Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle, September 23, 1773, Issue 1353.
The Chronicle reprinted Jonathan Swift’s defense of the play from The Intelligencer no. 3, 1728 after a series of articles about the deleterious effects of The Beggar’s Opera on the public. The Westminster Magazine Theatre column chastised Garrick’s boldness in opening the Drury Lane season with The Beggar’s Opera after “he was requested by the Bench of Justices at Bow-Street, to suppress it, as they were of the opinion it had done a great deal of mischief among the low class of people.” Sir John Fielding was among those who addressed a letter to Garrick also asking him not to perform the play, and Lloyd’s Evening Post asserted claims that “every performance makes from one to twenty thieves,” (17 Sept. 1773). The Morning Chronicle reprinted accompanied praise of Garrick for resisting the attempt to suppress the play.
As the BEGGAR’S OPERA has for this week past, been much the subject of conversation, we thought it would not be disagreeable to our readers to lay before them the Number of the Intelligencer, written by Dean Swift, in which the merit and tendency of that performance is very particularly considered.
THE players having now almost done with the comedy called the Beggar’s Opera, for this season it may not be unpleasant speculation to reflect a little upon this dramatic piece, so singular in the subject and manner, so much an original, and which hath frequently given so very agreeable an entertainment.
“Although an evil taste be very apt to prevail, both here and in London, yet there is a point, which, whoever can rightly touch, will never fail of pleasing a very great majority; so great that the dislikers, out of dullness or affection, will be silent, and forced to fall in with the herd. The point I mean is what we call humor; which in its perfection, is allowed to be much preferable to wit; if it be not rather the most useful and agreeable species of it.
“I agree with Sir William Temple, that the word is peculiar to our English tongue; but I differ from him in the opinion that the thing itself is peculiar to the English nation; because the contrary may be found in many Spanish, Italian, French productions: And particularly, whoever hath a taste for true humor, will find an hundred instances of it in those volumes printed in France, under the name of Le Theater Italien: To say nothing of Rabelais, Cervantes, and many others.
“Now I take the comedy, or farce, (or whatever name the critics will allow it) called the Beggar’s Opera, to excel in this article of humor; and upon that merit to have met with such prodigious success, both here and in England.
“As to poetry, eloquence, and music, which are said to have most power over the mind of men, it is certain that very few have a taste of judgment of the excellences of the two [unreadable]; and if a man succeed in either it is upon the authority of those few judges, that lend their taste to the bulk of readers, who have none of their own. I am told there are a few good judges in music; and that among those who crowd the operas, nine in ten go thither merely out of curiosity, fashion, or affection.
“But a taste for humor is in some manner fixed to the very nature of man, and generally obvious to the vulgar, except upon subjects too refined, and superior to their understanding.
“And as the taste of humor is purely natural, so is the humor itself; neither is it a talent confined to men of wit, or learning, for we observed it sometimes among common servants, and the meanest of the peoples while the very owners are often ignorant of the gift they possess.
“I know very well that this happy talent is contemptibly treated by critics, under the name of low humour, or low comedy; but I know likewise that the Spaniards and Italians, who are allowed to have the most wit of any nation in Europe, do most excel in it, and do most esteem it.
“By what disposition of the mind, what influence of the stars, of what situation of the climate, this endowment is bellowed upon mankind; may be a question for philosophers to discuss. It is certainly the best ingredient towards that kind of satire which is most useful and gives the least offence; which instead of lashing, laughs men out of their follies and vices; and is the character that gives Horace the preference to Juvenal.
“And, although some things are too serious, solemn, or sacred, to be turned into ridicule, yet the abuse of them are certainly not; since it is allowed that corruptions in religion, politics, and law, may be proper topics for this kind of satire.
“There are two ends that men propose in writing satire: One of them less noble than the other, as regarding nothing further than the private satisfaction, and pleasure of the writer; but without any view towards personal malice: the other is a public spirit, prompting men of genius and virtue to mend the world as far as they are able. And as both these ends are innocent; so the latter is high commendable. With regard to the former, I demand, whether I have not as good a title to laugh, as men have to be ridiculous and to expose vice, as another hath to be vicious? If I ridicule the follies corruptions of a court, a ministry, and a senate, are they not amply paid by pensions, titles, and power, while I expect, and desire no other reward, than that of laughing with a few friends in a corner? Yet, if those who take offence, think me in the wrong, I am ready to change the scene with them whenever they please.
“But, if my design be to make mankind better, then I think it is my duty; at least, I am sure it is the interest of those very courts and ministers, whole follies or vices I ridicule, to reward me for my good intentions: for if it be reckoned a high point of wisdom to get the laughers on our side; it is much more easy, as well as wise, to get those on our side, who can make millions laugh when they please.
