JOHN, a celebrated English poet, descended from an ancient family in Devonshire, was born at Exeter, and received his education at the free school of Barnstaple in that county, under the care of Mr William Rayner.—He was bred a mercer in the Strand; but having a small fortune, independent of business, and considering the attendance on a shop as a degradation of those talents which he found himself possessed of, he quitted that occupation, and applied himself to other views, and to the indulgence of his inclination for the Muses. In 1712 we find him secretary, or rather domestick steward, to the duchess of Monmouth, in which station he continued till the beginning of the year 1714; at which time he accompanied the earl of Clarendon to Hanover, whither that noblewoman was despatched by Queen Anne. In the latter end of the same year, in consequence of the queen's death, he returned to England, where he lived in the highest estimation and intimacy of friendship with many many persons of the first distinction both in rank and abilities.—He was even particularly taken notice of by Queen Caroline, then princess of Wales, to whom he had the honour of reading in manuscript his tragedy of the Captives; and in 1726 dedicated his Fables, by permission, to the duke of Cumberland.—From this countenance shewn to him, and numberless promises made him of preferment, it was reasonable to suppose, that he would have been genteelly provided for in some office suitable to his inclination and abilities. Instead of which, in 1727, he was offered the place of gentleman usher to one of the young princesses; an office which, as he looked on it as rather an indignity to a man whose talents might have been so much better employed, he thought proper to refuse; and some pretty warm remonstrances were made on the occasion by his sincere friends and zealous patrons the duke and duchess of Queensberry, which terminated in those two noble personages withdrawing from court in disgust. Mr Gay's dependencies on the promises of the great, and the disappointments he met with, he has figuratively described in his fable of the Hare with many friends. However, the very extraordinary success he met with from public encouragement made an ample amends, both with respect to satisfaction and emolument, for those private disappointments.—For, in the season of 1727-8, appeared his Beggars' Opera; the vast success of which was not only unprecedented, but almost incredible.—It had an uninterrupted run in London of 63 nights in the first season, and was renewed in the ensuing one with equal approbation. It spread into all the great towns of England; was played in many places to the 39th and 40th time, and at Bath and Bristol 50; made its progress into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in which last place it was acted for 24 successive nights; and last of all it was performed at Minorca. Nor was the fame of it confined to the reading and representation alone, for the card table and drawing room shared with the theatre and closet in this respect; the ladies carried about the favourite songs of it engraved upon their fan mounts; and screens, and other pieces of furniture were decorated with the same. In short, the fatire of this piece was so striking, so apparent, and so perfectly adapted to the taste of all degrees of people, that it overthrew the Italian opera, that Dagon of the nobility and gentry, which had so long seduced them to idolatry, and which Dennis, by the labours and outcries of a whole life, and many other writers by the force of reason and reflection, had in vain endeavoured to drive from the throne of public taste. The profits of this piece were so very great, both to the author and Mr Rich the manager, that it gave rise to a quibble, which became frequent in the mouths of many, viz. That it had made Rich gay, and Gay rich; and it has been affirmed, that the author's own emoluments from it were not less than 2000l. In consequence of this success, Mr Gay was induced to write a second part to it, which he entitled Polly. But the disgust subsisting between him and the court, together with the misrepresentations made of him as having been the author of some disaffected libels and seditious pamphlets, occasioned a prohibition and suppression of it to be sent from the lord chamberlain, at the very time when every thing was in readiness for the rehearsal of it. A very considerable sum, however, accrued to him from the publication of it afterwards in quarto.—Mr Gay wrote several other pieces in the dramatic way, and many very valuable ones in verse. Among the latter, his Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, though his first poetical attempt, is far from being the least considerable, and is what recommended him to the esteem and friendship of Mr Pope: but as, among his dramatic works, his Beggars' Opera did at first, and perhaps ever will, stand as an unrivalled masterpiece, so, among his poetical works, his Fables hold the fame rank of estimation; the latter having been almost as universally read as the former was represented, and both equally admired. Mr Gay's disposition was sweet and affable, his temper generous, and his conversation agreeable and entertaining. But he had one foible, too frequently incident to men of great literary abilities, and which subjected him at times to inconveniences which otherwise he needed not to have experienced, viz. an excess of indolence, without any knowledge of economy. So that, though his emoluments were, at some periods of his life, very considerable, he was at others greatly straitened in his circumstances; nor could he prevail on himself to follow the advice of his friend Dean Swift, whom we find in many of his letters endeavouring to persuade him to the purchasing of an annuity, as a reserve for the exigencies that might attend on old age.—Mr Gay chose rather to throw himself on patronage, than secure to himself an independent competency by the means pointed out to him; so that, after having undergone many vicissitudes of fortune, and being for some time chiefly supported by the liberality of the duke and duchess of Queensberry, he died at their house in Burlington gardens, in December 1732. He was interred in Westminster Abbey, and a monument erected to his memory, at the expence of his aforementioned noble benefactors, with an inscription expressive of their regards and his own deserts, and an epitaph in verse by Mr Pope.