John gay playwright
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The profits of his posthumous opera of Achilles (1733), and a new volume of Fables (1738) went to his two sisters, who inherited from him a fortune of £6000. Among his early literary friends were Aaron Hill and Eustace Budgell. He was a frequent visitor with Pope, and received unvarying kindness from Congreve and Arbuthnot.
In 1724 he produced a tragedy called The Captives.
This famous piece, which was said to have made "Rich gay and Gay rich," was an innovation in many respects, and for a time it drove Italian opera off the English stage. The narratives are in nearly every case original, and are told in clear and lively verse.
Created by Anniina Jokinen on November 11, 2006.
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The shock is said to have made him dangerously ill.As the Fables were written for the amusement of one royal child, there would appear to have been a measure of reason in giving him a sinecure in the service of another. It left the public so ignorant of its real meaning that Lewis Theobald and Benjamin Griffin (1680-1740) published a Complete Key to what d'ye call it by way of explanation.
They are masterpieces in their kind, and the very numerous editions of them prove their popularity. 541.
John Gay | Biography | Works | Resources | Essays | 18th C. Lit
Site copyright ©1996-2006 Anniina Jokinen. DramaTagpacker. Browsing for plays to read can be difficult. This homegrown site lists most of the plays added to the UCI Libraries since 2010. You can sort the plays by number of cast (including gender); playwright demographics like ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, and gender; major themes, etc. As a matter of fact Gay had always been a spoilt child, who expected everything to be done for him. In 1713 he produced a comedy, The Wife of Bath, which was acted only three nights, and The Fan, one of his least successful poems; and in 1714 The Shepherd's Week, a series of six pastorals drawn from English rustic life. In the same year he was received into the household of the duchess of Monmouth as secretary, a connexion which was, however, broken before June 1714. In The Present State of Wit (1711) Gay attempted to give an account of "all our periodical papers, whether monthly, weekly or diurnal." He especially praised the Taller and the Spectator, and Swift, who knew nothing of the authorship of the pamphlet, suspected it to be inspired by Steele and Addison. The duchess of Queensberry was dismissed from court for enlisting subscribers in the palace. More information about locating specific plays or accessing our many online play databases are on the Online Plays page. John GayBiographyJohn GayEnglish dramatist and poet, John Gay is best remembered for his gently humorous style, and his clear wit, which he used to create satirical writings about social life in the early 18th century. He is perhaps best remembered for his 1728 ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, which ran for 62 performances after it's premiere; the longest run of any production in London until that date. |