620 G23zi
Irving
John Gay
620 G28zl
Irving
John Gay
$7.50
JOHN GAY
OF THS
An unfinished sketch in oils, believed to be by Kneller, of John Gay.
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
JOHN GAY
FAVOT^TS OF THS WITS
BY WILLIAM HENRY IRVING
NEW TORK
RUSSELL & RUSSELL INC
i 962
COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY THE
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
REISSUED, 196:2, BY RUSSELL & RUSSELL, INC.
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH DUKJS UNIVERSITY PRESS
I~. C, CATALOG CART* NO: 6l-T7I<>4
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To
MY FATHER AND MOTHER
With ^Affectionate (gratitude
PREFATORY NOTE
THE AUGUSTANS are again in fashion, but so far no adequate life
of John Gay has appeared. His nineteenth-century reputation as
an elegant trifler still holds its own in the casual writings about
him, though a fair number of scholars, like Mr. Schultz and
Mr. Sherburn, have studied particular aspects of his work. This
book attempts to review as carefully as possible the facts of
Gay's life and to study his works in relation to his experience
and with reference always to the literary fashions of his day.
The collections of letters, the periodicals, the theatrical records,
the pamphlet literature, the early biographies, and all kinds of
miscellaneous references to the poet have been used, as the
reader will see from the notes. To the custodians of this material
I wish to express my thanks for their courteous help. Par-
ticularly useful to me have been the books and other material
relating to Gay gathered together by Mr. Ernest Gay of Boston
,and after his death presented to the Harvard Library by his
nephew. More than I can express I am indebted to him and to
his like elsewhere, that invisible company of collectors and
scholars on whose work I lean.
The friends who have read my manuscript and helped me
with their interest and criticism will find it easy to forgive me if
I do not list their names here. They have had and have my
warmest thanks. I mention Mr. Sherburn particularly, since he
has not only helped me with criticism but generously turned
over to me two unpublished Gay letters which I use with the
kind permission of Mr. T. Cottrell Dormer, their owner.
Much of my research in preparation for writing this book
was done while in England some years ago on sabbatical leave
from my duties at Northwestern University. The Council on
Research at Duke University has more recently aided me with
grants and has finally made publication possible by a special
subsidy. To the authorities of both these universities I wish to
express my gratitude.
WILLIAM HENRY IRVING
CONTENTS
FACE
PREFATORY NOTE vii
CHAPTER
I. EARLY LIFE IN BARNSTAPLE AND LONDON 3
II. DIRECTION FOUND THE YEAR 1713 68
III. THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 91
IV. NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS Three Hours after Marriage
(1717) AND Poems on Several Occasions (1720) 137
V. SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION (1720-1726) 183
VI. RECOVERY The Fables (1727) AND The Beggars
O-frera (1728) 22O
VII. LAST YEARS WITH THE QUEENSBERRYS (1728-1732) 266
VIII. DEATH AND POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION 292
INDEX 3*7
[ix]
JOHN GAY
OF THS wirs
CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE IN BARNSTAPLE AND LONDON
IT WOULD BE difficult, I think, to find among the Augustan
group of writers one whose contacts with the world of letters
and of affairs were more varied and more extensive than John
Gay's. He knew the shopkeepers and the politicians, the
Whigs and Tories, Grub Street and St. James's, the ballad
singers and the maids of honor. He was a genius, at least in
the art of making friends. Like Horace he was never quite able
to take seriously the things about which many of his friends
grew unnecessarily excited. He could not take the world of
affairs so seriously as Swift, nor the world of art so seriously
as Pope. He loved the town and the country (the town some-
what more), the prince and the pauper (the prince somewhat
more), and refused to disturb the balanced symmetries of life
by unnecessary emphasis on particulars. He was no enthusiast.
Moreover, Gay's literary work has a representative quality
about it which is missing in that of most of his contemporaries.
He played the game well and usually pitched rather than caught
the ball. He wrote practically everything that anyone wrote in
his time, and his pre-eminence in two or three of the forms
remains unquestioned after two hundred years. The thieves and
whores of Newgate still live in his opera, and their round
reality makes the Gilbert and Sullivan puppets look pallid. No
one has written a genuine English pastoral except Gay and
Spenser. Gay's delicately modeled songs strike us as surprising,
for we have been so often told that the age of Pope was song-
less. These things we all know about him, but few of us have
examined his work in detail and discovered how point for point
he epitomizes the art of poetry as men practiced it in his time.
He was literally and metaphorically secretary to the great
4 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
ScribleruSj a title which would suit his inbred modesty aac
which may suggest our approach in this study.
His life and work, then, we shall review, hoping thai
through him we shall the better understand his age. His large
discursiveness, his spirit of experimentation, will certainly help
us if we want to tour the Augustan Parnassus ourselves, that
somewhat restricted "modern" Parnassus which as we look back
upon it after two hundred years seems in its more conspicuous
excrescences oddly jerry-built, solid though the foundations
still remain.
From the biographer's point of view John Gay was most
disobliging. He kept no diary, he wrote no autobiography, he
neither preserved nor revised his letters. He was utterly care-
less about signing his name to poems and essays. He endured
like the rest of his friends that last terror of death, a life from
CurlPs busy press, but even in 1733 nobody seemed quite sure
where he was born or when, though Queensberry took generous
care to let the world know where he was buried. Actually most
people, except Curll, knew much about Gay at that time, but
for some reason or another failed to put it down. Richard
Savage made some tentative gestures towards a biography in
1736, from which nothing very elaborate developed. 1 Budgell
and Aaron Hill once such close friends of Gay no longer
cared, and Pope was too distinguished to dip his spoon into
such small honeypots of literature.
This lack of dependable records is particularly annoying
for the early years. After 1713, in which year Gay dedicated
Rural Sports to his friend Alexander Pope, one finds plentiful
materials, for though proximity to Pope might endanger a man's
reputation it at least insured honorable or dishonorable men-
tion. There are some few solid facts about Gay's life before
this date as we shall see, and with them a mass of antiquarian
detail about birthplace and family, about early associations in
1 See A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical: in which A New and Accurate
Translation of that of the Celebrated Mr. Boyle . , . is included; ... By the Reverend
Mr. John Peter Bernard 5 The Reverend Mr. Thomas Birch, M.A. and F.R.S. Mr.
John Lockmanj And other Hands (London, 1737), V, 406. Except as noted books
mentioned in following footnotes were published in London.
EARLY LIFE 5
Barnstapie and London, only part of which is of genuine sig-
nificance in any attempt to explain the man and his work. Mis-
cellaneous information about the poet's relatives and about life
in Barnstapie in the late seventeenth century is of little interest
unless we can show just how that kind of background condi-
tioned Gay's character and affected his literary accomplishment.
It is sufficiently obvious, for example, from what we know
of the man later that he found himself by nature comfortable
in aristocratic company; he could live and die in the arms of
Debrett and never lose that unaffected simplicity of nature
which Pope and the rest of his friends so much admired in
him. If we can show, then, that Gay's forebears had for genera-
tions been county people of some consequence, that the poet
was to the manner bom, that he was in this minor matter no
Stephen Duck or Robert Burns, we shall have taken oite small
step on that difficult road towards understanding.
Again, if we can find in the family records evidence of
business acumen or speculative fever, if we can find a strain
of Puritan morality or religious enthusiasm against which the
poet will presently react with unnecessary emphasis, we may
be able more intelligently to untangle those interlaced strands
of personality which at first glance look so complex. If this
family should show sharply diverging principles in religion and
politics, in the midst of which an orphaned youngster like the
poet might easily develop a genial disregard for extreme views
of any sort and perhaps presently a habit of tempered compro-
mise in his thinking, then research even genealogical may find
itself justified.
After all, though we may be but half-believers in that casual
.creed of the sensitive morality, surely it is of importance to
know something of the town through the streets of which the
poet wandered as a boy, something of the school to which he
went and the exercises he did there, the friends he made, and
the plans that were made for him. The greatest danger is that
the shadows of multifarious detail may descend upon us and
cloud the air so thickly that the figure of the boy, which should
be everlastingly bright and central in the picture, may grow
6 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
dim or disappear entirely amid lists of names and figure
records of deeds, births, marriages, and deaths, and all the re
of the paraphernalia of antiquarianism.
The first fact to be noted about the poet's early surrounding
is that his family was of established gentility, had been so sine
the early twelfth century and was to remain so until 1823, whe
Frithelstock Priory, near Barnstaple, north Devon, which ha<
been the family seat since i6o2/ was sold by the widow of th
last male heir. 3 The poet's great grandfather, Anthony Gay,
had bought the place originally, and he it was who laid a f ounda
tion for the fortunes of the Gay family in the seventeenth cen
tury by marrying Elizabeth Beaple, daughter of the richest mat
in town, and adding some of her property, including the hous<
in Joy Street in which the poet was born, to his own alreadj
large stock on hand. So Anthony and his sons' sons lived or
in Barnstaple and the neighborhood. Some of them must have
been poor, for there were very few Beaple heiresses to replenish
the money boxes, and the Gays were great multipliers 5 but
they seem to have been uniformly respectable and respected;
for the pages of the parish records and local histories are sprin-
kled with the name, and almost invariably one finds them
honorable enough to be styled "Mr.," "Esquire," "gentill man,"
in a time when those titles meant something more than empty
compliment Moreover, it was not only on the Gay side that
the poet's family were honorable. His mother was a Hanmer
and could boast connection with the family of that name in
Hanmer, County Flint, and with Lord Hanmer of Bettisfield.
Sir Thomas Hanmer, the Speaker of the House and editor of
* Daniel Lysons, Magna Britannia (1822), Vol. VI, part 2, pp. 24.2-243, 384.
"Parkham: The manor of Golds worthy, which had been for many descents the
property and residence of the family of Gay, was conveyed by them to the Coffins
before Risdon wrote his survey, and is now the property of Richard Pine Coffin, Esq. w
Tristram Risdon died in 1640. His book, A Choro graphical Description, or, Survey of
the County of Devon, brought down to 1630, was first published in two small 8vo.
volumes in 1714. Lysons knew the proper date of Gay's birth. John Tuckett (Devon-
shire Pedigrees, 1859) says the family shifted to Frithelstock about 1599.
* The widow of the Reverend James Gay died in Frithelstock Priory on Aug. 8,
1823.
* Anthony Gay was Mayor of Barnstaple in 1638.
EARLY LIFE 7
Shakespeare, was a kinsman. Thus there was a coat of arms
on each side of the house, and John Gay, younger son of a
younger son though he was, could take his family connections
for granted. Some of his relatives had dabbled in trade; some
were nothing but poor parsons 5 some were soldiers ; but they
all possessed a central family tradition, and that assurance of
gentility which Pope, for instance, so notably lacked was theirs
from the beginning.
How much money the poet's immediate family had to sup-
port such pretensions and give their sons a start in the world it
is not now easy to say. The poet was born, June 30, 1685, in a
large house on the corner of Joy Street and the High. His
father had to pay a church-rate of 10 13^. 5J4^ the highest
on the street and one of the highest in the town. Even Castle
House at the same time paid but 5 6s. lY^d. Here the children
romped happily about John playing with young Phineas Pet,
the shipbuilder's boy, and cutting initials in the church pews 5
when he ought to have been saying his prayers until 1694,
when calamity burst upon them in the death of their mother 6
and a few months later in the death of their father also. John
was ten years old at this time and his oldest sister nineteen. 7
Uncle Thomas Gay took over the big house and the children
with it, and held it until his death in 1702, as we learn from
5 R. A. Lawrence, North Devon Herald, Dec. 7, 1882. "Among the pieces of tim-
ber carted away from the Barnstaple parish church [which is now undergoing restora-
tion] has been found a portion of a pew, with the name 'John Gay,* and the date
'1695* cut upon it. As the poet was then ten years old, his age renders it probable that
this was his handiwork j and this may be regarded as almost certain when it is re-
membered that no other John Gay appeared in the parish register."
6 G. A. Aitken, "John Gay," Westminster Review, CXL, 387 (Oct., 1893).
"There is still in existence the manuscript of the funeral sermon upon Gay's mother,
preached by the Reverend John Hanmer, her brother, from Coloss. I, 27, and with the
sermon is a dedicatory letter to the widower: 'Dear Brother, . . . Oh let the re-
membrance of her holy conversation be ever powerful to quicken you and yours to be
followers of her as she was of Christ Jesus, that it may be seen that you have not for-
gotten that you were once favoured with such a wife, nor your children that they were
once blessed with such a mother.* " Aitken establishes the exact date of birth.
7 Joseph Besly Gribble, Memorials of Barnstaple (1830), p. 532. This sister mar-
ried Anthony Bailer, son of the Joseph Bailer who left, by will dated March 3, 1711,
an annuity of 10 for the benefit of the Meeting House for dissenters. This Joseph
Bailer was paying 10 church-rate for his home, Dawking's Park, in 1709, when the
Joy Street house was assessed 10 l$s.
8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
a copy of the will of his nephew and heir, Jacob Palmer, to be
found in the registry of the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, dated
January 28, 1735.
Item I give ^ devise, and bequeath unto my said sone, William
Palmer, clerk, all that my dwelling-house, situate, lying, and beeing
att the Red Cross, in Joy-street, in Barnstaple, afforesaid, with the
garden in the Castle Lane, there belonging to it, formerly given mee
by the will of my uncle, Mr. Thomas Gay, lately deceased, and now
in the possession of Mary Reed, spinster, and other tenants, to have
and to hold the same and every of them with their and every of their
appurtenances, unto the said William Palmer, clerke, his heires and
assignes for ever, to the only proper use and behoofe of him, and his
assignes for evermore. 8
Whatever property there was in addition to the house and
I think there may have been a good deal was presumably of
the kind that evaporates rapidly. Much later, in 1713, suffering
either from melancholy or nostalgia, as he always did when
the subject of money came into his mind, the poet wrote:
But I, who ne'er was bless' d from Fortune's Hand,
Nor brightened Plough-shares in Paternal Land,
Have long been in the noisie Town immur'd,
Respir'd it's Smoak, and all it's Toils endur'd,
Have courted Bus'ness with successless Pain,
And in Attendance wasted Years in vain. 9
No, there were no broad fields to give stability to the family
fortunes. Gay might watch his cousins out at Frithelstock de-
veloping airs of large proprietorship, but he must turn else-
where.
Probably Uncle Thomas did his best for these fatherless
children. He had before long to buy commissions, to provide
dowries, to arrange apprenticeships, and in the meantime this
8 The big house must have added considerably to Jacob Palmer's rating with his
fellow townsmen, for Gribble tells us in his Memorials of Barnstaple (p. 305): "1708.
Jacob Palmer not having taken the sacrament after notice of election to office of
Capital Burgess, was fined 40. Present the Mayor, Aldermen, and most of the Com-
mon Council. The said Jacob Palmer was afterwards sworn into office." He occasion-
ally conformed.
9 The Poetical Works of John Gay, ed. G. C. Faber (1926), p. 655,
EARLY LIFE 9
ten-year-old in whom we happen to be interested must be sent
to the Grammar School and given a decent education, certainly
not on the foundation.
The boy would not have far to go, for the school was housed
in a small building called St. Anne's Chantry in back of the
Barnstaple church, only a short distance from the Gay house.
In those days and down until 1760 it was used on Sundays as
a meetinghouse for the French refugees who had descended
surprisingly upon Barnstaple after the repeal of the Edict of
Nantes. This little schoolhouse was originally a chapel built
over the charnel house of the parish cemetery, 10 and ghostly
stories about the bones of ancestors may have given the place
an eerie quality in the minds of the boys, at any rate in the
evening light or when they heard the droning accents of an
unknown language come through the open door as the French
Protestants conducted divine service. Architectural evidence sug-
gests the early fifteenth century for the date of the building,
though fanciful archaeologists have captured an Irish saint Sa-
binus of the ninth century as patron at its foundation. Nicholas
Carlisle, the best authority, says, "It is not known at what
period, or by whom the Grammar School at Barnstaple was
founded j though it may certainly boast of a remote origin, and
has attained celebrity from the eminent Characters which it has
produced." 11 Among these he lists Dr. John Jewel, the good
Bishop of Salisbury, John Gay, the poet, Aaron Hill, the dra-
matic writer, Samuel Musgrave, M.D., the learned editor of
Euripides. He neglects to mention William Fortescue, who,
like Aaron Hill, was a schoolfellow of John Gay's and who
later became Master of the Rolls. William Rayner, 12 Gay's
first teacher in this old school, became Master at the death of
Nathaniel Viner in 1680 and held the position until 1698, when
he transferred to Tiverton. He was succeeded at Barnstaple
10 J. R. Oliver, Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis (Exeter, 1846), p. 197.
11 A Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools in England and Wales
(1818), I, 242.
12 J. R. Chanter, Memorials, Descriptive and Historical of the Church of St. Peter,
Barnstaple (Barnstaple, 1882), pp. 107 ff. Rayner was a donor to the Church Library,
started by the Reverend John Doddridge with a gift of one hundred and twelve
volumes. Rayner gave two.
io JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
by the Reverend Robert Luck, a brilliant young High Church-
man, fresh from Westminster and Christ Church, where he
no doubt thought himself already famous as the author of An
Admirable Queen a piece offered to King William in a book
of poems on the death of Queen Mary. This young man was
full of bright ideas and presently started the habit of giving an
annual Grammar School play. One of these performances was
adapted from Terence's The Self-Tormentor and was fortified
with both prologue and epilogue written by Luck himself and
-supported still further by a school cantata, Seem Barwnensis,
composed by the same master hand and sung by the boys. On
that occasion, it seems, Luck found his audience inappreciative,
but from us the man deserves some applause even at this late
date. He could not have set the world on fire even if he had
obtained the sun's chariot for a day, as Kitty, the Duchess of
Queensberry, does in some of his saccharine verses called The
Female "Phaeton, but he did succeed in making some of these
boys of his fall in love with song and poetry, and the birth
when it came was not prodigious but beautiful. "It is easy to
observe," writes Luck in the preface to his Miscellany of New
Poems on several Occasions. By R. Lucky AM.. Master of
Earnstafle School. Containing also, The Loves of Hero and
Leander, Translated from the Greek of Musaeus, published by
Edward Cave in I736, 14
It is easy to observe from the Subjects, or the Dates of several of my
little Poems, that I have been occasionally an humble Servant of the
Muses for almost half a Century. . . . This Candour I shall hope,
because I have endeavour'd to deserve it, from those Gentlemen,
whom I have had the Honour to Educate. They ought (I think) to
read my Performances as Favourably as I examin'd Theirs. One of
that Number, now a Great, and (what is more valuable) a very
good Man, will forgive the Liberty I take to print his Translation of
the 1 5th Ode of Hor. Epod. done by him when Young under my
Care. I read it then with too much Pleasure ever to forget it. 3 Tis
to gratify his Modesty I conceal his Name.
18 Sidney Harper, "The History of the Drama in Barnstaple," Transactions of the
Devonshire Association, XLIX, 416-428 (read at Barnstaple, July 26, 1917).
14 Luck had published the year before a Latin poem called Abramis, a translation
of which appeared with an anonymous poem called The Art of Life (1737).
EARLY LIFE n
This compliment to Fortescue (then risen, to high office as baron
of the exchequer) shows the perspicacity of which Luck made
good use in his manner of launching this small ship of his
Apollonian treasures. Gay, his most distinguished pupil, had
died four years before this book was printed. Luck turns then
to Queensberry, Gay's distinguished patron:
O Queensberry! cou'd happy Gay
This Off'ring to thee bring,
'Tis his, my Lord, (he'd smiling say)
Who taught your Gay to sing.
One wonders whether the picture of that smiling face flitted
past in the memory of the old schoolmaster as he wrote these
lines. At any rate, all Gay's old friends willingly subscribed for
the stupid verses, William Fortescue, David Mallet, Alexander
Pope (two copies), Henry St. John Esq., among them. 15
But Robert Luck's later fortunes are not our special concern.
In those years about the turn of the century he sat day after
day with forty boys in front of him, and John Gay was among
those boys. Just how stimulating were those classroom exer-
cises? Was this schoolmaster always busy pumping paradigms
or did he sometimes slip into the playway and cultivate intel-
lectual strength with joy? 16
He certainly developed in these boys an interest in plays and
music. The town had always been liberal in its support of such
things whether it was the King's Players who arrived or mere
strollers, though a regular theatre was not established until
1768. Two of these boys, Aaron Hill and Gay, were later to
be closely associated with Handel and thus attest their love of
music, which certainly did not develop spontaneously in kter
life. Indeed, the first work that Handel did after his arrival
in England was to provide the music for Aaron Hill's Rinaldo,
and one of his most gracious lighter pieces is the serenata Acis
and Gdatea> the libretto for which Gay himself wrote.
15 Gribble, op. cif., p. 308. Luck was at last appreciated even in his own country.
Wj^S. Portraits of the following individuals were placed in the Guildhall: 'Henry
Beavis, Mayor . . . Robt. Luck, Clerk, Master of Grammar School.* w He retired
from his post as Master of the Grammar School in 1740 to become Vicar of West
Down and died on Jan. 17, 174-7- ** ' 16id. 9 pp. 523-5*4*
12 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Luck did far more for Ms boys than stimulate them on the
road to musical frivolities. He made them work at their classical
languages. That copy of Mattaire's Horace which belonged to
Gay and which is now in the Forster Collection at South Ken-
sington is well worn and thumbed and annotated in a way that
does not suggest the idler. This book, published by Tonson and
Watts in 1715, is of course the copy Gay used as a man, when
such schoolboy enthusiasms are too apt to be forgotten. The
boys translated Latin verse into English verse, as Luck himself
back in Westminster had done again and again, in a way that
must have ruined many a possible poet, if poets can be ruined.
Periphrasis in such exercises can scarcely be escaped, for lines
must be filled out. Rhyming tags soon become part of the equip-
ment of schoolboys, as necessary to them as pencils or school-
bags. The process, however, does not seem to have ruined Gayj
it does not seem even to have destroyed his love for Latin
poetry. Horace and Ovid were his first literary enthusiasms,
and he never lost his liking for them. His "Story of Arachne"
from Ovid was published among his earliest poems in Lintot's
Miscellany of 1712, and his translations from Book IX of Ovid's
Metamorphoses found a place in that most popular book of the
eighteenth century. Garth's Ovid. What stimulus such exer-
cises may have given him to try his hand at original verse back
there in his school days it is impossible to tell. Now that the
authenticity of those poems in Henry Lee's little volume, Gay's
Chair, has been so seriously questioned, 17 we can no longer even
speculate on the boy's 'prentice habits. One of Gay's school
friends, the Reverend Charles Hill, Rector of Instow, remem-
bered pleasantly that Gay's poetic abilities were first discovered
by some lines he wrote on the death of a swallow. 18 The story
sounds apocryphal. This boy, brought up as he was on Horace,
would value the observing eye and sharpness of wit rather than
sentimentalities of that sort $ his prevailing mood, as we know,
would grow to be increasingly vhe la bagatelle, and when he
17 The Poeticd Works of John Gay, pp. 671 ff.
18 This anecdote comes from a footnote in Bailer's "Memoir" in Gay's Chair;
Poems never before Printed . . . (1819), p. 14. This book was edited by Henry Lee'
who issued a second edition from Boston in 1820.
EARLY LIFE 13
saw the shining body of the fish struck with smart pain shoot
through the boiling waters of the tiny brook he would share
the joy of the fisherman, but as poet be ready with his bright
comparison 3 having noticed already that men and women and
their doings are more interesting than swallows or fish.
So die Coquet th 5 unhappy Youth ensnares,
With artful Glances and affected Airs,
Baits him with Frowns, now lures him on with Smiles,
And in Disport employs her practised Wiles;
The Boy at last, betrayed by borrowed Charms,
A Victim falls in her enslaving Arms. 10
Whether Gay learned Italian under Luck's guidance one
cannot say positively. He learned it somehow and made trans-
lations from Ariosto ? which, however, were not published until
I9io, 20 and as Archdeacon Coxe pointed out as long ago as
1796 his works show occasional echoes of his reading in Italian
literature. 21 He knew little enough French before 17135 though
he must have become familiar with that language soon after,
or his later usefulness to Lord Clarendon on the trip to Han-
over would be very questionable. His amusing account of an
attempt to write to his boyhood friend, William Fortescue, in
French, is still extant. The letter was written in Moor Park
when Gay was enjoying a holiday there and is dated October 5,
DEAR SIR: You must know that I yesterday made an attempt to
repay you with a letter in French, and having no Dictionary and
being but a poor proficient in that polite tongue I was forced to give
over this grand undertaking. I had begun to acquaint you that I was
last week a Shooting with my Lord Essex, who leaves England next
week to make the tour of Italy and France; and when I came to the
word Shooting I was forced to express myself in a Poetical Manner
by having recourse to Boileau, and call it
Faire le [sic] Guerre aux habitans de 1'Air,
" Rural Sports (first version, 1713), Hnes 197-202, in The Poetical Works of
John- Gay, p. 659.
80 J. D. Bruce (ed.), "Some Unpublished Translations from Ariosto by John
Gay," Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literature*, CXXIII, 279-297
(1910).
81 The Fables of John Gay, ed. William Coze (i7S*)> P- $7 n.
14 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
and when I would have told you that we owed our game to dogs
called Pointers I was obliged in a tedious circumlocution to tell you
that we had dogs that lying themselves down, would direct us to the
birds, and when I would have acquainted you with our Success, I
could not find a word for Poachers after a half an hour study. Beside
if I had proceeded I considered I should have wholly neglected Senti-
ments and only just filled up a paper with French phrases that I could
at the time have recollected; for if I was to accost a French Man, I
should certainly begin with that impertinent compliment, Monsieur,
Comment vous portez-vous? and a hundred to one if we were con-
sulting a Sun dial to show my Learning, I. should add Quelle heure
est-fl? a'nd should haul into our discourse some other as insignificant
question which I had just learned in my grammar. I hope these rea-
sons will satisfy you for my not writing in an unknown tongue.
Here's a melancholy prospect before my eyes 5 I am now looking upon
the Grove which is now every day losing its shade ; and alas what is
a Grove without a shade; the leaves fall; the Bowling Green is wet;
the Roads are dirty and I almost wish to be in London, where Pope
has been all this Summer, and Budgell is still of the same opinion
when I last saw him which is about a month since that all the Ladies
are rascals. 21
Before Gay's visits to the Continent his ability to read
French was probably greater than his power in composition or
in speech; certainly as a schoolboy, like most youngsters of his
time until they had had a chance to make the grand tour, he
knew little enough of that polite tongue. Instead, he knew
something of Greek.
Some biographers have imagined coldness between teacher
and pupil and suggested that the Reverend Robert Luck was
so shrewdly encased in his High Church principles that he would
scorn this boy whose maternal uncles were Dissenters and took
him to the Castle Meeting from Sunday to Sunday. That may
be true, but one must remember that the Gays themselves were
not Dissenters, and in any case the chances are that Luck
sloughed off his avid partisanship when he entered the class-
sa The original of this letter was formerly owned by Mr. F. B. Sabin of London,
but is now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. I quote only part of it.
EARLY LIFE 15
room. It is idle to suppose that he divided his boys Gay and
Aaron Hill and Fortescue and the rest into sheep and goats
according to family politics. The boys might find him different
sometimes outside of school, and on election day might smile
to see this man who had gently quizzed them on the urbanities
of Horace, fired with Juvenalian enthusiasm, gesticulating
damnation on all Whigs and Dutchmen and ladling out good
Tory punch to red-faced burgesses, but in school the violence
of party was probably forgotten.
Gay's school education was a very good onej his mind was
roused and his imagination fired by contact with great literature,
while at his desk in that tiny schoolroom horizons undoubtedly
grew wider. But a boy is not at the desk all day long and imag-
inative stimulus does not come altogether from the words of
the master. He was about the streets much of the time, in the
great open market, down by the quay, standing openmouthed
before some ne'er-do-welPs queer gaping face set in the stocks,
or running after the beadle to watch him thwack the raw flesh
of whore or tippler. What sort of place was Barnstaple in those
days as a nursery for genius? Was it a backwater reflecting
nothing but the moss and sedges of an earlier time, or was it
in the strong current of events, answering in its smaller eddies
the main drive of national affairs? What kind of stories were
told by the old men on the alehouse benches or round the fire-
place in the evening when the children teased their elders for
more and more?
In the first place, a good deal of the talk at the street corners
and in the house would be about trade. Barnstaple was a large
trading center, and many of the Gays were themselves trades-
men. The town had an open market for the countryside, but
far more important than that, it had developed in spite of the
fact that it was seven miles up river a large foreign trade,
mainly in woollens and tobacco. Not much later than the period
of which we are thinking Barnstaple was named as one of the
eight ports of England to which the importation of woollen
goods from Ireland was limited by Statute, 12 George II,
16 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
*739- 23 Direct importations of various other goods were made
during the first quarter of the century from Spain, Portugal,
France, Italy, Norway, Newfoundland, and various parts of
North and South America, from the latter chiefly tobacco, of
which single article importations to the extent of 54,700 odd
in duty were entered in the Customs House in two years only,
1727 and 1728. All this would not interest the boys and girls
in that Gay family very much, except that when the spirit of
enterprise is abroad all are touched by it, more especially the
young. What John Gay and his brothers and sisters would be
interested in at that time would be the romance of trade, the
stories the sailors down at the quay told about far countries,
about mermen with black moustaches on the Hudson, an-
thropophagi, or if they had no power over mermen and an-
thropophagi, about Newfoundland fishermen hanging their
catch to dry in the parching winds, about Indian wars and Turk-
ish pirates. Gay might even remember stories his father had
told him about Matthew, the youngest of that group of brothers,
the one who had died in Barbados back in 1687. And as for
Aunt Martha and the way she had plunged her fortune in that
same new world venture and finally landed in Newgate and
had to stay there for two or three years as a prisoner for debt
the children would know all that. 24 Aunt Martha had at one
time employed William Gay, the poet's father, as her agent
in Barnstaple and probably was a frequent visitor at the Red
Cross. 25 If she ever appeared in person to horrify the children
with her stories of the old London gaol, she doubtless told them
98 J.. R. Chanter, Sketches of some Striking Incidents in the History of Barnstaple
(Barnstaple, 1865), p. 29.
**Nov. 7, 1681, to Sept. 3, 1683. Some of these stones come from the unpublished
papers of the Pinney family at Racedown, one of whom, Nathaniel Pinney, married
Aunt Martha's daughter, Naomi Gay.
* 5 Account of Martha Gay with her son-in-law Thomas Walden: "To money re-
mitted by William Gay and paid you by various people, one in London, as by your
own account one hundred and fifteen pounds." The old lady, Martha Gay of Bristol,
finally died at Bettiscombe, the seat of the Pinneys, if we may judge by the receipted
drug- bill dated Nov. 22, 1700, but not paid for five years: "Rec'd Aprill 27: 1705 of
Mr. Nathaniel Pinney by order of Mrs. Hester Gay, one of the executrix of Mrs.
Martha Gay dec:d Five pounds nine shillings in full of this bill and all accounts by me.
Robt. Sheffield."
Mrs. Nathaniel Pinney of Bettiscombe, Gay's cousin.
By kind permission of Lady Pinney
EARLY LIFE 17
about Isaac Dennis, who was Keeper at that time, and how she
had had to pay the old swindler three shillings and sixpence a
week for the right sort of accommodation. When the old lady
had grown tired of her entertainment in the house on Joy Street
or had recovered perhaps temporarily from the effect of the
vast quantities of drugs she was continually pouring into herself,
she would announce her intention to visit her daughter, Mrs.
Nathaniel Pinney, over in Bettiscombe, and maybe tell the
children once again all about Azariah Pinney, that rash young
follower of Monmouth about whose neck the hangman's noose
had dangled until his sister Hester, who kept a lace-shop in
the New Exchange, emptied the till of sixty-five pounds to save
him and finally set him up in business in St. Nevis.
The line of trade, fortunes made and unmade with startling
rapidity, the inflationary policies of William IIFs government,
all this paper-credit and the queer idea of a National Debt
these serious topics were mulled over in the hearing of the boys
again and again.
The lure of trade was very closely connected then as now
with the glories of war. What glory there could possibly be
about the sad collapse of Sedgemoor and its cynical sequel as
the great Protestant Duke vowed to turn Catholic if his royal
uncle would only spare his life, it is hard to say now. The real
character of Monmouth made no difference to boys or men in
those days, veiled as it was by official secrecies 5 actually he was
a symbol for the Protestant interest. Popish plots, against which
he was supposed to be the sole bulwark, still turned the air
red in the imaginations of men. Moreover, Monmouth had
vigorously set himself against the French influence, which in
the minds of Englishmen meant not only the Pope and wooden
shoes but trade competition, an even more serious matter. Con-
science and pocketbook were both involved. These Barnstaple
burghers shared the larger loyalties of trade. Their politics had
been Whiggish before the name was known. The big civil wars
of the mid-century were of course over before William Gay, the
poet's father, was born, but Barnstaple even then was for Par-
i8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
liament against King Charles. All but three of her twenty-fi
burgesses were Parliament men. Though isolated and force
twice in spite of her heavy fortifications to yield to the roy
forces, Barnstaple remained recalcitrant and gave an enthusia
tic welcome to Commonwealth troops when they finally cam
to her assistance in the last year of the war. 26 Prince Charlc
himself had in the meantime spent over a month at Barnstapl
in June, 1645, as guest in the Beaple mansion on Southgat
Street, now called High Street. His hostess was Grace Beapl
widow of one of the town's big merchants and a Gay hersel
though but distantly related to the poet's family. 21 Mrs. Beapl
survived his visit for five years, and no doubt found frequen
opportunities to show friends and strangers the room where th
exiled Prince Charles had slept, the furnishings of which, accord
ing to an inventory of her goods and chattels in the uncatalogue
muniments of Exeter Cathedral, were worth "25. 95. ood
ffor ye goods in ye Starechamber," a better room, I fancy, thar
any Gay's family at the Red Cross could show.
We may suppose that the stories about this old war were
by 1700 growing rather vague and that the boys would hear
more about the Monmouth uprising 28 or about the wars against
26 R. W. Cotton, Barnstaple and the Northern Part of Devonshire during the
Great Civil War, 1642-1646 (1889), p. 83.
27 The Reverend J. F. Chanter, "Charles, Prince of Wales, at Barnstaple, and his
Hostess," Transactions of the Devonshire Association, XLIX, 389 (read at Barn-
staple, July 26, 1917).
38 Reprint of the. Barnstaple Records (published by J. R. Chanter and Thomas
Wainwright, Barnstaple, I9 oo), II, 163. In the hectic year 1685, the Borough Ac-
counts show payments which suggest that the city fathers nourished the healthy wish
to be reckoned on the winning side:
"Paid several persons for riding scout, each 6s. 8d.
Paid for fetching the great guns and drawing them to their several posts, 3. 45.
Paid for bringing back horses and other things, when the prisoners were carried to
Exon, 1 6s.
Spent when news came that King Charles was recovered, 2. IDS.
Item for ringers and sending messengers to Justice Lovett and Colonel Bassett, I 3 s.
Item spent at the news of the taking of the Duke of Monmouth, i. Os. Od.
Item spent when King James was proclaimed, in wine and beer, 9. 193. 6d.
Item spent at the news of the routing of the rebels, 2.
Paid for ale for the ringers, the 6th February, is.
S i$T d ^ a trCat f r SIr J hn R I1S and thCr * entlemett > and Sir A ^ur Chichester,
And for several barrells of strong beer for the country souldiers, 3. us.
Paid expenses for the reception of the Duke of Albemarle, i. ios."
EARLY LIFE ig
France the wars which were before long to take the poet's
brother, young Jonathan Gay, from home to fight as lieutenant
and finally as captain under the great general. The flag of
England not yet the Union Jack was on the seven seas, and
Barnstaple as well as London was tinged no doubt with that
weird complex of emotions which we call patriotism. Young
John Gay may have been slightly puzzled when on election day
he saw the flag used indifferently by the contesting parties as an
excuse for their vociferations and the so-called patriots defaming
fellow citizens with savage bitterness, for "party" in this sense
was a fresh phenomenon in the eyes of men, prodigious off-
spring that it was of the glorious Revolution. Barnstaple must
often have witnessed scenes like the Norfolk election described
in The Weekly Journal for Saturday, March 5, 1714. This has
some interest for us as Sir Thomas Hanmer, to whom it relates,
was a distant kinsman of Gay's.
Norwich, Feb. ip, Yesterday came on the Election for the
County of Norfolk, where the Mob having gathered in a strong
Body, fell upon Sir Ralph Hare and Col. Earless Party, Knock'd
them so out-ragiously with Brick-ends and Stones, that even Sir Tho.
Hanmer, Sir Ralph Hare, Col. Earl and their Friends, were obliged
to quit their Tents to save their Lives; Notwithstanding which 2 of
them were Mortally wounded, and another had one of his Eyes Cut
out, and several others were horridly cut and mangled; whether this
Bloody Usage proceeded from the Natural Aversion the Faction have
to the Clergy, who appear'd very Numerous at Sir Ralph's Tent, or
because they were Gaul'd to see so Worthy a Patriot as Sir Tho.
Hanmer, appear in the Interest of the Church Party I cannot de-
termine: Be it as it will, they did it, and Sir Jacob Asdey and Mr. de
Gray, having the Majority were Declared.
Violence and bribery were the usual tools of the politician.
One election cost a total of fourteen hundred and sixty pounds.
For bespeaking and collecting a mob, 20; For Roarers of the
word Church, 40; for a set of No-Roundhead Roarers, 40; For
several gallons of Tory punch on church tomb-stones, 30; For a
majority of clubs and brandy-bottles, 20 j For dissenter damners.
20 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
. . . For demolishing two Houses . . . committing two riots ... for a
gang of Aldermen abusers . . . &c., &c. 29
We can scarcely imagine that Gay with scenes like these
about him in his boyhood would be stupid enough to confuse
party with principle any more than Swift did. In later life he
always made friends irrespective of party and displayed so much
casual agility in the difficult art of sitting on fences comfortably
that some of his modern biographers have wondered what his
opinions were on politics, or even whether he had any.
The expanding avenues of trade, the glories of British arms,
the new vagaries of politics all were thrust on the gaze of this
Barnstaple boy eager to find a place for himself in the world.
He must have been continually conscious also of the bitterness
of religious division. Were not those Huguenots a symbol of
man's inhumanity to man in the boy's imagination? They had
landed in Barnstaple on the first of December, 1685, the very
year that the poet was born. We learn the story from the
memoirs of one of them, James Fontaine, as he was later called.
Gay would learn it from the lips of his father and uncle and
out on the street corners how the ship with the refugees on
board came into the harbor on Sunday morning just as the good
people of Barnstaple were coming from church, how one well-
to-do citizen took a couple of the strangers to the shelter of
his home and others followed suit, so that God raised up for
them fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters in a strange
land. Fontaine tells how shocked he was by the savage punish-
ment that had been meted out to Monmouth's followers.
I was told by the Presbyterians, that the unfortunate people who
had been executed after the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion a few
days before our arrival, and whose heads and quarters I saw exposed
on all the towers, gates and cross-roads, looking absolutely like
butchers 5 shambles, had many of them been guilty of no crime but
that of being Presbyterians. 30
99 Elizabeth Handasyde, Granville the Polite (1933), p. 121.
89 The Reverend James Fontaine, A Tale of the Huguenots (New York, 1838).
The MS, which was written in 1722 in Dublin, had to wait until 1838 for translation
EARLY LIFE 21
Puzzled suffering in what they supposed to be the cause of
religion was the lot of many people in the England of that
time. Gay's immediate family had not escaped. His mother's
people, the Hanmers, were Calvinists, and when the boy went
to see his uncle, the Reverend John Hanmer, he would hear
many stories of what had happened to people who refused to
acquiesce in Edward Hyde's definitions of true religion. This
uncle of Gay's was, as Calamy describes him, "a star of the
first magnitude" in the dissenting community and in these later
days had been free to exercise his calling without interruption.
His father, the Reverend Jonathan Hanmer, in spite of his
wealth and family connections, his Cambridge education and his
power as a preacher, had been ejected from his livings in the
neighborhood of Barnstaple back in 1662 at the time of the
Act of Uniformity. He was the man who on the Indulgence
finally gave up his connection with the Established Church and
formed a congregation at Barnstaple known as the Castle Meet-
ing. 31 Neither of these Hanmers would, like Hobbes, make the
King's conscience the standard for his own. Neither of them
lacked oratorical power. Indeed, one almost suspects homiletic
fireworks, especially when one reads in Calamy such an account
of the older Hanmer as this: "His lectures at Barnstaple were
greatly thronged, many attending who lived many miles dis-
tant j and some of them persons of character and distinction."
The boy Gay would not of course remember this grandfather
as he had died in 1687 advanced in age and in the respect of
the community.
Yes, over at Uncle John Hanmer's the small boy would hear
a different brand of stories, some no doubt very improving.
and publication by one of Fontaine's descendants. M. Castel edited a French version,
published at Toulouse in 1877. He believed in the general credibility of the author.
Fontaine himself was taken into the home of a Mr. Downe, and before long found
his whole armour of fence and defence strained to the utmost by the amorous ap-
proaches of his host's sister, the lady of the house. He took refuge desperately in
immediate marriage with his French fiancee a marriage recorded properly in the
Barnstaple Parish Register and in departure to Taunton, where he later prospered as
a merchant in linens.
81 The Reverend J, F. Chanter, The Life and Times of Martin Slake, B.D., 1593-
1673 (1910), p. 159-
22 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
but others not lacking In humor, for John Hanmer seems to
have been a kindly man, respected for "the sweetness of his
temper, his learning, the judgment, and exactness of his com-
posures, and the gravity and seriousness with which they were
delivered." He would tell stories about Cambridge, the Cam-
bridge that Milton knew, stories about delinquent parsons, possi-
bly about the Reverend John Trender, former vicar of the
Barastaple Church, whose doings became at one time such a
scandal that they found a permanent place in the diary of
the Town Clerk, Philip Wyot.
Mr. John Trender, vicar of this town, inveighd in his sermon
agt the Aldermen for not coming to church, whom he said were like
2 fat oxen, that they would not hear when X calld unto them but
drew backwards and drew others from X, the aldermen were present
but unseen, for this and his indecent behaviour on being questioned for
this abuse he was committed to warde for want of sureties the E. of
Bath next day discharged him. 32
Afterwards Trender was jailed again, because he had been
found tippling with a pipe and tabor a little after nine. It took
the united efforts of the Bishop of Exeter and the Earl of Bath
to set him free this time. "Sunday following he preachd ij
hours, beinge a cold daye he weryed all his audience." One
hopes that his friend, the Earl of Bath, was forewarned of this
prospect of revenge and stayed away from church that morning.
This was the rather undignified form that church squabbles
were likely to take in the seventeenth century, and Gay would
hear many stories of this kind and, I think, laugh over the ab-
surdities of folk who took their religion so seriously. His uncle
would tell him too about those preaching tournaments which
were a delight and challenge to some gifted young parsons at
the time. They preached by the hour glass, as Dryden tells us,
and did not hesitate to turn it over at least once. The best of
these stories was the one about the Reverend John Howe, who
according to Calamy was competing in 1656 with Robert Jagoe
for the post of minister at Dartmouth. 83 The votes for the two
**J. JL Chanter, Stocks of the Literary History of Bamstaple, p. 104.
Edmund Calamy, The Nonconformists Memorial (1775), I, 350-351.
EARLY LIFE 23
candidates were equal. A friend of Howe's happened to men-
tion the difficulty to Cromwell, and Oliver agreed to act as
referee. A time was set for the sermon and a text chosen.
WMe the Psalm was singing, Cromwd, that he might the better
be able to judge whether or no he was that great man that he had
been represented, sent a gentleman to him with a note, requiring him
to preach upon another text mentioned in the note. Mr. Howe de-
sired the Clerk to sing a little longer than usual, and preached upon
that text for a full hour, turned up the hourglass, held on till it was
run out, and was abouf to turn it a second time, when Cromwel gave
him the sign to stop, and he broke off. The protector was so pleased
with his performance, that he declared Mr. Howe should not go to
Dartmouth^ but should be his chaplain.
And when that story had been comfortably talked over and
digested, questions about Cromwell and his Ironsides asked and
answered, the boy would want to know more about those In-
dians out in New England for the conversion of whom his uncle
was always collecting money 5 and then the older man would
go over to his desk and get out the bunch of letters which
grandfather had received from John Eliot thanking him for
Jus readiness to help forward the cause of the Gospel by the
generous supplies which he procured and sent over. Even the
Mather fariiily might come into the conversation, for had not
Nathaniel Mather, Harvard Master of Arts, been at one time
Vicar of the Bamstaple Church? 34
This uncle, John Hanmer, was always very kind to John
Gay, and of that kindness we shall find further evidence very
soon. He was a learned as well as a kindly man. He knew
medicine almost as well as divinity, and even dabbled in poetry.
He was a man of disturbingly regular habits, got up at four
or five in the morning,
remained in his Study till the Time of Family Prayer; soon after
which, he went to his Study again till about Noon: And then, after
necessary Refreshment with Eating and Walking, and a little Dis-
coursing, he would return to his Study again, and there continue till
** Edmund Calamy, A Continuation of the account of the ministers . . . ejected . . .
after 1660
24 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
the lateness of the Evening was answerable to the Earliness of the
Morning. 85
The poet would hear more about colleges and the joys of
learning and even about poetry at the homes of at least two
other uncles, the Reverend John Gay out at Frithelstock, who
had been a commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, and the Rev-
erend James Gay, Rector of Meath, a Cambridge man who was
presently to send two of his sons up to St. John's.
It would seem, then, even from so brief a. sketch of the
poet's early surroundings as this, that Barnstaple and the Gay
connection there had much to offer by way of stimulus to the
growing mind and fire to the imagination. But whether the
boy thought of trade or war, of scholarship or poetry, all aspira-
tion as he grew to manhood became somehow converged on
London, on that road which led along a muddy marsh over-
flowed by the tide to those distant hills over which his brother
had gone to join the colors of Marlborough. London was the
center of all his thoughts, and whatever direction fate might
give to his kter career, London would provide the clue. Uncle
Thomas Gay died in 1702, and presumably about that time, at
the age of seventeen, the boy set out for the city.
I!
Now a cousin of the Gay family, Hester Pinney, kept a
lace-shop on the Strand, and it may well have been through
her good offices that the boy John was finally placed as an
apprentice in the household and shop of a silk mercer on that
same street. This arrangement was normal enough at that time.
Younger sons of county families often got their start in life in
this way, and many of them lived to indulge themselves in
sneers of superior scorn when they thought of their country
cousins whose limited round of fox hunting and heavy drinking
88 Calamy, The Nonconformists Memorial, I, 438. See also H. W. Gardiner,
Biographical Lije of Hanmer (Barnstaple, 1828), p. 36; Gribble, op. cit., p. 507.
In May, 1672, John Hanmer was assistant to Oliver Beard, minister to the dissenting
congregation at Barnstaple ; in May, 1692, co-pastor; on Sept. 9, 1696, pastor. The
congregation divided in 1705. Hanmer did not long survive separation. See Dr.
Calamy*8 Continuation) cited above. These facts come from an account in MS by
the Reverend Samuel Badcock, 1777, one of their ministers.
EARLY LIFE 25
left nothing but mould on their minds to record the passing of
the years. Hopefully, then, the youngster came to town, that
town of which he was to become the laureate unrivaled by all
the city poets. What opportunity he had at this time to practice
the art of walking the streets of London we can only guess.
He seems to have lived with an amiable master, who would
make the routine life in the shop as little irksome to the country-
bred lad as possible. This master was evidently not at all like
many of the men into whose hands the law put powers almost
of life and death after those fateful papers of apprenticeship
had once been signed. Misson, the French traveler, tells a vivid
story of the fortunes and misfortunes of London 'prentices in
those days, 36 but such a commonplace advertisement as the fol-
lowing from The Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, July 16,
1720, suggests even better than he some sinister aspects of the
arrangement which have fortunately long been forgotten.
Whereas Charles Vandersman, about 1 6 Years o Age, wearing
a brown Great Coat, his own light brown Hair, went away from his
Master, Mr. Elliot, Joyner in Heath-Cock-Court in the Strand, on
Monday the 4th Instant. This is to warn all People from entertain-
ing the said Lad at their Peril; and whoever brings him to his said
Master shall receive 55. Reward, and reasonable Charges.
Gay's master was not of this sort 5 none of the early biographers
suggest friction between him and his apprentice. They merely
transfer a share of their own snobbery to the poet, imagine him
bored with his humble duties, fancy that he already recognized
in himself a "genius for high excellencies," eager thus prema-
turely to arise and shine. William Ayre, in the Memoirs of the
Life and Writings of Alexander Pope, Esq. (i745)> gi ves a
graphic account of these early days in the life of Gay.
The Trade which he chose to be put Apprentice to, was a Mer-
cer, but he grew so fond of Reading and Study, that he frequently
neglected to exert himself in putting off Silks and Velvets to the
Ladies, and suffered them (by reason of his wanting to finish the
Sale in too few Words) to go to other Shops, where they might be
kept longer in Play; this Way of Gossipping about among the Sflk
"Francois Misson, Memoires et observations (la Haye, 1698), p. 7.
26 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Mercers, is said to be practis'd among young Ladies, often for
Amusement, or to cure the Vapours, when in Reality they want tc
purchase nothing: Not being able to go thro' this Slavery, and doing
what he did in the Shop with a mind quite bent another Way, his
Master seldom put him forward to serve, but some other, who had
the Business more at Heart: By Degrees Mr. Gay became entirely
to absent himself from the Shop, and at last, by Agreement with his
Master, to withdraw from it, and retire into the Country. 37
This description does at any rate take us within the shop,
and has also the virtue of suggesting that Gay was a hard reader
thus early in his life. Whether the accompanying hint of his
indifference either to silks or to ladies be correct is quite an-
other question. His poems, especially Trivia, contain plenty of
evidence to show his knowledge of and interest in dress and in
materials. And can one really suppose him indifferent to the
duchesses or the sweet Molly Moggs who sought his help in
choosing their fine array! In spite of what Ayre says, Gay was
a profitable servant. We learn from the earliest letter that has
come down to us that he was accustomed to execute detailed
commissions for his friends in Devonshire, some of which no
doubt brought cash into his master's till.
Coz DENNIS, I sent your bed away last Thursday sevennight, the
carriage paid to Exon, directed to Mr. Atkeys, as you ordered. The
bed comes to 16 and with it I sent you an easy chair, of the same
as the bed, which my mistress advised me, being very useful and fash-
ionable: she hath made the best sort; it comes to 3. I hope they
will please you. I am at present much out of order, I have not heard
as yet what the frames that the bed and chair are put up in, comes
to; but I will not fail of giving an account of everything in a post
or two. I have sent you herein the carrier's note for the carriage.
Pray tell coz Richard Parmynter, that Mr. Rolles hath paid me for
his neckcloths. My service to all friends.
I am, your loving friend,
and humble servant,
JOHN GAY
To Mr. Nich. Denoys, merchant,
in Barnstaple.
"11,97.
EARLY LIFE 27
This letter was dated January 10, 1706, and was probably writ-
ten shortly before Gay threw up his apprenticeship. 38 One can
see how the young man, puzzled about the beds and easy chairs
that he was to buy for his cousin, sought advice from his mis-
tress on what was "useful and fashionable." It has a hint also
of what may have been the cause for Gay's radical change of
plans. "I am at present much out of order," he says. Now Gay
was not likely to talk about minor physical ailments. The sub-
ject of his financial embarrassments, we shall learn later, often
bored his friends, but he rarely worried them about his health,
or at least not without real cause. It may well be that at about
this time he was beginning to find that the long hours and con-
finement actually did affect his health and that he was forced to
give up his work and go back home for a rest. His nephew,
the Reverend Joseph Bailer, writes much later, in 1777, that
Gay felt a "remarkable depression of spirits," and we can imag-
ine that this was scarcely the melancholy to disperse which he
had but to throw a stone, but some more serious physical de-
rangement. 39
Whatever the cause, in the summer of 1706, about halfway
through the usual term, Gay was released from his engage-
ments and went back to Barnstaple, where he stayed for some
months at the home of his mother's brother, the Reverend John
Hanmer, possibly until HanmePs death on July 19, 1707,
forced him once more into action.
in
He returned to London this time with extremely vague
plans about the future. All he knew was that he did not wish
to continue in the business world, and since he was ill .qualified
for any professional work and not quite well enough connected
to expect immediate patronage, he undertook the first task that
came to hand, a secretarial post with his boyhood friend, Aaron
88 This letter was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 18231. It has
recently reappeared with facsimile ia Unpublished Letters from the Collections of John
Wild, ed. R. N. Carew Hunt (1930), p. 22.
89 See Bailer's memoir of Gay in Gay's Chairs Poems never before Printed . . .
(1819)-
28 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Hill. We learn this from several sources, particularly from
Edward Parker's Key to Three Hours after Marriage (1717),
which tells of Gay's start in life as amanuensis to Aaron Hill
when the latter set on foot his question-and-answer project, The
British Apollo, in 1708. Another pamphlet speaks of the con-
nection between the two friends lasting until 1712, when Gay
helped Hill launch the famous scheme for extracting oil from
beech-mast. Aaron Hill was a young man of wealth and social
position, kinsman of Lord Paget and friend of Peterborough,
with a mind even thus early full of fresh projects, among
which in 1708 were starting The British Apollo, writing and
producing his first play, and publishing his magnificent folio
of travels in the Ottoman Empire. A few months later he was
chosen manager of Drury Lane theatre, though this distinction
proved acutely embarrassing and short-lived. He was ener-
getic, erratic, a good promoter, with virtues highly appreciated
by the usual run of coffeehouse minds, and Gay might well have
begun his professional career in worse company.
Hill then is the answer to at least some of our queries about
those three for us barren years of Gay's life (1708-1711).
Hill not only seemed but was extremely busy and needed some-
one about to help him, today with this, tomorrow with that,
someone both versatile and intelligent, someone who was pre-
sentable in society. Hill helped Gay publish his first poem,
introduced him to his friends, employed him in his multifarious
businesses, and doubtless gave him money for services rendered.
This association with Hill was well known and remembered
even after Gay's death, for, when Richard Savage undertook
to write a life of Gay in 1736, someone told him to ask Hill
for information about the poet's early years. Unfortunately,
Hill was busy as usual when the query came and referred Sav-
age to Budgell and Pope, to Budgell particularly for the begin-
ning of Gay's life, adding only the facts that came immediately
to mind the publication of Wine, Gay's employment in the
Monmouth household, and his expedition to Hanover. 40
40 The Works of Aaron Hill, Esq; in Four Volume? . . . (1753), I, 338. Hill to
Savage, June 23, 1736.
