The Beggar's Opera Part 18

_Polly._ --My Dear, with you.

_Macheath._ O leave me to Thought! I fear! I doubt!

I tremble! I droop! --See, my Courage is out.

[Turns up the empty Bottle.

_Polly._ No Token of Love?

_Macheath._ --See, my Courage is out.

[Turns up the empty Pot.

_Lucy._ No Token of Love?

_Polly._ --Adieu.

_Lucy._ --Farewell.

_Macheath._ But hark! I hear the Toll of the Bell.

_Chorus._ Tol de rol lol, &c.

_Jailor._ Four Women more, Captain, with a Child apiece! See, here they come.

[Enter Women and Children.

_Macheath._ What-- four Wives more! --This is too much-- Here-- tell the Sheriff's Officers I am ready. [Exit _Macheath_ guarded.

_To them, Enter _Player_ and _Beggar_._

_Player._ But, honest Friend, I hope you don't intend that _Macheath_ shall be really executed.

_Beggar._ Most certainly, Sir. --To make the Piece perfect, I was for doing strict poetical Justice. --_Macheath_ is to be hang'd; and for the other Personages of the Drama, the Audience must have suppos'd they were all either hang'd or transported.

_Player._ Why then, Friend, this is a downright deep Tragedy. The Catastrophe is manifestly wrong, for an Opera must end happily.

_Beggar._ Your Objection, Sir, is very just, and is easily remov'd. For you must allow, that in this kind of Drama, 'tis no matter how absurdly things are brought about-- So-- you Rabble there-- run and cry, A Reprieve! --let the Prisoner be brought back to his Wives in Triumph.

_Player._ All this we must do, to comply with the Taste of the Town.

_Beggar._ Through the whole Piece you may observe such a Similitude of Manners in high and low Life, that it is difficult to determine whether (in the fas.h.i.+onable Vices) the fine Gentlemen imitate the Gentlemen of the Road, or the Gentlemen of the Road the fine Gentlemen. --Had the Play remained, as I at first intended, it would have carried a most excellent Moral. 'Twould have shewn that the lower Sort of People have their Vices in a degree as well as the Rich: And that they are punish'd for them.

_To them, _Macheath_ with _Rabble_, &c._

_Macheath._ So, it seems, I am not left to my Choice, but must have a Wife at last. --Look ye, my Dears, we will have no Controversy now. Let us give this Day to Mirth, and I am sure she who thinks herself my Wife will testify her Joy by a Dance.

_All._ Come, a Dance-- a Dance.

_Macheath._ Ladies, I hope you will give me leave to present a Partner to each of you. And (if I may without Offence) for this time, I take _Polly_ for mine. --And for Life, you s.l.u.t,-- for we were really marry'd. --As for the rest. --But at present keep your own Secret.

[To _Polly_.

A DANCE.

AIR LXVIII. Lumps of Pudding, &c.

[Music]

Thus I stand like the _Turk_, with his Doxies around; From all Sides their Glances his Pa.s.sion confound; For Black, Brown, and Fair, his Inconstancy burns, And the different Beauties subdue him by turns: Each calls forth her Charms to provoke his Desires: Though willing to all, with but one he retires.

But think of this Maxim, and put off your Sorrow, The Wretch of To-day, may be happy To-morrow.

_Chorus._ But think of this Maxim, &c.

FINIS.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, Bungay, Suffolk.

Errata Noted by Transcriber:

Inconsistencies: Dramatis Personae: "Mat of the Mint"

[_The name is spelled "Mat" here and on the character's first entrance, "Matt" everywhere else._]

The place name "Mary-bone" is spelled randomly with and without a hyphen.

There is no ill.u.s.tration at the end of Act II, Scene II.

Spelling Unchanged: Air X. ... Whose Treasure is contreband.

the hypocrytical Strumpet

Punctuation or Capitalization Unchanged:

Dear Wife, be a little pacified, Don't let your Pa.s.sion of rich Brocade. --that, I see, is dispos'd of.

you had a handsom Gold Watch of us 'tother Day --But are you sure it is Captain _Macheath_.

but to see thee / thus distracts me?

Air LXI. The stronger Liquor we'er drinking;