might be beft made of it. Lewis, the fteward of lord Oxford, advifed him to intruft it to the funds, and live upon the intereft; Arbuthnot bade him intruft it to Providence, and live upon the principal; Pope directed him, and } was feconded by Swift, to purchase an annuity. Gay in that disastrous year * had a present from young Craggs of fome South-sea-stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty thousand pounds. His friends perfuaded him to fell his fhare; but he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his own fortune. He was then importuned to fell as much as would purchase an hundred a-year for life," which," fays Fenton, "will make you fure of a clean shirt ❝and a shoulder of mutton every day." This counsel was rejected: the profit and principal were loft, and Gay funk under the calamity fo low that his life became in danger.

By the care of his friends, among whom Pope appears to have fhewn particular tenderness, his health was reftored; and, returning to his ftudies, he wrote a tragedy called The Captives, which he was invited to read

* Spence.

before

before the princefs of Wales. When the hour came, he saw the princess and her ladies all in expectation, and advancing with reverence, too great for any other attention, stumbled at a ftool, and falling forwards, threw down a weighty Japan screen. The princess started, the ladies fcreamed, and poor Gay, after all the disturbance, was ftill to read his play.

The fate of The Captives, which was acted at Drury-Lane in 1723-4, I know not*; but he now thought himself in favour, and undertook (1726) to write a volume of Fables for the improvement of the young duke of Cumberland. For this he is faid to have been promised a reward, which he had doubtlefs magnified with all the wild expectations of indigence and vanity.

T

Next

year the prince and princefs became King and Queen, and Gay was to be great and happy; but on the fettlement of the household he found himself appointed gentleman usher to the princess Louisa. By this offer he thought himself infulted, and fent a meffage to the Queen, that he was too old for the place. There feem to have been many

* It was acted seven nights. The Author's third night was by command of their Royal Highneffes.

R.

machi

machinations employed afterwards in his favour; and diligent court was paid to Mrs. Howard, afterwards countess of Suffolk, who was much beloved by the King and Queen, to engage her interest for his promotion; but folicitations, verfes and flatteries, were thrown away; the lady heard them, and did nothing.

All the pain which he fuffered from neglect, or, as he perhaps termed it, the ingratitude of the court, may be supposed to have been driven away by the unexampled fuccefs of the Beggar's Opera. This play, written in ridicule of the mufical Italian Drama, was first offered to Cibber and his brethren at DruryLane, and rejected; it being then carried to Rich, had the effect, and was ludicrously faid, of making Gay rich, and Rich

gay.

Of this lucky piece, as the reader cannot but wish to know the original and progrefs, I have inferted the relation which Spence has given in Pope's words.

"Dr. Swift had been obferving once to Mr. Gay, what an odd pretty fort of a thing

a Newgate Paftoral might make. Gay was "inclined to try at fuch a thing for some time, "but afterwards thought it would be better

to write a comedy on the fame plan. This

was

દ

was what gave rise to the Beggar's Opera: He began on it; and when first he men"tioned it to Swift, the Doctor did not much "like the project. As he carried it on, he "fhewed what he wrote to both of us, "and we now and then gave a correction, or " a word or two of advice; but it was wholly "of his own writing. When it was done, "neither of us thought it would succeed.→ "We fhewed it to Congreve; who, after "reading it over, faid, It would either take "greatly, or be damned confoundedly.-We e were all, at the first night of it, in great "uncertainty of the event; till we were very "much encouraged by overhearing the duke "of Argyle, who fat in the next box to us, fay,' It will do it must do! I see it in the eyes of them. This was a good while be"fore the first act was over, and fo gave us "eafe foon; for that duke (befides his own "good tafte) has a particular knack, as any ་ ་ one now living, in difcovering the taste of "the publick. He was quite right in this, as ufual; the good-nature of the audience appeared ftronger and ftronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause."

Its reception is thus recorded in the notes to the Dunciad:

"This piece was received with greater ap"plause than was ever known. Besides being "acted in London fixty-three days without "interruption, and renewed the next feason "with equal applause, it fpread into all the

great towns of England; was played in .66 many places to the thirtieth and fortieth "time; at Bath and Briftol fifty, &c. It "made its progrefs into Wales, Scotland, and

Ireland, where it was performed twenty"four days fucceffively. The ladies carried "about with them the favourite fongs of it "in fans, and houses were furnished with it "in fcreens. The fame of it was not con"fined to the author only. The person who "acted Polly, till then obfcure, became all at

once the favourite of the town; her pic"tures were engraved, and fold in great num-"bers; her Life written, books of letters and "verses to her published, and pamphlets made " even of her fayings and jefts. Furthermore, it drove out of England (for that feafon) the Italian Opera, which had carried ❝all before it for ten years.

Of