Ë öËŠË  ËÀ JVÀÑÿÿV‚ñ ñË  Ëbibess.doc 9/8/93  Weinmannñ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ €ñË  Ëÿтñ ‚ ‚ ‚ ñÃ3ÃRecent Criticism of Gay's ÚڔThe Beggar's Opera•ƒ ‚ Ever since ”The Beggar's Opera• first caused a sensation in 1728, critics have attempted to determine the play's message about society, and what the theater©going public's eager acceptance of the play says about that message. Some early critics, such as Daniel Defoe, saw the play as a poisonous ridicule of authority which would inspire its audiences to descend into debauchery. Others, such as Samuel Johnson (looking back at the furor the play caused), dismissed the play as a mere amusement by a not©very©great author. And still others, such as Jonathan Swift, complimented the play for its biting portrayal of hypocrisy and corruption in society (and, they implied, in the Walpole administration). While the immediate political consequences are no longer a great concern to critics, the questions of what to "do" with the play are still on their minds. The critical questions which Robert D. Hume identified in ”The Rakish Stage• (1983) continue to be discussed: What exactly ”is• ”The Beggar's Opera•? (That is, what genre of performance is it, and how does it work?) What are its satirical targets and judgments, its message? Writing in 1982, Hume raised another question concerning eighteenth©century plays which is relevant to ”The Beggar's Opera•: how should it be contextualized, especially in terms of performance and theater history?Ë ËË  ËääâÿVñ ‚ ‚ ‚ ñË  ˍSee Hume's review essay on theater research through 1982 in "English Drama and Theatre 1660©1800: New Directions in Research," ”Theatre Survey• 23.1 (May 1982): 71©100. ‚ñ ‚ ‚ ‚ ñË  Ëñ ‚ ‚ ‚ ñË  Ë â ‚ The following essay attempts to summarize the various responses to these questions over the past decade. Because of the relatively small amount of criticism, there is some "seepage" to articles and books written before 1983, including works which have proved to be basic reference points in the critical discussion. Finally, there is a brief accounting of some possible new directions for criticism of ”The Beggar's Opera•.Ë ËË  ËâÿVñ ‚ ‚ ‚ ñË  ˍEditions of ”TBO• are not discussed here; please see annotated bibliography for descriptions of them. ⠂ One of the first critical questions about the play has been what target(s) Gay had in mind for his satire, and from what judgments he was working. The earliest answer to the question of targets is: Robert Walpole, and the nobility whose government he administered. Although recent critics have not gone to the length of attempting to decode each reference in the play, William Eben Schultz explored possible references to Walpole in the characters of MacHeath, Peachum, and Robin of Bagshot, in his ”Gay's Beggar's Opera: Its Content, History, & Influence• (1923). More recently, J. Alan Downie has argued the Walpole connection by describing the Scriblerians' general political philosophy of benevolent paternalism (1984). Also, in a 1988 article published in ”John Gay and the Scriblerians•, Downie has attempted to glean indications of Gay's political views from his poems and plays. He sees MacHeath's release as a condemnation of authorities who get away with corrupt acts. One admitted problem for Downie, however, is that Gay never publicly stated his politics, so the search for a political philosophy is necessary composed mainly of hypothesis. A different emphasis on the political satire is found in John Bender's ”Imagining the Penitentiary• (1987). Bender focuses on the Newgate Prison setting of ”TBO• and claims that Gay attacks authority (but not necessarily Walpole only) by showing how little of it there is at the prison. Drawing upon Bakhtin and Foucault, Bender shows the carnivalesque nature of Newgate as depicted in ”TBO•. While the "realism" Bender continually refers to is never really explained, he makes an interesting claim that the chaotic atmosphere shown in the play eventually led to reforms towards more order in the prison system. Another candidate for the play's satiric target is the English class system. Both Sven M. Armens (writing in 1954), and, more recently, Michael Denning (1982) have argued that the "leveling" effect so commonly noted by critics is meant to show the similarities in human nature, despite the differences of economic status. While Armens stays mostly within the text and attributes a Shaftesburian optimism to Gay's work, Denning relies more on the contemporary public image of criminals and hanging. Denning's thesis, based on the middle©class background of the notorious Jonathan Wild and the tendency of the rabble to free from the gallows prisoners they admired, is that Gay was calling for a resistance to the system of mercantile capitalism which emphasized selfªinterest and equated money with power. Still another possible satiric target is the Italian Opera genre. Pat Rogers and Wolfgang Zach both dealt with Gay's relationship to opera in 1988. Rogers takes the biographical approach, attempting