Quarto. Two volumes bound as one. [10], 268pp, [6], [271]-546pp. Pages 104, 242, 377, 378 misnumbered 102, 422, 363, 368 respectively. Title page in red and black. With a preliminary list of subscribers and errata slip, but without the three plates originally issued with this work. Contemporary gilt-tooled half-calf, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece. Worn, with surface wear to boards, upper joint split, small losses to head and foot of spine. Marbled endpapers. Slight worming to lower margins of Vol. II. at end. Light scattered spotting throughout.

The first edition of a selection of poetry by English poet and dramatist John Gay (1685-1732), best known for his ballad opera, The Beggar's Opera (1728). Gay wrote fables for the six-year old Prince William in 1727, and was even be offered the situation of gentleman-usher to the Princess Louisa, which he declined. A subscription edition, the compilation of the work was encouraged by Alexander Pope during a time of financial strife for Gay, recalling that 'cabals were formed our Johnny's debts to clear'. Gay's connections amongst the literary elite led to several generous donors requesting as many as fifty copies in an effort to mitigate his money troubles, among them Robert and Horace Walpole. Poems by Gay first found in Poems on Several Occasions include his 'Epistles' to William Pulteney and to Paul Methuen and the quaint sea shanty 'Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Ey'd Susan'.