Life and Letters of John Gay (1685-1732) | Page 5

Lewis Melville

against this view that Gay and his sisters had each a small patrimony.[3]
If it is assumed that he returned to the metropolis after he came of age
in September, 1706, he may have been possessed of a sum of money,
small, no doubt, but sufficient to provide him with the necessaries of
life for some little time. When his brother, Jonathan, who had been
promoted lieutenant at Cologne by Marlborough, under whom he
served at Hochstadt and elsewhere, and captain by Queen Anne,
committed suicide in 1709, after a quarrel with his colonel, John may
have inherited some further share of the paternal estate.
When Gay was one-and-twenty, ginger was hot in his mouth. Wine,
woman, and song appealed to him. It is not on record that he had any
love-affair, save those indicated in the verses in "Gay's Chair"; but the
indelicacy of many passages in his writings suggests that he was rather
intimately acquainted with the bagnios of the town. No man whose
sense of decency had not been denied could possibly have written the
verses "To a Young Lady, with some Lamphreys," and this, even after
making allowance for the freedom of the early eighteenth century. He
certainly frequented the coffee-houses of Covent Garden and Pall Mall.
Also, he roamed about the metropolis, and became learned in the
highways and byways, north and south, and east and west--a
knowledge which bore excellent fruit in "Trivia."
But I, who ne'er was bless'd by Fortune's hand, Nor brighten'd
plough-shares in paternal land. Long in the noisy town have been
immured, Respired its smoke, and all its cares endured. Where news
and politics divide mankind, And schemes of state involve th' uneasy
mind.[4]
Gay was then, as ever, a great eater. "As the French philosopher used to
prove his existence by cogito, ergo sum," Congreve wrote to Pope long

after, "the greatest proof of Gay's existence is edit, ergo est."[5] He ate
in excess always, and not infrequently drank too much, and for exercise
had no liking, though he was not averse from a ramble around London
streets. As the years passed, he became fat, but found comfort in the
fact that some of his intimates were yet more corpulent. To this, he
made humorous reference in "Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece":--
And wondering Maine so fat, with laughing eyes, (Gay, Maine and
Cheney,[6] boon companions dear, Gay fat, Maine fatter, and Cheney
huge of size).
Gay had a passion for finery. To this foible Pope, in the early days of
his acquaintance with the young man, made reference in a letter to
Swift, December 8th, 1713: "One Mr. Gay, an unhappy youth, who
writes pastorals during the time of Divine Service, whose case is the
more deplorable, as he hath miserably lavished away all that silver he
should have reserved for his soul's health, in buttons and loops for his
coat." Gay was not only well aware of this weakness, but he deplored it,
though he could never contrive to overcome it. He made allusion to it
in some lines known as the "Epigrammatical Petition," addressed to
Lord Oxford,[7] in June, 1714, and also in the prologue to "The
Shepherd's Week":--
I sold my sheep and lambkins too, For silver loops and garments blue:
My boxen hautboy sweet of sound, For lace that edged mine hat around;
For Lightfoot and my scrip I got A gorgeous sword, and eke a knot.
Gay now renewed his acquaintance with his old schoolfellow, Aaron
Hill, who, it is said, though on doubtful authority, employed him as an
amanuensis when setting on foot the project of answering questions in
a paper, styled the British Apollo, or, Curious Amusements for the
Ingenious.[8] The first number of this publication appeared on March
13th, 1708, and it was issued on Wednesdays and Fridays until March
16th, 1711. Gay referred to it in his pamphlet, "The Present State of
Wit," published in May 1711: "Upon a review of my letter, I find I
have quite forgotten the British Apollo, which might possibly have
happened from its having of late retreated out of this end of the town
into the country, where I am informed, however, that it still

recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards and giving good advice
to shopkeepers and their apprentices." Whether or no Gay ever
contributed to the British Apollo, it seems likely that it was through the
good offices of Hill that in May, 1708, Gay's poem, "Wine," was
published by William Keble at the Black-Spread-eagle in Westminster
Hall, who, about the same time, brought out a translation by Nahum
Tate, the Poet Laureate, and Hill, of a portion of the thirteenth book of
Ovid's "Metamorphoses."
"Wine," a subject on which Gay, even at the age of twenty-two, could
write with some authority,
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