Chapter 30

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, whose 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" there appears to be some reflection upon courtiers and statesmen, whereof I am by no means a judge[7].

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 m[inister][8]. It is true that great m[inister] 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 great m[inister] 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 statesmen. For, to omit his other pieces even in his Fables, published within two years past, and dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, for which he was promised a reward[9]; he hath been thought somewhat too bold upon courtiers. And although it is 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 present persons, and affairs.

But I have now done with Mr. Gay as a politician, and shall consider him henceforward only as author of the "Beggar's Opera," wherein he hath by a turn of humour, entirely new, placed vices of all kinds in the strongest and most odious light; and thereby done eminent service, 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 more immediately represent) appearing frequently at the theatre, 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 clergymen in this city, went privately to see the "Beggar's Opera" represented; and that the fleering coxcombs 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 clergyman, who would appear openly in his habit at a theatre, among such a vicious crew, as would probably stand round him, and at such lewd 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 theatre without censure, I cannot understand, why a young clergyman who goes concealed out of curiosity to see an innocent and moral play, should be so highly condemned; nor do I much approve the rigour of a great p[rela]te, 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 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[10].

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 in the highways, or in public assemblies, or even in our own houses. It shews the miserable lives, and the constant fate of those abandoned wretches; for how little they sell their lives and souls; betrayed by their whores, their comrades, and the receivers and purchasers of these thefts and robberies. This comedy contains likewise a satire, which, although it doth by no means affect the present age, yet might have been useful in the former, and may possibly be so in ages to come. I mean where the author takes occasion of comparing those common robbers to robbers of the public;[11] and their several stratagems of betraying, undermining, and hanging each other,[12] to the several arts of politicians in times of corruption.

This comedy likewise exposeth with great justice, that unnatural taste for Italian music among us,[13] 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 so frequent in London, that many were prosecuted for it, he was sure it would be a forerunner[14] 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, affectation 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.

[Footnote 1: See title in note above, p. 313. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2: "He will go among the people, and will draw a crowd together." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 3: Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" was produced by Rich at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's Inn Fields, January 29th, 1727/8, and published in book form in 1728. It was shortly afterwards performed in Dublin, Bath, and other places. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: Writing to Pope, May 10th, 1728, Swift says: "Mr. Gay's Opera has been acted here twenty times, and my lord lieutenant tells me it is very well performed; he has seen it often, and approves it much.... 'The Beggar's Opera' has done its task, _discedat uti conviva satur_" (Scott's edition, xvii. 188-9). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: In his essay "Of Poetry," Sir William Temple, writing of dramatic poetry, says: "Yet I am deceived, if our English has not in some kind excelled both the modern and the ancient, which has been by force of a vein natural perhaps to our country, and which with us is called humour, a word peculiar to our language too, and hard to be expressed in any other;" etc.--"Works," vol. i., p. 247 (1720). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: "Le Théâtre Italian, ou le Recueil de toutes les Comédies et Scènes Françoises, qui out été jouées sur le Théâtre Italian." The collection was edited by Evariste Gherardi, and published in 1695. Two further volumes were issued in 1698, the third containing complete plays. The collection was afterwards extended to six volumes. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7: A modern writer says of it: "It bristles with keen, well-pointed satire on the corrupt and venal politicians and courtiers of the day" (W.H. Husk in Grove's "Dict. of Music").[T.S.]]

[Footnote 8: In the character of Robin of Bagshot Gay intended Sir Robert Walpole.[T.S.]]

[Footnote 9: Gay's "Fables" was first published in 1727, with a dedication "To his Highness William Duke of Cumberland." The Fables are said to have been "invented for his amusement." Cumberland was the second son of George, Prince of Wales, and was afterwards known as "the butcher."[T.S.]]

[Footnote 10: Dr. Thomas Herring, preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon against "The Beggar's Opera" in March, 1727-8. It is referred to in a letter to the "Whitehall Evening Post," dated March 30th, 1728, reprinted in the Appendix to "Letters from Dr. T. Herring to W. Duncombe," 1777. As Archbishop of York, Herring interested himself greatly, during the rebellion of 1745, in forming an association for the defence of the liberties of the people and the constitution of the country. Writing to Swift, under date May 16th, 1728, Gay remarks: "I suppose you must have heard, that I had the honour to have had a sermon preached against my works by a court-chaplain, which I look upon as no small addition to my fame" (Scott, xvii. 194). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 11: The edition of 1729 has "those common robbers of the public." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 12: Peachum says: "Can it be expected that we should hang our acquaintance for nothing, when our betters will hardly save theirs without being paid for it?"--Act II., sc. x. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 13: The rivalry between Handel and the Italian composers had then been keen for nearly twenty years. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 14: The edition of 1729 has "the fore-runner." [T.S.]]

