Of Gay’s posthumous works, there are several references in the correspondence of his friends.  The first mention is concerning “Achilles,” in a letter written from Twickenham by Pope to Caryll:  “Poor Gay has gone before, and has not left an honester man behind him; he has just put a play into the house, which the Duke of Queensberry will take care of, and turn to the benefit of his relations.  I have read it, and think it of his very best manner, a true original; he has left some other pieces fit for the press.”  Quite in keeping with his character Gay had made no arrangements for the disposal of the manuscripts he left behind him.  “As to his writings, he left no will, nor spoke a word of them, or anything else, during his short and precipitate illness, in which I attended him to his last breath,” Pope informed Swift, February 16th, 1733.  “The Duke has acted more than the part of a brother to him, and it will be strange if the sisters do not leave his papers totally at his disposal, who will do the same that I would with them.  He had managed the comedy (which our poor friend gave to the playhouse a week before his death) to the utmost advantage for his relations; and proposes to do the same with some Fables he left unfinished."[12] The play was much discussed in advance of its representation.

“Mr. Gay has left a posthumous work, which is soon to be acted,” Lady Anne Irvine wrote to Lord Carlisle on January 6th, 1733.  “Tis in the manner of ‘The Beggar’s Opera,’ interspersed with songs; the subject is Achilles among the women, where he is discovered choosing a sword.  The design is to ridicule Homer’s Odysses; ’tis much commended, and I don’t doubt, from the nature of the subject, will be much approved."[13] Gay’s play was put into rehearsal in December, 1732, about a fortnight after his death,[14] and it was produced at the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in February, 1723, when a contemporary account says it “met with a general applause the first night, when there was a noble and crowded audience,"[15] and Pope wrote to Swift on February 16th:  “The play Mr. Gay left succeeds very well.  It is another original of its kind."[16] It ran for eighteen nights.  The cast was as follows:—­

Lycomedes ... ... ... ... ...  MR. QUIN Diphilus ... ... ... ... ...  MR. ASTON Achilles ... ... ... ... ...  MR. SALWAY Ulysses ... ... ... ... ...  MR. CHAPMAN Diomedes ... ... ... ... ...  MR. LAGUERRE Ajax ... ... ... ... ... ...  MR. HALL Periphas ... ... ... ... ...  MR. WALKER Agyrtes ... ... ... ... ...  MR. LEVERIDGE Thetis ... ... ... ... ...  MR. BUCHANAN Theaspe ... ... ... ... ...  MRS. CANTREL Deidamia ... ... ... ... ...  MISS NORSA Lesbia ... ... ... ... ...  MISS BINKS Philoe ... ... ... ... ...  MISS OATES Antemona ... ... ... ... ...  MRS. EGLETON