to show by making some (at time tenuous) connections between Gay and people he knew in the opera business that Gay appreciated opera and wished only to criticize the "cult" surrounding opera, not opera itself. Zach sees the play as an ironic attack on the "poetic justice" convention of "serious" theater, the "happy ending" convention of opera, and Gay's own audience. Although MacHeath is a criminal who should be punished, the Beggar/author releases him to meet the "taste of the town." Yet in real life, the criminals are getting away with things that don't bring about happy endings. Because the nomination of this Italian Opera target involves considering how parody works, the discussion leads to the second critical question: What is ”The Beggar's Opera•? And how does it function? Let us then examine the musings on the workings of the play which have led up to the genre question. Peter E. Lewis has been the most prolific writer on ”TBO• during the last decade, although he has seemed to say the same thing in different ways. In 1988, he made the case that while ”TBO• is a burlesque of Italian Opera, its form is so removed from that of Italian Opera that Gay created a new genre: the ballad opera. This is an interesting argument because it makes the case for analyzing the characters on their own, and not as stock characters of a burlesque or mock opera, while at the same time keeping in mind the theatrical context of the play. Like Lewis in his other essays (see bibliography below), earlier critics have focused primarily on the indeterminacy of the play and sought to explain how that indeterminacy plays out. The main method for "holding down" this indeterminacy has been the search for strategies. One of the first to be discussed is "irony." This is the word which haunts William Empson's study of ”TBO• in ”Some Versions of Pastoral• (1935). With a cast of characters who are continually betraying each other for their own self©interest, independence is considered a virtue. Yet the characters also constantly find themselves beholden to each other for definition. (After all, one can only be independent if he or she is independent ”from• someone else.) In 1970, Ian Donaldson added sentimentality to the mix of themes being considered in the play. Rather than being weighted either towards Hobbesian or Shaftesburian views of the world, Donaldson argues that the play serves a "double capacity": sentiment is what ultimately drives ”TBO•'s ending, making the play both a "sentimental lollipop and...a terse social fable." In 1983, Robert D. Hume summarized the critical wrangling on the question of targets and strategies and stated that the play works not by favoring irony or sentimentality, or by merging them, but by undercutting itself. Rather than using a voice of satiric superiority, ”TBO• relies on the leveling effect of mixing high and low, irony and sentimentality, to leave only cynicism. However, the humorous elements of the play make this a "self©deprecating negativism" which provides pleasure to the audience, but at the same time is more cutting, because it presents no remedies for the problems of society. As mentioned earlier, Hume is also an advocate for the investigation of theatrical contexts. There are a few articles and books which have started to discuss this third question of ”TBO•'s history in theater (and society). The work of Bender, Denning, and Schultz has been mentioned earlier; the following is a description of recent approaches to the topic. One popular approach has been to explain the new ballad opera form by finding antecedents in previous works. Since 1980, critics have made brief comparisons between ”TBO• and the Duke of Newcastle's ”The Triumphant Widow• (written in 1674), Shadwell's ”The Libertine• (1675), and Farquhar's ”The Beaux' Stratagem• (1707). But these comparisons are as dissatisfying as they are simplistic: they are usually short lists of very general similarities, and conjecture as to Gay's knowledge of the plays is just that©©conjecture. More interesting, complex, and useful, are two critical works on the London theater. Lowell Lindgren's "Camilla and The Beggar's Opera" (1980) counters the conventional view of ”TBO• as the first play to challenge the domination of Italian Opera by following ”Camilla•'s evolution into an "English" work. The opera was translated into English during its first run in 1707, and became so popular that by its revival in 1726, it was challenging new operas performed entirely in Italian by Italian performers. This fluidity in the theater is also shown by Calhoun Winton's just recently published ”John Gay and the London Theatre•, which discusses how Walpole's opponents co©opted Gay's play as Tory propaganda, and how their assertions brought in bigger crowds to see the play in a new light. With Winton's volume, the serious investigation of the theatrical aspects of eighteenth©century plays which Hume called for a decade ago, has entered discussions of ”TBO•. Winton himself has noted the lack of critical examinations of Gay as a