hether I have not as good a title to laugh, as men
have to be ridiculous, and to expose vice, as another hath to be vicious.
If I ridicule the follies and corruptions of a court, a ministry, or a
senate; are they not amply paid by pensions, titles, and power, while I
expect and desire no other reward, than that of laughing with a few
friends in a corner. Yet, if those who take offence, think me in the
wrong, I am ready to change the scene with them, whenever they please.

But if my design be to make mankind better, then I think it is my duty,
at least I am sure it is the interest of those very courts and ministers,
whose follies or vices I ridicule, to reward me for my good intentions;
for, if it be reckoned a high point of wisdom to get the laughers on
our side, it is much more easy, as well as wise to get those on our side,
who can make millions laugh when they please.

My reason for mentioning courts, and ministers, (whom I never think on,
but with the most profound veneration) is because an opinion obtains that
in the "Beggar's Opera" there appears to be some reflection upon
courtiers and statesmen, whereof I am by no means a judge[7].

It is true indeed that Mr. Gay, the author of this piece, hath been
somewhat singular in the course of his fortunes, for it hath happened,
that after fourteen years attending the court, with a large stock of real
merit, a modest, and agreeable conversation, a hundred promises, and five
hundred friends [he] hath failed of preferment, and upon a very weighty
reason. He lay under the suspicion of having written a libel, or lampoon
against a great m[inister][8]. It is true that great m[inister] was
demonstratively convinced, and publicly owned his conviction, that Mr.
Gay was not the author; but having lain under the suspicion, it seemed
very just, that he should suffer the punishment; because in this most
reformed age, the virtues of a great m[inister] are no more to be
suspected, than the chastity of Caesar's wife.

It must be allowed, that the "Beggar's Opera" is not the first of Mr.
Gay's works, wherein he hath been faulty, with regard to courtiers and
statesmen. For, to omit his other pieces even in his Fables, published
within two years past, and dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, for which
he was promised a reward[9]; he hath been thought somewhat too bold upon
courtiers. And although it is highly probable, he meant only the
courtiers of former times, yet he acted unwarily, by