John Gay

John Gay, born on 30 June 1685 in Barnstaple, England, was a poet, dramatist, and member of the Scriblerus Club whose Broadway credits include The Beggar's Opera and Polly. He died on 4 December 1732. The youngest of five children born to William Gay and Katherine, daughter of Jonathan Hanmer, Gay grew up in a family described as fairly comfortable though not wealthy, residing in a large house known as the Red Cross on the corner of Joy Street. The Gay family had long been established among Barnstaple's leading families, with roots in North Devon connected to the manor of Goldsworthy at Parkham and the parish of Frithelstock. His great-grandfather Anthony Gay served as Mayor of Barnstaple, and Gay himself was educated at the town's grammar school.

After leaving school, Gay was apprenticed to a silk mercer in London. According to Samuel Johnson, he grew weary of the restraint or servility of the occupation and returned to Barnstaple, where he received further education from his uncle, the Reverend John Hanmer, the town's nonconformist minister. He subsequently returned to London to pursue his literary career.

His earliest dramatic work, The Mohocks, appeared in 1712 and encountered censorship difficulties. The following year he produced the comedy The Wife of Bath at Drury Lane Theatre. In 1713, the dedication of his Rural Sports to Alexander Pope initiated a lasting friendship between the two writers. That same year, Gay and Pope joined the Scriblerus Club, a group of Tory writers that also included John Arbuthnot, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Parnell. In 1714, Gay wrote The Shepherd's Week, a series of six pastorals drawn from English rustic life, undertaken at Pope's urging to satirize the Arcadian pastorals of Ambrose Philips.

Also in 1714, through Swift's influence, Gay was appointed secretary to the Earl of Clarendon, the new British ambassador to the Electorate of Hanover. The death of Queen Anne three months later ended his prospects for official employment. While in Hanover, he met Caroline of Ansbach, the future Princess of Wales, and Henrietta Howard, who became a close friend. The Hanoverian succession and the subsequent ousting of the Harley Ministry meant Gay never held a government post again.

Returning to London, Gay produced The What D'Ye Call It? on 23 February 1715 as an afterpiece at Drury Lane. The piece included a ballad, Twas When the Seas Were Roaring, co-written with George Frideric Handel. In 1716, he published Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, a poem in three books offering detailed depictions of the city during that period. In January 1717, he produced the comedy Three Hours After Marriage, written with assistance from Pope and Arbuthnot, though Gay was publicly regarded as the sole author. In 1718, he collaborated again with Handel, supplying the libretto for the masque Acis and Galatea.

In 1720, Gay published Poems on Several Occasions by subscription, earning £1,000 or more. That same year, Secretary of State James Craggs presented him with South Sea stock. Gay invested all his money in the venture and, holding his position through the collapse of the South Sea Bubble, lost everything. The shock was said to have made him dangerously ill. He found support from patrons including William Pulteney, the third Earl of Burlington, and the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry. He had also been given a sinecure as lottery commissioner with a salary of £150 a year in 1722 and held lodgings in the palace at Whitehall from 1722 to 1729.

In 1727, Gay wrote Fifty-one Fables in Verse for six-year-old Prince William, later the Duke of Cumberland. He was subsequently offered the position of gentleman-usher to the Princess Louisa, which he refused.

The Beggar's Opera, produced on 29 January 1728 by John Rich, became Gay's most celebrated work and one of his Broadway credits. The ballad opera featured characters including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, who became household names. The character of Peachum drew on the thief-taker Jonathan Wild, executed in 1725, while Macheath reflected the French highwayman Claude Duval. Peachum was also widely understood to represent Robert Walpole, whom Gay caricatured in the work. The production was famously said to have made Rich gay and Gay rich. The sequel, Polly, also among Gay's Broadway credits, followed from the same creative world Gay had established with The Beggar's Opera.