librettist. Part of this problem stems from the lack of a critical musicological edition of ”TBO•, which Winton has called for in his book. Certainly along with this investigation should be an exploration of Gay's use of popular airs and the specific choices he made. Winton and Dianne Dugaw (in a 1991 article on Gay's use of folklore) have each lightly touched on this critical question, but a more comprehensive research into the attitudes and values associated with the original melodies could shed further light on the ways Gay's audience was perceiving his play. Also of help would be a comparison of themes in ”TBO• with other plays at the time. This is admittedly difficult because the musicality of ”TBO• makes it an apple compared to the standard dramatic orange, but a comparative study could also help us to understand what else besides the music made the play so popular. What attitudes and views were people seeing that they had not seen before in the theater? Associated with this is the possibility of examining the performance of TBO itself. Was there a dramatic difference in the style and methods of acting and staging the work? And as the play continued to be performed throughout the century, was this performance modified? Finally, a closer consideration should be made of why ”TBO• was so popular. As a "low" play which was wildly successful, ”TBO• is one of the first modern examples of popular culture making a large impact on the society©©enough to draw the ire of the intellectuals and the dismay of the government. What social forces laid the groundwork for this widespread acceptance©©so wide that members of all social classes saw the play? The critics thus far have maintained a comfortable academic distance from ”TBO•; they have discussed its internal workings and its possible satiric targets, and thus have "raised" the play to a higher level. But all the terms they have used in their discussions©ªtransvaluation, transformation, irregularity, uncertainty, doubleness, negativity, and irony©©have all acknowledged the play's leveling quality. Perhaps the critics should "lower" themselves to the play's level and discuss the work as an example of popular culture as well as "serious" literature. The direction of criticism on Gay's ”The Beggar's Opera• is thus moving towards its performative aspects. This does not mean that the issues Gay raises in the play should not be totally ignored; but it does mean that further discussion of those issues should always include the fact that the work was meant to be seen and heard, not read. Because there are so many roles involved in the performance of ballad opera©©from the playwright to the actors, directors, and musicians, to the audience©©an already thematically slippery work attains another layer of permutations. So far, critics have attempted to "grasp" ”The Beggar's Opera•, but the play keeps slipping out of their hands©©as any good piece of literature should. ‚Annotated Bibliography ‚ [Note: The following bibliography includes listings of editions of ”TBO•, biographies of Gay, and criticism of ”TBO•, all in alphabetical order.]” Editions •Faber, G. C., ed. ”The Poetical Works of John Gay•. London: Oxford University Press, 1926. ” • [The standard edition from the earlier part of the century. Contains Gay's poetry and his plays in one volume (although very small print is the price paid for the format). Textual variants listed at the end of each scene, but there is no commentary provided. No musical settings of the songs included. However, there are useful indices of titles, first lines of poems, and first lines of songs.] ” •Fuller, John, ed. ”John Gay: Dramatic Works•. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. (2 volumes) [Despite mixed reviews, has become the standard reader's edition of Gay's plays. ”TBO• appears in Volume 2. Textual variants listed at bottom of the page, but Fuller admits he has not included all of them. Commentary is at back of volume, with no notes in the text informing the reader of commentary for that line. Very brief glossaries also included. No musical settings provided. Fuller claims in his introduction (in Volume 1) that the Italian opera parody "may represent comparatively thoughts in [Gay's] conception of the piece." He also notes that the "very precariousness of happiness" is an important "thematic undercurrent."] Gay, John. ”The Beggar's Opera, As it is Acted at the Theatre©Royal • ”in Lincolns©Inn©Fields. Written by Mr. Gay...To which is Added, • ”the Musick Engrav'd on Copper©Plates•. London: Printed for John Watts, at the Printing Office, 1728. [The first edition, which, as the title states, also contains the music for the performance.] Lewis, Peter Elfred, ed. ”The Beggar's Opera•. Edinburgh, 1973. [Considered to be an excellent edition of ”TBO•. Describes the textual history of the play.] Roberts, Edgar V., ed. ”The Beggar's Opera•. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969. [Contains keyboard accompaniments for the airs.]” • ” Biographies •Irving, William Henry. ”John Gay: Favorite of the Wits•. