Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on John Gay's The Beggar’s Opera. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
The Beggar’s Opera: Introduction
The Beggar’s Opera: Plot Summary
The Beggar’s Opera: Detailed Summary & Analysis
The Beggar’s Opera: Themes
The Beggar’s Opera: Quotes
The Beggar’s Opera: Characters
The Beggar’s Opera: Terms
The Beggar’s Opera: Symbols
The Beggar’s Opera: Literary Devices
The Beggar’s Opera: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of John Gay
Historical Context of The Beggar’s Opera
Other Books Related to The Beggar’s Opera
- Full Title: The Beggar’s Opera
- When Written: 1727–1728
- Where Written: London, England
- When Published: January 29, 1728 (premiered at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre in London)
- Literary Period: Augustan Drama (Early 18th-Century Drama)
- Genre: Ballad Opera, Satirical Play, Jukebox Musical
- Setting: London in the 1720s
- Climax: Macheath gets arrested and brought to Newgate Prison for a second time. Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit beg their fathers to free Macheath, but they refuse, and he prepares for his execution.
- Antagonist: Macheath
Extra Credit for The Beggar’s Opera
Rich and Gay. John Rich, the director who staged the first performances of The Beggar’s Opera, was so eager to turn a profit that he filled the theater to the brim—he even sat as many as 100 audience members on the stage itself. Critics famously announced that The Beggar’s Opera “made [John] Gay rich and [John] Rich gay.”
Rags to Riches. The Beggar’s Opera was such a hit that it changed its actors’ lives forever. For some time, the actress Lavinia Fenton (who played Polly Peachum) became the most recognizable celebrity in London. She was once a child sex worker and barmaid, but she eventually married into nobility, becoming the Duchess of Bolton.
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