“My reason for mentioning courts and ministers, (whom I never think on, but with the most profound veneration) is because an opinion obtains, that in the Beggar’s Opera here appears to be some reflections upon courtiers and statesmen, whereof I am by no means a judge.
“It is true, indeed, that Mr. Gay, the author of this piece, hath been somewhat singular in the course of his fortunes; for it hath happened, that after fourteen years attending the court, with a large stock of real merit, a modest and agreeable conversation, a hundred promises, and five hundred friends, he hath failed of preferment; and upon a very weighty reason. He lay under the suspicion of having written a libel, or lampoon, against a great minister. It is true, that great minister was demonstratively convinced, and publicly owned his conviction, that Mr. Gay was not the author; but having lain under the suspicion it seemed very just that he should suffer the punishment; because in this most reformed age, the virtues of a prime minister are no more to be suspected, than the chastity of Caesar’s wife.
“It must be allowed that the Beggar’s Opera is not the first of Mr. Gay’s works wherein he hath been faulty, with regard to courtiers and statement: for to omit his other pieces; even in his Fables, published within 2 years pass, and dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, for which he was promised a reward, he hath been thought somewhat too bold upon the courtiers. And although it be highly probable he meant only the courtiers of former times, yet he acted unwarily, by not considering that the malignity of some people might misinterpret what he said, to the disadvantage of the present persons and affairs.
“But I have now done with Mr. Gay as a politician; and shall consider him henceforward only as the author of the Beggar’s Opera, wherein he hath, by a turn of humor entirely new, placed vices of all kinds in the strongest and most odious light; and thereby done eminent services, both to religion and morality. This appears from the unparalleled success he hath met with. All ranks, parties, and denominations of men either crowding to see his Opera, or reading it with delight in their closets; even ministers of state, whom he is thought to have most offended, (next to those whom the actors represent) appearing frequently at the Theater, from a consciousness of their own innocence, and to convince the world how unjust a parallel malice, envy, and disaffection to the government have made.
“I am assured that several worthy clergy men in this city went privately to see the Beggar’s Opera represented; and that the fleering coxcomb in the pit amused themselves with making discoveries, and spreading the names of those gentlemen round the audience.
“I shall not pretend to vindicate a clergy man, who would appear only in his habit at a Theater, with such vicious crew, as might probably stand round him, at such comedies and profane tragedies as are often represented. Besides, I know very well, that persons of their function are bound to avoid the appearance of evil, or of giving cause of offence. But when the Lords Chancellors, who are keepers of the King’s conscience; when the Judges of the land, whose title is Reverend; when Ladies, who are bound by the rules of their sex to the strictest decency, appear in the Theater without censure, I cannot understand why a young clergyman, who comes concealed out of curiosity to see an innocent and moral play, should be so highly condemned: nor do I much approve the rigor of a great prelate, who said, he hoped none of his clergy were there. I am glad to hear there are no weightier objections against that reverend body planted in this city, and I will wish there never may. But I should be very sorry that any of them should be so weak as to imitate a court-chaplain in England, who preached against the Beggar’s Opera; which will probably do more good than a thousand sermons of so stupid, so injudicious, and so prostitute a Divine.
“In this happy performance of Mr. Gay, all the characters are just, and none of them carried beyond nature, or hardly beyond practice. It discovers the whole system of that commonwealth, or that Imperium in Imperio of iniquity, established among us, by which neither our lives nor our properties are secure, either on the high-ways, or in public assemblies, or even in our own houses. It shews the miserable lives, and the constant state of those abandoned wretches: For how little they sell their lives and souls; betrayed by their whores, their comrades, and receivers and purchasers of their thefts and robberies. This comedy contains likewise a satire, which, without enquiring whether it affects the present age, may possibly be useful in times to come; I mean, where the author takes the occasion of comparing those common robbers of the public, and their several stratagems of betraying, undermining, and hanging each other, to the several arts of politicians in times of corruption.
“The comedy likewise exposes, with great justice, that unnatural taste for Italian music among us, which is wholly unsuitable to our Northern climate, and the genius of the people, whereby we are over-run with Italian effeminacy, and Italian nonsense. An old gentleman said to me,
that many years ago, when the practice of an unnatural vice grew frequent in London, and many were prosecuted for it, he was sure it would be the forerunner of Italian operas and singers; and then we should want nothing but stabbing, or poisoning, to make us perfect Italians.
