John Gay wrote poetry, fables and drama, best known for turning the London underworld into social satire in The Beggar's Opera. The play follows the thief Macheath, the Peachum family and a network of criminals, jailers and lovers, using familiar popular tunes instead of Italian operatic conventions and drawing deliberate parallels between respectable society and organised crime. Gay's Fables use talking animals and concise verse to comment on politics, vanity and human behaviour, while other poems place him firmly within the satirical culture around Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. His writing is witty, topical and performative, with songs and sharp reversals doing much of the work. It fits eighteenth-century satire, ballad opera, comic drama and verse fable. Readers interested in Brecht's The Threepenny Opera will find its direct ancestor in Gay's Beggar's Opera. Read more Less
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