As I know that every one of these charges was in every point absolutely false, and without the least grounds, at first I was not at all affected by them; but when I found they were still insisted upon, and that particular passages which were not in the play were quoted, and propagated to support what had been suggested, I could no longer bear to lye under those false accusations; so by printing it, I have submitted, and given up all present views of profit, which might accrue from the stage, which will undoubtedly be some satisfaction to the worthy gentlemen, who have treated me with so much candour and humanity, and represented me in such favourable colours.  But as I am conscious to myself, that my only intention was to lash in general the reigning and fashionable vices, and to recommend, and set virtue in as amiable a light as I could; to justify and vindicate my own character, I thought myself obliged to print the opera without delay, in the manner I have done.’  The large subscription Mr. Gay had to print it, amply recompens’d any loss he might receive from it’s not being acted.  Tho’ this was called the Sequel to the Beggar’s Opera, it was allowed by his best friends, scarce to be of a piece with the first part, being in every particular, infinitely beneath it.

Besides the works which we have already mentioned, Mr. Gay wrote several poems, printed in London in 2 vol. 12mo.

A Comedy called The Wife of Bath, first acted 1715, and afterwards revived, altered, and represented at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields.

Three Hours after Marriage, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal, in which he was assisted by Pope and Arbuthnot, but had the mortification to see this piece very ill received, if not damned the first night.

He wrote likewise Achilles, an Opera; acted at the Theatre in Covent Garden.  This was brought on the stage after his death, and the profits were given to his Sisters.

After experiencing many vicissitudes of fortune, and being for some time chiefly supported by the liberality of the duke and duchess of Queensberry, he died at their house in Burlington Gardens, of a violent inflammatory fever, in December 1732, and was interred in Westminster, by his noble benefactors just mentioned, with the following epitaph written by Mr. Pope, who had the sincerest friendship for him on account of his amiable qualities.

  ’Of manners gentle, of affections mild;
  In wit a man, simplicity a child;
  Above temptation in a low estate,
  And uncorrupted even amongst the great;
  A safe companion, and an easy friend,
  Unblamed thro’ life, lamented in thy end: 
  These are thy honours! not that here thy bust
  Is mix’d with heroes, or with kings thy dust,
  But that the worthy and the good shall say,
  Striking their pensive bosoms—­here lies gay;’

Then follows this farther inscription,