intrust it to Providence, and live upon the principal; Pope directed
him, and was seconded by Swift, to purchase an annuity.

Gay in that disastrous year had a present from young Craggs of some
South Sea Stock, and once supposed himself to be master of twenty
thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share; but
he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct
his own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would
purchase a hundred a year for life, "which," says Penton, "will make
you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." This
counsel was rejected; the profit and principal were lost, and Gay
sunk under the calamity so low that his life became in danger. By
the care of his friends, among whom Pope appears to have shown
particular tenderness, his health was restored; and, returning to
his studies, he wrote a tragedy called The Captives, which he was
invited to read before the Princess of Wales. When the hour came,
he saw the Princess and her ladies all in expectation, and,
advancing with reverence too great for any other attention, stumbled
at a stool, and, falling forwards, threw down a weighty Japan
screen. The Princess started, the ladies screamed, and poor Gay,
after all the disturbance, was still to read his play.

The fate of The Captives, which was acted at Drury Lane in 1723-4, I
know not; but he now thought himself in favour, and undertook (1726)
to write a volume of "Fables" for the improvement of the young Duke
of Cumberland. For this he is said to have been promised a reward,
which he had doubtless magnified with all the wild expectations of
indigence and vanity.

Next year the Prince and Princess became King and Queen, and Gay was