The Beggar’s Opera Act 2, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

A group of thieves is drinking and smoking in a tavern. Ben Budge asks what happened to Matt of the Mint’s brother Tom. Matt explains that Tom ended up at Surgeon’s Hall after an “accident.” (He was executed, and scientists took his body for experiments.) Jemmy Twitcher laments that the law targets thieves, even though they are no worse than other men. They deserve what they take, he says, by “the Right of Conquest.” The men praise their own honor, courage, and loyalty. They declare that they would never turn each other in, and they have a right to enjoy themselves, just like everyone else. Matt insists that they are making up for the greed of the wealthy—who are the real thieves, and who don’t know how to appreciate their wealth. He sings a drinking song about wine and women (Air 19).

The audience finally meets Peachum and Macheath’s band of thieves. Like Peachum, even though they like to talk about principles and morality, they are in fact completely immoral. After all, their main belief is “the Right of Conquest”—anything they can take rightly belongs to them. Unsurprisingly, their talk about honor, courage, and loyalty is also completely empty—as later events in the opera show, they absolutely are willing to turn one another in if they stand to gain from it Still, there is a kernel of truth in their worldview: as a matter of fact, the rest of society is just as corrupt as they are, and the wealthy do derive their wealth from theft and brutality (especially in Britain’s colonies). Thus, John Gay asks his audiences a troubling question: is it possible to be moral in an immoral society? Or does such a society inevitably trample on anyone who tries to act ethically, such that cheating and corruption are the only realistic ways to get ahead?

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The Beggar’s Opera: Act 2, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis