THE HON.  MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY.

  Hampton Court, August [1728].

“I am glad you have passed your time so agreeable.  I need not tell you how mine has been employed; but as I know you wish me well, I am sure you will be glad to hear that I am much better; whether I owe it to the operation I underwent, or to my medicines, I cannot tell; but I begin to think I shall entirely get the better of my illness.  I have written to Dr. Arbuthnot, both to give him a particular account, and to ask his opinion about the Bath.  I know him so well that, though in this last illness he was not my physician, he is so much my friend, that he is glad I am better.  Put him in mind to tell me what he would have me do in relation to Lady F.; and to send me a direction to write to her.

“I have made Mr. Nash governor to Lord Peterborough, and Lord Peterborough governor to Mr. Pope.  If I should come to the Bath, I propose being governess to the Doctor [Arbuthnot] and you.  I know you both to be so unruly, that nothing less than Lady P.’s spirit or mine could keep any authority over you.  When you write to Lady Scudamore, make my compliments to her.  I have had two letters from Chesterfield, which I wanted you to answer for me; and I have had a thousand other things that I have wanted you to do for me; but, upon my word, I have not had one place to dispose of, or you should not be without one....  My humble service to the Duchess of Marlborough and Mr. Congreve.”

JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.

  London, December 2nd, 1728.

“I have had a very severe attack of a fever, which, by the care of our friend, Dr. Arbuthnot, has, I hope, almost left me.  I have been confined about ten days, but never to my bed, so that I hope soon to get abroad about my business; that is, the care of the second part of ’The Beggar’s Opera,’ which was almost ready for rehearsal; but Rich received the Duke of Grafton’s commands (upon an information that he was rehearsing a play improper to be represented), not to rehearse any new play whatever, till his Grace has seen it.  What will become of it I know not; but I am sure I have written nothing that can be legally suppressed, unless the setting vices in general in an odious light, and virtue in an amiable one, may give offence.

“I passed five or six months this year at the Bath with the Duchess of Marlborough; and then, in the view of taking care of myself, writ this piece.  If it goes on in case of success, I have taken care to make better bargains for myself."[5]

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Gay was naturally greatly elated by the success of “The Beggar’s Opera.”  This recompensed him for the neglect, or, as undoubtedly he regarded it, the ingratitude of the Court, and, what pleased him as much, it filled his purse, which he always liked to fill, apparently for the joy of emptying it as soon as possible.  Also, it greatly enhanced his reputation:  from a writer of minor importance, he now took his place as a personage.  After a long apprenticeship, he had at length “arrived.”