On the advancement of the Prince and Princess to the throne, Gay expected that something would be clone for him ; but on the settlement of the household, finding him self appointed gentleman usher to the Princess Louisa, he thought himself insulted, and declined the place. Still, however, he was assiduous in paying court to favourites, and flattered Mrs Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, who was in high favour with the King and Queen. The lady listened to his verses, and did nothing. But the un rivalled success of his Beggar's Opera may be supposed to have been some compensation for the neglect and in gratitude of the court. When shewn to Cibber at Drury Lane, it was rejected ; it was then carried to Rich; and, as was ludicrously remarked, had the effect of making " Gay rich, and Rich gay." At length Gay secured himself an asylum for life in the house of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. The Duke is said to have undertaken the management of his money, in consideration of his want of economy, and to have allowed him only enough for his necessities. But even the affectionate attentions of the Duke and Duchess failed to soothe the mind of Gay into a state of compla cency ; his disappointments at court preying on his spirits, he fell into his old distemper, an habitual cholic, in which state he languished, with many intervals of ease and health, till a violent fit hurried him to the grave with unusual pre cipitancy. He died on the 4th December 1732, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Pope sums up his charac ter as follows: 44 Gay was a natural man, without design, who spoke what he thought, and just as he thought it ; and was of a timid temper, and fearful of giving offence to the great." Gay dying without a will, his two maiden sisters inherit ed what he left ; amounting to 2000/., besides the profits of his opera of Achilles.
Although the genius of Gay was not of the highest order, or deeply inspired, yet it was not destitute of ; and lie must be allowed to be the inventor of the ballad opera, a new species of composition, which has long kept possession of the stage. We have the following ac count of the origin of the Beggar's Opera, in the words of Pope ; " Dr Swift had been observing once to Mr Gay, what an odd pretty sort of a thing a Newgate pastoral might make ; Gay was inclined to try at such a thing for some time ; but afterwards thought it would be better to write a comedy on the same plan. This was what gave rise to the Beggar's Opera. He began on it ; and when first he mentioned it to Swift, the Doctor did not much like the project. As he carried it on, he shewed what he wrote to both of us, and we now and then gave a correc tion, 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 shewed it to Congreve, who, after reading it over, said, it would either take greatly, or be d—d confoundedly. We were ail, at the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the event, till we were very much encouraged by overbearing the Duke of Argyle, who sat in the next box to us, say, ' 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 so gave us ease soon ; for that Duke, (besides his own good taste), has a particular knack, as any one now living, in discovering the taste of the public. He was quite right in this, as usual ; the good
nature of the audience appeared stronger and stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause." It is generally known that the run of this piece was un usually great in London, and all over England. The ladies carried about its songs in fans, and houses were furnished with it in screens ; besides, it expelled from England for that i'ason the Italian opera, which had carried all before it during ten years. Of the merit of this performance when it was published, there were a variety of opinions. By some it was commended for the excellence of its mo rality, placing vice in the strongest and most odious light ; while it was censured by others as giving countenance to crimes, by making a highwayman the hero, and dismissing him unpunished. Swift was of the former opinion, and Dr Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury, was of the latter. After the representation of the Beggar's Opera, the num ber of robbers is said to have greatly increased. But per haps this play, written merely for amusement, was not in tended by its author for any moral purpose ; yet, in our opinion, such a representation is more calculated to in flame than amend the bad passions of our nature. The picture of a criminal who converts the horror of a prison into a scene of merriment and debauchery, and consumes those hours that are given him for repentance among his cups and prostitutes, can have no good effect upon an au dience. And though perhaps, as Dr Johnson observes, highwaymen and housebreakers seldom frequent the play house, yet the latent seeds of robbery and pillage may spring up the more readily from viewing highwaymen dignified as heroes, and hearing their speeches made the theme of popular applause. Some such objection as this, (either moral or political,) prevailed with the Lord Cham berlain, who prohibited a second -part which Gay produced under the name of Polly ; lie was, however, no loser by this repulse, as he gained thrice as much by a subscrip tion, on publishing the latter, as he did by the publication of the former.
From the variety of his performances, Gay may be rec koned a writer of versatile talents, though perhaps not equal ly well qualified to shine on every subject he attempted. His Fables appear to have been with him a favourite work; he published one volume, and left behind him another. They are told with liveliness ; their versification is smooth, and the diction happy. The origin of the Shepherd's Week is somewhat singular. Steele having praised Philips' pas torals, as yielding only to those of Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, Pope, who was a competitor for fame in this way, piqued at the comparison, incited Gay to write his Shep herd's Week, in order to prove that if nature be scrupulous ly followed, rural manners must be delineated as gross and ignorant. But Gay mixed so much truth and nature with the coarseness and humour of his compositions,that his pas torals became generally popular, as just representations of country manners. (w. •.)