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GAY, JOHN (1685-1732)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 541 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GAY, See also:JOHN (1685-1732) , See also:English poet, was baptized on the 16th of See also:September 1685 at See also:Barnstaple, where his See also:family had See also:long been settled. He was educated at the See also:grammar school of the See also:town under See also:Robert See also:Luck, who had published some Latin and English poems. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a See also:silk. See also:mercer in See also:London, but being weary, according to Dr See also:Johnson, " of either the See also:restraint or the servility of his occupation," he soon returned to Barnstaple, where he spent some See also:time with his See also:uncle, the Rev. John Hanmer, the See also:Nonconformist See also:minister of thetown. He then returned to London, and though no details are available for his See also:biography until the publication of See also:Wine in 1708, the See also:account he gives in Rural. See also:Sports (1713), of years wasted in attending on courtiers who were profuse in promises never kept, may account for his occupations. Among his See also:early See also:literary See also:friends were See also:Aaron See also:Hill and Eustace See also:Budgell. In The See also:Present See also:State of Wit (1711) Gay attempted to give an account of " all our periodical papers, whether monthly, weekly or diurnal." He especially praised the Taller and the Spectator, and See also:Swift, who knew nothing of the authorship of the pamphlet, suspected it to be inspired by See also:Steele and See also:Addison. To Liiitot's See also:Miscellany (1712) Gay contributed " An See also:Epistle to See also:Bernard See also:Lintot," containing some lines in praise of See also:Pope, and a version of the See also:story of See also:Arachne from the See also:sixth See also:book of the Metamorphoses of See also:Ovid. In the same See also:year he was received into the See also:household of the duchess of See also:Monmouth as secretary, a connexion which was, however, broken before See also:June 1714. The See also:dedication of his Rural Sports (1713) to Pope was the beginning of a lasting friendship. Gay could have no pretensions to rivalry with Pope, who seems never to have tired of helping his friend.

In 1713 he produced a See also:

comedy, The Wife of See also:Bath, which was acted only three nights, and The See also:Fan, one of his least successful poems; and in 1714 The Shepherd's See also:Week, a See also:series of six pastorals See also:drawn from English rustic See also:life. Pope had urged him to undertake this last task in See also:order to ridicule the Arcadian pastorals of See also:Ambrose See also:Philips, who had been praised by the See also:Guardian, to the neglect of Pope's claims as the first See also:pastoral writer of the See also:age and the true English See also:Theocritus. Gay's pastorals completely achieved this See also:object, but his ludicrous pictures of the English swains and their loves were found to be abundantly entertaining on their own account. Gay had just been appointed secretary to the See also:British See also:ambassador to the See also:court of See also:Hanover through the See also:influence of See also:Jonathan Swift, when the See also:death of See also:Queen See also:Anne three months later put an end to all his hopes of See also:official employment. In 1715, probably with some help from Pope, he produced What d'ye See also:call it? a dramatic skit on contemporary tragedy, with See also:special reference to See also:Otway's See also:Venice Preserved. It See also:left the public so ignorant of its real meaning that See also:Lewis See also:Theobald and See also:Benjamin See also:Griffin (1680-1740) published a See also:Complete See also:Key to what d'ye call it by way of explanation. In 1716 appeared his Trivia, or the See also:Art of Walking the Streets of London, a poem in three books, for which he acknowledged having received several hints from Swift. It contains graphic and humorous descriptions of the London of that See also:period. In See also:January 1717 he produced the comedy of Three See also:Hours after See also:Marriage, which was grossly indecent without being amusing, and was a complete failure. There is no doubt that in this piece he had assistance from Pope and See also:Arbuthnot, but they were glad enough to have it assumed that Gay was the See also:sole author. Gay had numerous patrons, and in 1720 he published Poems on Several Occasions by subscription, realizing £r000 or more. In that year See also:James See also:Craggs, the secretary of state, presented him with some See also:South See also:Sea stock.

