The solution was, of course, to forget one's past work, to scrap the models, and to start feverishly afresh. The only method left untried was the symbolic. That is to say, to hint at the eighteenth century and to suggest that through the doors on the stage existed the London of 1728. The scene demanded to be simple and one which, with slight modifications in doors and windows, remained before the audience for the whole action of the play. It was, therefore, to be a scene of which people did not easily tire and that remained interesting, unobtrusive and formally neat. To find such a scene it is necessary to refer back to days when the Comic and the Tragic scenes were architectural and permanent. This I did and, taking Palladio's magnificent scene at Vicenza, by a shameless process of _reductio ad absurdum_, evolved the scene that is now in use at Hammersmith. Palladio and Gay have much to forgive. So far the scene, but it called for a corresponding treatment in the dresses. In _The Beggar's Opera_ no one is in the height of fashion. Macheath and certain Ladies of the Town alone "keep Company with Lords and Gentlemen," and even then there must have been apparent a distinction. Macheath is unaltered. Here it was essential to keep to tradition. Macheath in a blue coat is unthinkable. The rest of the characters are frankly in the neighbourhood of Newgate. The clothes of Peachum and Lockit would be as equally unfashionable and just as possible thirty years before as thirty years after 1728, whilst the footpads are clad in whatever Georgian rags that happened to come their way. With the women I have taken greater licence. I have kept faithfully to the outlines of the age, the close-fitting bodice, the flat hoops, the square-toed shoes, but I have taken considerable liberties in the manner in which I have shorn them of ribbons and laces and--for the sake of dramatic simplicity, be it remembered--I have eliminated yards of trimming. Just so much explanation is, I consider, due to the public, but whether I have been justified by results or whether, under the sacred mask of Drama, I have erred unpardonably, are points which, so long as this revival draws attention to a forgotten masterpiece, can be of no very great importance. C. LOVAT FRASER. _Chelsea_, _February 1921_. [Illustration] DRAMATIS PERSONAE. MEN. MR. PEACHUM LOCKIT MACHEATH FILCH JEMMY TWITCHER } CROOK-FINGER'D JACK } WAT DREARY } ROBIN OF BAGSHOT } _Macheath's_ Gang. NIMMING NED } HARRY PADDINGTON } MAT OF THE MINT } BEN BUDGE } BEGGAR PLAYER WOMEN. MRS. PEACHUM POLLY PEACHUM LUCY LOCKIT DIANA TRAPES MRS. COAXER } DOLLY TRULL } MRS. VIXEN } BETTY DOXY } _Women of the Town_. JENNY DIVER } MRS. SLAMMEKIN } SUKY TAWDRY } MOLLY BRAZEN } Constables, Drawers, Turnkey, etc. [Illustration] INTRODUCTION BEGGAR, PLAYER. Beggar.