The Distress’d Wife. A Comedy

Remembered today mainly for his 1728 work The Beggar's Opera, John Gay also authored such delightful works as Trivia; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London. Upon his death in 1732, he was buried in Westminster Abbey with an epitaph written by Alexander Pope. Gay had, however, already penned an epitaph for himself - one presumably considered unsuitable for the sanctity of Westminster: "Life's a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once, but now I know it."