Alexander Pope wrote these lines for his friend John Gay, the poet and playwright, shortly after Gay’s death in 1732. The epitaph gently catalogues Gay’s finest qualities: a mild, gentle manner, a sharp wit that could delight and yet sting the age’s follies, and a childlike simplicity mixed with moral fire. Pope admires his friend’s integrity — Gay remained uncorrupted whether he had very little or mixed with the powerful. He was a safe, easy companion, leaving no blame behind him. The mood isn’t heavy grief but warm, heartfelt respect. The real twist comes at the end. Pope dismisses the traditional consolations of a grand burial among monarchs and heroes in Westminster Abbey. Instead, the true honour, he says, will be the quiet, pensive reaction of decent people who, touching their hearts, will simply say, “Here lies Gay.” That leaves us with a tender, almost intimate sense of loss, where the only monument that matters is the silent recognition of a life lived honestly.
Epitaph. on Mr Gay, in Westminster Abbey, 1732. — Summary
Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit, a man; simplicity, a child: With native humour tempering virtuous rage, Form'd to delight at once and lash the age: Above temptation in a low estate, And uncorrupted, even among the great: A safe companion, and an easy friend, Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. These are thy honours! not that here thy bust Is mix'd with heroes, or with kings thy dust; But that the worthy and the good shall say, Striking their pensive bosoms--Here lies Gay.