him, and jealous of him, were kind and fond of honest Gay. In the portraits of the literary worthies of the early part of the last century, Gay's face is the pleasantest perhaps of all. It appears adorned with neither periwig nor night-cap (the full dress and negligée of learning, without which the painters of those days scarcely ever pourtrayed wits), and he laughs at you over his shoulder with an honest boyish glee—an artless sweet humour. He was so kind[errata 1], so gentle, so jocular, so delightfully brisk at times, so dismally woe-begone at others, such a natural good-creature, that the Giants loved him. The great Swift was gentle and sportive with him,[1] as the enormous Brobdingnag maids of honour were with little Gulliver. He could frisk and fondle round Pope,[2] and sport, and bark
- ↑ "Mr. Gay is, in all regards, as honest and sincere a man as ever I knew."—Swift, to Lady Betty Germaine, Jan. 1733.
- ↑ "Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
In wit a man; simplicity, a child;
With native humour tem'pring virtuous rage,
Form'd to delight at once and lash the age;
Above temptation in a low estate,
And uncorrupted e'en among the great:
A safe companion, and an easy friend,
Unblamed through life, lamented in the end.
These are thy honours! not that here thy bust
Is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust;
But that the worthy and the good shall say,
Striking their pensive bosoms, 'Here lies Gay.'"
Pope's Epitaph on Gay."A hare who, in a civil way,
Comply'd with everything, like Gay."
Fables, "The Hare and many Friends."
Errata
