rally welcome, a soft and civil companion. Whoever is apt to hope good from others is diligent to please them; but he that believes his powers ftrong enough to force their own way, commonly tries only to please himfelf.

He had been fimple enough to imagine that those who laughed at the What d'ye call it would raise the fortune of its author; and finding nothing done, funk into dejection. His friends endeavoured to divert him. The earl of Burlington fent him (1716) into Devonshire; the year after, Mr. Pulteney took him to Aix; and in the following year lord Harcourt invited him to his feat, where, during his vifit, the two rural lovers

were

were killed with lightning, as is particularly told in Pope's Letters.

Being now generally known, he publifhed (1720) his Poems by fubfcription with fuch fuccefs, that he raised a thoufand pounds; and called his friends to a confultation, what ufe might be beft made of it. Lewis, the fteward of lord Oxford, advised him to intruft it to the funds, and live upon the intereft; Arbuthnot bad him intruft it to Providence, and live upon the principal; Pope directed him, and was feconded by Swift, to purchase an annuity.

pre

Gay in that disastrous year had a fent from young Craggs of fome Southfea-stock, and once fuppofed himself to be mafter of twenty thousand pounds.

* Spence.

His

His friends perfuaded him to fell his fhare; but he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to ob-ftruct his own fortune. He was then importuned to fell as much as would purchase an hundred a year for life,. which, fays Fenton, will make you sure of a clean fhirt and a fhoulder of mutton every day. This counsel was rejected; the profit and principal were loft, and Gay funk under the calamity fo low that his life became in danger.

By the care of his friends, among whom Pope appears to have fhewn particular tenderness, his health was reftored; and, returning to his ftudies, he wrote a tragedy called The Captives, which he was invited to read before the

princess of Wales.

When the hour

came, he faw the princefs and her ladies all in expectation, and advancing with reverence, too great for any other attention, stumbled at a ftool, and falling forwards, threw down a weighty Japan fcreen. The princess started, the ladies fcreamed, and poor Gay after all the dif turbance was ftill to read his play.

The fate of The Captives I know not; but he now thought himself in favour, and undertook (1726) to write a volume of Fables for the improvement of the young duke of Cumberland. For this he is faid to have been promised a reward, which he had doubtless magnified with all the wild expectations of indigence and vanity.

* It was acted at Drury-Lane in 1723.

Next

Next year the Prince and Princess became King and Queen, and Gay was to be great and happy; but upon the fettlement of the household he found himself appointed gentleman ufher to the princess Louifa. By this offer he thought himself infulted, and fent a meffage to the Queen, that he was too old for the place. There feem to have been many machinations employed afterwards in his favour, and diligent court was paid to Mrs. Howard, afterwards countess of Suffolk, who was much beloved by the King and Queen, to engage her interest for his promotion; but folicitations, verfes, and flatteries were thrown away; the lady heard them, and did nothing.

All