GAY, JOHN (1685-1732), English poet, was baptized on Sept. 16, 1685 at Barnstaple. On leaving school he was appren ticed to a silk mercer in London, but being weary, according to Dr. Johnson, "of either the restraint or the servility of his occu pation," he soon returned to Barnstaple, where he spent some time with his uncle, the Nonconformist minister. He then re turned to London, and though no details are available for his biography until the publication of Wine in 1708, the account he gives in Rural Sports (1713), of years wasted in attending on courtiers who were profuse in promises never kept, may account for his occupations. Among his early literary friends were Aaron Hill and Eustace Budgell. In The Present State of Wit (171I ) Gay attempted to give an account of "all our periodical papers, whether monthly, weekly or diurnal." To Lintot's Miscellany (1712) he contributed "An Epistle to Bernard Lintot," contain ing some lines in praise of Pope, and a version of the story of Arachne from the sixth book of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. He was for a short time (1712-14) secretary to the duchess of Mon mouth. Swift got him a place as secretary to the ambassador at the Hanoverian court, but before he could take up the post Queen Anne died, and all hope of official preferment was removed with her death.
The dedication of his Rural Sports (1713) to Pope was the beginning of a lasting friendship. In 1713 he produced a comedy, The Wife of Bath, which was acted only three nights, and The Fan, one of his least successful poems; and in 1714 The Shep herd's Week, a series of six pastorals drawn from English rustic life, written in ridicule of the Arcadian pastorals of Ambrose Philips, but entertaining on their own account. In 1715, probably with help from Pope, he produced What d'ye call it? a dramatic skit on contemporary tragedy, with special reference to Otway's Venice Preserved. In 1716 appeared his Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, a poem in three for which he received several hints from Swift. Trivia has a dry wit and an admirable style ; its matter makes it a social-historical document of some importance. In Jan. 1717 Gay produced the comedy of Three Hours after Marriage, which was a failure. In this piece he had assistance from Pope and Arbuthnot, but they were glad to have it assumed that Gay was the sole author.
Gay had numerous patrons, and in 172o he published Poems on Several Occasions by subscription, realizing f r,000 or more. In that year James Craggs, the secretary of State, presented him with some South Sea stock. Gay, disregarding the prudent advice of Pope and other friends, invested his all in South Sea stock, and lost everything. The shock made him dangerously ill, but his friends came to his assistance. He had patrons in William Pulte ney, afterwards earl of Bath, in the third earl of Burlington, who constantly entertained him at Chiswick or at Burlington House, and in the third earl of Queensberry. He was a frequent visitor with Pope, and received unvarying kindness from Congreve and Arbuthnot. In 1724 he produced a tragedy called The Captives. In 1727 he wrote for Prince William, afterwards duke of Cum berland, his famous Fifty-one Fables in Verse, for which he naturally hoped to gain some preferment. He refused the situation of gentleman-usher to the Princess Louisa, who was still a child. His friends thought him unjustly neglected by the court, but he had no particular claim on the king's favour, and had already received (1722) a sinecure as lottery commissioner with a salary of £ I 5o a year, and from 1722 to 1729 he had lodgings in the palace at Whitehall.
He certainly did nothing to conciliate the favour of the Gov ernment by his next and most famous production, the Beggar's Opera, a lyrical drama produced on Jan. 29, 1728 by Rich, in which Sir Robert Walpole was caricatured. The part of Polly Peachum was played by Lavinia Fenton, afterwards duchess of Bolton. This piece, which was said to have made "Rich gay and Gay rich," was an innovation, and for a time it drove Italian opera off the English stage. Under cover of the thieves and high waymen who figured in it was disguised a satire on society, for Gay made it plain that in describing the moral code of his char acters he had in mind the corruptions of the governing class. The play ran for 62 nights, though the representations, four of which were "benefits" of the author, were not, as has sometimes been stated, consecutive. Swift is said to have suggested the sub ject, and Pope and Arbuthnot were constantly consulted while the work was in progress, but Gay must be regarded as the sole author. He wrote a sequel, Polly, the representation of which was forbidden by the lord chamberlain, no doubt through the influence of Walpole. This act of "oppression" proved an excel lent advertisement for Polly, which was published by subscription in 1729, and brought its author more than £I,000. The duchess of Queensberry was dismissed from court for enlisting subscribers in the palace. The duke of Queensberry gave him a home, and the duchess continued her affectionate patronage until Gay's death, which took place on Dec. 4, 1732. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. The epitaph on his tomb is by Pope, and is followed by Gay's own mocking couplet:— Life is a jest, and all things show it I thought so once, and now I know it.
Acis and Galatea, an English pastoral opera, the music of which was written by Handel, was produced at the Haymarket in 1732. The profits of his posthumous opera of Achilles (1733), and a new volume of Fables (1738) went to his two sisters, who inher ited from him a fortune of £6,000. He left two other pieces, The Distressed Wife (1743), a comedy, and The Rehearsal at Goat ham (1754), a farce. The Fables, slight as they may appear, cost him more labour than any of his other works. The narratives are in nearly every case original, and are told in clear and lively verse. The moral which rounds off each little story is never strained. They are masterpieces in their kind, and the very numer ous editions of them prove their popularity.. They have been translated into Latin, French and Italian, Urdu and Bengali. Gay's fame was revived by the three and a half years' run (June 5, 1920 to Dec. 17, 1923) of the Beggar's Opera at the Lyric theatre, Hammersmith.
The two best editions of Gay's Poetical Works are those by J. Underhill (1893) and by J. C. Faber (1926), the•latter including Polly and the Beggar's Opera. The Plays and the Poems were edited in the Abbey Classics (1923) . The Beggar's Opera was also edited by G. H. McLeod (1906 ; rev. ed. with music, 1921) and by O. Doughty (1922). See also L. Melville, Life and Letters of J. Gay (1921) and W. E. Schultz, Gay's Beggar's Opera, its content, history and influence (New Haven, 1923). Gay's Chair (182o), edited by Henry Lee, a fellow-townsman, contained a biographical sketch by his nephew, J. Baller.