The Beggar's Opera

by John Gay, 1stworld Library (Editor)

Overview

BEGGAR. If Poverty be a Title to Poetry, I am sure no-body can dispute mine. I own myself of the Company of Beggars; and I make one at their Weekly Festivals at St. Giles's. I have a small Yearly Salary for my Catches, and am welcome to a Dinner there whenever I please, which is more than most Poets can say. PLAYER. As we live by the Muses, it is but Gratitude in us to encourage Poetical Merit wherever we find it. The Muses, contrary to all other Ladies, pay no Distinction to Dress, and never partially mistake the Pertness of Embroidery for Wit, nor the Modesty of Want for Dulness. Be the Author who he will, we push his Play as far as it will go. So (though you are in Want) I wish you success heartily.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421809656
Publisher:	1st World Library
Publication date:	02/20/2006
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Born in Devon in 1685, John Gay was apprentice to a silk mercer in London for a short time but returned to his family and began to write verse. The Shepherd's Week (1714) was the first to demonstrate his ability. He became known to Alexander Pope and the Scriblerus circle then forming, and with Pope and Arbuthnot wrote the satire Three Hours after Marriage, first performed in 1717. With the income from his Poems he invested in the South Sea and lost a great deal of money, but in 1727 he published Fables, which were very popular and fifty editions of them appeared by 1800, assuring his reputation as a poet. Seeking a regular income, Gay became secreatry to the Duchess of Monmouth in 1712 and was helped by various patrons, becoming an inmate in the household of the Duke of Queensberry, whose wife was his particular champion. His real success came in 1728 with The Beggar's Opera, a political satire and a serious statement about human nature. This was followed by Polly, which was banned by Walpole and became a financial success for Gay. Gay also wrote librettos for Handel's Acis and Galatea and Achilles. A popular and genial man, Gay was always beset by financial difficulties and died in 1732. He is buried in Westminster Abbey beneath his own epitaph: "Life is a jest and all things show it, / I thought it once, and now I know it."

Editorial Reviews

...with Ilona Sekacz's complete musical overhaul, [Caird] raises the dramatic fever of the score to match Gay's wonderfully savage and scabrous script.

Observer (London)

Fresh as milk, horny as hell, a dream, a nightmare, a cross-section of an ant hill, John Gay's BEGGAR'S OPERA is like life. It is beautiful, it is there, and it goes on. And, in John Caird's sensationally seductive production you never want it to end...Here's variety before the word was invented.

Midweek Magazine

THE BEGGAR'S OPERA...is obviously full of zest and fascination...There is so much life and vigour in the whole thing...It was absolutely spell-binding...

Oxford Magazine

Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs.” —Plays International

From the Publisher

Offers a useful performance history of the satirical ballad-opera...the New Mermaids [edition] includes music as well as words for the songs.

Plays International