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1940. ”Œ• [The standard full©length biography of Gay, which is now over half a century old. Notes the popularity of ”TBO•, says jocularly that "the play has no morals!" and that it "has at least this virtue, that it throws light on the actualities of life and exalts courage, good faith, and comradeship."] Johnson, Samuel. "Life of Gay." ”Lives of the English Poets•. Ed. George Birkbeck Hill. Volume 2. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905. 267©85. 3 volumes. ” • [Johnson is dismissive of all the hullaballoo over ”TBO•'s morality, stating that "the play, like many others, was plainly written only to divert, without any moral purpose". Johnson is just as dismissive of Gay as a poet, because the writer did not have "in any great degree the mens divinor, the dignity of genius." However, Johnson concedes that Gay did give the world ballad opera, and like it or not, it is here to stay.] ” • ”Criticism• Armens, Sven M. ”John Gay: Social Critic•. New York: King's Crown Press, Columbia University, 1954. [In his chapter on ”TBO•, Armens sees the play as "the social criticism of the poor man as artist." Armens places more of the play's emphasis on Shaftesbury's optimism. ”TBO• portrays man as the victim of vicious social forces, especially the poor man, who has no money to gain the favor of society, and who, because "he cannot purchase justice...must suffer unfairly for his vices or indiscretions." Money has become reason as well as the standard for social judgment. Thus the middle©class comes into especially harsh criticism, because of its concern with status.] Bender, John. ”Imagining the Penitentiary: Fiction and the Architecture • ”of Mind in Eighteenth©Century England•. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987. [”TBO• contains the multivoiced discourse which Bakhtin finds in novels, but without the novel's assimilating narrative presence. Newgate Prison, the seat and symbol of authority, is discredited as a place without a moral social order. Bender sees ”TBO• as one piece of literature whose portrayal of prisons led to the reform movement of the later 18th century. The 1777 revised ending of ”TBO• (in which MacHeath is transported to three years of hard labor) thus reflects the movement towards reforming prisoners, rather than executing them or reprieving them.] Denning, Michael. "Beggars and Thieves." ”Literature and History• 8.1 (Spring 1982): 41©55. [Places ”TBO• in the context of popular stories about criminals, and focuses on the culture of hanging in England. The public hanging was a spectacle which brought authority and "the rabble" together to deliver justice. At times, though, the mob would save the condemned from the gallows if they thought his sentence was unjust. Similarly, MacHeath, who is sent to the gallows thanks to the mercantile capitalist Peachum's handiwork, is saved by the taste of the town. Denning sees the play bringing together the people and the aristocracy against capitalism.] Donaldson, Ian. ”The World Upside©Down: Comedy from Jonson to • ”Fielding•. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970. [In his chapter on ”TBO•, Donaldson discusses the theme of "double capacity" which moves through the play. ”TBO• merges ironic and sentimental elements. No character is simply prey or predator, yet at times we feel moved by the earnestness of characters like Polly. The play ultimately balances a Hobbesian vision of world dominated by selfªinterest, with Shaftesbury's more optimistic view of social order run by mutual protection. MacHeath may be driven to drink and the gallows by the love of women, but he's also saved by the sentimentality of the crowd's desire for a happy ending. ”TBO• is a "sentimental lollipop and...a terse social fable."] Downie, J. Alan. "Gay's Politics." ”John Gay and the Scriblerians•. Eds. Peter Lewis and Nigel Wood. London: Vision, 1988. 44©61. [Attempts to find evidence of Gay's political philosophy through close examination of passages from ”Wine•, ”The Captives•, and ”Polly•. Not as much time spent on ”TBO•. Downie sees Gay as less interested in taking sides with a particular party than criticizing the corruption of authority. The release of MacHeath (read: Walpole) thus shows how men in power get away with ruling in their own self©interest rather than with a paternal benevolence.] _______________. "Walpole, 'the Poet's Foe.'" ”Britain in the Age of• ”Walpole•. Ed. Jeremy Black. New York: St. Martin's, 1984. 