"I would willingly satisfy the curiosity of your friend, in relation to Mr. Gay t if
EARLY LIFE 29
With Aaron Hill at his elbow. Gay would find himself in
contact continually with three different sets of literary people:
those gentlemen of leisure who wrote pretty verses from time
to time and published them at their own expense no doubt
beautifully printed on large paper and then drank in plentiful
satisfaction from the flattery of their friends, a second group
not nearly so respectable who picked up a precarious living by
writing for the journals, adapting their opinions to whatever
was expected of them by the party paying for propaganda; and
a third group, aboundingly hopeful at times and utterly de-
pressed at others, who frequented the playhouses and pestered
the managers with newborn plays, sure to hit the taste of the
town if only the town were not defrauded once again by official
stupidities.
Perhaps the categories should not be so clearly defined.
Many young men of talent started with the first, passed through
them all, and ended hopelessly in a debtor's gaol. Some more
fortunate ones combined the three and just managed to keep the
milk arrears from getting beyond all control. Gay himself dur-
ing these years passed from one category to the next, never
quite managing, or even, I think, hoping to maintain himself
by writing alone. He was, apparently, by no means a pauper. 41
it were not easy to get much fuller 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: that poem, you speak of, calPd Wine, he
printed in the year 1710, as I remember: I am sure, I have one, among my pamphlets?
but they lie (like Ideas in an unlogical head) so oppressively numerous, and obstruc-
tively mix'd, that to distinguish any one of them, out of the heap, is a task of more
labour, than consequence. Yet, I will look for it, and send it to you, if 'twill be of
use, or satisfaction, to any gentleman of your acquaintance. 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 toitheSd, 'till Mr. Pope, (who, you know, is an excellent planter}
reviv'd, and invigorated his bays; and indeed, very generously supported him, in some
more solid improvements; for I remember a letter, wherein he invited him, to partake
of his fortune, (at that time but a small one) assuring him, with a very un-poetical
warmth, that, as long as himself had a shilling, Mr. Gay should be welcome to Six-
pence of it; nay, to Eight-pence, if he could contrive but to live on a groat. So much
for Mr. Gay."
41 A General Dictionary (1737), V, 406. "Our Author had a small fortune at
his disposal, but far from sufficient to support him in that independent condition of
30 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
He moved about easily with men who had money, like Fortes-
cue and Steele and Henry Cromwell. He put his name down
for a copy of Hill's expensive Ottoman Empire in a subscription
list that contained none but the titled and genteel. And when
he came to publish his first poem, he was satisfied with nothing
but the best and most costly format for that offspring of his
maiden muse. His brother had but recently died, and possibly
Jonathan's share of the family estate may have come to John
Gay at this time and reEeved him from too pressing needs for
the moment. He seems to have been no literary hack but more
accurately a young gentleman making experiments with lit-
erature, aware that he must keep his eyes wide open for some
post that would provide money to gratify tastes that were grow-
ing increasingly expensive.
First, then, the poetry that appeared in these early years.
Of it we know definitely only two items before Lintot's Mis-
cellany was published in 1712, and these were Wine y printed
by William Keble in 1708, and a few lines of eulogy prefaced
to Dr. William Coward's Lic&ntia Poetic in the following year.
Gay thought neither of these worth reprinting when he col-
lected his poems in 1720, and the chances are that many other
verses equally unvalued in later years dropped from his pen
at this time, some of which may have found their way into the
journals. All his friends were doing it, and The British Apollo
was there ready to print much worse poetry than his. Like the
market-women, Gay and his friends brought their flowers of
wit to the market, fearful lest, unsold that morning, they might
die before night. Pope described their restless eagerness to
print, and his own eagerness, in a letter he wrote about this time
(May 7, 1709) to another of Gay's early friends, Henry Crom-
well:
Thus the same reason that furnishes Covent Garden with those
nosegays you so delight in, supplies the Muses* Mercury, and British
Apollo, not to say Jacob's Miscellanies, with verses. And it is the
happiness of this age that the modern invention of printing poems for
life, to which the freedom of his spirit adapted his desires." This account of Gay
was revised by Pope before publication.
EARLY LIFE 31
pence a-piece has brought the nosegays of Parnassus to bear the same
price; whereby the public-spirited Mr. Henry Hills, of Blackfriars,
has been the cause of great ease and singular comfort to all the
learned, who, never over-abounding in transitory coin, should not be
discontented, methinks, even though poems were distributed gratis
about the streets, like Bunyan's sermons and other pious treatises,
usually published in a like volume and character. 42
Pope's tone in this letter is rather nastily superior, based no
doubt on the secured income which enabled him to cultivate his
muse without worrying about the next dinner. Yet were one
compelled to choose between the bowers of Windsor and the
streets of London as the forcing-house for genius, surely Lon-
don would be the better place. There poetry walked the streets
undisguised and intelligible, or at least was criticized rabidly
in the coffeehouses. Poets appeared at Will's and did not mind
talking to strangers j they were not dimly discerned in some
esoteric coterie. Addison's Campaign and Philips's Cyder were
quoted and discussed over these tables, and although much of
the talk must have been as vapid as Dick Easy's ecstasies over
that "Ah!" (which he would rather have written than the whole
Aeneid), it would at least suggest to a young aspirant that verse-
making meant something in the life of the nation and that
even he might learn how. True, such an audience would teach
him to suppress his lyric fervors. One does not strip and
exhibit the ultimate beauty on street corners or in taverns. That
perhaps mattered little as ultimate beauty in poetry never seems
to have worried anyone in the first decade of that century. So
with one eye on Milton and the other on John Philips and the
reflected beauty of burlesque. Gay published Wine in 1708, his
first poem. 43
These verses tell us at least two important facts about their
author: first, that he has a sense for style and can recognize a
mannerism when he sees one, and second, that his only chance
for success or possible greatness lies in forsaking traditional
42 Pope, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope (1871), VI, 7$-
"Daily Courtmt, May 22 and 25, 1708. "Just Pubiish'd, Wine, A Poem. Printed
for Wm. Keble at the Black-spread-Eagle in Westminster-Hail."
32 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
elegance and presenting only those essentially commonplace
human scenes, especially perhaps the life-stuff of the lowest
classes, for whom, in spite of his aristocratic connections. Gay
seems always to have had spontaneous sympathy. The main
idea of the poem is an imitation of an imitation, and poets of
that kind should we can agree be driven from the republic.
Gay uses all the Miltonic tricks, the inverted word-order, the
long parentheses, the use of adjectives for adverbs, the fondness
for unusual words in -eon or 4an y the strings of proper names.
It seems very much the schoolboy's clever exercise, but readers
in those days apparently enjoyed detecting the parallels, and
if like Dr. Johnson we condemn all imitative verse, out will
certainly go many a fine eighteenth-century baby with this bath-
water. Forgetting for the moment the intentional ponderosities
of Gay 5 s style, one can still find pleasure in his description of
the British sailor and his great ship off through the trackless
vast abyss to lofty Teneriffe, where the oaks are vine-clad, an
early lotus-land:
Sight most delicious^ not an Irksom Thought,
Or of left native Isle y or absent Friends,
Or dearest Wife, or tender sucking Babe 9
His kindly treach'rous Memory now presents;
The Jovial God has left no room for Cares.
Gay had seen those great ships, the red-faced sailors and
their wives and babes, and, when he thinks of them, the verse
springs to life. Better still is his description of the crowd of
roisterers ascending the stairs to the Devil Tavern, the stripling
youth bounding up ahead to lead them into the presence of
that majestic dame among the bottles. Toasts follow, and Gay
has a chance having learned the most important trick of his
Grub Street friends to pay prettily turned compliments to
Marlborough, Devonshire, Godolphin, Sunderland, and Hali-
fax.
It is worth noting that Gay had Keble print this poem in
folio on beautiful paper, and was much annoyed when Henry
Hills, a bookseller in Black-Friars, immediately issued a pirated
EARLY LIFE 33
edition octavo on his usual %rown sheets and scurvy letter/*
and repeated the injury once again the next yean 44 The poem
must have excited some interest. After all, the attention of this
unprincipled publisher was a compliment to the young potty
and the printing of two cheap editions following closely on the
heels of the authorized one meant that others besides the im-
mediate friends and patrons of the author were reading the
poem.
The other bit of versifying from this period that we know
to be Gay's is the little poem of flattery inscribed to Dr. Coward.
Now Dr. Coward was one of the group of gentlemen whom
Hill had got together to handle The British Apollo, a man who
was notorious already for his pamphlets on immortality but
who prided himself even more on his patronage of poetry. He
had proved his competence as a Latinist back in 1682, when he
translated Absalom and Achito$hel into that language, though,
in the favor of the learned, his version was later displaced by
Atterbury's. Was he not also the author of a considerable epic
stretching its dreary length Blackmore-fashion over three hun-
dred and twenty-six pages and called by the inviting title of
Abramideis, or the FaHthjul Patriarch Exemplified in the Lives
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph: an heroic foem (1705)?
Later he developed a propensity for criticism, and while en-
gaged casually with the gentlemen of the A-pollo he was whole-
heartedly busy on his new art of criticism, Licentia Poetica dis-
cuss*d: or, the True Test of Poetry. Without which It is Diffi-
cult to Judge of, or Compose, A Correct English Poem. To
which are added, Critical Observations On the Principal, Antient
and Modern Poets, viz. Homer, Horace, Virgil^ Milton,
44 John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (1812), VIII,
1 68 n. "Henry Hills, a notorious Printer in Black Fryarsj who regularly pirated
every good Poem or Sermon that was published j a circumstance which led to the
direction in the Act of 8 Anne, that fine paper copies should be presented to the Public
Libraries." Plomer tells us (Dictionary of Booksellers and Printers, 1907, p. 155)
that Henry Hills died in 1713, and an advertisement appeared in the Evening Post of
Nov. 12 to the effect that his stock "consisting of the most eminent Sermons, Poems,
Plays, &c., is now to be disposed of, at the Blue Anchor, Paternoster Row. N.B. There
can never be any of the same, or any in the like manner, reprinted after these are
gone, there being an Act of Parliament to the contrary.**
34 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Waller, Cowley, Dry den, &c. as frequently liable to Just Cen-
sure. A Poem (1709).
This book was warmly pushed by Dr. Coward's friends on
the A folio. Hill and Gay wrote verses in praise of it. It was
advertised profusely, and questions to draw attention to it were
naively inserted in the midst of the ordinary reading matter.
Q. What Book wou'd you advise me to buy, to give me a true
Taste in Poetry?
A. Dr. Coward's Ldcentw Poetica by all means.
And Coward attempted a return for this back-scratching in his
preface: "The most variety of Lyrick Forms, Bad and Good, I
find in a Paper lately Published, call'd the British Afollo, by
some Ingenious Gentlemen, who worthily testifie Themselves to
deserve the Character."
Coward's critical praise and blame are distributed quite as
one would expect. Peterborough, Hill's friend and one of
Apollo's noble patrons, he praises extravagantly. Blackmore's
Prince Arthur he likes, and Creech's translation of Lucretius,
though he damns his Horace, as all the critics did. Garth, that
best good-natured man, a Christian though he knows it not, the
author of The Dispensary, receives rather more than his due
meed of praise. Dryden and Milton are his heroes, "if we
Blank Lines True Poetry can call." He praises Butler, Cotton,
and Oldham though he dislikes the roughness of Oldham's
style. He deprecates realism in the pastoral, disapproves in
general of irregularity, whether he finds it in Spenser's Alex-
andrines or in unpretentious lyric. In general, he preaches to
Gay and the rest of his readers much the same critical doctrine
that Gay and Pope both heard from Henry Cromwell, their
"Sir Timothy Tittle," and that emerges with most clarity per-
haps in the letters between Pope and Walsh, dated a year or so
earlier than Coward's poem.
Knowing Gay's frivolous humor and his willingness at all
times to flatter with his tongue in his cheek, one can hardly take
too seriously his commendatory verses to Coward. Some of the
best of the verses in The British A folio were probably Gay's,
EARLY LIFE 35
but one cannot help noticing that, whereas Hill carefully
gleaned all his little poems for future collected editions. Gay
quite properly let the mists of oblivion cover what he had con-
tributed. Can we imagine that one who knew so well the mean-
ing of a long apprenticeship whether in silks or in versifying
could so frivolously regard the steeps of Parnassus? Dr. Cow-
ard was, I fear, the one who was frivolous in his eyes, not
poetry.
The Vulgar Notion of Poetic fire
Is, that laborious Art can ner aspire.
Nor Constant Studies the bright Bays acquire.
And that high Flights the unborn Bard recewes y
And only Nature the due Laurel gives;
But You, with innate shining Flames endow'd,
To wide Castalian Springs point out the God.
Thro* your Perspective we can plainly see.
The New Discovered Road of Poetry,
To steep Parnassus you direct the way
So smooth, that vent'rous Travellers cannot stray,
But with unerring steps, rough ways disdain.
And by you led, the beauteous Summit gain,
Where polish' d Lays shall raise their growing Fames,
And with their tuneful Guide, enrol their Honoured Names.* 5
Gay slips in an Alexandrine at the end as if to assure us that
his eye is on a better model than Coward!
The next poem that we know definitely to be Gay's was the
one called clumsily On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard
Lintott, written in October, 1711, or earlier, though not pub-
lished until the following year. By that time Gay had managed
to add to the list of his friends some who would be able in fu-
ture years to be of more use to him far than Aaron Hill or the
egregious Dr. Coward, and it may be well to pause before con-
sidering this next poem to rehearse the story of Gay's friend-
ships in 1711-1712, especially as the poem is itself a series of
compliments and in a sense a record of new social contacts.
The two friends who meant most to Gay in these early days
48 The Poetical Works of John Gay, p. 210.
36 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
were Eustace Budgeli and Alexander Pope, Budgell for the
present and Pope for the future. Budgell was the cousin and
intimate friend of Addison, who found a place for this attractive,
if somewhat headstrong, youth soon after his arrival in London
and even shared his lodgings with him in the later years of
Queen Anne's reign. But Gay's acquaintance with Budgell
would scarcely come through Addison. There was a much more
natural and casual chance for contact, and that was through
William Fortescue, Gay's Devonshire friend. This Fortescue,
from a famous family, was the son of Henry Fortescue of
Buckland-Filleigh; he came into his fortune at the ripe age of
four, and presently at a somewhat riper age increased his for-
tune by marriage with a distant kinswoman. William Fortescue
liked London, came up early, and through Gay met many of
the A folio friends. 46 After his wife's death in 1710, he settled
in the city for good as a student in the Middle Temple, pro-
gressed in the law, and finally in 1741 became Master of the
Rolls and member of the Privy Council.
Fortescue's widowed mother, formerly Agnes Dennis, a
cousin of Gay's, had early married the Reverend Gilbert Bud-
gell, D.D., of St. Thomas, near Exeter, himself a widower and
the father of Eustace. Under these circumstances it was inevita-
ble that son and stepson should meet frequently, and, since they
both arrived in town at approximately the same time, both
strangers and both members of the Inns of Court, one may
assume with some confidence at least a limited amount of social
give-and-take between them. Gay would come to see his old
school-friend, Fortescue, and there he would meet Budgell.
With Budgell as a friend he would certainly have opportunities
to become acquainted with Addison. Hill's mention of Budgell
along with Pope as one of Gay's early friends is assurance, I
think, that these young men were intimate. If it were not, the
frivolous introduction of Budgell's name in one of Gay's earliest
letters to Fortescue (October 5, 1713) would confirm the notion
that these three were about together a good deal and had few
secrets from one another. "Budgell," says Gay, "is still of the
** He subscribed for Hill's Ottoman Empire.
EARLY LIFE 37
same opinion when I saw him which is about a month since that
all the Ladies are rascals."
The introduction to Pope carne through Henry Cromwell,
a well-known habitue of Will's coffeehouse, "honest, hatless
Cromwell, with red breeches/' as Gay calls him in Mr. Pope's
Welcome -from Greece. He was one of those lesser men about
town, of independent means, who perhaps serve their day and
generation well enough by bringing more famous men together,
and may even provide copy for caricature in such papers as The
Tatler; for Cromwell had suffered at least three times from the
ridicule of its pages. His mistress, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas,
Dryden's Corinna> a rather pathetic figure among the minor
poets of the early century, remarks somewhere, "I cannot chuse
but be pleased with the Conquest of a Person whose Fame our
incomparable Tatler has rendered immortal, by the Three dis-
tinguishing Titles of 'Squire Easy the amorous Bard 5 Sir
Timothy the Critick; and Sir Taffety Trippet the Fortune-
Hunter "He was not only a pretty gentleman, but also a
pretty poet," says Steele derisively. This was, however, the
man whom Pope as a youth visited in London and on whom he
chose to practice the art of fine letter-writing.
Pope's first letter to Cromwell is a rhyming epistle, not too
respectable, but interesting from the light it throws on some
of these early friendships. The correspondence proper starts on
April 25, 1708, and continues down to December 21, 1711.
Gay's name does not appear until July of that last year. The
first mention is but a casual greeting; the second suggests grow-
ing intimacy since Pope is trying to find a publisher for one of
Gay's pamphlets. Evidently, Gay felt by this time that he knew
Pope well enough to ask his help in matters of this sort. Gay
and Pope would very soon be busy helping Lintot in the prep-
aration of his Miscellany, and the beginning of that association
can be traced in these Cromwell letters. Cromwell wrote to
Pope on October 26, 1711: "I arrived on Saturday last much
wearied, yet had wrote sooner, but was told by Mr. Gay (who
* T Pylades and Corinna (1732), I, 96 and 194. Cf. also The Tatler j Noa. 47, 49,
and 165.
38 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
has writ a pretty poem to Lintot, and who gives you his service)
that you was gone from home." 48
Pope expressed rather more than polite interest in these
verses in his next letter, and when a copy of them finally arrived
with its pleasant compliment to himself, he returned (December
21, 1711) his warm acknowledgments:
I would willingly return Mr. Gay my thanks for the favour of his
poem, and in particular for his kind mention of me. I hoped, when
I heard a new comedy had met with success upon the stage, that it
had been his, to which I really wish no less; and, had it been any
way in my power, should have been very glad to have contributed to
its introduction into the world. 49
By this time the friendship of Pope and Gay is established 5
they need Cromwell no more.
This last quotation from Pope's letter shows us that Gay's
literary aspirations were rising well above the horizons of petty
journals. His verses to Lintot were not printed until 1712, and
his first play, The Mohocks , written that year, was never acted ;
but the young man was beginning to suffer the serious pangs of
authorship, and fortunately there was a publisher at hand ready
to humor him. Bernard Lintot was at this time rising from
humble beginnings to be a serious rival of Jacob Tonson as
purveyor of poetry. Back in 1705, John Dunton had given him
scurvy notice:
He lately published A Collection of Tragick Tales, &c. by which
I perceive he is angry with the World, and scorns it into the Bar-
gain; and I can't blame him, for D'Urfey (his Author) both Treats
and Esteems it, as it deserves, too hard a Task for those whom it
Flatters; or perhaps for Bernard himself, shou'd the World ever
change its Humour, and Grm upon him; however, to do Mr. Lintot
Justice, he is a Man of very good Principles, and, I dare ingage, will
never want an Author of Solja, so long as the Play-House will en-
courage his Comedies?
By 1712, the world had changed its humor and was about
to grin on Lintot. Rowe, Parnell, Pope, and Gay were begin-
ning to establish a new literary clique, and their choice for pub-
"Pope, Works, VI, 125. M Ibid., VI, 130.
50 The Life and Errors of Jo An Dunton . . . (iSi8), I, 314.
EARLY LIFE 39
Usher fell on Lintot. His Miscellaneous Poems and Transla-
tions was a very real success, and the 1712 issue was followed by
further and somewhat enlarged editions in 1714, 1720, and
1722. Gay contributed the verses On a Miscellany of Poems
to Bernard Lintott, above mentioned, and a translation of the
story of Arachne from the sixth book of the Metamorphoses.
Pope's Rape of the Lock appeared there in its first form not
yet "machined." Pope added two adaptations of Chaucer sup-
posedly by Betterton; Cromwell offered two translations from
Ovid, while Edmund Smith appeared on its pages with his Poem
to the Memory of Mr. John Philips. By 1720, Gay had three
more poems which he was willing to add, the Epistle to Burling-
ton, the Epistle to a Lady y and Sweet William's Farewell, while
Pope threw in the Verses Designed to be Prefixed to Mr. Lin-
tott's Miscellany, and the arrangement of the Miscellany poems
was then altered so as to draw all Gay's poems together and
to put the two poems in compliment to Lintot side by side. As
the Cromwell letters show, Pope's Verses to Lintot were written
in response to Gay's suggestion. Why anyone should have
doubted the authorship of either of these poems is inexplicable,
but apparently a mistake by Nichols can set the whole world
guessing. 51 Gay's lines are prettily turned. He expatiates on
variety as the special charm of the miscellany volume, exhibits
his own taste in poetry, and picks out for pleasant compliment
his friends among contemporary poets, Sheffield, Congreve,
Prior, Granville, but particularly Addison, Garth, and the new-
risen genius Pope.
When Pope's harmonious muse with pleasure roves,
Amidst the plains, the murm'ring streams, and groves,
Attentive Eccho pleas'd 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.
In this volume, Gay and Cromwell are the precursors, heralds
of that vast army of Ovidian enthusiasts which soon was to ap-
81 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, VIII, 164-168.
40 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
pear flaunting its colors so bravely in Garth's magnificent folio
(1717). By that time the fad was rampant. The list of trans-
lators in Garth omits hardly an important name among the
literary men of this period. 52 "About this time," says Warton,
"it became fashionable among the wits at Button's^ the mob of
gentlemen that wrote with ease, to translate Ovid. Their united
performances were published in form by Garth, with a preface
written in a flowery and lively style, but full of strange opin-
ions." 53 For some reason, Gay's name became very closely asso-
ciated with Ovid's throughout the century. He had a knack
for turning off those mythical stories, which does not please
us specially, but which evidently captivated the hearts of eight-
eenth-century readers. That particular episodic turn of his mind
appears in many other poems more pretentious than these bits
from Ovid, and down through the century when later writers
seek to compliment the shades of Gay they frequently recall
his "sweet Qvidian strains. 5754
rv
So much then for Gay's early attempts at poetry. The poems
of the kind which he wrote in these years were after all scarcely
a serious occupation, even for pretty gentlemen who expected
nothing but a few guineas for the compliments, or in more
hopeful moods actual introductions to those they flattered, in-
troductions that might lead to more substantial patronage.
Verse was yielding in the first decade of the eighteenth cen-
tury to her humbler rival prose, and when Gay was introduced
by Hill to the young gentlemen who answered questions .and
wrote bright essays in the columns of The British Apollo he
88 The list follows: Dryden, Addison, Eusden, Maynwaring, Croxall, Tate, Stone-
street, Veraon, Gay, Pope, Hervey, Congreve, Ozell, Stanyan, Catcott, Rowe, Garth,
and Welsted. Garth's Ovid with Gay's translations from the ninth book rolls along
through the century with editions (usually in two volumes) appearing in 1720, 1727,
1736, 1751* *794 1807, 1818. Pope and Gay also collaborated in a translation of
Ovid's Metamorphoses, edited by Dr. George Sewell and competing somewhat unsuc-
cessfully with Garth. There were editions of the Sewell Ovid in 1717, 1724, 1733,
1742. Obviously Ovid was a strong card in the eighteenth-century poetic game. Notice
correspondence on this subject in Times Literary Supplement, May 21, 1931.
58 Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (1806), II, 25 n.
" See "The Poet's Complaint to Poverty," in Ewan Clark's Miscellaneous Poems
(I779)i PP. 10-12.
EARLY LIFE 41
would certainly not overlook the possibility of turning a penny
or adding to his reputation by cultivating that medium. We
have already noted Gay's verses to Dr. Coward, who wrote
spasmodically for the Apollo. How close his contacts were with
the rest of the group or how much he actually contributed to
the journal it is now impossible to discover since he never re-
printed any of this work. Only six years after the decease of
the Apollo he was spoken of casually as one of those associated
with HiH in running the paper, and the chances are that he did
his full share of the work of preparing for public consumption
this very curious and very entertaining sheet
His associates were for the most part a humble lot, not the
kind one brags about later when fame has come one's way and
famous men are at one's elbow. After all, Pope did not talk
much about Henry Cromwell after 1712, and one can scarcely
blame Gay for neglecting Marshall Smith and the Apollonian
nonentities when Swift and Lord Oxford were listening to his
jokes. These Apollonians were, though, the young men who
listened to his jokes in 1708-1709, and they were the ones who
doubtless gave him many a hint to help him towards success
in this journalistic game.
The British Apollo was Hill's first big business venture, but
the idea was not a new one. Back in 1691 John Dunton and
three of his friends, including the Reverend Samuel Wesley,
father of the evangelist, had sought to catch public attention in
a question-and-answer journal called The Athenian Gazette, a
title changed presently to The Athenian Mercury. This was
reasonably successful for some half-dozen years. Even Sir Wil-
liam Temple and Lord Halifax did not disdain to offer an occa-
sional contribution to its pages. Swift a country gentleman,
Dunton called him sent in "an ingenious poem 3 ' in which he
celebrated the virtues of these unknown arbiters of wit with a
fantastic extravagance which must kter have been embarrassing.
Pardon, ye great Unknown, and far-exalted Men,
The wild Excursions of a youthful Pen . . .
Look where exalted Virtue and Religion sit,
Enthroned with Heav'niy Wit!
42 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Look where you see
The greatest Scorn of learned Vanity . . .
And when you find out these, believe true Fame is there,
Far above all Reward, yet to whom all is due:
And this, Ye great Unknown ! is only known in you.
The public gradually lost interest in Dunton's project, and for
ten long years there was no court of authority in which one could
air his puzzled queries, or exhibit his bleeding heart, or exercise
his ambling Pegasus. Not before Dunton and Defoe, but cer-
tainly before Addison and Steele, Hill noted that the public
were beginning to look for more than politics and news in their
journals. He was aware of the eagerness with which the coffee-
house audience awaited the Memoirs of the Scandal Club, and
was possibly surprised to find more than a casual interest taken
in the verses which John Oldmixon scattered abroad in his
Muses Mercury. He felt that variety in journalism was the
secret of success, and when, in February, 1708, he was ready to
start his own paper, he selected his Society of Gentlemen, his
representatives of Apollo, with care. Religion and poetry, the
fine arts and medicine, science generally and mathematics in
particular, town-life and domestic problems, all these and more
must have attention, for was not the epigraph chosen sufficiently
inclusive?
By me what shall be, what has been, and what is, is disclosed;
through me songs are sung to the accompaniment of the lute. The
healing art is my discovery, and throughout the world I am hon-
oured as the bearer of help, and the properties of simples are subjected
to me.
The staff finally selected to carry on this high task preserved
its anonymity with astonishing success. Occasionally the adver-
tisements give a due, since they usually celebrate the literary
and professional merits of the gentlemen immediately con-
cerned. Contemporary readers wanted to know more of this
mysterious Society of Gentlemen, but got little satisfaction when
they took the trouble to send in. questions on that subject. a lt
must suffice to say that the Number of the Society is large
EARLY LIFE 43
enough, and all of them of sufficient Age, to answer far more
pertinent Questions than Yours."
The routine work of the journal was done by Marshall
Smith, another friend of Hill's. He was more largely responsi-
ble for the continued existence of The British Apollo than any-
one else 3 and hopefully carried on the task to the end of the
third year, long after Hill and Gay had lost interest. He and
Hill and a certain P n P(urce)ll, as we shall see, bore the
brunt of Dunton's resentments, when the old publisher, who
had earlier browbeaten Tom Brown into respect for his literary
preserves, attempted the same crude methods on these young
men of The British Apollo. Dunton's angry maledictions in his
Athenianism let us into the secret of Smith's gay waistcoats at
least, his snobbishness about money and social position, and his
frivolous lack of interest in all the improving elements in his
paper. The bright waistcoats were soon within six years to
be soiled in the Queen's Bench Prison, and his aristocratic
friends were to be exchanged for companions of the Mint, as he
attempted to raise money to extricate himself by seeking sub-
scriptions for his dreary Monitors collections of religious
verses and starting a new question-and-answer journal, The
Oracle, new alas only in name, for in dull discouragement he
copied the same old Apollo questions and the same old an-
swers. 55 His verses by way of dialogue written along with Hill
appear properly accredited to him in Savage's Miscellany in
I726, 56 and once again in Hill's collected Works in 1753, this
05 The Daily Oracle. By which all Questions are Answer* in every Art and
Science, either Serious, Comical, or Humorous, both in Prose and Poetry, with other
Amusements. By a Society of Gentlemen. The first number was issued on Aug. I,
1715. The Proposals announce: "Whereas M. Smith, Gent, has had an extraordinary
Success on the Presenting his Poems caJPd the Monitors, insomuch that above Twelve
Hundred of the best Families in England have made him. Generous Returns, and also
have Encouraged him to Publish a Weekly Paper of such Kind, as may both Improve
and Delight 5 and the rather because formerly He was the Undertaker of the Paper
calPd the British Apollo. . .
''No Papers will be Sold to any but the Subscribers. . . . We shall take the same
Method in the Order of the Questions, as was observ'd in the British Apollo; viz.
Of inserting the Divinity Questions in the first place, then those in Philosophy, &c.
but never cumber the Paper with News, as in that, there being a sufficient Number
of Prints of that Nature already."
58 He was Damon to Hill's Philemon in a Dialogue concerning Riches and
Poverty.
44 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
time without his name. He was a driveling versifier, had prac-
ticed odes and such-like effusions as early as the death of King
William, and later on occasions fit and unfit had written
verses unmatched for nervelessness and inanity in that most
unashamed age. His verses in praise of Hill may stand as a
sample of his verbal and intellectual capacity. They were
printed by Mayo in the second edition of The Present State of
the Ottoman Empre (1710).
Thou only has attempted such a Style,
Where Flow'rs of Eloquence and tuneful Strains
Of Flowing Numbers ease our Pains,
And Sliding Hours beguile;
Thou, whose fresh Youth, with sense of Years, is Crown'd,
And in whose early Spring such Ripe Autumnal Fruits are found. 57
Marshall Smith was doubtless responsible for most of the
versified lucubrations in The British Afollo, in which the ques-
tions and answers are sometimes themselves metrified, and the
occasional obscenities alone do not serve to lighten the darkness
visible of his stupidity. He considered himself qualified to an-
swer questions on painting on the strength of a book he had
published on The Art of Painting back in 1692, and took pains
to remind readers, when opportunity arose, of this forgotten
manual.
Q. Who was the best author that ever treated of painting?
A, Signior Paulinus, an Italian, writ the best treatise on that art
which hath come to our knowledge, but 'tis a very scarce book. In
English a gentleman of our Society writ one some years since. All
we can say of it is that had he seen one before it in English, which
discovered that the author so well understood the art, he had not
writ his.
This interest was no doubt a very minor part of his activities
on the journal. He was, if not at the very beginning, very soon
The magnificently blasphemous simile in A Pindarique Poem. Sacred to the
Glorious Memory of King William III further exemplifies Smith's flowers of eloquence:
As when the Saviour of Mankind came down,
From the bright Regions of Eternal Day,
And left his dazling Throne and Radiant Crown,
Necessities of Human Life t'obey . . .
EARLY LIFE 45
the general editor and turned his wits to any problem that the
others neglected, or manufactured fresh problems and solutions
when blank spaces had to be filled, or advertisers had to be
pleased. 58 Dunton accused him of complete lack of principles,
I han't Room here to make a Pass at that dull, ignorant, fake
and impertinent Scribler, M. Smith, that has been long aping and
lessening the Credit of my Question-Project by his weak and ridic-
ulous Answers, and yet has the Impudence and Folly to stfle himself
the British A folio. . . . Then know, Sir Fop (for en't your gawdy
Waistcoat a Jest to stfch as think you a foor y crazfd; paltry Au~
thor?} that scribling is the Air I breath in ... and therefore, Smithy
as your Office is Slander and interloping, you shall be well lash'd with
the Rods of Truth and Honesty, and 111 never jerk you with any
other . . . you are a proud, whimsical, silly, blundering, conceited
Fop, a British Jest, a walking Farce; 'for you told me in one Letter,
"Were it not more for Reputation's sake, because you wou*d not be
look'd on as the Author of light Matters alone, you wou'd not insert
another noble Subject, for (adds our pious and grave Casuist) Farce
rides triumphant." 59
Farce did not ride so triumphant, apparently, as Smith
thought. It was the variety of its offerings that kept The British
Apollo and its young men of brightest parts comfortably afloat
for more than three years, and it was probably not so much
Smith's wretched verses or puerile joking, nor even Hill's pleas-
ant disquisitions on the thrills of travel, on cochineal berries in
Tenedos, or on the intrepidity of birds flying over the Dead Sea,
folk superstition all to the contrary, that kept the journal going,
as the attempt made by its writers to satisfy the public curiosity
on theological controversy and its corollary natural science.
Slowly and perhaps a trifle grotesquely, the Londoner, now
somewhat forgetful of his traditional gods, was sinking to his
knees before science, and, since natural explanations must sup-
plant the will of God, in poured questions to The British Apollo
on miracles, on the blackness of Negroes, on Messianic prophecy,
on swan songs, on waterspouts, on the virtues of tobacco, on
68 The second edition of The British Apollo (one volume only appeared) was issued
by Marshall Smith in 1711.
** Athenian News: or Dunton's Oracle, March 7-11, March 11-14,
46 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
immortality, on apparitions, on the spleen and many other weird
complaints, on monstrosities, even on the derivations of words,
for surely now that God and immortality, as well as swan songs,
are debatable, only the Royal Society can settle it, unless by
chance The British Apollo happens to know.
The British Apollo did know a surprising number of sup-
posed facts. Since Marshall Smith and Hill and Gay were not
equal to all the questions, they called in specially qualified men
to assist. The man who answered most questions on natural
science and divinity in the first two years of the Apollo was Dr.
James Mauclerc, son of a Huguenot doctor from Montpellier
admitted to the College of Physicians in forma pauperis in
1689. He combined his professional equipment of knowledge
in physiology, anatomy, and medicine with an interest appar-
ently sincere in the support of orthodox divinity. His copy of
the first two volumes of The British Apollo may be found in
the Harvard College Library with marginalia showing that he
answered some seventy or more questions in each of those first
two volumes. In later debates on Abridging the Study of
Pkysick he seems to have been ranked with Dr. Josiah Wood-
ward among the "Antacademic Philosophers, the generous
Despisers of the Schools, and the rest of the numerous Sect
of Inspired Physicians." His last appearance before the read-
ing public, when he was one of the oldest members of the
Royal College of Physicians, was as the compiler along with
Richardson, of The Christian Magazine, or Treasure. Contain-
ing, A Choice Collection of many Remarkable Passages Upon
Several Important Religious Subjects, Taken out of the Writ-
ings of Some of the Most Eminent Modern Divines: Tending
to Our Confirmation Both in the Belief and Practice of the True
Christian Religion, against Atheists, Deists, Socinians, Papists,
And other Corrupt and Loose Christians ( I748). 60
But Dr. Mauclerc's ponderosities on natural philosophy and
divinity lacked the spice of heresy, and to add this leaven to the
Apollonian lump the singularly unpromising aid of Dr. William
Coward was called in. Dr. Coward's qualifications were at least
60 Nkltols> Literary Anecdotes, IV, 597.
EARLY LIFE 47
threefold, medical, religious, and poetical. Book after book of
his on disease had appeared on the treatment of smallpox,
scurvy, gout, and consumption, on the proper care of the eyes,
on the ferruginous-waters at Ipswich-Spa and their medicinal
uses but it was not until 1702 that his fame was established by
the publication of a book which had nothing to do with his trade
and may perhaps have ruined it. Charles Leslie, the writer of
The Rehearsal^ tells us that "the Dr. was so Big with his new
Vamp'd Monster, that he neglected his Practice to Promote
it." 61 And the Monster, all properly groomed, that is, proof-
read and corrected by Sir Hans Sloane, was Second, Thoughts
Concerning Human Soul, Demonstrating the Notion of Human
Soul, As belietfd to be a Spiritual Immortal Substtwce, united
to Human Body, To be a Plain Heathenish Invention, And not
Consonant to the Principles of Philosophy, Reason^ or Religion.
Mrs. Behn's principle that faith is the poor retreat of routed
argument was no doubt invoked by both sides in the controversy
that immediately followed the publication of this book. And
on one side not only faith but fire was appealed to, for Coward's
books were burned by the common hangman and he himself
was treated along with Toland, Collins, Asgill, and the others
to the usual discourtesies reserved for heretics by the faithful,
including this time so notable a defender as Swift. Farther
Thoughts followed attack and defence in the approved man-
ner of the theological squabbler. Coward was himself a rather
muddled-headed, well-meaning old gentleman, scarcely knew
what he had meant to say, and appeared rather surprised at the
mare's nest he had started. His ideas were old by at least half
a century, as the author of the Lady's Pacquet oj Letters knew,
for she mentions Coward's book and comments tartly on his
lack of originality.
I have also sent you Dr. Coward's farther Thoughts upon the
human Soul, with Dr. Taylor* $> and Mr. Rroughion's Answer to his
Second Thoughts. The first appears to me to have done most justice
01 A Serpent and no Sting: or; a Combat between The Rehearsers Country-Man
and Dr. Coward's Welch-Man; wherein Hur is Stript Stark Naked, and Expos 9 d to
Shame (1707), p. 7.
48 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
to the Argument, The Doctor's Notion seems to insinuate the en-
tire Mortality, under pretence of the Soul's sleeping till the grand
Resurrection. 3 Tis however certain, that this Doctrine is much older
than himself. I have seen a small Treatise, Printed in the Year
1650, call'd, Man wholly Mortal ; from whence he seems to have
transcribed his strongest Arguments. 62
The subject, as we know^ plagues humanity at all times, and
the readers of The British Apollo would not let it rest. Coward
was behind the scenes with many a long paragraph. We know
this from The Female Tatler (No. 30), which identifies most
succinctly one of the editors of The British Apollo as "Dr .
Pusillanimous who upon Second Thoughts is set up for a great
Scruple-salver as well as Oculist."
One would like to add a greater name to this list of writers
on the ApollO) but in spite of Mr. G. ,W. Niven's interesting
suggestions the connection of Arbuthnot with its pages remains
possible, but not provable. 63 Arbuthnot loved pamphleteering
and cared little what happened to his work after it left his hands.
Everyone knows what a tower of strength he was to the Harley-
St. John-Swift organization in the last years of Anne's reign.
As early, however, as 1692, he was busy translating Huygens's
Of the Laws of Chame** and in 1701 he published An Essay
on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning) both of which
subjects appeared with insistent regularity in the pages of The
British Apollo. The first topic deciding wagers at cards
seemed to have caught the coffeehouse imagination so thor-
oughly that Gay, when he commented on the fast declining
Apollo in 1711, mentioned this service and giving good advice
to shopkeepers and their apprentices as its main business. The
63 Memoirs of the Court of England. In Two Parts. By the Countess of Dunots.
. . . Now made English to which is added The Lady's Pacquet of Letters (1707), p.
571. Some of these Letters were written by Mrs. Manley. See Mr. Paul Bimyan
Anderson's Harvard thesis on that lady's career.
** Selections from The British Apollo . . ., ed. the late G. W. Niven (Paisley,
1903).
**This was read widely. The fourth edition, revised by John Ham, appeared in
1738. Of the Laws of Chance , or> a Method of Calculation of the Hazards of Game,
Plainly demonstrated. And applied to Games at present most in Use; Which may be
easily extended to the most intricate Cases of Chance imaginable.
EARLY LIFE 49
most interesting question to be raised is whether Arbuthnot may
mot have contributed the answers to those questions about the
famous Hungarian twins, questions which remind us strongly
of his treatment of similar problems in Chapters XIV and XV
of the Memoirs of Martitws Scriblerus, the "Process at Law
upon the Marriage of Scriblerus and the Pleadings of the Advo-
cates." 65 These twins, whose bodies were joined together
Siamese fashion, appeared in London in the summer of 1708
and were exhibited to a curious public at a house in the Strand.
They were, so Nichols tells us, well shaped, had beautiful faces,
loved each other, could read, write, and sing, spoke Hungarian,
High and Low Dutch, French, and English. 66 Their later his-
tory to the time of their death at St. Petersburg in 1723 is
recorded by Carl Rayger, surgeon in the convent where they
died, and his story appears in The Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society for the year I757. 67 Their arrival in London
was the signal for a barrage of questions in The British Apollo.**
At least seven questions arrived in the first batch, some anatomi-
cal, some religious and moral, some legalistic, and all were
answered with high seriousness. Proper scientific authorities
were suggested, and there was even some trace of human sym-
pathy for these strange creatures, the sport of nature or of the
gods. There can be no question, it seems to me, that Arbuthnot
had this case in mind in his later account of Martin's marriage.
There he gives all these problems a facetious turn, since his pur-
pose was to ridicule pedantry and the circumlocutions of legal
practice. But whether or not he wrote Apollo's serious replies to
the questions of puzzled Londoners in 1708 is and must remain
doubtful.
We learn from a letter of Marshall Smith's to Dunton,
January 18, 1710, that during the first year and a half of The
British Apollo eight gentlemen were concerned in it and that
by the time of writing he had completed the buying-off process
and was alone responsible.
66 Omitted by all editors since Warburton, except Bowles.
8 The Taller, ed. John Nichols (1786), III, 4-
67 Vol. L, part I, p. 3*1- 68 Nos. 35, 36, 37.
SO JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
I consider'd that the Charge of a whole Sheet and fine Paper,
wou'd render the Profit divided not worth the while for Eight
Gentlemen to be concerned about it, therefore I have for some Time
bought off the Interest of everyone concerned with me. 69
We have now accounted for five or six of the Apollo group ;
the remaining two or three must remain nebulous certainly no
one can suppose that matters much. Nichols seems to think
that Roger Grant, the oculist, was one of the group. "The
operator, Mr. Roger Grant, a pains-taking man in his way, seems
to have been a writer in the 'British Apollo/ where his adver-
tisements and his 'praises occur passim" 70
If he had been one of the original undertakers, he would
certainly have been perfectly willing to withdraw from the
Apollo in 1710, as his reputation was made by that time and he
was soon (September 27, 1710) to be completely established as
oculist and operator-in-extraordinary to Queen Anne. That
"arrival" about the person of the Queen had been partly due
to his Tory principles and partly no doubt to the scandalous but
successful way in which he advertised himself and his powers.
He made the most of a successful or partially successful opera-
tion which he had performed on the eyes of a blind boy in
Newington on June 19, 1709. The whole town was interested.
Not only The British Apollo but The Tatler commented on his
success. Steele dressed up the story with a plentiful gravy of
pathos, introduced a sympathetic girl friend to lead the boy
gently along this avenue of a newly discovered sense, and in-
cidentally gave Grant a boost the impetus of which was not
exhausted till the latter's appointment as oculist-in-ordinary to
George I in July, 17 15. 71 Unfortunately, some ironic spirit
no friend of Grant's published at the critical moment an amus-
ing pamphlet which disturbs our faith rather more than it did
that of Grant's contemporaries and possible patients. This un-
known writer goes into shocking details about the great doctor's
* 9 Athenian News: or Dunfon's Oracle, March 21-25, 1710.
70 The Tatler, ed. Nichols (1786), II, 217.
71 Interest in the case lasted down to a late Spectator (No. 4.72), in which a
correspondent concludes that the boy had actually Been helped and many other blind
persons aired.
EARLY LIFE 51
lack of any high standard of veracity in advertisement, suggests
indelicately such matters as forgery in the documents produced,
and finally concludes that Grant deserves credit for helping the
boy, even though the boy had never been totally blind, and
even though after the operation his sight was still seriously
defective.
And the Cure is the more Wonderful, if we consider that the
said Roger Grant is an Illiterate and Unlearned Man, and had the
Disadvantage to be bred up in the mean Profession of a Cobler, as
most Authors agree, tho 5 some say a Tinker.
But besides this Gift of Curing, to give him his Due, he has
another as extraordinary, of Preaching. . . This Evangelical Doc-
tor, treading- in the Steps of St. Luke, who was both an Evangelist
and a Physician, doth Wonders, both in his Cures, and in Converting
Unbelievers. And 'tis by all acknowledged, that he has made as great
a Proficiency in Physick, as in Divinity. . , .
Nothing is now wanting to perfect the Cure of William Jone$ %
but only a little Eye-Water. And this Defect may easily be supply'd
by his submitting to be Duck'd in the Anabaptists Dipping-place,
the Waters of which have an Enltghtnmg Virtue, and will so ef-
fectually clear his Sight, that (by another Miracle) in five Minutes
more, William Jones will be able to Read and Write as well as the
great Oculist that Couch'd him. 72
Fluttering about on the edges of The British Apollo, no
doubt on the most friendly terms with those who took a more
active part in the actual writing, were numbers of others, many
of whom naturally need a resurrection-man to dig them up like
some of those already mentioned and when dug up look
scarcely more attractive than what the resurrection-man got.
There was Thomas Howard, the author of Roman Stories: or,
the History of the Seven Wise Mistresses of Rome, a best-seller
which had run into twenty-five editions by 1754. and was to run
into as many more before the end of the century. Along with
Robert Talbot and some unknown ladies of HilPs circle, he
wrote commendatory verses which were prefixed to the A folio
72 A Full and True Account of a Miraculous Cure, of a Young Man in Netving-
ton, That was Born Blind, And was in Five Minutes brought to Perfect Sight. By
Mr. Roger Grant Oculist (1709), pp. 13-1 5-
52 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
as an introduction to the world. Turner was always about, for
he set the music for The British Apollo, along with Ford of
Kensington, who could cure stammering, more doctors, William
Carter and William Crosse, mere advertisers, it may be. Even
James Salter, the "accumulative virtuoso" whose museum at
Chelsea was so popular, contributed verses. Occasional poems
appear by Nahum Tate, the poet laureate, who was associated
with Aaron Hill as early as May, 1708, in translating The
Celebrated Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses, from Book XIII of
Ovid's Metamorphoses. Tate's long career of industry misap-
plied was drawing towards an ignominious end. He had doc-
tored Shakespeare, reset the Psalms, and written one poem,
Panacea: a Poem on Tea> which according to Pope was the only
original in all his poor page. Now his last days were to be
sicklied o'er by association with Marshall Smith, certainly the
dullest of all Apollo's wits, and with the dank atmosphere of
the Mint. He and Smith tried to lead captivity captive by issu-
ing in conjunction the Monitors?* and later The Oracle already
referred to, but inspiration, like those earlier friends, seems to
have deserted them and both enterprises failed. Posterity could,
however, afford to turn again the pages of Smith's Memoirs of
the Mint and Queers-Bench: or, A true Account of the Govern-
ment) Politics, Customs, Humours, and other Surprizing Curios-
ities of those Inchanted Provinces, Never published before. With
a Character of the Marshall, In Several Letters to a Person of
Quality (1713). This pamphlet praises the Marshall of the
Mint, William Broughton, and attempts to persuade him not
to resign. It contains many amusing descriptions of that land
of topsy-turvy. A poem by Tate is prefixed, in which the sad
laureate sings the praises of Southwark and of Broughton, a
strange descent from his early patron, the gay Earl of Dorset.
Tate's star had set in the theatre and in the world of poetry.
The rising genius was Nicholas Rowe, before long (1715) to
succeed him as laureate. After the production of The Ambitious
78 There were twenty-one numbers of the Monitors, beginning March 2, 1712/13.
The British Museum has also a pamphlet addressed To the People of Qualify and
Gentry To whom these Poems are Directed, which gives further information about
Smith's efforts to free himself from debt.
EARLY LIFE 53
Stepmother in 1700 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, Rowe's plays fol-
lowed one another at leisurely intervals, and except for that
foolish farce, as Congreve called it, The Biter in 1704 with
constant success. Charles Gildon and others found fault with
them, but, in spite of churlish criticism, at least two of them
remained good box-office plays through the century, and the
best actors were happy to perform in them.
Rowe drifted close to the Apollo circle and knew Gay. 74
The issue of the journal for August 10-12, 1709, has verses by
Nicholas Rowe To the Gentlemen concerned in the British
Apollo, upon their Design of Introducing Musick into their
Quarterly and Monthly Papers. Certainly Rowe was a good
man for a young writer to know in those days, and Gay and
Pope both knew him early. During the Apollo years, Rowe
was busy with his edition of Shakespeare, which appeared in
1709 in six volumes. One wonders whether these volumes
found their way to Gay's shelves along with Hill's Travels in
the Ottoman Empire. Gay's early play, The Wife of Bath,
has many characters, situations, and even turns of phrase that
suggest a careful study of Shakespeare, but of that more later.
Rowe's library, sold on August 26, 1719, contained one poem
of Gay's, Trivia, along with Swift's Miscellanies (1711), Wal-
ler, Drayton, Denham, John Philips's Cyder, Fenton's Poems,
Pope's Rape of the Lock, Savage's Wanderer, Milton, Shake-
speare, Donne, Hudibras, Pope's Temple of Fame and two
Dryden items, the five volumes of Miscellanies and his Fables.
A rather typical group were these men of the Apollo, at
any rate at its inception Hill and Gay and Marshall Smith,
Mauclerc and Coward, Arbuthnot possibly, Roger Grant, and
whoever else. They were men of various occupations, but all,
if we may borrow a phrase from John Dunton, 75 had some yam-
merings upon them after learning and the muses, and The
British Apollo provided an excellent medium for expression.
74 Dr. James Welwood, Rowe's intimate friend and earliest biographer, was also
one of those who presided at the birth of The British Apollo. See his preface to
Rowe's translation of Lucan's Pkarsalia. Welwood was a historian and a translator
of some importance himself.
75 The Life and Errors of John Dunton (1705), p. 247.
54 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
They made a success of it for two years and more. Subscrip-
tions flowed in apace. First published but twice a week, the
paper very soon appeared three times a week, a sure index of
success. As early as May 26, 1708, the editors boast that their
journal is taken in at public houses in great numbers, and at
many more private houses than any other paper. The financial
returns during these first two years must have been by no means
despicable. Dunton gives us figures for one of the journals of
the time. The Postman, and good substantial ones they are. He
speaks of Fonvive, the editor: "His learning deserves respect
and his gravity a weekly panegyric ; his sagacious look is an
index of his thoughtful soul; he is ever cheerful (the gaining
of 600 1. a year by a penny paper would make any man
so). W6
There were always discontents among readers, who felt that
the authors of The British Apollo were merely a "Club of
Silly Fellows, who write for Bread," a reasonably accurate de-
scription of some of them, if one wants to be ill-natured. By
the spring of 1710 protests grow more serious:
You Bastards of A^ollo^ I have sent you several letters but your
ignorance has made you keep silence, for I see in every paper you
Amur nothing but some Redicolous silly Stuff of your Oun inventing
and as I have heard in Sundry Coffee-houses, I shall give a little of
your Charector to the Tattler, I will write you no more but Redicule
you on all occasions, Your paper deserves the Name of the Brutish
Apollo, rather than British Apollo. I am with disrespect. R. S. 77
Most of the more gifted partners in the enterprise had by this
time been bought off by Marshall Smith, and the new talent
announced as arriving from Oxford and the Royal Society was
probably a fiction of the editor's brain, while Abenmgo Simple-
ton only, as Smith was called by his enemies, ran the paper. By
April and May, news was getting slack 5 it never had been a
strong feature in The British Apollo. Questions were in later
issues confined almost entirely to theology and love, and the
verses printed were sillier than ever. Smith had a special new
79 nU. s p. 240. The British Apollo, Nov. 2, 1709.
EARLY LIFE 55
enemy to face in the person o The Taller y an enemy who is
always spoken of with high respect and even friendliness, but
who would presently, as Gay puts it in The Present State of
Wit $ drive Afollo out of this end of town to take refuge in Ms
final phase with country bumpkins. The character of The Tatler
is dealt with at length in the March 3-6, 1710, issue of Apollo.
A correspondent, wider awake to Mr. Bicker-staffs indebtedness
than some modem editors, propounds the following query:
Q. 5 Tis allowed your Paper was the first in these times published
under the Notion of an Amusement, and very probably the Success
of it gave birth to a Thought of the Author of the Tatler under the
Name of Esq. Biekerstaf, to proceed in another way of Amusement,
so that in some Sense he may be said to Invade your Property. I
doubt not but by this time, you are sensible, the Incouragement, he
has met with, hath tended much to your prejudice. Now my request
is, that under these Circumstances, you will give your impartial
Opinion of that Paper.
A. That every week we increase the number of our Subscribers,
all they, who take in Subscriptions for us will witness; nor .can we be
under the least Apprehensions of a Decrease, whilst there be In-
quisitive People in the World, which will most certainly continue
long after our Date. However we frankly own, the universal Appro-
bation that Gentleman's Paper has met with may have prevented us
from gaining near two thousand Subscribers, we might have had
more, had not that been published. Yet the satisfaction we take in
reading it, so far vanquishes all prejudice we might be supposed to
have conceived against the Author, on any account whatsoever, that
we shall give our Opinion of it, in the following manner. We be-
lieve nothing at present extent, will tend so much to the Improve-
ment of Morality as that Paper; for by the just Merit couch'd in
the Method and Disposition of it, together with the alluring Per-
swasion and Delicateness of the Style, the Author hath gain'd such
an ascendant over Mankind, that he can freely expose the Vices and
Follies of both Sexes, without the least occurring their Displeasure.
Our People of Condition whose Natures are Refin'd by Education
and Conversation, and thereby adapted for the brightest Impressions,
are shockt at the approach of a Rough Hand, from which they sus-
pect more the effects of ill Nature or Design, than real Inclination
to Improve them. But a softer Hand gently touches all the Keys of
56 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
their Souls, and plays what tune it pleases on them, while every
Touch produces Harmony: 78 And such this Author is happy in:
Besides he dresses up Virtue in such Beautiful Attire, that they can-
not help being inamour'd on her; while he exposes Vice and Folly
to their contempt, indeavouring more to engage their Aversion by
Shame than by frightful Afflearancesy for that makes a deeper and
more durable Impression on the Minds of the Ingenuous, than the
other. The most material Objections against him, are his Personal
Reflections ; but we must consider, everything has two Handles, and
if People will catch at the wrong, the Author cannot help that 5 but
allowing the worst that can be imagined, He might have a noble dis-
tant Viewy even fn that: For observing the vicious Tast of the Age,
and how Inclined to prejudice, He might by those agreeable ways,
make his first Approaches to their Hearts, till he had gain'd an Em-
pire over them, which now he has attained, his Distributions appear
all Consonant to the strictest Rules of Morality; and we therefore
recommend him to the Reading of all our Subscribers. To conclude,
we have no other Design in all we have said, than to give a just due
to Merit; we being wholly Strangers to his Person, nor hath the least
Transaction of any land ever past between us.
The race for popularity between, these two polite enemies
could end but one way, and, though Steele "flang up" his Tat-
ler before The British Apollo finally expired, the latter took
so long dying that most people were unaware of its continued
existence, and even Gay in his Present State of Wit (May 3,
1711), reviewing London journals, almost forgot to mention
it. The following week Apollo ceased to appear.
