Polly Peachum, a ‘Model of Virtue’? Questions of Morality in John Gay’s Polly JOCHEN PETZOLD Abstract: At first sight, John Gay’s Polly (1729) seems to ‘rectify’ the moral problems of The Beggar’s Opera (1728): Macheath is finally brought to justice, and the virtuous Polly finds a suitable husband. This view has been more or less taken for granted for almost 300 years. However, closer analysis reveals that Gay’s treatment of the morality question is ironic, since Polly is not the model of virtue she has frequently been taken to be. In particular, some of the songs she sings highlight the discrepancy between her words and her actions. Keywords: John Gay, Polly, morality, irony, songs, The Beggar’s Opera In ‘Polly’ [...] society splits into heroes and villains; there is no doubt at all where one’s sympathies are to lie. Polly has become a model of virtue. 1 Questions of morality have always ‘haunted’ John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1728) and, in a different way, its sequel, Polly (1729). 2 Near the end of the earlier play, the issue of a possible moral is explicitly discussed: Macheath is sentenced to death, but the following scene disrupts the dramatic illusion when the Player and the Beggar come on stage again, the Player asking for a different ending since ‘an Opera must end happily’ (BO, III.xvi.9f.). The Beggar complies and has ‘the Prisoner [...] brought back to his Wives in Triumph’ (BO, III.xvi.14f.). He then expounds the potential moral of his play: Beggar. [...] Had the Play remain’d, as I at first intended, it would have carried a most excellent Moral. ’Twould have shown that the lower Sort of People have their Vices in a degree as well as the Rich: And that they are punish’d for them. (BO, III.xvi.22-6) Near the beginning of the scene, the Beggar says his intention was ‘doing strict poetical Justice’ (BO, III.xvi.4), but what he calls the ‘most excellent Moral’ could also be termed poetic justice with an ironic twist, since the poor people are punished while the rich are not. By having Macheath released, the Beggar implies that he has become one of the ‘great men’ of the political establishment who are beyond the reach of the law, which is, of course, part of the satire. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies Vol. •• No. •• (2011) © 2011 British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX42DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.