The Beggars Opera: The First Musical

A Brief Summary
Polly Peachum falls in love with and marries the womanizing1 highwayman2,
Captain Macheath.
Unfortunately, Thomas Peachum and his common-law wife, Pollys parents3, oppose
the marriage.
Thomas is both a fence4 and at the same time a thief- taker5 and he decides to destroy
Macheath.
He has him arrested6 and sent to Newgate Prison.
There the gaoler7s daughter, Lucy Locket, who is pregnant by Macheath, engineers his
escape.
However, Macheath is recaptured and condemned to the gallows8.
Nevertheless, before the execution can take place, the beggar-playwright intervenes to
give the play a false happy ending, in accordance with contemporary tastes.
Metatheatre: drama about drama
The Genesis of John Gays Musical
The Beggars Opera is the only English-language play from 1701 to 1770 that has stood
the test of time9.
The play does build on certain elements of Restoration Comedy.
- for example, the veneer of civility between Polly and Lucy (who hopes to poison
Polly) could be straight out of Congreves The Way of the World (1700).
While Gays play was certainly written in a theatrical desert, it is nonetheless10 a great
play, which is still regularly performed by repertoire companies.

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womanizing philandering, Casanova-like

highwayman robber, bandit
ones parents ones mother and father
fence sb. who illegally sells stolen property
thief-taker (historical) type of bounty hunter, sb. who received compensation for capturing delinquents
to have sb. arrested organize s.os detention
gaoler jailor, prison guard
the gallows execution by hanging
to stand the test of time (stand-stood-stood) continue to be popular
nonetheless despite this, even so

Real-Life Rogues11
John Gay (1685-1732) based Peachum on Jonathan Wild (1683-1725), a real-life
fence-cum-thief-taker12.
Between 1712 and 1725 Wild amassed a fortune by returning stolen goods13 to their
owners (for a commission) and by informing on14 rival criminals15.
He sent over 60 thieves16 to the gallows9 during this period, before ending up17 there
himself.
Wild was known to be a meticulous accounts keeper.
Macheath represents Jack Sheppard, a gallant burglar18 condemned by Wild, who
escaped from prison a couple of times before being finally hanged.
At the same time he also represents the chief officers of the South-Sea Company19,
who were sacrificed by the Whig20 Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.
John Gay had lost the money he had earned from his collected poems when the SouthSea Bubble21 burst22.
The play is also an attack on the royal court:
- for 14 years Gay tried to earn a place at the court first of George I and then of George
II.
- Finally, in 1727 Gay was offered the post of Gentleman-Usher to Princess Louisa.
Given that the girl was two years old at the time, Gay took this as an insult and turned
the post down.
The Beggars Opera reflects Gays belief that the royal court rewarded hypocrisy and
moral bankruptcy rather than virtue and talent.

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rogue villain, criminal

fence-cum-thief-taker sb. who is both a fence4 and a thief-taker5
goods belongings, possessions, property
to inform on sb. report sb. to the police
criminal (false friend) delinquent
thief (plural thieves) robber
to end up (in this case) be executed
burglar sb. who robs from homes and offices
a speculative venture (= business) which went bankrupt in 1720, seriously debilitating the British economy.
the Whigs (who in the end became the Liberal Party) represented business and commercial interests
bubble (in this case) cycle of speculatively inflated prices
to burst (burst-burst-burst) collapse

