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652 GAY GAYARRE similar nature, in which he is said to have been assisted by Pope and Arbuthnot. Owing to its personality and indelicacy, his "Three Hours after Marriage " proved a decided fail- ure, and involved its author for a time in dis- grace. In 1727 his celebrated "Beggar's Op- era " was brought on the stage, and was repre- sented for 62 successive nights, four of which were for his own benefit, and yielded him nearly 700. This piece was followed by an- other opera entitled "Polly;" but the lord chamberlain forbade its representation, and Gay was constrained to publish it by subscription, by which he realized 1,100 or 1,200. The most important of his other works are " Tri- via, or the Art of Walking the Streets of Lon- don," and his "Fables," which are among the best of their kind in the language. Of his mi- nor poems, the ballads of " Black-eyed Susan" and " 'Twas when the Sea was Roaring " are the most popular. Gay was at one time rich, but he lost nearly all his property by the burst- ing of the South sea bubble. His latter days were spent in the house of the duke of Queens- berry. The prominent characteristics of his poetry are wit, simplicity, and sweetness. The best edition of his poetical works is that of W. Coxe (3 vols., London, 1797 ; 2 vols., 1806) ; the best edition of his "Fables," that of O. F. Owen (London, 1856). GAY, Marie Fran?oise Sophie, a French novel- ist, born in Paris, July 1, 1776, died March 5, 1852. She was the daughter of a French financier named Nichault de la Valette, and was married in 1793 to M. Liottier, from whom she was divorced in 1799. She then became the wife of M. Gay, receiver general of finance in the department of Roer, under the empire, and accompanied him to Aix-la-Chapelle, its capital, where she resided ten years. She was remarkable for her wit, agreeable manners, and social disposition, and her house at Aix-la- Chapelle, at Paris after her return thither, and at Versailles, where she passed the last few years of her life, was the resort of literary and fashionable society. As early as 1802 she pub- lished anonymously in the Journal de Paris an article upon Mme. de Stael, and in the same year her first novel, Laure d'Estell, which had a moderate success. In 1813 she published Leonie de Montbreuse, which is considered one of her best novels. This was succeeded in 1815 by Anatole, which narrates the loves of a deaf mute, and in 1818 by Les malheurs d'un amant lieureux, a very lively picture of manners du- ring the empire. She continued to produce novels and books of various sorts until a few years before her death, among them Les souve- nirs (Tune vieille femme, a piquant abstract of her personal memoirs. She wrote unsuccess- fully for the stage. GAYA, a town of Bengal, British India, in the district of Behar, 265 m. N. W. of Calcutta ; pop. about 40,000. It consists of two parts, the old town, in which the Brahmans reside, and the new town, inhabited by the secular population and Europeans. The old town is well built, but the streets are narrow, filthy, and hardly passable. There are numerous shrines and places of pilgrimage, visited by devotees from all parts of India. The Phalgu, a tributary of the Ganges, flows through the town, and is deemed a sacred stream. The most revered structure here is the temple of Vishnu, erected by a Mahratta princess, 82 ft. in length, and crowned by an octagonal pyramid more than 100 ft. high. In the im- mediate vicinity are the ruins of Budclha- Gaya, supposed to have been the scene of the birth of Buddha, whence the sanctity of the existing town is derived. The new town has wide and straight streets, with a row of trees and foot walks on each side ; but the houses for the most part are mere mud-built huts. GAYANGOS, Pascual de, a Spanish orientalist, ' born June 21, 1809. He studied at Paris under Sylvestre de Sacy, travelled through northern Africa in 1828, married an English lady at Algiers, and was from 1831 to 1836 interpreter to the ministry of foreign affairs in Paris. He afterward resided several years in England. He translated into English Al-Makkari's " His- tory of the Mohammedan Dynasties of Spain " (2 vols. 4to, London, 1840-'43). Prescott was indebted to Gayangos for materials for his his- torical works. In 1843 he was appointed pro- fessor of Arabic in the university of Madrid. He made with H. Vedia a Spanish translation of Ticknor's " History of Spanish Literature," to which he added copious notes (Madrid, 1851-'6). Among his other publications are critical editions of the Gran conquista de Ul- tramar, of the Libros de caballeria, and of the Escritores en prosa anterior es al siglo XV. His most recent works are Cartas del cardinal Cisneros (Madrid, 1867), and Cartas y relacio- nes de Hernan Cortes al emperador Carlos V. (Paris, 1870). GAYARRE, Charles, an American historian, born in Louisiana, Jan. 9, 1805. He was edu- cated at the college of New Orleans. In 1825, the draft of a criminal code having been laid before the state legislature by Edward Living- ston, Gayarre published a pamphlet in which some of its provisions were ably canvassed. He studied law at Philadelphia, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and returned to New Or- leans. An Essai historique sur la Louisiane (2 vols. 12mo), which he published at that time, attracted attention, and he was soon elected to the state legislature. The next year he was appointed deputy attorney general of the state, and in 1833 presiding judge of the city court of New Orleans. In 1835 he was elected to the United States senate, but im- paired health prevented his taking his seat, and he went to Europe, where he remained for nearly eight years. In 1844 he again entered the state legislature, and was reflected in 1846. He was appointed secretary of state, and retained the office for seven years, after which he retired from public life. His histori-