The Beggar's Opera; to Which is Prefixed the Musick to Each Song

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The color Plates have been placed between scenes. The List of Plates shows their original locations.

To J. G. and to G. L. F., without whom I should have been powerless, do I dedicate my share in this book. C. L. F.
Note.—The Text here given is taken from the edition of 1765. The scenes have been re-numbered in the modern method denoting actual changes of place or intervals of time.
First published September 1921
New Impression October 1921
That when I die this word may stand for me—
He had a heart to praise, an eye to see,
And beauty was his king.
Dead at the age of thirty-one after a sudden operation, Claud Lovat Fraser was as surely a victim of the war as though he had fallen in action. He was full of vigour for his work, but shell-shock had left him with a heart that could not stand a strain of this kind, and all his own fine courage could not help the surgeons in a losing fight. We are not sorry for him—we learn that, not to be sorry for the dead. But for ourselves? This terror is always so fresh, so unexampled. I had telephoned to him to ask whether he would help me in a certain theatrical enterprise. I was told by his servant that he was ill, but one hears these things so often that one gave but little thought to it beyond sending a telegram asking for news; and now this. Personal griefs are of no public interest, but here is as sad a public loss as has befallen us, if the world can measure truly, in our generation.