Satirizing Opera & Politics

The Beggars Opera (1728) was part of a great wave of satire in Britain in the 1720s and
it is no coincidence that it appeared almost simultaneously with
Swifts Gullivers Travels (1726) and
Popes The Dunciad (1728).
The three friends and literary giants of their age were all Tories 23 under a Whig
Government that was to continue well after all of them were dead (1745, 1744 and
1732).
Gay, Swift, Pope and others formed The Scriblerus Club in 1714.
The name refers to Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (published 1741),
mostly by Dr John Arbuthnot, a satire on literary incompetence.
Gay was also friends with Richard Steele.
Indeed24, the original idea for the play came from Swifts suggestion to Pope that one of
them should write a Newgate Pastoral25.
In 1726 Gay shared his home in Whitehall (London) with Swift.
There is, in fact, a direct reference to Walpole:
- one of Peachums gang26 is names as Bob Booty, which was Walpoles nickname.
Walpole went to see the play and either because he didnt get the satire or because he
didnt want to lose face called for an encore at the end of the play.
At the time the English theatre was dominated by revivals of the plays of previous
generations and literally nobody was making a living from 27 writing new plays in the
mid-1720s.
This was because
it was cheaper to revive an old play than to pay for a new one.
plays with an established reputation were almost guaranteed to succeed.
an established play wouldnt be censured, a new one might be.
theatre managers were more interested in new staging techniques and new
methods of acting.
So, it was almost insane28 that Gay chose this moment to write one of the most original
plays in the whole of English drama as a way out of29 his own bankruptcy30.
However, he had the insight31 to see that Italian operas were ripe to be satirized 32
because they were:
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the Tories (who became the Conservative Party) represented the Anglican Church hierarchy and the aristocracy
indeed (emphatic) in fact
i.e. an idyllic poem about the innocent occupants of Newgate Prison
it is useful to note that the word gang was used in Gays time to denote groups of both lowlifes and courtiers.
to make a living from (make-made-made) earn enough to survive
insane mad, crazy
a way out of a way to escape from
bankruptcy financial difficulties
insight perspicacity, intelligence
X was ripe to be satirized it was the perfect moment to satirize X

plays which were so simplistic that they could be understood in a foreign language;
productions that were so artificial that they starred33 castrati34
The fight scene between Polly and Lucy mocks
Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni,
the two leading prima donnas at the time in London.
Their rivalry was such that in 1727 they had a cat fight (scratching and pulling hair) on
stage in front of the audience!
Gay ingeniously took the tunes of popular often bawdy songs and gave them
sugary-sweet lyrics
- creating the effect of the implications of the music contradicting the lyrics.
Gay also focused on a class that had been largely ignored by dramatists up to that time,
though he knew the bourgeois audience were just as fascinated by villains as they were
by aristocrats.
The newspapers of the 1710s and 1720s were full of stories about rogues.
Even so, Gay did have some precedents to base his work on, especially the lowlife
scenes from Jacobethan drama:
Shakespeares 1 and 2 Henry IV (the scenes with Mrs Quickly, Doll Tearsheet,
Pistol and Nym)
Middleton and Rowleys The Changeling (the madhouse scenes)
The tradition could even be traced back to the fabliaux.
In any case the gamble paid off35;
The Beggars Opera was the most successful British play up to that time36
and it earned Gay the enormous sum of 800.
The plays producer John Rich earned even more.
Indeed26, it was said that The Beggars Opera made Rich gay37, and Gay rich.
Conventionally, opera focuses on high society.
By centring his musical on the criminal38 classes Gay comments that the sins39 of the
upper class40 and those of the lower classes are similar.
The difference is that the poor are punished41 for their sins.

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to star have in central roles, feature

castrati singers who had been castrated before adolescence to preserve their voices
the gamble paid off the risk was well rewarded (= compensated)
up to that time so far, until that time
gay (in this case) happy
criminal (adj.) (false friend) delinquent
sins immoral acts, (in this case) illegal acts
the upper class the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, the rich
to punish discipline, penalize

