1. Gay’s authorship of Acis and Galatea was first acknowledged in Handel’s London libretto of 1739 – posthumously in other words. The libretto, however, also contains contributions from other writers, especially Pope and Dryden. Pope’s description of the enraged Neptune in his translation of the Iliad inspired Gay’s chorus, ‘Wretched lovers’; and the trio is adapted from Pope’s Pastorals (‘Autumn’, lines 40–46). Dryden’s translation of the Metamorphoses was used, with one small alteration, for the dying recitative.