GAY, John, a celebrated English poet, descended from an ancient family in Devonshire, was born at Exeter, and received his education at the free school of Barnstaple in that county, under the care of Mr William Rayner. He was bred as a mercer in the Strand; but having a small fortune, independently of business, and considering the attendance on a shop as a degradation of those talents which he knew himself to be possessed of, he quitted that occupation, and applied himself to other pursuits, including the indulgence of his inclination for poetry. In 1712 we find him secretary, or rather domestic steward, to the Duchess of Monmouth, a station in which he continued until the beginning of the year 1714, when he accompanied the Earl of Clarendon to Hanover, whither that nobleman was dispatched by Queen Anne. At the close of the same year, the queen’s death recalled him to England, where he lived in the highest estimation and intimacy of friendship with many persons of the first distinction in point both of rank and abilities. He was even particularly noticed by Queen Caroline, then princess of Wales, to whom he had the honour of reading in manuscript his tragedy of the Captives ; and in 1726 he dedicated his Fables, by permission, to the Duke of Cumberland. From the countenance thus shown to him, and numberless promises made him of preferment, it was reasonable to suppose, that he would have been provided for in some office suited to his inclination and abilities. But instead of this, in 1727, he was offered the place of gentleman usher to one of the young princesses; an office which, looking on it as an indignity to a man whose talents might have been so much better employed, he thought proper to refuse; and some pretty warm remonstrances were made on the occasion by the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, his sincere friends and zealous patrons, which terminated in these two noble personages withdrawing from court in disgust. Mr Gay’s dependence on the promises of the great, and the disappointments he met with, he has figuratively described in his fable of the Hare with many Friends. However, the extraordinary success which he met with from the public made ample amends both in respect to satisfaction and emolument; for in the season of 1727-28 appeared his Beggars Opera, the success of which was not only unprecedented, but almost incredible. It had an uninterrupted run in London of sixty-three nights in the first season, and was renewed in the ensuing one with equal approbation. It spread into all the great towns of England; it was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth, and at Bath and Bristol to the fiftieth time; it made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last country it was acted for twenty-four successive nights; and it was even performed at the island of Minorca. Nor was the fame of this opera confined to the reading and representation alone, for the card-table and drawing-room shared with the theatre and closet in this respect; the ladies carried about the favourite songs of the piece engraven upon their fans; and screens and other pieces of furniture were decorated with designs from it. In short, the satire of this production was so striking, so apparent, and so perfectly adapted to the taste of all degrees of people, that it overthrew the Italian opera, that dagon of the nobility and gentry, which had so long seduced them to idolatry, and which Dennis by the labours and outcries of a whole life, and many other writers by the force of reason and reflection, had in vain endeavoured to drive from the throne of public taste. The profits of this piece were so very great, both to the author and the manager Mr Rich, that it gave rise to a quibble, which became frequent in the mouths of many, namely, that it had made Rich gay, and Gay rich. It has been asserted, indeed, that the author’s own emoluments from it were not less than L.2000. This success induced Mr Gay to write a second part, which he entitled Polly. But the disgust subsisting between him and the court, together with the misrepresentations made of him as having been the author of some disaffected libels and seditious pamphlets, occasioned a prohibition and suppression of it to be sent from the lord chamberlain, at the very time when every thing was in readiness for the rehearsal of the piece. A very considerable sum, however, accrued to the author from the publication of it afterwards in quarto. Mr Gay wrote several other pieces in the dramatic line, and many valuable compositions in verse. Amongst the latter, his Trivia, or the art of Walking the Streets of London, though his first poetical attempt, is tar from being the least considerable, and is what recommended him to the esteem and friendship of Mr Pope. But as, among his dramatic works, his Beggar’s Opera did at first, and perhaps ever will, stand as an unrivalled masterpiece, so, among his poetical works, his Fables hold the same degree of estimation; the latter having been almost as universally read as the former was represented, and both equally admired. Mr Gay’s disposition was sweet and affable, his temper generous, and his conversation agreeable and entertaining. But he had one foible, too frequently incident to men of literary abilities, and which subjected him at times to inconveniences which otherwise he might have avoided, namely, an excess of indolence, without any knowledge of economy. Hence, although his emoluments were, at some periods of bis life, very considerable, he was at others greatly straitened in his circumstances; nor could he prevail on himself to follow the advice of his friend Dean Swift, whom we find in many of his letters endeavouring to persuade him to purchase an annuity as a reserve for the exigencies of old age. Mr Gay chose rather to throw himself on patronage, than secure to himself an independent competency by the means pointed out to him; and hence, after having undergone many vicissitudes of fortune, and being for some time chiefly supported by the liberality of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, he died at their house in Burlington Gardens, in December 1732. He was interred in Westminster Abbey, and a monument erected to his memory, at the expense [7:10:374]of his noble benefactors, with an inscription expressive of their regards and his own deserts, and an epitaph in verse by Mr Pope.