John Gay (1685-1732) was the youngest son of William Gay, of Barnstaple, John Gay where he was born in September 1685. The occupation of his parents is not known, but they were in fairly comfortable circumstances. He was educated at the Grammar School of Barnstaple, where his earliest verses, about a swallow shot in the churchyard, are said to have been written. Gay was early apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London, but was soon tired of the shop," and easily persuaded his master to discharge him." His verses written at Barnstaple after his return were hidden in the arm of a chair, whence they were not dislodged until 1820. He went back to London, but little is known of his career until, in 1708, he published his first work, the imitative poem called Wine. In 1711 Gay formed the acquaintance of Steele and Pope, and thus entered literary society. John Gay After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller In 1712 he was appointed domestic steward to the Duchess Engraving from the Illustrated Edition of Gay's Fables of Monmouth, and published his first notable work, Rural Sports, in 1713; the latter succeeded, although, as Swift said, Gay could not "distinguish rye from barley, nor an oak from a crab-tree." His "highest country skill" was fishing for gudgeons. A more important production, and one which holds a place in the history of literature, was The Shepherd's Week of 1714, a set of burlesque pastorals in which Gay exercised his genuine rustic talent while indulging (1685-1732) Pope's resentment against Ambrose Philips. This year, however, was fatal to Gay's independence, for the Duchess discharged him from her service, an appointment in the household of Lord Clarendon fell through, and the poet was penniless. In 1715 Gay produced his entertaining "tragic-comic-pastoral" farce, called The What d'ye Call It, which enjoyed a great success, and his picturesque poem of Trivia in 1716. In these and succeeding years he seems to have led a parasitical life, visiting from house to house, and starving between whiles. In 1720 Gay collected his "Poems" in quarto and made £1000; with this he speculated on the Stock Exchange until he made it a nominal £20,000; the South Sea Bubble burst and Gay was oncc more penniless. He now began to be "always with the Duchess of Queensberry," and this amusing and brilliant lady became Gay's patron-in-ordinary. His famous Fables appeared in 1727; his no less famous Beggar's Opera in 1728, and the sequel, Polly, in 1729; these three books brought money, fame, and scandal to everybody concerned with them. After the publication of Polly, indeed, the "inoffensive John Gay became the terror of ministers and one of the obstructions to the peace of Europe," and Duchesses had to retire from Court for patronising him. Gay did not survive his successes long, but on the 4th of December 1732 died in the house of the Duke of Queensberry in Burlington Gardens. He was ceremoniously buried in Westm nster Abbey, and after all his solicitudes he was found to have £6000 in his possession. "Gay dies unpensioned with a hundred friends," Pope sang, but it is not easy to pity him, for his early indigence was certainly the result of sheer indolence. Gay was amiable, merry, greedy, lazy, and a charming com Did I not see thee when thon first setst sail left the Strand? Lon in mid Ocean often dost thon quail And oft left up Ogby holy aya & hand dear, and Paintly Choir Back to the Port to speed thy Bark entire. From a Congratulatory Poem from John Gay to Alexander Pope panion. He loved good eating, smart clothes, and snug quarters, and he hated to work for them; he made himself agreeable to so many wealthy people that he had no need to do so. As some one said of him, he wanted a place with a hand some income and no duties, and to this ideal he practically, though never nominally, managed to attain. Thomas (1679-1718) Thomas Parnell (1679-1718) belonged to the well-known Cheshire family of that name; and his father was the Thomas Parnell of Dublin, ancestor of the first Lord Congleton, whose great-grand-nephew was the Irish leader. The poet was born in Dublin in 1679; his mother was Anna Grice of Tipperary, from whom, doubtless, he received his strong Irish characteristics. In 1693 he was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, and remained there until he took his degree of M.A. in 1700. was patronised by the great Whig divine, Dr. William King, who admitted Parnell to deacon's orders when he was below canonical age, and found him promotion. At the carly age of twenty-seven Parnell was appointed Archdeacon of Clogher, and married a lady who, like his own mother, was of County Tipperary. He had two sons, who died in childhood, and he lost his mother in 1709 and his wife in 1711. In consequence of the depression caused by these losses, he is said to have taken to heavy drinking, which shortened his life. By this time he had renewed a college acquaintance with Swift, and had acquired the friendship of Addison, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Steele. His earliest appearances in print were made in the form of a few essays contributed to the Spectator and to the Guardian. Parnell was now beginning to circulate among his friends copies of verses, which were greatly commended. Swift told Stella in 1712 that Parnell outdid "all our poets here by a bar's length," and he endeavoured to make Parnell known to the Ministry. In 1713 Archbishop King made the poet a Prebendary of St. Patrick's, and Parnell joined the Scriblerus Club. He wrote an essay on Homer as an introduction to Pope's Iliad. In 1716 King presented Parnell with the vicarage of Finglas, and the poet, who was rich, and already in failing health and spirits, resigned his archdeaconry. In 1717 he published Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice, in which the line which Pope was to take in his Dunciad was dimly foreshadowed. Parnell died, on the journey from London to Dublin, at Chester, and was buried there on the 24th of October 1718. Pope immediately set about collecting the scattered poems of his friend, including the most important of them all, The Hermit, but he did not publish them till the close of 1721, when the volume appeared with a beautiful dedication of the verses of the "once-loved" Parnell to Lord Oxford. He had been much beloved in spite of a splenetic and irregular temper, which gave anxiety and some annoyance to his friends. Parnell was always either exaggeratedly elated or in the depths of misery. His hatred of Ireland was equalled only by that of Swift. His works were first collected in 1758, with a posthumous certificate of genuineness from the last-named friend. Thomas Parnell, D D. How deep yon azure dyes the sky, Where orbs of gold unnumbered lie; While through their ranks, in silver pride, The nether crescent seems to glide. |