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John Gay

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Playwright

The Resume

    (June 30, 1685-December 4, 1732)
    Born in Barnstaple, England, United Kingdom
    Plays include 'The What D'ye Call It' (1715), 'Three Hours After Marriage' (1717), 'The Beggar's Opera' (1728), 'Polly' (1729) and 'The Distress'd Wife' (1734)
    Also wrote 'The Shepherd's Week' (1714), 'Poems on Several Occasions' (1720) and 'Fifty-One Fables in Verse' (1727)
    Wrote the text for Handel's 'Acis and Galatea'

Why he might be annoying:

    Jonathan Swift complained about his 'rooted laziness.'
    He dedicated his 'Fifty-One Fables' to Prince William in hopes of receiving a royal appointment even though several of the Fables mock courtiers and royal honors.
    He ignored the advice of friends and lost his first fortune investing in the South Sea Bubble.
    After regaining his fortune with 'The Beggar's Opera,' he avoided investments and squandered his money more gradually on drinking and gambling.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was orphaned at age ten and raised by an uncle.
    'The Beggar's Opera' satirized the government of Robert Walpole, who retaliated by banning the sequel 'Polly' from being staged.
    'The Beggar's Opera' was the most popular play of the 18th century, with one commentator noting that it played 'just about everywhere in the English-speaking world where room could be found to put up a stage.'
    'The Beggar's Opera' inspired Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill to write 'The Threepenny Opera.'
    He was buried at Westminster Abbey under the self-penned epitaph 'Life is a jest, and all things show it/I thought so once, and now I know it.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 14 Votes: 78.57% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 20 Votes: 85.00% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 105 Votes: 55.24% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 16 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 18 Votes: 61.11% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 291 Votes: 82.13% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 465 Votes: 70.75% Annoying