considering on such occasions,"[10] he wrote to her from Dublin,
February 1st, 1727.

Gay had become more and more on good terms with the Duke and Duchess of
Queensberry, especially with the Duchess, who treated him as a sort of
pet lap-dog. "Since I wrote last," Gay told Swift in a letter dated
September 16th, 1726, "I have been always upon the ramble. I have been
in Oxfordshire with the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, and at
Petersham, and wheresoever they would carry me; but as they will go to
Wiltshire[11] without me on Tuesday next, for two or three months, I
believe I shall then have finished my travels for this year, and shall
not go further from London than now and then to Twickenham."[12] It was
as well that Gay remained in London, else probably his "Fables" would
never have appeared. Gay, who had begun to compose the "Fables" in 1725,
was, according to the habit of the man, not to be hurried. "I have of
late been very much out of order with a slight fever, which I am not yet
quite free from," he wrote to Swift in October, 1726. "If the engravers
keep their word with me I shall be able to publish my poems soon after
Christmas." But of course the engravers did not keep their word. Swift,
a more energetic person, became almost fractious at the repeated delays
in the publication, and wrote to Pope on November 17th: "How comes Gay
to be so tedious? Another man can publish fifty thousand lies sooner
than he can publish fifty fables."[13] And still there were delays. "My
Fables are printed," he told Swift on February 18th, 1727; "but I cannot
get my plates finished, which hinders the publication. I expect nothing
and am likely to get nothing."[14] At last, in the spring, the volume
appeared, with the imprint of J. Tonson and J. Watts, and with this
dedication: "To His Highness William Duke of Cumberland these new
Fables, invented for his amusement, are humbly dedicated by His
Highness's most faithful and most obedient servant, John Gay."