[5] The original _Lockit_, who was also celebrated for his performance of Serjeant _Kite_. [6] The grammar and spelling of this line are truly _Hogarthian_. [7] "A noted preacher near _Lincoln's-Inn_ playhouse has taken notice of the _Beggar's Opera_ in the pulpit, and inveighed against it as a thing of very evil tendency." _Mist's Weekly Journal, March_ 30, 1728. 3. The Beggar's Opera. The title over it is in capitals uncommonly large. _Brittons_ attend--view this harmonious stage, And listen to those notes which charm the age. Thus shall your tastes in _sounds_ and _sense_ be shown, And _Beggar's Op'ras_ ever be your own. No painter or engraver's name. The plate seems at once to represent the exhibition of _The Beggar's Opera_, and the rehearsal of an _Italian_ one. In the _former_, all the characters are drawn with the heads of different animals; as _Polly_, with a Cat's; _Lucy_, with a Sow's; _Macheath_, with an Ass's; _Lockit_, and Mr. and Mrs. _Peachum_, with those of an Ox, a Dog, and an Owl. In the _latter_, several noblemen appear conducting the chief female singer forward on the stage, and perhaps are offering her money, or protection from a figure that is rushing towards her with a drawn sword. Harmony, flying in the air, turns her back on the _English_ playhouse, and hastens toward the rival theatre. Musicians stand in front of the former, playing on the Jew's-harp, the salt-box, the bladder and string, bagpipes, &c. On one side are people of distinction, some of whom kneel as if making an offer to _Polly_, or paying their adorations to her. To these are opposed a butcher, &c. expressing similar applause. _Apollo_, and one of the Muses, are fast asleep beneath the stage. A man is easing nature under a wall hung with ballads, and shewing his contempt of such compositions, by the use he makes of one of them. A sign of the star, a gibbet, and some other circumstances less intelligible, appear in the back ground. 4. The same. The lines under it are engraved in a different manner from those on the preceding plate. Sold at the Print-Shop in _The Strand_, near _Catherine Street_. 5. A copy of the same, under the following title, &c. The Opera House, or the _Italian_ Eunuch's Glory. Humbly inscribed to those Generous Encouragers of Foreigners, and Ruiners of _England_. From _France_, from _Rome_ we come, To help Old _England_ to _to_ b' undone. Under the division of the print that represents the _Italian Opera_, the words--_Stage Mutiny_--are perhaps improperly added. On the two sides of this print are scrolls, containing a list of the presents made to _Farinelli_. The words are copied from the same enumeration in the second plate of the Rake's Progress.[1] At the bottom are the following lines: