Professional Playwrights: Massinger, Ford, Shirley & Brome

Irus and his Jovial Crew: Representations of Beggars in Vincent Bourne and other Eighteenth-Century Writers of Latin Verse

“…As Martin Butler points out, 'Pepys saw it four times and in the eighteenth century it was scarcely off the boards, especially after being remade in 1731 into a light-hearted ballad opera, with upwards of sixty musical numbers.' 12 This adaptation may have been intended to cash in on the success of Gay's Beggar's Opera. Similar images appear in other genres, including ballads such as The Merry Beggars of Lincolns-Inn-Fields, an anonymous work dating from the 1680s, in which three beggars amuse each other with descriptions of 'all the Pranks and Tricks they use, to make people believe they are Poor', while spending the 'good store of Silver' they have got by these methods on 'good Liquor.'…”