Topsy-Turvy Values
The conventional assumption in moralistic drama is that
the good end happily and the bad end unhappily42.
Gay turns all such assumptions on their head43.
The criteria44 for the plays ironic morality are those of
the thieves den45,
the brothel46 and
the prison.
The rogues11 argue, convincingly, that the rich steal to hoard47 money;
rogues do so to spend it, which is its natural purpose.
Brilliantly, Mrs Peachum (who is not officially married) chides48 her daughter for
marrying MacHeath, and so bringing public dishonour on the family, when she could
have just49 slept with him in secret!
The play brilliantly shows how society ascribes values to people according to their
gender or class, irrespective of their actions:
So, the (young) women are insistently defined as whore, hussy, strumpet and slut
in direct contradiction to all the evidence that they are constant and the men are
promiscuous.
Similarly, the poor are defined as rogues and villains when we see that the authorities
(Peachum, Locket and those they work for) are much more villainous and corrupt.
Matt of the Mint metaphorically states that,
As a bawd to a whore, I grant you, he [= Peachum] is to us of great convenience (71).
Hence, here a comparison is drawn that equates the industry of thievery to that of
prostitution.
Sexual relations are parasitic:
Men like MacHeath get women pregnant by sweet-talking them, then abandon them to
their only option: prostitution.
At the same time, prostitutes can financially ruin men, thus condemning them to
transportation.
Mrs Vixen boasts that she has sent some 30 men to the plantations (as indentured
labour) [Act II, Scene III, line 77].
42

as Miss Prism says in The Importance of Being Earnest

to turn sth. on its head reverse sth.
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criterion (plural criteria) basis
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den (in this case) hideout, safe house
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brothel house of prostitution
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to hoard collect, accumulate, amass, (opposite of use)
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to chide scold, reprimand
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just (in this case) simply
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The only characters who evolve are the two young women:
Polly learns to be less credulous and Lucy less furious.
Notice that the two young women are the only likeable characters in the play (though
Lucy does try to poison Polly).
Though there are more synonyms for whore in this play that practically any other,
Gay does not paint a negative picture of women (or, if you prefer, he paints a much
more negative one of men).
Meanwhile, the prostitutes affect the manners of high-born ladies.
Capitalism = Reification
All relations in Gays play are reified.
Peachum sees his associates in financial terms;
he also says that wives should see husbands in terms of their widow value.
MacHeath accumulates women as others accumulate money.
Locket turns the job of gaoler into that of hotelier.
The shackles scene (Act 2, Scene 7) in which Gaoler Locket sells Macheath his
shackles is a wonderful parody of a tailor/shopkeeper selling clothes and complements.
However, it also highlights the fact that it is only the poor who go to prison, not the
rich.
If I had the best gentleman in the land in my custody, I could not equip him more
handsomely.
Prisoners with sufficient finances can pay for their escape, or have the cases against
them run aground when a witness changes his/her recollection.
Money well timed, and properly applied, will do anything. (Macheath)
Criminality and the courts are simply different aspects of the same corrupt system.
The prostitutes obviously turn sex into a financial exchange.
Life has a price.
Jemmy Twitcher is even paid to get arrested prostitutes pregnant so that they can escape
from deportation.
The system, which leads to an overpopulation of unwanted prostitutes children, is selfperpetuating.

Name Games
Captain MacHeath is the womanizing1 anti-hero of the piece.
A heath is an area of wild countryside where the soil50 is too poor for crops51.
This type of place was the preferred area of operation for highwaymen2.
Peachum is a brilliant pun52. Peachum sounds like peach em (= them).
In the case of Pollys father, Thomas Peachum, to peach means to accuse (from an
aphetic abbreviation of impeach53).
Thomas Peachum is the least attractive person in a play full of villains.
He is a lawyer who fences54 stolen goods15.
Moreover, he incriminates his associates when it suits55 him.
His cynicism is of epic proportions.
He compares himself to a great statesman and the audience is meant to56 see Prime
Minister Sir Robert Walpole reflected in him.
Thomas Peachums sidekick57 is Lockit the Jailor.
The pun here is more obvious: lock it. Lockit represents Walpoles associate Lord
Townsend.
His daughter, Lucy (loose58-y?) is Pollys rival for MacHeaths love.
Ironically, however, the gaolers daughters name is based on that of a real person:
Lucy Lockit, a famous courtesan at the time of Charles II.

