He was made comfortable by various patrons; the Duchess of Queensberry petted him in his later years, and the duke kept his money for him.

His friends chose to make a grievance of the neglect of Government to add to his comfort by a good place; they encouraged him to refuse the only place offered as not sufficiently dignified; and he even became something of a martyr when his _Polly_, a sequel to the _Beggars' Opera_, was prohibited by the Lord Chamberlain, and a good subscription made him ample amends.

Pope has immortalized the complaint by lamenting the fate of "neglected genius" in the Epistle to Arbuthnot, and declaring that the "sole return" of all Gay's "blameless life" was My verse and Queensberry weeping o'er thy urn.
Pope's alliance with Gay had various results.

Gay continued the war with Ambrose Philips by writing burlesque pastorals, of which Johnson truly says that they show "the effect of reality and truth, even when the intention was to show them grovelling and degraded." They may still be glanced at with pleasure.

Soon after the publication of the mock pastorals, the two friends, in company with Arbuthnot, had made an adventure more in the spirit of the Scriblerus Club.