With these men, or with men so like them that these will
do to set the picture, Gay passed his novitiate in the art of prose
pamphleteering. That he knew this world of fly-by-night jour-
nalism from the inside is clear from his account of it in The
Present State of Wit % which appeared on May 3, 1711. By
that time he was obviously making use of all his friends, includ-
ing new ones like Pope, to help him find publishers for these
flowers of his wit. It even looks as if he may have helped Steele
with The Tatler^ for that set of the collected numbers on royal
78 The argument Here sounds much like Gay's in The Present State of Wtt.
EARLY LIFE 57
paper would scarcely have been sent merely as a gracious ac-
knowledgment of Gay's flattery in The Present State of Wit.
We know that Gay helped Steele later with The Guardian^ and
the suspicion remains that some of Gay's early prose may be
tucked away undiscoverable in the pages of the more famous
journal. However that may be, the only early prose pamphlet
by Gay that remains identifiable is so masterly in its control
of style, so incisive in its judgments, so well informed about the
occult details of this newspaper world, that one cannot suppose
that the master hand which wrote it should have been idle
through these years or still less unrecognized as useful by Steele,
whose friendship with Gay began early. Practice must have
perfected that style $ it is uncommonly brilliant even in a time
when many men wrote good prose.
This promising pamphlet, The Present State oj Wit in a
Letter to a Friend in the Country y appeared on or shortly after
May 3, 1711. The author is careful to premise "that, as you
know, I never cared one farthing, either for Whig or Tory,"
and then goes on to survey all the important newspapers and
journals of the town. This sort of thing had been done before
and would be done frequently again. Perhaps Addison's face-
tious comments on the news-writers in The Tatler for May 21,
1709, started the pretty game, which is sometimes serious, some-
times comical. Addison suggests how desperately dependent
Boyer and Buckley, Dyer and Dawks are on the continuation
of the war. Peace would ruin them $ and since this is inevitable,
we must see to it that a special new wing is attached to the
Chelsea Hospital for the accommodation of decrepit news-
writers. A few months later, on September 27, The General
Postscript appeared. This was announced as "an Extract of all
that's most Material from the Foreign and English News-
papers ; with Remarks upon the Observator, Review, Tatler s y
and the rest of the Scriblers: In a Dialogue between Novel and
Scandal." Dunton thought this was written by Charles Leslie,
author of The Rehearsal. In any case it has a strong Tory
79 See the dedication of Dunton's Athenianism (p. x) and his remark about
Abennigo Simpleton. See also Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, IV, 83.
58 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
bias. The writer delivers himself adversely on all the weekly
papers and pamphlets as being barren and impertinent, and
finally in No. 12 he gives a valuable list of all the papers appear-
ing on each day of the week with tart comments on each of
them. The British Apollo is supposedly run by a society of
gentlemen, consisting, says the author, of Abennigo Simpleton
only. Defoe is called Verbosus Enthusiasticus. This early at-
tempt to start a Review of Reviews exhausted itself after twenty
numbers. Apparently the last one was published on November
u, 1709.
Gay's purpose was not so ambitious. He commented on all
of the journals that he thought of any importance, and his
predilections in politics are not entirely clear. Probably they
were not actually clear at that time anyway. Swift, who found
an annoying condescension in the remarks on The Examiner,
put the author down as certainly Whig. 80 The Examiner "is
a Paper, which all Men, who speak without Prejudice, allow
to be well Writ." The first Examiners, says our author, abound
in wit, the last in humor. The paper is supposedly written "by
the Direction, and under the Eye of some Great Persons who
sit at the helm of Affairs." Its reputed author is Swift, with
the assistance sometimes of Atterbury and Prior. The chief
Whig organ, The Medley y gets scant praise, "the Author of
which Paper, tho' he seems to be a Man of good Sense, and
expresses it luckily enough now and then, is, I think, for the
most part, perfectly a Stranger to fine Writing." Later, Gay
speaks of the same journal as the work of Oldmixon, "super-
vised by Mr. Mayn[warin\g, who perhaps might intirely write
those few Papers which are so much better than the rest."
What made Swift think the author Whiggish was the praise
heaped on Steele and Addison, with both of whom Swift was
at that moment distinctly out of patience. Having turned Tory
himself, he expected all his old Whig friends to follow his lead,
and recalcitrance made him unhappily conscious of the color of
his own coat. So the unknown author's praise of The Tatler
and The Spectator did not please him. " Bickers taf ventured
80 Journal to Stella, ed. G. A. Aitken (1901), p. 216.
EARLY LIFE 59
to tell the Town, that they were a parcel of Fops, Fools, and
vain Cocquetsj but in such a manner, as even pleased them, and
made them more than half enclin'd to believe that he spoke
Truth."
The Tatler had ceased publication, whether, as some of the
town think, quite spent, or in submission to the government, or
only with a mind to vary his shape. And now in place of it
appeared The Spectator every day, once again showing "so
excellent a Stile, with so nice a Judgment, and such a noble
profusion of Wit and Humour." Gay is confident that once
again Steele and his friend are busy, for these two great geniuses
stand in a class by themselves, "so high above all our other
Wits." He suggests that Addison try to keep Steele's Whig
prejudices in control, lest "that wit which is at present a Com-
mon Good" should become "Odious and Ungrateful to the
better part of the Nation." There speaks the coming Tory.
Defoe, trapesing along as usual in the footsteps of Harley, had
by this time left the Whigs and was writing for peace and South
Sea trade j yet he gets scant courtesy from Gay: "The Poor
Review is quite exhausted, and grown so very Contemptible,
that tho' he has provoked all his Brothers of the Quill round,
none of them will enter into a Controversy with him." He
was a man of excellent natural parts, adds Gay, but wanted a
small foundation of learning, and "as an Ingenious Author says,
will endure but one Skimming."
Perhaps at this time Gay felt himself slipping away from
his old party allegiances j and his description of himself as a
man of no party may be true even in the sense which The
Examiner had given to the phrase. "Whoever," says an early
number of that journal, "gives himself that Character, you may
depend upon it, is of a Party; but 'tis of such a Party as he is
ashanfd to own." 81
The world of these journalists was rapidly becoming an
unfit place for a genuine man of no party. Two years later
(1713) up comes an imaginary letter from the lower world
which fitly describes the final hell of the pamphleteers. All
81 The Examiner > Sept. 14-21, 1710.
6o JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
balance of judgment, all sanity must be set aside. "Fail not, on
all Occasions, to throw Dirt" seems to have been their motto.
This pamphlet. The Infernal Congress, tells how
Our unhappy Divisions have been fomented by the Hirelings of
each Party, who, like Pickpockets, wrangle among themselves that
they may with less Suspicion dive into the Fobs of the unwary Specta-
tors; the late Tax has suppress' d several of these Politicians; the
Observatory before his Decease, had so stupified his Brains with the
Countryman's October, that his Quietus was a Relief to his sinking
Genius: The Review y who was last Winter an Eminent Jockey at
Utrecht, now (like Prince Almanxor) attacks sometimes his Foes,
and sometimes his Friends. Jack Dyer's Letter is entirely calculated
for Fox-hunters, and works best over a Barrel of Brown Beer. The
Ingenious Mr. Roper is ambitious to appear in the first Rank of
Heroes, and (Jacob-like) would cheat his Elder Brother, the Ex-
aminer, of his Birthright; his Reflections are sometimes so pungent
that I have seen them draw Tears of Remorse from the most ob-
stinate Whigs. Orthodox Ridpath, who is the present Oracle of the
High-flying Whigs, has sung their Heroic Actions in Gracious-street
in Lofty Strains, and seems inclined to make a farther Essay in
Poetry, which makes the Party apprehensive that he will retire to
Duck-lane, and there sing his own Ballads. 82
One might well hesitate to enter this inferno of the party-
writers. Most of them were a hopeless lot. There is some
slight evidence that Gay plunged into it for a time, and that
may as well be dealt with here. It need scarcely be said that
at no time in our literary history has the party-hack found so
ready a market for his wares. Both parties maintained, inform-
ally of course, liaison officers eager to attach wavering genius
to one or the other side. One might have expected Gay to be
mustered into the little senate of Button's. But Gay still clung
to the older group at Will's some of them Whigs to Garth,
Rowe, and Congreve. Addison as we shall see later was
always cool towards Gay. He may well have doubted Gay's
adaptability for party purposes. Gay's genuine distaste for the
83 The Infernal Congress or, News from Below. Being a Letter from Dick Est*-
courtj The late Famous Comedian, To the Spectator. The Second Edition Corrected
(1713). The passage is from the preface.
EARLY LIFE 61
pamphleteering game, as well as the suggestion that perforce
he had taken part in it, is hinted by the opening lines of Rural
Sports (iji$:
Faction embroils th World; and ev'ry Tongue
Is fraught with Malice, and with Scandal hung:
Friendship, for Sylvan Shades, does Courts despise,
Where all must yield to Int'rest's dearer Ties;
Each Rival Machiavel with Envy burns,
And Honesty forsakes them All by turns;
Whilst Calumny upon each Party's thrown,
Which Both abhor, and Both alike disown.
Thus have I, 'midst the Brawls of factious Strife,
Long undergone the Drudgery of Life;
On Courtiers Promises I founded Schemes,
Which still deluded me, like golden Dreams;
Expectance wore the tedious Hours away,
And glimm'ring Hope rolPd on each lazy Day.
If Gay ever wrote for the party press it was probably under
Swift's leadership. In 1713 appeared a pamphlet called Two
Letters Concerning the Author of the Examiner. 83 The writer
possibly Steele tells his friend in the country much about
the changes that have taken place since the old days:
It is now above five Years since you left the Town; in which
time, I must inform you, that the Number of Pamphlets and of
flying Papers is become double to what it was, when you first betook
yourself to your Retirement. Persons of the first Rank and Quality,
Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Men of Wit and Pleas-
ure, Clergymen from the highest to the lowest, Persons that dwell
in Palaces and abound in Wealth, and Men that live in Garrets and
starve over their Stan dishes, have taken up the fashionable Amuse-
ment of writing in Masquerade, and come in Crowds to the Press
under borrowed Forms and personated Characters. The Whigs often
write under the Disguise of Tories; and the Tories often appear in
Print in the Likeness of Whigs. s *
With all this subterfuge and ironic method always at hand
to deceive the unwary, with a number of writers appearing in
88 Mr. Paul Bunyan Anderson calls attention to this pamphlet in his Harvard
thesis on Mary de la Riviere Manley (1931), p. 309, and thinks that Gay may have
contributed to The Examiner. 8 * P. 8.
62 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
various roles in a paper like The Examiner, the country friend
will be glad of a bit of advice. The great Tory journal is a
particularly difficult problem.
One Day the Whim will take him to write in the Person of a
Footman, and then he calls for his blue Livery embroidered with
Silver; this is what he appears oftenest in when he goes into Coffee-
houses and the Play-House. When he is tired of this Extream, he
flies out into another quite opposite; he puts on a green Ribbon, and
fancies himself a Lord; another while he calls for a light Wig and a
pair of fringed Gloves, and assumes the jaunty Air and Mien of
Goto Junior*, very often he puts on a Gown and Cassock, and flaunts
it in the Court of Requests, and goes about to great Mens Tables;
and sometimes nothing will serve this Extravagant, but he must be
dressed up like a poor Whore, in Petticoats and tawdry Ribbons.
But what is surprizing in these Vagaries of the Examiner is, that
these various Dresses strike his Imagination so strongly, that they
influence his Brain, and give ,a different Turn to his Manner of
thinking: for it has been observed by Men acquainted with his
Freaks, that he is never so learned and so witty as when he wears his
Cassock; never so arrogant and so pedantick as in his Livery; nor
at any time so ignorant and so dull, as when he puts on his green
Ribbon; and never so scurrilous, so abandoned, and so impudent, as
.in Petticoats. 85
Now, this description finds places for those whom we know
to have been contributors to The Examiner at one time or an-
other, Swift, Oldisworth, St. John, and Mrs. Mauley. And the
temptation is almost irresistible to fit John Gay into the picture
as the footman in blue and silver livery.
From 1712 to 1714 Gay was secretary and domestic steward
in the household of the Duchess of Monmouth, and might well
have been described as a footman by hostile pens. Moreover
Gay was extremely partial to those particular colors at this time,
as we see from references to blue and silver in The Shepherd's
Week and in Gay's Epstle to Oxford asking for money for the
Hanover trip a little later. Curll, in the Faithful Memoirs
of Mrs. Anne Old-field (1731), attempts to link the names of
Pope and Arbuthnot and "some others of their Clan" with the
85 PP. 13-14-
EARLY LIFE 63'
list of known writers in The Examiner, Mrs. Manley, Swift,
Bolingbroke, Prior, and Oldisworth. And yet, if Gay is the
footman in blue and silver, how explain a later phrase in the
same pamphlet, "Jonathan, ap Harry, ap Charles, ap William,
ap Betty 3 '? Who is Charles, and where is John? Moreover, we
must remember that if the writer of this pamphlet really meant
Gay, all we can infer is that he stated one of the many guesses
current in coffeehouse gossip. The evidence is all indeterminate,
and one is forced to suppose that although Gay probably issued
from time to time partisan tracts the authorship of which he
preferred to leave unnoticed, and may even have helped the
Tories in the last year or two of The Examiner, he at no time
developed a genuine interest in politics, and few suspected his
incursions into this particularly uninviting part of Grub Street.
Though Gay was interested vitally in poetry during these
years and willing to try his hand at prose if need be, he had his
eye on that third possibility of the literary career, writing for
the theatre. Hill was writing plays and Hill was manager of
one of the houses, indeed of both houses at one time, and if
Hill could stand the footlights why should not Gay humor his
own aspirations. We can watch him making the transition from
one form to another in the spring of 1712, since he used the
same material first for a prose pamphlet and kter for a farce
apparently written for the boards, though, so far as I can dis-
cover, never acted.
Lintot's Miscellany (1712), like most books of the time,
carried a neat packet of advertisements for "Books printed for
Bernard Lintott." Among these was An Argument Proving
from History, Reason, and Scripture, That the Present Mohocks
awd Hawkubites are the Gog and Magog mentioned in the
Revelations; and there-fore That this vain and transitory World
will shortly be brought to its -final Dissolution. Written by a
Reverend Divine, who took it from the Mouth of the Sprit of
a Person who was lately slain by one of the Mohocks. This was
a broadside, printed on reverse also, and published on March
64 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
1 8, iyi2. 8e It was written presumably by Gay, since the copy
in the British Museum is so marked by a contemporary hand,
and since the whole pamphlet appears later in the Swift Mis-
cellmies, along with other work of Gay and his friends. 87 Ap-
parently for some six months in the autumn of 1711 and the
spring of 1712, the public imagination was somewhat over-
heated by tales of the midnight frolics of town-rakes, no longer
called Scourers as in the days of Charles II, but Mohocks. The
four Indian Kings had been a town sensation in the previous
year, and both the name of their tribe and their fancied ferocity
were transferred to the town-rakes. The whole excitement may
have been cooked up for political purposes. The Tories felt
responsible for law and order and affected to treat the whole
excitement as frivolous propaganda set afloat by the Whigs to
discredit the government. When forced to take serious notice
of the disorders, the authorities were careful to arrest scions of
the great Whig families and thus throw the smoke screen of
party feeling over their own incompetence. The Whigs pro-
tested, of course, as one may see from the issue of The Medley >
March 28, 1712. This number is directed against the Tory
rumors of Whig implication in the Mohock business. In dis-
cussing ironically the disturbance caused by the Mohocks, the
author writes:
An ingemous and learned Doctor had almost finished a very
fious Meditation upon the Hoof -Petticoat; when, on a sudden, he
was commanded to go upon another Task; immediately thereupon
he dropt the Petticoat, and furbish'd up in haste the Mohock Cate-
chism; in which he (according to the Old Saying) has k$Pd two
Birds with one Stone; at once dispersing abroad the Story of the
Mohocks, and burlesquing the Catechism of the Church. Another;
Mr. W. had certainly given us in a very little time a Clear Explana-
tion of the jo Weeks, had not these Plaguy Mohocks unexpectedly
overturn J d his whole Scheme of Chronology; so that now, instead of
putting out a Comment upon Darnel, he has endeavored to prove
86 The Medley, March 17, 1712. "Tomorrow will be published, An Argument
proving from History, Reason . . ."
** Miscellanies in Four Volumes. By Dr. Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Pope, and
Mr. Gay. The Fifth Edition Corrected: With Several Additional Pieces in Verse and
Prose (1747), III, 229.
EARLY LIFE 65
from undoubted Testimony, That the present Mohocks and Hawku-
bites are the Gog and Magog mentioned in the Revelations.
Oldmixon, editor of The Medley, evidently thought Swift
and William Wagstaffe the authors of these broadsides. It does
not seem to me likely that a work by Wagstaffe would creep
into the Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1747). The various
items included in those volumes were announced as by Swift,
Arbuthnot, Pope, or Gay. Oldmixon would know of Wag-
staffe's co-operation with Swift in Tory pamphleteering, while
the few things of that sort which Gay did were not talked about
so freely as his. Moreover, one paragraph which contains an
obscure reference to Toland and Collins was substituted in the
Miscellanies for some innocuous, but far more pertinent, lines
which occur in the 1712 broadside. This may mean that the
reprint followed an early draft which had come into Pope's
hands along with other Gay papers in 1732.
The town had suffered not only from Mohocks in these
years 5 the French prophets were abroad, and from their nasal
fanaticism Gay caught the tone for his pamphlet:
I am the Porter that was barbarously slain in Fleet-street: by the
Mohocks and Hawkubites was I slain, when they laid violent Hands
upon me.
They put their Hook into my Mouth, they divided my Nostrils
asunder, they sent me, as they thought, to my long Home, but now
I am returned again to foretel their Destruction.
Yet the Day shall come, when the Mohocks shall be as the
Moabites, and the Hawkubites as the Children of Ammon*
Yet two Days, a Day and Half a Day, yea, upon the twelfth
Hour of the fourth Day, those Emblems of Gog and Magog at the
Guild-Hffll shall fall to the Ground, and be broken asunder. With
them shall perish the Mohocks and Hawkubites, and the whole
World shall perish with them.
The broadside contains also a pleasantly vicious mock-litany
against the Mohocks, calculated no doubt to catch the eye of
the ballad singers and thus start other vibrations going in the
government's rather limited broadcast. The song on this sub-
ject which swept the streets was called The Huzza:
66 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
When the Streets are all clear,
The Town is our Own 5
We manage the Humour, and laugh at the Fear
Of all those we Lay on.
Down goes the Bully, the Heck, and Night- Walker;
But oh! the Brisk Girl, we will never forsake her.
The Constable flies,
And his Clubmen withdraw,
When they hear the fierce Cries
Of the dreadful Huzza, Huzza, Huzza 8S
Gay's interest in the Mohocks was not confined to this apoc-
alyptic outburst which we have just noted. At the beginning of
the row apparently Queen Anne's first proclamation relating
to the disorders is dated October 22, 1711 Gay wrote a farce
called The Mohocks and attempted in vain to get it produced. 89
He may have seen a broadside sheet called The TowfrRakes;
or, The Frolics of the Mohocks , as some of the details recounted
indignantly by the possibly Whiggish writer of this appear
facetiously dressed up in the play. The players refused the
farce, and Gay printed it on April 15, 171 2. 90 The players
were probably right. The humor is somewhat forced, and what-
ever virtue the play has is second-hand. Dogberry and Verges
appear under other names, as does the poetic soul of Bottom
the weaver. The fluttering fop part is there waiting in vain
for Gibber, and Falstaffian boasting is executed with a zest that
almost gives it originality. There is a touch of smart satire on
88 The collection of papers connected with the Mohocks in the Harvar-d College
Library contains a leaf from an old songbook, on which these verses and more are
printed. This collection contains also A True List of the Names of the Mohocks and
HawkubiUs Who were Apprehended and Taken on Monday night, Tuesday, and this
Morning. With an Account of the several Prisons they were committed to, where
they are now to be seen. Admitted to Bail a Pious L >s Son not Ten Miles from
St. John's Square. This was probably Lord Sandwich. Edward, Lord Hinchingbrooke,
Steeled friend, was also implicated in reports of the rioting. See also The Mohocks:
a Poem, in Miltonic Verse: Addressed to the Spectator (1712). This attempts to
defend the Mohocks as rough executors of justice on dishonest vintners, obnoxious
coachmen, pimps, and other brothel-house functionaires. And note The Tatler, No. 77.
89 See The Poetical Register (1719): "The Mohocks? a Farce, never acted"}
A CompLeat Catalogue Of all the Plays That were ever yet Printed in the English
Language [1718]: Mohocks marked as never acted j The British Theatre (1750):
"The Mohocks, a Farce never acted, but printed."
90 Dally Courant for April 15, 1712: "This day is published . . ."
EARLY LIFE 67
the ways of the law, which reminds one of Gay's later attitudes.
The Prologue and Epilogue are cleverly written in Dryden's
manner. The one thing which gives this little play a certain
right to live, at least on the printed page, is the multitude of
topical allusions which show that its author was awake to the
life of the streets, soon to become, if you like, the laureate of
the disinherited. Here they are, the watchmen and street-molls,
the press gangs and Italian eunuchs, the mountebanks ready to
draw a tooth with a touch, the chairmen and cinder-wenches.
Gay loved the street comers, made ballads for the beggar girls
to sing, dragged Swift about to share his plebeian pleasures 5
and when we find in a forgotten broadside the words "See
Johnny Gay on porters' shoulders rise," we begin to under-
stand at least one phase of the man's nature. 91
81 Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Division I, Political
and Personal Satires, Vol. II, June, 1689-1733, p. 766, No. 1899, "RICH'S GLORY
or his Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden."
CHAPTER II
DIRECTION FOUND THE YEAR 1713
THE FRIENDSHIP between Gay and Pope was by the end of
1712 getting a fair amount of cement about it. Gay's quite
unnecessarily rude dedication of The Mohocks to John Dennis
some three months after the appearance of the old critic's Re-
"flections upon the Essay on Criticism could scarcely have dis-
pleased Pope. Early in this year, a correspondence was under
way between them, which lapsed for some months in the sum-
mer while Gay was visiting his old home in Devonshire. Pope,
ill during part of the time, and later visiting the Carylls in
Sussex, seems to have lost track of Gay, though he made in-
quiries. The first letter we have from their correspondence is
from Pope to Gay, dated November 13, 1712. Pope was at-
tracted, he says, by two qualities in Gay, good nature and in-
genuity. In other words, he recognized his ability and liked
him as a man. Another quality in Gay which Pope quickly
recognizes is a certain shyness and self-depreciation, "two eternal
foes to merit." Pope writes very soon again (December 24)
to congratulate Gay on his appointment as domestic steward in
the household of the Duchess of Monmouth. He is glad that
Gay no longer has to depend entirely on the favors of the Muses
for sustenance, but reminds him pertinently that those "nine
other ladies" still have claims.
The problem of sustenance, to use Chaucer's word, reminis-
cent of a phrase which Pope, with evident delight in the las-
civious suggestion, just fails to quote, must have been acute at
this time for Gay. Those penny-a-line verses, broadsides, party
pamphlets, or whatever, those plays that were never acted, pro-
vided but precarious support for a gentleman, especially for
one who, like Gay, persisted all his life in a rather casual atti-
DIRECTION FOUND 69
tude towards money 5 and hi$ appointment to a settled post
must have given him genuine satisfaction.
The introduction to the Duchess appears to have come
through one of Gay's Inner Temple friends, Maurice Johnson
of Spalding, Lincolnshire, whose father was steward of the
Monmouth estates in the neighborhood of that town. Young
Maurice had a very genuine interest in literature and antiqui-
ties, and his name is remembered today at least in his native
place as the founder of the Gentlemen's Society of Spalding,
which still flourishes. Gay had met him probably in the com-
pany of Fortescue or Budgell, and had taken pains to introduce
him to his other friends at Button's. The record of that little
service can be read in its original and ^grammatical form as
a footnote in the Minute-Book of the Gentlemen's Society:
Maurice Johnson the Author of this Essay & Founder of this
Society who being by Mr. John Gay the Poet brought acquainted
with Mr. Pope Addison became with Sir R. Steel & others of his
meeting at one Button's who had been his Butler & kept a Coffee
house in Covent garden where the Tatlers were taken out x>f the
Lyon there receiving them & read to the Company.
It seems probable that Johnson introduced Gay to the
Duchess of Monmouth as a return compliment. He would be
likely to hear that the Duchess needed a secretary and would
be able to bring his father's influence to support any recom-
mendation he might make. It should perhaps be emphasized
that the Johnsons were by no means humble people, but were
accustomed to entertain their patron and her family in their
fine old mansion, Ayscoughfee Hall, at Spalding. This sug-
gestion that Johnson was the intermediary between Gay and the
Duchess of Monmouth is further supported by an interesting
letter in the archives of the Gentlemen's Society from John
Johnson to his brother. John was at- the Inner Temple and
writes (May 2, 1713) to describe the reception given to Addi-
son's Cato. He speaks of calling on the Duchess and meeting
Gay there, and his phrases, I think, suggest a certain feeling
of responsibility for the success of the new secretary. "I am told
7 o JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
at the Dutches's Mr. Gay is every day at the Playhouse morn-
ing & afternoone seeing his Play rehearsed, they don't seem
displeased at it but kindly concerned for the succes of it."
The pky referred to was The Wife of Bath, and we shall
hear more of that presently. This letter shows clearly enough
that Gay's relations with the Monmouth family after the first
six months of his engagement were cordial; the same spirit of
interest and encouragement appears in a letter that Gay wrote
about this time to Maurice Johnson sending him a copy of his
recently published Rural S<port$ y and telling him that the Duch-
ess and the Lady Isabella appeared very well pleased with his
offering. 1 The Duchess lived at this time in a mansion at the
upper end of Lawrence Street, Chelsea, known for many years
until it was pulled down in 1833 as Monmouth House, and
here we may think of her poet-secretary as living for the next
year and a half, in pleasant society and with not too many de-
mands on his time. 2 Doubtless he sometimes found an element
of slavery in this conversation with insolent greatness, as his
friend Rawe puts it, 3 but the Duchess, we gather, usually re-
served her insolence for equals and superiors, and treated Gay
with more consideration than one would have expected. The
Princess Caroline was very fond of Gay's Duchess, Lady Cow-
per tells us, and found in her the life and fire of youth as well
as wit and good nature. 4 Gay was lucky! She was sixty-two at
this time, a woman with a real joy of living.
Comfortably situated at Monmouth House, welcomed at
Will's and Button's, with a growing circle of friends, Gay began
the year 1713 with brighter hopes than could ever have been his
before. He and Budgell, Fortescue, Johnson, Pope and the rest
1 See Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, VI, 84-85, and his "Antiquities in Lincolnshire,"
Bibliotheca Topographic* Britannica (1790), III, xxi, xxii, of Appendix.
8 Allen Fea, King Monmouth (1902), p. 371.
8 Nicholas Rowe, "Essay of the Manner of living with Great Men," Poetical
Works (zd ed., 1720), p. 89. "What Slavery is it to a Ridiculous Vanity to hunt
after the Conversation of insolent Greatness! What Peace, what Ease, what Happiness
does a Man forego, who might be used as he pleases amongst his Equals, and yet
chuses to put himself upon the Rack, to make a, Lord laugh!"
* Diary of Mary Countess Cowper, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of
Wales, /7/4-JT720 (1864.), p. 125.
DIRECTION FOUND 71
no doubt rather fancied themselves as men about town, or, as
Swift called them, men who knew the world. "Every idle
young Rake, who understands how to pick up a Wench, or bilk
a Hackney-Coachman, or can call the Players by their Names,
and is acquainted with five or six Faces in the Chocolate-House,
will needs pass for a Man that knows the World. m
Some phases of that world he found intolerable. From
time to time, news and politics and faction, malice and scandal,
friendship's giving way to interest's dearer ties, seemed its most
conspicuous features to him, and the emphasis he laid on this
petty wrangling does not suggest an altogether complacent
mind. Nearly every summer, however, he managed to get away
to the country, and with Vergil beside him and England ? s pleas-
ant fields around he found inspiration for some of his best
verses. In 1712, it had been Devonshire with Fortescuej in
1713, it was Moor Park with the Monmouth family and their
friends, shooting with my Lord Essex, learning French with the
Lady Isabella and Lord Lumley (later Scarborough). 6
The new post proved highly suitable for Gay. It enabled
him to forget his financial worries in a limited amount of rou-
tine work, and to use his spare time in writing, so that the next
two years proved productive and laid a solid foundation for his
reputation. A few scornful, and doubtless envious, acquaint-
ances in Grub Street talked and wrote of him as the lackey of
a superannuated Duchess, and even Dr. Johnson later suggested
that by quitting the shop (the shop was at least five years be-
hind! ) for such service, Gay might gain leisure, but he certainly
advanced little in the boast of independence. It occurred to
none of Gay's real friends at the time that this appointment
was anything but the highest good fortune. Pope wrote the
letter of congratulation mentioned above urging him not to
forget his service of the Muses amidst his new duties, 7 and
Arbuthnot somewhat later, when Gay's Hanover expedition
5 The Importance of the Guardian Considered, in a. Second Letter to ike B&ilif of
Stockhridge. By a Friend of Mr. St le (1713)1 P- 35-
* James Thome, Handbook to the Environs of London (1876), p. 507.
* Pope, Works, VII, 409-410.
72 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
had proved a fiasco, regretted that Gay had ever left the Mon-
mouth household. 8
A new quietness and confidence came to Gay, and the results
show in his work. Rural Shorts appeared on January 13 ; The
Wife of Bath took the boards on May 125 The Fan was ready
for publication December 8, as were the four poems, Pmthea^
Araminta, A Thought on Etermty y and A Contemplation on
Night, which appeared in Steele's Miscellany in the same
month. In addition to these, he wrote two papers at least for
The Guardian? and some articles it may be, as already sug-
gested, for The Examiner. The tradesman in letters had at
last found a market.
Years later, in a letter to Swift dated July 18, 1731, Gay
talks about his own habits of composition in a way which is
illuminating to us as we approach the study of his early work.
I have no scheme at present, either to raise my fame or fortune.
I daily reproach myself for my idleness. You know one cannot write
when one will. I think and I reject. One day or other, perhaps, I
may think on something that may engage me to write. You and I
are alike in one particular I wish to be so in many I mean, that
we hate to write upon other folks* hints. I love to have my own
scheme, and to treat it my own way. This, perhaps, may be taking
too much upon myself, and I may make a bad choice; but I can
always enter into a scheme of my own with more ease and pleasure,
than into that of other bodies. 10
It is just possible, in spite of the long chain of deprecatory
critics linked head to tail, that Gay could diagnose the symptoms
of his literary feverishness even as well as we can. Swift at
any rate knew the history of Gay's efforts 5 he had seen his mind
working or failing to work around the Scriblerus table, and
he admits that Gay's statement of his own case is the correct
one, though it is possible that sometimes a friend may give
you a lucky hint, just suited to your own imagination."
Let us examine then the "schemes" and their execution in
this year 1713. Most fruitful in its suggestions for Gay was his
8 Swift, Letters, ed. F. E. Ball (1910), II, 247.
e May 24 and Sept i. 10 Swift, Letters, IV, 241-242.
DIRECTION FOUND 73
reading of Vergil and of Chaucer, Vergil for the form and
mellifluousness of his verses, Chaucer for the encouragement he
gave to Gay's sly humor. Rural Sforts^ transfers Georgic pat-
terns to the English scene in complete seriousness, more in the
manner of John Philips, but traces of burlesque begin to appear
in The Fan, and dominate completely The Shepherd's Week
and Trivia. Gay is closer to Vergil in spirit than any of his
contemporaries, closer particularly than Thomson, who lacks
that sense of pathos in human affairs which Gay has abundantly.
One is continually meeting passages in Gay that for many of
us seem vaguely reminiscent of Goldsmith or Gray, so heavily
is present-day criticism weighted against the earlier poet. Notice,
for example, the lines in Rural S forts about the country maid:
She gratefully receives what Heav'n has sent,
And, rich in Poverty, enjoys Content.
Or the lines about nightfall:
Or when the Lab'rer leaves the Task of Day,
And trudging homewards whistles on the Way;
When the big udder'd Cows with Patience stand,
Waiting the Stroakings of the DamsePs Hand
No Warbling chears the Woods 5 the Feather'd Choir
To court kind Slumbers, to their Sprays retire;
When no rude Gale disturbs the sleeping Trees,
Nor Aspen Leaves confess the gentlest Breeze.
Other passages in this poem make use of the loose New-
tonianism of the time, or introduce a strain of melancholy,
which many a less original spirit was to capture later, as the
novelty of image or idea became submerged in current fashions.
The limbs laid at noonday on the mossy couch, with the shallow
stream wandering by with murmuring noise below, sunset by
the wide ocean, and then as night comes on,
Millions of worlds hang in the spacious Air,
Which round their Suns their Annual Cirdes steer.
Sweet Contemplation elevates my Sense,
While I survey the Works of Providence.
11 The Post-Boy, Jan. 13-15, 1712/3: "This day is publishM . . .
74 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
This may not be great verse, but it is better than much that has
been praised far more. After all, no English poet before Gay
had thought of introducing the sports of the countryside into
the framework of a georgic, so that in conception as well as in
many of these details of execution the poem has originality. It
is descriptive rather than purely instructional, though there is
enough of the latter element to keep the model .well in mind.
Certainly the early version shows a lack of invention in the
usual eighteenth-century meaning of that term, but Gay soon
became conscious of this weakness, and made considerable re-
visions, especially in structure, when he prepared the poem for
its appearance in the 1720 volume of Poems on Several Occa-
sions.
The melancholy and speculative element which we have
noted in Rural Sforts appears again in Panthea. Here the dis-
appointed lady turns from the hateful town:
Oh! lead me to some melancholy cave.
To lull my sorrows in a living grave ;
FK>m the dark rock where dashing waters fall.
And creeping ivy hangs the craggy wall,
Where I may waste in tears my hours away,
And never know the seasons or the day.
Once again in the pastoral elegy Arwwnta, the melancholy
shade, the croaking raven, the old ruin, parade before us, mak-
ing one fancy that Gay's imagination had been quickened by
some of the Salvator Rosa landscapes about him in Charles
Jervas's rooms or elsewhere. But in Ararmnta these descriptive
suggestions are merely incidental. The real distinction of the
poem is the "scheme" which Gay's fertile mind hit upon. With
the second Idyll of Theocritus in mind, he planned the first of
that long series of Town Eclogues with which eighteenth-cen-
tury literature abounds, keeping the form of the pastoral elegy,
but filling out his pictures not with Sicilian hills and fields and
shepherds, but with St. James's and the Ring, with ladies at
their toilette, with the killing glances and answering eyes of the
beaux and belles of fashionable London.
DIRECTION FOUND 75
The other two poems in Steeled Miscellany y A Contempla-
tion on Night and A Thought on Eternity, are serious through-
out, but serious with the long view, as men felt it in those days,
of the new science. The Creator Spirit, the mysteries of whose
vast energies were in times past unfathomable, now goes about
his business of laying the world's foundations almost by school-
boy precept 5 at least we shall be able to think the thoughts of
God after him, especially at night:
Yet still, ev'n now, while darkness cloaths the land,
We view the traces of th' almighty hand.
This idea grows trite within the next thirty years 5 its claims
are exasperatingly comprehensive, and to our minds the ex-
planations that once seemed satisfactory ring hollow, for we are
apt to forget the genuine feeling that often fused the verses of
this sort and produced a kind of sombre beauty such as we find
in these early poems of Gay.
The Fan 12 was Gay's most ambitious and least effective
effort of the year. Like the shield of Achilles, high engine for
the fall of Troy, the fan is raised to its commanding place in
woman's hand, a weapon for the fall of man. Strephon loves
long but unsuccessfully; in answer to his prayer, Venus at the
smithy of the gods produces the new toy, has it inscribed with
proper legends to remind woman of her weaknesses, and brings
it to Strephon, who in the end wins his suit. The lines are good
wherever Gay touches social frivolities or has an opportunity
to register the carefully detailed descriptions at which he was
presently to show his peculiar power. The Momus episode is a
welcome change of tone. Too much of the poem, however, retells
the stories from Ovid rather aimlessly j the narrative pattern
is insufficiently marked, and often lost completely in a mass of
pointless decoration. It is nothing but machinery. Pope's advice
may have been disastrous, though we need not blame him for
the sad results of his suggestions. "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." 18
18 Daily Covranf, Dec. 9, 1713: "Yesterday was pubiish'd," etc.
18 Pope, Works, VII, 412.
76 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
The letter containing this advice was dated August 23, 1713,
when Pope was busy in London trying with Jervas's assistance
to learn to paint. During that month Gay was at Moor Park,
where he remained until October 23 or longer. 14 The poem
was composed, so Gay tells Fortescue, while he was at Moor
Park that summer. One gathers from Pope's surprise at his
friend's report of progress that the original draft of the poem
was put through at top speed. Evidently, the polishing process
went on from August 23 till the date of publication, Decem-
ber 8. Gay may have suggested that Pope read the poem in
manuscript, but Pope put him off for a month with the plea that
he was himself "deeply engaged in poetry." If Gay failed to
force his friend's attention earlier, he got no suggestions at all
from him, since the month's grace would leave only two weeks
before the poem was actually on sale. 16
We may not like The Fan particularly, but there is no doubt
about its popularity throughout the eighteenth century. Two edi-
tions appeared in 1714, a Dublin edition in 1727, another Lon-
don edition in 1757, while the poem took its place naturally in
the Poems on Several Occasions, 1720 and 1731. French trans-
lations (one verse and one prose) as well as a German appeared.
Goldsmith was "selecting" it for the benefit of his young lady
readers at kte as I767, 16 and in the same year Samuel Knight,
Master of Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, grouped this
poem with The Rape 1 of the Lock and Prior's Henry and Emma
for enthusiastic praise:
4 Ibid,, VII, 410-412. The Morgan Library letter to Fortescue is dated Oct. 5,
"This letter, which Elwin and Courthope date Oct. 23, 1713 (VII, 412), cannot
be thrown back a year in time, as Mr. Sherburn insists, since Pope was not in touch
with Gay at all for "some months" preceding Nov. 13, 1712, and says so in the
letter to Gay bearing that date. Gay's statement to Fortescue that he wrote the poem
at Moor Park in 1713 must be taken at face value. Mr. Sherburn thinks Pope would
have mentioned his Homer plans in a letter dated Oct. 23, 1713. He did not mention
them to Caryll either in a letter dated Oct. 17, 1713} he merely said, "What poetical
news I have to tell you shall he deferred till our meeting." To Gay he said, "I am
deeply engaged in poetry, the particulars whereof shall be deferred till we meet." See
George Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope (Oxford, 1935), p. 75 n.
16 Poems for Young Ladies. In Three Parts: Devotional, Moral, and Entertaining.
Selected by Dr. Goldsmith (1785).
DIRECTION FOUND 77
Shall cold Oblivion ever snatch the lay
That consecrates Belinda's lock to Fame?
Shall Time destroy the fan of gentle Gay?
Or blot a page that boasts fair Emma's name ? 17
Needless to say, the Greek gods soon found themselves ex-
tremely busy in household manufacture, pattens, hoop-petti-
coats, thimbles, and so on, until the "gods~in-aid" type of story
became a petit genre in eighteenth-century verse.
So much then for Gay's production of verse in 1713, the
"schemes" he thought out for that year: country sports set in
georgic patterns, high heroics applied to frivolities, a pastoral
elegy on the model of Theocritus, sombre musings of the
"graveyard" variety, and two poems on the rolling spheres and
man's pettiness, not all original ideas, but dangerously near it,
an offering which might well please the Duchess of Monmouth
and the Lady Isabella, as well as Caryll, and the rapidly in-
creasing circle of Gay's friends. 18
ii
The story of Gay's first struggles to make a name for him-
self is not complete until we revert to his experience with the
theatre in May of that same year. He had been attempting to
win recognition there since December, I7ii. 19 The Mohocks
had been refused, but at last his next piece, The Wife of Bath,
was accepted by the players to follow Cato in the spring of 1713.
It is evident from a phrase in Pope's letter to Gay (Decem-
ber 24, 1712) that the two friends were at home with Chaucer
at this time, and could depend on each other to cap quotations
from him without effort. Pope, who had published his January
and May in Tonson's Miscellany (1709), and revised (or pos-
sibly written) 20 the pieces which appear under Betterton's name
in the Lintot Miscellany (May, 1712), was busy during the
winter of 1712-1713 with his Temple of Fame, and would
before long, possibly following Gay's lead, publish his mod-
17 Samuel Knight, Elegies and Sonnets (1785), P- *9-
18 See letters from Pope to Caryll (Pope, Works, VI, 202-203).
"See letter from Pope to Cromwell, Dec. 21, 1711 (Pope, Works, VI, 130).
* Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, p. 50 n.
78 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
ernization of the prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Gay
himself attempted an imitation of Chaucer's style. An Answer to
the Sampler's Prologue of Chaucer > tdiich exemplified too well
what most men of the time found in Chaucer archaic diction,
ragged verses, and questionable taste. Now in The Wife of
Math Gay took the hint for a number of his characters from the
Canterbury group, borrowed a bit of plotting from Farquhar, 21
added reminiscences of speeches and scenes from Shakespeare,
and served up the melange, hoping for the best.
The title itself might be expected to carry the play, for the
Wife of Bath had continued popular down through the years,
especially in the ballads, and the story of her fortunes on earth,
in hell, and heaven would still bring crowded buyers on the
street comers. The last issue of the old ballad of the Wife of
Bath was a Glasgow imprint of 1700, The New Wife of Bath
Much better Reformed^ Enlarged, and Corrected^ than it was
formerly in the Old incorrect Copy. Not so new and not so
thoroughly reformed, she wanders through the pages of this
ballad and meets Judas in the land of shades, who takes her to
Hell-gate. Satan won't have her. Hoping for entrance to
heaven, she has a grand flyting with Adam and all the patriarchs
and apostles, until finally Christ admits her. In Gay's play, she
has lost her sturdiness and seems closer to Mistress Quickly, and
Gay is indebted to Shakespeare for much more than this. The
scene in which the Franklin's servants arrest the wrong man
while they discuss legal points, is straight from Dogberry, and
the language of the drawers is that of Henry IV: "Coming,
coming, Gentlemen into the Dragon, Sir I'll bring your
Honour a Pint of the same immediately coming, coming, Sir
Score a Quart of Sack in the Dragon below there." The
satire on astrology is at least a hundred years old (Dryden had
just tried it), and the best social satire in the play comes from
81 Giles Jacob noticed this. See his Poetical Register: or, the Lives and Characters
of the English Dramafick Poets , with an- Account of (heir Writings (1719), p. 115.
He speaks of the play's "indifferent success," and remarks that "Part of the Plot
seems to be taken from Kite in The Recruiting Officer." This may have been one
of the first plays Gay saw in London. It was performed in 1707.
DIRECTION FOUND 79
the pages of The Tatler and The Spectator such, for instance,
as the scene where Doggrell reads his poetry to Chaucer, and
the latter treats him as Addison did Ned Softly. The main
weakness in the play is not this jumping about from age to age/ s
this snipping a bit from Chaucer, a bit from Shakespeare, and
a bit from Farquhar or Addison $ a more serious defect is its
broken-backed plot. The interest is continually divided between
the Florinda-Merit and the Myrtilla-Chaucer episodes. The
second group of characters do not appear until the fourth scene
of Act II) and during the entire fourth act they are forgot-
ten. One needs no critical genius to be aware of these diffi-
culties. Gay himself early recognized them and attempted, not
with complete success, to get rid of them when he rewrote
the play for a fresh production in 1730. In the second version
the liaison d&s scenes is distinctly better; one scene develops
naturally out of another, and minor interests are properly
subordinated. The dialogue is smarter, though some good
things are lost. The rather ponderous humor of some of the
speeches disappears in favor of the lighter touch. Compare
Alison's speech on apparitions, for example. In the version of
1713 it appears:
I have, thanks to Experience, seen Spirits of aU Shapes, and all
Countries Why, a Jerusalem Spirit is no more like an English Spirit
than a Hog is like a Rhinoceros. I have been Witness of all the
Devil's Frolicks Idad, to my certain Knowledge, he makes noth-
ing of unfurnishing a Kitchen to entertain himself with a Country-
Dance of Dishes and Platters 5 many be the times and often, he has
rattled my Curtains and made the Bed shake under me, when I have
** One of Alison's speeches at least must have been wrung from the heart of Gay's
present experience: "O' my Conscience, great Folks keep a Cargo of Impertinent
Servants about them, to defend them from Visitants. if ones Business leads one to
dance Attendance after Quality, our Message, forsooth, must be delivered at tbe Door-
Passage, and there, like a Watch Word through a Camp, it must fly through at least
half a Dozen Skips before it can reach my Lord's Ears. and now, forsooth, the
World is come to a fine pass truly, that we must make Application to the Conjuror's
Imp, in our way to the Conjurer." This speech suggests one more reason for the
play's failure: the speeches do not ft the mouth.
as The mirror-scene at the astrologer's is borrowed from John Wilson's The Cheats
(1662). See Genest, Some Account oj the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660
to 1830 (Bath, 1832), II, 514.
8o JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
not had the Comfort of a Bedfellow; many a dark Night have I
seen the headless Horse, and have had the Honour to Converse with
the Queen of the Fairies.
In 17305 Alison disclaims belief:
To be sure, Madam, I never saw any thing worse than myself in
all my life. Frighten'd, said you? Alack-a-day, all my skittish days
are over. When I was young, indeed, like other young girls, I
thought fear very becoming; and I had then, Madam, tho' I say it,
a very genteel scream.
The dialogue is frequently abbreviated, unhappy stage
tricks discarded, and a general tightening-up of the plot is ob-
vious. Alison's charming song, "There was a Swain full fair,"
later a favorite in the songbooks, is lost in the revision. 24
Doggrell's verses, strangely enough, are improved in the re-
vised version. The new ending better suits modern taste:
Plowden goes off in a huff, unreconciled to his daughter and
unmarried to Alison. With all these changes the play still has
grave faults, and one will not blame, rather commend, the
audiences which found it dull in 1713 and in 1730. In some
ways it had in the first production an excellent chance for success.
Steele gave it the puff preliminary in No. 50 of The Guardian,
May 8.
I had just given my Orders for the Press, when my Friend Mrs.
Bicknett made me a Visit. She came to desire I would show her the
Wardrobe of the Lizard's (where the various Habits of the Ances-
tors of that Illustrious Family are preserved) in order to furnish her
with a proper Dress for the Wife of Bath. Upon sight of the little
Ruffs, she snatched one of them from the Pin, clapt it round her
Neck, and turning briskly towards me, repeated a Speech out of her
Part in the Comedy of that Name. If the rest of the Actors enter
into their several Parts with the same Spirit, the humorous Characters
of this Pky cannot but appear excellent on the Theatre: For very
good Judges have informed me, that the Author has drawn them
with great Propriety, and an exact Observation of the Manners.
"See Watts, Musical Miscellany (1729-1731), where it is set to music by Barret.
DIRECTION FOUND 81
The best actors were secured for the Drury Lane performance.
One remembers that Mrs. Oldfield was not quite in a condition
to act, but Mrs. Bicknell took the name part, while Wilks,
Penkethman, and the two Bullocks, as well as Mrs. Porter and
Mrs. Mountford, were all there.
Gay wrote to his friend Maurice Johnson on April 23 of
this year telling him that his play, though put off for a week
because of the popularity of Cato, would appear on May 5:
"My play comes on 5th May. It was put off on account of
CatOj so that you may easily imagine I by this time begin to
be a little sensible of the approaching danger. Pray present my
very humble service to your father." 25 It actually took the
boards on May 12, a week later. Addison's play had been run-
ning before enthusiastic houses since April 14. Berkeley wrote
to Perceval on May 7, 1713:
Mr Addison's play has taken wonderfully, they have acted it now
about a month, and would I believe act it a month longer were it
not that Mrs Oldfield cannot hold out any longer, having had for
several nights past, as I am informed, a midwife behind the scenes,
which is surely very unbecoming the character of Cato's daughter. 26
Men of sense must have realized that its success was largely
accidental. Rowe and Pope ridiculed the whole flurry of party
in their epigram, Ufon & Tory Lady who shed her Water at
CatOy and, though Gay wrote respectfully of the "universal
discourse" and the "universal applause" excited by Addison's
play, he must soon have realized that the play which succeeded
it, good or bad, was likely to suffer injustice. It did. The
Biographia Dramatics says The Wife of Bath "met with very
indifferent success." 27 Gay himself spoke of it later as his
25 John Nichols, "Antiquities in Lincolnshire," Bibliotheca Topographica Britanntca
(1790), III, xxii, Appendix to the History of the Gentlemen's Society at Spaldrag.
36 The Correspondence of Berkeley and Perceval, ed. Benjamin Rand (Cambridge,
Mass., 1914)* P-
27 Biographia Dramatics, (1812), III, 408. See also Genest, op. cit. f II, 514, and
Leonard Welsted, Palaemon to Caelia (2d ed., 1717), p. JO.
To see their first Essay the House was full?
None fear'd a Secret to make Chaucer dull:
This damn*d, absurder Projects they disclose,
And raise preposterous Mirth from human Woes.
82 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
a damned" play, and we need not appeal the author's verdict
on its reception. 28 The play ran for three nights, was with-
drawn, and printed almost immediately on May 22. 29
in
We have not yet completed the list of Gay's productions in
1713, for The Shepherd's Week should be added, though it
was not finished and ready for publication until the following
spring. Soon after Gay's return to London from Moor Park
in November, he was busy on this new scheme pastorals, but
pastorals with a difference. Pope speaks of him in a facetious
letter to Swift (December 8) as "an unhappy youth, who writes
pastorals during the time of divine service 5 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." All the young poets had tried their
hands at pastoral verse, Ambrose Philips and Pope among
them. Philips had run off with all the praise at any rate in
the Guardian papers on the subject until Pope took a hand
and in No. 4.0 reduced Philips's pretensions to absurdity. The
squabble was amusing and may have suggested to Gay the
fundamental idea for his own verses, an idea which as usual
was new. Philips had attempted to introduce characters and
imagery appropriate to the English scene, and Gay saw that in
following this idea out to its logical extreme in burlesque there
might be just cause for mirth. Of course this plan fitted in
neatly with Gay's usual habit of mind; once again he could take
his classical text in hand and indulge his special humor.
These two ideas, ridicule of Philips and burlesque of the
Bucolics , were probably in Gay's mind as he began to write. It is
hard at this distance to decide which predominated. I am in-
clined to think that the latter motive started him. After all,
Pope's little tiff with Philips in the pages of The Guardian was
all over the preceding April, months earlier than the first ref-
* 8 See the letter from Gay to Swift, Nov. 9, 1729, and reply (Swift, Letters, IV,
108, 112).
aa The Guardian, May 20 and 22, 1713. Note Gay's close association with The
Guardian' through this spring.
DIRECTION FOUND 83
erences we have to Gay's plans, and since that round closed with
all the counts in Pope's favor, one can hardly suppose that Pope
could feel anything but amused amiability towards an opponent
so delicately pricked and so skilfully counterchecked. Philips
might hang up his switch at Button's if he liked, but Pope could
afford to smile, since not only Philips but all the silly critics who
had praised his work and neglected Pope's must now look fool-
ish. Indeed, Pope's resentment against Philips personally, if he
ever had had much, must have evaporated during the summer
months, since, when he circulated his proposals for translating
Homer in October, he entrusted Philips, then secretary of the
Hanover Club, with the business of collecting subscriptions
among his fellow-members. It was only much later, when Phil-
ips neglected, or as Pope said obstructed the progress of this
design, that Pope grew angry. 30 Pope had wanted all the names
of subscribers in by February 18, or thereabouts, as he proposed
to print a list of them to encourage the rest of the town with the
surety of final success. 31 The list of subscribers did not actually
appear until May, though I doubt whether Philips's recalcitrance
had much to do with the delay. 32 Pope was annoyed, however,
by Philips's lack of interest, and sought to suggest that the ex-
aggerated realism of Gay's poem was intended as a burlesque on
Philips's early verses in the same kind. Pope wrote to Caryll,
"It is to this management of Philips that the world owes Mr.
Gay's Pastorals." Gay indeed may have encouraged Pope to
think so, and in the later stages of composition he may have
given certain passages in the poem a turn of direct ridicule of
Philips, but since he was busy with the pastorals earlier than
December 8, and since at that time Addison and Philips and the
rest of Button's Club were still at least ostensibly supporting
Pope's venture, it is fairly certain that in the beginning The
Shepherd? s Week was burlesque of Vergil rather than ridicule
of Philips. Ruffhead admits that no one outside the immediate
circle of those interested thought anything else until specially
80 Pope to Caryll, June 8, 1714 (Pope, Works, VI, 210).
81 Pope to Caryll, Jan. 9 and Feb. 25, 1714 (MI., VI, 2OO, 204).
** Evening Post, May 15, 1714, and Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander
Pope, p. 125.
84 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
enlightened. 38 We should remember that the classics in these
early years held a kind of contradictory fascination for Gay's
mind. He loved them, but he loved also to burlesque the self-
conscious artificiality of their forms. Most of the poems we have
so far discussed show this clearly. The Shepherd's Week was
another venture of the same sort, and when Gay found he could
serve his friend's interest by giving a special twist to the literary
satire, he saw no reason to hesitate, particularly as he was an-
noyed, like Pope, by the torrent of overpraise for Philips's
Pastorals.
The idea, however, that Gay was ridiculing Philips caught
on with the minor writers, and was repeated frequently in prose
and verse through the century. One versifier brings all the pas-
toral poets before Apollo for judgment. He insists 34 that Gay's
Shepherd's Week was first suggested by the dispute in The
Guardim over pastoral poetry, but he fails to see the delicate
charm and irony of Gay's verses, and finally awards the palm to
Pope.
Apollo hearing Civil Wars arose,
And Poets now began to fight in Prose,
Declar'd, that he himself would hear the Cause,
Himself interpret, and explain his Laws.
In haste the summoned Wits from Button's came,
Each ready to support his Fav'rite's Claim;
Steels with a Train of ten Sufforters near^ \
Forc'd to the Head, and would in Front appear, >
And D'Urjey with a Song brought up the Rear. )
The Court now sat; Apollo looking round,
Many strange unpoetic Faces found,
And asking Prior whence that Medley Crew,
Whom, nor the Muses, nor his Godship knew,
The Bard reply'd, with an Horatian Grin,
They're Wits, and home Steele's Ticket to come in.
Steele's Ticket, cry'd the God! And is that all?
And so bid Critic Dennis clear the Hall.
88 Owen Ruffhead, The Life of Alexander Pope (1769), p. 46.
8 * "The Judgment of Apollo upon the Present Set of Poets," Poems on Several
Occasions, p. 35. The copy in the British Museum has no title page.
DIRECTION FOUND 85
Dennis is too rigorous, and has to be stopped. Soon Philips ap-
pears, backed by Budgell and Tickell, offering a petition signed
by twenty friends. Apollo notices that Congreve has not signed
it, and calls for Pope.