“Upon the whole, I deliver my judgment, that nothing but servile attachment to a party, affection of singularity, lamentable dullness, mistaken zeal, or studied hypocrisy, can have the least reasonable objection against this excellent moral performance of the celebrated Mr. GAY.
ra on the public. The Westminster Magazine Theatre column chastised Garrick’s boldness in opening the Drury Lane season with The Beggar’s Opera after “he was requested by the Bench of Justices at Bow-Street, to suppress it, as they were of the opinion it had done a great deal of mischief among the low class of people.” Sir John Fielding was among those who addressed a letter to Garrick also asking him not to perform the play, and Lloyd’s Evening Post asserted claims that “every performance makes from one to twenty thieves,” (17 Sept. 1773). The Morning Chronicle reprinted accompanied praise of Garrick for resisting the attempt to suppress the play.
As the BEGGAR’S OPERA has for this week past, been much the subject of conversation, we thought it would not be disagreeable to our readers to lay before them the Number of the Intelligencer, written by Dean Swift, in which the merit and tendency of that performance is very particularly considered.
THE players having now almost done with the comedy called the Beggar’s Opera, for this season it may not be unpleasant speculation to reflect a little upon this dramatic piece, so singular in the subject and manner, so much an original, and which hath frequently given so very agreeable an entertainment.
“Although an evil taste be very apt to prevail, both here and in London, yet there is a point, which, whoever can rightly touch, will never fail of pleasing a very great majority; so great that the dislikers, out of dullness or affection, will be silent, and forced to fall in with the herd. The point I mean is what we call humor; which in its perfection, is allowed to be much preferable to wit; if it be not rather the most useful and agreeable species of it.
“I agree with Sir William Temple, that the word is peculiar to our English tongue; but I differ from him in the opinion that the thing itself is peculiar to the English nation; because the contrary may be found in many Spanish, Italian, French productions: And particularly, whoever hath a taste for true humor, will find an hundred instances of it in those volumes printed in France, under the name of Le Theater Italien: To say nothing of Rabelais, Cervantes, and many others.
“Now I take the comedy, or farce, (or whatever name the critics will allow it) called the Beggar’s Opera, to excel in this article of humor; and upon that merit to have met with such prodigious success, both here and in England.
“As to poetry, eloquence, and music, which are said to have most power over the mind of men, it is certain that very few have a taste of judgment of the excellences of the two [unreadable]; and if a man succeed in either it is upon the authority of those few judges, that lend their taste to the bulk of readers, who have none of their own. I am told there are a few good judges in music; and that among those who crowd the operas, nine in ten go thither merely out of curiosity, fashion, or affection.
“But a taste for humor is in some manner fixed to the very nature of man, and generally obvious to the vulgar, except upon subjects too refined, and superior to their understanding.
“And as the taste of humor is purely natural, so is the humor itself; neither is it a talent confined to men of wit, or learning, for we observed it sometimes among common servants, and the meanest of the peoples while the very owners are often ignorant of the gift they possess.
“I know very well that this happy talent is contemptibly treated by critics, under the name of low humour, or low comedy; but I know likewise that the Spaniards and Italians, who are allowed to have the most wit of any nation in Europe, do most excel in it, and do most esteem it.
“By what disposition of the mind, what influence of the stars, of what situation of the climate, this endowment is bellowed upon mankind; may be a question for philosophers to discuss. It is certainly the best ingredient towards that kind of satire which is most useful and gives the least offence; which instead of lashing, laughs men out of their follies and vices; and is the character that gives Horace the preference to Juvenal.
“And, although some things are too serious, solemn, or sacred, to be turned into ridicule, yet the abuse of them are certainly not; since it is allowed that corruptions in religion, politics, and law, may be proper topics for this kind of satire.
“There are two ends that men propose in writing satire: One of them less noble than the other, as regarding nothing further than the private satisfaction, and pleasure of the writer; but without any view towards personal malice: the other is a public spirit, prompting men of genius and virtue to mend the world as far as they are able. And as both these ends are innocent; so the latter is high commendable. With regard to the former, I demand, whether I have not as good a title to laugh, as men have to be ridiculous and to expose vice, as another hath to be vicious? If I ridicule the follies corruptions of a court, a ministry, and a senate, are they not amply paid by pensions, titles, and power, while I expect, and desire no other reward, than that of laughing with a few friends in a corner? Yet, if those who take offence, think me in the wrong, I am ready to change the scene with them whenever they please.
“But, if my design be to make mankind better, then I think it is my duty; at least, I am sure it is the interest of those very courts and ministers, whole follies or vices I ridicule, to reward me for my good intentions: for if it be reckoned a high point of wisdom to get the laughers on our side; it is much more easy, as well as wise, to get those on our side, who can make millions laugh when they please.
