te pastoral might be made a pretty
thing.' Gay borrowed the idea, and constructed 'The Beggar's Opera'
round a cut-throat highwayman of the name of Macheath, while Dr. Pepusch
arranged the music from old English and Scotch melodies, together with
some of the most popular tunes of the day. The success of the work was
very remarkable. It was performed sixty-two times during the first
season, and even now is still to be heard occasionally. It was the
foundation of that exceedingly simple form of art, the English ballad
opera, which was so widely popular in London during the closing years of
the eighteenth century, and early in the nineteenth. At first composers
availed themselves largely of traditional or popular tunes in arranging
the music which diversified the dialogue of these works, but as time
went on they became more ambitious, and the operas of Storace and his
contemporaries are for the most entirely original.

Meanwhile an attempt had been made by Arne to adapt the mannerisms of
the Italian stage to English opera. His 'Artaxerxes,' which was produced
in 1762, was constructed strictly upon the lines of Italian opera, being
made up throughout entirely of airs and recitative. It had a most
encouraging reception, but the enterprise seems to have borne little
fruit, for after a few years we hear no more of English opera 'after the
Italian manner,' and London seems to have been content with Italian
opera and ballad operas of the already familiar type. The traditions of
the latter were successfully carried on by Storace, a naturalised
Italian, Dibdin, Shield, Hook, and many others, many of whose songs are
still popular, though the works of which they once formed part have
long been forgotten. The ballad operas of these composers were of
unimaginable _naivete_ and depended entirely upon their simple
tunefulness for such favour as they won. Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855)
raised the artistic standard of this form of art considerably. There is
real musical interest in some of his concerted pieces, and many of his
choruses, which are familiar to us under the incorrect name of glees,
are capitally written. Had Bishop possessed the necessary energy and
enterprise, he might have founded a school of English opera which would
have compared favourably even with its continental contemporaries.

To John Barnett (1802-1890) belongs the credit of writing the first
English opera, strictly so called, since Arne's 'Artaxerxes.' 'The
Mounta