Christopher Smart was one of the most original of 18th-century English poets before William Blake, with whom he has much in common. This edition contains his four major works complete and a selection of his other poems.

Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

John Gay

Penguin??Books

Fables by the Late Mr. Gay, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

Children's Books

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Forgotten Books

1973 Rare version. Large Print. Paperback: "Beggar's Opera: Libretto and Music" by John Gay (Author). 3.5 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews.

The beggar's opera

Arts & Photography

John Christopher Pepusch

Music

Dover Publications

The great lords and powerful public officials of early 18th century England are represented as highwaymen and thieves in this deliciously satirical ballad opera. In addition to its burlesque of the contemporary vogue for Italian operatic styles, John Gay's 1728 masterpiece ridicules a broad spectrum of political figures and social conventions — marriage, lawyers, trade, and even Walpole, the prime minister. Depicting crime and vice at every level of society, The Beggar's Opera offers a witty and powerful indictment of greed, hypocrisy, and corruption in all social classes. When Peachum, a receiver of stolen goods, discovers that a notorious highwayman has eloped with his daughter, the wily old villain turns informer and collects the reward money as his prospective son-in-law is hauled off to prison. Events take an increasingly absurd turn as the dashing outlaw romances the jailer's daughter and effects an escape, only to return to the shadow of the gallows for a farcical climax that parodies the sentimental tragedy of the day. The Beggar's Opera is in the satirical tradition of Swift and Pope. Its enduring relevance was recognized two centuries later by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, who used it as the basis for their landmark musical, The Threepenny Opera. This attractive, inexpensive edition of an influential comic gem will be applauded by theater lovers, students of literature and history, and other readers.

The Beggar's Opera (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays)

Humor & Entertainment

Current health problems

Saunders

The Beggar's Opera introduced to theater the ballad-opera and an immortal cast of characters. The Peachums, employers of a company of pickpockets, shoplifters, and thieves, raised their daughter Polly for finer things, but she has done a dreadful deed. She has married for love. Her husband is Macheath, so exquisite a robber he might have been a lawyer or lord, and so devoted to matrimony that he has two or three wives already.

The Beggar's Opera (Regents Restoration Drama Series)

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

University Of Nebraska Press

Classical Subjects II : Pastoral and Comedy (The Ballad Opera, vol VIII)

John-Kelly

Colley Cibber

Garland Publishing

The shepherd's week, 1714

Scolar P

One of 1950 copies signed by the artist, this copy unnumbered.

Fables: In one volume complete with wood-engravings

Printed for the members of Imprint Society

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Books by John Gay