verses; was there no place for him at Court? He had praised members of
the Royal Family in verse; was there somewhere--somehow--a sinecure in
the Household for him? It seems that Gay really could not understand the
position. Could not Mrs. Howard do something in his interest? Could not
the friends of Pope do aught to secure that little post? Or Lord
Burlington, or Lord Bathurst, or William Pulteney, or some one of the
rest? He became petulant, and it is a tribute to his charm that not one
of these persons was ever disgusted with him, but continued to feed him,
keep him, and pet him, and made their friends and their friends' friends
do likewise. In fact, this delightful, whimsical, helpless creature
leant upon all who were stronger, and each one upon whom he leant loved
him to his dying day.

Gay's health, which was never robust, gave way under his bitter
disappointment, and in 1721 he went in the early autumn to Bath, where
Mrs. Bradshaw wrote to Mrs. Howard, September 19th: "He is always with
the Duchess of Queensberry." In the following year he was again ill, and
went again to recuperate at the Somersetshire watering place.


JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.

London, December 22nd, 1722.

"After every post-day, for these eight or nine years, I have been
troubled with an uneasiness of spirit, and at last I have resolved to
get rid of it and write to you. I do not deserve you should think so
well of me as I really deserve, for I have not professed to you that I
love you as much as ever I did; but you are the only person of my
acquaintance, almost, that does not know it. Whomever I see that comes