The Beggar's Opera: (Annotated Edition)

Though The Beggar's Opera has earned a reputation for its ironically rambunctious exploration of amoral characters, crime syndicates, and overt sexuality, John Gay originally intended it primarily as a political statement, a comment on both the royal court of his time and statesmen in general.For fourteen years, Gay attempted to earn a place in the court of either George I or George II. As a successful and respected writer in the early 18th century, Gay expected to receive patronage, as many of his contemporaries had. His final disappointment came in 1727, when George II ascended to the throne and offered Gay the post of Gentleman-Usher to the two-year-old Princess Louisa. Especially because he had previously served in similarly minor positions for earlier monarchs, Gay considered the appointment an insulting humiliation, and resigned himself to a life without significant patronage. It was from these disappointments that he began to write The Beggar's Opera.