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234 10 0 -LINTOT, BERNARD, 1717, Account-Book.

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.
-SWIFT, JONATHAN, 1729, A Libel on the
Reverend Dr. Delany, and His Excellency
John Lord Carteret.

Life is a jest, and all things show it;
I thought so once, but now I know it.
-GAY, JOHN, 1732, My Own Epitaph.
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, ev'n among the great:
A safe companion, and an easy friend,
Unblam'd thro' 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.
-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1732-35, On Mr.
Gay, in Westminster Abbey.

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 and dissatisfaction that 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. As you were as much his friend as I, it is needless to ask your pardon for dwelling so long on this subject.-QUEENSBERRY, CATHERINE HYDE DUCHESS, 1734, Letter to Mr. Howard, Sept. 28, Suffolk Papers, vol. II, p. 109.

Gay was quite a natural man, wholly without art or design, and spoke just what he thought, and as he thought it.— He dangled for twenty years about a court, and at last-was offered to be made Usher to the young Princesses.-Secretary Craggs made Gay a present of stock in the South Sea year: and he was once worth twenty thousand pounds, but lost it all again. He got about four hundred pounds by the first "Beggar's Opera," and eleven or twelve hundred by the second. -He was negligent and a bad manager: -latterly the Duke of Queensbury took. his money into his keeping, and let him have only what was necessary out of it: and as he lived with them he could not have occasion for much: he died worth upwards of three thousand pounds.POPE, ALEXANDER, 1737-39, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 161.

The Duchess of Queensberry told me. that Gay could play on the flute, and that this enabled him to adopt so happily some airs in the "Beggar's Opera."-WARTON, JOSEPH, 1797, ed. Pope's Works, vol. 1, p. 159.

The most good-natured and simple of

mankind. -MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1843, Life and Writings of Addison, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays.

His haunts may be traced, but home of his own he seems never to have had. Gay was an easy, good-natured fellow, but he had no great feeling of independence; and without being able or desirous to say that he was a mean, far less a disgraceful, hanger-on of the great, he was still a hanger-on.-HOWITT, WILLIAM, 1846, Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, vol. 1, p. 158.

In the great society of the wits, John Gay deserved to be a favourite, and to have a good place. In his set all were fond of him. His success offended nobody. He missed a fortune once or twice. He was talked of for court favour, and hoped to win it; but the court favour jilted him. Craggs gave him some South Sea Stock; and at one time Gay had very nearly made his fortune. But Fortune shook her swift wings and jilted him too: and so his friends, instead of being angry with him, and jealous of him, were kind and fond of honest Gay.-THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE, 1853, The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century, p. 146.

His body was brought by the Company of Upholders from the Duke of Queensberry's to Exeter Change, and thence to the Abbey, at eight o'clock in the winter evening [December 23]. Lord Chesterfield and Pope were present amongst the mourners. He had already, two months before his death, desired: "My dear Mr. Pope, whom I love as my own soul: if you survive me, as you certainly will, if a stone shall mark the place of my grave, see these words put upon it :

Life is a jest and all things show it: I thought it once, but now I know it. with what else you may think proper." His wish was complied with.-STANLEY, ARTHUR PENRHYN, 1867-96, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, ch. iv.

His character is hardly one for which much respect can be entertained. He had a great deal more of the woman about him than the man. He was absurdly helpless; narrowly scanning for its opinion each face he encountered as he pressed forward; gazing ruefully, almost tearfully about him when alone, like some nervous female in the mazes of London. He had no

strength of mind; no dignity of sentiment; no power of helping himself. . . His women friends made a whim of him, as they made a whim of Jocko the monkey, or the black footboy who followed them with their prayer-book to church. His mind was soft, fat, flabby; it was without muscle, or sinew, or sap. He agreed with everybody, always pleasantly smiling as he assented; but assenting perhaps not so much from sycophancy or respect for the society that endured him, as from incapacity to oppose-as from emptiness of original ideas. RUSSELL, WILLIAM CLARK, 1871, The Book of Authors, p. 186.

