The Beggar’s Opera

Name: The Beggar’s Opera
Author: John Gay

John Gay

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(ricomincia)

Nos hœc novimus esse nihil.
Mart.

Note

The text here given is taken from the edition of 1765. The scenes have been re-numbered in the modern method denoting actual changes of place or intervals of time.

Dramatis Personæ

Men

Mr. Peachum
Lockit
Macheath
Filch
Macheath’s Gang
- Jemmy Twitcher
- Crook-fingered Jack
- Wat Dreary
- Robin of Bagshot
- Nimming Ned
- Harry Paddington
- Matt of the Mint
- Ben Budge
Beggar
Player

Women

Mrs. Peachum
Polly Peachum
Lucy Lockit
Diana Trapes
Women of the Town
- Mrs. Coaxer
- Dolly Trull
- Mrs. Vixen
- Betty Doxy
- Jenny Diver
- Mrs. Slammekin
- Suky Tawdry
- Molly Brazen

Constables, Drawers, Turnkey, etc.

Introduction

Beggar, Player.

Beggar	If poverty be a title to poetry, I am sure nobody can dispute mine. I own myself of the Company of Beggars; and I make one at their weekly festivals at St. Giles’s. I have a small yearly salary for my catches, and am welcome to a dinner there whenever I please, which is more than most poets can say.
Player	As we live by the muses, it is but gratitude in us to encourage poetical merit wherever we find it. The muses, contrary to all other ladies, pay no distinction to dress, and never partially mistake the pertness of embroidery for wit, nor the modesty of want for dullness. Be the author who he will, we push his play as far as it will go. So (though you are in want) I wish you success heartily.
Beggar	This piece I own was originally writ for the celebrating the marriage of James Chaunter and Moll Lay, two most excellent ballad-singers. I have introduced the similes that are in all your celebrated operas: The swallow, the moth, the bee, the ship, the flower, etc. Besides, I have a prison-scene, which the ladies always reckon charmingly pathetic. As to the parts, I have observed such a nice impartiality to our two ladies, that it is impossible for either of them to take offence. I hope I may be forgiven, that I have not made my opera throughout unnatural, like those in vogue; for I have no recitative; excepting this, as I have consented to have neither prologue nor epilogue, it must be allowed an opera in all its forms. The piece indeed hath been heretofore frequently represented by ourselves in our great room at St. Giles’s, so that I cannot too often acknowledge your charity in bringing it now on the stage.
Player	But I see it is time for us to withdraw; the actors are preparing to begin. Play away the overture.
	Exeunt. Overture.

ripristino il tuo punto di lettura…

carico il resto…

Il prossimo da leggere

Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky, tradotto da Constance Garnett
You spend the novel inside Raskolnikov’s feverish, self-justifying mind, then watch Porfiry unravel him through oddly playful conversations. It’s bleak, morally serious, and sometimes deliberately repetitive, but the pressure feels real, especially beside Sonia’s quiet compassion.
The Time Machine H. G. Wells
The Time Traveller lands in the year 802,701 expecting a paradise, and what he finds among the childlike Eloi and the pale Morlocks underground gets stranger and sadder the longer he stays. It's short, brisk Victorian science fiction with a genuinely bleak streak, especially that final beach.
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
Wilde gives every character his best one-liners, so you'll laugh even as the whole thing curdles into something genuinely creepy. Lord Henry's lazy, poisonous charm is the real draw; you'll catch yourself agreeing with him and then feeling slightly guilty about it.

Dramatis Personæ

Men

Mr. Peachum
Lockit
Macheath
Filch
Macheath’s Gang
- Jemmy Twitcher
- Crook-fingered Jack
- Wat Dreary
- Robin of Bagshot
- Nimming Ned
- Harry Paddington
- Matt of the Mint
- Ben Budge
Beggar
Player

Women

Mrs. Peachum
Polly Peachum
Lucy Lockit
Diana Trapes
Women of the Town
- Mrs. Coaxer
- Dolly Trull
- Mrs. Vixen
- Betty Doxy
- Jenny Diver
- Mrs. Slammekin
- Suky Tawdry
- Molly Brazen

Constables, Drawers, Turnkey, etc.

Introduction

Beggar, Player.

Beggar

If poverty be a title to poetry, I am sure nobody can dispute mine. I own myself of the Company of Beggars; and I make one at their weekly festivals at St. Giles’s. I have a small yearly salary for my catches, and am welcome to a dinner there whenever I please, which is more than most poets can say.

Player

As we live by the muses, it is but gratitude in us to encourage poetical merit wherever we find it. The muses, contrary to all other ladies, pay no distinction to dress, and never partially mistake the pertness of embroidery for wit, nor the modesty of want for dullness. Be the author who he will, we push his play as far as it will go. So (though you are in want) I wish you success heartily.

Beggar

This piece I own was originally writ for the celebrating the marriage of James Chaunter and Moll Lay, two most excellent ballad-singers. I have introduced the similes that are in all your celebrated operas: The swallow, the moth, the bee, the ship, the flower, etc. Besides, I have a prison-scene, which the ladies always reckon charmingly pathetic. As to the parts, I have observed such a nice impartiality to our two ladies, that it is impossible for either of them to take offence. I hope I may be forgiven, that I have not made my opera throughout unnatural, like those in vogue; for I have no recitative; excepting this, as I have consented to have neither prologue nor epilogue, it must be allowed an opera in all its forms. The piece indeed hath been heretofore frequently represented by ourselves in our great room at St. Giles’s, so that I cannot too often acknowledge your charity in bringing it now on the stage.

Player

But I see it is time for us to withdraw; the actors are preparing to begin. Play away the overture.

Exeunt.

Overture.

Il prossimo da leggere

Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky, tradotto da Constance Garnett

You spend the novel inside Raskolnikov’s feverish, self-justifying mind, then watch Porfiry unravel him through oddly playful conversations. It’s bleak, morally serious, and sometimes deliberately repetitive, but the pressure feels real, especially beside Sonia’s quiet compassion.

The Time Machine H. G. Wells

The Time Traveller lands in the year 802,701 expecting a paradise, and what he finds among the childlike Eloi and the pale Morlocks underground gets stranger and sadder the longer he stays. It's short, brisk Victorian science fiction with a genuinely bleak streak, especially that final beach.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

Wilde gives every character his best one-liners, so you'll laugh even as the whole thing curdles into something genuinely creepy. Lord Henry's lazy, poisonous charm is the real draw; you'll catch yourself agreeing with him and then feeling slightly guilty about it.