The Beggars Opera

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA

Macheath, Peachum, and Lockit, these are just some of the players in the 1728 ballad opera called The Beggar’s Opera. The Beggar’s Opera was the first real English ballad opera and, by almost any measure, the most popular English theater work of the eighteenth century. Of course you can’t read about the Beggar’s opera, without reading about the man who created such a brilliant satire.
On September 16, 1685, during the reign of Charles II, a man by the name of John Gay was born. Although an orphan until the age of ten, his kind uncle raised and schooled Gay throughout his life. As he became older, Gay became a mercer, which he disliked very much. In 1712, Gay became the secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth. Immediately after losing a small fortune in the South Sea, Gay was appointed Lottery Commissioner, a job he held for the rest of his life. Gay never married, and divided his time among his friends, especially the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry and t...