John Gay
(1685-1732), Poet and dramatistSitter associated with 12 portraits
John Gay was a poet and dramatist, best remembered for his hugely successful dramatic satire The Beggar's Opera (1727). Along with his friend Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Gay was a member of the Scriblerus Club, a group of like-minded men who exposed and attacked ignorance and pretentiousness in literature. Johnson did not rate Gay's poetry highly but credited him with the invention of the ballad opera. >
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