“My reason for mentioning courts and ministers, (whom I never think on, but with the most profound veneration) is because an opinion obtains, that in the Beggar’s Opera here appears to be some reflections upon courtiers and statesmen, whereof I am by no means a judge.
“It is true, indeed, that Mr. Gay, the author of this piece, hath been somewhat singular in the course of his fortunes; for it hath happened, that after fourteen years attending the court, with a large stock of real merit, a modest and agreeable conversation, a hundred promises, and five hundred friends, he hath failed of preferment; and upon a very weighty reason. He lay under the suspicion of having written a libel, or lampoon, against a great minister. It is true, that great minister was demonstratively convinced, and publicly owned his conviction, that Mr. Gay was not the author; but having lain under the suspicion it seemed very just that he should suffer the punishment; because in this most reformed age, the virtues of a prime minister are no more to be suspected, than the chastity of Caesar’s wife.
“It must be allowed that the Beggar’s Opera is not the first of Mr. Gay’s works wherein he hath been faulty, with regard to courtiers and statement: for to omit his other pieces; even in his Fables, published within 2 years pass, and dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, for which he was promised a reward, he hath been thought somewhat too bold upon the courtiers. And although it be highly probable he meant only the courtiers of former times, yet he acted unwarily, by not considering that the malignity of some people might misinterpret what he said, to the disadvantage of the present persons and affairs.
“But I have now done with Mr. Gay as a politician; and shall consider him henceforward only as the author of the Beggar’s Opera, wherein he hath, by a turn of humor entirely new, placed vices of all kinds in the strongest and most odious light; and thereby done eminent services, both to religion and morality. This appears from the unparalleled success he hath met with. All ranks, parties, and denominations of men either crowding to see his Opera, or reading it with delight in their closets; even ministers of state, whom he is thought to have most offended, (next to those whom the actors represent) appearing frequently at the Theater, from a consciousness of their own innocence, and to convince the world how unjust a parallel malice, envy, and disaffection to the government have made.
“I am assured that several worthy clergy men in this city went privately to see the Beggar’s Opera represented; and that the fleering coxcomb in the pit amused themselves with making discoveries, and spreading the names of those gentlemen round the audience.
“I shall not pretend to vindicate a clergy man, who would appear only in his habit at a Theater, with such vicious crew, as might probably stand round him, at such comedies and profane tragedies as are often represented. Besides, I know very well, that persons of their function are bound to avoid the appearance of evil, or of giving cause of offence. But when the Lords Chancellors, who are keepers of the King’s conscience; when the Judges of the land, whose title is Reverend; when Ladies, who are bound by the rules of their sex to the strictest decency, appear in the Theater without censure, I cannot understand why a young clergyman, who comes concealed out of curiosity to see an innocent and moral play, should be so highly condemned: nor do I much approve the rigor of a great prelate, who said, he hoped none of his clergy were there. I am glad to hear there are no weightier objections against that reverend body planted in this city, and I will wish there never may. But I should be very sorry that any of them should be so weak as to imitate a court-chaplain in England, who preached against the Beggar’s Opera; which will probably do more good than a thousand sermons of so stupid, so injudicious, and so prostitute a Divine.
“In this happy performance of Mr. Gay, all the characters are just, and none of them carried beyond nature, or hardly beyond practice. It discovers the whole system of that commonwealth, or that Imperium in Imperio of iniquity, established among us, by which neither our lives nor our properties are secure, either on the high-ways, or in public assemblies, or even in our own houses. It shews the miserable lives, and the constant state of those abandoned wretches: For how little they sell their lives and souls; betrayed by their whores, their comrades, and receivers and purchasers of their thefts and robberies. This comedy contains likewise a satire, which, without enquiring whether it affects the present age, may possibly be useful in times to come; I mean, where the author takes the occasion of comparing those common robbers of the public, and their several stratagems of betraying, undermining, and hanging each other, to the several arts of politicians in times of corruption.
“The comedy likewise exposes, with great justice, that unnatural taste for Italian music among us, which is wholly unsuitable to our Northern climate, and the genius of the people, whereby we are over-run with Italian effeminacy, and Italian nonsense. An old gentleman said to me,
that many years ago, when the practice of an unnatural vice grew frequent in London, and many were prosecuted for it, he was sure it would be the forerunner of Italian operas and singers; and then we should want nothing but stabbing, or poisoning, to make us perfect Italians.
“Upon the whole, I deliver my judgment, that nothing but servile attachment to a party, affection of singularity, lamentable dullness, mistaken zeal, or studied hypocrisy, can have the least reasonable objection against this excellent moral performance of the celebrated Mr. GAY.