rs, and
let fly into the literary atmosphere an immortal Opera, the "Beggars',"
which, though feathered by the moultings of the very basest night-birds,
has pursued a career of triumph ever since.

To recur to the life of our poet. Losing his situation under the Duchess
of Monmouth, he was patronised by the Earls of Oxford and Bolingbroke,
and through them was appointed secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, who
was going to Hanover as ambassador to that court. He was at this time so
poor that, in order to equip himself with necessaries, such as shoes,
stockings, and linen for the journey, he had to receive an advance of
L100 from the treasury at Hanover. The Electoral Princess, afterwards
Queen Caroline--wife of George II.--took some notice of Gay, and asked
for a volume of his "Poems," when, as Arbuthnot remarks, "like a true
poet," he was compelled to own that he had no copy in his possession. We
suspect few poets, whether true or pretended, in our age would in this
point resemble Gay.

Lord Clarendon's embassy lasted precisely fifteen days--Queen Anne
having died in the meantime--and the Tory Government being consequently
dismissed in disgrace. Poor Gay, who had offended the Whigs by dedicating
his "Shepherd's Week" to Bolingbroke, came home in a worse plight than
before. He had left England in a state of poverty--he returned to it in a
state of proscription--although he perhaps felt comforted by an epistle
of welcome from Pope, which did not, it is likely, affect him as it does
us with the notion that its tricksy author was laughing in his sleeve.

Arbuthnot, who was a wiser friend, advised Gay to write an "Epistle on
the Arrival of the Princess of Wales," which he did, and she and her lord
were so far conciliated as to attend a play he now produced, entitled
"What d'ye call it?"--a kind of hybrid between a farce and a
tragedy--which, by the well-managed equivoque of its purpose, hit the
house between wind and water; and not knowing "what" properly to "call
it," and whether it should be applauded or damned, they gave the benefit
of their doubts to the author. To its success, doubtless too, the
presence and praise of the Prince and the Princess contributed. Gay now
tried for a while the trade of a courtier--sooth to say, with little
success. He was for this at once too sanguine and too simple. Pope said,
with his usual civil sneer, in a letter to Swift, "the Doctor (Arbuthnot)
goes to cards--Gay to court; the one los