ed "The Key to
the What D'ye Call It," "which," says Gay, "calls me a blockhead, and
Mr. Pope a knave."

But fortune has always been inconstant. Not long afterwards (1717) he
endeavoured to entertain the town with Three Hours after Marriage, a
comedy written, as there is sufficient reason for believing, by the
joint assistance of Pope and Arbuthnot. One purpose of it was to bring
into contempt Dr. Woodward, the fossilist, a man not really or justly
contemptible. It had the fate which such outrages deserve. The scene
in which Woodward was directly and apparently ridiculed, by the
introduction of a mummy and a crocodile, disgusted the audience, and the
performance was driven off the stage with general condemnation.

Gay is represented as a man easily incited to hope, and deeply depressed
when his hopes were disappointed. This is not the character of a hero,
but it may naturally imply something more generally welcome, a soft and
civil companion. Whoever is apt to hope good from others is diligent
to please them; but he that believes his powers strong enough to force
their own way, commonly tries only to please himself. He had been simple
enough to imagine that those who laughed at the What D'ye Call It would
raise the fortune of its author, and, finding nothing done, sunk into
dejection. His friends endeavoured to divert him. The Earl of Burlington
sent him (1716) into Devonshire, the year after Mr. Pulteney took him
to Aix, and in the following year Lord Harcourt invited him to his seat,
where, during his visit, two rural lovers were killed with lightning, as
is particularly told in Pope's "Letters."

Being now generally known, he published (1720) his poems by
subscription, with such success that he raised a thousand pounds, and
called his friends to a consultation what use might be best made of
it. Lewis, the steward of Lord Oxford, advised him to intrust it to the
Funds, and live upon the interest; Arbuthnot bade him to intrust it
to Providence, and live upon the principal; Pope directed him, and was
seconded by Swift, to purchase an annuity.

Gay in that disastrous year had a present from young Craggs of some
South Sea Stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty
thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share; but he
dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his
own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase a
hundred a year for life, "which," s