The  idea  of  this  piece  is  eminently  happy:  it  was  to  transfer  the  songs
and  incidents  of  the  Italian  Opera  —  then  almost  a  novelty  in  England,
and  in  the  blaze  of  popularity  —  to  the  lowest  class  of  English  life.     The
hero  of  the  Beggars'  Opera  is  a  highwayman,  and  gaolers,  pickpockets,
and  prostitutes  form  the  dramatis  personse,  while  the  scene  is  princi-
pally in  Newgate.     In  a  word,  to  use  Swift's  expression,  it  was  a  kind
of  Newgate  pastoral,  and  was  a  sort  of  parody  of  the  opera  then  in
vogue,  while  it  became  the  origin  of  the  English  Opera.    The  beauty
and  charming  voice  of  Elizabeth  Fenton,  who  first  acted   Polly,  the
satirical  allusions  plentifully  scattered  through  the  dialogue,  and  eager-
ly caught  up  by  the  parties  of  the  day,  the  novelty  and  oddity  of  the
whole  spectacle,  and  above  all,  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  songs  plen-
tifully interspersed  throughout,  gave  the  Beggars'  Of  era  an  unpar-
alleled success.     Polly  became  the  idol  of  the  town,  and  was  removed
from  the  stage  to  share  the  coronet  of  a  duke ;  and  Gay  acquired  from
the  performance  of  his  piece  the  very  large  sum  of  nearly  700/.     He
was  encouraged  by  success  to  endeavor  to  continue  in  the  same  strain,
and  produced  a  kind  of  continuation  called  Polly,  which,  though  far
inferior,  was  even  more  profitable,  for  being  prohibited  on  the  gro/.nd
of  political  allusions,  by  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  the
opposition  party,  in  order  to  spite  the  court,  contributed  so  liberally  to
its  publication  that  Gay  is  said  to  have  cleared  about  iioo/.     The  poet,
with  that  sanguine  improvidence  which  characterized  him,  had  previ-
ously met  with  severe  losses  in  the  famous  South  Sea  mania;   but
grown  wiser  by  experience,  and  profiting  by  the  advice  of  friends  who
possessed  more  practical  common  sense  than  himself,  he  determined  to
husband  the  little  fortune  he  had  accumulated.     He  was  received  into
the  family  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Queensberry,  where  he  secans


A.  D.  1618-1765.]     QARTH.  PABNELL.  TICKELL.   YOUNG.     285

to  have  been  petted  like  some  favorite  lapdog,  till  his  death  in  1732.
