WHATEVER I have faid of Fenton is confirmed by Pope in a letter, by which he communicated to Broome an account of his death.

I INTENDED to write to you on this melancholy fubject, the death of Mr. Fenton, before yrs came; but stay'd to have inform'd myself and you of ye circumstances of it. All I hear is, that he felt a Gradual Decay, tho fo early in Life, & was declining for 5 or 6 months. It was not, as I apprehended, the Gout in his Stomach, but I believe rather a Complication firft of Grofs Humours, as he was naturally corpulent, not difcharging themselves, as he used no fort of Exercise. No man better bore ye approaches of his Diffolution (as I am told) or with lefs oftentation yielded up his Being. The great Modefty wch you know was natural to him, and ye great Contempt he had for all forts of Vanity and Parade, never appeared more than in his last moments: He had a conscious Satisfaction (no doubt) in acting right, in feeling himself honeft, true, & unpretending to more than his own. So he dyed, as he lived, with that fecret, fufficient, Contentment.

yet

As to any Papers left behind him, I dare fay they can be but few; for this reafon, he never wrote out of Vanity, or thought much of the Applause of men.

I know an inftance where he did his utmost to conceal his own merit that way; and if we join to this his natural Love of Eafe, I fancy we muft expect little of this fort: at least I hear of none except fome few remarks on Waller (wch his cautious integrity made him leave an order to be given to Mr. Tonfon) and perhaps, tho' tis many years fince I saw it, a Tranflation of ye firft Book of Oppian. He had begun a tragedy of Dion, but made fmall progrefs in it.

As to his other Affairs, he dyed poor, but honeft, leaving no Debts, or Legacies; except of a few pds to Mr. Trumbull and my Lady, in token of refpect, Gratefulness, & mutual Efteem.

I fhall with pleasure take upon me to draw this amiable, quiet, deferving, unpretending Chriftian and Philofophical character, in his Epitaph. There Truth may be spoken in a few words: as for Flourish, & Oratory, & Poetry, I leave them to younger and more lively Writers, fuch as love writing for writing fake, & wd rather fhow their own Fine Parts, ya Report the valuable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce.

I condole with you from my heart, on the lofs of fo worthy a man, & a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I must tell you he has done you many a good office, & fet your character in ye fairest light to fome who either miftook you, or knew you not. I doubt not he has done the fame for me.

Adieu: Let us love his Memory, and profit by his example. I am very fincerely

D' SIR

Your affectionate

& real Servant

AUG. 29th, 1730.

A. POPE.

GAY.

JOHN GAY, defcended from an old family that

had been long in poffeffion of the manor of * Goldworthy in Devonshire, was born in 1688, at or near Barnstaple, where he was educated by Mr. Luck, who taught the fchool of that town with good reputation, and, a little before he retired from it, published a volume of Latin and English verfes. Under fuch a mafter he was likely to form a taste for poetry. Being born without profpect of hereditary riches, he was fent to London in his youth, and placed apprentice with a filk-mercer.

How long he continued behind the counter, or with what degree of softness and dexterity he received and accommodated the Ladies, as he probably took no delight in telling it, is not known. The report is, that he was foon weary of either the reftraint or fervility of his occupation, and eafily perfuaded his mafter to discharge hin.

* Goldworthy does not appear in the Villare, Dr. J. Holdf worthy is probably meant. C.

The.

The Dutchess of Monmouth, remarkable for inflexible perfeverance in her demand to be treated as a princefs, in 1712 took Gay into her fervice as fecretary: by quitting a fhop for fuch fervice he might gain leisure, but he certainly advanced little in the boaft of independence. Of his leifure he

made fo good ufe, that he published next year a poem on Rural Sports, and inscribed it to Mr. Pope, who was then rifing faft into reputation. Pope was pleased with the honour; and, when he became acquainted with Gay, found fuch attractions in his manners and converfation, that he feems to have received him into his inmoft confidence; and a friendship was formed between them which lafted to their feparation by death, without any known abatement on either part. Gay was the general favourite of the whole affociation of wits; but they regarded him as a play-fellow rather than a partner, and treated him with more fondness than refpect.

Next year he published The Shepherd's Week, fix English paftorals, in which the images are drawn from real life, fuch as it appears among the rufticks in parts of England remote from London. Steele, in fome papers of The Guardian, had praised Ambrofe Philips, as the Paftoral writer that yielded only to Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenfer. Pope, who had also published paftorals, not pleased to be overlooked, drew up a comparifon of his own compofitions with thofe of Philips, in which he covertly gave himself the preference, while he feemed to difown it. Not content with this, he is fuppofed to have incited Gay to write The Sepherd's Week, to fhew, that if it be neceffary to copy nature with minutenefs, rural life

muft

must be exhibited fuch as groffnefs and ignorance have made it. So far the plan was reasonable; but the Paftorals are introduced by a Proeme, written with fuch imitation as they could obtain of obfolete language, and by confequence in a ftyle that was never spoken nor written in any age or in any place.

But the effect of reality and truth became confpi-. cuous, even when the intention was to fhew them groveling and degraded. Thefe Paftorals became popular, and were read with delight, as juft reprefentations of rural manners and occupations, by those who had no intereft in the rivalry of the poets, nor knowledge of the critical difpute.

In 1713 he brought a comedy called The Wife of Bath upon the ftage, but it received no applause: he printed it, however, and feventeen years after, having altered it, and, as he thought, adapted it more to the publick taste, he offered it again to the town; but, though he was flushed with the fuccefs of the Beggar's Opera, had the mortification to see it again rejected.

In the last year of Queen Anne's life, Gay was made fecretary to the Earl of Clarendon, ambassador to the court of Hanover. This was a ftation that naturally gave him hopes of kindness from every party; but the Queen's death put an end to her favours, and he had dedicated his Shepherd's Week to Bolingbroke, which Swift confidered as the crime that obftructed all kindness from the House of Hanover.

He did not, however, omit to improve the right which his office had given him to the notice of the

royal