Male : Poet and author. Bad with money he made and lost a fortune in the South Sea Bubble stock. On his death he was probably worth £3000. Buried in Westminster Abbey

Nationality : English Place of Birth : Barnstaple, Devon

Date of Birth : 1685 Date of Death : 1732 Age : 47

Education : Barnstaple GS

1708-1715
Wine (1708)
The Present State of Wit (1711)
An Argument Proving that the Present Mohocks and Hawkubites are the Gog and Magog
Mentioned in the Revelations (1712)
Rural Sports (1713)
The Wife of Bath (1713)
The Fan (1714)
The Shepherd's Week in Six Pastorals (1714 Ferd. Burleigh, London)
A Letter to a Lady (1714)
Two Epistles, One to the Earl of Burlington, The Other to a Lady (c1715)
What d'ye Call it (1715 Lintott)

1716-1730
Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716 Bernard Lintott, London)
Offered in 1996 for £450
Three Hours After her Marriage (1717) - Play with pope and Arbuthnot
Horcae, epode iv, Imitated (c1717)
The Poor Shepherd (c1720)
Poems on Several Occasions (1720 Tonson & Lintott) - 2 vols
[This work made him £1000 which he then lost on South Sea Bubble stock]
A Panegyrical Epistle to Mr. Thomas Snow (1721)
An Epistle to Her Grace Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough (1722)
The Captives (1724)
A Poem Addressed to the Quidnunc's (1724)
Blueskin's Ballad (1725)
To a Lady on Her Passion for Old China (1725)
Daphnis and Chloe (c1725)
Molly Mog (1726)
The Beggar's Opera (1728) (1728 J watts. 2nd Ed) (1735 for J Watts, London 4th Ed)
[This replenished his lost fortune by earning him some £1600]
[Filmed in 1952]
Polly, being the second Part of the Beggar's Opera (1729 for Author by William Bowyer, London)
(1742 for T Astley, London 2nd Ed)

1731-1750
Poems on Several Occasions (1731 Tonson & Lintot, London) - 2 vols
Acis and galatea (1732) - music by Handel
Achilles : An Opera (1733 J Watts, London)
The Distressed Wife : A Comedy (1743 for Thomas Astley, London)
The Beggar's Opera and Polly : An Opera (1750 Robert Urie, Glasgow)

1751-1775
The rehearsal at Gaotham (1754)
Poems on Several Occasions (1757 Foulis, Glasgow) - 2 vols in 1
Poems on Several Occasions (1767 Tonson) - 2 vols
Poems on Several Occasions (1770 Foulis, Glasgow) - 2 vols
Plays .. (1772 W Strahan, London)
The Miscellaneous Works (1773 for J Bell & C Etherington) - 6 vols
Poems on Several Occasions (1775 Strahan) - 2 vols
The Poems (1775 A Ward, York)

1776-1800
The Works (1783 John Bell) - 6 vols
Poetical, Daramtic & Miscellaneous Works (with Johnson's preface) (1795) - 6 vols

1801-1900
Gay's Chair : Poems never before Printed (1820 Longman Hurst)
The Flowers of English Fable by John Gay (c1870 Edward Lacey) - with 67 engravings

20thC
Some Unpublished Translations from Ariosto (1910) - Edited by J D Bruce
The Beggar's Opera (1921 Heinemann) - 430. Claud Lovat Fraser
Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London (1922 Daniel O'Connor, London)
The Beggar's Opera (1922 Daniel O'Connor, London) - 1000
Polly : Written by Mr Gay (1923 Heinemann) - John Nicholson 380 signed
Poetical Works (ed G C Faber) (1926 Oxford)
The Beggar's Opera (1937 Ltd Eds Club NY) - 1500 signed by Mariette Lydis
The Letters of John Gay (1966 OUP)

Editions of Fables
1727-1750
Fables By Mr Gay (1727-38 J Tonson, J Watts, London) - 2 vols
[In 1727 Gay sold the copyright of fifty fables and The Beggar's Opera to
Jacob Tonson & John Watts for 90 guineas]
(1728 Tonson & Watts. 2nd Ed)
(1729 for Tonson & Watts. 3rd Ed)
(1733 Tonson & Watts. 4th Ed)

1751-1800
Fables by the Late Mr Gay (1757 Hitch & Hawkes) - 2 vols in 1
Fables in Two Parts (1765 Newcastle)
Fables in One Volume (1778 J Buckland, London)
Fables by the Late Mr Gay in One Volume (1783 T Luckman, Coventry)
(1798 Luckman & Suffield, Coventry)
Fables by the Late Mr Gay in One Volume (1783 S Harward, Gloucester)
Fables in One Volume Complete (1785 Buckland, Carnan et al)
Fables, in One Volume Complete (1792 Rivington, Newbery - London) - woodcuts by Bewick
Fables, with a Life of the Author (1793 John Stockdale, London) - 2 vols
Fables by the Late Mr Gay (1796 for T Longman, London) - one vol. Bewick woodcuts
The Fables of Mr John Gay - Complete in Two Parts (1797 Wilson, Spence & Mawman, York)
- woodcuts by Bewick
Fables by the Late Mr Gay in One Volume (1798 Luckman & Suffield, Coventry)

After 1801
Fables, with Life of the Author (1793 - actually 1811. John Stockdale) 2 vols - Blake
The Fables, complete in Two Parts (1806 Wilson & Spence, York) - Frontis Beilby, woodcuts Bewick
Fables : Complete in Two Parts (1811 Thos Wilson, York) - Bewick woodcuts
Fables, with a Life of the Author (1816 Davison for Rivington, Harris)
A Selection from Gay's Fables (1823 Thomas Lovell, Huntingdon) - Rev Ed by James Plumptre
Gay's Fables (1866 Warne) - William Harvey
Fables : with Memoir by Austin Dobson (1882 Kegan Paul)
Fables (1970 Imprint Society, Barre) - 1950 signed by Gillian Lewis Tyler

READING
Samuel Johnson : In His Lives (1779-81)
William Schultz : Gay's Beggar's Opera (1923 New Haven)
William H Irving : Gay, Favorite of the Wits (1940 Durham, NC)
James Sutherland : (In) Pope and His Contemporaries (1949 NY)
Sven M Armens : John Gay - Social Critic (1954)
oliver Warner : John Gay (1964)
Patricia M Spacks : John Gay (1965)
Julie T Klein : John Gay - An Annotated Checklist of Criticism (1973)
David Noakes : John Gay - A Profession of Friendship (1995 OUP £25)