to put your fork to all its proper uses, and suffer nobody for the
future to put their knives in their mouths. Lord Cobham says, I should
have printed it in Italian over against the English, that the ladies
might have understood what they read. The outlandish (as they now call
it) Opera has been so thin of late, that some have called it the
Beggar's Opera, and if the run continues, I fear I shall have
remonstrances drawn up against me by the Royal Academy of
Music."[19][20]

DEAN SWIFT TO JOHN GAY.

Dublin, February 26th, 1728.

"I wonder whether you begin to taste the pleasures of independency; or
whether you do not sometimes leer upon the Court, _sculo retorto_? Will
you now think of an annuity when you are two years older, and have
doubled your purchase-money? Have you dedicated your opera, and got the
usual dedication fee of twenty guineas? Does W[alpole] think you
intended an affront to him in your opera? Pray God he may, for he has
held the longest hand at hazard that ever fell to any sharper's share,
and keeps his run when the dice are charged. I bought your Opera to-day
for sixpence--a cussed print. I find there is neither dedication nor
preface, both which wants I approve; it is the _grand gout_."

JOHN GAY TO DEAN SWIFT.

March 20th, 1728.

"'The Beggar's Opera' has been acted now thirty-six times, and was as
full the last night as the first; and as yet there is not the least
probability of a thin audience; though there is a discourse about the
town, that the directors of the Royal Academy of Music design to solicit
against its being played on the outlandish opera days, as it is now
called. On the benefit day of one of the actresses, last week, they were
obliged to give out another play, or dismiss the audience. A play was
given out, but the people called for 'The Beggar's Opera'; and they were
forced to play it, or the audience would not have stayed.

"I have got by all this success between seven and eight hundred pounds,
and Rich (deducting the whole charge of the house) has cleared already
near four thousand pounds. In about a month I am going to the Bath with
the Duchess of Marlborough and Mr. Congreve; for I have no expectation
of receiving any favours from the Court. The Duchess of Queensberry is
in Wiltshire, where she has had the small-pox in so favourable a way
that she had not above seven or eight on her face; she is now perfectly
recovered.

"There is a mezzotinto print published t