The little Bard, with Mirth and Humour fraught,
Who neither shunnM the Rivalship, nor sought,
Had slunk into a Corner, as unseen,
To Jest and Rally, with a merry Dean;
But at A folio's Call, (he knew his Tongue)
He came repeating of his Winter Song.
Apollo approves, and
The Cause concluded seem'd, when now began
The gentle, cooling Author of the Fan,
Who shall, if Tonson but bestow enough,
Soon string the Neck-Lace y and unfold the Muff.
He courted ev'ry Muse Parnassus knew,
And from him, ev'ry Muse he courted, flew 5
And now repeated loud Bowselus Hight,
And Blouzelmda in her Ap-on white.
But soon the God, to stop the killing Lay,
Cry'd out, Whatever Lord Bolingbroke may say,
Full sely are thy Sonnets^ gentle Gay.
Then rising spoke: My Sons, your Wars forbear,
Let Pope the Garland which he merits, wear.
He advises them all to await Homer with interest, not to
"strain applauses for a borrcwfd Song" a sneer over Ambrose
Philips's Distressed Mother, and t6 be ready to praise a poet
before he dies, apparently remembering Edmund Smith's chill-
ing experiences.
The Shepherd* $ Week appeared on April 15, iyi4, 35 pleas-
antly equipped with engravings, but printed in octavo, not folio
size, a fact which may suggest that the author regarded his work
rather as a jeu d y es<prit than as a serious composition. He pro-
vided, however, a preface, a prologue, and notes of some in-
terest. With a rather fine flavor of Elizabethan English in dic-
88 The Post-Boy, April 15, 1714.
86 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
tioii and phrasing. Gay set forth in his Pr oeme the crux of the
pastoral debate, Theocritus is his model| if English dairymaids
wear white aprons, then white aprons will appear in his verses.
His clowns are clowns, not court-clowns, or clown-courtiers, and
he lays aside all the "fine finical new-fangled fooleries of this
gay Gothic garniture." Spenser is naturally in his mind, though
he disapproves of the diverse grave points of churchly matter,
which he thinks appertain to great clerks rather than humble
poets. The point of diction bothers him; he proposes to use
neither that of court nor country, neither modern nor archaic,
and pleads deep learned ensamples as his excuse for so illogical
a course.
The personal references and compliments scattered through
the Prologue To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Boling-
broke are of special interest. His references to Queen Anne are
scarcely polite, so intent is he on weaving a pleasant compliment
to his friend Arbuthnot. The list of fair ladies at court includes
Lady Lansdowne, to whose husband Pope had just dedicated
Windsor Fofest, the Ladies Berkeley and Anglesey, friends par-
ticularly of Swift, Catharine Hyde, the Kitty who as Duchess of
Queensberry was one of Gay's staunchest friends, and finally
the Duchess of Montagu, daughter of Marlborough, with
whose family Gay always maintained pleasant relations. Oxford
appears, bearing like Moses a wand, and arranging trade treaties
for the benefit of the English freemen. But St. John, "right
courteous to the swain," gets the main compliments and the
dedication:
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.
Some eight years later, thinking back over his friendship with
DIRECTION FOUND 87
Gay in the effort to comfort the latter for his ill-success in the
chase for offices. Swift wrote:
I have been considering why poets have such 31 success in mak-
ing 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 writ-
ing, but not by word of mouth: they wfll give things under their hand
which they make a conscience of speaking. Besides, they are too
libertine to haunt ante-chambers, too poor to bribe porters and foot-
men, and too proud to cringe to second-hand favourites in a great
family* 6
Then he suddenly remembered that the great men of 1714
were not pleasing persons in 1722. "Tell me, are you not under
original sin by the dedication of your Eclogues to Lord Boling-
broke?"
That may have been true, but the heart of the matter more
likely is that the quality of sincerity about Gay unfitted him for
the party squabbles that bordered the road to preferment. For
the moment the Bolingbroke dedication suited well enough.
The poem was received with acclamation. Three editions ap-
peared in 1714, two more in the author's life time, 87 besides the
reprinting in the collected Works of 1720 and 1731, and other
editions in 1742 and 1763, while Dublin printed the poem in
1728 and Edinburgh in 1760. There were a few dissenting
verdicts like that in the poem already quoted. Gildon was of
course scornful.
This sort of Poetry has been the Bow, in which most of our
young Dablers in Rhime have try'd their Strength; but alas! not one
besides Mr. Philip has hit the Mark, and if you compare him with
the very best of France or Italy, you will easily perceive how much
he has excelled them all.* 8
He seems to have been thinking of The Shepherd's Week when
he wrote:
Another, in an abject clownish Stile,
Makes Shepherds speak a Language base and vile;
His stupid Writings most profoundly creep,
** Swift, Letters, III, 149. * T 1721 and 1728.
"Charles Gildon, Aft of Poetry (1718), I, 157.
88 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Barren of Wit, Provocatives of Sleep:
You'd swear Tom Durfey, in his rustic Strains,
Was Quav'ring to the Milkmaids and the Swains;
Changing, without respect to Sound or Dress,
Strephon and Phillis, into Tom and Bess.
Twixt these Extremes, 'tis hard to please the Town ; j
Read Virgily Spenser, Poets of Renown, >
And equally avoid the Courtier and the Clown. 39 )
Gildon, who had already in 1714 attacked Rowe and Pope,
and Gay incidentally, in The New Rehearsal, might be expected
to be scornful. He might also since he was by no means stupid
be expected to see Gay's satirical reference to Philips, if that
had been as clear as the repetitive critics of later years have
imagined it. Most critics and readers found these Eclogues
delightfully fresh in a worn-out genre. They liked the talk
about Devonshire "white-pot/ 5 the breathing cows, the yellow
butter and sage cheese, the smutty pipes, the country proverbs,
and most of all the introduction of superstitious lore. For the
first time in his verse, Gay makes use of a quality rather hard
to define perhaps, a plaintive note in the pathos, which was later
to win him plaudits in some of the songs in The Beggar* $ Of era.
He knows the favorite songs too, and their names give a homely
touch to his lines, Gillian of Croydon, O'er Mils and jar away,
Patient Grissel. What happens is that the village comes to life
in his verses, Hot-cockles and BlindmanVbuff, the gypsies with
their fortune-telling and petty thievery, the cucking-stool, the
wakes, the fair with its mountebanks and tumblers and raree-
shows, the funerals, the will of Blouzelinda, and the parson's
platitudes:
After the good man warned us from his text,
That none could tell whose turn would be the next}
He said, that heaven would take her soul, no doubt,
And spoke the hour-glass in her praise quite out.
No wonder the poem was popular! "Saturday" is surely the
best, with its picture of drunken Bouzybeus among the merry
reapers, singing his songs and kissing the girls.
"/&*., i, 156.
DIRECTION FOUND 89
Down through the century the popularity of The Shepherd's
Week increased rather than diminished. Robert Shiels (1753)
thought it the best of Gay's poems.
Of all Gay's performances, his Pastorals seem to have the highest
finishing; they are perfectly Doric; the characters and dialogue are
natural and rurally simple; the language is admirably suited to the
persons, who appear delightfully rustic. 40
Goldsmith thinks Gay "has hit the true spirit of pastoral
poetry. In fact, he more resembles Theocritus than any other
English pastoral writer whatsoever." 41 And even Johnson, in
spite of his dislike of pastoral verse, admits that here the effect
of reality and truth becomes conspicuous, and that these poems
deserve their popularity as representations of rural manners and
occupations. 42 Complimentary references multiply, especially
during the seventies, when with the production for the first time
of Polly and the printing of several editions of Gay's collected
works, the reputation of Gay seems to have reached its height.
William Hayward Roberts, for example, in A Poetical Epstle
to Cristofher Anstey, Esq; on the English Poets (1773), dis-
cusses the vices of rhyme.
No, not in rhyme. I hate that iron chain,
Forg'd by the hand of some rude Goth, which cramps
The fairest feather in the Muse's wing,
And pins her to the ground.
He recognizes, however, that rhyme may be suitable for some
types of verse elegy, lyric, satire, pastoral.
* Theophilus Cibber, The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753),
IV, 259-
41 The Beauties of English Poetry, selected by Oliver Goldsmith (1767), I, 133.
See also various other collections of this sort:
The Cabinet of Genius, containing Frontispieces and Characters adapted to the
most Popular Poems (1787). This contains Monday Saturday inclusive of The
Shepherd's Week, as well as Sweet William's Farewell, and a half dozen of the Fables.
Beispielsammlung xur Theorie und Liter atur der schonen, Wissenschaften, von
Johan Joachim Eschenburg (Berlin und Stettin, 1788). This reprints "Tuesday, or
the Ditty," along with the Verses to Lintott, and several songs. The editor thinks
Gay classical in English verse as Lafontaine in French, and discusses briefly The
Beggar's Opera, Polly, and Achilles.
"Johnson, Lives of the Poets, ed. G. B. Hill, II, 269. See also The Adventurer ,
No. 92.
90 JOHN GAY; FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Let rhyme supply
The majesty of nobler sentiment,
Which 31 might suit the peasant. Gay felt this;
And banish'd from his woods Arcadian swains,
And mark'd the manners of the British hind,
And uncouth dialect. He too could veil
In fable's mystic garb the form of truth;
And by his spritely tale could often draw
The tear of laughter even from the dim eye
Of churlish Gravity.
Imitations were frequent. 43 Indeed, the divine Bucoliast
had every reason to think that he had beatea both Philips and
Pope at this game, and given to the sheep and goats, the myrtle
bowers aad purling rivulets, a vitality that they had not known
since Spenser's time.
M 1 note three:
The Courtship. A Pastoral, in Imitation of Mr. Gay. By J. W. (1748).
Four Pastorals. . . . By T. S. Esqj of the Middle Temple (1768). Pastoral II in
this group is a close imitation of Gay's "Monday j or, the Squabble."
The four Seasons of the Year, to which are added Rural Poems, and Pastoral
Dialogues, Imitated from Mr. Gay, with occasional Notes and Illustrations, for the
Use and Entertainment of young Gentlemen and Ladies. By Bob Short. Author of the
Country Squire, Ac, &c. (1787).
CHAPTER III
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS
BY THE TIME Gay returned to London from Moor Park in
November, 1713, he must have been at least vaguely aware that
the time had come to choose between Cato's little senate at
Button's, and the group of writers playing for Tory smiles
around Swift's powerful figure. Pope was Gay's best friend at
this time, and Pope, though he still dropped in occasionally at
Button's, was by degrees drawing aloof from the Addison clique-
Pope's position was sufficiently anomalous. His Tory friends
thought he was Whig, and his Whig friends thought he was
Tory. Both parties were eager to conciliate him. About this
time, for example, Pope was writing to his Catholic friend
Caryll that people called him Whig %ecause I have been
honoured with Mr. Addison's good word, and Mr. Jervas's
good deeds, and of late with my Lord Halifax's patronage." 1
He was closely associated with Steele on The Guardian, and
even Swift, who knew him so well, apparently continued
through 1715 to think of him as a Whig. ". . . but you must
give me leave to add one thing, that you talk at your ease, being
wholly unconcerned in public events: for, if your friends the
Whigs continue, you may hope for some favour; if the Tories
return, you are at least sure of quiet." 2
Addison, on the other hand, was annoyed by a number of
Pope's literary escapades that year, especially his supposed share
in writing the pretty epigram about the Tory lady's behavior
at Cato and his known authorship of the Narrative of Dr. Rob-
ert Norrisy and thought apparently that Pope and Gay were
helping with some Examiner papers. 3 In any case, the relations
1 Pope, Works, VI, 208. * Swift, Letters, II, 286,
* John Dennis, A True Character of Mr. Pope (1716)5 Joseph Warton, An Essay
on the Genius and Writings of Pope ($th ed., 1806), II, 234.
92 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
between Pope and Addison were getting more and more
strained, and Gay, who seems like most people to have re-
spected, but never heartily liked, Addison, leaned more and more
towards Pope's side in the quarrel Though politics were in
the first place irrelevant in this division of the wits, it seemed
inevitable that the two friends should find themselves more
and more closely aligned with Swift and Arbuthnot and the
Tory group.
Gildon's fanciful description in A New Rehearsal (1714)
puts the situation in which Pope and Gay found themselves
without much distortion in spite of his animus. Sawny Dapper
is speaking presumably Pope, "A young Poet of the Modern
Stamp, an easy Versifyer, Conceited and a Contemner secretly
of all others."
You must know that there are two Parties of Wits, and two or
three Men at the Head of them. Now I first fixt myself on the good
Nature and easy Temper (by my Application) of the Men of real
Merit, they cry'd me up, recommended me to the Town, and the
Town took their Words, and so I set up for myself; for you must
know, they can't so easily destroy a Man's Reputation, as make it;
then I gave my Approbation of the Works of the Heads of the other
Party, that is of those that have Vogue and no Merit; by this means
I gain'd all their Friends, and bring those I approve, to a sort of
Dependance upon me. 4
Gay and Pope were drifting away from one party and into
the arms of the other. Pope, who knew both Arbuthnot and
Swift well by the end of 1712, was willing to praise Granville
and the Tories in Windsor Forest in March, 1713. Somewhat
earlier (January 15), Gay also in Rural Sports had pleasant
words for the government and for Queen Anne, "who binds
the Tyrant War in chains." Pope's letter to Gay of October 23,
1713, shows that the two friends had a special literary scheme
ready for exploitation, and that for collaboration they had ap-
proached not Addison and Steele, but Swift and Parnell. Neither
of them was genuinely interested in politics, but Pope was eager
for literary reputation, and Swift's enthusiastic support of the
* FCJiarles Gildonl, A New Rehearsal* or Bays the Younger (1714), PP. 4?-4.6.
FAX far-i* J c$
From a series of drawings by "Old" Laroon, engraved by Pierce
Tempest, and first published with the title of "Cryes of the
City of London" in 1688. Courtesy of the British Museum
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 93
Homer project (October, 1713) won him completely, while
Gay, no doubt anxious for fame too, was even more determined
to secure the independence of a government post, not an un-
usual aspiration for a smart young writer in those days. The
die was cast (perhaps in the form of Examiners) in the spring
of 1713? an( l whs** Gay returned to town in November, he soon
found himself merged with the Tory group and before very
long secretary at the deliberations of Scriblerus.
Gossip paints some pretty pictures of the friends at this
time. Swift, Gay, Bolingbroke, and even Steele haunted the
streets and loved to patronize the ballad singers. Pope himself
condescended to write an epitaph for one of them.
She who is laid beneath this sod of earth
Was blest, though wanting titles, power, and birth;
Though poor, had yet the loftiest bards inspir'd;
Though fair, was yet by her own sex admir'd;
But Wortley was the woman that did praise.
And Swift and Gay the bards that lovM her lays.
Clarinda, courted by the wise and great,
Would stay to charm the vulgar at their gate;
Pleas' d if those notes which lords & poets lov'd,
"Were by the humble peasant-throng approv'd.
Swift is reported to have sent many a song into the world
through the medium of the ballad singers, notably a severe
satire on the Duke of Marlborough, "Our Johnny is come from
the wars? 5 Bolingbroke's Clara was the original singer of
"Black-ey'd Susan" and of one or two songs which were after-
wards introduced into The Beggar's Opera^ and is said to have
had a remarkable sweetness and pathos in her tones. 5
Gay with his songs and his flute was fond of this low com-
pany. His exuberance of spirits, his joy in living, his interest
in all kinds of people and scenes were not alone responsible
for taking him down among these people and encouraging their
activities. The ballad singers had a humble share also in in-
fluencing public opinion in those days; their songs smacked
strongly of either politics or murder. The Weekly Journal, or
8 Richard Ryan, Poetry and Poets (1826), II, 89-91.
94 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Saturday** Post for June 29, 1723, gives evidence of the rabid
party feelings they were apt to generate:
Some Ballad-Singers being got together in Grace-Church-Street,
were singing very melodiously to a Fiddle, a very loyal Song or
Ballad in Praise of King George; but the Tune being the same that
they sing to an old Ballad, called. The King shall enjoy his own
agam> an honest grave Shopkeeper, not hearing the Words so plain
as he did the Tune, fell in a most grievous Passion at the poor
Singers, told them their King was a Papist, and a Run-a-gate; that
he was a Son of a Whore, and they were all Rogues that were for
him. Upon this the Mob gathered about him, and threatened to take
him up: Yes, yes, says the good Shop-Keeper, I'll give you enough
of taking up, presently, and immediately fetches a Constable; but
when the Midnight Magistrate had enquired into the Matter, and
was informed that the Ballad they were singing was a very loyal
Ballad, and in Praise of King George, the Man turn'd Pale, and
began to Smell; upon which the Constable convey'd him home, that
he might examine his lower Parts, and rectify the Disorder, which
the Fright had brought upon him.
This street propaganda was part of the game of politics
in 1713. Swift's methods, as chief literary whip of his party,
were by no means so sedate as Addison's; he set up no coffee-
house, and preferred to work without the blare of trumpets.
Gay's abilities and temper were particularly suitable for his
purposes. A long and rather cumbersome allegorical poem on
politics, which was written probably by Gay, 8 YMrhell's Kitchen:
or, the Dogs of Egypt (1713)? opens with some lines which
suggest aptly enough the opportunity afforded by these crude
singers for spreading propaganda.
I am the Bard; who whilom did rehearse
Pathetick Tales of Love in humble Verse:
Who Solemn Hymns composM for Raree Shows;
And Ghosts and Goblins feign'd in tuneful Prose:
Who oft have made judicious Mobs rejoice,
Attentive to the Ragged Siren's Voice:
Works grateful unto Hawking Dames.
* Mr. Faber attributes this work to Prior. His reasons appear insufficient. See The
Poetical Works of John Gay, p. xxxii.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 95
But now the Muse bids strike a higher String,
In peerless Numbers now Arms, and the Man I sing*
The lines suggest also something of the way in which Gay
served his apprenticeship to letters and acquired that control
over easy-flowing verses which was his with the publication of
Rural S forts.
Swift was working his literary friends hard during this
winter of 1713-1714.
Or, Have you nothing new today
From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?
he asks in An Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book
of Horace . . . The first Part done in the Year 1714. Ford 5
Swift's Irish friend, was frequently one of the group 5 and
Parnell, who followed Swift to London in 1711, was from time
to time publishing poems which tied the bonds of the fellow-
ship more firmly, once by flattery of St. John in An Essay on
the Different Styles of Poetry 7 (March 24, 1713) and once by
discrediting Dennis and Philips in The Bookworm (April,
1714). His friendship with Lewis, Ford, Swift, and Berkeley
was of some standing, and he had much influence in drawing
Pope and Gay over into that circle. Pope was the one whom
they all petted. Fortescue once wrote to Gay a letter in the form
of a dream, describing a journey with his friend to Parnassus.
He apparently alluded to Pope when he said he saw a a young
person of a small stature, but great sweetness and vivacity in
his looks, sitting with nine beautiful maids dancing round him$
Criticism stood at his right, and Pastoral on his left 5 he was
crowned with laurels and seemed the Genius of the place." 8
Pope and Parnell were working together at Binfield in the
spring of 1714 on the Homer project, and Pope wrote in to
Gay asking him to convey his service to all these London
friends:
Pray give, with the utmost fidelity and esteem, my hearty service
to the Dean, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and to Mr. Fortescue. Let
7 Swift, Journal to Stella, p. 530. "Mightily esteemed, but poetry sells ill."
8 See Christie's Sale Catalogue for June 4, 1896.
96 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
them also know at Button's that I am mindful of them. I am,
divine Bucoliast!
Thy loving Countryman. 9
It is the "utmost fidelity' ' that Pope sends to Swift 5 he is
by this time merely "mindful of Addison, and there seems
to be almost a double edge to the phrase, especially when fol-
lowed so closely by the compliment to Gay and his recently
published Shefherd*s Week.
Pope's idea for the Works of the Unlearned soon got the
approval of this group. Swift and Parnell and Gay all liked
it. 10 Arbuthnot also approved, and it was his final suggestion
that redirected the energies of the group into the Memoirs of
Scriblerus, The story of the Scriblerus Club has been frequently
told. 11 The Club must have started shortly after Gay's return
from the country in November, 1713. Pope had already been
confiding to him his plans for some such co-operative writing,
and in that letter (October 23) the idea was to publish a
monthly journal called The Works of the Unlearned (in ridi-
cule of the well-known critical review with a similar name),
in which "whatever book appears that deserves praise, shall
be depreciated ironically, and in the same manner that modern
critics take to undervalue works of value, and to commend the
high productions of Grub-street." 12 Pope was hot with the
idea and managed to communicate his enthusiasm to the others.
Arbuthnot caught the ball, and changed the rules of the game,
as becomes clear from Spence's statement of the Club's purpose,
"to ridicule all the false tastes in learning under the character
of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art
and science, but injudiciously in each." It was to be ridicule of
pedantry then, that would focus the discussions and writing of
the group, whether the pedantic dunces applied their efforts
to poetry, learning, natural philosophy, medicine, or the law.
Arbuthnot was in the end more interested than any of them,
and the list of notes that he submits for Swift's inspection will
Pope, Works, VII, 415- 10 Ibid., VII, 412.
11 Never better than by Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, pp. 69-82
"Pope, Works, VII, 412.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 97
give a good idea of his notion of the scope of Martin's adven-
tures and the type of satire involved.
Pray, remember Martin, who is an innocent fellow and will not
disturb your solitude. The ridicule of medicine is so copious a subject
that I must only here and there touch it. I have made him study
physic from the apothecary's bill, where there is a good plentiful field
for a satire upon the present practice. One of his projects was, by a
stamp upon blistering-plasters, and melilot by the yard, to raise money
for the Government, and to give it to Radcliffe and others to farm.
But there was likely to be a petition from the inhabitants of London
and Westminster, who had no mind to be flayed. There was a prob-
lem about the doses of purging medicines published four years ago,
showing that they ought to be in proportion to the bulk of the patient.
From thence Martin endeavours to determine the question about the
weight of the ancient men, by the doses of physic that were given
them. . . . Pope has been collecting high flights of poetry, which are
very good; they are to be solemn nonsense. 13
Swift seems very modest about his own share in the productions
of the Club, especially when one remembers his early ridicule
of dunces in A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books;
he writes to Arbuthnot on July 3:
To talk of Martin in any hands but yours, is a folly. You every
day give better hints than all of us together could do in a twelve-
month; and to say the truth, Pope who first thought of the hint has
no genius at all to it in my mind. Gay is too young; Parnell has
some ideas of it, but is idle 5 I could put together, and lard, and strike
out well enough, but all that relates to the sciences must be from
you. 14
His remark about Gay is curious, since Gay was three years
older than Pope. Gay is noted in several places as secretary
to Martinus Scriblerus, but probably looked upon the fore-
gatherings of the Club as of social rather than literary interest,
and his contributions at this time seem to have been frivolous,
with the exception, possibly, of the Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of
Ms Parish, a satire on Bishop Burnet written by Pope and Gay
18 The entire letter should be read (Swift, Letters , II, 158-160).
14 Ibid., H, 162.
98 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
probably in I7I5. 15 When clouds of Grub Street wasps settled
down on Pope in 17285 this pamphlet came up for attention,
and Gay got some of the stings also. At that time the enemy
was vague about the authorship of the Parish Clerk piece. One
writer in The Daily Journal (April 3) states that it had been
owned about two years ago by Mr. S(mith), whoever that may
have been. Another in a letter to the author of the same journal
complains of its scurrility. 16
I shall therefore waive this and other little Subtleties, not un-
worthy the Reporters of the Case of Stradlyng and Stiles, and ob-
serve, that the Piece which the Company seems to have been in so
much pain about s viz. The Memoirs of a Parish Clerk^ was a very
dull and unjust Abuse of an excellent Person, who wrote in Defence
of our Religion and Constitution, and who has been dead many
Years, These Memoirs^ when they were first handed about in
Manuscript, gave so general an Offence, that so far from any Fear
of their being robbed of them, it was generally expected that a cer-
tain Led Poet, maintain'd by the Company for that Purpose, would
be order'd to own them.
Certainly many of the topics chosen by the group for witty
extravaganzas were of the sort which for one reason or other
could profitably remain imprinted, for the edification of a lim-
ited circle only. Some pretty sports of this sort were never
published ; many even of the more important items waited till
1741 for printing, while others crept into print surreptitiously
to leave sober biographers guessing at authorship, or tossing. the
scatalogical tidbits from one member of the group to another.
The key-tone of their efforts was fantasticality, and when Whis-
ton and Ditton proposed in utter seriousness their absurd scheme
for ascertaining the longitude, Arbuthnot was aggrieved because
16 Sherbura, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, p. 8 1. See Letters of Mr.
Alexander Pope, And Several of Ms Friends (1737-174,1). The second volume prints
a number of the Scriblerus tracts, and with them the following advertisement: "The
Treatise of the Art of Sinking, and Virgilius Restauratus, were written between OUT
Author and Dr. Arbuthnot j Dr. Parnelle had a hand in that of the Origine of Sciences;
Mr. Gay in the Memoirs of a Parish-Clerk^ and two of the Guardians"
18 A Compleat Collection Of all the Verses, Essays, Letters, and Advertisements ,
which Have been occasioned by the Publication of Three Volumes of Miscellanies } by
Pope and Company (1728), pp. 9, 20.
. THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 99
they had spoiled a pleasant idea which he had intended to inter-
weave in the Scriblerus mesh, 17 Some irreverent member of
the group, possibly Gay, later suggested the obvious rhymes
for Whiston and Ditton and produced The Ode on the
Longitude. Whiston had long been a frequenter of Will's
coffeehouse, and Pope and Gay and the others had many times
found it necessary to fly from his ponderous lucubrations on
boundless space to the unpretentious nonsense of Titcombe, the
humour of Steele, or even the "insignificant observations and
quirks of grammar of Mr. Cfromwell] and D[ennis]." 19 And
now in this group of friends on the lookout for absurdities and
themselves not afraid to be absurd, the idea of his great Pacific
and Atlantic lighthouses received the treatment it certainly
merited.
One would have expected that Berkeley's scheme for a mis-
sionary college in Bermuda would stand in grave danger of
similar treatment, and apparently at one time the subject came
up as appropriate for Scriblerian discussion. Joseph Warton tells
the story, as he heard it from Lord Bathurst.
Lord Bathurst told me, that the members of the Scriblerus Club^
being met at his house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who
was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. Berkeley, having
listened to the many lively things they had to say, begged to be heard
in his turn; and displayed his plan with such an astonishing and
animating force of eloquence and enthusiasm, that they were struck
dumb, and, after some pause, rose up all together with earnestness,
exclaiming, "Let us set out with him immediately." 20
All this sounds rather formidable $ many of us might well
feel shy in the company of the men whose stored-up acidities
would before long bring forth Gulliver's Travels and The Dwn-
y and we might expect our dull platitudes and even our
17 Swift, Letters, II, 1 86.
18 Pope attributed this to Gay (Spence, Anecdotes^ ed. S. W. Singer, 1820, p. 201),
See Gay to Caryll, April, 1715 (Pope, Works, VI, 226-227).
19 Pope to Caryll, Aug. 14, 1713 (ibid., VI, 190).
20 Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (5th ed,, 1806),
II, 199 n. This meeting must have taken place between 1724, when Berkeley began
his agitation for the scheme, and 1728, when he left for America.
loo JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
enthusiasms to be treated with scant respect. It is perhaps well
to emphasize the fact that bitter ridicule was not the tone of
this company. Whiston and Woodward, Bentley and Theobald
and the Grub Street versifiers suffered harsh treatment per-
haps, but generally their weaknesses were made amusing, to
everybody but themselves. Swift's favorite phrase caught on,
vive la bagatelle. They delighted in doggerel and obscenities,
and particularly in pricking the bubble of false pretension wher-
ever it slyly started its flight above the heads of men. Gold-
smith's account of ParnelPs happy relations with the group is
worth quoting once again:
The friends, to whom, during the latter part of his life, he was
chiefly attached, were Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Jervas, and Gay.
Among these he was particularly happy, his mind was entirely at
ease, and gave a loose to every harmless folly that came uppermost.
Indeed it was a society, in which, of all others, a wise man might be
most foolish without incurring any danger of contempt. 21
That Gay contributed his share to the foolishness is evident
from some of the doggerel verses he wrote for meetings of the
Club.
An Answer
Written by Gay
Backstairs, St. James's Palace,
Past eight, Afril 14, 1714.
In a summons so large, which all clergy contains,
I must turn Dismal's convert, or part with my brains,
Should I scruple to quit the Back-stairs for your blind ones,
Or refuse your true junto for one of 22
The junto consisted of the big five, that is, Swift, Arbuthnot,
Pope, Gay, and Parnell, with Oxford as patron. No doubt
others were interested and may have attended occasionally.
Edward Harley, Oxford's son, writes in 1726 as if his intimacy
with the group were early:
Now you three are together, I often think of the lines wrote in
old times which begin,
The Doctor and Dean, Pope, Parnell, and Gay.
81 Goldsmith, The Life of Thomas Parnell, D.D. (1770), p. 24.
aa Swift, Letters, II, 417.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 101
Only poor Parnell is gone; and I regret him the less because, by
being the editor of his poems, you had an opportunity of making the
finest copy of verses, and the greatest compliment, that ever was paid
by a poet to any man. 23
The line quoted is from an invitation Swift penned to the Earl
of Oxford to attend a meeting of the Club.
Gay's friend Fortescue helped with some of the legal tech-
nicalities, notably in Stradlyng versus Stiles, and seems to have
slipped into some of their ways of thinking, if one may judge
by a letter Fortescue wrote much later to Mrs. Howard:
With this you will receive the History of the Sevarambi, which I
promised your ladyship. It is a constitution of government quite dif-
ferent from any that hath yet appeared in the world, and I think
much the best. By that only instance of making money of no use
either to the necessities or pleasure of life, what a train of evils are
at once prevented? and how happy, of course, must a people be,
where doing good, and loving their country are the only means of
esteem and preferment? 24
The Club was particularly active from February to June
of I7I4. 25 By June, dissension had broken the Tory ranks,
Oxford and Bolingbroke were at swords' points, Swift had re-
tired to Letcombe in despair, Gay was preparing to go to Han-
over with the Clarendon embassy, Pope and Parnell had drifted
back to Binfield to work on Homer. The last meeting of the
Club was on June 5, as Arbuthnot reported to Swift, 26 unless
one calls the foregathering of Pope and Parnell with Swift at
Letcombe in early July a meeting. Pope wrote to Arbuthnot
after this visit: "This is not a time for us to make others live,
when we can hardly live ourselves 5 so Scriblerus, contrary to
other maggots, must lie dead all the summer, and wait till
winter shall revive him." 27
On August i the Queen died} her Tory government col-
lapsed, so that when Pope and Parnell wrote a combination
as Pope, Works, VIII, 224-22$.
** Letters to and from Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, and her second husband, the
Hon. George Berkeley, ed. John Wilson Croker (1824), I, 202.
36 Congreve, Atterbury, Addison, Anthony Henley, are all named as members of
the Club in Spence, Anecdotes, pp. 10-11.
86 Swift, Letters, II, 151. ** PP> Works, VII, 468-
102 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
letter to Arbuthnot on September 2, nothing but the shadow
of the old glory remained:
It is a pleasure to us to recollect the satisfaction we enjoyed in
your company, when we used to meet the dean and Gay with you 5
and greatness itself condescended to look in at the door to us. Then
it was that the immortal Scriblerus smiled upon our endeavours, who
now hangs his head in an obscure corner, pining for his friends that
are scattering over the face of the earth. 28
II
The year 1714 was not a good one for Gay. The Shepherd**
Week was the only considerable poem to his credit and that,
one feels, was a delayed blossom of the previous year's inspira-
tion. He was perhaps somewhat overcome by his own social
success, and worried about the means to maintain himself in
such distinguished society. Swift, who was with him during
these months and then not again until 1726, remembered later
all too clearly his talk about his own necessities. The Duchess
of Monmouth's secretary, who had somehow maneuvered his
way to the backstairs of St. James's, might easily find himself
embarrassed. An office must be found. Later critics have appar-
ently seen reason for offence in this effort of Gay's to secure
political preferment. On the contrary, having once left the
shop for the world of letters, Gay had no further choice. The
patron's day was largely over; the politician for the time being
took his place, and could not be ignored, unless one had both
great genius and great skill in self-advertisement. Even Pope
might look sidewise at a pension, and it is hardly worth while
to rehearse the list of Augustan writers with the names of their
offices beside them. Gay's comparative lack of success seems to
have made him contemptible to some minds.
At any rate, by June, 1714, his first office was ready for
him. In their effort to play the popular double game, Harley's
government was at this time preparing a mission to Hanover
under Lord Clarendon in an effort to convince the Elector that
after all the Tories might be trusted. Clarendon was not a
88 Ibid., VII, 471. The extract is from ParnelPs section of the letter.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 103
happy choice. He had already served as governor of New
York, and had there it is said astonished the natives by ap-
pearing in state functions dressed as a woman to represent the
Queen more exactly. Gay was to be his secretary, and Parnell
another Scriblerian his chaplain. At the last moment Parnell
failed to get this post, but Gay's appointment was secure. He
wrote a proper and no doubt sincere letter of thanks to Swift,
to whom, along with Arbuthnot and Erasmus Lewis, he felt
he owed his success, and then resigned his place with the Duchess
of Monmouth. 29 Barber, Swift's printer, found him well
pleased with his promotion. 30
Before writing to Swift on June 8, Gay had already ad-
dressed an appeal for funds to Oxford j it was quite properly
from a fellow-member of the Scribkrus Club and the author of
The Shepherd's Week an Epgrammatical Petition of your
Lordship*s most humble servant, John Gay.
Pm no more to converse with the swains.
But go where fine people resort;
One can live without money on plains.
But never without it at court.
Yet if when with 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?
On June 10 he was again writing to Oxford to remind him
of his shepherd's petition and give him details of his plans, 81
Finally the money was ready, and Gay set off happy on the
fourteenth, bearing with him the 100 on his back and Swift's
budget of good advice in his pocket. 32 He was still on the
Henrietta in Margett Road on June 27, a trifle seasick and wait-
ing for fair winds. The Lady Theodosia, Clarendon's daughter,
had left them the day before. 33 Apparently eleven days were
49 Swift, Letters, II, 144. Ibid., II, 146.
81 Historical Manuscripts Commission, 'Portland MSS (1899), V, 457- See also
Arbuthnot's letter to Swift (Swift, Letters, II, 151).
89 Swift, Letters II, 149-150.
88 The Letters of Jonathan Swift to Charles Ford, ed. Nicliol Smith (Oxford,
1 935)* P* 221. I have been uaable to trace this letter.
104 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
passed on shipboard. He writes Ford from The Hague on
Tuesday, July 6, that he had arrived Sunday evening from
Rotterdam, and was not allowing diplomatic duties to interfere
with his enjoyment of the ladies. He suggests that Ford will
do well to visit Binfield and, while Pope and Parnell are busy
making a Grecian campaign, he can meet his Venus in the wood
and know her by her locks like Aeneas or Lord Petre. 34 The
party left for Hanover on July 8.
These two letters to Ford, one more dated August 7, and
a later one to Arbuthnot dated August 16, are the only letters
of Gay that survive from the time of his Hanoverian expedi-
tion. Evidently he wrote to Erasmus Lewis, 35 but Lewis's
papers were all destroyed when the crash came on August i,
and Gay's letter or letters disappeared with the rest. Arbuthnot
wrote to Swift on August 2 and mentioned that he had heard
from Gay just before the Queen's death (August i), and that
Gay had asked for copies of his own poems to be sent to Han-
over, as the Princess Caroline wanted to see them. "Is he not
a true poet, who had not one of his own books to give to the
Princess, that asked for one?" 36
The request for poems was not a laughing matter and was
repeated in a letter to Ford, dated August y. 37 Gay wanted
three or four copies of The Shepherd's Week with as many of
The Fan. He complains of the monotony of court life at Her-
renhausen, but seems well satisfied with his reception, and par-
ticularly with the kindness of the Princess and her lady-in-
waiting, the Countess of Piquebourg. The ladies probably found
his company much more agreeable than Clarendon's and flat-
tered him by supposing that he would stay on at Hanover as
English resident after Lord Clarendon's departure and also by
subscribing to Pope's Homer on his recommendation.
On August 1 6, Gay wrote a letter with the vague super-
scription "For Dr. Arbuthnot or the Dean of St. Patrick's."
This was largely an answer to Swift's letter of June 12, though
it doubtless found its way to Arbuthnot first, as Swift left for
8 */&W., pp. 221-222. 85 Swift, Letter^ II, 176.
**/*, II, 233. ^Letters of Swift to Ford, p. 222.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 05
Dublin on the day that Gay's letter was written. It consists
largely of fanciful suggestions for a manual for young diplomats
and politicians, and reminds us that Gay had not yet forgotten
the fortunes of Scriblems. 38
To be secretary to Martin, and to no one of more worldly
importance, Gay now returned to London. 39 The mission he
had served was utterly discredited by the death of the Queen,
and nothing remained of his dreams of greatness but the hope
that the Princess might remember him when she came to Eng-
land. Pope knew of his discomfiture by September 2, though
Gay had not as yet arrived in England. Three weeks later,
Pope wrote from Bath where he and Parnell were enjoying
a well-earned holiday a long letter of welcome, assuring Gay
of the genuineness of his friendship, inviting him to Bath, to
Binfield, wherever, in the most generous spirit. He is keen to
know Gay's principles, and suggests that Gay should treat his
recent employment by the Tories as a temporary aberration.
If you are a tory, or thought so by any man, I know it can pro-
ceed from nothing but your gratitude to a few people who en-
deavoured to serve you, and whose politics were never your concern.
If you are a whig, as I rather hope, and as I think your principles
and mine, as brother poets, had ever a bias to the side of liberty, I
know you will be an honest man, and an inoffensive one. Upon the
whole, I know you are incapable of being so much of either party as
to be good for nothing. 40
He is rather heavily facetious about Gay's interest in the
women, and ends his letter by recommending that Gay "write
something on the king, or prince, or princess." This suggestion
was not very striking or original. Arbuthnot had already offered
the same idea 5 only he made it more definite and possible. He
wrote to Swift, October 19, 1714:
I advised him to make a poem upon the Princess before she
came over, describing her to the English ladies; for it seems the
88 Swift, Letters, II, 218-220. It is probable that Gay wrote several letters of this
combination type from Hanover. Bolingbroke refers to one such in a letter to Swift,
dated Aug. 3: "Pope has sent me a letter from Gay: being 1 learned in geography, he
took Binfield to be the ready way from Hanover to Whitehall" (ibid., II, 214).
89 Pope to Arbuthnot, Sept. 2, 1714 (Pope, Works, VII, 472).
., VII, 415.
106 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE. WITS
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 the world, that his Muse
would not stoop to visit him. 41
Gay had no doubt been playing with the idea for some
weeks. Things looked desperate enough for him when he had
that conversation with Arbuthnot. He had refused Pope's invi-
tation, probably feeling that he must be in London to await the
arrival of the Princess. She came on October 13 and made a
pleasant impression on most people. Still the poem was not
ready, and its final appearance was due not to the suggestions
of Pope or Arbuthnot, but to the pleasantly teasing importunity
of the Princess herself.
Madam, to all your censures I submit.
And frankly own I should long since have writ:
You told me, silence would be thought a crime,
And kindly strove to teaze me into rhyme :
No more let trifling themes your Muse employ,
Nor lavish verse to paint a female toy 5
No more on plains with rural damsels sport,
But sing the glories of the British court.
One quality which still gives this poem a quiet charm is the
delightful informality with which Gay traces the various stages
in the composition. He makes the poem a record of the writer's
pains. The opening lines set the correct conversational pace;
then he varies this with a sly burlesque of the usual type of
flamboyant ode, feels the lack of pattern, reads the critics and
peruses model verses, and finally adopts Arbuthnot's notion of
describing the Princess for the English ladies. Unfortunately,
he finds his graceful compliments interrupted by the actual
arrival of the lady.
Since all my schemes were baulk'd, my last resort,
I left the Muses to frequent the Court 5
41 Swift, Letters, II, 24.7. This suggestion must have been made at least two
weeks before the date of this letter, since the Princess landed at Margate, Oct. 13,
1714-
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 107
Pensive each night, from room to room I walkM,
To one I bow'd, and with another talkM;
Enquir'd what news, or such a Lady's name,
And did the next day, and the next, the same.
Places, I found, were daily giVn away,
And yet no friendly Gazette mention'd Gay.
Presently he forgets the personal grievance and turns to
flattering epigram, praising one last time the royal family, the
security they bring with them, the far-flung fleets of Britain,
and the commerce of the Empire.
Obviously he feels the need for a pattern into which to fit
his ideas, but for our part as readers we are grateful for the
lack of plan, the verses have something of the quality of Pope's
later style, of the sermo pedestrk, and it is pleasant to know
that people liked the poem well enough to demand four separate
editions almost at once and a fifth along with The Epstle to
Burlington a year or two later. The Daily Courant for Novem-
ber 11,1714, announced the publication of the poem as A Letter
to a Lady, occasioned by the Arrival of Her Royal Highness the
Princess of Wales. Lintot paid Gay 5 js. 6d. for the copyright.
Pope sent a copy at once to Martha Blount, refusing to allow
any idealization of the dear Princess "She is very fat. God
help her husband." 42 Gay himself sent one to Caryll, whose
kind invitation to Ladyholt had necessarily been refused the
preceding June. 43
Much of Gay's time during the late months of 1714 was
evidently passed in cultivating his court acquaintance. The Prin-
cess continued kind, and she and her husband attended the first
night (February 23) of Gay's next play, The What d y ye Call
It. She had gathered about her, quite unconscious of contrasts,
a group of altogether charming and beautiful ladies-in-waiting
Molly Lepel, Madge and Mary Bellenden, Sophie Howe, Miss
Griffin, Henrietta Howard, the sage and serious Miss Meadows
and these were beginning to grow fond of Gay, and to be-
friend him when he needed their kind attentions. No places at
"Pope, Works, IX, 256. * 8 Ibid., VI, 221.
io8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Court were as yet found for him, however, as he lugubriously
confesses in a letter to Ford on December 3O. 44
At this time he was dividing his energies between social
gaiety and writing. He quotes in this letter freely from a new
poem. Trivia, then on the stocks but not to be printed for another
yean He does not mention The What d?ye CM It, though that
play was actually produced at Drury Lane on February 23,
1715. The neglect seems odd, as there are several items of literary
gossip in the letter, and one would expect him to mention the
work he had in hand. Pope, he says, has been in the country, but
will be in town this week to forward the printing of. his Homer,
already begun. 45 If the two friends collaborated on this play,
as Button's crowd insinuated, they must have done the work
rapidly. Is it not probable that some of those high flights of
poetry, solemn nonsense, which Pope had been collecting as
early as June of I7I4, 46 went into the making of this play (to
appear later in disguise in The An of Sinking in Poetry), and
that this assistance not only markedly shortened Gay's labors in
composition, but also gave rise since Gay was invariably frank
and generous about such matters to exaggerated reports of his
indebtedness? This theory would explain also the large em-
phasis in Gay's satire on the work of Philips and Addison, since
Pope was at this time tightening his belt for the squabble with
Addison and his clique over Tickell's competitive Homer. Dur-
ing the spring of 1714, moreover, while the Scriblerus Club was
holding frequent meetings and pitchforking absurdities high in
the air for laughter, Gay was working on a burlesque which, on
Pope's advice he did not at that time publish. Pope writes on
May 4 to report progress on Homer and suggests facetiously
that his own aspect has become severe from deep meditation on
high subjects, "equal to the formidable front of black-browed
Jupiter."
44 This letter may be found in the R. B. Adam Collection deposited in the library
of the University of Rochester.
"Pope was in Binfield on Oct. 26 (Pope, Works, VI, 220), planned to go to
London a week later, and spend two or three weeks "to set Homer forwards in the
press." He was still in London on Nov. 19.
49 Swift, Letters j II, 160.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS log
In a word, Y[oun]g himself has not acquired more tragic maj-
esty in his aspect by reading his own verses, than I by Homer's. In
this state I cannot consent to your publication of that ludicrous trifling
burlesque you write about. Dr. Parnell also joins me in my opinion,
that it will by no means be well to print it. 47
I emphasize the context here. As he writes. Pope is thinking
of the task he himself is most concerned with at the moment,
the translation of Homer. He knows from personal experience
how easily high seriousness may degenerate into bombast.
Young and the absurdity of some of his passion-tattered verses
drift across his mind, and then Gay's burlesque. Now if that
burlesque he writes about were The What d?ye Call It with its
ridicule not only of Young, but of Addison and Philips, there
was very good reason at that time, when Pope wanted general
support of his own great project, to deprecate publication. Later,
when Pope came up to town early in the New Year, angry
with the knowledge of the Button's plot against him, might he
not have encouraged Gay not only to publish but to produce
the farce, even have aided him by suggesting this or that passage
in well-known plays for parody? This hypothesis would account
for Gay's failure to mention his play to Ford on December 30
and for the speed with which the production was actually
whipped into shape for the Drury Lane performance. It would
also make this farce Gay's first and most distinguished contribu-
tion to the lucubrations of Martinus Scriblerus.
For there certainly was an impression & backwash in part
no doubt of the gossip about Three Hours after Marriage that
Pope helped Gay with The What d?ye Call It. The Mografhia
Dramatka states soberly: "Mr. Pope, who is suspected to have
afforded some assistance to his friend Gay in the composition
of this piece, gives the following account of its reception. . . ." 48
Gibber says something of the same sort in A Letter from Mr.
Gibber to Mr. Pofe (i74a), 49 and makes his charge more def-
inite in a statement to Spence. 60
* 7 Pope, Works, VII, 4*5-
48 BiograpMa Dramattca (1812), III, 399. This remark does not occur in earlier
editions. P *i.
50 Spence, Anecdote*, p. 348.
no JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Mr. Pope brought some of the "What d'ye call it," in his own
handwriting to Gibber, the part about the miscarriage in particular,
but not much beside. When it was read to the players, Mr. Pope
read it, though Gay was by. Gay always used to read his own plays.
After this, upon seeing a knife with the name of J. Gay upon it, Gib-
ber said; "What,, does Mr. Pope make knives too? 5 *
Of this it needs to be said that the statement was made long
after the event, that the handwriting item is introduced gen-
erally, then hastily qualified to the part about the miscarriage
and that only, and that Gay in 1715 could scarcely have been
said to have developed any "habits" in producing plays at all,
since The Wife of Bath had been his only previous experience.
The What d*ye CM It and Three Hours after Marriage were
useful to many an argument of Pope's enemies, and the more
responsible he could be made for both plays, the better they
liked it. Pope was quick to correct the authors of A Complete
Key to the last New Farce and to point out that the speech of
Peascod "When I am dead you'll bind my grave with wicker"
does not refer to a couplet in Banks's Earl of Essex, as the
pamphlet had suggested, but is really a burlesque of the passage
in Cato where the hero says of his son, "When I am dead, be
sure thou place his urn near mine." 51 Pope may well have
thought of the fun of introducing ghosts in the part about the
miscarriage 5 indeed, a passage calling for ghosts in the pre-
liminary scene has an interpolative look, but apart from minor
points of this kind and the suggested examples of bathos from
Pope's collection, the play is Gay's quite as much as anything
can be anybody's which came from this group of friends in this
highly co-operative period of composition. Tricks of style crop
up that are unmistakably his, such for example as the reversal
of substantives in the song:
Ye goblins and fairys
With frisks and vagarys . . .
a trick that he had been using about the same time absurdly
(but amusingly, be it remembered, for the verses should be
51 Pope, Works, VI, 225 n.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 1 1
read aloud and rapidly) in An Ode on the Longitude. Some of
the old phrases used for burlesque purposes in The Shepherd's
Week are made up for duty again in this play. Compare the
"O rueful day O woeful day!" in the farewell scene between
Kitty and Filbert with its counterpart in "Thursday." 62 The
same tendency to look back to Shakespeare for inspiration is
evident here, as in The Mohocks and The Wife of Bath. Here
he remembers particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream and
Othello. There is ample evidence as usual, however, of the
independent power of observation which is peculiarly Gay's, that
massing of details about country scenes, the judges at assize,
the poachers, the churchwardens, soldiers, and haymakers.
The literary satire in the play is not by any means so various
as in The Rehearsal, with which the critics were prone to com-
pare it. It was called rightly "an inoffensive and good-natured
burlesque on the absurdities in some of the tragedies then most
in favour, particularly Venice Preserved" Theobald, who along
with Griffin, the actor, wrote the Key, compares it with its
prototype with some fairness.
His Grace, with the most exquisite Judgement, has laid his Fin-
ger on the proper Subjects of Ridicule, such as, ill-contrkfd Plots,
unnatural Connections^ silly Peripetia* *s } unreasonable Machinery, aj~
fected Stile, extravagant Rants and Nonsense, and in particular the
arbitrary Pedantry of one over-grown Writer . . . But this odd-
contriv'd What d'ye call it . . . seems rather to be a Banter on the
solemn stile of Tragedy in general, than a Satyr upon faulty Passages
of our Poets.
Gay was first and foremost out to get a laugh. We cannot
suppose that he was very careful in his choice of passages from
popular tragedies j almost any passage in them which attempted
to convey tense feeling could be turned into ridicule by change
of context and a slight shift of diction. If Addison and Philips
and Dennis had been really great dramatists they would none
6 *Mr. Dane Smith gives two other parallels: the "Dear happy fields, farewell!"
passage with the closing lines of "Wednesday," and the "Bequests'* with the similar
passage in "Friday." The "happy fields" seem irreverently reminiscent of Milton.
See Smith, Plays about the Theatre in England from The Rehearsal in 1671 to the
Licensing Act in 1737 (New York, 1936), pp. 94-101.
02 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
the less have suffered along with Otway and Shakespeare. 53 As
it was s the task was easier and the laughter more raucous. Al-
though this is true in general, and supports Theobald's estimate
of the play, there are some shrewd cuts at individual weaknesses,
some clever satire particularly on mere reverence for type, such
as Dennis practiced. The ridicule was scattered so widely, and
so many highly respectable plays contributed to the fun, that
it is hard to see how any one could have been seriously offended
by it. Rowe's Jane Shore was parodied, the very play beside
which The What d*ye Call It made its first bow to the public,
but Rowe never thought of being annoyed. The laughers were
far in the majority $ a few stood out like Dennis, who, says Pope,
seemed "determined to undeceive the town at their proper cost,
by writing some critical dissertations against it." 54 And he adds
a very revealing sentence, "to encourage them in which laudable
design, it is resolved that a preface shall be prefixed to the farce
in the vindication of the nature and dignity of this new way of
writing." That is to say, Pope encouraged Gay to write a
preface which he knew would be deliberately provocative to
Dennis. The preface certainly was just that. Pope had adopted
somewhat similar tactics to draw out Dennis the preceding sum-
mer, and may have hoped for a fresh opportunity to make
Dennis ridiculous, as before in A Narrative of Dr. Robert
Norris. This time, however, Dennis refused to bite, and the
schemers had to be satisfied with minor attacks to stimulate
interest in the play, one from Thomas Burnet in The Grum-
88 Coxe notices that Gay was reading Italian at this time, and finds Kitty Carrot's
speech a burlesque imitation of a refined, though much -admired sentiment in the Pastor
Ftdo of Guarini.
Ah why does Nature give us so much cause,
To make kind-hearted damsels break the laws?
Why should hard laws kind-hearted lasses bind,
When too soft Nature draws us after kind?
Cf. Se'l peccar e si dolce
E'l non peccar si necessario, o troppo
Imperfetta natura,
Che repugna a la leggej
O troppo dura legge
Che la natura offendi.
Alto Tertzo, Scena Quarta.
Fables of John Gay, p. 67 n. ** Pope, Works, VI, 223.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 113
bier and one from Philip Horneck in The High-German
Doctor. Finally, in March or early April a more satisfactory
document appeared. The Complete Key, already referred to.
It was just the right sort of pamphlet to start talk going once
again after the first flush of excitement over the play had dis-
appeared. The preface is a vicious attack on Pope and Gay,
from some friend of Philips Pope says it was Griffin the
player an attack which, as Gay wrote to Caryll, called him
a blockhead and Pope a knave. 57 The Key itself is a serious
attempt to trace the allusions in The What d'ye Call It, and
so well informed that Burnet thought Pope must have written
it himself. 58 Theobald's hand is clear enough, however, in this
part, as Mr. R. F. Jones has shown, 69 particularly in the wide
knowledge of Shakespeare and in his comment on the "Put out
the light" passage as compared with the note in his edition of
Shakespeare. Pope says flatly in a note to his 1735 edition of
his Letters that Theobald was the author. It is strange that
Theobald should have joined a combination against Gay and
Pope at this time, since he was still on friendly terms with both.
The point which Gay found most conspicuous in his attack was
the prominence given to the ridicule of Cato.
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 en-
deavoured to show that every particular passage of the play alludes
55 The Grumbler, March 17, 1715. "Anthony Gizzard. Censures on the new farce,
entitled the What d'ye Call It." See also Pope, Works, VI, 225.
56 The High-German Doctor, with many additions and alterations (1715-1719).
57 Pope, Works, VI, 227.
88 The Grumbler, May 6, 1715: "Another obliges the World with a Key to his
own Lock, in which the Wards are all safe: Under the borrowed Shape of an Apoth-
ecary, he modestly takes an opportunity to commend the Smoothness of his own Verses,
and to publish a Sale of Six Thousand of his Books. The same Arch Wag, a little
before this, gave us a Compleat Key to his farce. I think it proper to advertize him
and his Journey-Man, to play no more Pranks of this kind 5 if they do, I have a
Master-Key now under the File, with which I shall be able to unlock all their Secrets
from the Beginning.*
68 Richard Foster Jones, Lewis Theobald (New York, 1919), p. 17.
U4 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
to some fine part of the tragedy, which he says I have injudiciously
and profanely abused. 80
Gay could scarcely have been quite ingenuous in this. The
satire on Cato is obvious enough, and Gay need scarcely have
pretended to be so innocent, unless he had caught Pope's habit
of being particularly "innocent" in all letters to Caryll. 61 He
knew that this sort of attack was the best thing that could happen
to his play, so valuable that one might even rashly imagine
that he and Pope had put the idea of the pamphlet into Theo-
bald's head and suggested to him that blind co-operation in a
scurrilous preface from some person like Griffin would lay the
scent quite properly. With or without such wily support the
play was having what must have been a surprising success on the
stage. Pope wrote to Caryll on March 3, 1715:
The farce has occasioned many different speculations in the
town. Some looked 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 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 in a very particular manner come into the jest, and the
three first 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, some few with tears $ but after the third day,
they also took the hint, and have ever since been loud in their claps. 62
Penkethman and Mrs. Bicknell were in the cast, and also
Mrs. BicknelPs sister, Miss Younger, who, says Gay, gained
much honor by the performance though she was but a parish
child.
