John Gay

John Gay (Barnstaple, 1685 – London, 1732) was an English poet and dramatist who moved in the literary circles of London in the first half of the eighteenth century. He wrote in English, and he is remembered mainly for The Beggar's Opera, a work that changed how audiences thought about musical theatre.

The son of a fairly comfortable Devon family, he spent time as an apprentice to a London silk mercer but soon left the trade. His friendship with Alexander Pope, which began with the dedication of Rural Sports (1713), brought him into the Scriblerus Club, where he socialised with Swift, Arbuthnot and Parnell. His mock pastorals poked fun at the idealised rural poems of Ambrose Philips and instead showed English country life with a plain, comic eye.

In 1714 he became secretary to the British envoy in Hanover, thanks to Swift, but the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I ended that opportunity, and he never held public office again. He lived by his pen, by subscriptions and by the generosity of patrons. He lost much of his savings in the South Sea Bubble of 1720, and his friends supported him.

The Beggar's Opera (1728), with music by Pepusch, was his greatest success. Its characters were thieves and beggars from the London underworld, and its satire struck at the governing class, especially Robert Walpole. His Fables in verse made him the first Englishman to write fables in verse in his own language, and Samaniego later adapted some of them into Spanish.

His legacy lies in that blend of lightness and social criticism. The Beggar's Opera directly inspired Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera (1928), and his portrait of urban life still reads as a record of Georgian society.