'Gamters and Highwaymen are generally very good to their Whor, but they are very Devils to their Wiv.' Wh The Beggar's Opera (1728), John Gay created one of the most endurgly popular works English theatre history, and vented a new dramatic form, the ballad opera.
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JOHN GAY
Other articl where Polly is discsed: John Gay: The productn of s sequel, Polly, was forbidn by the lord chamberla (doubtls on Walpole’s stctns); but the ban was an excellent advertisement for the piece, and subscriptns for pi of the prted edn ma more than £1,000 prof for the thor. (It was eventually produced 1777, when … * polly john gay *
Learn about this topic the articl:discsed bgraphy In John GayThe productn of s sequel, Polly, was forbidn by the lord chamberla (doubtls on Walpole’s stctns); but the ban was an excellent advertisement for the piece, and subscriptns for pi of the prted edn ma more than £1, 000 prof for the thor. John Gay Eded by Hal Gladfelr. The only edn to be The Beggar's Opera wh s sequel, Polly, allowg to see the full spe of Gay's theatril and moral visn.
Introductn nsirs Gay's e of crimal and rogue lerature, the polil ntext of the plays, Gay's attu to slavery and piracy, his treatment of genr, and the plays' formal theatril novatns. Text clost of any current edn to the plays as seen through the prs by Gay himself, retag exprsive featur that nvey the rhythms and pace of their first performanc. Appendix on the sourc of the tun Gay ed for the 69 airs of The Beggar's Opera and the 71 of Polly, highlightg many s where the songs' origal words, faiar to ntemporary dienc, give a bawdy or ironic double meang to Gay's lyrics.
Explanatory Not expla crimal and unrworld slang and the topil allns that gave Gay's satire s edge. John Gay, (born June 30, 1685, Barnstaple, Devon, Eng.
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A member of an ancient but impoverished Devonshire fay, Gay was ted at the ee grammar school Barnstaple.
Gay’s journalistic terts are clearly seen a pamphlet, The Prent State of W (1711), a survey of ntemporary perdil publitns. It is such lite probg of the surface of social life that Gay excels. Gay was a member, together wh Pope, Jonathan Swift, and John Arbuthnot, of the Scribles Club, a lerary group that aimed to ridicule pedantry.
The iends ntributed to two of Gay’s satiril plays: The What D’ye Call It (1715) and Three Hours After Marriage (1717) most succsful play was The Beggar’s Opera, produced London on Jan.