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A Walk Through the Metropolis Exploring Early Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Lingue e Letterature Europee, Americane e Postcoloniali Tesi di Laurea A Walk Through the Metropolis Exploring early eighteenth-century London from the perspective of John Gay’s Trivia and The Beggar’s Opera Relatore Ch. Prof. Flavio Gregori Correlatore Ch. Prof. Shaul Bassi Laureanda Agnese Rocconi Matricola 865876 Anno Accademico 2018 / 2019 Contents: Preface ................................................................................................................ 1 1. Historical Introduction .................................................................................. 5 1.1 A Metropolis in the Making: Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century ........................................................................................................... 5 1.1.1 The Real-Estate Boom, Demographics and Immigration .................. 5 1.1.2 Market and Culture ............................................................................. 7 1.1.3 London Administration, Rebellions and Civil War .......................... 10 1.2 London in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century ........... 13 1.2.1 From the Restoration to Robert Walpole: The Rise of the Parliament ................................................................................................................... 13 1.2.2 Life in the City: Development, Society and Order ........................... 18 1.2.3 Economy and the Financial Revolution ........................................... 21 2. John Gay and the Literary Context of the Early Eighteenth Century ......... 25 2.1 The Life and Works of John Gay ............................................................ 25 2.2 Literature and Politics in the City ..........................................................30 3. The Walker’s London ................................................................................... 39 3.1 Trivia: Genres and Meanings ................................................................. 41 3.1.1 Mocking Genres ................................................................................ 42 3.1.2 The Walker ........................................................................................ 47 3.2 London through the Eyes of the Walker ................................................ 49 3.2.1 Dirt .................................................................................................... 49 3.2.2 Danger Signs .................................................................................... 54 3.2.3 The Costumes of the City ................................................................. 61 3.2.4 Social Types ...................................................................................... 65 3.2.5 Crowd, Alienation and the Public Space .......................................... 70 4. The Beggar’s London ................................................................................... 73 4.1 The Opera and Its Success ...................................................................... 73 4.1.1 The Play ............................................................................................. 75 4.1.2 The Opera ......................................................................................... 78 4.1.3 The Ballads .......................................................................................80 4.1.4 The Beggar ........................................................................................ 83 4.2 Inside Newgate ...................................................................................... 86 4.2.1 Peachum and Lockit ........................................................................ 88 4.2.2 Macheath ......................................................................................... 92 4.3 Newgate Microcosmos ........................................................................... 96 4.3.1 Profit................................................................................................. 96 4.3.2 Social Hierarchies ............................................................................ 99 Conclusions .................................................................................................... 103 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 107 Preface The aim of this thesis is to study and discuss the ways and the degree to which two of John Gay’s major literary works, the mock-georgic poem, Trivia, and the ballad-opera, The Beggar’s Opera, express and are related to the environment of London in the early eighteenth century, a pivotal moment in the redefinition of the city’s identity and in its transition towards the contemporary model of the metropolis. Gay’s representation of London is also examined in light of its collocation in a literary context which was beginning to recognise and question the first cultural, social, environmental and psychological effects of the newly developed urban space. In particular, throughout both Trivia and The Beggar’s Opera, instances occur of the difficulty of conciliating an ideal, harmonious relationship with humanity and nature, with the hustle and bustle of the artificial space of the city, in which an early consumerist economy is reconfiguring the ways of perceiving and treating the natural world as well as the field of human identity and relations. These concerns, which sound particularly relevant to the modern reader, were gradually introducing environmental, sociological and anthropological issues into the artistic and cultural discourse, suggesting a sensitivity much ahead of its times. In the first part of Chapter 1, London’s transition towards the metropolitan model is contextualised and explained through the analysis of the main political, economic and cultural developments of Britain during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, which laid the foundations for an unprecedented urban expansion, demographic growth, and social and cultural modifications of the city. The roots of such expansion can be traced back to some key events and processes of the late sixteenth-century: the first “real- estate boom”, allowed by the Dissolution of Catholic monasteries during the Reformation, which continued for over a century; the shift and development of new trade routes and trading companies revolving around London, the seat of a stable Protestant monarchy, and its bustling marketplace which offered luxuries to the rich and a salary to the working ranks; the court’s settlement in 1 the recently developed Westminster, attracting a social élite which needed appropriate lodgings, services and commodities. These factors rendered the city attractive for the gentry as well as for the workforce, and resulted in a demographic doubling in the span of just the last fifty years of Elizabeth I’s reign. The urban structure began to reach well beyond the ancient walls, but situations of overcrowding and social mixing were gradually becoming the new norm, as aristocrats, merchants, workers and poor were pressed together by mutual dependency. At the same time, the increase of employees in commercial activities, and the emphasis placed on education by the Protestant culture, promoted the flourishing of print and an impressive rise in literacy rates. By the second half of the seventeenth century, at the beginning of the Restoration, London’s redefinition as a metropolis was underway. The second section of Chapter 1 provides a framing context for Gay’s lifetime and works, and summarises some distinctive characteristics of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, particularly as far as the rise of parliamentary and party powers are concerned, the city’s social and structural adaptation to the population rise and diversification, and the evolution of the commercial and financial economy. As the Glorious Revolution reasserted the Protestant identity of the crown and the Parliament’s authority over it, after the absolutistic tendencies of Charles II and James II, the foundations were laid for the development of a deeply engaged political culture which greatly affected life in the city and which would culminate in the “party rage” of the early eighteenth century and of Robert Walpole’s ministry. Meanwhile, particularly after the Great Fire of 1666, the urban architecture was furtherly expanded, rebuilt and modernised; trading companies began evolving into joint-stock companies, and the new economic mechanisms of finance was reshaping the very concept of money. London populace kept increasing, as did its economic power and its attractiveness for all ranks of society; the demographically predominant workforces and paupers lived side by side with the noblemen, the wealthy and various levels of a 2 dawning proto-bourgeoisie of merchants, in a social space which was confused, complex and in the process of being redefined. Chapter 2 provides some information on Gay’s biography and the main themes of his literary production, followed by an overview of the primary instances of city literature of the period, with a focus on the developing of the cultural, social and political space of the club, of journalism and the periodical essay. This section also proposes an overview of the contrasting representations of the urban space and its cultural scene by the two main literary ensembles of the city, the Kit Cat Club (Addison and Steele) and the Scriblerian Club (Swift and Pope), as well as the less polarised perspectives of Defoe (expressed particularly in
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