birth, 2;
  death of parents, 2;
  lives with his uncle, Thomas Gay, 2;
  attends Free School at Barr staple, 2-3;
  apprenticed to a London silk-mercer, 3;
  in ill-health, 4;
  returns to Barnstaple, 4;
  early writings, 4-5;
  youthful love affair, 5-6;
  in improved health, 7;
  returns to London, 7;
  life in the Metropolis, 7-8;
  love of food, drink, and dress, 8-9;
  “Wine,” 9-10;
  “The Present State of Wit,” 11-14;
  makes acquaintance with Henry Cromwell and Pope, 14;
  “On a Miscellany of Poems to Bernard Lintott,” 14-16;
  becomes intimate with Pope, 17;
  domestic secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth, 18-19;
  “Rural Sports,” 20;
  some minor verses, 20;
  “The Fan,” 20-21;
  “The Wife of Bath,” 21, 113, 115-116;
  his charm, 21-22;
  Pope as his protector and adviser, 22;
  “Memoirs of Scriblerus,” 23;
  “The Shepherd’s Week,” 24-28;
  appointed Secretary to Lord Clarendon’s
    Mission to Hanover, 1714, 29;
  letters from Hanover, 29;
  returns to England on death of Queen Anne, 33;
  “A Letter to a Lady,” 34-35;
  “The What D’ye Call It,” 35, 36-39;
  recognised as a man of letters, 39;
  visit to Exeter with the Earl of Burlington, 39;
  “Trivia,” 39-40;
  “Court Poems,” 40;
  “The Toilet,” 41;
  second visit to Devonshire, 41;
  “Three Hours After Marriage,” 41-45;
  visits the Continent with Pulteney, 45-46;
  intimate with the Maids of Honour, 46;
  and with the Hon. Mrs. Howard, 46-47;
  again abroad with Pulteney, 48;
  his literary reputation in 1720, 50;
  “Poems on Several Occasions,” 50;
  given a present of South Sea stock,
    and invests his fortune in it, 52;
  loses his money when the “Bubble” bursts, 53;
  financial embarrassment, 53;
  the desire of his friends to aid him, 54;
  the disappointment affects his health, 55;
  recuperates at Bath, 55;
  appointed a Commissioner of the State Lottery and
given an apartment in Whitehall, 57;
  at Tunbridge Wells, 58;
  correspondence with the Hon. Mrs. Howard, 59-64;
  “The Captives,” 65;
  dedication to the Princess of Wales, 65;
  again at Bath, 66, 67;
  first meeting with Swift, 68;
  becomes more intimate with the Duke and
    Duchess of Queensberry, 69;
  “The Fables” (first series), 69;
  dedication to Prince William Augustus, 69;
  his expectation of a post at Court, 70;
  offered appointment of Gentleman Usher to the Princess Louisa, 70;
  his indignation, 70;
  refuses the post, 70;
  the opinions of Pope and Swift on the offer, 71-74;
  lampooned, 75-77;
  “The Beggar’s Opera,” 78-91, 93;
  at Bath, 92-94;
  “Polly,” 95-101, 108;
  loses his Commissionship and his apartments in Whitehall, 101;
  an end of hope of Court preferment, 102;
  seriously ill, 105;