The Beggar's Opera
Perhaps the most prominent play based on Sheppard's life is John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" (1728). Sheppard was the inspiration for the figure of Macheath; his nemesis, Peachum, is based on Jonathan Wild. The play was spectacularly popular, restoring the fortune that Gay had lost in the South Sea Bubble, and was produced regularly for over 100 years. An unperformed but published play "The Prison-Breaker" was turned into "The Quaker's Opera" (in imitation of "The Beggar's Opera") and performed at Bartholomew Fair in 1725 and 1728. Two centuries later "The Beggar's Opera" was the basis for "The Threepenny Opera" of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (1928).