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John Gay
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Biography
John Gay (b. Barnstaple, Devon, 1685) was an English poet and playwright. Hugely successful in his own time, he is now best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1928), a ballad opera satirizing the then Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. The Beggar's Opera, and its sequel Polly, earned Gay fame, infamy and a healthy fortune. After his death at the age of47, he was buried in Westminster Abbey.