end of the season, ix This address procured him a favourable admittance at the new court, and that raising a new flow of spirits, he wrote his incomparable farce, The What D'ye Call It, which was brought upon the stage before the and honoured with their Royal Highnesses' presence The profits likewise brought some useful recruits to his fortune, and his poetical merit being endeared by the sweetness and sincerity of his nature, procured him an easy access to persons of the first distinction, and he passed his time among the great with much satisfaction, notwithstanding the baulk of his expectation of some substantial favour from the new court, where he met with nothing better than a smile. In 1716, he made a visit to his native country at the expence of Lord Burlington, and he paid his Lordship with an humorous account of the journey. The like return was made for Mr. Pulteney's (late Earl of Bath) favour, who took him in his company the following year to Aix in France. * This jaunting about, with some decent appoint→ ments, was one of the highest relished pleasures of Mr. Gay's life, † and never failed of calling forth his *They are both printed in the Works. This last shews on which side his friends lay, for Mr. Pulteney had resigned his place of Secretary of War in April preceding. Salmon's Chron. Hisi. Anno. 1717. This foible is rallied by Dean Swift, with his usual kind severity to our Author. See Letters xlix, and lvii. in Pope's Works, vol ix. Muse. Soon after his return from France he introduced to the stage The Three Hours after Marriage. His friends, Mr. Pope and Dr. Arbuthnot, had both a hand in this performance, and the two principal characters were acted by two of the best comedians at that time; yet, with all these helps and advantages, it was very ill received, if not condemned, the first night. Our Author stood the brunt with an unusual degree of magnanimity, which seems to have been inspired by a hearty regard for his partners, especially Mr. Pope, who was greatly affected with it. Mr. Gay continued, as before, to mix with quality, and so encircled stood invulnerable. In 1718 he accompanied Mr. Pope to the Lord Harcourt's seat in Oxfordshire, where they clubbed wits in consecrating to posterity the death of two rustical lovers, unfortunately killed in the neighbouring fields by a stroke of lightning. † In 1720 he recruited his purse again by a handsome subscription to his Poems, which he collected and printed in two vols. quarto: but falling into the general infatuation of that remarkable year, he lost all his fortune in the South-sea scheme, and consequently all his spirits. In reality this stroke had almost proved fatal to him: he was seiz'd with a violent colic, and *Cibber's Lives of the Poets, who observes, the two players were Johnson and Mrs. Oldfield. + See Mr. Gay's letter to Elijah Fenton, in Biogr Brit. after languishing some time, removed, in 1722, to Hampstead, for the benefit of the air and waters; but by the assistance of Dr. Arbuthnot, who constantly attended him, at length he recovered, and set about writing his tragedy called The Captives, which, when finished, he had the honour of reading, from the manuscript, to Queen Caroline, then Princess of Wales, in 1724. Her Royal Highness also promised him further marks of her favour, if he would write some Fables in verse for the use of the Duke of Cumberland. Accordingly he undertook the task, and published the Fables in 1726, with a dedication to that Prince. All this was done against the advice of Mr. Pope, the Duke being then only an infant; and the result happened, as that friend presaged, to be very disagreeable to him, * Upon the accession of his late Majesty to the throne, he was offered the place of gentleman-usher to the then youngest princess, Louisa, a post which he thought beneath his acceptance, † and, resenting the offer as an affront, in that ill humour with the court, he wrote the famous Beggars' Opera, which being brought upon * Dean Swift observes, that in the Fables he was thought to be something too bold with the court. In telligencer, No. 111. He excused himself, as being too far advanced in life. Dean Swift is very merry upon it, and observes to him, that O. Cromwell did not begin to appear till he was older. Ibid. Lett xxix. the stage in the beginning of November 1727, was received with greater applause than had ever been known on any occasion: for, besides being acted in London sixty-three nights, without interrpution, and renewed the next season with success, it spread into all the great towns of England, was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time; at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c. It made its progress into Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where it was performed twenty-four nights successively; and, lastly, was acted in Minorca. The ladies carried about with them the favourite songs of it in fans, and houses were furnished with it in screens. The fame of it was not confined to the Author only, the person who acted Polly, till then obscure, being 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 pamplets made of her sayings and jests;* and, to crown all, after being the mother of several antinuptial children, she obtained the title and rank of a Duchess by marriage. There is scarcely, if at all, to be found in history an example where a private subject, undistinguished either by birth or fortune, had it in his power to feast his resentment so richly at the expence of his sovereign. But this was not all; he went on in the same humour, and cast a Second Part Swift's Intelligencer, No. 111. in the like-fashioned mould; which, being excluded from the stage by the Lord Chamberlain, he was encouraged to print with the title of Polly, by subscription, and this, too, considering the powers employed against it, was incredibly large. Neither yet did it end here. The Duke and Duchess of Queensberry took part in resenting the indignity put upon him by this last act of power, resigned their respective places at court, took our author into their house and family, and treated him with all the endearing kindness of an intimate and much-beloved friend, These noble additions to his fame, his fortune, and his friendships, inspired him with fresh vigour, raised him to a degree of confidence and assurance, and he was even prompted to think that the Wife of Bath, despised and rejected as it had been, † might, with some improvements which he could now give it, be made to taste the sweets of this happy change in his fortune. In this temper he revised and altered it, and brought it again new dressed upon the stage in 1729, but had the mortification to see all his sanguine hopes of its success blasted: it met with the same fate in the *It was said, that he got more this way than he could have done by a bare theatrical reprensentation. Cibber, the father, in his Apology, p. 144. † Viz. In 1714, when it was first acted. Cibber's Lives of the Porredies Volume I. B |