The Duchess of Queensberry is in Wiltshire, where she has had the small-pox in so favourable a way that she had not above seven or eight on her face; she is now perfectly recovered.
"There is a mezzotinto print published to-day of Polly, the heroine of 'The Beggar's Opera,' who was before unknown, and is now in so high vogue that I am in doubt whether her fame does not surpass that of the Opera itself."[21] * * * * * Pope and Swift were keenly interested in Gay's triumph, and in their correspondence are many references to the piece.

"Mr.Gay's Opera has been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the whole season," Pope wrote to Swift, March 23rd, 1728.

"So he has more than a fence about his thousand pounds; he will soon be thinking of a fence about his two thousand.

Shall no one of us live as we would wish each other to live?
Shall he have no annuity, you no settlement on this side, and I no prospect of getting to you on the other ?"[22] DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY.
Dublin, March 28th, 1728.
"We have your opera for sixpence, and we are as full of it _pro modulo nostro_ as London can be; continually acting, and house crammed, and the Lord-Lieutenant several times there, laughing his heart out.

I wish you had sent me a copy, as I desired to oblige an honest bookseller.