + his "Apology," _quoted_, 90 +Clarendon, Earl of, 28, 29, 30, 33 +Clark (actor), 80 +Cobham, Lord, 87 +Colman, George, 84, 101 +"Comparisons," 5 +"Complete Key to 'Three Hours After Marriage'," 44 +"Congratulation to a Newly-married Couple," 5 +Congreve, William, 15, 23, 58, 68, 79, 92, 94 +"Contemplation on Night," 20 +Cornbury, Lord, 140 +"Court Poems," 40 +Courthope, Professor, his "Life of Pope," _quoted_, 44, 45 +Craggs, James, the younger, 52 +Cromwell, Henry, 14, 16, 17, 36 +Cumberland, Prince William Augustus, Duke of, 67, 70 + +Delany, Dr., 93 +"Devonshire Hill, A," 5 +"Distrest Wife, The," 134, 142, 143 +Dobson, Austin, his article on Gay in "Dictionary of National + Biography," _quoted_, 7, 28, 42 +Dormer, General James, 112, 140 +Douglas, Lord Charles, 111, 122 +Drelincourt, Mrs., 127 + "Dress," 20 +Drumlanrig, Earl of, 111, 122 + +Egleton, Mrs., 80, 142 +"Epigrammatical Petition," 9; _quoted_, 29. +"Epistle to the Right Honourable + Paul Methuen, Esquire," _quoted_,146 +"Epistle to the Right Honourable + the Earl of Burlington," _quoted_, 39 +"Epistle to the Right Honourable + William Pulteney, Esquire," 46 +Essex, Earl of, 66 +_Examiner, The_, 11, 12 + +"FABLE," 5 +"Fables" (first series), 69-70 +"Fables" (second, series), 135, 144 +"Fan, The," 20, 21 +Fenton,--, 52, 119 +Fenton, Lavinia, Duchess of Bolton, 80, 91 +Fielding, Sir John, 84 +Fitzwilliam, Countess of, 67 +Fitzwilliam, Earl of, 67 +Flood, W.H. Grattan, Mus. D. _See_ Grattan Flood, W.H. +_Flying Post, The_, 12 +Ford, Charles, 22, 29 +Fortescue, John (brother-in-law of the poet), 2 +Fortescue, Mrs. John, _i.e._, Gay, Joanna (_q. v._) +Fortescue, William, 2, 3, 22, 66 +Freind, Dr. John, 11, 12 + +Garrick, David, 84 +Garth, Dr., 16 +Gay, Anthony, 1 + Gilbert le, 1 + Rev. James (uncle of the poet), 2 + Joanna (sister of the poet), 2, 117 + Jonathan (brother of the poet), 2, 7 + Johans, 1 + John (grandfather of the poet), 1 + John (uncle of the poet), 2 + John (the poet), ancestors, 1; + parentage and family, 1-2; + birth, 2; + death of parents, 2; + lives with his uncle, Thomas Gay, 2; + attends Free School at Barr staple, 2-3; + apprenticed to a London silk-mercer, 3; + in ill-health, 4; + returns to Barnstaple, 4; + early writings, 4-5; + youthful love affair, 5-6; + in improved health, 7; + returns to London, 7; + life in the Metropolis, 7-8; + love of food, drink, and dress, 8-9; + "Wine," 9-10; + "The Present State of Wit," 11-14; + makes acquaintance with Henry Cromwell and Pope, 14; + "On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott," 14-16; + becomes intimate with Pope, 17; + domestic secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth, 18-19; + "Rural Sports," 20; + some minor verses, 20; + "The Fan," 20-21; + "The Wife of Bath," 21, 113, 115-116; + his charm, 21-22; + Pope as his protector and adviser, 22; + "Memoirs of Scriblerus," 23; + "The Shepherd's Week," 24-28; + appointed Secretary to Lord Clarendon's + Mission to Hanover, 1714, 29; + letters from Hanover, 29; + returns to England on death of Queen Anne, 33; + "A