Steele helped the play on to success quite unintentionally
by declaring that the farce should not have been acted if he had
been in town. Acted it was twenty-eight times the first two
* Pope, Works, VI, 227. 81 Ibid., VI, 222. 3 Ibid., VI, 222-223.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 15
seasons. 63 Scarcely a year passed without a revival down as late
as 1750. It was published on March 19, 17155 and passed
through six editions (two in Dublin) during the author's life-
time. Gay made a hundred pounds out of the farce. 64 The
influence of The What d*ye CM It was marked^ particularly in
its reduction of the old hard-set genres to absurdity. "Oh fie!"
says a character in Henry Fielding's The Welsh Opera: or the
Grey Mare the better Horse ( 1 73 1 ) ?
Oh fie, you might as well say that Smiles are not proper to
Tragedy There is your Tragical Jealousy, and Comical Jealousy;
your Tragical Jealousy is between Kings and Heroes; your Comical
between Gentlemen and Servants; your Tragical produces its effect
before it is discover'd; your Comical is discovered before its effect;
and as in Tragedy all dye, so in Comedy all are married.
By 1740, or thereabouts, Gay was looked upon as the creator
of a new type of play, a type which on the surface seemed only
intended to amuse, but, as Gay had said in his Eplogue:
There's a Meaning in it, and no Doubt
You all have Sense enough to find it out.
The author of The Kapelion> or Poetical Ordinary, consisting
of Great Variety of Dishes in Prose and Verse (p. 9) talks of
the beginning of this degeneration of the old fixed types, the
mixture first of tragicomedy:
Now, as this strange Mixture of sweet and sower, took with the
general Palate, those, whose Business it was to please the Publick,
seiVd upon first one, and then another Species of Writing, and dap'd
them together; and on the Addition of ev'ry new Ingredient, a new
Name was tack'd on, and the Whole was look'd upon as new also;
and in this Manner, great Numbers of hasty Pud&igs were srir'd
up; 'till the celebrated Mr. Gay took all he could lay his Hands on,
and having mess'd them together in an Olla y Hodgepodge ', or what
do ye call it; served it up as an entire new Dish, and as such, it was
received accordingly.
Not only the general idea was copied, but details of the
burlesque were appropriated without shame. Joseph Reed, the
cs Mrs. Flora Livingston's unpublished bibliography at the Harvard Library snow*
thirty-two benefit performances in all. ** Pope> Works, VI, 223.
n6 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
author of one of these mock-tragedies. Madrigal and Trulletta
(1758)5 at least gives Gay full credit in his note on the necessity
for a ghost in a tragedy.
I beg leave to recommend the authority of no less ingenious and
judicious a writer, than Mr. John Gay> of facetious memory, who in
his Wht d*ye call it s puts into the mouth of the sagacious Sir Roger
this conclusive argument, on the necessity of ghosts in dramatic ex-
hibitions, viz. A flay without a ghost is like is like egad it is like
nothing, (p. 31)
Somewhat later than this, at a time when there was good
reason to inquire into the habits of audience and managers, there
appeared additional evidence of the play's popularity in Three
Original Letters to a Friend in the Country, on the Cause and
Manner of the late Riot at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane
(1763). This reviews the condition and usage of the theatre
forty years earlier, the entertainments, the salaries and factors,
the rights of the audience, and so on. In Letter III the writer
remarks:
Plays were then acted without farces, or any kind of additional
entertainment they had but two well-worn farces, Farquahar's
stage coach and Gay's what d'ye call it and no singers or dancers
but miss Sandow, afterwards Mrs Booth, who sometimes entertained
the audience with a single dance, at the end of a comedy, when she
performed one of the ladies in it.
It is clear that Gay had no reason to complain about the
popularity of this play, his first big theatrical success. 65 Not
least among the attractions in it was the beautiful ballad begin-
ning, a> Twas when the seas were roaring/ 5 with music said to
have been written by HandeL It was sung and printed and
quoted and parodied down through the years. 66 Four lines
* s It Is hard to explain the reference to the farce in Gulliver Decypher^d: or Re*
marks On. at late Book, entitled . . . Vindicating The Reverend Dean on whom it is
maticiottsly lathed (1728), pp. 44-45. "The Reason of this is, that there are more
Fools than People of Judgment in the World j therefore a famous Poet was certainly
in the right, when giving an Account why his What~d?ye call it was hiss'd off the
Stage, D them> said he, they have not Wit enough to take it; for really the
Farce was allow'd to be a very uncommon Performance."
t Catalogued with other broadsides, Douce Ballads 4, in Bodleian Library, there is
A New Song. To the Tune of, Twas when the Sea* were Roaring."
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 1 7
from it found a pedantic niche in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary to
illustrate the word motion, and then were transcribed, mis r
quoted, and assigned to Gray in Webster's the lines:
Cease, cease, thou cruel ocean,
And let my lover rest:
Ah! what's thy troubled motion
To that within my breast? 67
One of the earliest detached printings of the ballad was in the
second edition of Pope's 1717 Miscellany; here it finds a place
beside Richy and Sandy, a Pastoral on the Death of Mr. Joseph-
Addison, by another great writer of songs, Allan Ramsay, whom
Gay was presently to know better. One would like to know
what authority Cowper had for his statement in a letter to the
Reverend W. Unwin ? August 4, 1783.
What can be prettier than Gay's ballad, or rather Swift's, Arfauth-
not's, Pope's and Gay's, in the What d*ye Call It - 'Twas when
the seas were roaring'? I have been well informed that they all con-
tributed, and that the most celebrated association of clever fellows
this country ever saw did not think it beneath them to unite their
strength and abilities in the composition of a song. 68
Cowper was obviously careless about some particulars in this
account. There is no shred of evidence that Swift or Arbuthnot
had anything to do with play or ballad. Swift in any case had
been in Ireland for months before it appeared. Pope of course
may have helped. It was not the first or the last time that
such a conjunction produced a ballad but not such a ballad. 60
For one thing remains certain as a standard of judgment in
the welter of uncertainties about many poems produced by this
group: Gay was the only one among them who possessed any
considerable lyrical gift. That power is shown at its best in this
particular poem, and there is no need to rob Gay of credit for
the beautiful verses.
* 7 Notes and Queries,, 4th Series, IX, 482 (June 15, 1872).
68 The Correspondence of William Cowper, ed. Thomas Wright (1904), II, 92.
"Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. Moy Thomas (iS6i),
I, 506. Letter to the Countess of Mar (May or June, 1727): "Doctor Swift and
Johnny Gay are at Pope's and their conjunction has produced a ballad."
n8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Some hints of Gay's doings in London during the spring of
1715 can be found in his letters to Caryll and Parnell, and in
Pope's letters to Jervas. Gay wrote a particularly entertaining
letter to Caryll in April. 70 His pky was largely off his mind,
and the hundred pounds comfortably in his pocket. He was
visiting among the aristocrats with Pope, or enjoying the society
of his eccentric friends at Will's.
There is a grand revolution at Will's Coffee-house. Morrice has
quitted for a coffee-house in the City, and TItcombe is restored, to
the great joy of Cromwell, who was at a great loss for a person to
converse with upon the Fathers and Church History. The knowledge
I gain from him is entirely in painting and poetry; and Mr. Pope
owes all his skill in astronomy, and particularly in the revolution of
eclipses, to him and Mr. Whiston, so celebrated of kte for his dis-
covery of the longitude in an extraordinary copy of verses which you
heard when you were last in town.
Various items follow about the production of Rowe's pky,
Lady Jane Grey, the delay in printing Homer, the attack on
The What d'ye Call It, Garth's new poem, CUremont, on New-
castle's house, and Lord Peterborough's banishment from court.
Gay tells Caryll that Pope and he are planning a visit to Lady-
holt, Pope to work on Homer and he to enjoy himself.
For my part, who do not deal in heroes or ravished ladies, I
may perhaps celebrate a milk-maid, describe the amours of your par-
son's daughter, or write an elegy upon the death of a hare; but my
articles are quite the reverse of his, that you will interrupt me every
morning, or ten to one I shall be first troublesome and interrupt you.
Suggestions about the visit recur, but the friends did not
get together at Ladyholt that summer, partly because Caryll
himself was moving around a good deal, and partly because
Pope felt the pressure of his translation heavy upon him and
70 Pope, Worksj VI, 226. Will's coffeehouse was on the northwest corner of
Russell St and Bow St., Covent Garden. "It included the two adjoining houses, one
in each street The old house, No. 21 Russell Street, still standing in 1885, is no
doubt one of the original buildings." See Lawrence Mutton, Literary Landmarks of
London (1885), p. 7.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 19
retired to Binfield to work early in June without Gay. 71 Appar-
ently Gay planned at first to go with him. The letter from
Pope to Caryll just referred to suggests such an arrangement,
and the verses which Pope left in Gay's hands when he left
town, A Farewell to London, give the same idea.
Adieu to all but Gay alone,
Whose soul, sincere and free,
Loves all mankind, but flatters none,
And so may starve with me.
These lines also hint at another preoccupation of Gay's
mind during these months. The court had smiled upon him.
The Princess had liked his verses - y she had patronized his play 5
he was a favorite with her ladies. After the success of The What
d'ye Call It, he had expected. Pope says, a present from the
Princess. 72 He wrote to Parnell on March 1 8 : "I have no place
at court 5 therefore, that I may not entirely be without one
everywhere, show that I have a place in your remembrance." 73
The young men of Button's Club under Addison's super-
vision, Budgell, Philips, Tickell, Welsted, and the rest, were
well supplied with offices. One would have expected that with
Gay's popularity and social graces, and his interest with the
Princess and her household, he might easily have found an
opening, especially when the whole establishment was being
reshifted. The months rolled by, and yet no friendly Gazette
mentioned Gay. There was obviously a powerful enemy, and
that enemy may very well have been Addison. Enemy is too
strong a word to use herej lack of interest or merely hinting a
fault would be just as disastrous as active hostility. Addison
was not amused by some of the performances in which Gay had
recently had a part. He had never really liked him, though
for Budgell's sake he may have pretended. 74 Report, as I have
mentioned, said that Gay had had something to do with that
pretty epigram Ufon a Tory Lady who shed her Water at
Oy and Addison may have believed it. In any case, the ridi-
n Pope, Works, VI, 229. 7a Ibid., VI, 225. T * /Aa/., VII, 455-
T * Addison was in April, 1715, sitting for bis picture to Jervas, and Gay and Pope
would certainly meet him there, and elsewhere (ibid*) VI, 226),
120 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
cule of C&to in The What d'ye CM It was bound to distress
him, Philips's story about Gay and Pope joining the Swift
clique the year before to write against the Whigs should have
been forgotten but probably was not. Addison, we must remem-
ber ? had his old secretaryship back again, and his word had
weight. Warton 5 s story about his late apology probably refers
to this critical time in Gay's history. 75
I was informed by Mr. Spence, that Addison, in his last illness,
sent to desire to speak with Mr. Gay, and told him he had much
injured him; probably with respect to his gaining some appointment
from the court: but, said he, if I recover, I will endeavor to recom-
pense you.
Gay got no post for several years. One might expect his
name to be mentioned as a possible successor to Tate in the
laureateship, but I find no reference. Dennis was mentioned.
Mist's Weekly Journal for August 13, 1715, has a curious note
on the subject:
One cannot without Mirth watch and observe the Motions of
those crafty Adversaries of all good Men the Whigs; no sooner had
Mr. Tate our Poet Laureate breath' d his last, but they greedy to get
that flourishing Crown firmly fix'd upon the Head of a Creature
of their own kidney, that was sadly witty, and dreading, least the
famous Poetical 'Squire William Ellis should stand Candidate, and
prove too powerful a Rival, for any of the Farce-writers, publishing
Compilers, Sonneteers, Madrigal-Men, and Political Rhymers at
Euttorfsy had given out the Cue among all the Newsmongers of their
Party, who are proud of being reckoned in the Secret and accomplices
in the Plot, to make very sanguine Reports of the sudden Decease of
the above mentioned Member of Parnassus. Accordingly, these in-
feriour Brothers of the Qufl, who generally deal in single Pieces of
Copper, for their dismal and fotteous Writings, were put in fee Im-
mediately, to describe his Barbarous and Bloody Murther; but to put
the Whigs out of all Fear that he opposed their Interest, he hath in
several Places declared, that he withdrew his pretensions of Merit,
for some certain Scruples of Conscience^ which he intends to keep
secret to himself.
TK Joseph Walton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (5th ed., 1806),
II, 246 a.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 2 1
In the meantime Gay was working hard over Trivia, and
possibly over another project designed to support Pope in this
difficult time. 76 Pope's Homer had appeared finally on June 8 ?
closely trailed by TickelPs version. Pope and Gay and many
others thought that Addison had helped Tickell with his transla-
tion. The whole town talked. Not even the report of the Com-
mittee of Inquiry in Parliament or the beginnings of impeach-
ment proceedings against the old ministers could compete in
interest. An extract from Mist's Weekly Journal for June 4,
1715, will give some notion of the spirit in which the poem was
received.
The Discourse at present among the Learned, is upon the Pub-
lication of the first Volume o Homer y done by the most Ingenious
Mr. Pope, who has already given us as many Testimonies as he has
written Poems, that he alone is equal to so great an Undertaking;
and this Pleasure is heightened by a Consideration, that those Enemies
of Wit who would get a Name by finding Fault with any Perfection
that they cannot attain to, are like to meet with as much Discourage-
ment as Mr. Pope will with Honour and Applause: We are however
advised from Button's, That as their Party have engrossed to them-
selves the whole Art of Politicks, so they will now advance with
Vigour, and will continue to make violent Incursions into all the
Provinces of Literature, till they have laid waste all good Sense as
well as Honesty. But as the Fort of Homer is the first Place they set
upon, and seems impregnable by Art and Nature, 'tis believ'd the
Siege will be razed, and the Besiegers quit with Shame, so heedless
a Project, and so unpromising an Undertaking.
Gay was fully aware of the moves and countermoves made in
this disreputable literary warfare; he may have done more
skirmishing himself than we realize. TickelPs preface in -par-
ticular seemed to Gay and his friends an attempt to cover a
discreditable action with the veneer of good manners. Fortescue
suggested that Gay publish a version of the first book of the
Odyssey, and tell the world it was only to bespeak their appro-
bation and favor for a translation of Statius, or any other poet. 77
Someone did just that, with improvements. There presently
76 Pope, Works, VIII, 12. /&*., VIII, 13.
122 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
appeared Homer in a Nut-Shell: or, the Iliad of Homer in
Immortal Doggrel. By Nickydemus Ninnyhammer, F. G. This
was dedicated to the ghost of Gilbert Burnet, and contains
plentiful jibes at the coxcomb wits at Button's, but the section
addressed To the Reader concerns us:
This is to certify to all whom it may concern, that I had a Mag-
got come into my Head sometime ago to Translate all Homer's
Works, but had the Pleasure of being Mortified, by finding the Iliad
so incomparably done by Mr. Pope, and the Odysseis design'd to be
infinitely better Translated by Mr. Tickett, alias Jo. Addison. I
would not therefore be thought to endeavour to prejudice Mr. Pope,
or to have any other View in publishing this small Specimen of
Homer's Iliad, than to bespeak, if -possible, the Favour of the Publick
to a Translation of Homer's Batrachomuomachia to the Tune of
Chivy -Chase, so justly applauded by the Spectator: As also the
Hymns of that venerable Bard, in the Divine Style of Stemhold and
Hopkins, Quarles and Withers, wherein I have already made some
considerable Progress. Opus diu multumque desideratum.
This is an amusing parody of Tickell's preface, quite in
Gay's manner. There is no direct evidence of his authorship,
but it is worth while, I think, to call attention to the way this
passage reflects the growing dislike of Addison shared by Pope
and Gay, and the irritation with Burnet, and especially with
the younger Burnet, who had just been bespattering The What
d y ye Call It with hostile criticism. One might add that Gay was
again and again quick to come to the aid of friends in literary
squabbles, and moreover that he knew that Parnell was actually
engaged on a translation of the Batrachomyomachia.
By the time this business was over, Gay was ready for some
relaxation. He spent a week-end towards the end of June at
Lady Bolingbroke's place, Buddebury in Berkshire, and saw
Pope at Binfield for a few days on the way. Gay had time to
give Pope all the London gossip about his translation, and when
he returned to London made that also the subject of a letter
which he sent to Pope on July 8.
I have just set down Sir Samuel Garth at the opera. He bid me
tell you that everybody is pleased with your translation, but a few at
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 23
Button's; and that Sir Richard Steele told him, that Mr. Addison
said Tickell's translation was the best that ever was in any language.
He treated me with extreme civility, and out of kindness gave me a
squeeze by the forefinger. I am informed that at Button's your
character is made very free with as to morals, &c., and Mr. A[ddi-
son] says, that your translation and Tickell's are both very well done,
but that the latter has more of Homer. 78
The friends were now giving up their plans to visit Lady-
holt, and instead were organizing a party to ride together
to Bath and Devonshire. 79 Dr. Arbuthnot, "Duke" Disney,
Jervas, and Fortescue were all planning to go. But things
turned out ill. "Jervas has ladies to paint, and Duke Disney
must visit a bishop, in hopes of his conversion." 80 Pope finally
got most of his party together and set out for Bath on August 1 8.
In the meantime Gay and Fortescue had grown weary of
the delay and set off for Exeter with one other person only
in the party, probably Fortescue's servant. This was the famous
visit to Devonshire made possible by the generosity of Lord
Burlington, for which Gay wrote the delightful "thank you"
letter, An Epistle to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bur-
lington. A Journey to Exeter. Horace is here his model, and
the verses give charming little etchings of things seen and ex-
perienced on the long ride down. The village of Stockbridge
mourns over the new Septennial Act. 81
Sad melancholy ev'ry visage wears;
What, no Election come in seven long years!
Of all our race of Mayors, shall Snow alone
Be by Sir Richard's dedication known?
Our streets no more with tides of ale shall float,
Nor coblers feast three years upon one vote.
The sheep out here in the country seem little like the sheep
that have been filling his pastoral dreams. The cathedral at
Salisbury gets less attention than the boarding school well-
"/&*., vii, 4.17. w /w., viii, 18. 80 /**f., ix, 259.
81 Richard Steele, The Importance of Dunkirk Considered. . . . In a Letter to the
Bailiff of Stockbridge (1713). Stockbridge Had seventy voters, usually priced -at 60
each. See Preface to A Walk from St. James's to Covent Garden
124 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
stocked with misses. The Roman road, the lobster-dinner at
Morcombe, the laundry and shaving operations at Axminster,
the rain storm that made the roads smoke, all these details of
the journey come clear in the imagination and prepare us for
the appearance of Trivia. He finds an inn with a scribbled verse
for motto, and reflects how much better it would be if every
poet could know his own genius 5 then many a Philips^ and a
Moore 5 and a Blackmore would confine himself to inn-signs. 82
Gay's poem was moderately popular. It inspired the author
of Scarborough^ a Poem in Imitation of Mr. Gay's Journey to
Exeter (i732), 83 and was at least remembered by the dis-
reputable author of Mac-Dermot; or y The Irish Fortune
Hunter (1719).
O Tliou who whilom didst from London ride
To that fam'd Town which Isccfs Waves divide,
On thy proud Steed, inspiVd with sacred Rage,
In deathless Rhymes describing ev'ry Stage 5
Thine be the Task, in the same lofty Strain,
To bring Mac-Dermot o'er St. Georges Main,
To tell th* Adventures of his tedious Route,
And how from Holy Head he trudg'd on Foot;
My Muse his Wishes with Success to crown,
Concludes his Toil, and fixes him in Town. 84
Gay's poem was written in the year of the actual journey,
17155 and doubtless performed its social function with sufficient
elegance in manuscript that year. It was printed after Decem-
ber 22 j 1715, and probably in March, 1716, along with the fifth
edition of the poem to Caroline, A Letter to a Lady. 85
8S A Journey to Exeter waM reprinted in the English Illustrated Magazine , Vol. IV
(April, May, June, 1887) w ^h sketches by Hugh Thomson. These sketches were used
by Austin Dobson in his edition of the poem in 1894.
88 The Scarborough Miscellany For the Year 1732 (zd ed., 1734), p. i.
84 Pope, Works, VI, 233. It may be well to add the usual reminder about the
difficulties of travel in the early eighteenth century. Lady Cowper notes in her Diary
(1864 ed., p. 30): "Lady Essex Robartes came in the Evening to take her Leave of
me, she being to begin her Cornish Journey tomorrow Morning, which she will be
about twelve Days in performing. She undertakes it with great Fear."
See p. 142, below. The Lintot account-book records under Dec. 22, 1715, the
payment to Gay of 43 for the copyright of Trivia and 10 15*. for copyright of An
Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, Lintot usually paid promptly a few days before
publication. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, VIII, 296.
THE GREAT SCR1BLERUS 1 25
Further particulars about this journey to Devonshire are
unknown. Gay doubtless visited Fortescue for a time at Buck-
land Filleigh near Barnstaple. He may have gone to Barn-
staple, and he may later have joined Pope and Arbuthnot at
Bath, and accompanied them on the return trip a few days
earlier than October n. The only references to the journey
apart from the poem appear in a letter Gay wrote to Pamell
shortly after the publication of Trivia, January 263 1716. Gay
tells his long-neglected friend that he has been in Devonshire
the preceding summer and has spent the winter in town at his
usual lodgings with Mrs. Bonyer. All he remembers about the
journey is that he busied himself with writing Trivia, gather-
ing mushrooms, which poisoned him, and making love to the
country girls 5 whom at least for the sake of epigram he pre-
fers to the court ladies.
I was last summer in Devonshire, and am this winter at Mrs.
Bonyer's. In the summer I wrote a poem, and in the winter I have
published it, which I have sent to you by Dr. Ellwood. In the sum-
mer I ate two dishes of toadstools, of my own gathering, instead of
mushrooms; and in the winter I have been sick with wine, as I am
at this time, blessed be God for it! as I must bless God for all things.
In the summer I spoke truth to damsels; in the winter I told lies to
ladies. Now you know where I have been, and what I have done. 86
This letter was part of a club-affair which a batch of friends
Gay, Jervas, Arbuthnot, and Pope dining at a chophouse in
Cornhill were getting ready for the edification of Parnell as
part of the genial after-effect of a good dinner and wine. The
letter was addressed almost as much to Swift as to Parnell, as
all of the friends sent messages to him and longed for his com-
pany. Jervas was already planning to visit Ireland that summer.
Arbuthnot remarked that nothing was wanting "to complete
our happiness but your company, and our dear friend the
dean's. . . . Our love again and again to the dear dean; fainrns
tones; I can say no more." This party on Cornhill may have
been an informal celebration of the success of Trkm. Gay had
just got his money from Lintot, and was on his way to the
86 Pope, Works, VII, 458.
126 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Bank to negotiate some exchange bills. He was particularly
eager that his new poem should please the Dean.
This work had been in process of composition for over a
year, and the final publication was probably somewhat delayed
by the anxiety of Gay and his friends to pile up as large a
subscription list as possible, an effort which was highly successful.
Pope writes to Caryll, January I0 5 1716:
To answer your remaining queries, Mr. Plowden's book is in my
custody, Gay's poem just on the brink of the press, to which we have
had the interest to procure him subscriptions of a guinea a book to a
pretty tolerable number. I believe it may be worth 150 to him in
the whole. 87
Arbuthnot says that "Gay has got so much money by his
Art of Walking the Streets, that he is ready to set up his
equipage." Addison was still friendly enough to subscribe for
ten volumes. An undated letter from Gay to Addison has re-
cently turned up in the Tickell Papers. It belongs to this time,
and must be quoted entire:
I have sent you only two Copys of my Poems though by your
Subscription you are entitled to ten, whatever Books you want more
Tonson or Lin tot upon your sending will deliver.
I cannot neglect this Occasion of returning you my thanks for
the Benefits you have done me & I beg you to believe that I have such
a just sense of them, if you even could think of doing more for me,
you could not ingage me further to you, for 'tis impossible to owe you
more Love & Gratitude than I do already. 88
The support which Addison gave to Gay's project at this
time may seem to contradict what has been already said about
the relations between the two men. For reasons which we can-
not enter into here, there had been a change of attitude in the
course of that winter, and Addison was trying to conciliate
Pope and his friends. 89 Burnet wrote to Duckett that "Addison
and the rest of the Rhiming Gang have dropt their Resentment
** Ibid., VI, 237.
88 Richard Eustace Tickell, Thomas Tickell and the Eighteenth Century Poets
(x68$~i"?4o) (London, 1931), p. 77.
** See SBerbuni, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, p. 177.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 127
against the Lordlike Man?* In any case, a gift of ten pounds
is just about what Addison's conscious rectitude would produce
if he remembered earlier neglect of Gay.
Trivia was first published in an octavo volume of ninety-six
pages, on January 26, 1716. Bernard Lintot was responsible
for the issue, and the price was one-and-six-pence, though some
special large-paper copies were sold by subscription at one
guinea. This edition did not contain the Cloacina incident, which
appeared first in the collected edition of Gay's Poems published
in 1720. Trivia is without question the greatest poem on Lon-
don life in English literature. It is not, perhaps, of epic length,
but is sufficiently long to mention or describe at least sixty ways
of earning a living, and more than thirty-five separate localities.
It is full of the most varied and interesting detail. And, in
addition, it shows real architectonic ability in the persistent suc-
cess with which the framework of classical burlesque is handled*
The poem is divided into three parts: the first describes the
implements for walking the streets and the signs of the weather ^
the second tells of walking the streets by dayj and the third|
of walking the streets by night. The burlesque of the classi-
cal formulas is elaborately conceived and amusingly carried
through 5 none of it is by any means stupid, though Warton
disliked the Cloacina episode and blamed Swift's muddy mind
for that suggestion. Not arms and the man, but streets and
crowds are to be sung. Not the Muse, but Trivia, the Goddess
of the Three Roads, will aid; and the poet shows the proper
enthusiasm for his task, even though vulgar minds may con-
sider it very much of a middle flight that he intends to soar.
Each book begins with the expected compliments, and the
peroration at the end is humorously magnificent. There are,
besides, some fifteen parodies of the classical simile, several of
which have the true Vergilian ring. Moreover, the main business
of the poem is interrupted by two episodes, one describing the
invention of the patten, the other, the introduction of the boot-
black to London streets. The latter should not really be styled
80 The Letters of Thomas Burnet to George Ducket f 1712-1722, ed. Niclioi Smith
(1914), p. 99.
128 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
an interruption at all, for after an extremely short visit to
"Jove's eternal throne/ 3 we continue our wanderings about the
streets 5 and, though we may not like the company of the dirty
goddess with her fantastic decorations scatalogical, we may be
sure that she is by no means so conspicuous among her earthborn
sisters as we might fear. 91
The poem was received with acclaim. A second edition ap-
peared in the same year and a third in 1730. A pirated edition
was published before 1720 by Mrs. Newcomb, and a Dublin
edition in 1727, five in all during the author's lifetime and
many more since down to the handsome recent printing, edited
by W. H. Williams. 02
Once again Gay had scored a success with a new scheme.
The classical pattern once again kept him steady. His sure
chance of success seemed to lie in the filling in of a known
design with materials that his eye had seen. Gay took his
pattern from the Georgics, but many of the hints for the sub-
jects actually treated come from three other Latin poems,
Juvenal's third satire, Persius* fifth, and Horace's fifth satire
in Book I. The first of these is unquestionably the most im-
portant. John Oldham had recognized its possibilities for mod-
ern adaptation back in 1682, and after Gay's time Samuel John-
son made his poetical debut with a poem inspired by the same
great original. Juvenal wrote about conditions which on the
surface may appear tied to time and place, but which beneath
the surface have a large universality as steady as nature herself.
For that reason we read his poem still with imaginative sym-
pathy and allow our minds to range freely for modern varia-
tions on the old themes. Human nature is before us, and the
idea of progress retreats to its proper corner. Immigration, race
mixture, graft, the crime wave all find a place, and a thousand
and one other topics relevant to city life in all times. The con-
trasts of wealth and poverty, typical characters from all classes
91 1 quote here a paragraph from my earlier book, John Gay's London, Illustrated
jr&m the Poetry of the Time (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), p. 150, where the reader may
nd a more detailed study of Trivia and its influence on English poetry.
ts See sMd., pp. 419-421.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 29
of society, minor details about the inconveniences and dangers
of life in a great city are suggested with a vivid picturesqueness
that touches the secret springs of imagination and brings to life
Rome as it was in those long-past years. One feels as if digging
in the graves of buried civilizations, so close does one get to the
very bodies of the people.
Gay no doubt felt the power of this poem. At any rate
he managed to do for London and social conditions there in the
early eighteenth century very much what Juvenal had done
for Rome, and his poem reflects a similar enthusiasm for that
special kind of poetical description. He lacks the reforming
spirit of Juvenal, and his satiric temper what there is of it
is closer to Horace than to the great pulpit-thumping poet of
the early empire. For instance, Juvenal, like Persius, had
brought the rake within the scope of his satire as combining
the characteristics of several noisome varieties, among them
libertine, bully, fop, and bore. The account which Juvenal gives
of him is often supposed to be exaggerated, but, as M. Widal
has pointed out, the poet is everywhere supported by the his-
torians and merely makes the dry facts of the chronicles vivid
in our minds. 93 Juvenal shows exquisite genius particularly in
placing this full-fed scion of the wealthy beside the poor wretch
he is bullying on the street, and making him talk about food.
The pitiful injustice of the whole thing comes out with amazing
clearness. The wolf addresses the lamb. There is no redress*
Justice tips the scale with gold, and a jest on your rags. The
extraordinary force of this indictment on society is but height-
ened by the complete absence of bitterness. Gay ? s treatment of
the rake is entirely different and from a biographer's point of
view particularly interesting. It does not in the least suggest
that the author of Trivia was a milksop. The lapdog type of
man does not thrust the bully into the kennel so energetically.
But when the bully, with assuming pace,
Cocks his broad hat, edg'd round with tarnished lace,
Yield not the way; defie his strutting pride,
8 Atiguste Widal, Juvenal et ses satires (id ecL, Paris, 1870), chap. ii.
130 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
And thrust him to the muddy kennel's side;
He never turns again, nor dares oppose,
But mutters coward curses as he goes. 94
And when Gay reminds his readers of the furor over the
Mohocks of 1712, he adopts a tone that absolutely refuses to
be serious.
Now is the time that rakes their re veils keep;
Kindlers of riot, enemies of sleep.
His scattered pence the flying Nicker flings,
And with the copper show'r the casement rings.
Who has not heard the Scourer's midnight fame?
Who has not trembled at the Mohoc&'s name?
Was there a watchman took his hourly rounds,
Safe from their blows, or new-invented wounds?
I pass their desp'rate deeds, and mischiefs done
Where from Snow-hill black steepy torrents run;
How matrons, hoop'd within the hogshead's womb,
Were tumbled furious thence, the rolling tomb
O'er the stones thunders, bounds from side to side.
So Regulus to save his country dy'd. 95
We have already noticed Gay's use of Horace's Journey to
Brundisium as a model for his Epistle to the Earl of Burlington.
Trivia also is colored in the quality of its images by this well-
known poem. Of course the "Wanderer" is a familiar type in
every literature. His lyrical outpourings do not concern us
here, but we must notice him when he descends from his airy
nothings to tell us about commonplace journeys from town to
town, the things seen and the accidents worth recording. In
English literature there is a vast amount of verse that may be
grouped under this caption "Journeys." Some of it is of the
street-ballad variety, the kind of verses for which Gay always
had a decided weakness. It may be of as high an antiquity as
London Lickpenny or as late as some of the verses in Pills to
Purge Melancholy. But verses of this crude sort probably had
little enough influence on Gay. Many of the late seventeenth-
and early eighteenth-century "Journey" poems trace their an-
** The Poetical Warfa e/ John Gay, p. 66. ** lbi&. 3 p. 85.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 1 3 1
cestry back only as far as Hudibras, but the followers of Hudi-
bras bestride a foundered Pegasus, and Gay shows little interest.
Equipt for journey, mounted on a steed,
That sprung (I guess) from Hudibras's breed;
A foundered Pegasus, as e're was rid;
As old and blind as ever man bestrid.
Some baker's drudge he'd been for many years;
And like his master too, had lost his ears. 96
Ned Ward had ridden this broken-down steed to exhaustion.
His Vade Mecum for Mahworms appeared before Trivia, and
was, like Gay's poem, cast in the form of a journey. It turns
out to be, though, not much more than a catalogue, in The
Search after Claret style, of the alehouses of the town, with
comments on each often of an interesting character. One won-
ders sometimes how even a hardened sinner could get a third
of the way on such a pilgrimage, and again how much the
Grub Street writer was paid for some of his very valuable
advertisements.
Certainly many a poet major and minor before Gay had
attempted to recreate in his verses the life of the London
streets. Society, like its fine ladies, was growing increasingly
fond of the mirror. It was amused and flattered sometimes even
by distortions. It was intellectually keen enough to be critical,
but not sufficiently virile to be creative in the romantically
exaggerated sense of that word. Let us know the men about
us. Let us find in your verses the town, the clubs, the streets,
the taverns, the amusement places. Pastorals, lyrics, epics may
be clever, charming, even profound, but for the most part get
down to the pavement on which our heels grind. Gay knew
this to be the spirit of the age and he was willing enough to
cater to it.
Apart from one circumstance his Trivia is decidedly an
original. That one thing was the fact that Swift had a few
years before in The Tatler published two brief poems in exactly
the same manner, Morning and A Description of a City Shower.
99 A Trip lately to Scotland, tvilh a true Character of the Country and Peopla
(1705).
132 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Gay acknowledged the value of the hint in his Advertisement
to Trivia with his usual candor. He caught without apparent
effort the peculiar quality of Swift's description, added the
framework of burlesque classicism, and extended the scope of
his poem to cover innumerable aspects of city life. In this ex-
tension of the idea his resources were his own powers of observa-
tion, his own love of the streets, and his memory for the things
that had actually happened to him there. The Thames was
actually frozen over that very winter for seven long weeks, not
for three months as in the great frost of 1710 that Gay recalls.
O roving Muse, recal that wond'rous year,
When winter reign 5 d in bleak Britannia?* air;
When hoary Thames, with frosted oziers crown'd,
Was three long moons in icy fetters bound.
The waterman, forlorn along the shore,
Pensive reclines upon his useless oar,
Sees harness' d steeds desert the stony town,
And wander roads unstable, not their own:
Wheels o'er the hardened waters smoothly glide,
And rase with whiten'd tracks the slipp'ry tide.
Here the fat cook piles high the blazing fire,
And scarce the spit can turn the steer entire.
Booths sudden hide the Thames, long streets appear,
And numerous games proclaim the crouded fair.
So when a gen'ral bids the martial train
Spread their encampment o'er the spacious plain;
Thick-rising tents a canvas city build.
And the loud dice resound thro' all the field.
The soldiers, too, Gay had seen, and the tent-pegs driven
home, as the regiments made camp in Hyde Park when the
town feared the Jacobite insurrection. The temptation is strong
to go through the poem in this fashion illustrating the sort of
material around which Gay let his imagination play. One can
turn over the sheets of any newspaper of the time and find
incidents and scenes directly parallel to Gay's descriptions, soon
losing oneself in the fascinations of social history. His advice
to repel idle superstition from the mind, and his long list of
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 133
credulities current, was no mere talk. People stiU feared occult
influences, and in their minds God's judgments bore little rela-
tion to natural law. In her Diary Lady Cowper describes vividly
the effect that the appearance of a comet on the night of
March 6, 1716, had on the vulgar.
Both Parties turned it on their Enemies. The Whigs said it was
God's Judgment on the horrid Rebellion, and the Tories said that it
came for the Whigs taking off the two Lords that were executed.
I could hardly make my Chairmen come Home with me, they were
so frightened, and I was forced to let my Glass down, and preach to
them as I went along, to comfort them. I'm sure Anybody that had
overheard the Dialogue would have laughed heartily. All the People
were drawn out into the Streets, which were so full One could hardly
pass, and all frighted to death* 97
Gay knew well the temper of the people, the cruelties of
the carmen, the insolence of liveried servants, the brutality of
the common crowd at Tyburn and at the pillory. The Weekly
Journal for July 15, 1721, recorded a particularly horrid exam-
ple of the sadistic cruelty of the mob, when "Barbara Spencer,
the Woman who was burnt, was struck down by a Stone in the
midst of her Prayers' 5 5 and another case noted in the same
journal, that of a man pelted so badly on the pillory that he
died, would be equally revolting, if there were not a suspicion
that the man had died from the effects of a pint and a half of
brandy that he drank before he undertook to face the mob. 98
Gay advises the wary walker to avoid such a dangerous neigh-
borhood,
Where elevated o'er the gaping croud,
Clasp'd in the board the perjur'd head is bow'd,
Betimes retreat; here, thick as hailstones pour
Turnips, and half-hatch'd eggs, (a mingled show'r)
Among the rabble rain: Some random throw
May with the trickling yolk thy cheek o'er flow.
Gay is aware of all the tricks of the town, the guinea-
droppers, the cardsharps, the pickpockets with their accomplices
97 Diary of Mary Countess Catoper, Lady of the Bedchamber the Princess af
Wales, 1714-1720 (1864), pp. 91-92.
** The Weekly Journal for July 27, 1723.
134 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
the bullies who start sham quarrels, and the ballad singers who
collect the crowds. Gay would hear later of the sad case in
which his friend Arbuthnot was involved.
On Sunday Morning the Duke de la Force, lately arrived from
France, came to the Choir In St. Paul's Cathedral, and heard Divine
Service with great Attention, and we hear his Grace is about to
embrace the Protestant Religion.
At the same Time an unlucky Accident happen'd, which 'tis to
be hop'd will make no evil Impressions upon his Grace, as being a
Stranger to our Customs, viz. Dr. Arbuthnott, one of his Majesty's
Physicians, while engag'd at his Devotions, had his Pocket pick'd of
a Gold Snuff Box of about 50 value.
This was the town that Gay knew, and he brought it to life
in his poem. Incidentally, he managed to put himself and some
of his friends in the picture.
Come, Ffortescue], sincere, experienc'd friend,
Thy briefs, thy deeds, and ev'n thy fees suspend;
Come let us leave the TentyUs silent walls,
Me business to my distant lodging calls:
Through the long Strand together let us stray :
With thee conversing I forget the way.
He laments the passing of the great houses along the Strand,
Arundel, Essex, Cecil, Bedford, Villiers, now no more, but de-
lights in Burlington's fair palace with its promise of encourage-
ment to poet and musician.
There Rendd strikes the strings, the melting strain
Transports the soul, and thrills through ev'ry vein;
There oft I enter (but with cleaner shoes)
For Burlingtorfs belov'd by ev'ry Muse.
Round about the bookstalls he can wander, plucking the flowers
of learning.
Here sauntering prentices o'er Otway weep,
O'er Congreve smile, or over D\enms\ sleep j
Pleas'd sempstresses the Lock's fam'd Rafe unfold,
And Squirts read Garth, 'till apozems grow cold.
THE GREAT SCRIBLERUS 135
The critics all liked the poem. It was widely imitated and
quoted. The earliest imitation was an anonymous poem called
A Walk from St. lames* s to Covent Garden^ the Back-Way ^
Through the Meuse (1717). This announces itself as an imita-
tion of The Journey to Exeter > but is really closer to Tmm than
to Gay's other poem. Starting from Pail-Mall,
whose friendly Surface scorns
To hurt the gouty Feet or horny Corns,
the author passes through the Haymarket,
Where Grooms smell over Pots of Ale, and Hay;
Waggons and Carts, ill-crowded in the Throng
Reminded me of Sucklings glorious Song*
The beggar meets his eye:
A blinded Woman with some Lines at Breast,
That both her Parish, and her Age confessed;
On Stool she sat and mournful mov'd her Head,
And seem'd to say give Money -that gives Bread.
These are not good verses, but there are some curious pictures
of the streets in the poem, crude though the form invariably is.
James Heywood devotes a whole poem "To Mn Gay, on
his Poem entitled Trivia, or y the Art of Walking the Streets
(1724).
O Gay! my grateful Thoughts do crowd my Mind,
To tell you what harmonious Lines I find
In this thy Trivia^ such Beauties shine,
I'm pleased to see a Wonder in each Line :
So much thy tow'ring Thoughts my Fancy fire,
The more I read, the more I still admire*
What Critic with his stabbing Pen can stain
Thy tuneful Verses, or eclipse thy Fame?
The very Momus which insults thy Name,
Envies thy Genius, tho* thy Verses blame*
Thy useful Hints direct the rural 'Squire,
His Steps from wandring Females to retire,
To hoary Heads thou'rt an indulgent Friend,
And those which under heavy Burdens bend.
136 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
When jostling busy Crowds walk in the Street,
And helpless Objects, Blind and Lame, we meet,
Thou dost instruct us what Respect to pay,
To give the Wall, and when to take the Way.
These Men with thankful Voice will give thee Praise,
Pray for thy Health, and wish thee prosp'rous Days,
Whether by Phoebus's Meridian Light,
Or in the gloomy Horror of the Night
I walk, in winding Alleys, Streets unknown,
And lose my Way in this great Hive the Town,
By thy Directions, I shall fear no 111,
No panic Terror shall my Bosom fill:
Whilst I walk Streets, thy Precepts I'll imbibe,
Trwm shall be my Convoy and my Guide. 90
Warton finds Trma Gay's best poem, and praises It for its
genuine humor and pictures of London life. He groups it with
other famous burlesques of the time. The Sflendid Shilling of
Philips^ the Muscipula of Holdsworth, the Scribleriad of Rich-
ard Owen Cambridge, the Machin&e Gestkulantes of Addison,
and the HobUnol of Somerville. 100
* f James Heywood, Original Poems on- Several Occasions (1722), p. 25. See also
A* Epistle fa Sir J[e]r[em]y Slam]6[roQ]k. By a Gentleman at the University of
Cambridge (1735), The Cheshire Huntress, and the Old Fox caught at Last. A
Dramatic Tale (1740)5 Nicholas James, "Wrestling, A Poem," Poems on Several
Occasions (1742), p. 21 j William Heard, A Sentimental Journey to Bath, Bristol, and
their Environs ; a Descriptive Poem (1778).
ao Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (sth ed., 1806)
II, 244-
CHAPTER IV
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS
Three Hours aper Marriage (1717)
Poems on Several Occasions (1720)
THE NEXT LITERARY task that Gay turned to was an elaboration
of an idea that had pleased him back in the days when he was
writing Araminta- for Steele's Miscellany, that is, turning the
pastoral ridicule into a vehicle for social satire. Thus he became
the creator of the town eclogue. Five of these eclogues were
eventually published in his Poems on Several Occasions (1720)3
namely, The Birth of the Squire, The Toilette, The Tea-Table,
The Funeral, and The Espousal. We cannot in most cases dis-
cover many particulars about their composition, but the pub-
lication of one of them. The Toilette, occasioned a flurry in
more quarters than one, and to that story we must now turn.
That Gay wrote the poem is clear from Pope's remarks to
Spence on the subject.
Lydia, in Lady Mary Wordey Montague's Poems, is almost
wholly Gay's 5, and is published as such in his works. There are only
five or six lines new set in it by that lady. It was that which gave the
hint; and she wrote the other five eclogues.
In 1716, Pope's friendship for Lady Mary was passing
through one of its more acute stages, and Gay was frequently
drawn into social engagements with them. 1 He apparently took
The Toilette to one of these meetings and read it for criticism.
1 See a letter from Jervas to Pope (Pope, Works, VIII, 19): "Lady Mary
W[ortle]y ordered me by an express this Wednesday morning, sedente Gayo et ridenu
Fortesctevio, to send you a letter, or some other proper notice, to come to her on
Thursday, about five o'clock, which I suppose she meant in the evening. Gay designed
to have been with you to-day, and I would have had him deliver this welcome message,
but he durst not venture to answer for your coming upon his asseverations, you having:
interchangeably so accustomed yourselves to lying, that you cannot believe one another,
though upon never so serious an occasion."
138 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Lady Mary had never heard anything quite like this poem
before, was so much interested that she suggested a few lines by
way of addition, and presently began writing town eclogues on
her own account. These poems upset more than one apple-cart.
Gay was fond of these delicious court triflers that he ridicules.
His style was usually playful, rather than malicious, and he
avoided personalities. But Lady Mary's edges were sharp $ she
saw the virtue of the form, and proposed to use it as a pillory for
the black beasts she found about her in high society. All too
quickly she wrote The Basset Table and Roxana, or the Drawing-
Room, and made the distinguished ladies who figure in them
plainly recognizable, especially the Duchess of Roxburghe, the
Duchess of Shrewsbury, and the Princess of Wales. Now Lady
Mary had no desire to place her poetic light under a bushel or to
enjoy her joke in private. She allowed the manuscript of these
poems, along with that of Gay's Toilette to circulate much too
readily among her acquaintance. The inevitable happened.
Curll got possession of the manuscript and published Court
Poems. Viz: L The Basset-Table. An eclogue. II The Draw-
ing-Room. III. The Toilet.
Publish'd faithfully, as they were found in a Pocket-Book taken
up in Westminster-Hall, the Last Day of the Lord Winton's TryaL
London: Printed for J. Roberts, near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-
Lane. MDCCVI. Price Six-Pence.
The name of no author was printed on the title page, but in
the advertisement Curll hints at the possibilities in his usual
wily fashion, caring nothing for truth and much for sales.
The Reader is acquainted, from the Title-Page^ how I came
possess'd of the following Poems. All that I have to add, is, only a
Word or two concerning their Author.
Upon Reading them over at St. James's Co fee-Rouse, they were
attributed by the General Voice to be the Productions of a Lady of
Quality.
When I produc'd them at Button's, the Poetical Jury there
brought in a different Verdict; and the Foreman strenuously insisted
upon it, that Mr. GAY was the Man-, and declared, in Comparing
the Basset-Table, with that Gentleman's PASTORALS, he found
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 139
the Stile> and Turn of Thought, to be evidently the same; which
confirmed him, and his Brethren, in the Sentence they had pro-
nounc'd.
Not content with these Two Decisions, I was resolvM to call in
an Umpire; and accordingly chose a Gentleman of distinguished
Merit, who lives not far from Chelsea. I sent him the Papers; which
he returned to me the next Day, with this Answer:
Sir, Depend upon it^ these Lines could come from no other
Handy than the Judicious Translator of HOMER.
Thus having impartially given the Sentiments of the Town; I
hope I may deserve Thanks, for the Pains I have taken, in en-
deavouring to find out the Author of these Valuable Performances;
and every Body is at Liberty to bestow the Laurel as they please.
It was highly important at the moment that people should
not bestow the laurel for these poems on Gay. Lady Mary
might be angry, and she actually was, angry enough apparently
to suggest at least a beating for CurlL Pope also was angry,
and arranged the famous meeting with Curll in a tavern, at
which he managed to administer an emetic in his sack, the trail
of which along with the worm-powder lingered on through
many of the angry pamphlets of succeeding years. But Gay at
the moment was still hoping for preferment at court, 2 and it
was distinctly awkward to be singled out as the author of these
scandalous poems, especially when one really was the author
of one of them. 3 On his part the only course was discreet
silence. It is hard to see how Pope's Horrid and Barbarous
Revenge by Poison On the Body of Mr. Edmund Cwll y Book-
setter either in actuality or in the pamphlet he wrote with that
title a few days later could have been of much service to his
friend. The damage was done; suspicion was started. The story
of CurlPs discomfiture might start a laugh in the somewhat
brutal society of the time; the recital of his sins as he recounts
them at point of death in the pamphlet would remind people
how utterly unreliable a person he was. But the answer to the
2 This is part of Pope's argument against die publication as reported twelve years
later by Curll in The Curliad (p. 21): "Mr. Gay's Interest at Court, would be greatly
hurt by publishing these Pieces."
* The others are certainly Lady Mary's. See Notes and Queries^ yth Series, IX,
515 (June 28, 1890).
140 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
question. Who wrote the verses? still remained blank, and
everybody knew that the author must be someone of conspicuous
literary talent, and someone also who had access to inner court
circles. Caroline had been in England only a few months more
than one year, and must have many times felt conscious of the
critical attitude towards her. The possibility that one of the
friends she really trusted might have joined a conclave with
such a person as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to ridicule her
must have been disquieting. 4 No sign of displeasure was given,
fortunately. One would Eke to think that Gay found some way
to clear himself without implicating others, but we know noth-
ing of it. The pleasant relations with the court remained un-
broken. Bellenden, Lepel, and Griffin, dear ladies all, still
petted the poets and were petted by them.
In Truth, by what I can discern,
Of Courtiers J twixt you Three,
Some Wit you have, and more may learn
From Court, than Gay or Me:
Perhaps, in Time you'll leave high Diet,
To sup with us on Milk and Quiet.
At Leicester-Fields, a House full high,
With Door all painted Green,
Where Ribbons wave upon the Tye,
(a Milliner I mean; )
There may you meet us Three to Three,
For Gay can well make Two of me.
With a fa, la, la.
But shou'd you catch the Prudish Itch,
And each become a Coward,
Bring sometimes with you Lady R[ic]h,
And sometimes Mistress H[owar}d;
For Virgins to keep Chaste, must go
Abroad with such as are not so. 6
At some time during that spring (1716), probably very
shortly after March 7, when Curll published Sir Richard Black-
* See Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1861), II, 4.32-448
* Pope, The Challenge: a Court Ballad.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 141
more's Essays, Gay had the chance to come to the defence of
Swift against the enemy. In the section of his book dealing with
wit, Blackmore had seen fit to devote a page and a half to a
diatribe against A Tde of a Tub and that "impious buffoon,'*
its author. Blackmore on wit I use the word in its older sense
was strange enough anyway, though this was not the first
time he had braved laughter by attempting to deal with the
subject^ but Blackmore on wit attacking the wittiest man of the
age was irresistible, and Gay found himself moved to broadcast
a satire on Blackmore which may conceivably have been a crude
original of the Verses To be placed under the Picture of Eng~
ImtPs Arch-Poet later printed in the Motte Miscellanies, The
Third Volume (1732). Pope refers to some such verses in a
letter to Jervas, dated inexplicably November 14, 1716.
Gay is yours and theirs [Swift and Parnell], His spirit is
awakened very much in the cause of the dean, which has broke forth
in a courageous couplet or two upon Sir Richard Blackmore. He has
printed it with his name to it, and bravely assigns no other reason,
than that the said Sir Richard has abused Dr. Swift. 6
Since, however, the ill-mannered and badly written squib,
Verses To te placed under the Picture of England's Arch-Poet,
contains references to poems by Blackmore published much later
than I7i6, 7 one must conclude that Pope was referring not to it,
but to the four severe but dignified lines on Blackmore in An
Epstle to the Earl of Burlington already discussed, which bring
Blackmore down to the level of the country sign-painters.
Then Mourns in his proper sphere might shine,
And these proud numbers grace great WO&im's sign.
This is the man, this the Nassovian, whom
I nam*d the brave deliverer to come.
Pope's letter to Jervas seems to be wrongly dated. It contains
an appeal to Jervas to urge Parnell to send on his Zoilus, which
Pope wanted in hand for defensive tactics before the second
volume of his translation of Homer appeared (March 24).
* Pope, Works, VIII, 22.
7 See Professor Theodore F. M. Newton's article, "Blackmore'a Eliza, 1 * Harvard
Studies and Notes, XVIII, 116 n. (i93 6 )-
142 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
More doubts are suggested by the opening sentence of the let-
ter which follows the one under discussion in the Courthope
arrangement: "That you have not heard from me of late, ascribe
not to the usual laziness of your correspondent, but . . ." That
alone should have raised doubts in Courthope's mind, or in any
editor's, since the letter is dated November 29, and two weeks
could scarcely be thought of as a long interval in a London-
Dublin correspondence. Jervas had gone to Ireland in Feb-
ruary, and this letter telling about Gay's irreverent treatment
of Blackmore was probably sent some time in the late spring,
later certainly than March 7 when Blackmore's Essays appeared.
This theory would give us an approximate date for the first
printing of An Efistle to Burlington, hitherto uncertain.
As in the preceding spring, Gay and Pope planned from time
to time to visit Ladyholt, but the visit never came off. One
suspects that the conversation in the Caryll household was not
the most sprightly. By the end of July, Gay was off to Devon-
shire once more, and planning to make the circuit around to
Bath before his return. 8 Pope had been gadding about to
various places during the late summer, Bath last of all, and the
two friends may have met there and journeyed back to London
together. In any case, Pope would take the first opportunity to
show Gay a letter he had received from Swift (dated August 30,
1716), which contained a special message for his friend:
There is a young ingenious Quaker 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 look and habit, etc. 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? 9
This was the best kind of encouragement for Gay to elab-
orate the idea already used in The Toilette and the other Town
Eclogues. Before long he was busy with a Quaker eclogue called
"Pope to Parneil, July 29, 1716 (Pope, Works, VII, 463).
* Swift, Letters j II, 330.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 143
The Espousal and another little poem which hailed The Birth
of the Squire in high heroics after the fashion of Vergil's Pollio*
These are both well-fashioned and distinctly amusing poems.
The Espousal 10 is as fresh as the flowers in May, compared with
most of the verses inspired by ridicule of the Quakers in those
days, and both poems contain smart touches of that Hogarthian
humor that has done so much to keep Gay's fame alive. The
squire is duly born and passes through the usual experiences of
youth, until in maturity he rides to hounds, snores away debates
in Parliament, dispenses justice with grave nod, and glories in
the strength of his beer.
Methinks I see him in his hall appear,
Where the long table floats in clammy beer,
'Midst mugs and glasses shattered o'er the floor,
Dead-drunk his servile crew supinely snore;
Triumphant, o'er the prostrate brutes he stands,
The mighty bumper trembles in his hands 5
Boldly he drinks, and like his glorious sires,
In copious gulps of potent ale expires.
Other pamphlets sent out by the Gay-Pope-Arbuthnot circle
during the autumn months of this year were concerned with the
current rage for punning. The Scriblerians had always indulged
in this riotous vice. Smedley later credited Swift with a fable
on The Original of Punning, from- Platans Symposiades. 1 *
Once on a Time, in merry Mood,
Jove made a Pun of Flesh and Blood;
A double, two-fac'd living Creature,
Androgynous, of Two-fold Nature; . . .
Whatever Words the Female spoke;
The Male converted to a Joke:
So, in this Form of Man and Wife,
They led a merry Punnmg Life.
10 This was set to music. See the British Museum catalogue, entry under **Gay
The Espousal": "On Monday next the I4th of August, at the Marlborough Bowltng-
Green, will be performed ... in the 3rd Act the following ode by ... John Gay, etc.
[Commencing: 'Beneath the shadow of a Beaver's Hat,* etc.], Dublin? 1720? single
sheet folio."
11 GulUveriana: or a Fourth Volume of Miscellanies. Being a Sequel of the Three
Volumes > published by Pope and Swift (1728), pp. 58, 79.
i 4 4 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Swift ventured, in a burlesque History of Poetry, to insist
on one main principle.
I wiH therefore only venture to lay down on Maxim, That a
good Poet, i he designs to Tickle the World, must be Gay and
Young; but if he proposes to give us rational Pleasure, he must be
as Grave as a Pofe.
