As he carried it on, he showed what he wrote to both of us; and we now and then gave a correction, or a word or two of advice; but it was wholly of his own writing.

When it was done neither of us thought it would succeed.

We showed it to Congreve, who, after reading it over, said: 'It would either take greatly or be damned confoundedly."[4] Dilatory as Gay always was, he contrived to finish his opera by about the end of the year.

"John Gay's opera is just on the point of delivery," Pope wrote to Swift in January, 1728.

"It may be called, considering its subject, a jail-delivery.