URPoint Details
John Gay, born 30 June 1685 in Barnstaple was an English poet and dramatist, and best remembered for ‘The Beggar's Opera’ written in three acts in 1728.
He died 4 December 1732, and is buried in Westminster Abbey. The epitaph on his tomb by Pope, and is followed by Gay's own mocking couplet:
Life is a jest, and all things show it, I thought so once, and now I know it.
- Type:
- Famous Locals
Map Location
Barnstaple