In October or early in November, 1716, one of the group,
facetiously revolting against the practice, published an amusing
little two-page pamphlet called God*s Revenge against Punning.
Shewing the miserable Fates of Persons addicted to this Crying
Sin, in Court and Town. This began with an account o the
succession of disasters with which the kingdom had been over-
taken f^ plague, the playhouses and their obscenities, whor-
ing and popery displaced by Socinianism, Arianism, and Whis-
tonianism and now worst of all, this epidemic of punning.
Such crimes will not be permitted to go on forever. Punish-
ments are listed, and among the sufferers, one lord loses 500
at dice and displeases his grandmother, Colonel F[rowde] stut-
ters, Eustace, Esq. "for the Murder of much of the King > s
English in Ireland, is quite deprived of his Reason, and now
remains a Lively Instance of Emptiness and Vivacity," poor
Daniel Button, "for the same Offense, deprived of all his Wits,"
and finally "A Devonshire Man of Wit, for only saying, in a
jesting Manner, I get Uf-Pim a Horse, instantly fell down,
and broke his Snuff-Box and Neck, and lost the Horse." Colonel
Frowde, the friend of Addison, was famous for his punsj Gay
had already recorded one of them inspired by Rowe's Lady Jane
Grey. 12 The reference to Budgell shows that the friendship with
Gay if Gay wrote this pamphlet was cracking^ it would col-
lapse altogether, as we shall see, with the publication of A Let-
ter to a Buttonim Knight in the following year. The downfall
of the Devonshire Man of Wit is corroborated by a note in a
letter Pope wrote to Teresa Blount, August 7, 1716: "Mr. Gay
has had a fall from his horse and broken his fine snuffbox." 13
The title of the pamphlet was suggested by one of the best-
sellers of the day, John Reynolds's The Triumphs of Gods
1S Pope^ Works, VI, 227. " /&&, IX, 265.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 145
Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable sin of Murther^
the sixth edition of which appeared in 1679. The book continued
to flourish down through the years; its sequel, God's Revenge
Against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Adultery > still more
luridly illustrated than its predecessor 5 came out as late as 1708.
God*s Revenge against Punning was signed mysteriously
James Baker. There were evidently plenty of James Bakers
about London in 1716. Mr. Aitken has found one, a famous
gambler, known as the Knight of the Peak. 14 Mr. Sherbum
has his James Baker, one of the publishers of the White-Hall
and St. Jameses Journals.^ Gay was apparently using this name
as a pseudonym during the years 1716 and 1717. At least three
prose pamphlets and one poem which seem to be his appeared
with this signature during that time. One of these is in semi-
serious support of Hoadly in the Bangorian controversy. An
Admonition Merry and Wise To the Famous Mr. Tr f, on
His Late Encomiums ufon the Bishop of Eangor. For the Use
of Young Divines. Another is a parody of Eustace BudgelPs
rather pathetic Letter to a Noble Lord, called A Letter to a
Buttonian Knight. The poem is Horace, Efod. IV. Imitated
By Sir James Baker, Kt. To Lord Cd[ogd\n, which Mr. Faber
thinks almost certainly Gay's. 16
God's Revenge against Punning was listed in the Mis-
cellanies of 1742 with four other pamphlets as *<by Mr. Pope
and Mr. Gay." The copy in the British Museum is ascribed to
Gay by a contemporary hand, the same hand, Mr. Faber points
out, that wrote "By Gay" on the Argument Proving . . . That
the Present Mohocks and Hawkubites are the Gog and Magog,
etc. There seems to me no doubt that the pamphlet is Gay's. 17
This attribution tempts one to imagine that with the idea
in the air Arbuthnot, most faithful of the Scriblerians, would
not let the shuttlecock fall to earth. At any rate, in November,
14 G. A. Aitken, "PampHets by John Gay," Athenaeum, XLIX, 321 (Sept, 7,
1889).
18 Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, p, 183 n.
1C The Poetical Works of John <7y, pp. rrxi and 638.
17 1 have not seen A Letter from Sir J. B. . . . to Mr. P. ... upon publishing &
paper entitled "God's Revenge against Punning." See The Gvardtan, No. 36 (April
22, 1713), for a paper on punning-.
I 4 6 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
1716, appeared a six-page copy of verses that looks dangerously
like his. It was called An Hero^Comkal Epstle From a certain
Doctor To a certain Gentle-Woman, In Defence of the most
Antient Art of Punning.
Dear Nanny, all the World are running
Stark-mad against our vein of Punning;
But I regard not their James Baker,
So much as barking Cur or Quaker;
No, if he had been five times older,
And bore ten Knight-hoods on his Shoulder,
Your fair Example should weigh more
With me upon the Punning Score
Then all his Arguments, I hope,
Brought from the Devil, or the Pope.
And therefore I, in your defence
Will prove a Punn both Witt and Seme . . .
Ah! Nanny, Nanny, those were Days,
When Punning bore the Bell and Bays;
Shakespear and Johnson, in that Age
Discharged their Punns around the Stage;
And grave Divines, in Pulpit high,
Popp'd of their Punn- Artillery ;
Ambiguous words by Bishop given,
Punned honest Penitents to Heaven;
They in his own way us'd to rub
The sly dissembling Beelzebub,
And he who did at first deceive
By doubtful words, our Mother Eve;
As Preachers Punning st[r]okes did heap on,
Was fairely beat at his own Weapon.
But, dearest Nann, I smell the bottom
Of all our Anti-funsters (rott'em ; )
It is a Papist-Jesuit Plot,
By Tory Jacobites begot . . .
Yet they shall know that we can spy
Their Polish Plot with Half an Eye.
All this is an amusing bagatelle. Whether the wits were
responsible or not, the punning fashion caught on at Court,
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 147
a different place entirely from what it had been in the days of
good Queen Anne. At least Ixicester-House, over which the
Princess Caroline and her lovely ladies presided, was different
and much more lively. Dull formalities they abominated. Ches-
terfield gives a good account of the change, and incidentally
of the popularity of puns.
Balls, assemblies, and masquerades have taken the place of dull,
formal visiting-days, and the women are more agreeable triflers than
they were designed. Puns are extremely in vogue, and the license
very great. The variation of three or four letters in a word breaks
no squares, in so much that an indifferent punster may make a very
good figure in the best companies.
Chesterfield himself was noted for puns, Lord Hervey for
epigrams, and Bath for verses. 18
ii
While the court ladies and gentlemen were indulging their
taste for puns and double entendre and from time to time
inviting Gay and Pope to help them play the same game, the
two friends along with Arbuthnot apparently were busy with
a new Scriblerus project, the comedy, or perhaps one should say,
satirical farce, Three Hours after Marriage, Pope's remark to
Caryll, in a letter dated April 20, 1716, about the "new de-
signs with some of my friends for a satirical work, which I must
have formerly mentioned to you," may possibly refer to this
play. In any case, that spring the three friends were frequently
meeting to discuss a satirical project. Their talk would be as
in the old days on false pretensions to learning, on odd rela-
tions between thesis and hypothesis, on the scrambled apparatus
of pedantic scholarship. Their digressions would be in the man-
ner of A Tale of a Tub, and their personalities, Dennis, Wood-
ward, the Buttonian wits, and CuriUPs overdriven hacks of elo-
quence. Now Gay's only notable contribution so far to the
lucubrations of Scriblerus had been dramatic, when he had
pricked the bubbles of tragic verbosity in The What d*ye Call
**W. H. Wilkins, Caroline the Illustrious, Queen-Consort of George II (1901),
I, 289.
148 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
//. He alone in the group had any talent for playwriting.
As Mr. Sherburn has emphasized quite properly, his genius was
for the ludicrous rather than for the strictly humorous or witty.
His mind ran to absurdities, and as he joined in all this talk
about Woodward with his curiosities, his Roman shield, his
theories of the Universal Deluge and his faith in vomitions,
about Dennis with his pet phrases, his thunder, his high serious-
ness and inelastic notions, he must have realized that all these
ideas were by this time the pet property of the town, and that
the time had come to make them central in comic representa-
tion. It is reasonably clear that the original idea and all the
structural organization of the play were Gay's. Pope's letter
to Parnell makes no reservations.
I have been ever since December last in greater variety of busi-
ness than any such man as you (that is, divines and philosophers) can
possibly imagine a reasonable creature capable of. Gay's play, among
the rest, has cost much time and long suffering to stem the tide of
malice and party, that certain authors have raised against it. 19
He proposes to use ParnelPs Zoilus, at last in his hands,
as a rebuke to the critics. Pope speaks of the play quite naturally
as Gay's, and this to Parnell, who would know without any
explaining the usual process of composition in that group.
I see no reason, moreover, to question the authenticity of
the letter from Gay to Pope printed by William Ayre in his
Life of Po$e (1745). Here Gay ruefully acknowledged that
he had misjudged the temper of his audience, and urged Pope
not to worry about possible effects on his reputation and on Dr.
Arbuthnot's for their known concern in the play. a l will, if
any shame there be, take it all to myself, as indeed I ought, the
motion being first mine, and never heartily approved of by
you.** 20
This letter probably states plain fact, though we need not
imagine any lack of zest on the part of the collaborators as they
poured in suggestions of ridicule.
Having decided to use as a medium for Fossile's absurdities
19 Pope, Works, VII, 464. * IW., VII, 419.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 149
the idea of an "imaginary cuckolcP 21 if we can call a man
that, who marries a whore and begins to suspect it Gay had
next to devise some connection between this main figure and a
group of literary eccentrics that might include Dennis. To
include him was essential after the appearance of his disgusting
pamphlet, A True Character of Mr. Pofe, in the preceding
May. All this plotting was done with considerable skill. Gay
was not satisfied to introduce a niece into Fossile's household,
Phoebe Clinket, who, "when she should be raising Paste, is
raising the Ghost in a new Tragedy'* she alone would have
provided excuse for the introduction of Sir Tremendous, the
critic but, partly for these very real exigencies of plot, and
partly for a second important reason, he created that maiden-
coxcomb Plotwell to act as one of Mrs., Towniey's admirers
and at the same time as the sponsor for Phoebe's plays. Plot-
well is to recommend her play for production, and the prime
joke of aU was possibly to inveigle Cibber into acting this very
part, in which his own faults and follies as actor-manager of
Drury Lane would be held up to the scornful amusement of the
town. No doubt Gay still remembered against Cibber his own
disappointment over The Mohocks back in 1712. He had in-
dulged in his first ridicule of Dennis in the introduction to that
farce, and had made fun of Cibber also in the dialogue appended
to the epilogue of the same play.
The three main figures were then placed, and in a workable
plot Phoebe Clinket herself represented in the jrnain Mrs.
Centlivre, whose visit to Mrs. Crackenthorpe in the pages of
The Female Tatler seems to have provided some satirical hints
for the interviews with her manager. 22 Pope had recently been
elaborating her virtues in his scatological warfare with CurlL 28
S1 Biographia Dramatica (1812), III, 334. "The contrivance of the husband's
jealousy is taken from Le Cocu Imagtnaire." The Complete Key to Three Hoars
after Marriage adds (p. 9) that the character of Lubomirski is taken from Raveas-
croft's The Anatomist: or, the Sham Doctor.
m The Female Toiler, No. 69 (Dec. 14, 1709), and The Tatler, No. 91 (Nov. 8,
1709).
sa See George Sherburn, "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Three Hostrs ajter
Marriage" Modern Philology, XXIV, 91-109 (Aug., 1926). Mr. John Bowyer differs
from Professor Sherburn on this point. See his unpublished Harvard PH.D. thesis,
Susannah Freeman CentUvre (1928), p. 103.
I 5 o JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
He blamed her for writing The CathoUck Poet or, Protestant
Bam&by's Sorrowful Lamentation. She was to be In one sense
of the word the female virtuoso, not a new figure on the English
stage by any means. Such a character had been transplanted
from French comedy by Wright as early as i693, 24 and had
proved a moderately fruitful subject for satire not only on the
stage but in The Tatler and elsewhere during the intervening
years.
Beyond the four characters mentioned, the satire in Gay's
pky is general. He and his friends realized the danger that
wrong applications might be made by the audience, and warned
off the fools in their prologue.
If any Fool is by our Satyr bit,
Let him hiss loud, to show you all, he's hit.
Poets make Characters, as Salesmen Cloaths,
We take no Measure of your Fops and Beans;
But here all Sizes and all Shapes ye meet,
And fit your selves, like Chaps in Monmouth-street.
Most .authors, however, have found the oddities of their
friends quite as irresistible as the vices of their enemies, and
the depredations of the satirist are complex rather than simple.
Mrs. Centlivre provided the main hints for the character of
Phoebe, but Lady Winchelsea - -friend though she was, of Pope
at least probably was also in mind. 25 Certainly the authors
did not set out to satirize Mrs. Mead, but stories of her frivoli-
ties were current at this time, circulated, some said, by Wood-
ward and his friends, 26 and there was danger that since no Mrs.
Woodward was available, that particular cap might be fitted to
the wife of another well-known physician, especially if Mrs.
Oldfield chose, as some of the enemy pamphlets assert, to mimic
** Thomas Wright, The female Virtuosos (1693). Gay rewrote this play under
the title No Fools like Wits for production in 1721. See also Steele's treatment of
Madonelia in The Toiler, and Myra Reynolds's study of the whole subject, The
Learned Lady m En^tmd t 1650-1760 (New York, 1920).
** Biograp&ta Dramafica (1812), III, 334. "Phoebe Clinket was said to be in-
tended for the Countess of Winchelsea, who was so much affected with the itch of
versifying: that she had implements of writing in every room In her house that she
frequented."
** Lester Seattle, John* Arbufhnot, Mathematician and Satirise (Cambridg e, Mass.,
I935)> P- 257 aa<* note.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 151
the mannerisms of that lady. Years later, the story of Boling-
broke's supposed commerce with Mrs. Mead was still remem-
bered, and his equally indiscreet relations with the Walpole
women. 27 Smedley gives out in his pamphlet recounting these
scandals, Gulliver Decyfher'd, that the three friends made
Three Hours after Marriage a catchall for their personal
grudges.
Here each Party had a fine Opportunity of being revengM of
their several adversaries; Peter abused the Wittlings of the Town,
for not having Sense enough to taste his Mock-Heroicks and his
Friend's Pastorals, who also introduced a Character to redicide his
former Mistress or Lady Dutchess (as the moderns term it) for
refusing to support him in his Extravagancies as formerly; and
Johnny you may be sure, did not forget to set off his Antagonist in
the most ridiculous light, and to bespatter his Wife in complaisance
to the Secretary, who is said to have had reason to complain of her
kindness, as well as her Husband's injuries to him.
This is certainly not what happened. If anyone of the Soib-
lerus Club enjoyed bespattering his enemies with scandal of this
sort, it was Pope, and it must be admitted that before this play
appeared he had settled well into the stride which would before
long carry him jubilantly through the mud baths of The Dun-
dad. But Arbuthnot and Swift had always deprecated the in-
troduction of personalities into satire, and Gay was too good-
natured and even timorous to care much for that game. Pope
once remarked to Spence: "Gay was remarkable for an unwill-
ingness to offend the great, by any of his writings: he had an
uncommon timidity upon him, in relation to anything of that
sort. And yet you see what ill luck he had that way, after all
his care not to offend." 28
Certainly Gay would not think of satirizing the Duchess of
Monmouth too obviously as the Countess of Hippokekoana.
She had been a good friend to him, and still was. He had taken
Pope to call on her, he had met her at a Somerset-house ball,
and he must have been continually meeting her at Leicester
House in attendance on the Princess. All we need to say is that
97 Gulliver Dcey$ker>d (1728), p. 7. ^Spcncc, Anecdotes, p. 160.
i S 2 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Woodward's notions about emetics and vomitions had to be
introduced, and a suitable patient provided. How the Duchess
of Monmouth first came to be connected with that character in
the play it is difficult to surmise. There are some points of re-
semblance, but none at this distance seems particularized. The
enmity stirred up by the play no doubt led unfriendly critics to
make just those attributions which they knew would be most
embarrassing. This seems to be true of Edward Parker's notes
in his Complete Key to the new jarce > cdVd Three Hours after
Marriage. Every line reflects his animosity.
The Countess of Hippokekoana is the Dutchess of M h. To
whom Gay was a Serving-man, and never hop'd for any higher
preferment than holding a Pkte at a side Board, till Pope took him
into his Protection. Gay was born of honest, tho' mean Parentage,
who by their Thrift and Industry made a shift to save wherewithal
to Apprentice him out to a Stuff Man, but at the Expiration of his
Time, being taken from that employ, he became Amanuensis to
Aaron Hill, Esq; when that Gentleman set on Foot the Project of
answering questions in a Weekly Paper, calFd, The British Apollo.
Being dfemist from Mr. Hill's Service, he was taken into the Family
of the Lady Monmouth, whom he has thought fit to Banter, for no
other Reason, but because it seems 'tis her Custom to take a Vomit
once or twice a Week. It was upon his Dismission from this Lady's
Service, that Pope took him to learn the Art of Rimeing, and Gay is
now nam'd the Jabberer.
The Woodward-Dennis-Cibber figures remain, as Fossile, Sir
Tremendous, and Plotwell, the satirical backbone of the play.
They had already made themselves publicly ridiculous in one
way or another, and public laughter was appropriate. About the
rest of the characters we need speculate no further. Observation
of odds and ends of character in friend and foe no doubt
dropped into this well of imagination, and emerged later with
a roguish twist towards absurdity that should have brought at
least some tears of grateful laughter to the eyes of the audience.
The audience that appeared to greet Gay's play in Drury
Lane on January 16 was no ordinary one, and the pky got no
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 153
ordinary reception. At that time even a farce could be a serious
matter for the author producing it, as stage history illustrates.
The Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1732, complains, for
instance, of the misbehavior of the footmen in the top gallery.
After the Play is begun, we have often seen the noblest parts of
it interrupted by their Bear-Garden Quarrels in the Uffer Gallery.
For these Reasons they ought to be banish'd out of the Playhouse
forever. But perhaps this may be dangerous, considering they lately
rioted an Assembly they could not be admitted to, and opposed the
Guards that were plac'd for the Safety of their Masters. In the
Streets we are affronted by them, while these Harbingers to the
Chairmen thunder in your Ears, Stand by! Clear the Way! Agree-
able to what Mr. Gay observes in his
Who can quell the footman's arrogance, especially when that
arrogance is encouraged by his betters! We have already noticed
that there were signs of organized opposition to The What 3?ye
Call It. The young gentlemen from the Inns of Court that
time came prepared to hiss, since it had been reported that some
of their favorites were to be ridiculed. They remained to
laugh, fortunately for Gay. Most of the playwrights feared just
that kind of organized opposition, "plotted Spleen" as William
Taverner called it in the prologue to The Artful Husband
(1716).
Scatters fair Satyr, but no venome throws,
And has been mighty tender of you Beaux;
For lest he might incur your plotted Spleen,
He brings no maiden Coxcomb on the Scene.
The reason for the riot that occurred on the first night of
Three Hours after Marriage and continued with varying de-
grees of fervor through the seven nights of its performance was
the enmity of an organized faction, or rather, of two factions
combined for the occasion in an unholy alliance. Their vicious-
ness in attack must have surprised even Pope, who was perhaps
more responsible for it than his two friends. The excuse was not
what it appeared to be. One could have understood the friends
49 II, 661.
154 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
of Woodward I suppose he had some getting together to
resent as emphatically as possible an attack on him. This was not
what happened $ the hostile pamphlets which dropped rapidly
from the press during the next weeks mention Woodward
rather casually as a distinguished scientist and cannot understand
why anyone should attempt to annoy him. That was beside the
point, and a shield to cover the real motive. Everyone knew
that Woodward had made serious contributions to knowledge,
but everyone knew also that he was "a vain, foolish, affected
man/* as Sir John Clerk puts it in his Memoirs?
I was likewise made acquainted with Doctor Woodward, who
has a vast collection of natural Curiosities, as he himself, in my opin-
ion, was the greatest Curiosity on earth, being a vain, foolish, affected
Man. His natural History, however, is a book that deserves to be
read, as it treats very well on Minerals and fossils.
The faction were not out to damn the play as champions of
Woodward or of Dennis either. One might have understood
also, perhaps, a violent reaction against the immodesties which
the play had to offer with sufficiently blatant effrontery. This
feature was castigated of course with hypocritical earnestness in
the pamphlets. But this prudery also was a false front. The
truth was that the bitter draught of Pope's lampoons, few though
they had been at that date, had been already swallowed by
enough of his compatriots to spread the fear of him abroad, until
the minor writers of the day crowded together like sheep when
a dog snaps at them. The wits at Button's found themselves
herding with CurlPs sad followers and equally eager in their
damnation of anything that this terrible child might have a
hand in. The war with Addison's clique and with Curll had
been intensified early in the spring of 1716. This culminated in
Pope's sending Addison the "Atticus" lines about June i . There-
after, though Burnet noted a truce in hostilities, Addison was
not likely to have entertained very friendly feelings towards
Pope, and when a report was circulated that the latter was com-
ing out with a play "in which everyone of our modern Poets are
80 Memoirs of the Life of Sir John Clerk, ed. J M. Gray (1892), p. 127.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 155
ridiculed/' 31 he could scarcely be expected to restrain the more
bellicose spirits in his set from making plans to teach little Pope
a lesson. As for Curil, 1716 was the big year for him. We have
already noted something of the row that started with the publi-
cation of Court Poems and continued through that year and part
of the next. When Gildon, Oldmixon, Mrs. Centlivre ? and the
rest of CurlPs tribe, heard that Pope was busy with a play, they
feared for their own skins. Bloody murders and circumcisions
were bad enough, but worse might come; old Dennis immedi-
ately got busy on his Remarks on Mr. Pope's Translation of
Homer (published February, 1717), and the rest of them
banded together for mutual protection.
Needless to say, Three Hours after Marriage did not come
up to Burnet's specifications 5 it was not a play in which all the
modern poets were ridiculed. The principal satire in it was
leveled at persons whom no one was particularly eager to de-
fend. It was, on the other hand, a rollicking farce which suc-
ceeded in piling up one absurd situation upon another in a way
that under ordinary circumstances would certainly have won ap-
plause. If, however, a playwright is going to indulge his sense
for the ludicrous, if he brings in a crocodile as well as a mummy,
makes farcical use of hoop-petticoats, writing-desks on maids*
shoulders, potions for testing virginity, he had better contrive
to work his audience into a sympathetic mood. If they hate him
and all his works to begin with, each fresh absurdity will bring
hoots of derision. That is apparently what happened. Gay had
quite underestimated the bitterness of feeling which Pope had
already excited, and in letting it be known that his friend was
helping him with the play he had joined forces with an "author
militant" 32 and made it impossible for his play to secure a hear-
ing on its own merits.
81 The Letters of Thomas Burnet to George Duckett 1712-1722, p. 219. Sec
also Professor A. E. Case's article, "Pope, Addison, ajid the 'Atticus' Lines,'* Modern
Ph&ology> XXXIII, 187-193 (Nov., 1935).
82 Pope styles himself "author militant" in a letter to Swift, June 20, 1716. "I
can tell you no news, but what you will not sufficiently wonder at, that I suffer many
things as an author militant, whereof In your days of probation you have been a
sharer, or you had not arrived at that triumphant state you now deservedly enjoy In
the Church" (Swift, Letters, II, 325).
I 5 6 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
The play was not a failure j it ran for seven consecutive
nights, longer than any other play that season, and to full
houses. 88 One early pamphlet, called A Satyr on the Present
Times* 4 suggests that the play was thought a success.
The Cruel Gift has won the Town's Applause,
But we are always pleas'd without a Cause 5
We know no Reason A \_ddiso]n goes down,
Or P[o^e } or R[owje should bear away the Crown.
Why J \ohnso\n durst a mody Drama bring,
A Farce, a Play, a Pyrate and a King.
After the play was withdrawn, the Buttonian wits forsook cat-
calls for lampoons. The pamphlet which gives us most hints
about what actually happened, though its information must of
course be received with caution, is BrevaPs Confederates, which
was published March 30, 1717, after the first high heats had
subsided. This tells the story of the noisy first night, suggests
the embarrassment of the actors, and Mrs. Oldfield's refusal to
go on.
Ill-judging Beauties (tho s of high Degree)
Why did you- force this wretched Part on me?
And Thou, fat Baroness* 5 with Cheeks so Red,
Whence came this Maggot in thy ancient Head?
Oh! that I had (with Booth and Wilks combinM)
Obdurate as at first, not changed my Mind!
Or, since I could not from the Task be freed,
Had mimick'd Lady M[ohu]n, not Mrs. M[ea]d.
Breval makes very good sport of Gay's supposed distress.
O that, contented with my Servile State,
At some Bufet I still had held a Plate!
Or, not attempting Things beyond my Reach,
With honest Aaron Hill improved the Beech!
** The Female Wits, or the Triumvirate of Poets (1704), a satire on Mrs. Manley,
Mrs. Trotter, and Mrs. PIx, has a preface beginning, "Though the Success of this
Play has been such, a* to need no Apology for the Publication of itj it having been
Acted six Days running without Intermission. . "
** Daily Courant, Jan. 23, 1717: "This day is published. . ."
81 The fat Baroness was Lady Mohun, who also figures as one of the "gentle
widow*** in Leonard Welsted's P (daemon to Caelia of Bath (1717).
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 15?
Well! to the Wits at Bernard's strait PI run;
Unless he helps, by G , we're all undone.
Then comes the story of Lintot's refusal to help ? , of the arrival
at the last minute of a purse of gold from the Court ladies^
Griffin, Bellenden, and Lepel ? with the message of encourage-
ment,
You, and your Brethren 3 we'll be gkd to see,
In Street call'd Gerrard y when we drink our Tea.
With the aid of the money the house is packed and worse dis-
comfiture avoided.
So far this account sounds as if it might be partly true.
Breval's guesses about the division of labor among the authors
are much less useful. His story about support from the maids
of honor appeared first in The Complete "Key to Three Hours
aper M&rrwge, by E. Parker, Philomath. 36 After making a
violent attack on the obscenities of the play, the author of this
pamphlet proceeds:
Such is the polite Dialogue of Messieurs Arbuthnott^ Pofe t and
Gay, and the latter, modestly gives out, that for the fine Entendre
and Humour in this Scene, the very Ladies of Honour rais'd him
Four Hundred Guineas, to divide between him and his Partners, as
some small Encouragement for them to proceed in their Dramatical
Evidently the audience was not all hostile, though the Court
ladies had to pay for their enthusiasm by rather undesirable
publicity. Giles Jacob, in his preface to The Rape of the Smock>
makes a mock apology for his subject:
But now I think on \ why should a poor Author be at the
Trouble of making an Apology for writing upon a Smock, when the
Beauties of this Age, look upon it as a want of Good Breeding, to
Blush at a harmless Double Entendre; and I have seen, not long
since, a Front-Box sit so Unconcerned at the smuttiest Performance,
that a Stranger would have been apt to question, whether there were
One Natural Complexion among them All; and one would imagin,
that Mother Wybown (like some Potentates, when they are put
w Published Feb. 2, 1717. See The Post-Boy for that date.
i S 8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
to 't very hard for Men) had Listed all the Sex, from Sixteen to
Sixty.
Welstedy too 5 had his insults on this score ? in Palaemon to Caelia
That Play, retorted Fopiing, was so lewd,
Ev*n Bullies blush'd, and Beaux astonish'd stood;
But gentle Widows with soft Maids prevail,
And kindly save the Alligator's tail.
The point of obscenity was raised by Sir Richard Blackmore
in Ms "Essay on Polite Writing," published within a month
after the production of Three Hours after Marriage?* He was
no doubt anxious to do what he could to repay Gay's compli-
ments in Ms Epstle to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bur-
lington already mentioned.
TMs was the line too, as might have been expected, that
Addison's criticism took, and he had much to say on the subject,
so much that Gay angrily prepared a reply, which he finally
decided not to publish. That story appears in Spence.
Mr. Addison and his friends had exclaimed so much against
Gay's "Three Hours after Marriage," for obscenities, that it pro-
voked him to write "A Letter from a Lady in the City to a Lady in
the Country," on that subject. In it he quoted 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 had 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. 39
There were other causes for anger very soon. Cibber seems
to have taken a good while to wake up to the fact that some of
the lines he had been uttering contained hidden gibes at his
own foibles. Some two weeks after Gay's play was withdrawn,
8T Published March 7, 1717, The Post-Boy, 2d ed., March 13, 1717. See The
Daily Courani for that date.
88 la Essays on Several Subjects, Vol. II, published March 26, 1717. See The
Evening Post of that date. S9 Spence, Anecdotes^ p. 202.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 159
he got a petty revenge by taking a fling at the mummy and
crocodile in a revival of The Rehearsal*
Thus upon the coming of the two Kings of Brentford from
the clouds into the throne again, instead of what his part directed, he
said, "Now, Sir, this revolution I had some thoughts of introducing
by a quite different contrivance; but, my design taking air, some of
your sharp wits I found had made use of it before me; otherwise I
intended to have stolen one of them in the shape of a mummy, and
t'other in that of a crocodile. 40
This performance annoyed both Gay and Pope excessively.
According to the story which Cibber told long after/ 1 Pope
came backstage after the play, spluttering with rage and insisting
that Cibber withdraw those lines from future productions,
whereupon Cibber calmly assured him that so long as the play
continued to be acted he would not fail to repeat the words over
and over again. Gay also took part in the squabble, and the re-
port got about that he had attempted no one felt sure with
what results to cane Cibber. Before February was out, and
while the stories were still hot under the tongue, there appeared
with the usually hostile imprint of James Roberts a pamphlet
called A Letter to Mr. John Gay y Concerning His late FARCE,
Entituled, A Comedy. The dedication is to Wilks, Cibber, and
Booth, and supports the notion of inside opposition to the play
from the managers themselves.
Gentlemen, Since you had so much good Nature as to admit a
Play into your House against your Judgments, and so much Wit as
to suffer it to be ridiculed upon the same Stage afterwards; like a
Rogue that is punished upon the same Spott where he committed his
Murder; I have thought no Persons so proper Patrons of the fol-
lowing Letter as yourselves. You had too much Manners to dispute
the Performance before the Town had given its Opinion, and too
much Sense to stand out when every body had Damned it, but the
Authors.
Now this Letter presently goes on to describe Qbber's rid-
icule of the play in The Rehearsal and its unfortunate results.
* Supplement to the Universal Magazine, XXXV, 340.
41 A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (1742), pp. 18-19.
160 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Gentlemen, It is your Part to learn Instruction from this Scene
of Poetical Justice, for it is a sad thing to fall into the Hands of a
Boxing-Bard, who proves his Wit as the Saints of the last Age did
their Religion, from convincing Blows and reforming Knocks. Less
Terrible were his Alligator, Crocodile, and Mummy, and therefore
it is high time for you to clear behind the Scenes, as well as upon the
Stage.
BrevaPs Confederates also prints the story of Gay's valor as
"A Congratulatory Poem ; Inscribed to Mr. Gay ? on his Valour
and Success behind Dray-Lane Scenes."
But now our Modern Bards can fight
As Bravely, as they Wisely write,
And dare, to show that they're stout-hearted,
Draw Sword, when certain to be parted.
The letter which "George Paston" quotes tells the story
with an air of assuredness which argues truth, though we may
regret that in this version Gay, though equally courageous, is
less successful.
To touch upon the polite world before I conclude, I don't know
whether you heard, before you went out of town, that The Rehearsal
was revived, not having been acted before these ten years, and Gibber
interlarded it with several things in ridicule of the last play, upon
which Pope went up to him and told him he was a rascal, and if he
were able he would cane him; that his friend Gay was a proper
fellow, and if he went on in his sauciness he might expect such a
reception from him. The next night Gay came accordingly, and,
treating him as Pope had done the night before, Gibber very fairly
gave him a fillip on the nose, which made them both roar. The
Guards came and parted them, and carried away Gay, and so ended
this poetical scuffle. 42
Was ever a play so notorious? From the time when Charles
Johnson called it "long-laboured Nonsense" in the prologue to
The Sttltmessf* to the time, let us say,, when Arthur Murphy
42 George Paston, Mr. Pope (1909), I, 197. See also Biographic Dramatica
(1812), III, 334.
48 Acted in Drury Lane, Feb. 25, 1717. See Daily Courant, Feb. 25, 1717. "At
the Theatre-Royal In Drury-Lane, this present Monday, being the 2$th of February
will be presented a New Tragedy, call'd the Sultaness." '
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 161
changed the title of his old play. What we must all come to,
first acted 1764, to Three Weeks after Marriage (1776) in the
effort to stimulate public curiosity, the journals and miscellanies
were full of references to the play, and nearly all of them were
hostile. Nothing of Gay's, except The Beggars Opera, attracted
the same amount of publicity. The reason is not far to seek* Be-
fore 1728, the references were rude perhaps, but they reflected
at least an amused tolerance. Moreover, in them Gay usually
received main credit for the work. After 1728, the viciousness
of the attack was obvious, and the victim sought was Pope rather
than Gay. The dunces were up in arms, and since this play
had obvious faults, and Pope was known to have had some share
in its composition, they magnified that share 5 because of their
eagerness in attack they gave the play a wholly factitious im-
portance.
Note, for instance, the pleasantly ironic temper of the pam-
phlet John Shuttle and his wife Mary (1720), which on
page 22 discussed the authors of the day, and Gay among them.
Did ever Euripides write such a tragedy as the fall of Siam? Or
either Aristophanes, Terence, or Plautus, a Comedy equal to the
Three Hours after Marriage? . . . Can Theocritus's Pastorals be
compared to the Shepherd's Week? . . . Ovid and Tibullus must give
place to the soft Performances of Mr. Gay 5 Martial to the Quaint-
ness of Sir James Baker; and the Roman Satyrist to the City Bard.
Again, The Weekly Journal or Saturday** Post for Au-
gust 25, 1722, contained the following titbit of gossip for
theatregoers. It may of course refer to Pope, but in any case
the rancor of later attacks was absent.
It is reported, that a certain Poet, of top Reputation, has lately
declared to the Governors of the Theatre in Drury-Lane, that he
will not comply with their Request, lately made, to write for the
Stage; unless they will condescend to advance him a Premium of
500, on which Terms he will give them a second Part of that in-
comparable Droll, calFd, Three Hours after Mam&ge: And the
Managers of the Play-House, it is thought, (through their superior
Judgment) will vouchsafe to compliment the Poet with his extensive
162 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Demands, rather than the Town shall be, this next Winter, without
some uncommon, and more than ordinary, polite Entertainment.
In the same year was published A Monthly Packet of Ad-
vk&s -from Parnassus, Established by Apollo's express Authority,
And sent to England: With the Learning, Writings, Politicks,
md Manners of the Age. The author of this, for a wonder,
seemed quite able to detach Pope's name from Three Hours
jt&r Marriage and to damn that play, along with Ambrose
Philips^ The Briton, at the same time that he paid Pope the
highest compliments.
But when we come to more polite Studies, and to the Sacrifices
most grateful to Apollo, those beautiful Spots of the Garden have left
no Footsteps behind. Three Wits clubb'd together, cannot make a
Play equal to the worst of Shadwel's. Tragedy is lost. The Briton,
and Hibernia Freed, are our late Productions. How flaccid and faint
is every Line; as bad as the Translation of an Italian Opera. The
Authors write with no more Spirit than half starv'd Men. Pope, in-
deed, keeps up the Face of an English Poet. Oh! could he write
what he thinks, in Numbers sweet as those he has already sent into
the World; then he would, like Oldham, scourge a wicked Age, and
trace the Muses Miseries to their Fountain Head. 44
Pope was presently to do just this, and, in the mass of
pamphlets that assailed him, comments on Three Hours after
Marriage nearly always found a place, and the opprobrium
cooked up was nearly always plastered on him instead of on
Gay* Gulliver Decypher^d, to take but one example, facetiously
recounts the history of the triumvirate. Arbuthnot's advance to
favor at Court is first sketched by way of parable.
The next Person our physician grew intimate with, was a little
deformed crossgrained fellow, but very ingenious and witty, and in
great favour with the Chief Secretary [Bolingbroke]. His talent was
Rhyming, and 'tis said he raised a great fortune by turning an old
Collection of Ballads into the language of the Country, tho' some
are so malicious as to say, that he did not really understand them
himself, but got certain Druids to explain them, and so put them
* A This pamphlet bears no date. Ambrose Philips'* The Briton was produced in
1722.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 163
off for his own ; this Wight, who- they named Peter ^ had an intimate
friend, a very harmonious fellow, and an excellent Bagpipe player, to
which he us'd to set sonnets of his own making in the Pastoral kind;
he was the freed man of a certain Lady of great Quality, who had
given him his liberty for several good Services; and her Ladyship
being after troubled with fits of the Mother, had often occasion for
Dr. Johnny who then being in vogue, nobody could be modishly
sick without him.
The author goes on to describe how the authors "clubbed
the Farce" to avenge their private spite, how war followed In
the theatre and out, and how finally "Dr. Plausible [Mead]
and his party raised such power as to defeat their Enemies. 1 * 45
By this time the critics had a thesis to maintain about Pope,
and Three Hours ajter Marriage was the best available material
by way of example. They one and all asserted the treacherous
nature of the man as a friend: double-natured like an ancient
centaur, as Dennis put it, a Jesuitical professor of truth, a base
and foul pretender to candor, one whom you had best avoid,
he'll play you a foul trick else. Addison had some little excuse
for this feeling. The Meads never shared it, nor Lady Winchel-
sea.
Into all this scabrous mess of quarrelsome authors Gay was
precipitated, and the effect on his reputation was appreciable.
If he had cared to attempt preserving these dirty flies in amber,
he might just conceivably have won respect from angry men
effectively castigated. He had no wish to do this, and the angry
men, intent on piling all the active guilt on Pope's shoulders,
frequently found nothing left for Gay but the fool's cap he had
talked about in his prologue. This attitude is manifestly unfair.
* s Gulliver Decypher*d (1728), pp. 3 S. It Is impossible to imagine that Dr. Mead
could have been involved in the violent attack on the play, since his relations with
Pope continued to be friendly. For other references to Three Hours after Marriage,
consult: The Authors of the Town; A Satire; Inscribed to the Author of the Universal
Passion (n.d.)> p. 12; Characters of the Times; or, an Impartial Account of the Writ-
ings, Characters j Education) &c. of several Noble-men and Gentlemen , libelled in a
Preface to a late Miscellany published by Pio]pe and S[wi]ft (1728), p. 2Oj Sawney
and C alley t A Poetical Dialogue: Occasioned by A Late Letter from the Laursat of St.
Jameses, to the Homer of Twickenham. Something in the Manner of Dr. Sutift (a.d.,
after 1733)9 p 20} Blast upon Blast t and Lick for Lick ... by Captain H s Vinegar
(1742).
1 64 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
The play is so much better than most plays from which the
London public suffered in those days, that one is continually
astonished at the lack of recognition which has been its fate
down to quite recent times. The burden of personalities we
would object to; and there is some little suggestion in a letter
from Pope to Tonson that the authors were slightly conscious
of that mistake. Pope wrote: "Mr. Gay and myself think it
absolutely necessary that you should cancel that Leaf in which
the Epilogue is printed, or if it falls out wrong, cancell both
leaves rather than fail." 46
The play was not revived until 1737, nor reprinted sep-
arately till a Dublin issue appeared in 1761 , 47
in
Whatever Gay made out of this play in addition to the 43
2s. 6d. Lintot gave him for the copyright must have been slight
recompense for all the embarrassment it cost him, and it is
refreshing to turn from this unpleasantness to brighter matters
in the poet's life, to remember for instance that there were many
loyal friends about him still, on whom he could count at awk-
ward moments. The friends who had gathered about Swift in
more prosperous days were at the moment busy helping Prior,
who, like his former master, the Earl of Oxford, had been
confined on a charge of treason and only recently released. Four
days before Three Hours after Marriage appeared, Erasmus
Lewis was writing to Swift:
Our friend Prior, not having had the vicissitude of human things
before his eyes, is likely to end his days in as forlorn a state as any
other poet has done before him, if his friends dp not take more care
of Mm than he has done of himself. Therefore, to prevent the evil,
which we see is coming on very fast, we have a project of printing
49 British Museum Addit. MSS. 28275. f. 240.
* T Three Hours after Marriage, a comedy, by Gay, Pope, and Arbuthnot: To which
is added, never before Printed, a key, explaining the most difficult passages in this
comedy. Also a letter, giving an account of the origin of the quarrel between Colley
Gibber, Pope and Gay (Dublin, 1761). The Key, however, was the same old one. The
play was revived in 1737 for two performances, and again in 1746 for three. See
Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Early Eighteenth Century Drama 1700-1750 (Cam-
bridge, 1925), P- 331-
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 165
his Solomon, and other poetical works, by subscription ; one guinea to
be paid in hand, and the other at the delivery of the book. He*
Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay, are now with me, and remember you.
It is our joint request, that you will endeavour to procure some sub-
scriptions. 48
Prior was a friend worth helping, and Gay was doubtless
active in promoting this project. Parnell 5 on the other faandj
with no financial worries of Ms own, was anxious to help Gay,
and told Pope to pay over the copy-money for Zoilus (16 25.
6d.) to him.* 9
Sir Samuel Garth also was encouraging Gay to translate
more Ovid, and finding a place for his work in the magnificent
folio finally issued in July. The list of translators in this work
includes Dryden, Addison, Pope, Congreve, and Howe, to men-
tion five out of a list of eighteen. 50 Gay did most of the Ninth
Book. Translating Ovid seems to have been one of Gay's pet
amusements. His Arachne from Book VI had already found a
place in Lintot's Miscellany (1712), and another of his frag-
ments, this time from Book VII, had appeared late in 1716 in
a volume of the Metamorphoses which generally goes under
SewelPs name, and which apparently was thrust on the market
by Curll and some of his confreres to provide a cheap running-
mate for Garth's big volume. Garth's real friendliness for Gay
at this time and his respect for his abilities appear in a little
poem which Pope printed in Poems on Several Occasions^ issued
by Lintot in July, 17 ij. 51
Anacreontlck to Mr. Gay. By Dr. Garth.
When fame did o*er the spacious plains
The kys she once had learn'd, repeat 5
All listened to the tuneful strains,
And wonder'd who cou'd sing so sweet.
** Swift, Letters, II, 360.
40 Published In May, 1717, tinder Pope's supervision. See Pope's letter to Pamell
(Pope, Works, VII, 464).
50 See Pope, Sandy's Ghost> which Smedley called "a starched, forc'd Riot, on many
Noblemen and Gentlemen concern'd in. Dr. Garth 3 $ fine Translation of OvuPs Me-
amorphosis." See Dean Smedley's Gidliveriana (17*8), p. aucrviii.
51 See the article by Professor A. E. Case in the London Mercury (Oct., 1924) and
Mr. Norman Ault's edition, Pope's Own Miscellany (i935)*
166 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
'Twas thus. The graces held the lyre,
Th J harmonious frame, the muses strung,
The loves and smiles compos'd the choir,
And Gay transcribed what Phoebus sung.
The poets remained faithful to Gay, and the great world
still opened its doors to him, though none of his friends had yet
found the post for him he needed so badly. He had once again
high hopes. Along in December, before Three Hours aper
Marriage appeared, Pope wrote to Martha Blount: "Gay is well
at court, and more in- the way of being served than ever. How-
ever, not to trust too much to hopes, he will have a play acted
in four or five weeks, which we have driven a bargain for." 62
One fancies that this play may not have helped his court
projects, for though the Court ladies found Three Hours aper
Marriage good entertainment, the Princess herself was probably
not amused. In any case, when Gay next tried to gain her
favorable attention, it was with a play of a vastly different sort.
At the moment he leaned the harder on some of his other dis-
tinguished friends. Burlington still delighted in his company,
and his new friend, William Pulteney, invited him to spend the
summer with him and his family traveling in France, In April,
Pulteney had been dismissed from his office as Secretary of War
and had followed Walpole into retirement to make way for the
Stanhope-Simderland-Cadogan set. He may have thought Gay
needed cheering up, or he may have needed cheering up him-
selfthe latter more probably, in spite of Dr. Johnson's remark
about Gay's being "sunk in dejection." The journey was
planned for early June. Pope wrote to Caryll on June 7, 1717:
"I may now think of seeing Ladyholt, though not a line of my
next year's task is writ. As to Gay, he is just upon the wing for
Ak-k-Chapelle, with Mr. Pulteney, the late Secretary." 53
Evidently the party did not move until after July 6, as Pope
wrote Parnell on that date that Gay was going into France next
week with Pulteney. 54 It may well be that the delay was caused
by Pulteney's interest in an attack on Lord Cadogan which was
being engineered at this time. Cadogan's enemies had charged
" Pope, Works, IX, 271. "Ittd., VI, 244. " Ibid., VII, 467.
PULTENEY Earl of BATH.
An engraving by Simon-Frangois Ravenet, the elder, from a portrait by
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Courtesy of the British Museum
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 167
him with embezzlement, but the attack on him was in the main
malicious, and largely caused by Jacobite hatred of the part he
had played in suppressing the rebels of 1 7 1 5. Pulteney probably
hoped that the scandal might be strong enough once again to
upset the Whig balance, and doubtless he had no wish to be in
France when his country needed him. In this affair. Gay pro-
vided amusement for the Pulteneys and ammunition for the
guns of Cadogan's enemies by scattering about London streets a
broadside lampoon on his lordship, called Horace, Epod. IV.
Instated By Sir James Baker> Kt. To Lord Cadn. Gay
twitted Cadogan with his pride in newly-acquired honors,
called his family antecedents into very sad question, and even
threw doubt on his reputation as a soldier. The reference to
Marlborough was by no means polite.
Slaves think thee an important Lord,
In Senate and at Council-Board,
In Camps a Son of Thunder;
But sure, as I'm a valiant Knight,
If Marlborough taught thee not to Fight,
He taught thee how to Plunder.
One reason for the violence of these lines, for the insult to
Marlborough also, was that Marlborough and Cadogan were
probably the most rabid of all the enemies of the old adminis-
tration in their persecution of Lord Oxford, Gay's former
patron, so violent that when they found that impeachment pro-
ceedings would be dropped by the Lords they withdrew from
the House to avoid voting. 55
Neither the machinations of Pulteney nor the poetry of Gay
could upset Cadogan, and the two friends, both without jobs, set
out for France early in July for a visit that lasted well on into
November. We hear of them in October in a letter from Pope
to the Duchess of Hamilton, with whom he seems to have been
especially intimate at this time, and the reference suggests that
Gay was in high spirits.
No, madam, despise great bears, such as Gay; who now goes by
the dreadful name of The Beast of Blois, where Mr. Pulteney and
55 Swift, Letters, II, 391.
168 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
he are settled, and where he shows tricks gratis, to all the beasts of
his own country (for strangers do not yet understand the voice of
the beast). I have heard from him but once. Lord Warwick twice,
Mrs. Lepell thrice: if there be any that has heard from him four
times, I suppose it is you. 56
Gay wrote little more than letters during this trip. Pope
repeats Gay's complaint from Aix that writing was not good
with the waters, and compliments him on his Epstle to William
Lowndes^ which he had sent over to Lord Burlington. 57 This
is really one of Gay's most delightfully witty occasional pieces.
It praises the virtues of Lowndes as "Author of that celebrated
treatise in folio, called the Land-Tax Bill/ 7 compares him
favorably with poets and historians.
Ev'n Buttons Wits are nought compar'd to thee,
Who ne'er were known or prais'd but o'er his Tea,
While Thou through Britain's distant isle shalt spread,
In ev'ry Hundred and Division read.
Pope's letter referring to this poem (dated November 8,
1717) was the only one he sent to Gay that summer. We learn
from it that Gay had kept up a correspondence not only with
Lord Warwick and Mrs. Lepel, but with the Duchess of
Hamilton, Lord Stanhope (afterwards Earl of Chesterfield)
and Mrs. Bellenden. Evidently Lord Burlington had visited
the Pulteneys, and had some pretty compliments for Mrs.
Pulteney. Last of all, in this letter Pope wishes Gay "joy of the
birth of the young prince, because he is the only prince we have,
from whom you have had no expectations and no disappoint-
ments."
Pope says nothing of Gay's return, and we have no evidence
to help us on this point. He may have stayed in France through
that winter, but the only hint to support this comes from a letter
in the Portland MSS, and the Gay mentioned in them may not
be the poet at all On May 23, 1718, H. Wirmington writes
from Vienna to his uncle ? the Earl of Oxford: "I have en-
deavoured in my travels to find something curious, and of your
BS Pope, Works, IX, 46^ 6T Ibid., VII, 420,
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 169
Lordship's gout. There Is a description of Languedoc* written
by Mr. Bavil, with another little book of the Canal, which Mr.
Gay will remit into your hands." 58 It is just possible that the
books were purchased in Paris, when Pulteney and Gay were
amusing themselves there, and Winnington found it convenient
to entrust them to Gay for safe delivery,
That the two friends had a good time in Paris is clear from
the poem Gay wrote to commemorate the visit, An Epistle to
the Right Honourable William Pulteney, Esq. The subject of
the poem is the frivolities of the French* Like most English-
men of his own time and later times, he felt that all Frenchmen
were of the petit-mattfe kind, the men vain and the women
frivolous. The poem is full of the travelers usual comparisons
between what he sees abroad and how we-*do it back home. The
court, the parks, the city streets, the opera, pass in review, for
after all,
Shall he (who late Britannia* s city trod,
And led the draggled Muse, with pattens shod,
Through dirty lanes, and alleys doubtful ways)
Refuse to write, when Paris asks his lays!
The manners of the French, especially their conceit, are
treated rather scandalously, but their patriotism, their science,
and their literature are remembered with respect. 59 The name
of the great Archbishop of Cambray a favorite with Pulteney
reminds Gay of maxims of state. The King must protect his
people, and scorn to rule a wretched race of slaves. Then the
poet breaks forth in praise of England in a manner which later,
with Thomson and his followers, became all too common.
Happy, thrice happy shall the monarch reign,
Where guardian laws despotic power restrain!
There shall the ploughshare break the stubborn land,
And bending harvests tire the peasant's hand:
There liberty her settled mansion boasts.
There commerce plenty brings from foreign coasts.
58 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Portland MSS (1899), V, 560.
59 On English notions about the French at this time, see a letter from James Craggs
to Pope, Sept. 2, 1716 (Pope, Works, X, 173), and another from Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, Oct., 1718 (ibid., IX, 407).
1 70 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
O Entdn, guard thy laws, thy rights defend,
So shall these blessings to thy sons descend!
By June 1718, and probably much before that. Gay was back
in England/ spending the summer with his friend Pope at
Stanton Harcourt, Lord Harcourt's place near Oxford. Pope
was working hard at his translation and had accepted this old
half-disused house in the effort to get away from interruptions.
Lord Harcourt himself lived at Cokethorpe, not far away. The
friends found themselves distracted occasionally by invitations
to Cokethorpe, to Oxford, and to Lord Bathurst's place in
Cirencester. Over the last, Gay grew so enthusiastic that he
produced a poem about it, which doubtless pleased the owner
but has not come down to us. Erasmus Lewis, Lord Bathurst's
prose-man, was frequently there also, as was Prior, the verse-
man. Lewis proclaimed that he disliked Oakley Wood because
there was no water about.
A wood! quoth Lewis; and with that
He laughed and shook his sides so fat:
His tongue, with eye that masked his cunning,
Thus fell a reas'ning, not a running.
Woods are, not to be too prolix,
Collective bodies of straight sticks . . .
The woods for Gay were as romantic as the cave of Montesinosj
he planted them with myrtles and peopled them with nymphs,
Belladine \
ass of Wine \
rou this line. /
* The verses recently sold at Sotheby's may date from this period. See The
Poetical Works of Jo An Gay, p. 215.
My Dear Belladine
O're a Glas!
We send you
On Purpose to tell
You Miss Lepell
We are all very well.
If news we should send you from Canterbury
That news to be sure you would think is a lye
And therefore we'll say what before you did know
That we are your Servants wherever we go.
Canterbury, Saturday.
Ann Pulteney.
Wm. Pulteney
J. Gay.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 171
and, whatever the prose-men of the age might say, he proposed
to make posterity believe that there was water in Oakley
Wood. 61
From Oxford too came friends and invitations. Dr. William
Stratford, Canon of Christ Church and friend of Lord Oxford,
soon found them. On July 31, he was writing to Edward Har~
ley: "Your friend Steady, being so eminently ingenious, has got
the company of two wits for his entertainment, Pope and Gay.
Lord Harcourt lends them Stanton Harcourt to live in this
summer." 62
Early in July, Mrs. Pope joined them. During this month
occurred the sad accident which Gay and Pope straightway made
famous. Two young lovers were caught out in the fields in a
storm, and while attempting to shelter themselves near a hay-
stack were killed by lightning. The same account of this inci-
dent was sent by Gay and Pope by the same post, August 9, to
Fortescue and to Martha Blount, though Martha Blount's letter
was written, Pope says, three days earlier. Bathurst also got a
copy at the same time, for which he returned thanks a few days
later "to Mr. Gay and you." Probably both the men had a hand
in the composition. 63 The "melancholy novel" seems to have
excited the proper emotions in all who read it. Pope wrote an
epitaph and sent that to Atterbury and Caryl! and Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu. Atterbury and Caryll praised the fine sen-
timents, and considered the lovers scarcely unhappy, since their
disaster had made them forever famous in Pope's verses. Gold-
smith used the story in The Vicar of Wakefield and for a long
time no collection of model letters was complete without it.* 4
The only discord in this chorus of praise was Lady Mary's re-
w Pope, Works, VIII, 3*2-
** Historical Manuscripts Commission, Portland MSS (1899), VII, 239,
** Actually, this description was first published both by J. Wright and by Curll in
1737 as a letter from Gay to Fortescue, dated Aug. 3,- three days earlier than Pope's
to Martha Blount. See Court Poems (1719 ed.), Letters of Mr. Alexander Pope
(1737), William Ayre, Uje of Pope (i745>* Cf. The Taller, No. 82, and "Twaa
when the Seas were Roaring," and Tnomas Paraell, The Hermit.
e * For example, Letters On the; most Common, as well as Important Occasions m
Life (1757)- This work ran through several editions, and it was thought that the
introduction was contributed by Goldsmith.
1 72 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
turn letter. Her remarks and the mock epitaph she sent reduce
the whole framework of romance dangerously near absurdity. 65
One wonders how seriously also she took the grim Gothicism
of Pope's description of the old house, with which he had
favored both her and the Duke of Buckingham at this time.
Perhaps the old place bred melancholy. In any case, soon after
August 14, the friends were ready to exchange it for Lord
Batfaurst's country seat in Cirencester, which the owner had lent
them for the time. Pope had hoped to persuade the Blount sis-
ters to accompany him there and offered to meet them, along
with his mother and Gay, and show them Blenheim en route.
These plans, however, collapsed.
The minute I find there is no hope of you, I fly to the wood. . . .
