Editing John Gay (section)

==Early career==
His first play, ''The Mohocks'' (1712), had censorship issues. The following year he wrote a comedy ''[[The Wife of Bath (play)|The Wife of Bath]]'', which appeared at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane Theatre]].<ref>Calhoun Winton, ''John Gay and the London Theatre''. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. pp. 30–33.</ref>

The dedication of his ''Rural Sports'' (1713) to [[Alexander Pope]] began a lasting friendship with him. In 1714, Gay wrote ''The Shepherd's Week'', a series of six [[pastoral]]s drawn from English rustic life. Pope had urged him to undertake this in order to ridicule the [[Arcadia (utopia)|Arcadian]] pastorals of [[Ambrose Philips]], who had been praised by a short-lived contemporary publication ''[[The Guardian (1713)|The Guardian]]'', to the neglect of Pope's claim to be the first pastoral writer of the age and the true English [[Theocritus]]. Gay's pastorals achieved this goal and his ludicrous pictures of the English country lads and their loves were found to be entertaining on their own account.<ref name="EB"/>

In 1713 Gay and Pope both joined the [[Scriblerus Club]], a group of [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] writers supportive of first minister [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|Robert Harley]] that also included [[John Arbuthnot]], [[Jonathan Swift]] and [[Thomas Parnell]].<ref>Winton, p. 39.</ref>

===Diplomatic service===
In 1714 Gay was appointed secretary to the [[Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon|Earl of Clarendon]] the new British ambassador to the [[Electorate of Hanover]] through the influence of Swift. However the death of [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] three months later put an end to his hopes of official employment.<ref name="EB"/> The mission had been an unsuccessful attempt by the Tories to ingratiate themselves with [[George I of Great Britain|Elector George]], heir to the throne, who was angry that the [[Peace of Utrecht]] had led to Britain's abandoning its allies in the [[War of the Spanish Succession|war against France]] and suspected that the Tory leadership favoured the [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]].

The [[Hanoverian succession]] led to the ousting of the [[Harley Ministry]] and establishment of the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig oligarchy]] and Gay never held a government post again. While in [[Hanover]] he met [[Caroline of Ansbach]], the future [[Princess of Wales]], and [[Henrietta Howard]], who would become a close friend of his.<ref>Winton, p. 40.</ref>

===Return to London===
In 1715, probably with some help from Pope, Gay produced ''[[The What D'Ye Call It]]?'', a dramatic skit on contemporary [[tragedy]], with special reference to [[Thomas Otway]]'s ''[[Venice Preserv'd]]''. This appeared on 23 February 1715 as an [[afterpiece]] at Drury Lane to [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]]'s tragedy ''[[Jane Shore (play)|Jane Shore]]''.<ref>Winton, p. 49.</ref> It left the public so ignorant of its inner meaning that [[Lewis Theobald]] and Benjamin Griffin published a ''Complete Key to What D'Ye Call It'' to explain it. The play also featured a ballad, ''Twas When the Seas Were Roaring'', co-written with [[George Frideric Handel]], which became popular in its own right.

In 1716 appeared his ''[[Trivia (poem)|Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London]]'', a poem in three books, for which he acknowledged receiving several hints from Swift. It contains graphic and humorous descriptions of the London of that period, depicting the city with photographic accuracy and acting as a guide to the upper-class and upper-middle-class walkers of society. By taking a mock-heroic form, Gay's poem was able to poke fun at the notion of complete reformation of street civility, while also proposing an idea of reform in terms of the attitude towards walking. In January 1717 he produced a comedy, ''[[Three Hours After Marriage]]'', which was thought to be grossly indecent (without being amusing) and a failure. He had assistance from Pope and [[John Arbuthnot]], but they allowed it to be assumed that Gay was the sole author.<ref name="EB"/>

By 1717 Gay was associated with [[George II of Great Britain|George, Prince of Wales]], who as part of the [[Whig Split]] had set up a rival court to his father the King which was frequented by opposition Whigs and Tories.<ref>Winton, p. 56.</ref> In 1718 he collaborated with Handel on the [[masque]] ''[[Acis and Galatea (Handel)|Acis and Galatea]]'' for which he supplied the [[libretto]].