BEGGAR'S OPERA, The. A celebrated piece, written in 1727 by John Gay, who was said to have been instigated to its production by a feeling of annoyance at having been offered a court appointment which he regarded as beneath him. It is also said to have had its origin in an observation of Swift's to its author, that ‘a Newgate pastoral might make an odd pretty sort of thing.
’ Under the thin veil of exposing the vices of...
