it may have some influence by making the character of a rogue familiar
and in some degree pleasing."[13]

The success of the piece was immense, and its vogue tremendous. "The
famous 'Beggar's Opera' appeared upon the stage early in the ensuing
season; and was received with greater applause than was ever known:
besides being acted in London sixty-three nights without interruption,
and renewed the next season with equal applause, it spread into all the
great towns of England; was played in many places to the thirtieth and
fortieth time; and at Bath and Bristol fifty times," wrote the anonymous
editor of the 1760 edition of Gay's plays.

"The ladies carried about with them the favourite songs of it in fans,
and houses were furnished with it in screens.... The person who acted
Polly, till then obscure, became all at once the favourite of the town;
her pictures were engraved and sold in great numbers; her life written;
books of letters and verses to her published, and pamphlets made even of
her sayings and jests. Furthermore, it drove out of England, for that
season, the Italian opera, which had carried all before it for several
years."[14] According to Richard's account book, the opera ran at the
theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields for sixty-two (not sixty-three) nights,
of which thirty-two nights were in succession, and these thirty-two
performances realised the total sum of £5,351, Gay's share amounting to
£693.[15] Swift, who was always anxious that Gay should do as well as
possible, wrote to Pope on March 5th: "I hope he [Gay] does not intend
to print his Opera before it is acted; for I defy all your subscriptions
to amount to eight hundred pounds, and yet I believe he lost as much
more, for want of human prudence."[16] The advice, however, came too
late, for Gay had already sold the copyright of the "Fables" and "The
Beggar's Opera" for ninety guineas. The opera was published on February