66 greve; who, after reading it over, faid, It would "either take greatly, or be damned confoundedly."We were all, at the first night of it, in great uncer

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tainty of the event; till we were very much encou"raged by overhearing the duke of Argyle, who fat "in the next box to us, fay, It will do-it must do! "I fee it in the eyes of them.' This was a good "while before the first Act was over, and fo gave us "eafe foon; for that duke (befides his own good taste) "has a particular knack, as any one now living, in "discovering the taste of the publick. He was quite "right in this, as ufual; the good-nature of the au"dience appeared stronger and stronger every act, and "ended in a clamour of applaufe."

Its reception is thus recorded in the notes to the Dunciad:

"This piece was received with greater applause "than was ever known. Besides being acted in Lon"don fixty-three days without interruption, and re"newed the next feafon with equal applaufe, it spread "into all the great towns of England; was played in

many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time; at "Bath and Briftol fifty, &c. It made its progrefs into "Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where it was per"formed twenty-four days fucceffively. The ladies "carried about with them the favourite fongs of it in "fans, and houfes were furnished with it in fcreens. "The fame of it was not confined to the author only. "The perfon who acted Polly, till then obfcure, be66 came all at once the favourite of the town; her pic"tures were engraved, and fold in great numbers; her "Life written, books of letters and verfes to her pub"lished, and pamphlets made even of her fayings and “ jests.

jefts. Furthermore, it drove out of England (for *that feafon) the Italian Opera, which had carried all "before it for ten years."

Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was different, according to the different opinion of its readers. Swift commended it for the excellence of its morality, as a piece that placed all kinds of vice in the ftrongest and most odious light; but others, and among them Dr. Herring, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, cenfured it as giving encouragement not only to vice but to crimes, by making a highwayman the hero, and difmiffing him at laft unpunished. It has been even faid, that after the exhibition of the Beggar's Opera the gangs of robbers were evidently multiplied.

Both thefe decifions are furely exaggerated. The play, like many others, was plainly written only to divert, without any moral purpose, and is therefore not likely to do good; nor can it be conceived, without more fpeculation than life requires or admits, to be productive of much evil. Highwaymen and housebreakers feldom frequent the play-house, or mingle in any elegant diverfion; nor is it poffible for any one to imagine that he may rob with fafety, because he fees Macheath reprieved upon the stage.

This objection however, or fome other rather political than moral, obtained fuch prevalence, that when Gay produced a second part under the name of Polly, it was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain; and he was forced to recompenfe his repulfe by a subscription, which is faid to have been fo liberally beftowed, that what he called oppreffion ended in profit. The pub

lication was fo much favoured, that though the firft part gained him four hundred pounds, near thrice as much was the profit of the fecond.

He received yet another recompenfe for this fuppofed hardship, in the affectionate attention of the duke and dutchefs of Queensberry, into whofe house he was raken, and with whom he paffed the remaining part of his life. The duke, confidering his want of economy, undertook the management of his money, and gave it to him as he wanted it. But it is fuppofed that the discountenance of the Court funk deep into his heart, and gave him more difcontent than the applaufes or tenderness of his friends could overpower. He foon fell into his old diftemper, an habitual colick, and languished, though with many intervals of ease and cheerfulness, till a violent fit at laft feized him, and hurried him to the grave, as Arbuthnot reported, with more precipitance than he had ever known. He died on the fourth of December 1732, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The letter which brought an account of his death to Swift was laid by for fome days unopened, because when he received it he was imprest with the preconception of fome misfortune.

After his death, was published a fecond volume of Fables more political than the former. His opera of Achilles was acted, and the profits were given to two widow fifters, who inherited what he left, as his lawful heirs; for he died without a will, though he had gathered three thoufand pounds. There have appeared likewife under his name a comedy called the Diftreft Wife, and the Rehearsal at Gotham, a piece of humour.

* Spence

The

The character given him by Pope

is this, that be

was a natural man, without defign, who spoke what he thought, and just as he thought it; and that he was of a timid temper, and fearful of giving offence to the great ; which caution however, fays Pope, was of no avail.

As a poet, he cannot be rated very high. He was, as I once heard a female critick remark, of a lower order. He had not in any great degree the mens divinior, the dignity of genius. Much however must be allowed to the author of a new fpecies of compofition, though it be not of the highest kind. We owe to Gay the Ballad Opera; a mode of comedy which at first was fuppofed to delight only by its novelty, but has now by the experience of half a century been found fo well accommodated to the difpofition of a popular audience, that it is likely to keep long poffeffion of the stage. Whether this new drama was the product of judgement or of luck, the praise of it must be given to the inventor; and there are many writers read with more reverence, to whom such merit of originality cannot be attributed.

His first performance, the Rural Sports, is fuch as was easily planned and executed; it is never contemptible, nor ever excellent. The Fan is one of those mythological fictions which antiquity delivers ready to the hand; but which, like other things that lie open to every one's ufe, are of little value. The attention naturally retires from a new tale of Venus, Diana, and Minerva.

His Fables feem to have been a favourite work; for, having published one volume, he left another behind him. Of this kind of Fables, the authors do not appear to have formed any diftinct or fettled notion:

* Spence.

P 3

Phædrus

Phædrus evidently confounds them with Tales, and Gay both with Tales and Allegorical Profopopæias. A Fable, or Apologue, fuch as is now under confideration, feems to be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings irrational, and fometimes inanimate, arbores loquuntur, non tantum feræ, are, for the purpofe of moral inftruction, feigned to act and speak with human interests and paffions. To this defcription the compofitions of Gay do not always conform. For a Fable he gives now and then a Tale, or an abftracted Allegory; and from fome, by whatever name they may be called, it will be difficult to extract any moral principle. They are, however, told with livelinefs; the verfification is fmooth; and the diction, though now-and-then a little constrained by the measure or the rhyme, is generally happy.

To Trivia may be allowed all that it claims; it is fpritely, various, and pleasant. The fubject is of that kind which Gay was by nature qualified to adorn; yet fome of his decorations may be juftly wifhed away. An honeft blacksmith might have done for Patty what is performed by Vulcan. The appearance of Cloacina is naufeous and fuperfluous; a fhoeboy could have been produced by the cafual cohabitation of mere mortals. Horace's rule is broken in both cafes; there is no dignus vindice nodus, no difficulty that required any supernatural interpofition. A patten may be made by the hammer of a mortal, and a baftard may be dropped by a human ftrumpet. On great occafions, and on small, the mind is repelled by ufclefs and apparent falfehood.

Of his little Poems the publick judgement feems to be right; they are neither much efteemed, nor totally despised.

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