Gay, the most amiable of men, never resented advice, perhaps because he so rarely followed it.  In this case, however, he was surprisingly amenable.  During the short time he was in the service of the Duchess of Monmouth, he drove his quill with some assiduity, and, indeed, at this period of his life he, who was presently distinguished as the laziest of men, worked diligently.

Before joining the household of the Duchess, he had written “Rural Sports:  A Georgic,” and this was published on January 13th, 1713, by Jacob Tonson, with an inscription to Pope:—­

  You, who the sweets of rural life have known,
  Despise th’ ungrateful hurry of the town;
  In Windsor groves your easy hours employ,
  And, undisturb’d, yourself and Muse enjoy.

During 1713 Gay wrote such trifles as papers on “Reproof and Flattery,” and “Dress,” which were printed in the Guardian on March 24th and September 21st respectively; and some verses, “Panthea,” “Araminta,” “A Thought on Eternity,” and “A Contemplation on Night,” which appeared in Steele’s “Poetical Miscellany.”  A more ambitious work was “The Fan,” which had occupied him during the earlier part of the year.  He was greatly interested in its composition, and corresponded with Pope while it was being written.  “I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of ‘The Fan,’ which I doubt not will delight the eye and sense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine shall play in the hands of posterity,” Pope wrote to him, August 23rd, 1713:  “I am glad your Fan is mounted so soon, but I would have you varnish and glaze it at your leisure, and polish the sticks as much as you can.  You may then cause it to be borne in the hands of both sexes, no less in Britain than it is in China, where it is ordinary for a mandarin to fan himself cool after a debate, and a statesman to hide his face with it when he tells a grave lie."[3] Again, on October 23rd, Pope wrote:  “I shall go into the country about a month hence, and shall then desire to take along with me your poem of ‘The Fan.’” The most ambitious as yet of Gay’s writings, there are few to-day, however, who will question the judgment of Mr. Austin Dobson, “one of his least successful efforts, and, though touched by Pope, now unreadable.”

Gay had thus early a leaning to the theatre, where presently he was to score one of his greatest successes, and he wrote “The Wife of Bath,” which was produced at Drury Lane on May 12th, 1713.  Steele gave it a “puff preliminary” in No. 50 of the Guardian (May 8th).

Gay was now become known as a man of letters, and had made many friends.  Johnson says:  “Gay was the general favourite of the whole association of wits; but they regarded him as a playfellow rather than as a partner, and treated him with more fondness than respect."[4] There is some truth in this view, but of the affection he inspired there is no doubt.  To know him was to love him.  Wherein exactly