English 3310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Protestantism, Oxymoron, Antihero
Document Summary
He had the singing in english, which was different for the time. He just rewrote the lyrics to popular airs at the time. They would have been familiar tunes, but with different lyrics, and more potent, satirical lyrics. It premiered at the lincoln inn field"s theatre on january 29th 1728. It was a mixing of high and low culture. It was opera, but it was preformed and depicted from the underbelly of society. The title itself is an oxymoron, because it is an elite thing, opera, with the beggar"s being low. In 1737, there was a canting dictionary his name means mac: son, heath: the outskirts of london, where highwaymen operated. They were romanticized, as they were a criminal elite. He is a leader of a gang of highway men, who pretend to a certain kind of moral code; honour among thieves. However, they may not be as honourable as those who they critique.