Letter to a Lady," 34-35; + "The What D'ye Call It," 35, 36-39; + recognised as a man of letters, 39; + visit to Exeter with the Earl of Burlington, 39; + "Trivia," 39-40; + "Court Poems," 40; + "The Toilet," 41; + second visit to Devonshire, 41; + "Three Hours After Marriage," 41-45; + visits the Continent with Pulteney, 45-46; + intimate with the Maids of Honour, 46; + and with the Hon. Mrs. Howard, 46-47; + again abroad with Pulteney, 48; + his literary reputation in 1720, 50; + "Poems on Several Occasions," 50; + given a present of South Sea stock, + and invests his fortune in it, 52; + loses his money when the "Bubble" bursts, 53; + financial embarrassment, 53; + the desire of his friends to aid him, 54; + the disappointment affects his health, 55; + recuperates at Bath, 55; + appointed a Commissioner of the State Lottery and +given an apartment in Whitehall, 57; + at Tunbridge Wells, 58; + correspondence with the Hon. Mrs. Howard, 59-64; + "The Captives," 65; + dedication to the Princess of Wales, 65; + again at Bath, 66, 67; + first meeting with Swift, 68; + becomes more intimate with the Duke and + Duchess of Queensberry, 69; + "The Fables" (first series), 69; + dedication to Prince William Augustus, 69; + his expectation of a post at Court, 70; + offered appointment of Gentleman Usher to the Princess Louisa, 70; + his indignation, 70; + refuses the post, 70; + the opinions of Pope and Swift on the offer, 71-74; + lampooned, 75-77; + "The Beggar's Opera," 78-91, 93; + at Bath, 92-94; + "Polly," 95-101, 108; + loses his Commissionship and his apartments in Whitehall, 101; + an end of hope of Court preferment, 102; + seriously ill, 105; + lives with the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, 110; + in failing health, 133; + "Acis and Galatea," 134; + "Achilles," 134, 141, 142; + "The Distrest Wife," 134, 142, 143; + "The Rehearsal at Goatham," 135, 143; + "Fables" (second series), 135, 144; + death, 138; + buried in Westminster Abbey, 139; + his monument, 140; + his epitaph written by Pope, 141; + posthumous works, 141-144; + his friends' devotion, 145-147; + _letters quoted_: to Arbuthnot, 31; + to Caryll, 37, 38; + to Parnell, 38; + to Pope, 42, 93, 106, 137; + to the Countess of Suffolk, 48, 59, 61, 66, 111, 117, 120, 121, + 124, 129; + to Swift, 9, 29, 55, 57, 58, 69, 70, 72, 74, 78, 87, 92, 93, 107, + 113, 115, 116, 127, 130, 132, 133, 135, 138; + to Tonson, 53. + Chronological List of the Correspondence of John Gay, 156. + References to his writings will be found under the respective titles. + Katherine (sister of the poet), 1, 117 + Richard, 1 + Richard (uncle of the poet), 2 + Thomas (uncle of the poet), 2 + William (father of the poet), 1 + Mrs. William, _i.e.,_ Hanmer, Miss _(q.v.)