'Gamesters and Highwaymen are generally very good to their Whores,
but they are very Devils to their Wives.' With The Beggar's Opera
(1728), John Gay created one of the most enduringly popular works
in English theatre history, and invented a new dramatic form, the
ballad opera. Gay's daring mixture of caustic political satire,
well-loved popular tunes, and a story of crime and betrayal set in
the urban underworld of prostitutes and thieves was an overnight
sensation. Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum have become famous
well beyond the confines of Gay's original play, and in its sequel,
Polly, banned in Gay's lifetime, their adventures continue in the
West Indies. With a cross-dressing heroine and a cast of female
adventurers, pirates, Indian princes, rebel slaves, and rapacious
landowners, Polly lays bare a culture in which all human
relationships are reduced to commercial transactions. Raucous,
lyrical, witty, ironic and tragic by turns, The Beggar's Opera and
Polly - published together here for the first time - offer a
scathing and ebullient portrait of a society in which statesmen and
outlaws, colonialists and pirates, are impossible to tell apart.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the widest range of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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