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soil land, earth, terrain

crops growing grain, agrarian production
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pun piece of wordplay, play on words
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to impeach indict, prosecute
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to fence illegally sell (stolen goods)
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to suit sb. be convenient/opportune for sb.
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is meant to is supposed to
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sidekick associate, subordinate
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loose (in this case) promiscuous
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The Evolution of Musicals

Under the puritanical laws of Oliver Cromwell drama was theoretically banned.
However, the ban could be circumvented if the plays
were staged in private houses, and
all their words were set to music
making theatrical productions into essentially musical events.
This created a taste for musical drama which continued after the reopening of the
theatres in 1660.
Gay enjoyed Italian opera and even wrote librettos for Handels Acis and Galatea
(performed 1732) and Achilles (performed (1733)
Gay answered the Italian opera, which was fashionable up to the opening of The
Beggars Opera, with traditional English pop(ular) songs.
Moreover, Gay disposed of recitative altogether in favour of spoken dialogue. In this
way he instantly invented the musical.

Beggars Trivia
Actress Lavinia Fenton was so popular as Polly that she had to be escorted home
every night by a considerable group of friends to prevent59 her being kidnapped60.
Gays sequel to The Beggars Opera was Polly, a more openly satirical but much less
worthy play, as Gay knew. Even here his luck held because Polly was banned by the
Lord Chamberlain (under pressure from Walpole) as seditious. As a result, according
to his own calculations, Gay earned four times as much from its publication as he
would have done from its performance.
The authorities responded to the success of The Beggars Opera and subsequent
plays of political satire with the 1737 Licencing Act, which re-imposed censorship.
The Beggars Opera prompted a surge of imitative ballad operas to be written over
the next decade. The great Handel suddenly found that the English had lost interest in
his operas. He remained out in the cold after a series of failures until he finally gave
up operas in 1741 and reinvented himself through his oratorio masterpiece Messiah
(1742).
The Beggars Opera was produced every year in London from 1728 until 1800 and it
is still regularly revived.
One Wednesday night in April 1782 a lady called Mrs Fitzherbert went to a
performance of Gays play at the Drury Lane Theatre. When the man playing Lucy
Locket appeared she started laughing. She continued throughout the performance and
all the next day. Early on Friday Mrs Fitzherbert died from her laughing fit61.
In Bretholt Brechts adaptation of Gays play, The Threepenny Opera (1928)
MacHeath is called Mack the Knife most of the time. Versions of the song, Mack
the Knife, from Brechts musical were recorded by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby,
Bill Haley, Ella Fitzgerald, The Doors, Frank Sinatra, Sting, The Psychedelic Furs,
Nick Cave and Robbie Williams.
There are two versions of The Beggars Opera available on DVD. One stars
Laurence Olivier (1954), the other stars Roger Daltrey62 and Bob Hoskins (1983).

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to prevent stop
to kidnap abduct, rapt
fit (n.) attack
singer from The Who

Major Themes
Equality
Gay's exploration of equality has an inherent irony to it, and understanding this irony is
essential to appreciating the sharpness of his satire. Both explicitly through dialogue and
implicitly through the story, Gay critiques the outright inequality between the rich and
poor.
However, what makes the work unique is that he makes incessant comparisons between
the powerful rich and the desperate poor. His basic idea is that despite social class, all
men are naturally self-interested and corrupt. The text is rife with humorous
equivalencies drawn between statesmen and criminals, lawyers and impeachers,
highwaymen and courtiers, all to suggest that inequality is due as much to how
hypocritical a man is willing to be, and not to his virtue.
Marriage
In the world of The Beggars Opera, marriage bears no resemblance to the romantic
notion of a holy union between two soulmates.
Instead, Gay continually mocks this notion, suggesting that love is more closely aligned
with lust and self-interest than with selflessness.
The closest Gay comes to representing the idealized conception is in the profuse
professions Polly and Lucy make for Macheath. However, both women are as focused
on physical intimacy as upon a transcendent union. Pollys marriage ultimately means
little to Macheath, and most characters think of it is in terms of its financial benefits,
with little thought of her emotions.
The girls notion of romantic love, so misplaced upon an obvious cad, renders the
romantic ideal ludicrous.
For the rest of the characters, a womans only use for marriage is financial security
-resting on the hotly-anticipated death of the male spouse, from whom she might inherit.
Freedom of sexual expression is also put forward as a potential benefit of marriage, far
different again from the romantic notion of monogamy. Once married, a wifes
reputation is vouchsafed by her husband. She may thus act with impunity, according to
her whim. All of these representations were unique in the time period, and helped to
make Gays work so transgressive.