In character Gay was affectionate and amiable, but indolent, luxurious, and very easily depressed. easily depressed. His health was never good, and his inactive habits and tastes as a gourmand did not improve it. But his personal charm as a companion must have been exceptionable, for he seems to have been a universal favourite, and Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot (with none of whom he ever quarrelled) were genuinely attached to him.-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1890, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XXI.

He was one of those fortunate, helpless persons whom everybody helps, and the him into their household, managed his Duke and Duchess of Queensberry took money for him (he had made a good deal by the "Beggar's Opera"), and prevented him from having any need of it. He died at the end of 1732, too lazy even to make a will. The traditional character of him as of a kind of human lapdog, without any vice except extreme self-indulgence, has been little disturbed.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1898, A Short History of English Literature, p. 559.

THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK

1714

These are Mr. Gay's principal performance. They were originally intended, I suppose, as a burlesque on those of Phillips; but perhaps without designing it, he has hit the true spirit of pastoral poetry. In fact he more resembles Theocritus than any other English pastoral writer whatsoever. There runs throughout the whole a strain of rustic pleasantry, which should ever distinguish this species of composition; but how far the antiquated expressions used here may contribute to the humour, I will not determine; for my own

part, I could wish the simplicity were preserved, without recurring to such obsolete antiquity for the manner of expressing it.-GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1767, The Beauties of English Poetry.

But though the proem burlesqued Philips, and the purpose of censure and caricature was evident enough, yet simple speech is better than the false classicism that condemned it; and Gay, being much more of a poet than Ambrose Philips, and in himself, as Pope said, "a natural man, without design, who spoke what he thought, "The Shepherd's Week" made its own mark as pastoral poetry, and, in spite of its Cloddipole and Hobnelia, by its own merit went far to disprove its case. MORLEY, HENRY, 1879, A Manual of English Literature, ed. Tyler, p. 535.

Like Fielding's novel of "Joseph Andrews," the execution of "The Shepherd's Week" was far superior to its avowed object of mere ridicule. In spite of their barbarous "Bumkinets" and "Grubbinols," Gay's eclogues abound with interesting folk-lore and closely-studied rural pictures. We see the country-girl burning hazel-nuts to find her sweet-heart, or presenting the faithless Colin with a knife with a "posy" on it, or playing "Hot Cockles," or listening to "Gillian of Croydon" and "Patient Grissel." There are also sly strokes of kindly satire, as when the shepherds are represented fencing the grave of Blouzelinda against the prospective inroads of the parson's horse and cow, which have the right of grazing in the churchyard; or when that dignitary, in consideration of the liberal sermon-fee, "Spoke the Hour-glass in her praise-quite

out."

These little touches (and there are a hundred more) make us sure that we are reading no mere caricature; but that the country-life of that age of Queen Anne, which her poet loyally declares to be the only "Golden Age," is truly and faithfully brought before us.-DOBSON, AUSTIN, 1880, English Poets, ed. Ward, vol. III, p. 146.

They may still be glanced at with pleasure. STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1880, Pope (English Men of Letters), p. 114.

The satirical design is evident enough in the affected use of obsolete words, in the absurd bumpkin nomenclature, Buxoma and Blouzelind, Clumsilis and Hobnelia.

But Gay's poetic instinct was too much. for him. He had a true insight into the picturesque elements of rural life, a wide knowledge of country customs and country superstitions. And so, though only half intending it, he produced no mere parody, but a genuine work of pastoral art, the nearest approach to a realistic pastoral which our literature had yet seen. And here the history of pastoral really closes upon a note curiously significant. The versifiers who followed in the wake of Pope are of no account. But the temper of Gay, so fantastic in his own. age, is prophetic enough to us of the tendencies, revolutionary and deep-rooted, which were destined, nearly a century later, to completely transform the English conception of country life as a subject for poetry.-CHAMBERS, EDMUND K., 1895, English Pastorals, p. xlvii.

