In consequence of this hubbub about “Polly,” Gay became a notorious character, as Arbuthnot in a letter to Swift (March 19th, 1729) remarks very humorously.  “John Gay, I may say with vanity, owes his life, under God, to the unwearied endeavours and care of your humble servant; for a physician who had not been passionately his friend could not have saved him,” he wrote.  “I had, besides my personal concern for him, other motives of my care.  He is now become a public person, a little Sacheverell; and I took the same pleasure in saving him, as Radcliffe did in preserving my Lord Chief Justice Holt’s wife, whom he attended out of spite to her husband, who wished her dead.

“The inoffensive John Gay is now become one of the obstructions to the peace of Europe, the terror of Ministers, the chief author of the Craftsmen, and all the seditious pamphlets which have been published against the Government.  He has got several turned out of their places; the greatest ornament of the Court [the Duchess of Queensberry] banished from it for his sake; another great lady [Mrs. Howard] in danger of being chasee likewise; about seven or eight Duchesses pushing forward, like the ancient circumcelliones in the Church, who shall suffer martyrdom upon his account at first.  He is the darling of the City.  If he should travel about the country he would have hecatombs of roasted oxen sacrificed to him.  Since he became so conspicuous, Will Pulteney hangs his head to see himself so much outdone in the career of glory.  I hope he will get a good deal of money by printing his play [’Polly’]; but I really believe he would get more money by showing his person; and I can assure you, this is the very identical John Gay whom you formerly knew, and lodged in Whitehall, two years ago."[3]

Gay was now the avowed protege of the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, so he spent the greater part of his closing years either at their country seat, Middleton Stoney, Amesbury, in Wiltshire, or at their London house in Burlington Gardens.

Gay, who really asked nothing better than to be a pet of the great in this world, was happy enough.  In May, 1729, he went to Scotland with the Duke of Queensberry, and his only trouble was that the success of “Polly” made it attractive to unscrupulous booksellers.  “He has about twenty lawsuits with booksellers for pirating his book,"[4] Arbuthnot wrote to Swift on May 8th.  In the following month, the same correspondent, reports, “Mr. Gay is returned from Scotland, and has recovered his strength of his journey."[5]

JOHN GAY TO THE HON.  MRS. HOWARD.

  August 9th, 1729.

“I desire you would send word whether white currants be proper to make tarts:  it is a point that we dispute upon every day, and will never be ended unless you decide it.