_ +Gaye, John, 1 + Richard, 1 +George I., 30, 33, 70 + II., 36, 100, 103 +Gore, Mr., 140 +Grafton, Duke of, 95, 97-99, 101 +Grattan Flood, W.H., Mus. D.: + "Notes on the Sources of the Tunes of 'The Beggar's Opera'" 150 +Griffin (actor), 38 +Gumley, Anne Maria, 46 + +Hall (actor), 80, 142 +Hamilton, Duchess of, 46, 47 +Hanmer, Miss (mother of the poet), 1, 2 + Rev. Jonathan (grandfather of the poet), 1 + Rev. John (uncle of the poet), 2, 3, 4 +Harcourt, Lord, 48 +"Hare and Many Friends, The," _quoted_, 70 +Harley, Thomas, 28 +Hawkins, Sir John, 85 +Henley, Anthony, 12 +Herbert, Lord, 118, 120 + Miss, 118 +Herring, Dr. (Archbishop of Canterbury), 84 +Hervey, Lady, 101 + Miss, 47 +"High German Doctor, The," 38 +Hill, Aaron, 3, 9; + letter to Savage, _quoted_, 18 + Henry, 10 +Hippisley (actor), 80 +Hollins, Dr., 109 +Horneck, Philip, 38 +Howard, The Hon. Mrs., _see_ Suffolk, Countess of +Howe, Miss, 48 + +Irvine, Lady Anne, letter to Lord Carlisle, _quoted_, 142 + +Jennings, Mary, 59 +Johnson (actor), 42 + Samuel, his "Lives of the Poets," _quoted_, 18, 21, 28, 42, 47, + 52, 65, 85 + +Kent, William, 50 +King, Dr. William, 11, 12 + +"Ladies' Petition to the Honourable the House of Commons," 5 +Laguerre (actor), 142 +Lepell, Miss, 46, 47, 49 +"Letter from a Lady in the City to a Lady in the Country, A," 43 +"Letter to a Lady, A" 34; _quoted_,34-35 +"Letter to a Young Lady," 5; _quoted_, 6 +"Letter to John Gay, concerning his late Farce, + entitled a Comedy," 44 +Leveridge (actor), 142 +Lewis, Erasmus, 14, 22, 29, 51, 58 +Lincoln, Earl of, 57 +Lintott, Bernard, 14, 39, 43, 50, 53, 54 +Louisa, Princess, 70 +Luck, Rev. Robert, 3 + +Mainwaring, Arthur, 12 +Marlborough, Henrietta, Duchess of, 88, 92, 94, 95, 108 +Martin, Mrs., 80 +Meadows, Miss, 121 +_Medley, The_, 12 +"Memoirs of Scriblerus," 23, 29 +Methuen, Sir Paul, 51 +Monmouth, Duchess of, 18-19, 29 +Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 40, 47 +_Monthly Amusement_, 12 +Motte, Benjamin, 87, 90 +Murray, Miss, 47 + +Norsa, Miss, 142 +Nash, Ricard ("Beau"), 94 + +Oates, Miss, 142 +_Observer, The_, 12 +"Ode for the New Year, Written by Colley Cibber, Esq.," + _quoted_, 102, 103 +Oldmixon, John, 12 +"On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott," _quoted_, 10, + 14, 15-16 +Otway, Thomas, 37 +Oxford, Earl of, 29, 33, 72 +Ozell, John, 12 + +"Panegyrical Epistle to Mr. Thomas Snow, Goldsmith," + _quoted_, 53 +"Panthea," 20 +Parnell, Thomas, 22, 29 +Paull, H.M., his essay on Gay, _quoted_, 95-96 +Pelham, Mrs., 66 +Pendarves, Mrs., letter to Mrs. Anne Granville, _quoted_, 101 +Penkethman (actor), 37 +Peterborough, Earl of, 63, 64, 94 +Philips, Ambrose, 25, 26, 27, 28, 67 + John, 10 +Playfair, Nigel, 91 _note_ +"Poems on Several Occasions," 50 +"Polly," 95-101, 108 +Pope, Alexander, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 27, 29, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, + 43, 44, 45, 51, 54, 58, 66, 68, 79, 80, 90, 107, 123, 130, 131, + 132, 134, 140, 145, 146; + his epitaph on Gay _quoted_, 141; + his "Epistle to Arbuthnot" _quoted_, 145; + his "Farewell to London" _quoted_, 17; + _letters quoted_: to Martha Blount, 46; + to Caryll, 39, 45, 141; + to Congreve, 36; + to Cromwell, 14, 16; + to Gay, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 33, 46, 71, 105, 119, 122, 136; + to Parnell, 43; + to Swift, 8, 23, 67, 73, 79, 86, 89, 