GAY 
cerely lamented by his friends, and his memory was ho¬ 
noured by a monument in Wefhninfter abbey, where he 
was interred, and an epitaph was written, in a drain of 
uncommon fenfibility, by Pope, The private charafter 
of Gay was that ofeaiy good-nature and undefigning lim- 
plicity. He was much beloved by his friends, who treat 
him in tlieir letters, efpecially Swift, with a freedom of 
advice partaking more of aft'eiStion than of refpeil. He 
poflelfcd little energy of mind, and had too much good 
nature to fupport that indcpciidence to vvhicit his prin¬ 
ciples inclined him. Befides the works already mctiti- 
oned, he wrote feveral Ihort pieces of poetry, of which 
liis two pleafing ballads. All in the Downs, and ’Twas 
when the Seas were roaring, are the bed known. Though 
as a poet he cannot be ranked in the higher clafs, yet he 
feldom fails to give his readers an ample diare of grati¬ 
fication, and perhaps we have no writer whofe images 
and piciures are drawn with more originality from a 
dore of innate obfervation and abilities. Mr. Coxe, in 
his review of the life and literary charadler of Gay, 
agrees a's little with Dr. Johnlbn in his edimate of Gay 
as a poet, as he does on the tendency of the Beggar’s 
Gpcra. Johnfon fays tliat “ Gay was a poet of tlie lowtr 
order ; that he had in no degree the mens divinior, or dig¬ 
nity of genius.” Mr. Coxe will not allow this to be a 
fairappreciation of Gay’s poetical merit. He judly ob- 
ferves that ‘Though Gay cannot be chided among the 
liighed ranks in the temple of fame, yet he certainly does 
not deferve to be placed in the lowed order.—Although 
he did not attempt to excel in the higher fliglits of po¬ 
etry, yet many palfages in his Poems prove, that he was 
capable of uniting elevation of fentiment with correfpond- 
ing dignity of language.—His chief aim was to pleale, 
rather than to furprife ; and it may be judly remarked, 
that lew poets ever wrote with more fuccefs on a greater 
variety of lnbje6ts than Gay ;—Tragedy, Comedy, 
Operas, Fables, Ballads, Moral, Epic, Rudic, Town 
Eclogues, Padorals, and Poetical Epidles.—Next to 
Pope, perhaps, he is the Englidi poet w’ho mod excelled 
in fmoothnefs of verfification, correCtnefs, felicity of dic¬ 
tion, and in the purity of the rhymes; and none ever 
furpaded him in expreding dmple thoughts in an appro¬ 
priate manner.—That he was a mod excellent cladical 
I'cholar, is proved from his works ; for no poet ever more 
frequently or more happily imitated the clalfics. He 
was no lefs converfant with the Italian poets, whom he 
imitated with equal felicity.—As a writer of Fables, 
Gay dands in a pre-eminent dtuation ; the difficulty of 
this fpecies of compodtion is fudiciently evident from 
the fmall number of writers who have excelled in Fa¬ 
bles.—Since the asra of letters to the time of Gav, 
fcarcely five authors can be mentioned, who deferve pe¬ 
culiar notice : -^fop, Phaedrus, Pilpay, and Fontaine; 
and of thefe only Phmdrus and Fontaine wrote inverfe.’ 
—Gay did not undoubtedly polfel's either the elegant 
brevity of Phaedrus, or the captivating naivete of La 
F'ontaine ; yet he difplays more originality of invention 
than even Plnedrus or La Fontaine. Their dories were 
modly taken from preceding authors; his, with a few 
exceptions, are entirely his own.—-Liis language is a mo¬ 
del for this fpecies of compodtion ; feldom above or be¬ 
low the fubjedt : it is poetical without being too eleva¬ 
ted ; and familiar without being low.—Of his Fables- 
may be faid, what Gay obferves of Gulli-ver’s Travels : 
•—“ From the highed to the lowed this book is univer- 
fally read, from the cabinet council to the nurfery.”— 
And to him may be applied what La Harpe faid of Fon¬ 
taine ; that “ he was at the fame time the poet of chil¬ 
dren, and the poet of philofophers.” 