Gay, disregarding the prudent See also:

advice of Pope and other of his friends, invested his all in South Sea stock, and, holding on to the end, he lost everything. The See also:shock is said to have made him dangerously See also:ill. As a See also:matter of fact Gay had always been a spoilt See also:child, who expected everything to be done for him. His friends did not fail him at this juncture. He had patrons in See also:William Pulteney, afterwards See also:earl of Bath, in the third earl of See also:Burlington, who constantly entertained him at See also:Chiswick or at Burlington See also:House, and in the third earl of See also:Queensberry. He was a frequent visitor with Pope, and received unvarying kindness from See also:Congreve and Arbuthnot. In 1724 he produced a tragedy called The Captives. In 1727 he wrote for See also:Prince William, afterwards See also:duke of See also:Cumberland, his famous Fifty-one Fables in See also:Verse, for which he naturally hoped to gain some preferment, although he has much to say in them of the servility of courtiers and the vanity of court honours. He was offered the situation of See also:gentleman-See also:usher to the Princess Louisa, who was still a child. He refused this offer, which all his friends seem to have regarded, for no very obvious See also:reason, as an indignity. As the Fables were written for the amusement of one royal child, there would appear to have been a measure of reason in giving him a See also:sinecure in the service of another. His friends thought him unjustly neglected by the court, but he had already received (1722) a sinecure as lottery See also:commissioner with a See also:salary of £150 a year, and from 1722 to 1729 he had lodgings in the See also:palace at See also:Whitehall.

He had never rendered any special services to the court. He certainly did nothing to conciliate the favour of the See also:

government by his next See also:production, the Beggars' See also:Opera, a lyrical See also:drama produced on the 29th of January 1728 by See also:Rich, in which See also:Sir Robert See also:Walpole was caricatured. This famous piece, which was said to have made " Rich gay and Gay rich," was an innovation in many respects, and for a time it drove See also:Italian opera off the English See also:stage. Under See also:cover of the thieves and highwaymen who figured in it was disguised a See also:satire on society, for Gay made it See also:plain that in describing the moral See also:code of his characters he had in mind the corruptions of the governing class. See also:Part of the success of the Beggars' Opera may have been due to the acting of Lavinia See also:Fenton, afterwards duchess of See also:Bolton, in the part of Polly Peachum. The See also:play ran for sixty-two nights, though the representations, four of which were " benefits " of the author, were not, as has sometimes been stated, consecutive. Swift is said to have suggested the subject, and Pope and Arbuthnot were constantly consulted while the See also:work was in progress, but Gay must be regarded as the sole author. Ile wrote a sequel, Polly, the See also:representation of which was forbidden by the See also:lord See also:chamberlain, no doubt through the influence of Walpole. This See also:act of " oppression " caused no loss to Gay. It proved an excellent See also:advertisement for Polly, which was published by subscription in 1729, and brought its author more than £r000. The duchess of Queensberry was dismissed from court for enlisting subscribers in the palace. The duke of Queensberry gave him a See also:home, and the duchess continued her affectionate patronage until Gay's death, which took See also:place on the 4th of See also:December 1732.

He was buried in See also:

Westminster See also:Abbey. The See also:epitaph on his See also:tomb is by Pope, and is followed by Gay's own mocking See also:couplet: " Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it." See also:Acis and Galatea, an English pastoral opera, the See also:music of which was written by See also:Handel, was produced at the Haymarket in 1732. The profits of his See also:posthumous opera of See also:Achilles (1733), and a new See also:volume of Fables (1738) went to his two sisters, who inherited from him a See also:fortune of £6000. He left two other pieces, The Distressed Wife (1743), a comedy, and The See also:Rehearsal at Goatham (1754), a See also:farce. The Fables, slight as they may appear, cost him more labour than any of his other See also:works. The narratives are in nearly every See also:case See also:original, and are told in clear and lively verse. The moral which rounds off each little story is never strained._ They are masterpieces in their See also:kind, and the very numerous See also:editions of them prove their popularity. They have been translated into Latin, See also:French and Italian, See also:Urdu and See also:Bengali. See his Poetical Works (1893) in the See also:Muses' Library, with an introduction by Mr John Underhill; also See also:Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets, John Gay s Singspiele (1898), edited by G. See also:Sarrazin (Englische Textbibliothek II.) ; and an See also:article by See also:Austin See also:Dobson in vol. 21 of the See also:Dictionary of See also:National Biography; Gay's See also:Chair (182o), edited by See also:Henry See also:Lee, a See also:fellow-townsman, contained a See also:biographical See also:sketch by his See also:nephew, the Rev. See also:Joseph See also:Haller.

End of Article: GAY, JOHN (1685-1732)

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