John Gay and the London Theatre by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Perhaps they did evoke such an echo. Jonathan Swift in the other island was about to reinforce the attacks on Walpole, with his own satiric touch. Swift employs a somewhat different strategy from that of the “Key,” although also an ironic one, for his Irish audience in an essay published in the Dublin Intelligencer in May 1728. The essay is to be seen in the context of Swift’s pamphlet battles with the Walpole ministry and their Irish representatives, of which the Modest Proposal (1729) would be the crowning jewel. Swift simply co-opts Gay for his side. He, Swift, writes satire, he contends, only for personal satisfaction. “If I ridicule the Follies and Corruptions of a Court, a Ministry, or 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?” He continues, “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 Reflections upon Courtiers and Statesmen, whereof I am by no Means a Judge.”42

Unlike Phil. Harmonicus, Swift does not spell out the Reflections for his audience. Rather, he contends that Gay’s merit and his fourteen years’ attendance at Court have been overlooked and he has “failed of Preferment,” which of course was true. “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, he hath been thought somewhat too bold upon the Courtiers.” Swift here sends the readers of the Fables back to their volumes, to seek out innuendoes that to that moment no one had recognized. After a discussion of recent attacks on the morality of the Opera, Swift in his inimitable backhanded manner focuses attention on the transvaluation of values dramatized in the work: “This Comedy contains likewise a Satyr, 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 Publick, and their several Stratagems of betraying, undermining and hanging each other, to the several Arts of Politicians in Times of Corruption” (p. 36). Times of Corruption. Not these times, not the present Age, of course. It is the rhetorical device of praeteritio, saying by affecting not to say; one of Swift’s favored techniques. “Disingenuous,” Bertrand Goldgar has termed Swift’s arguments in The Intelligencer:43 Disingenuous they are, but ingenious.

Benefiting from the political guidance of The Craftsman and Swift, audiences now knew when to laugh and when to glance significantly at politicians in the theatre boxes. It all added to the fun, and Gay had provided the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.