9, and from the sale Gay
derived between L1,100 and L1,200.[11] In 1777 Colman produced "Polly"
in a revised version, but it failed to attract.

There was an end of Gay's hopes of Court preferment, that was clear to
every one. It was not unexpected. "I wish John Gay success in his
pursuit," Bolingbroke had written to Swift in June, 1727, "but I think
he has some qualities which will keep him down in the world."[12] When
the worst was known, Arbuthnot wrote to Swift on the following November
30th: "There is certainly a fatality upon poor Gay. As for hope of
preferment [at St. James's], he has laid it aside. He has made a pretty
good bargain (that is, a Smithfield one) for a little place in the
Custom-house, which was to bring him in about a hundred a year. It was
done as a favour to an old man, and not at all to Gay. When everything
was concluded, the man repented, and said he would not part with his
place. I have begged Gay not to buy an annuity upon my life; I am sure I
should not live a week."[13]

* * * * *

It may be that Gay thought that he might in time live down the disfavour
at Court in which he had been involved by the Duke and Duchess of
Queensberry and his other partisans. He may even have had a momentary
hope, in 1730, when the office of Poet-Laureate was vacant that the
position might be offered to him, who had written "Fables" for a young
Prince. When Colley Cibber was appointed, Gay probably had it brought
home to him that his day as a courtier had passed for good and all.
Certainly he is credited, though on what authority is not known, with a
share in the burlesque, "Ode for the New Year [1731]. Written by Colley
Cibber, Esq.," in which his disappointment is vented in somewhat coarse
expression. This begins,

This is the day when, right or wrong,
I, Colley Bays, Esquire,
Must for my sack indite a song,
And thrum my venal lyre.

The King is attacked, and there is a disgraceful reference to the
Queen:--

O may she always meet success
In every scheme and job,
And still continue to caress
That honest statesman Bob.

That Gay was furious there is no question, and he attacked Walpole in
one of the second series of his "Fables" (which appeared posthumously in
1738), entitled "The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds," which
concluded:

In days of yore (my cautious rhymes
Always except the present times)
A greedy Vulture, skill'd in g