choose between the speech of Polly and the speech of Lucy. But in respect of the essentials of drama the dialogue of the _Beggars' Opera_ is on the whole sufficient. The personages are puppets; but they are individual, and they are fairly consistent in their individuality. Miss Lockit does not think and feel like Miss Diver; Macheath is distinguishable from Peachum; none is exactly alive, but of stage life ail have their share. The reverse of this is the case with the personages of the _Fables_. They think the thoughts and speak the speech of Mr. Gay. The elephant has the voice of the sparrow; the monkey is one with the organ on which he sits; there is but a difference of name between the eagle and the hog; the talk of Death has exactly the manner and weight and cadence of the Woodman's; a change of label would enable the lion to change places with the spaniel, would suffice to cage the wolf as a bird and set free the parrot as a beast of prey. All are equally pert, brisk, and dapper in expression; all are equally sententious and smart in aim; all are absolutely identical in function and effect. The whole gathering is stuffed with the same straw, prepared with the same dressing, ticketed in the same handwriting, and painted with the same colours. Any one who remembers the infinite variety of La Fontaine will feel that Gay the fabulist is a writer whose work the world has let die very willingly indeed. The Moralist. And Gay is not a whit less inefficient as a moralist. He is a kindly soul, and in his easygoing way he has learnt something of the tricks of the world and something of the hearts of men. He writes as an unsuccessful courtier; and in that capacity he has remarks to offer which are not always valueless, and in which there is sometimes a certain shrewdness. But the unsuccessful courtier is on the whole a creature of the past. Such interest as he has is rather historical than actual; and neither in the nursery nor in the schoolroom is he likely to create any excitement or be received with any enthusiasm. To the world he can only recommend himself as one anxious to make it known on the smallest provocation and on any occasion or none that Queen Anne is dead. Open him where you will, and you find him full of this important news and determined on imparting it. Thus, in _The Scold and the Parrot_: 'One slander must ten thousand get, The world with int'rest pays the debt'; that is to say, Queen Anne is dead. Thus, too, in _The Persian_, _the Sun_, _and the Cloud_: 'The gale arose; the vapour tost (The sport of winds) in air was lost; The glorious orb the day refines. Thus envy breaks, thus merit shines'; in _The Goat without a Beard_: 'Coxcombs distinguished from the rest To all but coxcombs are a jest'; in _The Shepherd's Dog and the Wolf_: 'An open foe may prove a curse, But a pretended friend is worse';