Gay, John (1685–1732)

English poet and dramatist. He wrote Trivia (1716), a verse picture of 18th-century London. His The Beggar's Opera (1728), a ‘Newgate pastoral’ using traditional songs and telling of the love of Polly for highwayman Captain Macheath, was an extraordinarily popular success. Its satiric political touches led to the banning of Polly, a sequel. Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) based his Threepenny Opera (1928) on the story of The Beggar's Opera.

He was a friend of the writers Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot.