and ended in a clamour of applause."[7]

The success of the opera was due to many causes. Some liked it for its
barely veiled allusions on politicians. "Robin of Bagshot, _alias_
Gorgon, _alias_ Bluff Bob, _alias_ Carbuncle, _alias_ Bob Booty," was
very obviously intended for Walpole and his "dear charmers" for his
wife and Molly Skerrett. It may well be believed that the song, "How
happy could I be with either" brought down the house; and the
highwayman must have evoked a hearty laugh with--

And the statesman, because he's so great,
Thinks his trade as honest as mine.

Certainly the songs had much to do in the matter of pleasing the
audience. As a literary work, "The Beggar's Opera" has no great claims,
but there is a spontaneous humour about it that has charm. But it was
the _milieu_ that, acting on the hint thrown out years before by Swift,
Gay chose that appealed to the public taste. Highwaymen and women of the
town are not romantic figures, but Gay made the highwaymen handsome and
lively, and the women of the town beautiful and attractive, and over
them all he cast a glamour of romance and sentimentalism. Even Newgate
seemed a pleasing place, for in this fantasy the author was careful to
omit anything of the horrors of a prison in the early eighteenth
century. Gay, in fact, did for the stage with "The Beggar's Opera" what,
a century later Bulwer Lytton and Harrison Ainsworth did for the reading
public with "Ernest Maltravers," "Jack Sheppard," and the rest.

The morality of the opera was much discussed. Swift took the field, and
wrote in its favour in the _Intelligencer_ (No. 3):--