The Beggar's Opera (Penguin Classics) by John Gay
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Book Summary Author: John Gay Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 1987-01-06 ISBN: 0140432205 Number of pages: 128 Publisher: Penguin Classics |
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Book Reviews of the The Beggar's Opera (Penguin Classics)
Customer Review: A delicious romp
Summary: 5 Stars
Life is a jest; and all things show it, I thought so once; but now I know it. - John Gay's epitaph As we sit here, nearly 300 years removed from the debut of The Beggar's Opera, it's hard to recapture the effect that it had on the England of 1728. So look at it this way, John Gay was the Sex Pistols of his day and The Beggar's Opera hit London like Never Mind the Bollocks.... Since Italian opera had first come to London in 1705, it had dominated the British stage. Replete with ornate sets, elaborate costumes, unintelligible plots and imported sopranos and castrati, it was less art than event. Audiences attended to share in the spectacle, as chariots swooped through the air & romantic tales unfolded on stage. Into this artificial world, Gay unleashed an opera about the scum of London society, set in taverns and thieves' dens. He tells the story of Peachum, a fence with a lucrative sideline in informing on fellow criminals. His daughter Polly has secretly married MacHeath, a highwayman. Now Peachum and his "wife" fear that MacHeath will inform on them & inherit their loot when they are hanged. After berating Polly for marrying, & not having sense enough to live out of wedlock, they decide to turn MacHeath in, before he can turn them in. As Peachum prepares his daughter for this turn of events he tells her: "The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits. Where is the woman who would scruple to be a wife, if she had it in her power to be a widow whenever she pleased?" However, to the Peachum's disgust, Polly is actually in love with MacHeath and so, to her great surprise, are several other women, including Lucy Lockit who helps him to escape from prison. So, the stage is set for a madcap farce. Mix in a satiric look at the corrupt administration of justice, some political jabs at the political master of the day, Sir Robert Walpole and songs like the following:
A fox may steal your hens, sir A whore your health and pence, sir, Your daughter rob your chest, sir Your wife may steal your rest, sir, A thief your goods and plate. But this is all but picking, With rest, pence, chest and chicken; It ever was decreed, sir, If lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir, He steals your whole estate.
and you've got Gay's recipe for what quickly became the most popular play of the 18th Century, fathering myriad imitations including Brecht's Threepenny Opera. A delicious romp. GRADE: A