of treating farcical incidents in a grave manner. But the town
did not see the fun of this expedient, and the play failed, though it
contained, among other famous songs, ''Twas When the Seas Were
Roaring.' In 1716 'Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of
London,' put some money into the poet's empty pocket, thanks to Pope's
good offices. A year later a second comedy of his, 'Three Hours after
Marriage,' met with well-deserved failure. And now, as always, when
his spirits sank, his good friends showered kindnesses upon him. Mr.
Secretary Pulteney carried him off to Aix. Lord Bathurst and Lord
Burlington were his to command. Many fine gentlemen, and particularly
many fine ladies, pressed him to make indefinite country visits. In
1720 his friends managed the publication of his poems in two quarto
volumes, subscribing for ten, twenty, and even fifty copies apiece,
some of them, and securing to the poet, it is said, L1,000. The
younger Craggs, the bookseller, gave him some South-Sea stock which
rose rapidly, and at one time the improvident little gentleman found
himself in possession of L20,000. All his friends besought him to
sell, but Alnaschar Gay had visions of a splendid ease and opulence.
The bubble burst, and poor Alnaschar had not wherewithal to pay his
broker.

The Duchess of Queensborough (Prior's "Kitty, beautiful and young")
had already annexed the charmer, and now carried him off to
Petersham. "I wish you had a little villakin in Mr. Pope's
neighborhood," scolds Swift to him; "but you are yet too volatile, and
any lady with a coach and six horses might carry you to Japan;" and
again:--"I know your arts of patching up a journey between
stagecoaches and friend's coaches--for you are as arrant a cockney as
any hosier in Cheapside. I have often had it in my head to put it into
yours, that you ought to have some great work in scheme which may take
up seven years to finish, besides two or three under ones that may add
another thousand pounds to your stock; and then I shall be in less
pain about you. I know you can find dinners, but you love twelvepenny
coaches too well, without considering that the interest of a whole
thousand pounds brings you but half a crown a day." Gay went to Bath
with the Queensberrys, and to Oxford. Swift complained to Pope:--"I
suppose Mr. Gay will return from Bath with twenty pounds more flesh,
and two hundred pounds less money. Providence never designed him to be
above two-and-twenty,