139, 141, 142, 146 +"Pope's Welcome from Greece, Mr." _quoted, 8_, 47-48, 52, 145, + 146, 147 +Poyntz, S., 136 +Pratt, Dr. Benjamin, 29 +"Prediction," 5 +"Present State of Wit, The," 11; + _quoted_, 9, 12, 13-14 +Prior, Matthew, 12, 15 +Pulteney, William, 45, 46, 54, 90, 92, 108, 110 + Mrs. William, _see_ Gumley, Anne Maria + +Queensberry, Duke of, 69, 101, 115, 140, 141, 143 + Duchess of, 69, 74, 87, 88, 100, 101, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, + 118, 119, 122, 123, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 133, 136, 140, 143, + 144, 145; + _letters quoted_: to the Countess of Suffolk, 120, 121, 134, + 144; + to Swift, 144. +Quin, James, 79, 80, 142 + +Raynor, William, 3 +Redpath, George, 12 +"Rehearsal at Goatham, The," 135, 143 +"Reproof and Flattery," 20 +Rich, John, 79, 90, 95, 96 +Rivers, Lord, 28 +Roberts, J., 40 +Rolt, Mrs., 66 +Rooke, George, 41 +"Rural Sports" 20; _quoted_, 8, 20 + +Salway (actor), 142 +Savage, Richard, 18 +Scarborough, Lord, 67 +Scott, Jane, 5, 6 +Scudamore, Miss, 48 + Lady, 93, 94 +Senesimo, 58 +"Shepherd's Week, The," 24, 28, 35, 50; _quoted_, 9, 24, 25, 27 +Shrewsbury, Duke of, 33 +Skerrett, Molly, 80 +Smith, Miss, 112 +Snow, Thomas, 53 +Somerville, Lord, 66 +Sophia, Electress, 30 +_Spectator, The_, 11 +Spence, Joseph, his "Anecdotes of Pope" _quoted_ 43, 44 +Stanhope, Lord 46 + William, 100 +Steele, Sir Richard, 11, 12, 13-14, 21 +Swift, Jonathan, 12, 23, 33, 35, 51, 68, 73, 74, 78, 81, 84, 106, + 138; + his "Libel on the Rev. Mr. Delany and His Excellency Lord + Cartaret," _quoted_, 73; + his "Epistle to Mr. Gay," _quoted_, 73; + Verses on his own Death _quoted_, 147; + _letters quoted_: to Gay, 56, 68, 88, 89, 116, 123, 126, 127, + 131, 133; + to Erasmus Lewis, 146; + to Pope, 41, 67, 68, 69, 73, 78, 86, 93, 107, 143; + to the Countess of Suffolk, 68; + to Tickell, 68 +Suffolk, Henrietta Howard, Countess of, 30, 46, 47, 54, 67, 68, 74, + 90, 109, 110, 119, 130; + letters to Gay _quoted_, 59, 60, 63, 64, 74, 94, 122, 128, 130 + Earl of, 128 + +_Tatler, The_, 11, 12 +Thanet, Countess of, 111 +"Thought on Eternity, A," 20 +"Three Hours After Marriage," 41-42, 43, 44, 50 +Tickell, John, 26 +"To a Young Lady with some Lamphreys," 8 +"To Miss Jane Scott," 5; _quoted_, 5 +"To My Chair," 5 +"Toilet, The," 41 +Tonson, Jacob, 15, 20, 50, 53, 69 +"Trivia," 39, 50 +Tutchin, John, 12 + +Underhill, John, _quoted_, 5, 25 + +"Vulture, the Sparrow, and other Birds, The," _quoted_, 103-104 + +Walker (actor), 80, 142 +Walpole, Sir Robert, 80, 99 +Warwick, Earl of, 44, 46 +Watts, J., 69 +_Weekly Review_, 12 +"What D'ye Call It," 35, 36-39, 43, 50 +_Whig Examiner, The_, 12 +"Wife of Bath, The," 21, 50, 113, 115-116 +Wilcox, Dr., Bishop of Rochester, 140 +William Augustus, Prince. _See_ Cumberland, Duke of +"Wine," _quoted_, 10-11 +Woodward, Dr., 41, 42 +Wyndham, Sir William, 137 + +Younger, Miss, 38 + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life And Letters Of John Gay +(1685-1732), by Lewis Melville + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13790 *** |