171© 188. [Not much on Gay himself. Downie discusses the Scriblerians' attacks on Walpole and his administration. Although they may have had a grudge against Walpole because of their loss of favor in the court (and his well©honed publicity machine), the intellectuals opposed Walpole more on political grounds. Swift especially had a paternalistic view of government, and feared that Walpole was ruling in his own selfªinterest.] Duckworth, Alistair M. "Imagining the Penitentiary: Fiction and the Architecture of Mind in Eighteenth©Century England." ”English • ”Language Notes• 26.4 (June 1989): 80©85. [Review of Bender's ”Imagining the Penitentiary•. Duckworth is interested in Bender's New Historicist approach to ”TBO•. However, he feels Bender goes too far with his insistence on the police role of novels.] Dugaw, Dianne. "Folklore and John Gay's Satire." ”SEL: Studies in • ”English Literature, 1500©1900• 31.3 (Summer 1991): 515©33. [Gay's use of folklore and popular forms such as customs, beliefs, ballads, and motifs provides a "site for Gay" to satirize society. When the contemporary audience recognized the popular tunes used in ”TBO•, they were invited to compare Gay's new lyrics with the original, and note Gay's take on the subject of that original song. This "network of associations" satirizes relationships in their social contexts.] Empson, William. ”Some Versions of Pastoral•. London: Chatto & Windus, 1935. [In his chapter on TBO, Empson emphasizes the respect for independence held by the characters of the play, and the ironies that abound when they must rely on preying on others for their survival. In fact, the word "irony" seems to appear on every page of Empson's chapter.] Friedman, Michael D. "'He Was Just a Macheath': Boswell and The Beggar's Opera." ”The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual• 4 (1991): 97©114. [More about Boswell than the play. Discusses Boswell's admiration for MacHeath, because the character unites "manly conduct (particularly in the face of death) and the appetite for sexual variety." Boswell used the play to cure his melancholy.] Hume, Robert D. ”The Rakish Stage: Studies in English Drama, 1600ª• ”1800•. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. [In his chapter on ”TBO•, Hume refers to previous critical attempts to determine the precise objects of Gay's satire as dissatisfying. Neither are general claims that the play inverts high and low enough to have an understanding of it. Rather, the generic form of the play should be examined. As a satirist, Gay is a mixture of "soft" and "hard" criticism, or, as Hume says, the play is both ”Pinafore• and ”Three Penny Opera•. The leveling effect of the play means that there is no satiric superiority at work. Only wry (but not "cheap") cynicism is left. With its self©deprecating negativism, the play is thus more cutting, because it presents no remedies for the problems of society.] Kephart, Carolyn. "An Unnoticed Forerunner of The Beggar's Opera." ”Music and Letters• 61.3©4 (July©October 1980): 266©271. [The forerunner is the Duke of Newcastle's ”The Triumphant Widow• (1674). Like ”TBO•, the play has a charming rogue, Footpad, who is saved at the last minute. It also has a similar tone towards its theme of roguery, and has songs that occur at seemingly any occasion in the play. However, there is only one recorded performance of the play, and no proof Gay knew of it.] Lewis, Peter. "'An irregular dog': Gay's Alternative Theatre." ”Yearbook of English Studies• 18 (1988): 231©246. [Quite similar to Lewis' article on "Dramatic Transformation" (see below), except that here the "transformations" are called "irregularities," and the discussion of Gay's plays is ordered chronologically.] ____________. "The Beaux' Stratagem and The Beggar's Opera." ”Notes• ”and Queries• 28.3 (June 1981): 221©224.Œ [Compares ”TBO• with Farquhar's last comedy (1707). Both have a low theme, highwaymen, and make connections between mercantilism and robbery. ”Beaux' Stratagem• can be considered as an influence, not a source of, ”TBO•.] ____________. "The Beggar's Rags to Rich's and Other Dramatic Transformations." ”John Gay and the Scriblerians•. Eds. Peter Lewis and Nigel Wood. London: Vision, 1988. 122©146. [Lewis discusses the indeterminacy in Gay's plays which comes from his ability to mix high subjects with low styles. This closure of the gap between high and low effectively transforms each into the other. In most of his other plays, this mixture remains at the level of burlesque, because Gay is able to mock closely the forms and structure of English plays. However, in ”TBO•, he takes on the Italian Opera, but burlesques it only generally (no Italianate melodies, for example). As a result, a gap between burlesque and burlesqued appears, and we see the characters of the play in their own right. The satire becomes an anti©opera, not a mock opera. Gay has transformed Italian Opera into ballad opera.] ____________. "The uncertainty principle in The Beggar's Opera." ”Durham University Journal• 72.2 (June 1980): 143©146. [Briefly denotes the play's tendency to avoid clear stances both in subject and in style. The reversal of voices in TBO©©the thieves speak like aristocrats, and vice©versa©©leads to a question of whom to believe. Similarly, the different proposed endings (which anticipate modernist avant©garde works) beg the question if the play should end comically or tragically. The uncertain conclusion leaves an uncertain moral ending, as well as an uncertainty whether the play should be seen as reforming satire or