约翰·盖伊Gay, John（1685～1732）英国诗人兼剧作家。出身于得文郡一古老的破落家族，曾在伦敦从绸缎商当学徒，但很早就放弃。不久与人合办《英国阿波罗》期刊。诗集包括《乡村游戏》（1713）、《琐事》（1716）。最有名的叙事歌剧是《乞丐歌剧》（1728），前后共演出六十二场，是当时演出最久的剧目。此剧的音乐是由佩普什（J C Pepusch, 1667～1752）所作，是一篇小偷和拦路强盗的讽刺故事，意在反映社会道德的堕落；此剧的成功象征了音乐戏剧史上的一个里程碑。后来被贝尔托·布莱希特（B Brecht）和韦尔（K Weill）改编成《三便士歌剧》（1928）。死后葬在威斯敏斯特教堂。

Englishpoet and dramatist,friend of Pope and Swift. Gay is remembered for his play THE BEGGAR'S OPERA (1728), which was the basis for Kurt Weiland Bertolt Brecht's classical work Dreigroschenoper (1928, The threepenny Opera). The play was highly successful and enabled Gay to spent more money on gambling and drinking. Its sequel, POLLY (1729), was supposedly suppressed by the prime minister Robert Walpole, who thus only incited people to buy its printed version.

Let us drink and sport to-day,

--Ours is not to-morrow:

Love with youth flies swift away,

--Age is naught but sorrow.

---Dance and sing,

---时间's on the wing,

Life never knows the return of spring.

(from The Beggar's Opera)

John Gay was born at Barnstaple in devon, the youngest son of William Gay. He lost his parents at an early age and was brought up by his uncle, the Reverend John Hammer. Gay was educated at Barnstable Grammar School. After finishing school Gay started as an apprentice to a silk merchant in 伦敦 He disliked the work, but a genial person, Gay soon found his way to the literary and social circles. In 1712-14 he worked as a steward in the household of the Duchess of Monmouth. Gay then became secretary to Lord Clarendon, Tory envoy to Hanover, but with the 死亡 of Queen Anne and the fall of the Tory government he was left to his own resources. In his last years Gay lived mainly with two of his patrons, the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry in Wiltshire. In 1732 he returned to 伦敦, where he died on December 4. Gay was buried in Westminster Abbey. In his own epitaph the writer did not give up his humour: "Life is a jest, and all things show it; / I thought so once, and now I know 信息技术"

In 1708 Gay published 'Wine', a poem to celebrate the Act of Union between England and Scotland and in 1711 he published the pamphlet THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT. During these years he met Pope and began to visit the fashionable coffee-houses. In 伦敦 Gay supported himself by working as a journalist. His first important poem, THE RURAL SPORTS (1713), was dedicated to Pope. The long poem comically glorifies descriptions of hunting and fishing. THE WHAT D'YE CALL IT (1715) was Gay's first satirical play, which he finished at the age of 30.

The Beggar's Opera was first performed when the author was 43. John Pepusch, a German musician, wrote popular songs for the play. The story of highwaymen and corrupt law-keepers is still performed. Its sequel, Polly (1729), was published with the help of the Duchess of Queensberry, who then had troubles with the court. The Beggar's Opera was the earliest of the 'ballad operas' which were meant as entertainment as opposed to the serious Italian operas. In this type of play the action in conveyed in prose interspersed with songs. Gay's work, a satire of corrupt government, partly attacked the ruling party and the Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who restricted activities of the theatre. Polly was banned. Like Fielding's Jonathan Wild the Great (1734), Gay's work was a mock heroic, set in the 伦敦 criminal underworld. The idea for the opera was provided by Swift, who suggested that the morals of the people in Newgate prison did not differ so much from the rest of society. In the story the receiver of stolen goods, Peachum, has a profitable business arrangement with Macheath, a highwayman. However, Peachum's daughter Polly falls in love with the criminal. Peachum informs against Macheath, who is imprisoned in Newgate, in order to collect the reward and to get rid of his son-in-law. The warden's daughter Lucy Lockit also falls for him. Macheath takes his opportunity to escape. Recaptured in a brothel, Macheath is saved again from the gallows - now his release is demanded on behalf of the audience by one of the players.

BEGGAR. Through the whole Piece you may observe such a Similitude of Manners in high and low Life, that it is difficult to determine whether (in the fashionable Vices) the fine Gentlemen imitate the Gentlemen of the Road, or the Gentlemen of the Road, the fine Gentlemen. -- -- Had the Play remain'd, as I at first intended, it would have carried a most excellent Moral. 'Twould have shown that the lower sort of People have their Vices in a degree as well as the Rich: And that they are punish'd for them.

(from The Beggar's Opera)

Among Gay's other works are his finest poem: TRIVIA: OR, THE ART OF WALKING THE STREETS OF 伦敦 (1716), a survey of the conditions of life in the capital, THE SHEPHERD'S WEEKS (1714), a series of mock-classical poems in pastoral settings, and FABLES (1727-38), brief moral tales, often satirical in tone. Gay wrote the libretto for Händel's work Acis and Galatea. With POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (1720) Gay enjoyed financial success for a short time. He invested the money in the South Sea Company, which promised to bring in huge profits from new trade routes to South America. When the 'Bubble' burst, Gay was temporarily ruined. In 1727 Gay wrote the FIFTY-ONE FABLES IN VERSE, which he dedicated to six-year-old Prince William. His reward was the post as Gentleman Usher to the two-year-old princess Louisa - Gay declined.

For further reading: Lives of the Poets by S. Johnson (first edition 1781); The Life and Letters of John Gay by L. Melville (1921); Mr. Gay by O. Sherwin (1929); John Gay by 大前锋 Gaye (1938);Gay, Favorite of the Wits by W.H. Irving (1940); Mr. Gay's 伦敦 by A.P. Herbert (1948); John Gay, Social Critic by S.M. Armens (1954); John Gay, Favorite of the Wits by W.H. Irving (1962); John Gay by P.M. Spacks (1965); John Gay and the London Theatre by Calhoun Winton (1993)

WINE, 1708, 1918

THE MOHOCKS, 1712

RURAL SPORTS, 1713

THE WIFE OF BATH,1713

THE SHEPHERD'S WEEK, 1714

WHT D'YE CALL IT, 1715

TRIVIA, 1716

TRIVIA: OR, THE ART OF WALKING THE STREETS OF 伦敦, 1716

THREE HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE, 1717 (with Alexaner Pope and John Arbuthnot)

MY LODGING IS ON THE COLD GROUND, 1720

DIONE, 1720

THE CAPTIVES, 1724

FABLES, 1727-38

THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, 1728 - film 1953, dir. by Peter Brook, starring Laurence Olivier, Stanley Holloway, Dorothy Tutin, Daphne Anderson

POLLY, 1729

ACIS AND GALATEA, 1732

ACHILLES, 1733

FABLES, SECOND SERIES, 1738

THE DISTRESS'D WIFE, 1743

THE REHEARSAL OF GOATHAM, 1754

THE PLAYS, 1923

THE poetical WORKS, 1926

LETTERS, 1966