ill-natured man can boast of." Pope, now well aware of Gay's natural
indolence, was careful in this same letter to urge him to devote
himself to literary labours in his leisure hours. "I shall see you
this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the last, and I
hope as much of your time as your Duchess will allow you to spare to
any friend will not be thought lost upon one who is as much so as any
man," he added. "I must also put you in mind, though you are now
secretary to this lady, you are likewise secretary to nine other
ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to
live wholly upon those ladies' favours is indeed in as precarious a
condition as any who does what Chaucer says for subsistence; but they
are very agreeable companions, like other ladies, when a man only
passes a night or so with them at his leisure, and away."[2]

Gay, the most amiable of men, never resented advice, perhaps because
he so rarely followed it. In this case, however, he was surprisingly
amenable. During the short time he was in the service of the Duchess
of Monmouth, he drove his quill with some assiduity, and, indeed, at
this period of his life he, who was presently distinguished as the
laziest of men, worked diligently.

Before joining the household of the Duchess, he had written "Rural
Sports: A Georgic," and this was published on January 13th, 1713, by
Jacob Tonson, with an inscription to Pope:--

You, who the sweets of rural life have known,
Despise th' ungrateful hurry of the town;
In Windsor groves your easy hours employ,
And, undisturb'd, yourself and Muse enjoy.