ndolence, was careful in this same letter to urge him to devote
himself to literary labours in his leisure hours. "I shall see you
this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the last, and I
hope as much of your time as your Duchess will allow you to spare to
any friend will not be thought lost upon one who is as much so as any
man," he added. "I must also put you in mind, though you are now
secretary to this lady, you are likewise secretary to nine other
ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to
live wholly upon those ladies' favours is indeed in as precarious a
condition as any who does what Chaucer says for subsistence; but they
are very agreeable companions, like other ladies, when a man only
passes a night or so with them at his leisure, and away."[2]

Gay, the most amiable of men, never resented advice, perhaps because
he so rarely followed it. In this case, however, he was surprisingly
amenable. During the short time he was in the service of the Duchess
of Monmouth, he drove his quill with some assiduity, and, indeed, at
this period of his life he, who was presently distinguished as the
laziest of men, worked diligently.

Before joining the household of the Duchess, he had written "Rural
Sports: A Georgic," and this was published on January 13th, 1713, by
Jacob Tonson, with an inscription to Pope:--

You, who the sweets of rural life have known,
Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town;
In Windsor groves your easy hours employ,
And, undisturb'd, yourself and Muse enjoy.

During 1713 Gay wrote such trifles as papers on "Reproof and Flattery,"
and "Dress," which were printed in the _Guardian_ on March 24th and
September 21st respectively; and some verses, "Panthea," "Araminta," "A
Thought on Eternity," and "A Contemplation on Night," which appeared in
Steele's "Poetical Miscellany." A more ambitious work was "The Fan,"
which had occupied him during the earlier part of the year. He was
greatly interested in its composition, and corresponded with Pope while
it was being written. "I am very much recreated and refreshed with the
news of the advancement of 'The Fan,' which I doubt not will delight the
eye and sense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine shall play
in the hands of posterity," Pope wrote to him, August 23rd, 1713: "I am
glad your Fan is mounted so soon, but I would have you varnish and glaze
it at your leisure, and polish the sticks as much as you can