“Gay,” says Pope, “was quite a natural man,—wholly without art or design, and spoke just what he thought and as he thought it. He dangled for twenty years about a Court, and at last was offered to be made usher to the young princess. Secretary Craggs made Gay a present of stock in the South-Sea year; and he was once worth 20,000l., but lost it all again. He got about 500l. by the first Beggar's Opera, and 1,100l. or 1,200l. by the second. He was negligent and a bad manager. Latterly, the Duke of Queensberry took his money into his keeping, and let him only have what was necessary out of it, and, as he lived with them, he could not have occasion for much. He died worth upwards of 3,000l.”—Pope (Spence's Anecdotes).
Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
In wit a man; simplicity, a child;
With native humour temp'ring virtuous rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age;
Above temptation in a low estate,
And uncorrupted e'en among the great:
A safe companion, and an easy friend,
Unblamed through life, lamented in the end.
These are thy honours; not that here thy bust
Is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust;
But that the worthy and the good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms, “Here lies Gay.”
Pope's Epitaph on Gay.
A hare who, in a civil way,
Complied with everything, like Gay.
Fables, “The Hare and Many Friends.”
“I can give you no account of Gay,” says Pope, curiously, “since he was raffled for, and won back by his Duchess.”—Works, Roscoe's ed., vol. ix, p. 392.
Here is the letter Pope wrote to him when the death of Queen Anne brought back Lord Clarendon from Hanover, and lost him the secretaryship of that nobleman, of which he had had but a short tenure.
Gay's Court prospects were never happy from this time.—His dedication of the Shepherd's Week to Bolingbroke, Swift used to call the “original sin”, which had hurt him with the house of Hanover.
“Sept. 23, 1714.
“Dear Mr. Gay,