without assuming the cumbrous dignity of erudition, enjoyed all the prerogatives of criticism and taste. To Gay no such privileges were conceded :-raised from obscurity by his genius, he became connected with the learned, and received flattering attentions from the great; but the want of an academical qualification seems to have attached to him during life, and to have constantly subjected him to the consciousness of being inferior to his more digni fied confederates. John Gay was a native of Barnstaple, in Devon, at whose grammar school he had acquired all the learning he possessed. His fortune being small, he was destined to trade, and sent to London to be apprenticed to a silk-mercer: but he found this situation so irksome, that after a probation of some years he procured his liberation by cancelling the indentures, and surrendered himself without reserve to his literary taste. His first publication was Rural Sports,' a georgical poem, dedicated to Pope, who appears to have been the first object of his enthusiasm and emulation. The intuitive sagacity of genius, however, failed not to discover to him that this was not the track in which he was destined to arrive at eminence:-he perceived that there was a humbler walk, in which, though he might not extort the suffrage of the learned, he should engross the affections of the people. Gay possessed more feeling than fancy. Whatever he had seen, he could describe; but in his delineations he did not always embellish nature. His imagination was not excursive; his mind supplied no materials for exquisite imagery; but his invention was adequate to whatever was simple, familiar, or domestic. He soared not to the sublime ;-like a bee, pursuing the track of spring, he wandered over fields and gar dens dens of delicious verdure, extracting sweetness even from the homely blossom which scatters round the poor man's cottage the freshness and fragrance of nature. In his 'Trivia,' "published after the Rural Sports, Gay discloses some of that natural humour which was his peculiar talent; but it was by the publication of his "Shepherd's Week,' a series of burlesque pastorals, in ridicule of the Georgical poems of Ambrose Phillips, that he produced a composition of unrivalled excellence. It is remarkable that Gay appears to have always remained in a state of tutelage to his literary associates. The same sweetness and facility of temper, which rendered him so engaging as a companion, attended him to the closet, where even his pen was tributary to friendship. He seldom attempted the execution of any plan of which the outline was not formed by another mind :--a solitary hint was sufficient to his fertile fancy: he commenced his allotted task, and soon produced what surpassed the conceptions, or even the expectations, of his master. In this manner his Shepherd's Week was, it is well known, undertaken at the fiat of Pope. The design of. the 'Beggar's Opera' originated with Swift, who had once observed to Gay, that a Newgate pastoral would be a pretty novelty. With his accustomed promptitude Gay seized the idea; expanded the Newgate pastoral to a bal lad opera, and contrived to render it not only the vehicle of music, but of poignant satire, playful wit, and oblique raillery. He had previously attempted dramatic composition; but, with the exception of his What-d'ye-call-it,' a mock-heroic play, he failed in his efforts to please the public. The success which attended his Beggar's Opera was probably owing as much to the whimsical novelty of the plan, as the intrinsic merit of the piece. In no other performance was Gay equally fortunate. With the versatility natural to his sanguine character, he had made an essay in tragedy, and produced The Captives,' which was received with coldness and neglect. Although Gay was not formed to become a good dramatic writer, he has in this tragedy exhibited talents which few of his contemporaries possessed: the fable is, perhaps, too intricate, but the characters are sufficiently natural to excite a considerable degree of interest. As a composition, it has the rare though negative merit of not being encumbered with inappropriate images, or disfigured by bombastic sentiment: yet, as the author seldom rises beyond mediocrity, and, even when he pleases most, leaves on the mind an impression that he might have pleased still more, it is little surprising that this play should be obsolete to the stage, and even in the closet almost forgotten. During this literary progress, the fortunes of Gay had undergone many vicissitudes. In his early days of celebrity he had been patronized by the duchess of Monmouth, in whose family he lived as her secretary; and, afterwards in the same capacity, attended lord Clarendon the ambassador to Hanover. Caressed by the tories, he enjoyed during their administration some gleams of court favour; but on the accession of the House of Hanover he shared the fate of his party, and was thrown at an immeasurable distance from preferment. The produce of his pen was, however, still sufficient to have secured to him the possession of independence, had he not adventured the whole sum in the South Sea speculation, in the progress of which he was suddenly reduced from affluence to poverty. Having Having been patronized by the princess of Wales, afterwards queen Caroline, he had hoped, on the accession of George the Second, to receive some substantial proofs of her munificence. The expectation was fallacious: but he found a retreat in the family of the duke of Queensberry which softened his disappointment. His last popular work was his 'Fables. Few authors, with equal pretensions to originality, have possessed powers so versatile and so various. Gay has never failed completely but in comedy. He could not delineate character; he could only produce caricatures. He had a rich vein of natural humour, but he wanted the fancy, taste, and judgment, essential to the dramatic writer. The merit of his songs is attested by their popularity. To please the people appears to have been his first object. He wrote not for critics: in his happiest efforts he had discovered a province peculiarly his own, and which seemed not amenable to their jurisdiction. He has contrived to render verse attractive to the ignorant and the vulgar. His Fables, in which the most artificial composition becomes susceptible of pathos and nature, are familiar to those who have never looked into any other volume: were the press suspended, these would still be preserved in the memory, not only of the instructed but the illiterate; and thus, by tradition alone, might the name and genius of their author be transmitted to posterity. But the person who in that era of party constituted the strength of the tories, was Swift; nor is it easy to produce in competition any name that does not shrink into comparative insignificance. Swift was the Leviathan of his age. It would be difficult to analyse a mind of such various aptitudes and comprehensive faculties, and which in early life gave no intimations of future excellence. It has often been disputed, whether Swift was born in England or Ireland; but that he b 4 received received his education in the latter country has never been disputed. He was member of Trinity College, Dublin, where he passed through the usual academical gradations, with little pleasure to himself, and no satisfaction to his instructors. This circumstance, which in such a man as Swift could only be attributed to indolence and neglect, is the more remarkable, as he fully participated in that respect for the classics which distinguished his contemporaries, and is said to have attached more value to his inferior Latin conmpositions than to all his English poetry. On his removal from Dublin he became the inmate of sir William Temple, the fine gentleman, the acute politician, and practical philosopher of his age. During his residence at Moor Park, Swift was introduced to king William, who, in compliment to his abilities, offered him the command of a troop of horse: but Swift appears to have had no inclination for a military profession; and on the death of his patron entered the church, and commenced his literary career. At this period his merit was little known, nor did he seem conscious of his own strength. 1 Like Prior, he had begun by writing ethical odes, which extorted from Dryden the severe denunciation, that he would never be a poet. One of his first acknowledged productions was A Discourse on the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and Commons of Athens and Rome,' a grave, serious essay, which exhibits strong powers of discrimination and reflection, but is not enlivened by wit or humour. His peculiar talent was soon however exhibited in various fugitive essays and periodical papers, a new species of composition, to which Steele and Addison had given popularity. The Tale of a Tub,' though never acknowledged by him, was well known to have been one of his early productions. On the accession of the tories to power, Swift, who was already in habits of intimacy with lord Oxford and their most distinguished leaders, attached himself to their cause, and em ployed |