The Beggar’s Opera

is present. Macheath But seriously, Polly, this is carrying the joke a little too far. Lucy If you are determined, madam, to raise a disturbance in the prison, I shall be obliged to send for the turnkey to show you the door. I am sorry, madam, you force me to be so ill-bred. Polly Give me leave to tell you, madam: These forward airs don’t become you in the least, madam. And my duty, madam, obliges me to stay with my husband, madam.

Air XXXVII. Good-morrow, gossip Joan.

Lucy

Why how now, madam Flirt?
If you thus must chatter;
And are for flinging dirt,
Let’s try who best can spatter;
Madam Flirt.

Polly

Why how now, saucy jade;
Sure the wench is tipsy!
How can you see me made To him.
The scoff of such a gipsy?
Saucy jade! To her.

Enter Peachum. Peachum Where’s my wench? Ah hussy! Hussy!⁠—Come you home, you slut; and when your fellow is hanged, hang yourself, to make your family some amends. Polly Dear, dear father, do not tear me from him⁠—I must speak; I have more to say to him⁠—Oh! twist thy fetters about me, that he may not haul me from thee! Peachum Sure all women are alike! If ever they commit the folly, they are sure to commit another by exposing themselves⁠—Away⁠—Not a word more⁠—You are my prisoner, now, hussy.

Air XXXVIII. Irish howl.

Polly

No power on earth can e’er divide
The knot that sacred love hath tied.
When parents draw against our mind,
The truelove’s knot they faster bind.
Oh, oh ray, oh amborah⁠—oh, oh, etc.

Holding Macheath, Peachum pulling her.

Scene III

The Same

Lucy, Macheath.

Macheath	I am naturally compassionate, wife; so that I could not use the wench as she deserved; which made you at first suspect there was something in what she said.
Lucy	Indeed, my dear, I was strangely puzzled.
Macheath	If that had been the case, her father would never have brought me into this circumstance⁠—No, Lucy⁠—I had rather die than be false to thee.
Lucy	How happy am I, if you say this from your heart! For I love thee so, that I could sooner bear to see thee hanged than in the arms of another.
Macheath	But could’st thou bear to see me hanged?
Lucy	O Macheath, I can never live to see that day.
Macheath	You see, Lucy; in the account of love you are in my debt, and you must now be convinced, that I rather choose to die than be another’s.⁠—Make me, if possible, love thee more, and let me owe my life to thee⁠—If you refuse to assist me, Peachum and your father will immediately put me beyond all means of escape.
Lucy	My father, I know, hath been drinking hard with the prisoners: and I fancy he is now taking his nap in his own room⁠—If I can procure the keys, shall I go off with thee, my dear?
Macheath	If we are together, ’twill be impossible to lie concealed. As soon as the search begins to be a little cool, I will send to thee⁠—’Till then my heart is thy prisoner.
Lucy	Come then, my dear husband⁠—owe thy life to me⁠—and though you love me not⁠—be grateful⁠—but that Polly runs in my head strangely.
Macheath	A moment of time may make us unhappy forever.
Air XXXIX. The lass of Patie’s Mill, etc.
Lucy	I like the fox shall grieve, Whose mate hath left her side, Whom hounds from morn to eve, Chase o’er the country wide. Where can my lover hide? Where cheat the wary pack? If love be not his guide, He never will come back!
	Exeunt.

Act III

Scene I

Scene, Newgate.

Lockit, Lucy.

Lockit	To be sure, wench, you must have been aiding and abetting to help him to this escape.
Lucy	Sir, here hath been Peachum and his daughter Polly, and to be sure they know the ways of Newgate as well as if they had been born and bred in the place all their lives. Why must all your suspicion light upon me?
Lockit	Lucy, Lucy, I will have none of these shuffling answers.
Lucy	Well then⁠—If I know anything of him I wish I may be burnt!
Lockit	Keep your temper, Lucy, or I shall pronounce you guilty.
Lucy	Keep yours, sir⁠—I do wish I may be burnt. I do⁠—And what can I say more to convince you?
Lockit	Did he tip handsomly?⁠—How much did he come down with? Come, hussy, don’t cheat your father; and I shall not be angry with you⁠—Perhaps, you have made a better bargain with him than I could have done⁠—How much, my good girl?
Lucy	You know, sir, I am fond of him, and would have given money to have kept him with me.
Lockit	Ah Lucy! thy education might have put thee more upon thy guard; for a girl in the bar of an alehouse is always besieged.
Lucy	Dear sir, mention not my education⁠—for ’twas to that I owe my ruin.
Air XL. If love’s a sweet passion, etc.
	When young at the bar you first taught me to score, And bid me be free of my lips, and no more; I was kissed by the parson, the squire, and the sot, When the guest was departed, the kiss was forgot. But his kiss was so sweet, and so closely he pressed, That I languished and pined till I granted the rest. If you can forgive me, sir, I will make a fair confession, for to be sure he hath been a most barbarous