GAY-HEAD, a peninfula on Martha’s Vineyard, in 
North America, four miles in length and two in breadth,, 
and almod fepanited from the other part of the illandby 
a large pond. The Indians inhabiting this part, when' 
lately numbered, amounted” to only 303. The foil is 
G A Z 283 
good, and only requires cultivation to produce mod 
vegetables in perfetlion. There are evident marks of 
there having been volcanoes formerly on this peninfula. 
7 'he mouths of four or five craters are plainly to be feen. 
The mod foutherly and probably the mod ancient, as 
it is grown over with grafs, now called the Devil’s Den, 
is at lead twenty rods over at the top, fourteen and a 
half at the bottom, and full 130feet at the fides, except 
that which is next the fea, where it is open. It is faid 
that ved'els ufed to. guide themfelves in the night by the 
lights that were burning upon Gay-head. The fea has 
made fuch encroachments here, that, within thirty years, 
it has fwept off twenty rods of land. The extremity oi 
Gay Head is the fouth-wed point of the Vineyard, 
Lat. 41. 20. N. Ion. 70. 50. "W. Greenwich. 
G AY'A, a town of Moravia, in the circle of Hradlfch: 
ten miles north-wed ofStrafnitz. 
GAYFf'TA, a town of Spain, in the province of Va- 
lentia : thirty miles from Valcntia. 
GAY'ETY,/. \_gayete,V\'.ivomgay.'] Cheerfulnefs; 
airinefs; merriment; aCts of juvenile pleafure : 
And from thofe gayeties our youth requires 
To exercife their minds, our age retires. Denham. 
Finery ; diow ; 
Owr gayety and our guilt are all befmirch’d. 
With rainy marching in the painful field. Shahefpeare. 
GAY'LY, adv. Merrily; cheerfully; airily. Splen¬ 
didly; pompoufly ; with great lliow: 
The ladies, gayly drefs’d, the Mall adorn 
With curious dies, and paint the funny morn. Gay. 
Like fome fair flow’r, that early fpring fupplies. 
That gayly blooms, but ev’n in blooming dies. Pope. 
GAY'NESS, y. [from g<2>'.] Gayety; finery. Not 
much in ufe. 
GAZ. See Gas. 
GA'ZA or Az'za, a city of the Philidines, and the 
capital of the lorddiip of the Gazathites or Gazites;. 
this city and its dependencies were a part of the original 
conqued of the Ifraelites, and reckoned in the tribe of 
Judah, it being taken, together withAlkelon and Ekron, 
by that tribe; a part of the Anakims having flieltered 
themfelves there after their expulfionfrom C.maan. It 
was again in the poil'efiion of the Philidines when Samfon 
appeared ; who when confined by them in this place, 
eluded their purpofe of putting him to death by carry¬ 
ing off its gates, &c. here alfo happened the event that 
terminated Samfon’s life. It was I'mitten by the king of 
Egypt in the days of Jeremiah, and in the Maccabean 
wars this place is frequently mentioned ; as when Jona¬ 
than being denied admittance, laid fiege to it and burned 
its fuburbs, after which they treated with him, giving 
hodages of thefons of the chief man of the city ; it was 
however foon after entirely fubdued by Simon the fuc- 
celfor of Judas, who difplaced its refraftory inhabitants 
and dwelt there with his followers. Gen. x. 19. Jodi. xi.. 
22. . 47. Judges i. 18. xvi. i Macc. xi. 61. 62. xiii, 
43. ■&c. 
GA'ZA or Ada'sa, a city of Pale dine, fituated in the 
tribe of Ephraim, upon the borders of that province, 
being a day’s journey from Gafera; here Judas Macca¬ 
beus encamped previous to the battle wlierein he over¬ 
came Nicanor. I Chron. vii. 28. i Macc. vii. 40. 45. 
GA'ZA, a town of Afia, in Paledine, about a mile 
from the Mediterranean fea, formerly a magnificent 
city, and drorigly fortified ; it is now much reduced from 
its ancient grandeur, and hardly contains two thoufand 
inhabitants. The environs are exceedingly fertile, and 
produce, without art, pomegranates, oranges, dates, and 
flowers, in great requed even at Condantinople. Here 
is amanufa6lure of cotton, which employs five hundred 
looms in the town and neighbourhood; there are like- 
wife great quantities of alhes made by the Arabs,, and 
ufed 