revolutionary and anarchic.] Lindgren, Lowell. "Camilla and The Beggar's Opera." ”Philological• ”Quarterly• 59.1 (Winter 1980): 44©61. [Traces Camilla's transformation from Italian Opera import to "naturalized citizen serving as a standard©bearer for 'English Opera.'" When first performed in 1706©7, Camilla enjoyed a long run and like TBO was derided as harmful to plays. It became so popular that the Lord Chamberlain had to order actors to perform at Haymarket, and musicians, dancers and some actors to perform dramatic opera at Drury Lane. The play was translated into English when performed, so by 1717, when new operas were performed completely in Italian, the revived Camilla was considered "English." It always enjoyed large audiences when performed, to the detriment of competing Italian Operas©©and in 1726, two years before ”TBO,• was at its height of popularity. (Its last year on stage was 1728.) Thus ”TBO• was not the first play to prove stiff competition to Italian Opera.] Robinson, Robert Gibson, III. "The Beggar's Opera and The Three Penny Opera: New Voices in the Dialogue of Society." ”Compendious Conversation: The Method of Dialogue in the Early• ”Enlightenment•. Ed. Kevin L. Cope. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1992. 349©56. [Frankly, does not say much. Notes the cultural ambiguity of ”TBO• and the "multivocality" of characters. But does not go deeper. Brecht's play is seen as more personal. ”The Three Penny Opera•, with its emphasis on MacHeath's betrayal by women, has shifted away from Gay's focus on the "pathology of society" to Brecht's focus on the "pathos of sexuality."] Rogers, Pat. "Gay and the World of Opera." ”John Gay and the• ”Scriblerians.• Eds. Peter Lewis and Nigel Wood. London: Vision, 1988. 147©162. [On the question of Gay's satire of Italian Opera, Rogers attempts to show that Gay knew both intimately, or in passing, many people involved in opera. Gay would not agree with contemporary critics that ”TBO•'s effect of cutting back the popularity of Italian Opera was a good one. Because of his familiarity with (and implied respect for) the genre, Gay was not criticizing opera itself, but the cult that had surrounded opera.] Schultz, William Eben. ”Gay's Beggar's Opera: Its Content, History & • ”Influence•. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. [As its title suggests, this full©length study of the play describes in some detail the long run of ”TBO• during the eighteenth century. While its discussion of possible attacks on Walpole is an admitted fishing expedition, the volume does touch on the play's social satire and literary burlesque, and is a useful resource of theater history. Its appendices include a catalog of ballad operas which followed ”TBO•, as well as a listing of the original first stanzas to the airs which Gay borrowed for the play.] Tasch, Peter A. "The Beggar's Opera and The Libertine." ”Notes and• ”Queries• 36.1 (March 1989): 52. [Compares ”TBO• with similar passages of Shadwell's ”The Libertine• (1675). Notes that while Don John, the rogue hero of Shadwell's play, goes to hell, MacHeath is triumphant. Gay thus presents a character who is not a "Hobbesian libertine".] Winton, Calhoun. ”John Gay and the London Theatre•. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1993. [In his chapters on ”TBO•, Winton provides a brief (compared to Schultz) stage history of the play's first run and its public reception. It was first turned down as too new and difficult to produce, but became so successful that contemporaries tried to account for its popularity. The Opposition to Walpole co©opted the play by publishing "keys" which identified Gay's supposed veiled references to Walpole. This, along with charges by other critics that the play led to depravity and debased its audience, only led to further fascination. Winton also provides the standard commentary on the "transvaluation" that is present in the play, and shows how it meets the definitions of "new English opera."] Zach, Wolfgang. "Fascination and Scandal: On John Gay's Beggar's Opera and the Doctrine of Poetic Justice." ”Literature and the• ”Art of Creation.• Eds. Robert Welch and Suheil Badi Bushrui. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1988. 219©237. [Notes how contemporary men of letters criticized the play because of its lack of poetic justice, and feared it would corrupt audiences. But contemporary audiences loved "illegitimate" forms of theater (opera, farce, pantomime) and did not expect moralizing in them. The Beggar who releases MacHeath is a symbol of Gay's own begging for favor. Because he must pander to the taste of the town, poetic justice is discarded. MacHeath's escape is an ironic commentary on the audience: the Beggar (Gay) must sacrifice his artistic integrity for the ending to be satisfactory. The escape also reminds the audience of the difference between the stage and real life. While villains on stage usually get their just reward, real villains get away with their crimes because of the public's unwillingness to punish.]