Captain Macheath is a fictional character who appears both in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, its sequel Polly and roughly 200 years later in Bertolt Brecht's ;;The Threepenny Opera.[1]
Contents |
Macheath made his first appearance in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera as a chivalrous highwayman. He then appeared as a pirate in Gay's sequel.
He was likely inspired in part by Jack Sheppard who, like Macheath, escaped from prison and enjoyed the affections of a prostitute, and despised violence. His nemesis Peachum who, in John Gay's original work keeps an account book of unproductive thieves (something that Macheath himself does in Bertolt Brecht's work). Both characters can be understood as satires of Robert Wapole.