John gay playwright

Unable to afford university, Gay went to London to apprentice as a draper instead. Poet and playwright John Gay was born in Devon to an aristocratic though impoverished family. John Gay was born on June 30,in Barnstaple, Devonshire. Inprobably with some help from Pope, he produced What d'ye call it? John Gay was born in Barnstaple, Devon, and baptised on 16th, September He was the youngest child of William Gay and Katherine Hanmer.

In January he produced the comedy, Three Hours After Marriage, which was thought to be grossly indecent without being amusing and a failure. They also had an older son and two daughters, another daughter dying shortly before John's birth. It left the public so ignorant of its real meaning that Lewis Theobald and Benjamin Griffin published a Complete Key to what d'ye call it to explain it.

Pope had urged him to undertake this task in order to ridicule the Arcadian pastorals of Ambrose Philips, who had been praised by a short-lived contemporary publication The Guardian, to the neglect of Pope's claims as the first pastoral writer of the age and the true English Theocritus. [3].

gay - English dramatist and poet, John Gay is best remembered for his gently humorous style, and his clear wit, which he used to create satirical writings about social life in the early 18th century. He is perhaps best remembered for his ballad opera The Beggar's Opera, which ran for 62 performances after it's premiere; the longest run of any.

He had assistance from Pope and John Arbuthnot, but they allowed it to be assumed that Gay was the playwright author. John Gay (30 June – 4 December ) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. In that year James Craggs, the secretary of state, presented him with some South Sea stock. Rural Sports () is generally considered his first important.

The shock is said to have made him dangerously ill. He was. While in London, he began writing journalism, including the pamphlet The Present State of Wit (), a survey of contemporary periodicals and authors. He then returned to London. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a silk mercer in London, but being weary, according to Samuel Johnson, "of either the restraint or the servility of his occupation", he soon returned to Barnstaple, where he was educated by his uncle, the Rev.

John Hanmer, the Nonconformist minister of the town. His friends did not fail him at this juncture. John Gay >The English playwright and poet John Gay () is best known for "The >Beggar's Opera," a skillful blend of literary, political, social, and >musical satire. But the Worthy and the Good shall say, Striking their pensive bosoms _ Here lies GAY.

Gay's two line epitaph to himself probably says more about the poet and playwright: Life is a jest; and all things show it, I thought so once: but now I know it. In taking a mock-heroic form, Gay's poem was able to poke fun at the notion of complete reformation of street civility, while also proposing an idea of reform in terms of the attitude towards walking.

John Gay (30 June – 4 December ) was an English john and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. Unable to afford university, Gay went to London to apprentice as a draper instead. John Gay was an English poet and dramatist, chiefly remembered as the author of The Beggar’s Opera, a work distinguished by good-humoured satire and technical assurance. John Gay (born June 30,Barnstaple, Devon, Eng.—died Dec.

4,London) was an English poet and dramatist, chiefly remembered as the author of The Beggar’s Opera, a work distinguished by good-humoured satire and technical assurance. It contains graphic and humorous descriptions of the London of that period. He was a frequent visitor with Pope, and received unvarying john gay playwright from William Congreve and John Arbuthnot.

[2] He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (), a ballad opera. A member of an ancient but impoverished Devonshire family, Gay was educated at the free grammar school in Barnstaple. Gay had just been appointed secretary to the British ambassador to the court of Hanover through the influence of Jonathan Swift when the death of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, three months later put an end to all his hopes of official employment.

JOHN GAY (), English poet, was baptized on the 16th of September at Barnstaple, where his family had long been settled. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names. Gay's pastorals achieved this goal and his ludicrous pictures of the English country lads and their loves were found to be entertaining on their own account. [2] He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (), a ballad opera.

Poet and playwright John Gay was born in Devon to an aristocratic though impoverished family. Jane Palmer The illustrator wishes to thank the following. [3]. He was educated at the grammar school of the town under Robert Luck, who had published some Latin and English poems. While in London, he began writing journalism, including the pamphlet The Present State of Wit (), a survey of contemporary periodicals and authors.

What is most interesting about the poem, however, is not the fact that it depicts the city with photographic accuracy, but that it acts as a guide to the upper, and upper-middle class walkers of society. In appeared his Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, a poem in three books, for which he acknowledged having received several hints from Swift.

He is best remembered for The Beggar's Operaa ballad opera. Gay was born in Barnstaple, England, and was educated at the town's grammar school. The dedication of his Rural Sports to Alexander Pope was the beginning of a lasting friendship. Gay, disregarding the advice of Pope and others of his friends, invested all his money in South Sea stock, and, holding on to the end of the South Sea Bubble, he lost gay.