His chief works are _Rural Sports_ (1713), written in the heroic couplet, and resembling Pope’s _Pastorals, The Shepherd’s Week_ (1714), and _What d’Ye Call it?_ (1715), a pastoral farce. _Trivia, or The Art of Walking the Streets of London_ (1715) is a witty parody of the heroic style, and it contains bright descriptions of London streets; then came two plays, _Acis and Galatea_ and _The Beggar’s Opera_ (1728). This last play had a great success, which has lasted to the present day. It became the rage, and ran for sixty-two performances. It deserved its success, for it contains some pretty songs and much genuine though boisterous humor. Gay had the real lyrical gift, which was all the more valuable considering the age he lived in. His ballad _Black-eyed Susan_ is still popular. =3. Edward Young (1683–1765).= Young had a long life, and produced a large amount of literary work of variable quality. He was born in Hampshire, went to Oxford, and late in life (about 1730) entered the Church. He lived much in retirement, though in his later years he received a public appointment. His major works are _The Last Day_ (1713) and _The Force of Religion_ (1714), which are moralizings written in the heroic couplet; _The Love of Fame_ (1724), which shows an advance in the use of the couplet; and a poem in blank verse, _The Complaint, or Night Thoughts_ (1742). This last poem, which was inspired by the death of his wife, had a great and long-enduring popularity, which has now vanished. Like Young’s other poems, it shows some power of expression and somber satisfaction at his own misery. In the history of literature it is of some consequence, for the blank verse is of considerable strength, and as a reaction against the dominance of the couplet its value is undeniable. =4. Sir Samuel Garth (1661–1719).= Garth was an older man than most of the other poets mentioned in this chapter. He was a popular physician, assisted Pope in the young man’s first efforts, and was knighted when George I ascended the throne. _The Dispensary_, published in 1699, is the one work which gives him his place. It deals with a long-defunct squabble between physicians and apothecaries, and its importance is due to its being written in a kind of heroic couplet that is a link in style between Dryden and Pope. =5. Richard Savage (1697–1743).= Savage’s melancholy fate, and his early friendship with Johnson, have given him a prominence that he scarcely deserves. He was born in London, and, according to his own story, was the child of Richard Savage, Earl Rivers. Savage passed his youth in miserable circumstances, took to hack-work with the publishers, besotted himself with drink and debauchery, and died in a debtor’s prison in Bristol.