The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732)
by Lewis Melville

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Title: Life And Letters Of John Gay (1685-1732)

Author: Lewis Melville

Release Date: October 19, 2004 [EBook #13790]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: JOHN GAY

_From a sketch by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Emery Walker Ltd._]

LIFE AND LETTERS OF

JOHN GAY(1685-1732)

AUTHOR OF "THE BEGGAR'S OPERA" BY LEWIS MELVILLE

PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY DANIEL O'CONNOR, NINETY GREAT RUSSELL STREET,
W.C.I: 1921

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

THE THACKERAY COUNTRY.

SOME ASPECTS OF THACKERAY.

VICTORIAN NOVELISTS.

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAURENCE STERNE.

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM BECKFORD OF FONTHILL.

* * * * *

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM COBBETT.

THE BERRY PAPERS: Being the Life and Letters of Mary and Agnes Berry.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PHILIP DUKE OF WHARTON.

THE FIRST GEORGE.

"FARMER GEORGE."

"THE FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE."

AN INJURED QUEEN: CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK.

THE BEAUX OF THE REGENCY.

SOME ECCENTRICS AND A WOMAN.

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.

THE WINDHAM PAPERS. With an Introduction by the Earl of Rosebery, K.G.

THE WELLESLEY PAPERS.

BATH UNDER BEAU NASH.

BRIGHTON: ITS FOLLIES, ITS FASHIONS, AND ITS HISTORY.

ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

To GEORGE MAIR

PREFACE

John Gay was a considerable figure in the literary and social circles
of his day. He was loved by Pope; Swift cared for him more than for
any other man, and the letter in which Pope conveyed to him the sad
tidings of Gay's death bears the endorsement: "On my dear friend Mr.
Gay's death. Received December 15th [1732], but not read till the
20th, by an impulse foreboding some misfortune." Gay was on intimate
terms with Arbuthnot and Lord Burlington, and Henrietta Howard, Lady
Suffolk, was devoted to him and consulted him in the mat