I think I enjoyed The Beggar's Opera waaaayyy too much this weekend. I wasn't sure what it was that was so enjoyable until, halfway through Act 2, I started singing out loud, and the stuff that I was singing wasn't lines from the play. In fact, a lot of the themes, ideas, and musical ditties in The Beggar's Opera reminded me a lot of the music I hear all the time. I've included just a couple of the songs I thought about while reading below.
I present: a (semi) modern-day soundtrack to John Gay's 1728 The Beggar's Opera:
1.
Beggar's Opera, Act 1, Scene 2
"'Tis the woman that seduces all mankind,
By her we first were taught the wheedling arts:
Her very eyes can cheat; when most she's kind,
She tricks us of our money with our hearts."
VS:
"Maneater," Hall & Oates
"Ooh, here she comes,
Watch out, boy,
She'll chew you up
[...] She's a maneater."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbevQH1B9ic
Throughout this play, women are used a lot as bait for men. It's not like this is a departure from any of the other literature we've been reading this semester--the way that women can convince men to do bad things is a surprisingly constant theme in all of the eras that we've been reading--but I still thought this was interesting. I feel like the prostitutes in The Beggar's Opera were unusually predatory, and it reminded me of this Hall & Oates song where women are taking advantage of men by "eating them up."
2.
Beggar's Opera, Act 1, Scene 4
"You see I would indulge the girl as far as prudently we can. In anything but marriage! After that, my dear, how shall we be safe? [...] It is your duty, my dear, to warn the girl against her ruin, and to instruct her how to make the most of her beauty."
VS:
"Don't Talk to Strangers," Rick Springfield
"Don't talk to strangers, baby don't you talk
Don't talk to strangers, you know he'll only use you up."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp42V938eBA
Mr. and Mrs. Peachum are worried about Polly spending too much time with Captain Macheath, because she'll fall for him and get married to him, which would cause them to lose her dowry. Even though this Rick Springfield song is a guy talking to a girl he likes, I think the sentiment is maintained: don't talk to strange men, because you'll fall for them and they'll use you.
3.
Beggar's Opera, Act 1, Scene 13
"Oh what a pain it is to part!
Can I leave thee, can I leave thee?"
VS:
"Daylight," Maroon 5
"And when the daylight comes, I'll have to go
But tonight I'm gonna hold you so close."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1q9ojtZqiI
In this quote, Polly and Captain Macheath are being really sentimental about the fact that Macheath has to leave. Macheath has a few "leaving" scenes in this play, and each time they occur they are really overwrought and everyone acts like this is the end of the world. "Daylight" is also about two lovers having to leave each other for an indeterminate amount of time, but in "Daylight" (unlike in The Beggar's Opera), it sounds like the man is actually sad that he will have to leave his love, and not just pretending.
4.
Beggar's Opera, Act 2, Scene 4
"Love then is our duty,
[...] Let's be gay,
While we may,
Beauty's a flower despised in decay."
VS:
"Live While We're Young," One Direction
"Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy till we see the sun.
I know we've only met, but let's pretend it's love.
And never, never ever stop for anyone.
Tonight, let's get some, and live while we're young."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbPED9bisSc
This part of The Beggar's Opera was a classic "carpe diem" section: Macheath is sweet-talking all of the prostitutes with the idea that they're young and should all enjoy themselves (with him) while they still can. This is just like "Live While We're Young," with its incredibly poetic, "tonight, let's get some." It doesn't matter if they don't know each other that well...they should still enjoy themselves while they can.
It's interesting to see how the musical themes in The Beggar's Opera are ones that still occur--often--in our music today. It's clear that we're getting to a time period in English literature which is increasingly relevant and familiar to our own cultural norms. It's also interesting because The Beggar's Opera is all about the tension between low and high forms. Its characters occupy the seedy and questionable parts of society, but Gay commandeers the high form of opera to do it. For us, pop music has never really been considered a "high form," but it's still popular and consumed by...us. Does that make us the beggars? And does that mean that in our society, the beggars have pretty much taken over the airwaves? I don't know...but I think these are some interesting (and somewhat concerning) questions that The Beggar's Opera asks us to consider, as we read it in a modern-day context.
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