THE BEGGAR'S OPERA; IN THREE ACTS; BY JOHN GAY. AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES ROYAL, DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN. PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS FROM THE PROMPT BOOK. WITH REMARKS BY MRS. INCHBALD. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, REMARKS. The celebrated author of this celebrated opera was born to experience variety of fortune; such as plunged him into the bitterest despondency, and such as elevated him to the height of joy. John Gay was born near Barnstaple, in Devonshire, 1688, and received his education at the grammar school there. He was of an ancient family, and yet was bred a mercer: But having a small independ ent fortune, and a mind superior to the state in which his relations had placed him, he purchased his freedom from the indentures which bound him to a shopkeeper, in the Strand, and quitted the counter, where he had attended for several years. His first production, a poem, called "Rural Sports," printed in 1711, and dedicated to Pope, gained him the acquaintance and friendship of that poet, and introduced him to many other distinguished persons. The year following, he was made secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth; and, soon after, accompanied Lord Clarendon, in the same capacity, to Hanover. Gay seems to have fixed his inclination upon a |