What I shall gather from thence I know not, except nuts, which I
believe Gay and I shall oftener crack, than jokes. But you shall hear
more of our life there, when we have experienced it longer. 66
Information about Gay's affairs during the months that fol-
low is remarkably scarce. Late that autumn he produced A Let-
ter to a Suttomm Knight, already mentioned in connection with
the other Sir James Baker pamphlets. This one was a parody of
Eustace Budgell's A Letter to the Lord, xxxx from Eustace
Budgell) Esq. It is unpleasant to observe that the friendship be-
tween Budgell and Gay had so far cooled that Gay could satirize
BudgelPs rather pitiful attempt to explain his conduct in Ire-
land. But Budgell was getting to be a very difficult person in
these days. Age and prosperity had not improved him, and mis-
fortune would presently complete the process of disintegration.
Gay's pamphlet also ridicules the two most notorious projects
of the time, Steele's Fish-Pool Scheme and Aaron Hill's Beech-
mast We may presume that these men too had by this time
drifted almost completely out of Gay's circle. By the end of the
year, death had removed three more dear friends from the
group, Parnell, Rowe, and Garth. Pope wrote to Jervas on
December 12, 1718:
"Pope, Works, IX, 409. ** ttti., IX, 288.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 173
At present I consider you bound in by the Irish sea, like the
ghosts in Virgil,
Tristi palus inamabflis unda
Alligat, et novies Styx circumfusa coercet!
and I cannot express how I long to renew our old intercourse and
conversation, our morning conferences in bed in the same room, our
evening walks in the park, our amusing voyages on the water, our
philosophical suppers, our lectures, our dissertations, our gravities,
our reveries, our fooleries, or what not? This awakens the memory
of some of those who have made a part in all these. Poor Parnell,
Garth, Rowe! You justly reprove me for not speaking of the death
of the last: Parnell was too much in my mind, to whose memory I
am erecting the best monument I can. 67
Arbuthnot was still at hand, and always eager to give Gay
hints for one poem or another. During the summer of 1718,
he had been in Rouen and Paris for three months, and after his
return wrote Swift (October 14) about some of his experiences,
particularly about a beautiful Irish lady, named Nelly Bennet,
whom he had had the honor to present at the French court.
Everyone was delighted with her, and the boy-King ordered the
hussar to bring her the royal cat to kiss. Arbuthnot was cer-
tainly the author of this pretty story, but it is doubtful whether
he was the author of the pretty Edlad which was based on it,
and which presumably was written about this time. The Ballad
has been recently damned as "an extraordinarily coarse and in-
sinuating poem" 68 one hesitates to dispute so emphatic a pro-
nouncement and its authorship remains uncertain. If Arbuth-
not could write as good verses as these, it is too bad we have no
more like them. There is a song-lilt to them that makes one
look for the music. The worst instance of obscenity ia them is
a fling at French morals, such as we find in the Epstle to Puke-
ney, another is witty enough to be excused. Now Gay, as Swift
makes dear, was accustomed to talk over his poetical projects
with Arbuthnot. Arbuthnot loved to give hints. Moreover,
Gay was busy at this time writing some of his very best songs,
., VIII, 27.
88 Lester Beattle, John Arbutknot, Mathematician and Satirist (i935)> P- 287.
I 7 4 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
and I must insist that there is quality in this poem to rank it
high among them. One should remember also that Gay had
been in France not long before, and the casual familiarity with
the French scene and language apparent in the poem is only
what might be expected from him. Is it not more probable also
that the fourth stanza with its joke about what some French
papas do would come more naturally from Gay as he visualized
the scene after Arbuthnofs description than from Arbuthnot
himself? At least, we can agree that nastiness gives way to
obscene fun if we think of Gay writing the lines to tease his
friend, rather than of Arbuthnot turning over such an idea in his
own mind. I have no doubt that Gay wrote the verses.
rv
The summer of 1719 found Gay once more traveling on the
Continent. It is impossible now to discover who paid the bills.
He was at this time and for the following three or four years
particularly high in favor with Lord Burlington, and he may
have found ways to make himself useful to this powerful friend
or to his family on their journeys here and there. Speculation
on the point is useless. All we have to tell us what Gay was
doing that summer is a letter he wrote to Mrs. Howard from
Dijon on September 8, 17 19. 69 He had been, he says, very ill
with a fever which confined him for a month at Spa. That at
least puts the date of his departure from England back to July
or earlier. The letter continues with some amusing notes on
French manners, a pretty story about the English tourist who
wanted to know whether he had ever met John Gay, and some
account of his plans. Tomorrow he will set out for Lyons,
Montpellier, Paris. "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." It must be con-
fessed that this does not sound as if he were acting as steward
for a noble lord, or as cicerone for any youthful member of the
family.
Back in Engknd by November, Gay needed money badly,
Countess of Suffolk, Letters, I, 32.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 175
Since the summer of 1718, especially during those quiet days
at Stanton Harcourt, Gay had been fascinated by his reading in
foreign pastorals, in the novels of Cervantes, and in the pkys of
Tasso and Guarini; and his enthusiasm for these stories was now
to bear fruit in a new pastoral tragedy 3 Dione> which he had
ready to take the boards following Hughes's The Siege of Da-
mascus (February 17, 1720). The Lord Chamberlain's records
show that Gay obtained an order to the managers, Wilks, Cit>
ber, and Booth, to put the play on at that time. 70 For some
unknown reason it was never acted, 71 and the general public
knew nothing of its existence until it appeared in the quarto
Poems on Several Occasions a few months later. The failure to
get his play on the boards must have been a very real disappoint-
ment to Gay, for he had put much time and effort into the
creation of this poetic drama, and doubtless hoped it would win
for him a different sort of recognition from that already ac-
corded. That he had his hesitations is clear from the prologue.
The beaten paths of tragedy would have been safer, but these
masque-like effects had a curious power over his imagination,
and he made up his mind to seek strange adventures, even
though in the process he might lose his way. Once again Gay
was seeking novelty and on that altar sacrificed himself 5 for
even regarded as a poem Dione is not great. Only the highest
genius can transcend the artificiality of this form. By a sort of
juggler's trick Gay had fooled the fates once this way, and cre-
ated a beautiful poem in his Shepherd** Week, but when he at-
tempted to treat the form seriously, the high heroics turned
vapid for the most part, and we do grow tired, as Dr. Johnson
says, of sheep and goats, and myrtle bowers and purling
rivulets, through five acts. With Dr. Johnson's denunciations
in mind, it is perhaps just as well to remember that pastoral
verse has pleased far more than barbarians in the dawn of
civilization the courts of Augustus and Louis XIV for instance
and that change of taste in part accounts for Johnson's and
for our own lack of interest. Gay had certainly read Lady Mary
70 Nkoll, A History of Early Eighteenth Century >mm& 1700-1750, p. 275.
71 Neither Baker nor Genest mentions any production.
176 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Wortley Montagu's matter-of-fact account of the actual Arca-
dians, and he may have thought his own shepherds had the
same reality. She had written:
The young lads generally divert themselves with making gar-
lands for their favorite lambs, which I have often seen painted and
adorned with flowers, lying at their feet, while they sung or played.
It is not that they ever read romances. But these are the ancient
amusements here, and as natural to them as cudgel-playing and
football to our British swains; the softness and warmth of the climate
forbidding all rough exercises, which were never so much as heard
of amongst them, and naturally inspiring a laziness and aversion to
labour, which the great plenty indulges. 72
Gay was quite aware, as we have seen, of the pastoral crux,
and deliberately, I think, sought to get Dresden-china effects in
his play. 73 With careful production it might have pleased, but
the verse is hardly good enough to carry it. Some features are
novel. The moaning of enamored ghosts, sable Death, and
purple daggers, ravens calling from the blasted oak, might have
started a sympathetic shudder, since as yet in 1719 these
machines had not been overused. The descriptive verse is often
on a high level.
See yon gay goldfinch hop from spray to spray,
Who sings a farewell to the parting day;
At large he flies o'er hill and dale and down;
Is not each bush, each spreading tree his own?
The long flights of crows, high croaking from their food, the
nibbling sheep clothing the hills like winter's snow, the silver
axles of the moon rolling downward towards the chequered
shadows, such phrases as these please with their simplicity, and
the freshness they give to the image. Perhaps the best verses
are to be found in the speech of Lycidas at the beginning of Act
IV, as he looks down upon the sleeping maiden.
May no rude wind the rustling branches move;
Breathe soft, ye silent gales, nor wake my Love.
TS Lady Mary Wortlejr Montagu to Pope, Adrianopie, April I, 1717 (Pope, Works,
IX, 373).
78 See Gay's preface to The Shepherd's Week.
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 177
Ye shepherds, piping homeward on the way,
Let not the distant ecchoes learn your lay;
Strain not, ye nightingales, your warbling throat*
May no loud shake prolong the shriller note,
Lest she awake; O sleep, secure her eyes,
That I may gaze; for if she wake, she flies.
There is some slight incongruity in allowing the satire on. court-
life and fashionable marriages to creep in, as Gay does, several
times. Personifications adorn the verses on humble life 5 in fact,
for us they ruin an otherwise pretty passage, though the later
mid-century imitators of this feature did not think so.
Dione pleased neither Warton nor Dr. Johnson, and I
imagine that it has been very infrequently read since the eight-
eenth century. It was printed in the collected editions of the
Poems in 1720 and 1731, and was liked well enough to be
issued separately in 1733 and in I763- 74 The Germans ap-
parently wanted to read it in their own language; at any rate,
J. G. P. Mtichler provided a translation about the middle of
the eighteenth century.
v
Dione, then, not being acted, brought in none of the needed
cash. All Gay's friends agreed that something must be done
for him immediately. "Cabals were formed our Johnny's debts
to clear/ 5 and since Gay had no other play ready for production,
patronage must take an even more active form. Printing his col-
lected Poems by subscription seemed a possible idea since the
success of Prior, and that at least would distribute the burden.
His friends nobly rallied in support of the scheme, and his list
of subscribers rivals any of the famous successes of the time.
Burlington and the Duke of Chandos headed the list with fifty
copies each, Pulteney twenty-five, Bathurst, Warwick, Pelham,
Craggs, all took ten, while down for more modest assignments
we find Gay's early friend, the Earl of Essex, the Right Hon-
orable John Hervey, Simon Harcourt, the Duke of Queens-
The Bee, Or Weekly Pamphlet for Feb., 17 '3 3, contains a catalogue of books
recently published, Dione among them. Allardyee Nicoll notices a Dublin i*se of
1730 which I have not seen.
178 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
berry ? Robert Walpole, Gay's sister, Mrs. Bailer, many of the
poets, Kneller and Handel and Heydegger, the two Miss
Blounts, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, to mention only a
few of the names.
It would seem that the subscription list must have been well
under way before Gay wrote An Epstle to the Right Hon-
ourable T?wd Methuen, Esq: on the subject of patronage. This
poem found a place for itself in the Poems on Several Occasions
when the book finally appeared, but its compliments come so pat
that it serves as a polite note of thanks for favors just received.
Paul Methuen was made Comptroller of the Household early
that year, and Gay may have hoped to draw his attention to his
own needs at this appropriate moment. He speaks of the various
ways for authors to be great. < Write rancorous libels," he says,
"spatter a Minister with fulsome praise,"
Launch out with freedom, flatter him enough 5
Fear not, all men are dedication-proof.
Compliments follow to Burlington and Chandos, to Pope and
the wits.
Were Prior, Congreve, Swift, and Pofe unknown,
Poor slander-selling Curll would be undone.
Only the obscure are free from malice, and on that hint Gay
concocts a pleasant little fable of the crow and the lark, "To
shoot at crows is powder flung away."
The task of choosing and preparing his poems for the press
was no light one for Gay, and the quarto volume which Tonson
and Lintot finally issued as a joint publication deserves notice
from several points of view. Gay decided against reprinting the
early poem. Wine, and the translations of Ovid. One gets the
notion that he regarded the translation of these fragments as a
pedestrian exercise, practice for better things 5 he never pub-
lished his translations from Ariosto, which were probably
thrown off that summer at Stanton Harcourt under the impetus
of his Italian studies. More important than the missing poems
are the ones which he had ready by this time to add to his col-
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 179
lected Works. All the major poems and epistles (whether pub-
lished or unpublished so far)' found a place. One minor epistle
To a young Lady with some Lampreys^ a graceful jeu d*esfrit
which modern taste may frown upon if it likes, now appeared
for the first time. The What d'ye Call It is there, and Dione,
as poetic drama. There were also the five town eclogues already
commented on, only one of which. The Toilette, had been pre-
viously published, and some slighter poems which had earlier
made their appearance in various Miscellanies* In addition, Gay
had ready for publication now for the first time five tales in
verse, one an imitation, as I suppose he thought, of Chaucer,
called an Answer to the Sompner*s Prologue, three others with
a slightly medieval or horrific flavor, and one, The Mad Dog t
a parable on the morals of modern society. In three of these,
Gay was experimenting with a new medium that he was pres-
ently to use in The Fables with great success^ the four-stress
couplet. All these poems may be regarded as preliminary
studies for the fables; they are brief stories, graphically told, to
illustrate a moral which is made abundantly clear in the con-
cluding lines. Gay was thus beginning at this time to discover
one more thing that he could do with sureness of touch.
Four of Gay's songs appear in this volume, the charming
and ever-popular Sweet William** Farewell to Black-ey*d Susan f
followed by The Lady's Lamentation^ Damon and Cupid, and
Daphms and Chloe. The first of these was set to music by four
different musicians in the first year of its appearance, Carey :
Leveridge, Haydon, and SandonL Two broadsides issued
almost at once attest its popularity. Professor Nichol Smith
offers the interesting suggestion that when writing the last
stanza Gay may have remembered the scene when the Lady
TfaeodosSa, Clarendon's daughter, left the ship, as it shook loose
the sails to carry him on his mission to Hanover back in 1714.
For Sweet William's Farewell was- written at least a year or
two before its publication in Poems on Several Occasions. The
song and its tune were sufficiently well known to be parodied by
the author of the ballad of "Blue-eyM Lucy to the Tune of
Black-ey'd Susan," which can be found in TunMdgalm: or,
i8o JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Tunbridge Miscellanies For the Year 17/9. The parodies are
innumerable in succeeding years 5 one of the most amusing of
them describes the parting of Lord Castlereagh and Alderman
Sir William Curtis, when the Walcheren expedition sailed,
July 25, i8o9. 75 The song found its way happily into many
collections, and into many musical plays, surely not the latest of
which was Douglas Jerrold's Black-ey*d Susan; or. All in the
Downs (1829). Vincent Bourne translated it into Latin elegiacs
in 1731, and George Denman into Greek iambics, the final
stamp of approval, in 1898. Even Samuel Wesley, the younger,
was moved by the song to write An Epistle from Mr. Pope to
Mr. Gay occasioned by two Stanzas in Elack-ey y d Susan?*
Damon and Cwpid was written as a compliment to Bellenden
and Lepel, Gay's friends among the maids of honor, and
never attained wide popularity. Dafhms and Chloe, on the
other hand, though we have forgotten it, was loved by our fore-
bears. There are two single-sheet folios of this song, with music,
in the British Museum, one apparently printed in 1720, and one
five years kter. Both Daphnis and Chloe and Sweet William's
Farewell find a place in Watts's Musical Miscellany (1729-
1731) and in many similar collections too numerous to men-
tion. 17
Last among the new pieces in this volume is the epigram,
My Own Eptafh y which is always associated with Gay's name,
and, since he repeated it in a letter to Pope in 1729 when dis-
couraged by illness, is usually thought of as his considered view
of life when he was on the point of leaving it.
Life's a jest; and aE things show it.
I thought so once ; but now I know it.
This epitaph is a curiously puzzling personal document. It
might have been written in a mood of the highest hilarity, or
in one of the deepest dejection. It probably reflects neither
mood, but arose from Gay's exasperated feeling of the incon-
sequence of his own life, the surprising contradictions, the re-
75 The Good-Felloes Calendar, and Almanack of Perpetual Jocularity (1826), p.
192- Miscellanea (1727), I, 136.
TT Watts, Musical Miscellany (1729-1731).
NOTORIETY AND SUCCESS 181
wards that came unsought and the earnest efforts that passed
quite unnoticed.
This time with the publication of his collected poems Ms
plans and high hopes did not end at least for the moment
in exasperation. One thousand pounds or more found their way
into his hands from subscribers and sales, and for a few months
Gay must have been a happy man. Unfortunately, his friend,
James Craggs the younger, gave him some South Sea stock
shortly after, and, stimulated by this gift, Gay plunged all his
little fortune in this vain venture. That meant ecstasies for the
moment and despairs very soon, but in the meantime the poet
was enjoying his success with his friends, turning off one impor-
tant occasional piece, and writing songs. Pope's ship had at last
come home $ the final two volumes of the Iliad were issued on
May 12, I720. 78 Gay proceeded to welcome him back to normal
existence in a poem he called Mr. Poke's Welcome from Greece.
This poem has considerable biographical interest, as it gives a
charming picture of the friendships of the two men at that time,
and traces miniatures of character in phrases continually repeated
by historians of the period from that day to this though the last
remark should be qualified, since after all the poem remained in
manuscript until Stevens's Additions to the Works of Alexander
Pofe, Esq. appeared in 1776. One wonders why Gay never
printed the poem himself. Presumably he felt that it would be
of interest only to his friends, and modestly underestimated the
poetic quality of these felicitous verses.
Long hast thou, friend! been absent from thy soil,
Like patient Ithacus at siege of Troy ;
I have been witness of thy six years toil,
Thy daily labours, and thy night's annoy,
Lost to thy native land, with great turmoil,
On the wide sea, oft threatening to destroy:
Methinks with thee Fve trod Sigaean ground,
And heard the shores of Hellespont resound.
Did I not see thee when thou first sett'st sail
To seek adventures fair in Homers land?
78 Pope, Works, VI, 273 n.
i8a JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Did I not see thy sinking spirits fail.
And wish thy bark had never left the strand?
Ev'n in mid ocean often didst thou quail,
And oft lift up thy holy eye and hand,
Praying the Virgin dear, and saintly choir,
Back to the port to bring thy bark entire.
The ship comes in by Gravesend, Tilbury, Greenwich, Dept-
ford, to its dock amid the crowds of welcoming friends. Gay
manages to make the poem far more than a catalogue of names.
One can imagine no more varied throng, and Gay drags in no
name for the sake of rhyme. Their conjunction here is the
highest compliment that could be paid to the character of Pope.
Gay must have written the poem between April and November
of this year, probably early in that period. It reflects once again
the influence of Gay's Italian reading. Sir Anthony Panizzi
pointed out many years ago that Gay was here imitating some
stanzas of Ariosto at the beginning of Canto XLVI of Orlando
Furioso.
79 Orlando inamorato di Sojardo : Orlando Furioso di Afiosto : with an essay on
the romantic narrative poetry of the Italians} memoirs^ and notes by Antonio Panizzi
(183034.), IX, 311.
CHAPTER V
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION
(17201726)
THE SUMMER of 1720 was a cheerful one, in spite of South Sea
squalls. Gay and Pope went about among their friends^ both
feeling the exhilaration of an important task completed. On
June 16, Matthew Prior wrote to Harley from Westminster:
According to your order I direct to you at Bath ... I have
nothing to add but that I am going to dine with John of Bucks at a
sort of convmum ^oeticum^ for Pope and Gay are the other two
guests. I have Gay's works and Milton's as well for Lady Harriette
as yourself, and in my consummate prudence I have judged it better
to keep these 1 books together with Gyles Jacob till I see you, than to
send them rambling round the country after you. I invited the
virtuosi t'other day, Gibbs, Wanley, Wooten, and Christian; the
two first could not come, and the two last could not be got away
till midnight; dirty Dibben of Dorsetshire, and the Archdeacon of
Bath were of the company, as well to bless the meat as to drink great
share of the claret; Morley assisted in tea. It was a conversation
about five o'clock, a disputation towards seven, and a bear-garden
about ten. We drank your healths over and over, as weE in our civil
as bacchanalian hours. 1
Wanley, Lord Harley's librarian, had joined the crowd that
welcomed Pope in Gay's poem, but he would not go to Matt
Prior's party.
O Wanlej) whence com'st thou with shorten'd hair,
And visage from thy shelves with dust besprent?
"Forsooth (quoth he) from placing Romer there,
"For ancients to compyle is myne entente:
"Of ancients only hath Lord Harley c<we
1 Historical Manuscripts Commission* MSS of the Marqws of Bah (1904), HI,
482.
1 84 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
In August, Gay was at Canons, the Duke of Chandos's place,
doing his bit in the production of HandePs oratorio, Queen
Esther. The most celebrated songs from this piece were pub-
lished, along with the score of HandePs overture, in 1736, four
years after Gay's death. It was HandePs first English oratorio
and was produced at Canons on August 29, IJ20. 2 The songs
have been attributed to Samuel Humphreys, Pope, Gay, and
Arbuthnot, and it is now impossible to distinguish the work of
each.
One other song belongs to this period, The "Despairing Shep-
herd. Very popular in its day, it was printed twice in folio in
Gay's time with different musical settings. It also found a place
in Watts's Musical Miscellany and in Allan Ramsay's Tea Table
Miscellany.
Gay's thoughts were very soon on other matters. As early
as June 24, Pope wrote to Fortescue: "Pray, if it is possible to
remember a mere word of course in such a place as Exchange-
alley, remember me there to Gay; for anywhere else (I deem)
you will not see him as yet." 3
At this time Pope was annoyed by all the stock-market
fever, and felt that it put a stop to all genuine trade and all
friendship, all honor even, but he himself caught the infection
soon along with Gay, and presently we find the two of them
planning to invest some of their surplus gains from South Sea
in a Devonshire estate and to become effectually the countrymen
of Fortescue. The plan was never carried out. Warnings at-
tended too late came from conscientious men demonstrating the
fallaciousness of the South Sea scheme. One of them wrote:
The South-Sea Stock is risen to so monstrous an Excess, that it
puts an Affront upon all Sense and Reason; a Set of crafty Men
having undertaken to delude the World with an Opinion, that they
can, by a little hocus focus Management, make a single Unit become
a good Ten. 4
The Daily Journal, April 17, 1732, advertises Esther to be performed at Villars-
Street on Thursday the twentieth. On April 19, the advertisement is repeated with
"The Words by Mr. Pope" added. * Pope, Works, IX, 98.
4 A Letter to a Conscientious Man; Concerning the Use and the Abuse of Riches
(1720), p. 14.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 185
Walpole himself was among the fearful and predicted col-
lapse. 5 No one paid any attention to such old-fogy advice, no
one ever does.
In London stands a famous pile,
and near that pile an alley,
Where merry crowds for riches toil,
and wisdom stoops to folly 5
Here sad and joyful high and low,
court Fortune for her Graces,
And as she smiles or frowns they show
their Gestures and Grimaces . . .
Our greatest Ladies hither come,
and ply in chariots daily,
Oft pawn their jewels for a sum
to venture't in the alley. 6
Only a few weeks after Pope wrote to Fortescue about the
Devonshire estate, that is, towards the end of August, the stock
began to fall, and by the first of October the collapse was com-
plete. No one could any longer be deceived.
'Tis impossible to express the vast Alterations are made here, by
the sudden and unaccountable Fall of the South-Sea, as well as other
Stocks; some few, indeed, of the Dealers in them, had happily se-
cured themselves before the storm arose, but the far greater Number
who are involved in this public Calamity appear with such dejected
Looks, that a man of little Skill in the Art of Physiognomy, may easily
distinguish them. Exchange-Alley sounds no longer of Thousands
got in an Instant j but on the contrary all Corners of the Town are
filled with the Groans of the Afflicted; and they who lately rode in
great State to that famous Mart of Money, now humbly condescend
to walk the Streets on Foot, and instead of adding to their Equipages,
have, at once, lost their Estates; and even those of the trading Rank
talked loudly of retiring into the Country, purchasing Estates there,
building fine Houses, and in everything imitating their Betters, are
now become Bankrupts, and have, by Necessity, shut up their Shops,
because they could not keep them open any longer; however, for the
5 Diary of Mary Countess Coteper, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of
Wales, 1714-1720, p. 134-
6 "A South-Sea Ballad: or, Merry Remarks upon Exchange-Alley Bubbles," Song
II in The Shepherd's Garland: Composed of Four New Songs.
1 86 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Comfort of such whose Conditions will admit of a Remedy, 'tis said
a certain Gentleman has formed a Scheme for the Relief of those
concerned. In the meantime, for their present Consolation, we ad-
vise them to consult Seneca upon Losses, who, perhaps, may be as
useful to them as to the Gentleman in the play called The Gamester,
on the like Occasion. 7
Pope had sold out at least part of his stock on the advice
of Caryllj but Gay was caught very short indeed, and even the
clean shirt and shoulder of mutton every day, which Fenton
had been so anxious for him to reserve, vanished with the rest.
At least most of the biographers, following Dr. Johnson's lead,
have been content to register complete loss and Gay's collapse
under disappointment with the usual sheltering friends about
him. Now Gay was neither fool nor lap dog 5 he may have been
"negligent and a bad manager," as Pope later calls him, 8 but
he was as canny about money matters as most of his friends
that year. Anyway, South Sea, which had rocketed well up to
1,000, had fallen by the end of the year to 125 or 130. Gay
was, we know, harassed by Tonson's claims in October. He had
failed to meet his note with that publisher due in September,
but his letter certainly does not adopt the tone of a broken
man by any means. 9 Some small part of his fortune may
have been left, for on February 24 of the following year Gay
was writing an order on Charles Lockyer to pay Thomas Glegg
dividends on his South Sea stock, and on May i, 1721, he trans-
ferred some of his stock to Pope's account for some reason which
I cannot discover, 10 nor can I find out how much was left. As
7 The Weekly Journal t or Saturday's Post, Oct. i, 1720.
8 Spence, Anecdotes, p. 214.
* Printed by Underbill In his edition of Gay's Poems, p. xlil.
10 Both these business letters were originally in a collection of letters made by
William Upqott of the London Institution. The first is now In the Hunting-ton Li-
brary, the second in the Bodleian (MS Montagu, d. i). Perhaps I should quote the
second.
May i, 1721
SR.
Please to place to the Account of Alexander Pops Esqr all such Stock as is due to
me for one thousand pounds of the third Subscription paid in upon my Name for sale
of South Sea Stock.
J. GAY.
As late as June 25, 1722, Gay ordered the South Sea Company to pay the dividends
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 187
for the breakdown in health and cheerfulness. Gay was well
enough, as we shall see, to be doing revising jobs about the
theatres that winter and spring, and even when he was driven
by the return of his colical complaint to drink the waters in
Bath about August i, 1721, his melancholy arose from his own
serious illness and from the death of his friend, the young Lord
Warwick, 11 rather than from his financial disasters. Finally,
does the Panegyrical Efistle to Mr. Thomas Snow, Goldsmith
near Temple-Bar, which Gay wrote to commemorate the burst-
ing of the Bubble, sound like the ravings of a man distraught,
unable to distinguish the real world from the fantastic imagin-
ings of Bedlam? The world, he thought, had been Bedlam for
a time and fools had 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 Subscriptions sold,
For Millions of imaginary Gold:
No wonder, that their Fancies wild can frame \
Strange Reasons, that a Thing is still the same, >
Though chang'd throughout in Substance and in Name. )
But you (whose Judgment scorns Poetick Flights)
With Contracts furnish Boys for Paper Kites. 12
Gay looked at his stock-certificates, saw them fit for little more
than making kites, and like a sensible man tried to forget them.
ii
If we may believe Leonard Welsted's Prologue to the
Town, As it was Sfoken at the Theatre in Little LincoM$-Inn~
Fields (1721), the people were that winter at last forgetting the
frenzy of the stock market and finding their way back to more
normal pleasures.
on his stock due the preceding- Christmas to Henry Watson. See his letter preserved in
the manuscript collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
11 Letter-Books of John Hervey, frs Sari of Bristol . . . 1651 to 1750 (Wells,
1894), II, 161.
18 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, VIII, I7- Two editions of this poem were pub-
lished in 1721. There was no further printing- until the Miscdlmtws m Vcrst (*7 2 7)'
i88 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
At length, the Phrenzy of, the Realm is o'er.
And the wide-spreading Mischief reigns no more:
Lured by false Prospects, and misguided long,
At last to Balls and Theatres you throng. 13
Gay turned also to the theatre. We find him writing a
pretty epigram by way of motto for Rolli's opera, Mutws
Scaevola.
Who here blames words, or verses, songs, or singers,
Like Mutius Scaevola will burn his fingers.
A more important task was his revision of Thomas Wright's
old play. The Female Virtuosos, or as it was now called. No
Fools like Wits. Mottley's Complete List of all the English
Dramatic Poets (1747) gives under Gay:
1720. No Fools like Wits: A Comedy, acted at the Theatre in
Lincolns-Inn-Fieldsy in the Year 1720. It is an Alteration of a
Comedy called the Female Virtuosoes; and acted against Mr. Gib-
ber's Refusal, which was partly taken from the same Play.
The Bio grafhia Dramatical however, says that this play was
merely a republication of Wright's Female Virtuosos , by Gay,
and that it was set up and acted three nights, in opposition to
Gibber's Refusal, "which was partly borrowed from the same
play, or at least from the same original, viz. the Femmes
Sgavantes of Moliere. No one, we believe, will think this
comedy equal in merit to The Refusal" This statement cannot
be entirely correct. Gay would scarcely have lent the support
of his name to a mere reacting of the old play under a new
name, even though the managers paid him well in an effort
to fill their house. As it happens, Curll sought to turn a penny
in this little theatrical war and printed Wright's play verbatim
as it had appeared in 1693, even to the dedication to Charles,
Earl of Winchelsea, signed by Wright, and the names of the
original cast. All he adds is a list of characters, "Thus Cib-
beriz'd," changing the names of the actors naturally, and reduc-
ing the list from thirteen to ten, and a preface addressed to
18 These lines were written for a special performance of Measure for Measure,
which did not take place. " (1812), III, 86.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 189
Colley Gibber himself. la this he reminds Gibber quite un-
necessarily of the history of this adaptation of Moliere on the
English stage.
It has been likewise this Season revived at Lincolns-Inn-Field$ 9
under the Title of. No Fools like Wits; nor indeed did Nature ever
produce a more egregious Coxcomb than the Reviver; who to honour
Moliere, has blended the Miser and the Generous Man [Chrisalus in
Les Femmes Sg&uantes] to form a new Character, but such a one as
can only be called Monstrum & Horrendum.
Curll was not pleased with Gay's adaptation. Considering
the strained relations that existed between him and Pope, we
should scarcely expect him to be. His sneering criticism, how-
ever, makes it clear that Gay actually rewrote the play and
changed at least one of the characters. Curll liked neither Gay
nor Gibber. His remark about a new character that Gibber had
introduced is perhaps worth adding. It follows directly the
quotation above.
You have indeed done Moliere a Piece of much more exemplary
Justice; for when I came to the Theatre with my Head crammed
full of agreeable Ideas, I found you had taken all his Characters;
tho*, by the bye, your bringing a South-Sea Director into an honest
Family, is like grafting a Crab upon a Pippin. After having paid for
your Refusal, heard your Ladies Philosophy^ and considered of your
Stock; upon being asked by a Friend, What the Entertainment was
like? it is like, says I, (knowing your Modesty) a Sampler ^ whereon
Monsieur Moliere*s STITCHING may easily be perceived from Mr.
Gibber's CANVASS. Then recollecting a lucky Simile of our old Friend
Mr. Cleaveland, I declared of your whole Performance, that
There's no Imagination that can strike it,
*Tis so like NOTHING, that there's NOTHING like it.
Gay's play was, so far as I know, never printed. Either his
play or Gibber's must have excited public curiosity, as CurlPs
reprint with the above preface, first issued on January 14, 1721,
apparently ran into a second edition by February i5, 15 It may
15 See Ralph Straus, The Unspeakable Curll (1927), p. 265. Mr. Straus gives only
one issue, under date Jan. 14, 1721, which he presumably got from an advertisement
(though he quotes the British Museum copy, zd ed., Feb. 15$ as being the one he
190 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
be that Gay's friends thought they were getting his play, and
Gibber's friends thought they were getting his. In that case,
both factions were fooled 5 they got Wright's old play and
CurlPs brief opinions. More probably, with Grub Street in a
somewhat touchy condition, the title alone sold the pamphlet,
not for the first time in CurlPs establishment. Curll still had
a few of them left in 1728, for he advertised them for sale in
the back of the Poetical Works of William Pattison.
in
Most of the time that spring (1721) Gay was with Lord
Burlington at Chiswick. His friendship with the Pulteneys had
not cooled, and he visited them frequently. At their home he
had grown intimate with Francis Colman, Mrs. Pulteney's
nephew, and the father later of George Colman, Garrick's
friend. Colman had been appointed British resident in Flor-
ence, and proposed to travel to Dover by way of Chevening,
the Pulteneys' country home. Pulteney wrote to assure him
of welcome:
I am glad to hear you will make Chevening your way to Dover,
but you may depend upon it that we will force you to stay one night
at least. Mr. Williams shall be extremely welcome, and I shall be
proud of beginning an acquaintance with him. Your coach will be
filled with your own family, if you could persuade John Gay to come
on horseback with you I shall be glad of it, because the affair is over
which was to have brought me to Town, so that he cannot return
with me. 16
The only letter we have of Gay's for the year 1721 was sent
to Colman after the latter's departure for Florence. Gay wrote
from Bath, August 23, to tell his friend of Kis arrival there
with Lord Burlington three weeks earlier, and their intention
to go into Yorkshire before long. His "colical humour" had
aw). Curl! may merely have printed a new title (zd ed.) for the first edition sheeta
which were still unsold. The copy of this book in the British Museum originally
belonged to Gay himself.
ie Posthumous Letters from various Celebrated Men; addressed to Francis Colman
and George C&lma } the Elder (1820), p. I, '
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 191
been once again troubling him, and he appeared to be depressed
partly by illness, partly by Lord Warwick's death, and partly
because there seemed to be not the least prospect of independ-
ence ahead. He complained of the lack of company 5 the Pulte-
neys had had some thoughts of Bath when he had seen them
some weeks before in Chlswick, but they had not arrived. 17
Indeed, the Countess of Bristol and Mrs. Bradshaw (Mrs*
Howard's friend) seem to have helped him pass the time more
successfully than anyone else, until the arrival of the Duchess
of Queensberry. A fellow-lodger wrote to her friend that she
had met him: "Gay the poet lodges in our house so he has
supt with us." 18 The Countess of Bristol Molly LepePs new
mother-in-law wrote somewhat more illuminating comment in
a letter to her husband a few days before Gay sent off his
gloomy epistle to Colman:
The plays begin tonight, & I sopose aE deversions will go forward
now Governor Nash is arrived. Poor Gaye is exceeding maloncholy
for the death of his frind, Lord Warwick, who dyd (as they say)
without a will; so all goes to Lady Betty, his aunt, who marred a
country attorney, & poor Rich, of our fameliy, is an earl without a
groat. 19
The only other information we have of Gay's visit to Bath
that season is contained in two letters of Mrs. Bradshaw to
Mrs. Howard. Mrs. Howard must have been lonely that sum-
mer, for Mary Bellenden and Molly Lepel had both married
the preceding year and were no longer at Court. After drinking
the waters for a month, Gay was still very miserable 5 Mrs,
Bradshaw reports his sad state in her first letter (August 30) :
I would fain persuade Mr. Gay to draw his pen ; but he is a lost
thing, and the colic has reduced him to pass a hum-drum hour with
me very often. I desired him to club a little wit towards diverting
you, but he said it was not in him; so I chose rather to expose myself,
P . 7-9.
Political and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth Century, 1721-1771,
ed. Emily F. D. Osborn (1890), p. 22, Letter to Robert Byng, dated Bath, Aug. 30,
1721.
18 Letter-Books of John Hervey> fi ar l */ Bristol . . . x6$x * 1750 (Wells,
1894), n, 161.
192 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
than not put you in mind of a poor sick body that has taken physic
today and not seen the face of a mortal. 20
Gay was in the habit, we learn, of writing to Mrs. Howard
at this time, but no* letters of that year survive. By September 19
he was better. Mrs. Bradshaw saw him only occasionally for
a private conference at the Pump, but most of the time he was
with the Duchess of Queensberry. Dr. Cheyne was about also,
"Big blustering Cheyne/' as one of the current lampoons called
him, and doubtless gave Gay lots of good advice about exercise
and diet.
In vain he toils to teach unruly Man
T'enjoy firm health thro' life's determin'd Span:
And shew them how to guard themselves from Ills,
By wholesome Exercise and sober Meals. 21
The Marlboroughs, who had been in Bath at the time of Gay's
last visit in 1716, were not there this time, for reasons possibly
that the Duchess had once suggested in a letter to Lady Cowper.
I have been upon the Walks but twice, and I never saw any
Place Abroad that had more Stinks and Dirt in it than Bath; with
this Difference only, that we are not starved, for here is great Plenty
of Meat, and very good, and as to the Noise, that keeps One almost
always awake. I can bear it with Patience, and all other Misfortunes,
as long as I think the Waters do the Duke of Marlborough any
good. 22
When Gay left Bath, and when or whether he visited York-
shire with Burlington, are unknown. Certainly the most im-
portant development of the visit to Bath that year was the
growing intimacy with the Duchess of Queensberry. Her hus-
band had been a subscriber to Gay's Poems on Several
80 Countess of Suffolk, Letters, I, 74.
31 The Diseases of Bath. A Satire (1737), p. 7.
** Dtary of Mary Countess Cotoper, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of
Wales, 1714-1720, pp. 196-197. Extracts of a letter from the Duchess of Marl-
borough to Lady Cowper, Bath, Sept. 3, 1716.
For a careful matter-of-fact description of Bath, see "A Tour through Several Parts
of England," by Samuel Gale, Esq., F. S. A., written in 1705, revised in 1730, and
published by John Nichols in Btbliotheca Topographica Bfifamnica, Vol. Ill, "Reliquae
Gaieanae," No. II, part i, pp. 21 S.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 193
sions the year of his marriage to Catharine Hyde, and this un-
spoiled triangle of friendship was by this time becoming one
of the great joys of the poet's life.
IV
As the year drew to its close. Pope was just beginning to
organize another project that would involve Gay and Fenton
before the task was done. The Weekly Journal or Saturday's
Post for November 18, 1721, has the following note: "The
celebrated Mr. Pope is preparing a correct Edition of Shake-
spear's Works; that of the late Mr. Rowe being very faulty ."
Probably Gay had little hard work to do on this task until
the following spring, when he and a group of Pope's friends
developed the habit of getting together to collate the several
printings of Shakespeare's plays. 23 Mr. Sherburn has recently
published a letter from Pope to Tonson which refers to these
meetings:
. . . my affairs have hurryd me to & from London, interchangeably
every day; the last part of the Planting Season taking me up here, &
business which I think less agreeable, there, I'm resolvd to pass the
next whole week in London, purposely to get together Parties of my
acquaintance ev'ry night, to collate the several Editions of Shake-
spear's single Plays 5 of which I have ingaged to this design. 24
They were still busy together on August 12, before Gay
went off to Bath. 25 This work would at least provide Gay with
funds, though not too liberally, as the total he seems to have
received from Tonson was 35 ijs. 6d n almost the same
amount, incidentally, that Rowe received for the entire task. 26
The work on Shakespeare must have been distinctly less
38 One friend who would not be there was Prior. See Mist's Weekly Journal) Sept.
23, 1721. "Last Friday 7 Night died at the Lord Harley's in Northamptonshire,
Matthew Prior, Esqj Resident at the Court of France in the latter end of the Reign
of Queen Anne, and celebrated for his Poetical Writings. The following Epitaph it
said to have been writ by him, some Years ago.
Courtiers and Heralds, by your Leave,
Here lies the Bones of Matthew Prior;
The Son of Adam and Eve;
Let Bourbon or Nassau; go higher."
24 Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope, p. 308,
25 Pope, Works t VIII, 57. se Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, V, 597.
JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
agreeable to Pope than the planting tasks mentioned in the
letter above. He speaks in a letter to Caryll, 27 of the "due
gradation of dulness, from a poet, a translator, and from a
translator, a mere editor/ 3 and Gay had the notion that both
the Shakespeare and the Odyssey were potboilers to cover those
losses in South Sea that Pope preferred not to talk much about. 28
The planting, however, had all his enthusiasm, and when the
house and garden were finally in order, Gay wrote him a con-
gratulatory letter or it may be poem on the event, a letter
which has since disappeared. The grotto had been too much for
Pope, and when he comes to acknowledge Gay's letter he loses
himself in romantic vaporings about Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
tagu. His sentimental heart is breaking. No wonder Lady
Mary preferred to stifle those verses.
I see sometimes Mr. Congreve, and very seldom Mr. Pope, who
continues to embellish his house at Twickenham. He has made a
subterranean grotto, which he has furnished, with looking-glass, and
they tell me it has a very good effect. I here send you some verses
addressed to Mr. Gay, who wrote him a congratulatory letter on the
finishing his house, I stifled them here, and I beg they may die the
same death at Paris, and never go further than your closet. 29
About a month after this pretty exchange of prosaic and
poetic felicities, the great Duke of Marlborough died (June 16,
1722). Gay's relations with that family had not before this
time been intimate. He had met "the Viceroy Sarah" and Marl-
borough in Bath in 17163 Sarah somewhat subdued no doubt
by her husband's pitiful breakdown, and still more by failure
of the newcomers from Hanover to appreciate the family
loyalty. Elsewhere he had met the daughter Henrietta,
Congreve's friend, now Duchess of Marlborough. It was only
polite that he should address some verses on the death of the
Duke to her. On July n, the poem appeared in folio, as An
Epstle to Her Grace Henrietta Dutchess of Marlborough. It
has unfortunately no merit beyond the smoothness of its verse,
17 Pope, Works, VI, 281. 28 Swift, Letters > III, 154-
** Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, I, 461.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 195
and remains the only example of Gay*s lapse into the flabby
panegyrical fashion of the day. Some golden guineas may have
found their way to his pocket in payment for the flattery, and
no doubt the young Duchess would welcome him with smiles
when he met her at Bath the next month. Let us hope that
she did not notice one lapse from good taste which Gay per-
mitted himself in the poem.
Gay went to Bath in August and remained for nearly eleven
weeks in the hope of getting some relief from his old complaint
The company was better than in the preceding year. In addition
to Congreve and his Duchess, Gay found Swift's old friend,
Duke Disney (who spread a report that Swift would presently
appear in Bath), the two doctor-friends, Arbuthnot and Cheyne,
and the Pulteneys, with whom Gay may have made the journey.
What chance Gay would have in a crowd like this to get the
rest and proper care necessary in his somewhat debilitated state
we can only guess. Pope certainly thought Arbuthnot* s example
none too good in the matter of high living, "Now I speak of
those regions about the abdomen, pray dear Gay, consult with
him and Dr. Cheyne, to what exact pitch your belly may be
suffered to swell, not to outgrow theirs, who are, yet, your
betters." 30
Arbuthnot stayed not so long as Gay, only three or four
weeks j long enough, however, to drop some hints about that
astonishing document, Annus Mfrabffis, announcing a grand
metamorphosis of the sexes as a part of the wonders to take
place on the famous conjunction of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn,
December 29, 1722. Pope and he had in all probability been
concocting this poem before Arbuthnot left London, and show-
ing it about to friends also, since Pope complains about Arbuth-
not's leaving his bastards at other folk's doors. Here was another
idea, and Gay sat down to write his own spedal modification
of it, An Epstle to the most Learned Doctor Wdd; jrom
& Prude, That was unfortunately metamorfho^d on Saturday $
December 29, 1722. At least this is the most natural inference
* Pope, Works, VII, 4*3-
ig6 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
to draw from what evidence we have about the authorship of
the naughty poem. It takes its lead directly from Annus
Mimbilis.
Alas! too late I to my Sorrow find
That these Astrologers ar'n't always blind;
What Depths they search? What Mysteries unfold?
Annus Mirabttis this Change foretold:
I read it thrice and cry'd there's nothing in't,
Grub street all, o'er the Paper Stile and Print.
The author then makes the sensationalism of the idea still
more pointed by restricting it to one particular metamorphosis,
and allowing the prude so disastered to call in the now
notorious Dr. Woodward to her aid. The story of the terrible
night at the Opera is, I fear, amusingly told, but worse is to
come.
Thus when an Earthquake shakes the trembling Ground,
First, from below, strange bellowing Noises sound;
Inward Convulsions torture Mother Earth,
She seems prepar'd to give some Monster Birth;
All Nature's sick but whilst she laboring heaves,
A gaping hideous Chasm her Bosom cleaves;
Some Mountain she thrusts forth, to ease her Pain,
Which sprouts at once, and tow'rs it o*er the Plain.
This passage is in direct ridicule of Woodward's notions,
more cleverly put than the scorn for his collections of fish,
butterflies, and animals amphibious, which one finds in the open-
ing paragraph of the poem. It hardly seems to me that the
satire in either of these passages is particularly esoteric j surely
these notions were the commonplaces of laughing comment in
the coffeehouses long before 1722, and Arbuthnot's scientific
acquirements are not needed to explain their appearance here.
The general idea was Arbuthnot's or Pope's, as we decide on the
authorship of Annas MiraKlis; if Arbuthnot helped much with
this other poem he helped point the wit, not draft the satire. In
technical facility the verse itself is quite beyond him. 31
* a See also Lester Beattie, John Arbuthnot, pp. 238-241.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 197
v
When Gay got back to London again and settled in for the
winter, he was moved to write for the first time in many a lor;g
year to his old friend Swift, and from December 22, 1722, till
Gay's death ten years later the two kept in close touch with
each other. The immediate occasion for Gay's letter was a
conversation he had had with Berkeley, who had just come
from Ireland. Gay writes with affectionate warmth about his
disappointment at not seeing Swift at Bath, tells Swift about
his present circumstances, his lodging in Burlington House, the
ineffectual favors of the great, and his hopes for more substantial
preferment.
Gay's hopes must have fluctuated during that year with
more than usual vivacity. Pulteney's friends had formed a
government once again in 1721, and much might now be ex-
pected, Walpole had ridden into power on the South Sea whirl-
winds, and might reasonably have remembered Pulteney's
earlier loyalty. He did not, however, and Pulteney had to wait
until the spring of 1723 for even the minor post of cofferer
to the household. Probably through Burlington's influence
rather than his, Gay was given a commissionership of state lot-
teries, 32 a place yielding 150 a year which he managed to keep
until 1731, in spite of Walpole's later quite natural irritations
over The Beggars Opera and Polly. At the same time that Gay
obtained the commissionership, the Earl of Lincoln found lodg-
ings for him at Whitehall. Apparently, a month or so later he
was expecting also some preferment in Pulteney's department,
but this favor was not granted. At last Gay had a steady income,
small but not despicable, and rooms that he might call his with-
out worrying about the rent. The man with "too much honesty
or too little sublunary wisdom," to use Swift's diagnosis of Gay's
political character, had not been entirely neglected. The duties
of the office were not excessive 5 Gay still had time for work
on Shakespeare, f or dinner parties at Aifouthnofs with Lord
Bathurst and Lewis, for opera, and for some ambitious literary
schemes of his own.
** Swift, Letters, III, 15 5-
198 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
These schemes were interrupted for two months in the
summer (July and August) by an expedition to Tunbridge
Wells in the Burlington entourage. This journey, if we may
judge from the letters Gay wrote to Mrs. Howard at the time,
was undertaken more for fun than for physic, and the fun
seems to have been sufficiently hilarious. Pope correctly guessed
his chief relaxation. He wrote on July 13, 1723: "In the mean-
time we wish you success as a fisher of women at the Wells, a
rejoicer of the comfortless and widow^ an impregnator of the
barren, and a play-fellow of the. maiden." 33 For letter-writing
purposes at any rate the lady who had most of his attentions
was an extraordinarily stout young damsel with an inordinate
fondness for ale. He called her his "wheat-ear" and admired
her frankness in the exhibition of a ruling passion. Mrs. How-
ard disapproved both of the fat lady and of Gay's fondness for
sincerity, which, as a lady grown old in courts, she regarded as
a quality of character most unthriving.
I am resolved you shall open a new scene of behaviour next win-
ter, 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. 34
That suggestion of Mrs. Howard's must have sunk well
down in Gay's mind, for his reply shows that he had thought
it over carefully, and would, when the time came, need not
much help from Mrs. Howard. "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 age at the Old Bailey."
It would appear that Swift's suggestions of a Newgate pas-
toral, and Mrs. Howard's notion of a satire on the politicians
had already got associated in Gay's mind to lie fallow for a
few years more.
** Pope, Works, VII, 416, ** Countess of Suffolk, Liters, I, in.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 199
VI
At the moment Gay did not propose to busy himself with
anything like that, but was before long writing a poetic tragedy
of a conventional sort, such as had been bringing in quite satis-
factory cash receipts to Young, Fenton, and even to less capable
dramatists.
The Captives, as he called it, has the usual noble-minded
hero, sentimental tyrant, and love-maddened princess. We are
moving once again in the realms of Awengxebe; only there is
more of love and less of war. The flimsiest plot imaginable
leads us finally to a happy conclusion, with the good rewarded
and the evil punished. Yet most of us would insist on shifting
the categories in the fashion of Blake's Proverbs of Hell, that
is, if we got sufficiently interested in the reading to want to do
anything at all about it. The verse is a bastard blank variety
with uncontrolled redundancies, not to be distinguished from
high-flown, stilted prose, except when the printed page is before
one. It seems odd that Gay, who was so sensitive to bombast
in other writers, should willingly have set himself to provide
material for the next What d'ye Call It. That of course was
Tom Thumb, and Fielding readily found a place for The Cap-
tives in his satire. One should not forget that the plays which
are set up for ridicule in satiric comedies of The Rehearsal type
are almost certain to be the very ones that have met with most
general approval. There is of course no point in satirizing a
play that no one has seen. Cato, The Distressed Mother, and
Vemce Preserved appeared in The What d*ye Call It, and if
Fielding thought The Captives worthy of a place in his play,
that fact is additional evidence that the public liked it.
Mrs., Howard had been as good as her word, and by tactful
suggestions now and then had stimulated interest in the new
play, until Caroline not only agreed to patronize The Capthes
but wished to hear it read before production. Gay was called
in and read the play himself. Something absurd must have
happened on this occasion, probably nothing more than the acci-
dental overturning of a screen and the consequent embarrass-
200 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
ment, but Benjamin Victor got hold of the basic facts and
elaborated them into the amusing story that has been repeated
through the years and does not appear in the least characteristic
of the central figure involved.
Mr. Gay had interest enough with the late Queen Caroline > then
Princess of WaLes y to excite Her Royal Highness's Curiosity to hear
the Author read his Play to her at Leicester-House. The Day was
fixed, and Mr. Gay was commanded to attend. He waited some
Time in a Presence-Chamber with his Play in his Hand; but being
a very modest Man, and unequal to the Trial he was going to, when
the Door of the Drawing-Room, where the Princess sat with her
Ladies, was opened for his Entrance, he was so much confusM, and
concern'd about making his proper Obeysance, that he did not see a
low Footstool that happened to be near him, and stumbling over it,
he fell against a large Screen, which he overset, and threw the Ladies
into no small Disorder. Her Royal Highness's great Goodness soon
reconciled this whimsical Accident, but the unlucky Author was not
so soon clear of his Confusion. 35
No. 52 of The Adventurer (May 5, 1753) contains this
story dressed up by Hawkesworth as "The distresses of an au-
thor invited to read his play." There is no need to question
Gay's tendency to underestimate his own ability ; all his friends
are agreed on that. Pope noticed it in the early days of their
friendship, and one of Buckingham's poems, which Pope was
busy publishing this very year, confirms the impression. Indeed,
Buckingham thought him even too bashful to be poet laureate. 36
But Victor's story, while his facts may every one of them be
correct, gives the impression that Gay was a mere yokel, a
Stephen Duck let us say, who had never been near Leicester
House before, whereas actually he had been on friendly terms
45 Benjamin Victor, The History of the Theatres of London and Dublin (1761),
II, 155-1575 Biographies Dramafica (1812), II, 81-82. Also in The British Magazine,
or Monthly Repository for Gentlemen and Ladies, VII, 184 (April, 1766).
""The Election of a Poet Laureat in 1719," The Works of John Sheffield, Duke
of Buckingham (1723), I, 199.
H hs, F ton, and G y, came last in the Train,
Too modest to ask for the Crown they wou'd gain:
Phoebus thought them too bashful, and said they would need
More boldness if ever they hopM to succeed.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 201
with Caroline and her Court ever since the Princess had arrived
in England ten years before.
The Captives was finally presented at Drury Lane on
Wednesday, January 15, 1724. The Daily C&urant records
seven performances until Thursday of the following week ? when
it was displaced by The Double Gallant. Baker mentions nine
performances, and the play may have been produced twice later,
but I find no record. The first night was a gala performance,
if we may trust the hostile note in The Briton for Wednesday,
January 22.
SIR: I was a Spectator, the first Night, at the Representation of -the
last new Play, called The Captives; when I was Witness to a Cer-
emony, which I can never judge to be either beneficial to the Author,
or contribute much to the Entertainment of the Town. There were
large Quantities of Brandy distributed amongst the Footmen in the
BoxeS) and that in so plentiful a manner, that several of them were
carried out of the House dead drunk. This, it seems, is call'd Chris-
tening a Play ; but I think it is such a Christening as ought not to be
stiff er'd in a civiliz'd Country, unless it were at the Performance of
a Lacquey-Poet. I will assure you, I have no Prejudice to the Au-
thor, but heartily wish him, and every other Gentleman, who takes
pains to divert the Town, all the Success they can propose to them-
selves: But I am afraid, if this Hottentot Custom prevails, it will be
far from proving a Support to polite Writing; for the same Expedient
may, with greater Probability of Success, be made use of to the
Detriment, than the Advantage of an Author.
Fenton hints at another kind of stimulation that the play
received. In a combination letter from Pope and Fenton to
Broome, Fenton adds the postscript: "Gay's play had no suc-
cess. I am told he gave thirty guineas to have it acted the fifth
night/ 537
That letter was written on January 30 from Pope's house,
and must have reflected Pope's opinion also. And yet, seven
nights was a good run. If Gay gave thirty guineas to have it
acted the fifth night, he must have done so in the expectation
that the sixth performance, his second benefit, would more than
7 Pope, Works, VIII, 75.
202 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
make up that loss. Moreover, within two or three weeks Young
wrote to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: "For my theatrical
measures are broken; Miriarnne brought its author above 1500,
The Captives above 1000, and Edwin now in rehearsal, has
already, before acting, brought its author above iooo." 38
It is hard, if not impossible, to reconcile these two stories.
