Through the long years Gay was present to the minds of these, his dearest friends.  “Dr. Arbuthnot’s daughter is like Gay, very idle, very ingenuous, and inflexibly honest,"[24] Pope wrote to Swift, May 17th, 1739; and two years earlier, on July 23rd, 1737, Swift had written to Erasmus Lewis:  “I have had my share of affliction in the loss of Dr. Arbuthnot, and poor Gay, and others.[25] Such devotion, from such very different people puts it beyond question that Gay was a very lovable creature.  How deeply he returned that devotion it is difficult to say—­gratitude he felt, no doubt, but of love ... a man of such weak character, a man so devoted to the fleshpots, probably received more than he could give.”  Perhaps Swift, whose affections never blinded his intelligence, had some inkling of this when he said in the “Verses on His Own Death,”

  Poor Pope will grieve a month, and Gay
  A week, and Arbuthnot a day.

When Gay, in “Mr. Pope’s Welcome from Greece,” wrote:—­

  Thou, too, my Swift, dost breathe Boeotian air,
  When will thou bring back wit and humour here?

the formal tribute is agreeable, but in this set of verses, while there is much that is complimentary, there is something perfunctory about the tributes he paid.  He wrote of Pope and Swift and the rest as witty or humorous or generous or clever or learned or honest of mind:  they wrote of the love they bore him.  The two great literary giants took him under their wing, bore with his foibles, humoured him, championed him, and to the utmost of their power sought to protect their weaker brother of the pen from the rude buffetings of life.

[Footnote 1:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVII, p. 498.]

[Footnote 2:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVII, p. 502.]

[Footnote 3:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 3.]

[Footnote 4:  Probably a reference to the Opera, “Achilles.”]

[Footnote 5:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 23.]

[Footnote 6:  S. Poyntz, Governor to the Duke of Cumberland.  He married a niece of Lord Peterborough.]

[Footnote 7:  Probably another reference to the Opera “Achilles.”]

[Footnote 8:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 51.]

[Footnote 9:  Ibid., XVIII, p. 54.]

[Footnote 10:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 53.]

[Footnote 11:  Gay’s Chair, p. 24.]

[Footnote 12:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott).  XVIII, p. 84.]

[Footnote 13:  Historical MSS.  Commission Reports—­Carlisle MSS.]

[Footnote 14:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 57.]

[Footnote 15:  Historical MSS.  Com.  Reports—­Bath MSS., I, p. 95.]

[Footnote 16:  Gentleman’s Magazine, 1773, pp. 78, 85.]

[Footnote 17:  Genest:  History of the Stage, III, p. 428.]

[Footnote 18:  Swift:  Works (ed.  Scott), XVIII, p. 180.]