Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/267

Rh The large ſubſcription Mr. Gay had to print it, amply recompens’d any loſs he might receive from it’s not being afted. Tho’ this was called the Sequel to the Beggar’s Opera, it was allowed by his beſt friends, ſcarce to be of a piece with the firſt part, being in every particular, infinitely beneath it.

Beſides the works which we have already mentioned, Mr. Gay wrote ſeveral poems, printed in London in 2 vol. 12mo.

A Comedy called The Wife of Bath, firſt acted 1715, and afterwards revived, altered, and repreſented at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields.

Three Hours after Marriage, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal, in which he was aſſiſted by Pope and Arbuthnot, but had the mortification to ſee this piece very ill received, if not damned the firſt night.

He wrote likewiſe Achilles, an Opera; acted at the Theatre in Covent Garden. This was brought on the ſtage after his death, and the profits were given to his Siſters.

After experiencing 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, of a violent inflammatory fever, in December 1732, and was interred in Weſtminſter, by his noble benefactors juſt mentioned, with the following epitaph written by Mr. Pope, who had the ſincereſt friendſhip for him on account of his amiable qualities. Of