Friendship
There are myriad instances of friendship in the opera, although none of them conform to
the ideal notion of a selfless affection for another. Instead, most characters are quick to
betray even the most seemingly profound of relationships. As a virtue, friendship is
espoused by:
Peachum for Lockit (and vice versa);
the highwaymen for each other;
the harem of prostitutes for one other;
Mrs. Peachum for her favorite gang members; and even
Lucy for Polly.
In each case, though, the affection proves at best a transitory kind of fidelity, dictated
utterly by self-interest. The highwaymen congratulate themselves on their valiant
allegiance and dedication to one another, but in the next moment conspire to befriend
unsuspecting victims about the town in order to rob them.
Mrs. Peachum inquires after the wellbeing of her favorite gang members, extolling their
virtues, but quickly drops her concern upon discovering that her husband has chosen
them for the current sessions impeachment.
For Peachum and Lockit, as for Lucy and Polly, friendship is a self-consciously
insincere tool. Peachum and Lockit are business partners and self-proclaimed friends,
yet each man seeks to cheat the other. Lucy offers a conciliatory glass of cordial to Polly
in seeking to forgive the past and forge a future friendship... and the cordial is poisoned.
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is arguably Gays most significant target in the opera. Both implicitly and
explicitly, he mocks the way that statesmen reach great heights not through virtue, but
through their hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy defines each and every character, action
and employment, suggesting it is an inherent, inescapable human quality. Gays lyrics
are the best place to find witty articulations of his times hypocrisy. When Peachum
expresses the view that it might be reasonable to consider their line of work dishonest,
Lockit responds with a display of indignation, singing:
When you censure the age
Be cautious and sage,
Lest the courtiers offended should be;
If you mention vice or bribe,
Tis so pat to all the tribe;
Each criesThat was levelld at me. (p. 42)
Lockits sentiment encapsulates the simple truth that there is falseness in every heart,
verified by the indignation of its denial.

Live for Today

The criminal mindset is greatly bolstered by the view that tomorrow may never come. It
is not just criminals who use such reasoning to justify morally ambiguous actions, of
course.
Instead, Gay suggests that we all encounter situations where we compromise ourselves
for the sake of momentary gratification. (Consider the scene between Lucy and Polly.)
The morally bankrupt characters of The Beggars Opera, however, take a sanguine view
of the matter: The noose is in everyones future.
Thus, let us live for today. While Gay does not explicitly comment on living ones life
through this philosophy, he does implicitly suggest that it is a natural human
rationalization.
In any case the rogues are not immoral, simply amoral.
For instance, Peachum does not betray his employees out of cruelty, but simply as a
matter of mathematics.
Morality is a luxury available only to those that can afford it.
The Law
There is no question that the profession receiving the worst review in The Beggars
Opera is law enforcement. The officers of the Court are bribable men who regularly
suppress evidence in criminal prosecution for the right price. Quite explicitly, justice is
for sale, and a malleable concept at best.
Worst of all are the lawyers, repeatedly invoked throughout the play as the prime
example of those who profit by the vice of others. One day they protect the unsavory;
the next, they prosecute them. It all depends on the price. If anything serves as an
immovable law in The Beggar's Opera, is the natural law of human selfishness.
Self-Awareness
The characters in The Beggars Opera are prone to a philosophical defensiveness
against their own dishonesty. It is as though they are aware of and armed against the
audiences gaze.
This defensiveness utilizes deflection: the characters often confess their own moral
failings or treachery, but then divert the attack to their social betters.
If murder is wrong, for example, then look to the gentlemen who have the money to
employ assassins or pay off the police.
If Macheath has a gambling problem, blame the gentlemen at the same table, whose
educations prepare them more properly for the games and whose pocketbooks may
more easily take a hit.
Gay implicitly suggests in his play that we would all do better to look closely at
ourselves, rather than to define ourselves by others - since others will naturally and
regularly give us much occasion to defend our own vices and failures.