Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732) Part 2

[Footnote 2: _Dictionary of National Biography._]

[Footnote 3: _Gay's Chair._]

[Footnote 4: _Rural Sports_.]

[Footnote 5: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 13.]

[Footnote 6: George Cheyne (1671-1743), physician, practised first at London, and then at Bath.]

[Footnote 7: "The Epigrammatical Pet.i.tion" is printed on p. 29 of this work,]

[Footnote 8: "_Key to 'Three Hours after Marriage_,'" p. 7.]

[Footnote 9: John Freind (1675-1728), physician.]

[Footnote 10: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 123.]

[Footnote 11: _Ibid_., VI, p. 124.]

[Footnote 12: A reference to "The Mourning Muse of Alexis: A Pastoral Lamentary on the Death of Queen Mary." In this piece the Queen is spoken of as "Pastora."]

[Footnote 13: The references are to "Henry and Emma" and "Hans Carvel."]

[Footnote 14: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VI, p. 130.]

[Footnote 15: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 408.]

[Footnote 16: _Ibid_., VII, p. 409.]

CHAPTER III

1713

"RURAL SPORTS," "THE FAN," "THE WIFE OF BATH," ETC.

There has been preserved a letter written by Aaron Hill to Richard Savage, June 23rd, 1766, which contains information concerning the life of the poet during the next two years. "I would willingly satisfy the curiosity of your friend, in relation to Mr. Gay, if it were not easy to get much further information than I am able to give, from Mr.

Budgell or Mr. Pope; to the first of whom, the beginning of his life was best known, and to the last, its afternoon and evening," Hill wrote. "As to your question, whether Mr. Gay was ever a domestic of the d.u.c.h.ess of Monmouth, I can answer it in the affirmative; he was her secretary about the year 1713, and continued so, till he went over to Hanover, in the beginning of the following year, with Lord Clarendon, who was sent thither by Queen Anne. At his return, upon the death of that Queen, all his hopes became withered, but Mr. Pope (who you know, is an excellent planter) revived and invigorated his bays, and indeed, very generously supported him, in some more _solid_ improvements; for remember a letter, wherein he invited him, with a very impoetical warmth that, so long as he himself had a shilling, Mr.

Gay should be welcome to sixpence of it, nay, to eightpence, if he could but contrive to live on a groat."[1]

It is now happily possible to elaborate the information given in this letter. Owing to the kindly offices of one or other of his friends, Gay had secured the appointment of domestic secretary to the d.u.c.h.ess of Monmouth. Anne Scott, d.u.c.h.ess of Buccleuch in her own right, had in 1663 married the Duke of Monmouth. He was executed for high treason in 1683, and three years later his widow married Charles, third Baron Cornwallis. Though she had not long mourned her first husband, she did not forget that he was on his father's side of the blood royal, and to the end of her days she preserved a regal state, which, however, did not make her unpopular at Court. "The Princess," wrote Lady Cowper, "loved her mightily, and certainly no woman of her years ever deserved it so well. She had all the life and fire of youth, and it was marvellous to see that the many afflictions she had suffered had not touched her wit and good nature, but at upwards of three-score she had both in their full perfection." Upon this appointment Dr. Johnson commented: "By quitting a shop for such service Gay might gain leisure, but he certainly advanced little on the boast of independence." As has been seen, however, there was an interval of several years between Gay's apprenticeship and his taking up this position as the d.u.c.h.ess's amanuensis--for it is doubtful if he ever attained to an office more responsible than this--he secured board and lodging, a little pocket money, and no doubt ample leisure. It was necessary for Gay to earn his livelihood, for he had spent his patrimony, and the earnings of his pen were as yet negligible. Indeed, the situation was almost ideal for an impecunious young man of letters. Anyhow, Gay was delighted, and Pope not less so. "It has been my good fortune within this month past to hear more things that have pleased me than, I think, in all my time besides," Pope wrote to Gay, December 24th, 1712; "but nothing, upon my word, has been so homefelt a satisfaction as the news you tell me of yourself; and you are not in the least mistaken when you congratulate me upon your own good success, for I have more people out of whom to be happy, than any ill-natured man can boast of." Pope, now well aware of Gay's natural indolence, was careful in this same letter to urge him to devote himself to literary labours in his leisure hours. "I shall see you this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the last, and I hope as much of your time as your d.u.c.h.ess will allow you to spare to any friend will not be thought lost upon one who is as much so as any man," he added. "I must also put you in mind, though you are now secretary to this lady, you are likewise secretary to nine other ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to live wholly upon those ladies' favours is indeed in as precarious a condition as any who does what Chaucer says for subsistence; but they are very agreeable companions, like other ladies, when a man only pa.s.ses a night or so with them at his leisure, and away."[2]

Gay, the most amiable of men, never resented advice, perhaps because he so rarely followed it. In this case, however, he was surprisingly amenable. During the short time he was in the service of the d.u.c.h.ess of Monmouth, he drove his quill with some a.s.siduity, and, indeed, at this period of his life he, who was presently distinguished as the laziest of men, worked diligently.

Before joining the household of the d.u.c.h.ess, he had written "Rural Sports: A Georgic," and this was published on January 13th, 1713, by Jacob Tonson, with an inscription to Pope:--

You, who the sweets of rural life have known, Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town; In Windsor groves your easy hours employ, And, undisturb'd, yourself and Muse enjoy.

