Criminal Law and "The Beggar's Opera"

Ian Gallagher of Syracuse University's College of Law is publishing "Let Us Take the Road": The Beggar's Opera and Its Criminal Law Context, in Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft. Here is the abstract.

The Beggar's Opera is a work studied for its political satire, its importance as a progenitor of musical forms from the singspiel to the Broadway musical, and even its possible interpretation as a metaphor for the "Christian myth." But this seemingly simple, if cynical, tale of love and betrayal in the criminal underworld of 1728 London has not previously been studied for the insights it can offer into the relationship between law and society in early Hanoverian England. This paper uses the play's plot as a point of departure to study some aspects of crime and punishment. Using contemporary sources to supplement, and correct, the play's portrayal of crimes, criminals, and the criminal justice system of the time, the paper concludes that the play offers a valuable view of criminal life in Eighteenth Century London.

Download the full paper from SSRN here.
For more on John Gay's Beggar's Opera, see the following websites:
Renascence Editions, The Beggar's Opera
University of Michigan (student prepared version with extensive notes)
University of Virginia, E-Text version of The Beggar's Opera

Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht transformed the play into The Threepenny Opera (Der Dreigroschenoper) in 1928. It made famous such songs as Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife) which became a hit for Bobby Darin.

[This entry is cross-posted at The Seamless Web]