a tale of greed, sex, and corruption

Orphaned at age 10, raised by his uncle, Reverend John Hammer

Apprenticed to a silk merchant after his elementary education

Hated the work, obtained his freedom & began to write poetry.

Looked for court patronage, held several posts sponsored by Aristocrats but never stayed long at any of these

John Gay's Early Life

Hogarth An Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scene (1721)

South Sea Bubble

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January March September

Price

Isaac Newton

He sold his £7,000 of stock in April for a profit of 100 percent. But something induced him to reenter the market at the top, and he lost £20,000. "I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies," he said, "but not the madness of people."

John Gay

Bragged to friends that he was set for life with his £20,000, but then he lost

everything.

How goes the Stock, becomes the gen'ral Cry.

Rather than fail we'll at Nine Hundred Buy. Instead of Scandal, how goes Stock's the

Tone, Ev'n Wit and Beauty are quite useless grown: No Ships unload, no Looms at Work we see,

But all are swallow'd by the damn'd South

Sea.

Alexander Pope

Gay lived with various friends, including Alexander Pope and

Jonathan Swift. In fact, he wrote Beggar's Opera while staying at

Pope's estate, Twickenham.

Scriblerus Club

The Beggar's Opera

1716—Swift wrote Pope asking him what he thought of Gay creating a "Newgate pastoral, among the whores and thieves there"

1727 Voltaire says "it will either take greatly or be damned confoundedly."

Original production on 29 January 1728

62 performances its first season—a record

Performed more often than any play in the 18th century

A favorite of George Washington

Gay Creates Completely New Form– the ballad opera

Considered source of modern musical comedy

Followed by lots of imitations; Brecht's The Threepenny Opera (1928)

Anti-opera with English and Irish folksongs replacing Italian arias,Set in the alehouse and prison, not palace and enchanted island, thieves & prostitutes (the London underworld) replace heroes and goddesses; satire

Mocks formality of opera, imported entertainment, opting for a specifically English form (Handel's music)

The weekly paper The Craftsman wrote, "This Week a Dramatick Entertainment has been exhibited at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, entitled the Beggar's Opera, which has met with a very general Applause, insomuch that the Waggs say it hath made Rich very Gay, and probably will make Gay very Rich."

The Alehouse or chophouse

Prostitution

By the end of the 18th century, the number of prostitutes in London estimated to be 57,500 or 4.5% of the total population!! "Their business is so far from being considered as unlawful that the list of those who are in any way eminent in this profession is publicly cried about in the streets: the list which is very numerous, points out their places of abode, and gives . . .the several qualifications for which they are remarkable."

Gin

By 1750, 1 house in 4 estimated to be a gin house (including brothels and

places where stolen goods received).

Some gin house signs advertised "A penny to get drunk, two pennies to

get dead drunk, fresh straw for free".

Hogarth's Gin Lane

Hogarth's Beer Street

Jonathan Wild

Controlled his band of thieves by informing on some, collecting £40 each. 1714-1724, he informed on 120-150 people.

Advertised in newspaper telling anyone who had been robbed to come to his "Lost Property Office" in the Old Bailey. He would charge 1/3 to ½ the value as a finder's fee. The victim would describe the iItem and return a few days later when an anonymous hand would come out of a hole in the wall to return the property (Wild never technically received the stolen goods!).

Henry Fielding described London Slum life "the whole appears as a vast wood or forest, in which a thief may harbor with as great security as wild beasts do in the deserts of Africa or Arabia."

Others said "several people of the most notorious characters and infamously wicked lives and conversation have of late years taken up their abode in the parish. There are frequent outcries in the night, fighting, robberies, and all sorts of debaucheries committed by them all night long."

"A gentleman cannot walk 50 yards without risking his life twice."

18th century Law "Enforcement"

Every permanent official in the London administration had to buy his office. For example, the keeper of Newgate prison paid £5000 ($100,000) for his job. These officials felt entitled to recoup their investment!

Law enforcement shared by Justices of the Peace, their officeers the Constables, High Constables, Beadles, and the Watch, King's messengers, undersheriffs, City Marshalls.

Robert Walpole

British Prime Minister lampooned in Beggar's

Opera. Charged with enriching himself at

country's expense. Known for his womanizing.

Opposition papers called him "Bob Booty."

Everyone in the theatre knew he was the butt

of the jokes.

Polly, the Sequel

Walpole determined not to see himself as butt of new jokes on stageSo he prevented the performance.

Published by subscription with Duchess of Queensbury's help, leading to her own banishment from court.

Polly goes to West Indies to look for MacHeath who has been Banished from England and has assumed identity of a black pirate, Morano. Macheath is executed befor ethe reunion by other pirates, Settlers, and native Americans he has attacked. Polly is left at the Curtain to marry Indian prince Cawakkee & her grief subsides.