A Scene from The Beggar's Opera

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera had opened in London early in 1728 and become the sensation of the season, a comic ballad-opera in plain English that mocked both fashionable Italian opera and Walpole's government. Hogarth, still making his name, painted this scene about five times. It shows the finish, in Newgate prison: the highwayman Macheath stands in chains at the centre while two women kneel and plead for his life, Polly on one side, Lucy on the other, each begging her own father. What makes the picture unusual is that Hogarth also painted the real audience watching from the boxes at the edges. At the far right sits Charles Powlett, Duke of Bolton, his eyes fixed on the actress playing Polly, Lavinia Fenton. He left his wife for her not long after, and years later she became Duchess of Bolton.