John Gay

John Gay (1685-1732)

   John Gay was an English poet and dramatist, born in Devonshire. After a brief apprenticeship to a London mercer, he lived for a time as a literary Bohemian, contributing satirical prose and verse to journals and reviews and soliciting the protection of wealthy patrons. In 1712 Gay was employed as secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth and later held similar posts with the Earl of Clarendon and the Duke and Duchess of Queensbeny. In 1714 he published The Shepherd's Week, a series of six eclogues burlesquing the pastoral poetry of Ambrose Philips. These poems, which established his literary reputation, were followed by a farce, What d"ye Call it (1715); Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716), a sprightly and colorful mock epic; and a comedy, Three Hours after Marriage (1717), which he wrote in collaboration with Pope and Arbuthnot. John Gay made £1,000 through the publication of his collected poems (1720) but lost it all by speculation in the South Sea Bubble. In 1724 he produced a tragedy, The Captives, and in 1727 pub¬lished the first of his popular versified Pables. His crowning achievement, The Beggar's Opera (1728), was a boisterous musical comedy which for a season drove the Italian opera out of England. Polly (1729), a sequel, enjoyed success in book form but the stage production was prohibited for political reasons. Among Gay's later works were a libretto for Handel's Acis and Gala¬tea (1732), an opera, Achilles (1733), and a second series of Fables (1738). His most familiar poems today are the ballads "Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan" and " 'Twas when the seas were roaring" and his own epitaph: "Life is a jest and all things show it; I thought so once, and now I know it."