I ask myself, whether any man will be deterred from turning thief, because of Macheath’s being sentenced to death, and because of the existence of Peachum and Lockit and remembering the captain’s roaring life, great appearance, vast success, and strong advantages, I feel assured that nobody having a bent that way will take any warning from him, or will see anything in the play but a flowery and pleasant road, conducting an honourable ambition- in course of time- to Tyburn Tree.

Johnson’s question, whether any man will turn thief because Macheath is reprieved, seems to me beside the matter. Even in the Beggar’s Opera, the thieves are represented as leading a life which is rather to be envied than otherwise: while MACHEATH, with all the captivations of command, and the devotion of the most beautiful girl and only pure character in the piece, is as much to be admired and emulated by weak beholders, as any fine gentleman in a red coat who has purchased, as VOLTAIRE says, the right to command a couple of thousand men, or so, and to affront death at their head. In every book I know, where such characters are treated of, allurements and fascinations are thrown around them. It appeared to me that to draw a knot of such associates in crime as really did exist to paint them in all their deformity, in all their wretchedness, in all the squalid misery of their lives to show them as they really were, for ever skulking uneasily through the dirtiest paths of life, with the great black ghastly gallows closing up their prospect, turn them where they might it appeared to me that to do this, would be to attempt a something which was needed, and which would be a service to society.

But I had never met (except in HOGARTH) with the miserable reality. I had read of thieves by scores seductive fellows (amiable for the most part), faultless in dress, plump in pocket, choice in horseflesh, bold in bearing, fortunate in gallantry, great at a song, a bottle, pack of cards or dice-box, and fit companions for the bravest.

I saw many strong reasons for pursuing my course. Once upon a time it was held to be a coarse and shocking circumstance, that some of the characters in these pages are chosen from the most criminal and degraded of London’s population.Īs I saw no reason, when I wrote this book, why the dregs of life (so long as their speech did not offend the ear) should not serve the purpose of a moral, as well as its froth and cream, I made bold to believe that this same Once upon a time would not prove to be All-time or even a long time.

Oliver twist author