Courthope thought Fenton's story undoubtedly correct, and that
the thousand pounds, if not mere rumor, must have been a
subscription from friends. The play had every chance. The
best actors in town Booth, Wilks, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Old-
fieldappeared in the cast. It was enthusiastically supported
by royalty and a large circle of aristocratic patrons. In itself
The Captives was not worse, and probably better than most of
the "Oh! Huncamunca, Huncamunca, Oh!" tragedies that at
the time won popular approval. Baker says it was acted "with
great applause. 5389
Moreover, there must have been considerable interest in the
play outside the circle of Gay's personal friends, for, numerous
as these were, they could scarcely have bought up two editions
of the play within as many months. No. 105 of Pasquin praised
The Caftives highly, 40 and Elizabeth Harrison wrote a special
and very dull Letter to Mr. John Gay, on his Tragedy > calVd>
The Captives (1724). Today we find it almost impossible to
understand how a play of this sort ever could compete with
the other entertainments available. This was the time, one
should remember, when the public were offered such dramatic
variety as Jwpter and Eurofa.
Here we behold the Power of Machinery when we see a
Heathen God in an erect Posture shot from an Eminence of sixty or
seventy Foot upon the Stage ; and, when he has finish'd his Part, he
takes the same Flight from below: The Transformation of Jwjnter
into a Bull, is done in Sight of the Audience; the Contrivance and
** Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, II, u.
M Biographia Dramatica, II, 8l.
* "The last new Tragedy of The Captives seems to have miscarry**!, and to have
been sacric*d purely to the prevalent Folly of the Times. It is certain there was noth-
ing wanting on the Author's Part, to entitle him to the highest Success} the Piece was
written with the Justness and Exactness of an Ancient, and the Spirit and Variety of
a Modern: But the Million it seems were otherwise engag'd: Everyone can't under-
From "Tracts relating to the Beggar's Opera (1728-1771),*
Forster Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 203
Deception is so excellent, that we cannot account for it. These Ex-
periments give our Mechanicks great opportunities of improving and
growing excellent in their several Arts, which, I conceive, is of more
Consequence to the Publick, than anything that is attempted at our
Operas. 41
As between this grand show and The Captives^ most of us, I
think, would call for the bull!
It iSj perhaps, worth adding just at this point that one week
after The Caftfaes lapsed at Drury Lane there was acted at the
other house a play which had some influence on Gay's imagina-
tion as he was mulling over various hints for what later took
shape as The Beggars Of era. This was Christopher Bullock's
A Match in Newgate. On February 17, 1724, there appeared
also at Drury Lane for one performance only a revival of Rich-
ard Brome's The Jovial Crew. We are still four years from the
production of Gay's most famous piece, but it is important to
keep in mind the accumulating suggestions. The popular skepti-
cism on the subject of operatic productions is worth remember-
ing too, since, as early as February, 1723, Gay shared, perhaps
a little resentfully, the common man's scorn for their continued
success.
VII
This year under consideration (1724) saw sensational de-
velopments in the city's attempt to deal with crime, a subject
which by this time was beginning to fascinate Gay. The gang-
sters were precipitated into public notice by the trial of Joseph
Blake in October. Blake had been arrested at the instigation
of Jonathan Wild, the Al Capone of his time, the No. r enemy
of society, receiver of stolen goods, later to figure as Peachum
in The Beggars Of era. As the trial progressed in Old Bailey
and Blake saw that no hope remained for himself, he made a
murderous attack on Wild with a penknife, and almost ended
stand what he heart, but everyone Is capable of being pleas'd with what he seesj and so
Doctor Faustus carried It, But It ought not to be omitted, to the Glory of this Author,
that whatever else he misi'd, he was so happy as to receive the Approbation and the
Tears of Her Royal Highness j an Honour which a wbe Man will prefer to the
Applause of a Thousand vulgar Theatres."
41 The Weekly Journal or Satwdafs Post, April 6, 1723.
204 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
the .career of the man who had betrayed him. Wild was spared,
however, to betray another accomplice, Jack Sheppard, before
he himself was hanged on May 24, 1725. These were names!
For the moment, however, Gay made little use of the public
interest in Newgate heroes, beyond turning out a ballad called
Newgate*s Garkmd: Being a New Ballad. Shewing How Mr.
Jonathan Wild*s Throat was cut from Ear to Ear with a Pen-
knife) by Mr. Blake, alias Blwskin, the bold Highwayman, as
he stood his Tryal in the Old-Bailey. The main interest for us
in this ballad lies in the similarity between the sentiment de-
veloped here and that which Gay elaborated later with so much
success, the notion that human nature varies little from top to
bottom of society,
Through all the employments of life
Each neighbour abuses his brother.
The courtier is as much a thief as Blake j only he gets a blue
ribbon as a reward instead of a string.
Knaves of old, to hide Guilt by their cunning Inventions,
CalFd Briberies Grants, and plain Robberies Pensions;
Physicians and Lawyers (who take their Degrees
To be Learned Rogues) calTd their Pilfering, Fees;
Since this happy Day,
Now ev'ry Man may '
Rob (as safe as in Office) upon the Highway.
For Blueskwts sharp Penknife hath set you at Ease,
And every Man round me may rob, if he please.
Robbing on the highway is more honorable than the sort the
Masters do in Chancery. This repetition of the same idea which
Gay was writing to Mrs. Howard in August, iy23, 42 forms the
basis of the satire on Bob Booty and the others in his play later.
Though the ballad appear starred, as not by Swift, in the
1747 edition of the Miscellanies, Mr. F. Elrington Ball has felt
that Swift must have had some hand in its composition, largely,
I suppose, because of the last stanza and its reference to Wood's
half-pence. 43
** Countess of Suffolk, Letters, I, 118.
**Notet W Queries, 12th Scries, XII, 174 and 273 (MarcE 3 and April 7, 1913).
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 205
What a Pother has here been with Wood and his Brass,
Who would modestly make a few Half-pennies pass!
The Patent is good, and the Precedent's old.
For Diomede changed his Copper for Gold:
But if Ireland despise
Thy new Half-pennies,
With more Safety to rob on the Road I advise.
There were two early printings of the poern 3 one as a broad-
side dated 1 724-1 725, now to be found in the British Museum
in a volume of such pieces ? some issued in Dublin and some in
London. The second printing was on the back of the Postscript
to the St. Jameses Post for November 28 , 1715, which may be
a misprint for 1725, but more probably can be explained, as
Mr. Faber suggests/ 4 by assuming that old blank sheets were
used to economize on. paper. It was somewhat unusual to print
ballads of this sort in the newspapers, and anyway the news
value of this one would be slight a whole year after the hanging
of Blake. The ballad was revised in the second appearance,
with the meticulous care which Gay often devoted even to minor
work. The care is particularly evident in that disputed last
stanza where the pronouns have been altered to throw the em-
phasis on Wood 3 who is here addressed, not the "gallants of
Newgate/' nor Gay himself, as Mr. Faber imagines in his hypo-
thetical .account of the origin of these last two stanzas.
No, so far as we know, Gay had not written to Swift for
two years, and to suppose that the ballad passed back and forth
between Gay and Swift taking on accretions in the process is
under these circumstances fantastic. 45 There is no reason to
think that Swift would have been stimulated to write on such
an incident, lurid enough for Londoners no doubt but not so
exciting for the people of Dublin. There is only slight evidence
that the first broadside was printed in Dublin, and the second
one must certainly have been arranged by Gay. As for the
* 4 Tke Poetical Works of J&hn Gay, pp. xxvi-xxvii. See also Tke Poems of
Jonathan Swiff, ed. Harold William* (1937), III, 1111-1113. Mr. Williams ! doubt-
ful, but thinks the poem may be Swift's.
48 Pope, Works, VII, 55. Swift to Pope, Sept. 29, 172$: "I tear nothing of our
friend Gay, but I find the court keeps him at iiard meat."
206 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
scandal about Wood's half-pence, that was known in London
as well as In Dublin, perhaps better. The King's mistress was
involved, and the government distinctly embarrassed. Wood
was the thief of the hour in high places, as Jonathan Wild was
at the Old Bailey. Gay could have found no better name to
point his moral. 46
It is necessary to emphasize that no one writer has copyright
privileges over any special event, or over any special way of
thinking. The tendency to overlook this elementary principle
has led to confusion about the authorship of another poem, The
Qmdnu-ncki y s: a Tale. Occasioned by the Death of the Duke
Regent of France. This poem, since BelPs edition of 1773, &%$
generally been attributed to Gay. Then presently along come
critics, not brought up as children on Gay's Fables but with
minds obsessed by Gulliver, and they decide on purely internal
evidence that the poem must be Swift's.
All at a Stand? You see great Changes?
Ah, Sir! you never saw the Ganges.
There dwells the Nations of Quidnunc k?$
(So Monomotafya calls Monkies:)
On either Bank, from Bough to Bough,
They meet and chat (as we may now.)
Whispers go round, they grin, they shrug,
They bow, they snarlj they scratch, they hug;
And, just as Chance, or Whim provoke them,
They either bite their Friends, or stroke them.
That could only have been written by Swift, these critics insist, 47
forgetting that before this (January, 1724) Gay had already
been gathering hints from La Fontaine, and that his mind was
developing a slightly more cynical edge. But apparently neither
Swift nor Gay wrote this poem, if we may lean perhaps too
hard on a statement by Dr. William Stratford, Canon of Christ
4i Gay himself was ' a character in a Christmas pantomime performed at Drary
Lane, called HarUqutn Jack Shepp&fd} or, The blossom of Tyburntree.
* T Sce F* Ellington Ball, Swijfs Verse (1929), p. 199? W. Spencer Jackson, in
Swift, Prose Werks, ed. Temple Scott, XII, 213. Mr. Faber also thinks Swift had
something to do with it.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 207
Church, in a letter to the second Earl of Oxford,, that Arbuthnot
was the author. 48
Many of these ephemeral pieces like the stories of old ro-
mance gravitated gradually towards the big reputations^ towards
Swift because of the impression the sheer weight of his intel-
lect made on his generation, towards Pope because of the acci-
dental circumstances of publication, and some tendency on his
part, one fears, towards machination. Is it flattery alone that
moved Swift to write to Pope the cryptic sentence^ Deputation
you will take care to increase, though you have too much in
conscience for any neighbour of yours to thrive while he lives
by you"? 40
The authorship of these occasional verses matters little
enough. We can state the evidence, grow irreverent and insist
that that is all we know on earth and all we need to know. But
when the suggestion arises that Pope helped Gay with a work
like The Beggar*s Qfem s because he altered two lines in one
of the stanzas, and when Pope denies it in a pompous way that
leaves us still guessing, it is time to call a halt to the process
of attrition, and underline Gay ? s right to his own,
VIII
Meanwhile, through the summer of 1724, Gay was giving
his spare time to the Burlingtons, to Mrs. Howard, and to
Pope* He was staying with the Burlingtons at Chiswick, as
Pope makes clear in his letters to Fortescue, 50 and from that
base he made his way to town for business, and to Twickenham
and Richmond for pleasure. Gay's work on Pope's edition of
Shakespeare was finished by September , 5i Mrs. Howard kept
48 Historical Manuscripts Commission* Portland MSS (1901), VII, 373. Letter
from Dr. William Stratford to Harley: **I did not think Arbuthnot had had a genius
for suck performances. Your Lordship Is much In the rig-bit, that he has no reason to
be ashamed of It. Pope has the credit of it here, and has no reason to be displeased that
another's child is laid to him. It does him as much credit as any of his own." See
Professor Seattle's article, "The Authorship of The QuidnuncluV Modern PkHoUgy,
XXX, 317-320 (Feb., 1933) j and an article by Harold William in the Reww of
English Sttu&es, III, 212-214 (Feb., 1927). See also Mr. Williams'* summary of the
evidence in his The Poems of Jonathan Sanft (i937)> nl 1119-1120.
** Swift, Letter, III, 257.
"Pope, Works, IX, 100-101. ftl IM., VIII, 88.
208 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
him busy helping her with plans for her new house ? Marble
Hill, and organizing the household there. 52 Finally, shortly
before September 17, Gay was ready for a holiday and went off
to Bath with Dr. Arbuthnot. 53 There he had good company
as usual. Lord and Lady Fitzwilliam and Lord Scarborough
among the aristocrats, 54 and Dean Berkeley, who had just come
from Ireland hot for converts to his Bermuda scheme, among
the intellectuals. 65
On his return to town, although his health was not al-
together restored, Gay managed to get about among his friends
with reasonable cheerfulness. He found Selwyn at Mrs. How-
ard's, Lord Cobham at Congreve's. Berkeley was in London
also, printing his proposals and getting what support for his
scheme he could from the Bishop of London. Fortescue was
back from his visit to Barnstaple, and he and Gay were both
anxious to get in touch with Pope as soon as possible. 56
Gay must have got back to town early in November to be
on the spot when the report got abroad that Blake had slit
Jonathan Wild's throat with a penknife. Obviously the ballad
was composed and on the streets almost immediately after the
assault, or at least while everyone expected that Wild would
die. Jonathan's wife is made a sad widow in one of the stanzas,
while the refrain of all of them exults in his death, so that
"every man round me may rob if he please," That piece, and
one other, To a Lady on her Passion for Old China, are the
only new poems that Gay published at this time. The latter
poem was printed by Tonson in small quarto in 1725, and then
disappears completely until reprinted by Potts in 1770. There
is no certain evidence about its authorship, apart from content
and style. 57 Who the lady was, -if the author was thinking of
any one kdy, is unknown. One remembers Mrs. Howard fur-
nishing her new house, and the Duchess of Queensberry, into
M See Lewis Melville,, Lady Suffolk and her Circle (1924), p. 105.
81 Pope, Works f IX, 102. KA Countess of Suffolk, Letters , I, 176.
M Swift, Letters, III, 212} Pope, Works, VII, 426.
m md. t VII, 426.
6T See an article by Harold Williams in the Review of English Studies, VII, 79-80
(Jan^ 1931). He confirms Gay's authorship.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 209
the orbit of whose friendship Gay was at this time being more
strongly drawn. The same old frivolous attitude towards the
new science, of which all the Scriblerians were frequently guilty,
is to be found here.
Philosophers more grave than wise
Hunt science down in Butterflies;
Or fondly poring on a Spider,
Stretch human contemplation wider;
FossUes give joy to Galen* s sou! 5
He digs for knowledge, like a Mole ;
In shells so learned, that aH agree
No fish that swims knows more than he!
In such pursuits if wisdom lies,
Who, Laura, shall thy taste despise? 58
Moreover, Gay's growing scorn for the courtier's promises ap-
pears conspicuously.
Are not Ambition's hopes as weak?
They swell, like bubbles, shine and break.
A Courtier's promise Is so slight,
? TIs made at noon, and broke at night.
During the summer of 1725, Gay was trying desperately to
improve his position, and thought as did his friends at this
time that the best way to do it was by close attendance at
court. In June, he and Pope had joined a house party at Rich-
ings Park with Lord Bathurst and his friends, but they soon
returned since Gay felt that he must be near Richmond. 5 *
Nor would he accept an invitation from the Honorable Robert
Digby to continue the gay party a little later in Herefordshire.
Digby was aware of his hopes and understood his excuses. "I
hope Lord Bathurst, whose intentions were soon to survey these
parts, will seduce you both to come with him. Yet I would
not wish Gay so far from Richmond, to the ruin of any interest
he may have begun to make there by a close attendance, 5100
The summer passed with little encouragement. Arbuthnot
was dangerously ill in September^, and Gay and Pope were
m Cf. opening lines of Papers Characters of Men.
9 Pope, Works, VIII, 331, **/, IX, 93.
210 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
frequently with him. On, September 14, Pope wrote Swift
despairing of Arbuthnot's recovery. The crisis passed, however,
and Gay was able to get away for a visit to Amesbury, in Wilt-
shire, with the Queensberrys. This visit was soon interrupted
by a message from Fortescue telling Gay of the death of some
person whose place he evidently hoped to get, and, accordingly,
we find him back in Twickenham by September 23, doing his
best to remind the powerful of his continued existence. He
seems inured by this time to the usual routine of promise and
neglect, and writes to Fortescue: "One would think that my
friends use me to disappointments, to try how many I could
bear $ if they do so, they are mistaken $ for as I do not expect
much, I can never be much disappointed." 61 Fortescue had some
influence with Walpole, and one would have expected him to
exert himself on Gay's behalf, but he was apparently unable
to help. By the end of October, Gay knew that he was once
more doomed to disappointment. On October 30 he wrote to
his friend Brigadier General James Dormer, at that time Envoy
Extraordinary at the Court of Lisbon, a gossipy letter about
himself aad his friends and mentioned his failure to get what
he was hoping for.
There is never a day passes but I think of you & wish to see you;
I have made all the enquiry I possibly could of your Welfare, but
have been able to get very little intelligence ; I believe you will think
me sincere when I tell you that next to being witness that you are
happy, one of the greatest Satisfactions I could have, is to hear you
are so. I hope I have no occasion to make any professions of friend-
ship to you; because I have really more of it than I can profess; so
that I shall only think of giving you an account of your friends &
among those myself in the remaining part of my Letter- Mrs Pulte-
ncy is brought to bed of a son; they are both very well, & Mr
Pulteney is the happiest man alive. Lord & Lady Burlington are
returned to Chiswicfc from Yorkshire. Kent is employed in making
vast Alterations in Newcastle-house in Lincoln's Inn fields. I din'd
with him to day at Williams his Coffee-house, & he left me in order
to pass his Sunday as usual at Chiswkk. Mr Pelham came to town
Yesterday for the Birthday to day from the Duke of Graftons; as did
,, IX, 104.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 211
several others of the Court, who will leave us again in a day or two.
Faustina is engag'd to be here in the Spring and is to have a Benefit
day for her performance the latter part of this Season, & is at a cer-
tain Salary for the next year. By what I hear, I think the King is
not expected till after Christmas. I have been this Summer at Ames-
bury with the Duke of Queensberry; I came away from thence Post
upon one of my usual prospects, & met with my usual Success, a dis-
appointment. I have employed myself this Summer in Study, & have
made a progress in it. What I am about is a Book of Fables, which
I hope to have leave to inscribe to Prince William. I design to write
fifty, all entirely new, in the same Sort of Verse as Prior's tales. I
have already done about forty, but as yet there are very few of my
friends know of rny intention. The Duke of Queensberry is not yet
come to town, but I intend to go no more into the Country this
Winter. Duke Disney 'hath for thS month or two past had a severe
fit of illness, but Is now pretty well recovered; he is going to leave
his Lodgings at Whitehall into a house in St James*s place, & I have
some prospect of getting them. The town is at present so very thin
that I am forc'd to write you all these most important things of my-
self. I beg you upon ail occasions if I can be of any Service to you to
make use of me with the greatest Freedom, for it will be the greatest
pleasure to me to have your Commands* 62
As one can see from this letter, Gay's failure to better his posi-
tion by court preferment had almost sickened him of further
attempts. For the time being he made up his mind to be satisfied
with the small post he had already and to concentrate his ener-
gies on the two literary projects which he in private was nursing.
Some little pique began to develop naturally In his attitude to
the government after this last failure. He became somewhat
more careless of appearances politically ? cultivated the friend-
ship of Will Shippen, the Jacobite MJ?., and found his doubts
of the existing Walpole regime considerably strengthened by
such conversation. Pope was not, I think, so helpful as he might
have been. At any rate, It seems odd to nd Pope in this same
club-letter to Fortescue expressing himself facetiously about
* a The two letters from Gay to Dormer which I print In this chapter were found
by Professor Sherburn in the Rousham MSS and appear in this book through Mr.
Sherbum*s generous interest and by kind permission of T. Cottrell Dormer, Esq.*
of Cottisford House, near Brackley (Oxon.).
212 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
these very serious efforts of Gay, and then Immediately going
oa to tell of courtesies extended by Walpole to himself , favors
which Pope used presently to further the Interests of the Abbe
Southcote, his boyhodd acquaintance. Swift was still interested
in Gay's difficulties, and still sympathetic. He wrote to Pope on
September 29: "I hear nothing of our friend Gay ? but I find
the Court keeps him at hard meat. I advised him to come over
here with a Lord Lieutenant. Mr. Tickell is in a very good
office." 63
Both Swift and Pope seem to have felt that the reason for
Gay's continual failure to recommend himself was his awkward-
ness in casual flattery. Swift once remarked that poets flatter
only In print or in writing, but not by word of mouth, that they
will give things under their hand which they will make a con-
science of speaking. 64 Even his printed compliments Gay marred
by sincerity or misdirection. Pope wrote a little later to Martha
Blount: a l am grieved at Mr. Gay's condition in this last re-
spect of dependence. He has merit, good-nature, and integrity,
three qualities that I fear are too often lost upon great men 5
or at least are not all three a match for one which is opposed to
them, flattery." 65
This notion may be in part correct, but probably far
more important than Gay's bashfulness about compliments to
strangers was his friendship for the Bolingbroke group and his
dependence on Mrs. Howard to forward his plans at court.
Not that she ever misled him about the limitations of her
powerj indeed, several times she attempted to make her essen-
tial helplessness quite clear to him. At close quarters It was
inevitable that he should misunderstand the situation* She was
at this time forty-four years old, somewhat deaf, but still an
exceedingly attractive woman, beautiful enough even ten years
later to win a young husband. Her hold on the Prince's affec-
tions in 1725 was, however, probably slight, tolerated as she
was in place of a worse by the Princess Caroline, who, though
uncertain of her husband's affections, controlled quite satisfac-
** Swift, Lttters, III, 278.
, III, 149. "Pope, Works, DC, 308.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 213
torily his mind and policies. At this distance it is easy enough
to see that no vacancies in the prince's household would be
filled at Mrs, Howard's suggestion, and certainly Mrs. How-
ard's patronage would not help Gay's cause with Walpole.
IX
It may be that at about this time Gay was forced to the
same conclusion. In any case, he began his next approaches
from a different angle> and sought to win the Princess Caroline's
favor directly. The little prince ? William Augustus^ from whom
Gay had had as yet neither expectations nor disappointments,
was now a boy of four toddling about the gardens of Richmond
Lodge on the lookout for playmates. Pope had written to
Fortescue the year before retailing the gossip about Arbuthnot
and Gay, Mrs. Howard and Marble Hill. "The little Prince
William wants Miss Fortescue, or, to say truth, anybody else
that will play with him." 66
Now Gay's love of children is one- of the many amiable
aspects of his character. He was no doubt frequently the little
chap's playmate when at Richmond calling on Mrs. Howard.
He may have told the young prince stories. At any rate, some
time before December 14, 1725, he was busy concocting fables
for him. The inscription "invented for his amusement" which
Gay finally placed in his dedication to The Fables is a statement
of plain fact, not merely an effort to flatter the attention of an
indulgent mother. Pope wrote to Swift on the above date:
Gay is writing tales for Prince William j I suppose Philips 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 fll to be
taught that one may write things to a child without being childish/ 7
Fortunately, though the little child did not lead Gay even-
tually to the desired preferment, this work on The Fables did
take his mind from the distractions of office-hunting that year
and enabled him to concentrate his energies on poetry. But of
that more hereafter.
f l^., IX, 102. "Swift, letters, III, 295.
214 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
x
The most wonderful wonder of wonders that appeared to
the wonder of the British nation in the spring of 1726 was the
arrival of the copper-farthing Dean from Ireland, in spite of the
competition he fell in with from the wonderful man from
Germany. 68 Both these monsters were, shall we say, in the care
of Dr. Arbuthnot, and were apparently exhibited to the Princess
Caroline on the same occasion. Swift had arrived in London on
March 20, or thereabouts, much to the joy of his old friends,
who immediately led him a course through the town, as Pope
puts it, 60 Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke, Pope and Gay, first, then
Chesterfield and Pulteney, a dinner-party arranged by Peter-
borough and Harcourt to meet Walpole, visits to Lord Oxford
at Down Hall and to Bathurst at Richings. Part of the time
Swift shared Gay's apartments at Whitehall, and Gay was with
him on most of his peregrinations. The social pace was rapid,
and appears to have been actually accelerated as the summer
drew on. Swift wrote to Lord Oxford, July 3, 1726, from
Twickenham: "[Mr. Pope] prescribes all our visits without our
knowledge, and Mr. Gay and I find ourselves often engaged
for three or four days to come, and we neither of us dare dispute
his pleasure. Accordingly this morning we go to Lord Bathurst,
on Tuesday company is to dine here." 70 A few days later Swift
wrote to Tickell: U 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 my Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Congreve made up
five at dinner at Twickenham." 71
Lord Oxford was specially touched by this fresh conjunc-
tion of brilliance, remembering the days when his father had
delighted in the society of these same four wits. 72 Bolingbroke
was there to welcome them, and later to address them affec-
tionately from the banks of the Severn as the three Yahoos
**// Cannot Rain but it Pours, or London Strutted with Rarities (1726).
tt9 Popc, Works, IX, 107.
fo Historical Manuscripts Commission, Portland MSS (1901), VI, 15.
T1 Swift, Letters, III, 313. 7S Pope, Works, VIII, 225.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 215
of Twickenham, Jonathan, Alexander, John! 73 Whatever
Jonathan may have thought of mankind in 'general^ he loved
Alexander and John, and there was no biting and snarling and
scratching among these friends. Familiarity bred increasing
affection and respect. Swift was bewilderingly kind and con-
siderate when Pope's aged mother was seriously ill in April 3
and the dose terms on which he lived with Gay merely deep-
ened their friendship. Perhaps the best proof of the sheer
enjoyment Swift got out of this visit is to be found in the verses
which his friend Sheridan produced shortly after Swift's return
to Dublin in August. The dinner parties there had evidently
got a surfeit of talk al>out London notabilities.
What though you mayn't in Ireland hope
To find such folk as t Gay and Pope;
If you with rhymers here would share
But half the wit that you can spare,
I'd lay twelve eggs, that in twelve days,
You'd make a dozen of Popes and Gays.
A little later in "An Invitation to Dinner, from Doctor Sheridan
to Doctor Swift/ 7 one finds still a shade of amusing peevishness:
Let me be your Gay, and let Stella be Pope y
We'll wean you from sighing for England I hope. 74
A few days after Swift's departure for Ireland 3 there appeared
in Mist's Weekly Journal (August 27, 1726) the ballad, Molly
Mog: or, the Fair Maid of the Inn. This was in the main
Gay's work; both Swift and Pope call it his, though it was
composed on the journey which the three friends made to
Bathurst's place, Cirencester Park, and it would be dangerous
to suppose that under those circumstances any one of the three
could compose anything unsupported by the others. 73 They
had traveled by way of Windsor Forest, and spent one night
at Wokingham ? near Pope's old home. Here they were all
T * Swift, Letters f III, 323.
T * Swift, Works , ed. Temple Scott (1814), XV, 112, 141.
78 It it assigned to Gay in Llntot's Miscellany Poems (1727), II, 138, Swift tayt
that Gay wrote its see The HisH&ry &f the Second Solomon (Prow Works, ed.
Temple Scott, XI, 157).
216 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
impressed by the beauty of the landlord's daughter, whose
praises drift down through the century on wings of song. 76
The editor of MisPs Weekly Journal says:
We shall only observe, it was writ by two or three Men of Wit,
(who have diverted the Publick both in Prose and Verse) upon the
Occasion of their lying at a certain Inn at Ockmgham^ where the
Daughter of the House was remarkably pretty, and whose Name is
Molly Mog.
The charming simplicity of the measures and the singleness
of the emotion suggested set everybody singing the ballad, and
not only singing it, but adding verse after verse to suit occa-
sions proper and improper. Several additional verses found
their way into the pages of Mist's Weekly Journal, and two of
them Gay placed in the poem when after numerous revisions
he printed the final version of it in the Miscellanies in Verse
(1727). Some of these experiments in imitation have not come
down to us, notably one in which Arbuthnot, Pulteney, and
Chesterfield were concerned at the expense of Lady Hervey.
Arbuthnot described the incident to Swift (November 8, 1726) :
I gave your service to Lady Hervey. She is in a little sort of a
miff about a ballad that was writ on her, to the tune of Molly Mog,
and sent to her in the name of a begging poet. She was bit, and
wrote a letter to the begging poet, and desired him to change two
double entendres, which the authors, Mr. Pulteney and Lord Ches-
terfield, changed to single entendres. I was against that, though I
had a hand in the first. She is not displeased, I believe with the bal-
lad, but only with being bit. 77
But Molly Mog was the property of no clever clique. The
people loved it, and the fair maid of the inn was famous enough
when she died to win obituary notice in the Dublin Gazette
(March 18-22, 1766), "died greatly advanced in years," a
rather surprising statement from the mathematical point of
and Queries, zd Series, VIII, 172, 175 (Aug. 27, 1859).
TT Swift, Letters, III, 357.
n S**t*rs*t Home Gmette, I, 17-18 (1824). In an article called "The Oc-
tober Fireside?* one finds an account of Lintot's singing Molly Mog.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 217
XI
Gay solaced himself after Swift's departure by visiting the
Duke and Duchess of Queensberry in Oxfordshire and Peteis-
faauu They left for Amesbury on September 20, and Gay
turned for social converse to Twickenham again, especially as
Pope needed his help following the coach accident which had
disabled one of his hands so that he could not write.* 9 In the
meantime, Gay had got Jervas ? s sheets, which Swift had 'been
using, properly sent home again mended, finely washed, and
neatly folded up. A month later, October 22, 1726, he wrote
Swift a specially detailed account of his affairs.
I believe you will expect that I should give you some account
how I have spent my time since you left me, I have attended my
distressed friend at Twickenham 5 and bee'n his amanuensis, which
you know Is no idle charge. I have read about half Virgil^ and half
Spenser's Fairy Queen. I still despise Court preferments, so that I
lose no time upon attendance on great men $ and still can find amuse-
ment enough without quadrille, which here is the universal employ-
ment of life. 80
He speaks of attendance at the Guildhall in connection with
his business as one of the commissioners of the lottery, and re-
grets that only one of his friends, the Duchess of Queensberry,
has made any money under his administration. Gay's letter to
Swift (September 16, 1726) states that he was seeing less of
Mrs. Howard, though but a few days later she and Bolingbroke
and Pulteney were joining with Pope and Gay in a Cheddar
letter to Swift. His closest friends during these late months of
the year were, as we have seen, Pulteney and his malcon-
tents. Swift had been flirting with that group, and Pope also,
though he meanwhile accepted Walpole's favors. When Gay
replied to Swift's query, whether the mice who ate up his but-
tons were Whigs or Tories, he speculated on buying a turncoat
for the birthday celebrations. Conversation with Swift, one
feels, had almost made a politician of him. One sees the chang-
ing mood reflected in The FMes he was writing at this time.
T * Swift, Letters, III, 340* "/ML, HI, 35**
2i8 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Many thought them overbold in their sarcasms on the court-
iers. 81
Most references to his own writings, at this time are about
The Fables ) except those which concern some verses ? A Receipt
for Stewing Veal, which he sent to Swift as his contribution to
the combination letter just referred to. These verses were a
rhymed version of an actual receipt used by Monsieur Devaux,
Pulteney's cook, riddled with mild ingenuity, and they probably
gave the Dean and his ladles the base for a pleasant evening^
conversation. It is perhaps unimportant to notice that a "pot of
Wood 9 3 mettle" appears quite naturally here, just like "Wood
and his Brass" in Newgate** Garland. These verses appeared
credited to Swift in The Weekly Journal: Or y British Gazetteer
for September 30, 1727, and called An excellent Receipt to
make good Sop
Among the letters which Gay wrote at this time perhaps the
most interesting was the one addressed to his friend General
Dormer in Lisbon and dated November 22, 1726. The ref-
erence in it to Voltaire is curious, especially as it corrects the
usual idea that the great Frenchman learned English with
phenomenal rapidity.
Though you have heard from me but once in form, it hath not been
either for want of respect or friendship. I had the pleasure to hear
of your health by the return of the fleet, and I really would have
writ to you often, if I did not look upon myself as an unnecessary
correspondence. I have as little prospect of being provided for as
ever, so that I have not had the least good fortune to make me some
amends for the loss of your company. I am about to publish a collec-
tion of Fables entirely of my own invention to be dedicated to Prince
William, they consist of fifty, and I am oblig'd to Mr Kent & Woot-
ton for the Designs of the Plates, The Work is begun to be printed,
and is delayed only upon account of the Gravers, who are neither
very good or expeditious. I believe you must have heard that Mr
Pelham is married to Lady Katharine Manners. Tis said that Mr
Anindell is married to Lady Fanny, but as he is in the country, I
believe, 'tis only the conjecture of the town. We have a Book lately
publsfa'd here which hath of late taken up the whole conversation of
81 Swift, The I*telligtncef 9 No. 3.
SOUTH SEA AND DEPRESSION 219
the town. Tis said to be writ by Swift. It is called, The travels of
Lemuell Gulliver in two Volumes. It hath had a very great sale,
People differ vastly in their Opinions of it, for some think it hath a
great deal of wit, but others say it hath none at all. As it hath been
published about a month, I fancy you must have either heard of it or
seen it. We have a famous French Author in town, who upon a
Quarrel with the Chevalier de Rohan is banished his Country. He
hath been here about half a year, and begins to speak English very
well. His name is Voltaire, the Author of Oedipe. He hath finish'd
his Poem of the Ligue, which he intends to publish in England in
Quarto with very fine copper plates which he hath got already grav'd
by the best Gravers in Paris. I am told the Parliament will not sit
till about the middle of January, so that the town is yet but thin.
There is a Set of Italian Comedians who act twice a week at the
Opera house, but they are very little approved of, for the Harlequin
is very indifferent, so that they find but small encouragement, I was
at Rousham twice last Summer in a visit which I find extreainly in-
proved, and your Brother was with us once or twice at Middleton.
Lord and Lady Burlington are returned from Paris where they made
a stay of about two months. Lord Chesterfield designs to take Lord
Cadogan's house in case the Duke of Richmond does not go into it
himself, in which as yet he is undetermin'd. All the Goods of my
Lord Cadogan are to be disposed of by auction in the month of
January next. You see, I send you the little trifling news of the
town, I leave that of more consequence to others. I long for your
company, but since I cannot have it, I wish I could be serviceable to
you in any thing you will please to command me.
CHAPTER VI
RECOVERY
The Fables (1727), The Beggar's Ofera (1728)
GAY HAD BEEN WORKING on The Fables at least since December,
1725, and his task was finished, except for annoying delays with
the engravers, by October, 1726. The process of final revision
was going on through September, and Gay expected to print
about Christmas. Actually, the plates were not ready for pub-
lication with the text until early in March, 1727.
Swift felt that Gay was slow in completing his task, and an
impatient remark in one of his letters brought forth later an
illuminating account from Gay of the difficulty he found in the
composition of these stories.
Though this Is a kind of writing that appears very easy, I find it
the most difficult of any that I ever undertook. After I have in-
vented 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. 1
SwifPs reply was consoling:
There is no writing I esteem more than fables, nor anything so
difficult to succeed in, which, however, you have done excellently
well, and 1 have often admired your happiness in such a kind of per-
formance, which I have frequently endeavoured at in vain. I re-
member I acted as you seem to hint; I found a moral first, and then
studied for a fable, but could do nothing that pleased me, and so left
off that scheme for ever. I remember one, which was to represent
what scoundrels rise in armies by a long war, wherein I supposed
the lion was engaged; and having lost all his animals of worth, at
last Sergeant Hog came to be brigadier, and Corporal Ass a colonel,
etc. 2
1 Swift, Ltttm, IV, 301. *lbU. } IV, 314.
RECOVERY 221
I find no evidence that anyone suggested the Idea of writing
fables to Gay. Dr. Maty thinks it was Chesterfield's prompting,
but gives no grounds for the notion. 3 For reasons at which 1
have already hinted ? and which he himself puts down in epi-
gram in one of Tha Fables^ Gay was developing a certain
reticence about his literary projects.
No author ever spar'd a brother,
Wits are game-cocks to one another,* 4
Pope wrote to Fortescue about this time giving news of Gay*s
physical movements, but was extremely vague about his mental
activity, "yet I believe with his head turning round upon some
work or other." 5
The idea of writing fables was not surprising in 1726; in-
deed, it would have been almost more surprising for a writer not
to try his hand at this genre. Translations of Aesop, like that
by L'Estrange in 1691., had been numerous and popular. Adap-
tations of beastlore to local scenes and political crises of one
sort or another appeared frequently. Aesop was carried to
Oxford and Tunbridge and even to Portugal to view the intel-
lectual and social follies of the current generation. Anthony
Alsop did Aesopic fables in Latin, "exquisitely written/' says
Joseph Warton. Yalden, Locke, and Mandeville all found the
form irresistible. Fables for the female sex 5 fables on the cur-
rent posture of affairs, Phaedrus, La Fontaine^ Pilpay^ La
MottCj Allan Ramsay , Swift, translations, originals! The won-
der was, not that the idea occurred to Gay^ but that he dared
essay the form with such a bewildering array of competitors.
He outdistanced them all. There have been over three hundred
and fifty editions of his work, most of them before 1-890. By
that time, the popularity of this most popular book had become
somewhat dimmed. Schoolboys no longer used The Fables as
a text. No doubt the versions in Urdic and Bengali poetry had
been for some time neglected. Even so, eleven editions have ap~
a Tke Miscellaneous Works of the late Philip Dormer Stenkope, Earl of C faster-
field, ed. M. Maty, M.D. (1777), I, 39-40 and note.
* First Series, Fable X. * Pope, Works, IX, no,
222 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
peared since 1890, and four since 1920. The drawings for the
original edition were designed by William Kent, Burlington's
protege and Gay's friend, and by Wootton, and they were en-
graved by Fourdrinier, Van der Gucht, and others. 7 The edi-
tion of 1779 with Bewick's cuts is one of the most famous of
the later editions, though Stockdale's edition of 1794, which con-
tains nine plates designed and engraved by William Blake, and
many drawings by other artists, brings a high price at sales.
There were several French translations, at least one German,
and one Italian translation, besides the Indian ones already
mentioned.
As for contemporary notices, before the first year was out,
Mrs. Barber Swift's acquaintance was writing verses in praise
of The Fables? Bricks Weekly Journal had published an essay
on Fable XVIII, 9 and Young had written rather spitefully to
Tickell: "Gay has just given us some Fables, 50 in Number &
about five are tolerable." 10
Thus the long chorus begins, hardly of praise and censure,
for the fables were soon so well known that people quoted from
them and referred to them without stopping to estimate their
quality. 11 Young parsons made presents of them to the ladies,
and exercised -their ingenuity on proper inscriptions, like the
following:
To you, Miss Thomas, Gay presents
His most respectful compliments,
And begs, that with your Tea sometimes,
*For bibliographical details, see W. H. K. Wright's edition (1923).
* Swift later made use of Gay's experience with engravers and told Motte to
consult Gay about the illustrations for Gulliver's Travels. See Swift, Letters. Ill, 440
*/&, IV, 22.
* Brke*s Weekly Journal, April 12, 1728: "The celebrated Mr. Gay has furnished
me with a Fable adapted to my purpose, which may give Diversion to those of my
Readers who as yet never saw it."
10 Richard Eustace Tickell, Thomas Tickell and the Eighteenth Century Poets
(1685-1740), p. 131.
11 Wesley thought Dan Chaucer's tales would be outshone by Dan Durfey's, sooner
than Gay's name would fail. "An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Mr. Gay,** in Miscel-
lanea (1727), I, 136:
Dan Chaucer's Tales, Dan Durfey shall outshine,
And Philips* Pastorals compare with Mine,
Than Gay forgotten lye.
RECOVERY 223
You'll mix a Spoonful of his Rhimes.
He promises he'll never wound
Your Ears, with one licentious sound*
For, to the Arts of faithless Men,
In Virtue's Cause, he draws a Pen,
Of Birds and Beasts he only sings:
And Birds and Beasts are harmless Things.
No snares they lay for artless Youth:
They'll only cheat you into Truth.
This was supposed to be the main virtue of the poems, "to
mark our faults and not offend us/ 3 as another writer put it. 12
One admirer uses The Fables to point a moral against his
enemy Garrick. 13 Horace Walpole seems to have been im-
pressed particularly by the fable of the sick fox. He warns his
friend Henry Conway against giving extravagant presents on
his return from abroad:
. . . but as the sick fox in Gay's Fables says (for one always excepts
oneself),
A chicken too might do me good
I allow you to go as far as three or even five guineas for a snuff-box
for me. 14
Garrick himself is credited with the fable addressed to the Earl
of Chesterfield, called The Petition of the Fools to Jupter.
From Grecian Aesop, to our Gay,
Each fabulist is pleas'd to say,
That Jove gives ear to all petitions
From animals of all conditions;
Like earthly kings he hears their wants.
And like them too, not always grants?
Gay's stories and his expressions, especially those with an epi-
grammatic turn, soon became household words. In 1828, when
a certain Ingram Cobbin expkins in his Elements of Arithmetic
^Myles Cooper, P0*m$ ** Several Occasions (Oxford, 1761), p. 149.
1S A Letter to * certain Patentee, in wkick the Conduct of M***s*rs is Impartially
considered (i747) P* 2 -
"Waipole, Letters, ed. Mrs. Paget Tojnbce (1904), IX, 112-113 VIII, 218.
18 The Fugitive Miscellany (1774)* *> 2 S-
224 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
for Children how to write a bill, he puts Gay's Fables in a list
among commonplace articles, like a ream of paper ? a stick of
waxj a prayer book, a Bible in Morocco, an almanac, that form
his illustrations. The Victorians might disapprove of Nelly, or
Work jor a Cooper, but they read The Fables with pleasure.
Sometimes there is an attempt at criticism. A Balliol College
poet (1749) found that Gay's well-blended shadows convey
truth pleasantly, and that his trifles rise to elegance. 16 Christo-
pher Smart thought there was a great resemblance between
Phaedrus and Gay. 17 Warton brought the heavy guns to bear ?
and wrote:
His fables, the most popular of all his works, have the fault of
many modern fable- writers, the ascribing to the different animals and
objects introduced, speeches and actions inconsistent with their sev-
eral natures. An elephant can have nothing to do in a bookseller's
shop. They are greatly inferior to the fables of la Fontaine, which is
perhaps the most unrivalled work in the whole French language. 18
In his Life of Gay Dr. Johnson was careful to define a fable
exactly, and pointed out that Gay's poems do not conform to
any rigid standard:
A Fable or Apologue, such as is now under consideration, seems
to be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings irrational, and
sometimes inanimate, arborcs loquuntur, nan tcmtum jerae, are, for
the purpose of moral instruction, feigned to act and speak with hu-
man interests and passions. To this description the compositions of
Gay do not always conform. 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 prin-
ciple. They are, however, told with liveliness; the versification is
smooth, and the diction, though now and then a little constrained by
the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.
Among the modern critics, W. E. Henley is most severe.
He finds the morality of The Fables commonplace, and insists
16 An Accurate tho> Compendious Encomium on the most Illustrious Persons,
Whose Monuments are Erected in Westminster Abbey (1749), p. 25.
17 A Poetical Translation of the Fables of Phaedrus (1765), Dedication, p. iv.
18 Joseph Warton, An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope ($th ed., 1806),
II, 245.
RECOVERY 225
that they lack simplicity, wit, wisdom^ humanity, dramatic
imagination, and expression. He can see no attempt at a proper
union of sense and manner. He thinks the poems utterly monot-
onous in style, lacking power in invention and in distinguishing
character, 10
For Dr. Johnson the fables are not uniform enough 5 for
Henley they are too uniform. Dr. Johnson finds the morality
not sufficiently conspicuous; Henley wearies of the moralizing
and finds it commonplace. Out of the fifty tales in this first
series, there are seven that have no right by definition to be
called fables, though the "morals" of six of those seven and of
all the other forty-three are plain enough. Some readers have
professed themselves wearied by the frequent references to the
courtiers trade. Gay does warn against the dangers of syc-
ophancy more or less directly in nine of the stories, but one
should remember that the poems are addressed to a royal prince
who will be surrounded by flatterers inevitably, and who may as
well understand their wiles. The child, Prince William, we fear,
was influenced as little by these lessons against flattery as he was
by the equally insistent warnings against cruelty. Some of the
phrases in Fables I and IX have an uncanny prophetic tone to us
who know the later story of this hero of Culloden "the bones
that whiten all the land," "the butcher trained." The stories
are not for the most part original, nor do they have any great
dramatic force, but they do appeal strongly to the pictorial
imagination. Even the one about the elephant in the bookshop,
of which Warton disapproves, shows capacity for turning the
grotesque to account in a way that pleases us grownups at least,
and might please some children.
The Bookseller, who heard him speak,
And saw him turn a page of Greek)
Thought, what a genius have I found!
Then thus addrest with bow profound.
Learned Sir, if you'd employ Your pen
Against the senseless sons of men.
Or write a history of SWOT,
19 W. E. Henley, Vtttos and Reviews (1890), pp. 183-187.
226 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
No man is better pay than I am ;
Or, since you're learned in Greek, let's see
Something against the Trinity.
When wrinkling with a sneer his trunk.
Friend, quoth the Elephant, you're drunk;
E'en keep your money, and be wise ;
Leave man on man to criticize,
For that you ne'er can want a pen
Among the senseless sons of men,
They unprovok'd wfll court the fray,
Envy's a sharper spur than pay,
No author ever spar'd a brother,
Wits are game-cocks to one another,
"The Fox at the Point of Death" has the same power to create
an image, as also the one about the two monkeys at Southwark
Fair watching the acrobats and quite certain that men spend all
their time trying to imitate the monkey tribe.
For how fantastick is the sight,
To meet men always bolt upright,
Because we sometimes walk on two!
I hate the imitating crew,
Gay's real interest in animals is constantly apparent, as is the
calm sanity of his views on man and his relation to the universe.
Fable XLIX, for instance, notices the habit all creatures have of
making themselves the focal point of all creation 5 man most of
all, as he views earth, ocean, sky, beasts, birds, and fish, the day,
the night, the various year, thinks all things created to please
him* One of the fables touches love, and another, with rather
more of the macabre in its images than one would expect, deals
with the Court of Death. There is even a touch of Spenser's
manner in this poem.
The verses are smoothly turned, with very few double
rhymes, and lack the jerkiness of the true Hudibrastic. Nor is
there any large element of the epigrammatic, though some few
of the lines are crisp enough to pass into proverbial usage.
No personal allusions occur, except the opening lines of compli-
RECOVERY 227
jnent to the young Duke o Cumberland^ and the graceful
reference to himself in the last fable.
A Hare, who, in a civil way,
Comply'd with everything, like Gay,
Was known by ai the bestial train,
Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain:
Her care was* never to offend,
And ev'ry creature was her friend.
II
Gay was interested in a mild way that winter in the publica-
tion of Motte's Miscellmies in Prose and Verse. Pope was ar-
ranging the material and doing the necessary editorial work and
by February 18, 17273 was pretty well finished with the task
and able to write to Swift: 20
Our Miscellany is now quite printed. I am prodigiously pleased
with this joint volume, in which methinks we look like friends, side
by side, serious and merry by turns, conversing interchangeably, and
walking down hand in hand to posterity, not in the stiff forms of
learned authors, flattering each other, and setting the rest of man-
kind at nought, but in a free, unimportant, naturalj easy manner^
diverting others just as we diverted ourselves. 21
These volumes were not published until the autumn^ how-
ever, and by that time, in addition to a number of minor pieces
known to be Gay's, a few other poems were ready the author-
ship of which remains doubtful, though they have been gen-
erally accepted as Gay*s since Bell printed them in his edition
of the Works in 1773. One or two of these may have been
combination affairs. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu speaks of
a ballad of this sort in a letter to her sister about Hay, 1727.**
This has generally been assumed to refer to A Ballad on
Qmdrille, The Qwdnumckifs appeared at this time also, and I
am still inclined to feel that Gay had a share in this, esper
dally when I compare the style and diction of the piece with
20 The preface U dated May 27, 1727. "George Fasten" sayt that Motte paid 22$
for the copyright of the Miscellanys, and that Gay and Arbuthnot received ja See
her Mr. Pop* (1909), I, 333- ** Swift > ******* m 3*.
18 letter* an4 Warks of Lady Mary Worthy Men^gu, I, 506.
228 'JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
Fable XL. For the authorship of two other poems in the Mis-
cellanies, A New Song of New Similes and Ay and, No, no fresh
evidence has appeared. Ay and No is probably Swift's $ A New
Song may stand as Gay's on the traditional basis only.
During the year 1727., a second edition of Steele's Poetical
Miscellanies appeared, and into it crept anonymously the song
called The Coquet Mother and the Coquet Daughter. This
poem had not appeared in the edition of 1713. It was appar-
ently not so well known as many of Gay's other songs, for The
Puttick Register: or, the Weekly Magazine (January 3, 1741)
published it as a "Song by Mr. Gay, never before printed." It
did, however, attain the distinction of a separate folio printing
with music by Dr. John Worgan about the middle of the cen-
tury 5 and found a place in Potts's edition of Gay's Works (1770)
and in succeeding collections.
By February i, 1727, Swift is writing to Mrs. Howard, the
"Sieve Yahoo/ 7 telling her to get her house and wine ready, so
that he and Gay may have free access to them while she is
safe at Court, for, "as to Mr. Pope, he is not worth mentioning
on such occasions." Gay himself was hardly worth mentioning
on such occasions that winter and spring. Arbuthnot wrote Swift
in November that Gay had had a, little fever but was pretty
well recovered. Gay wrote on February 18, 1727; "I have been
very much out of order myself for the most part of the winter j
upon my being let blood last week, my cough and my headache
are much better." 23 He was careful to refuse invitations that
he knew might prove disastrous, and was making a practice of
walking two hours every morning in the park. Even as late as
May 6 3 Congreve was still worried about him. 24 By that time,
he had been swept, with Swift's return to London, into a whirl-
pool of social and political activities, and the effect of this close
association with Swift on Gay's personal fortunes and misfor-
tunes was marked. The Fa&les had appeared, and Gay was
hoping through Mrs. Howard and her friend the Speaker, Sir
Spencer Compton, to obtain some recognition for his work.
This expected favor seemed much nearer when George I died
ss Swift, Letters, III, 382, M Pope, Works, VI, 417.
RECOVERY 229
on June u. Swift, political buzzard as he sometimes showed
himself, had at first looked for favors from Wdpole and, when
rebuffed., turned the engines of his conversational rhetoric to
the support of Pulteney, Wyndham, Bolingbroke, and the
"patriots. 53 He wrote to Sheridan a month before the death of
the King:
We are here in a strange situation; a firm settled resolution to
assault the present administration, and break it if possible. It is certain
that Walpole is peevish and disconcerted, stoops to the vilest offices
of hiring scoundrels to write Billingsgate of the lowest and most
prostitute kind, and has none but beasts and blockheads for his pen-
men, whom he pays in ready guineas very liberally. I am in high
displeasure with him and his partisans. 25
It is clear that the opposition were using the same tactics
with Mrs. Howard that Harley had employed with Abigail
Hill years before, but they reckoned without the new Queen,
Caroline was an astute woman and proposed to be nobody's fool
The new King asked Sir Spencer Compton, his treasurer, to draw
up the declaration on finance for the Privy Council. Compton
was unequal to this task as he was to the heavier work of form-
ing a new ministry. He had to call in the aid of Walpole, and
the bewildered patriots presently realized that the great Prime
Minister with Caroline's wise support was just as steady in the
government of the nation as he ever had been. Both Compton
and Mrs. Howard were forced to cover, scarcely able to get what
they wanted for themselves, and quite unable to help their am-
bitious friends. Speaker Compton became "Sneaker" Compton
to Swift and his friends, the Craftsman crew, and they all had
to wait fifteen yean for another chance.
The Fables came out in March, and from the beginning Gay
tried to keep his expectations low. Mrs. Howard told him the
Queen's remark about "taking up the hare," and how her mis-
tress had bade her to put her in mind, in settling the family, to
find some employment for Gay. 26 That at least was encourag-
ing. Both Bolingbroke and Arbuthnot had their doubts, how-
m Swift, Lttter*, III, 388. f @ Ibid., IV, 375.
230 JOHN GAY: FAVORITE OF THE WITS
even Apparently they thought him. not sufficiently complaisant
to rise. That summer Bolingbroke wrote to Swift:
I wish John Gay success in his pursuit; but I think he has some
qualities which will keep him down in the world. Good God! what
is man, polished, civilized, learned man. A liberal education fits him
for slavery ; and the pains he has taken give him the noble pretension
of dangling away life in an ante-chamber, or of employing real
talents to serve those who have none ; or, which is worse than all the
rest, of making his reason and his knowledge serve all the purposes
of other men's follies and vices. 27
This sort of moralizing Bolingbroke delighted in, and we
need not take it too seriously. All that group fresh from their
disappointments were feeling at the moment more poignantly
than usual the power of cunning, the falsehood and self-interest
that vitiates friendships. 28 As late as October 12, Swift still
hoped that his Whitehall landlord was nearer a place than when
he left him, "as the preacher said, the Day of Judgment was
nearer than ever it had been before." As far as Gay's fate was
concerned, the day of judgment must have been that day or
the day after. For the lists had appeared $ Fazakerly was down
as Gentleman Usher to the Princess Mary, and Gay Gentleman
Usher to the Princess Louisa. 29 The post was worth 150 a
year, and whatever duties it entailed must have been light, since
the Princess was but two years old. Gay had no wish to have
his liberty curtailed and his allegiance to the Court party bought
at so slight a figure, however, and he promptly and as cour-
teously as possible declined the office. His friends approved his
action. In his Homeric security Pope preached the virtues of
independence. Swift blamed both Mrs. Howard and Walpole,
the ktter because he had believed Gay the author of a libel
against himself and had borne an ill report of Gay to the
tT lUd.y III, 449. Bollngbroke's Intimacy with Gay at this time is clear from a
note be sent to Swift: "Let me know how you are. Say something- kind from me to
Pope. Toss John Gay over the water to Richmond, if he is with you. Adieu" (ibid.,
Ill, 448).
S8 See letter from Pulteney to Francis Colman, Sept. 21, 1727 (Posthumous Letters
addressed to Francis Colnt&n t 1820, p. n).
** Tke Postm&n, Oct. 28, 1727,
RECOVERY 231
Queen. 30 Walpole was aware of Gay*s continued friendship
with Swift and Pulteney and Bolingbroke, and whether any
particular libel came from his pen or not was a matter of in-
difference to the great man ? since all who knew Gay knew that
no post, no matter how attractive, would make him readjust his
friendships to please anybody. Near The Craftsman, he might
at any moment write for it, and Walpolete favors went only to
those whose promises to pay for value received could be de-
pended on.
Even Arbuthnot felt that "there was a fatality upon poor
John Gay/* and that it would not be well to let him buy an
annuity on one ? s life. Walpole's bitter hostility to the Pulteney
group* for they had shaken him ? and the outcome was for a
time uncertain accounts for his discouragement of Gay*s pre-
tensions at this time, and all that Mrs. Howard could do had no
effect on the issue whatever. 31 If anything^ her representations
to the Queen would prejudice Gay rather than aid him. The
Queen was ? even so, pleasantly disposed towards Gay, and
thought, I suppose, that the post she offered would satisfy him.
She certainly had no intention of insisting that he have a better
one in the face of Walpole*s opposition.
One thing more remains to be said on this subject. In the
same letter in which Gay announced his disappointment to
Swift (October 22, 1727), he informed him facetiously that now
that he had no Court attendance to bother him he co