THE INTELLIGENCER, NUMB. XIX[1].

_Having on the 12th of October last, received a letter signed_ ANDREW DEALER, _and_ PATRICK PENNYLESS; _I believe the following_ PAPER, _just come to my hands, will be a sufficient answer to it[2]._

_Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves._ VlRG.[3]

SIR,

I am a country gentleman, and a Member of Parliament, with an estate of about 1400_l_. a year, which as a Northern landlord, I receive from above two hundred tenants, and my lands having been let, near twenty years ago, the rents, till very lately, were esteemed to be not above half value; yet by the intolerable scarcity of silver[4], I lie under the greatest difficulties in receiving them, as well as in paying my labourers, or buying any thing necessary for my family from tradesmen, who are not able to be long out of their money. But the sufferings of me, and those of my rank, are trifles in comparison, of what the meaner sort undergo; such as the buyers and sellers, at fairs, and markets; the shopkeepers in every town, the farmers in general. All those who travel with fish, poultry, pedlary-ware, and other conveniencies to sell: But more especially handicrafts-men, who work for us by the day, and common labourers, whom I have already mentioned. Both these kinds of people, I am forced to employ, till their wages amount to a double pistole,[5] or a moidore, (for we hardly have any gold of lower value left among us) to divide it among themselves as they can; and this is generally done at an ale-house or brandy shop; where, besides the cost of getting drunk, (which is usually the case) they must pay tenpence or a shilling, for changing their piece into silver, to some huckstering fellow, who follows that trade. But what is infinitely worse, those poor men for want of due payment, are forced to take up their oatmeal, and other necessaries of life, at almost double value, and consequently are not able, to discharge half their score, especially under the scarceness of corn, for two years past, and the melancholy disappointment of the present crop.

The causes of this, and a thousand other evils, are clear and manifest to you and all other thinking men, though hidden from the vulgar: these indeed complain of hard times, the dearth of corn, the want of money, the badness of seasons; that their goods bear no price, and the poor cannot find work; but their weak reasonings never carry them to the hatred, and contempt, borne us by our neighbours, and brethren, without the least grounds of provocation, who rejoice at our sufferings, although sometimes to their own disadvantage; of the dead weight upon every beneficial branch of our trade;[6] of half our revenues sent annually to England, and many other grievances peculiar to this unhappy kingdom, excepted for our sins, which keep us from enjoying the common benefits of mankind, as you and some other lovers of their country, have so often observed, with such good inclinations, and so little effect.

It is true indeed, that under our circumstances in general, this complaint for the want of silver, may appear as ridiculous, as for a man to be impatient, about a cut finger, when he is struck with the plague; and yet a poor fellow going to the gallows, may be allowed to feel the smart of wasps, while he is upon Tyburn Road. This misfortune is too urging,[7] and vexatious in every kind of small traffic, and so hourly pressing upon all persons in the country whatsoever, that a hundred inconveniences, of perhaps greater moment in themselves, have been timely[8] submitted to, with far less disquietude and murmurs. And the case seems yet the harder, if it be true, what many skilful men assert, that nothing is more easy, than a remedy; and, that the want of silver, in proportion to the little gold remaining among us, is altogether as unnecessary, as it is inconvenient. A person of distinction assured me very lately, that, in discoursing with the lord lieutenant,[9] before his last return to England, his excellency said, "He had pressed the matter often, in proper time and place, and to proper persons; and could not see any difficulty of the least moment, that could prevent us from being easy upon that article."[10]

Whoever carries to England, twenty-seven English shillings, and brings back one moidore, of full weight, is a gainer of ninepence Irish; in a guinea, the advantage is threepence, and twopence in a pistole. The BANKERS, who are generally masters of all our gold, and silver, with this advantage, have sent over as much of the latter, as came into their hands. The value of one thousand moidores in silver, would thus amount in clear profit, to 37_l_. 10,_s_. The shopkeepers, and other traders, who go to London to buy goods, followed the same practice, by which we have been driven into this insupportable distress.

To a common thinker, it should seem, that nothing would be more easy, than for the government to redress this evil, at any time they shall please. When the value of guineas was lowered in England, from 21_s_. 6_d_. to only 21_s_.[11] the consequences to this kingdom, were obvious, and manifest to us all; and a sober man, may be allowed at least to wonder, though he dare not complain, why a new regulation of coin among us, was not then made; much more, why it hath never been since. It would surely require no very profound skill in algebra, to reduce the difference of ninepence in thirty shillings, or threepence in a guinea, to less than a farthing; and so small a fraction could be no temptation, either to bankers, to hazard their silver at sea, or tradesmen to load themselves with it, in their journeys to England. In my humble opinion, it would be no unseasonable condescension, if the government would graciously please, to signify to the poor loyal Protestant subjects of Ireland, either that this miserable want of silver, is not possible to be remedied in any degree, by the nicest skill in arithmetic; or else, that it doth not stand with the good pleasure of England, to suffer any silver at all among us. In the former case, it would be madness, to expect impossibilities: and in the other, we must submit: For, lives, and fortunes are always at the mercy of the CONQUEROR.

