have received from you,
purely out of your love for doing good, assures me you will not forget
me during my absence. As for myself, whether I am at home or abroad,
gratitude will always put me in mind of the man to whom I owe so many
benefits."[7]

* * * * *

These tidings were confirmed to Swift by Arbuthnot, who wrote from St.
James's on June 12th: "You know that Gay goes to Hanover, and my Lord
Treasurer has promised to equip him. Monday is the day of departure, and
he is now dancing attendance for money to buy him shoes, stockings, and
linen. The Duchess [of Monmouth] has turned him off, which I am afraid
will make the poor man's condition worse instead of better."[8] As
Arbuthnot reported fourteen days later, Gay received a hundred pounds
from the Treasury, and "went away a happy man."[9] Lord Clarendon,
whose mission it was formally to offer to the Elector George Lewis the
condolences of Queen Anne on the death of his aged mother, the Electress
Sophia, the heiress-presumptive to the British throne, who had passed
away on June 8th, 1714, arrived at Hanover on July 16th.

Despite Gay's forebodings, the civilities of the Court of Hanover did
happily "descend so low as to the Secretary." That he was presented to
the royal circle and held converse with the highest in the land, is
clear from a sentence in a letter from Arbuthnot to Swift, August 13th,
1714: "I have a letter from Gay, just before the Queen's death. Is he
not a true poet, who had not one of his own books to give to the
Princess that asked for one?"[10] Here it was that Gay first made the
acquaintance of Henrietta Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, with
whom he was presently on a footing of intimate friendship.

JOHN GAY TO DR. ARBUTHNOT.

Hanover, August 16th, 1714.

"You remember, I suppose, that I was to write you abundance of letters
from Hanover; but as one of the most distinguished qualities of a
publician is secrecy, you must not expect from me any arcanas of state.
There is another thing that is necessary to establish the character of a
politician, which is to seem always to be full of affairs of State; to
know the consultations of the Cabinet Council when at the same time his
politics are collected from newspapers. Which of these two causes my
secrecy is owing to I leave you to determine. There is yet one thing
more that is extremely necessary for a foreign minister, which he can no
more be without t