In days of yore (my cautious rhymes
  Always except the present times)
  A greedy Vulture, skill’d in game,
  Inured to guilt, unawed by shame,
  Approach’d the throne in evil hour,
  And, step by step, intrudes to power. 
  When at the royal eagle’s ear. 
  He longs to ease the monarch’s care. 
  The monarch grants.  With proud elate,
  Behold him, minister of state! 
  Around him throng the feather’d rout;
  Friends must be served, and some must out: 
  Each thinks his own the best pretension;
  This asks a place, and that a pension. 
    The nightingale was set aside: 
  A forward daw his room supplied.[14]
    This bird (says he), for business fit
  Has both sagacity and wit. 
  With all his turns, and shifts, and tricks,
  He’s docile, and at nothing sticks. 
  Then with his neighbours, one so free
  At all times will connive at me. 
    The hawk had due distinction shown,
  For parts and talents like his own. 
    Thousands of hireling cocks attend him,
  As blust’ring bullies to defend him. 
    At once the ravens were discarded,
  And magpies with their posts rewarded. 
  Those fowls of omen I detest,
  That pry into another’s nest. 
  State lies must lose all good intent,
  For they foresee and croak th’ event. 
  My friends ne’er think, but talk by rote,
  Speak when they’re taught, and so to vote. 
    When rogues like these (a Sparrow cries)
  To honour and employment rise
  I court no favour, ask no place,
  From such, preferment is disgrace: 
  Within my thatch’d retreat I find
  (What these ne’er feel) true peace of mind.

The animus is evident, and it is clear that Gay’s sense of humour had entirely deserted him.  A man who had been a hanger-on at Court for more than ten years, and bidding diligently all the time for a sinecure, could but arouse laughter when, discarded at length by those in power, he says proudly, “I court no favour, ask no place.”

[Footnote 1:  Swift:  Works, XVII, p. 182.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., XVII, p. 188.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., XVII, p. 189.]

[Footnote 4:  Pope:  Works (ed.  Elwin and Courthope), VII, p. 429.]

[Footnote 5:  Swift:  Works, XVII, p. 205]

[Footnote 6:  Fortnightly Review, June, 1912]

[Footnote 7:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVII, p. 228 (note).]

[Footnote 8:  Hervey:  Memoirs, I, p. 123.]

[Footnote 9:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVII, p. 228.]

[Footnote 10:  Mrs. Delany:  Memoirs, I, p. 198.]

[Footnote 11:  Nichol:  Literary Anecdotes, I, p. 405.]

[Footnote 12:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVII, p. 114.]

[Footnote 13:  Ibid., XVII, p. 157.]

[Footnote 14:  This appears to be a reference to the appointment of Cibber as Poet Laureate.]