FABLES

1727-38

For a Fable he gives now and then a Tale, or an abstracted Allegory; and from some, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told smooth; and the diction, though now-andwith liveliness; the versification is then a little constrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779-81, Gay, Lives of the English Poets.

Gay was sometimes grosser than Prior, not systematically, but inadvertentlyfrom not being so well aware of what he was about; nor was there the same necessity for caution, for his grossness is by no means so seductive or inviting. Gay's "Fables" are certainly a work of great merit, both as to the quantity of invention implied, and as to the elegance and facility of the execution. They, are, however, spun out too long; the descriptions and narrative are too diffuse and desultory; and the moral is sometimes without point. They are more like Tales than fables. The best are, perhaps, the Hare with Many Friends, the Monkeys, and the Fox at the Point of Death.-HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1818, Lectures on the English Poets, Lecture vi.

As a fabulist he has been sometimes hypercritically blamed for presenting us with allegorical impersonations. The

mere naked apologue of Æsop is too simple to interest the human mind, when its fancy and understanding are past the state of childhood or barbarism. La Fontaine dresses the stories which he took from Æsop and others with such profusion of wit and naïveté, that his manner conceals the insipidity of the matter. "La sauce vaut mieux que le poisson." Gay, though not equal to La Fontaine, is at least free from his occasional prolixity; and in one instance, (the Court of Death,) ventures into allegory with considerable power. Without being an absolute simpleton, like La Fontaine, he possessed a bonhomie of character which forms an agreeable trait

of resemblance between the fabulists.CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

The most finished productions of our poet, and those to which he will owe his reputation with posterity, are his "Fables," the finest in the lanugage. They are written with great spirit and vivacity; the versification is generally smooth and flowing; the descriptions happy and appropriate, and the moral designed to be conveyed is, for the most part, impressive and instructive.-CLEVELAND, CHARLES D., 1848, A Compendium of English Literature, p. 414.

Gay's "Fables" carry to many people pleasant memories of the nursery and the schoolroom, where they lightened the weight of graver studies.-BURTON, JOHN HILL, 1880, A History of the Reign of Queen Anne, vol. III, p. 292.

Thackeray confessed that he had not been able to peruse them since his very early youth; but probably he would have found no difficulty in digesting them if he had made some slight effort. It is true that there is a certain want of variety both in the subject and tone of the fables; but they abound in touches of humour, and are written in an easy style. Many of them are tales and sometimes allegories, rather than fables, properly so called, and in the posthumous collection the fable forms a very small part of each poem. But what can be neater than the description of the election of the Fox as regent to the Lion?-AITKEN, GEORGE A., 1893, John Gay, Westminster Review, vol. 140, p. 402.

The "Fables" are light and lively, and might safely be recommended to Mr.

Chamberlain, who is fond of an easy quotation. To lay them down is never difficult.-BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE, 1894, Essays about Men, Women and Books, p. 118.

THE BEGGAR'S OPERA

1728

Dr. Swift had been observing once to Mr. Gay, what an odd pretty sort of thing a Newgate Pastoral might make. 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." "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."-We were all at the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the event; till we were very much encouraged by overhearing the Duke of Argyle, who sat in the next box to us, say, "It will do, -it must do!-I see it in the eyes of them."-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 act, and ended in a clamour of applause.-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1734-36, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 120.

"Cato," it is true, succeeded, but reached not by full forty days the progress and applause of the "Beggar's Opera." Will it however admit of a question which of the two compositions a good writer would rather wish to have been the author of? Yet, on the other side, must we not allow, that to have taken a whole nation, high and low, into a general applause, has shown a power in poetry which, though often attempted in the same kind, none but this one author could ever yet arrive at.-CIBBER, COLLEY, 1739, An Apology for His Life.

The effects of the "Beggar's Opera"