During 1713 Gay wrote such trifles as papers on "Reproof and Flattery,"

and "Dress," which were printed in the _Guardian_ on March 24th and September 21st respectively; and some verses, "Panthea," "Araminta," "A Thought on Eternity," and "A Contemplation on Night," which appeared in Steele's "Poetical Miscellany." A more ambitious work was "The Fan,"

which had occupied him during the earlier part of the year. He was greatly interested in its composition, and corresponded with Pope while it was being written. "I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of 'The Fan,' which I doubt not will delight the eye and sense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine shall play in the hands of posterity," Pope wrote to him, August 23rd, 1713: "I am glad your Fan is mounted so soon, but I would have you varnish and glaze it at your leisure, and polish the sticks as much as you can. You may then cause it to be borne in the hands of both s.e.xes, no less in Britain than it is in China, where it is ordinary for a mandarin to fan himself cool after a debate, and a statesman to hide his face with it when he tells a grave lie."[3] Again, on October 23rd, Pope wrote: "I shall go into the country about a month hence, and shall then desire to take along with me your poem of 'The Fan.'" The most ambitious as yet of Gay's writings, there are few to-day, however, who will question the judgment of Mr. Austin Dobson, "one of his least successful efforts, and, though touched by Pope, now unreadable."

Gay had thus early a leaning to the theatre, where presently he was to score one of his greatest successes, and he wrote "The Wife of Bath,"

which was produced at Drury Lane on May 12th, 1713. Steele gave it a "puff preliminary" in No. 50 of the _Guardian_ (May 8th).

Gay was now become known as a man of letters, and had made many friends.

Johnson says: "Gay was the general favourite of the whole a.s.sociation of wits; but they regarded him as a playfellow rather than as a partner, and treated him with more fondness than respect."[4] There is some truth in this view, but of the affection he inspired there is no doubt. To know him was to love him. Wherein exactly lay his charm it is not easy now to say; but his gentle good-nature and his utter helplessness seems to have appealed to those of sterner mould. The extracts already given from Pope's correspondence show the affection with which he was inspired for his brother of the pen. Pope took him so completely under his ma.s.sive wing that he remarked later, "they would call him one of my _eleves_."[5] Pope accepted the position, and introduced him to his circle. He made him known to Swift, and that great man loved him as he loved no other man; and to Parnell, Arbuthnot, Ford--the "joyous Ford"

of "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece"--and Bolingbroke, in all of whom he inspired an affection, which endured through life. Parnell and Pope wrote jointly to him, and while in 1714 Pope was still addressing him as "Dear Mr. Gay," Parnell had already thrown aside all formality and greeted him as "Dear Gay." His old schoolfellow, William Fortescue, cleaved to him, and they were in such constant communication that when Pope wanted to see Fortescue, it was to Gay he appealed to arrange a meeting. The terms on which Gay was with the set is shown in Pope's letter to him, written from Binfield, May 4th, 1714: "Pray give, with the utmost fidelity and esteem, my hearty service to the Dean, Dr.

Arbuthnot, Mr. Ford, and to Mr. Fortescue. Let them also know at b.u.t.ton's that I am mindful of them."[6] Erasmus Lewis Gay knew now, and Caryll too, and the rest of the small literary set, who, with gusto, made him welcome among them. Indeed, when the "Memoirs of Scriblerus"

were in contemplation, and, indeed, begun in 1713, Gay, then comparatively unknown, was invited to take a hand in the composition with the greatest men of the day. "The design of the Memoirs of Scriblerus was to have ridiculed all the false tastes in learning, under a character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in each," we have been told. "It was begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age. Lord Oxford, the Bishop of Rochester, Mr. Pope, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Swift, and others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it well enough, and was not disinclined to come in to it."[7] It does not transpire whether Gay had at this time met Swift, but that soon after they were in correspondence, appears from a letter from Pope to Swift, June 18th, 1714: "I shall translate Homer by the by. Mr. Gay has acquainted you with what progress I have made in it. I cannot name Mr. Gay without all the acknowledgments which I shall owe you, on his account."[8]

[Footnote 1: Hill: _Works_ (ed. 1754), I, p. 325.]

[Footnote 2: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 409.]

[Footnote 3: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 412.]

[Footnote 4: Johnson: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 268.]

[Footnote 5: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 145.]

[Footnote 6: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 415.]

[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 123.]

[Footnote 8: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 10.]

CHAPTER IV

1714

"THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK," "A LETTER TO A LADY."

The outstanding literary event in Gay's career in 1714 was the pastoral, "The Shepherd's Week," which was published by R. Burleigh on April 15th, which contained a "Proeme to the Courteous Reader," and a "Prologue to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Bolingbroke," which was, in fact, a dedication:--

Lo, I who erst beneath a tree Sung b.u.mkinet and Bowzybee, And Blouzelind and Marian bright, In ap.r.o.n blue or ap.r.o.n white, Now write my sonnets in a book, For my good lord of Bolingbroke.

The author then states that he had heard of the Queen's illness and how the skill of Arbuthnot had restored her to health:--

A skilful leech (so G.o.d him speed) They said had wrought this blessed deed, This leech Arbuthnot was yclept, Who many a night not once had slept; But watch'd our gracious Sov'reign still: For who could rest when she was ill?