The question hath been often put in printed papers, by the DRAPIER,[12] and others, or perhaps by the same WRITER, under different styles, why this kingdom should not be permitted to have a mint of its own, for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper, which is a power exercised by many bishops, and every petty prince in Germany. But this question hath never been answered, nor the least application that I have heard of, made to the Crown from hence, for the grant of a public mint, although it stands upon record, that several cities, and corporations here, had the liberty of coining silver. I can see no reasons, why we alone of all nations, are thus restrained, but such as I dare not mention; only thus far, I may venture, that Ireland is the first imperial kingdom, since Nimrod, which ever wanted power, to coin their own money.

I know very well, that in England it is lawful for any subject, to petition either the Prince, or the Parliament, provided it be done in a dutiful, and regular manner; but what is lawful for a subject of Ireland, I profess I cannot determine; nor will undertake, that your printer shall not be prosecuted, in a court of justice, for publishing my wishes, that a poor shopkeeper might be able to change a guinea, or a moidore, when a customer comes for a crown's worth of goods. I have known less crimes punished with the utmost severity, under the title of disaffection: And, I cannot but approve the wisdom of the ancients, who, after Astraea had fled from the earth,[13] at least took care to provide three upright judges for Hell. Men's ears among us, are indeed grown so nice, that whoever happens to think out of fashion, in what relates to the welfare of this kingdom, dare not so much as complain of the toothache, lest our weak and busy dabblers in politic should be ready to swear against him for disaffection.

There was a method practised by Sir Ambrose Crawley,[14] the great dealer in iron-works, which I wonder the gentlemen o£ our country, under this great exigence, have not thought fit to imitate. In the several towns, and villages, where he dealt, and many miles round, he gave notes, instead of money, from twopence, to twenty shillings, which passed current in all shops, and markets, as well as in houses, where meat, or drink was sold. I see no reason, why the like practice, may not be introduced among us, with some degree of success, or at least may not serve, as a poor expedient, in this our blessed age of paper, which, as it dischargeth all our greatest payments, may be equally useful in the smaller, and may just keep us alive, till an English Act of Parliament shall forbid it.

I have been told, that among some of our poorest American colonies, upon the continent, the people enjoy the liberty of cutting the little money among them into halves, and quarters, for the conveniences of small traffic. How happy should we be in comparison of our present condition, if the like privilege, were granted to us, of employing the shears, for want of a mint, upon our foreign gold; by clipping it into half-crowns, and shillings, and even lower denominations; for beggars must be content to live upon scraps; and it would be our felicity, that these scraps would never[15] be exported to other countries, while any thing better was left.

If neither of these projects will avail, I see nothing left us, but to truck and barter our goods, like the wild Indians, with each other, or with our too powerful neighbours; only with this disadvantage on our side, that the Indians enjoy the product of their own land, whereas the better half of ours is sent away without so much as a recompense in bugles, or glass, in return.

It must needs be a very comfortable circumstance, in the present juncture, that some thousand families are gone, or going, or preparing to go, from hence, and settle themselves in America. The poorer sort, for want of work; the farmers whose beneficial bargains, are now become a rack-rent, too hard to be borne. And those who have any ready money, or can purchase any, by the sale of their goods, or leases; because they find their fortunes hourly decaying; that their goods will bear no price, and that few or none, have any money to buy the very necessaries of life, are hastening to follow their departed neighbours. It is true, corn among us, carries a very high price; but it is for the same reason, that rats, and cats, and dead horses, have been often bought for gold, in a town besieged.

There is a person of quality in my neighbourhood, who twenty years ago, when he was just come to age, being unexperienced, and of a generous temper, let his lands, even as times went then, at a low rate, to able tenants, and consequently by the rise of land, since that time, looked upon his estate, to be set at half value. But numbers of these tenants, or their descendants are now offering to sell their leases by cant, even those which were for lives, some of them renewable for ever, and some fee-farms, which the landlord himself hath bought in, at half the price they would have yielded seven years ago. And some leases let at the same time, for lives, have been given up to him, without any consideration at all.

This is the most favourable face of things at present among us, I say, among us of the North, who are esteemed the only thriving people of the kingdom: And how far, and how soon, this misery and desolation may spread, is easy to foresee.

The vast sums of money daily carried off, by our numerous adventurers to America, have deprived us of our gold in these parts, almost as much as of our silver.

And the good wives who came[16] to our houses, offer us their pieces of linen, upon which their whole dependence lies, for so little profit, that it can neither half pay their rents, nor half support their families.