The Beggar's Opera

In the London underworld, Peachum, a receiver of stolen goods who makes his living by selling his own associates to the gallows for the reward, is horrified to learn that his daughter Polly has married the dashing highwayman Macheath. He decides to betray him, while Macheath, also promised to Lucy, the daughter of the jailer of Newgate, is caught between two wives. The play mixes witty dialogue with popular tunes and mocks the politicians of the day as no better than thieves.

John Gay (1685–1732) staged the ballad opera in 1728, and it was the greatest theatrical success of its century; two hundred years later Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill turned it into The Threepenny Opera. Compare Fielding's Jonathan Wild.