The What D'Ye Call It

About the show

The What D'Ye Call It is a 1715 farce by the British writer John Gay. It was written as a parody of tragic plays, with particular reference to Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd. It was originally performed as an afterpiece with Nicholas Rowe's tragedy Jane Shore at Drury Lane, the cast including Benjamin Johnson, Henry Norris, Richard Cross, James Quin and Elizabeth Younger and Margaret Bicknell. This was followed by a command performance the next night attended by George, Prince of Wales, possibly due to the influence of Gay's friend Henrietta Howard. A hit, by the end of the season it had been performed seventeen times. It was revived frequently during the eighteenth century and is Gay's second most performed work after The Beggar's Opera. It features a ballad "'Twas When the Seas Were Roaring" (also known as "The Meloncholy Nymph") to music written by George Frideric Handel which achieved popularity in its own right and was soon on sale as a song sheet. Gay and Handel collaborated subsequently on Acis and Galatea (1718).