to be great and happy; but on the settlement of the household, he
found himself appointed gentleman usher to the Princess Louisa. By
this offer he thought himself insulted, and sent a message to the
Queen that he was too old for the place. There seem to have been
many machinations employed afterwards in his favour, and diligent
court was paid to Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk, who
was much beloved by the King and Queen, to engage her interest for
his promotion; but solicitation, verses, and flatteries were thrown
away; the lady heard them, and did nothing. All the pain which he
suffered from neglect, or, as he perhaps termed it, the ingratitude
of the Court, may be supposed to have been driven away by the
unexampled success of the Beggar's Opera. This play, written in
ridicule of the musical Italian drama, was first offered to Cibber
and his brethren at Drury Lane and rejected: it being then carried
to Rich, had the effect, as was ludicrously said, of making Gay RICH
and Rich GAY. Of this lucky piece, as the reader cannot but wish to
know the original and progress, I have inserted the relation which
Spence has given in Pope's words:--

"Dr. Swift had been observing once to Mr. Gay what an odd pretty
sort of a thing a Newgate Pastoral might make. Gay was inclined to
try at such a thing for some time; but afterwards thought it would
be better to write a comedy on the same plan. This was what gave
rise to the Beggar's Opera. He began on it, and when first he
mentioned it to Swift, the doctor did not much like the project. As
he carried it on, he showed what he wrote to both of us, and we now
and then gave a correction, or a word or two of advice; but it was
wholly of his own writing. When it was done, neither of us thought
it would succeed. We showed it to Congreve, who, after reading it
over, said it would either take greatly or be damned confoundedly.