a character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art
and science, but injudiciously in each," we have been told. "It was
begun by a club of some of the greatest wits of the age. Lord Oxford,
the Bishop of Rochester, Mr. Pope, Congreve, Arbuthnot, Swift, and
others. Gay often held the pen; and Addison liked it well enough, and
was not disinclined to come in to it."[7] It does not transpire whether
Gay had at this time met Swift, but that soon after they were in
correspondence, appears from a letter from Pope to Swift, June 18th,
1714: "I shall translate Homer by the by. Mr. Gay has acquainted you
with what progress I have made in it. I cannot name Mr. Gay without all
the acknowledgments which I shall owe you, on his account."[8]


[Footnote 1: Hill: _Works_ (ed. 1754), I, p. 325.]

[Footnote 2: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 409.]

[Footnote 3: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 412.]

[Footnote 4: Johnson: _Lives of the Poets_ (ed. Hill), III, p. 268.]

[Footnote 5: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 145.]

[Footnote 6: Pope: _Works_ (ed. Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 415.]

[Footnote 7: Swift: _Works_ (ed. Scott), XVI, p. 123.]

[Footnote 8: Spence: _Anecdotes_ (ed. Singer), p. 10.]