Better Gutenberg
Free, beautifully formatted public-domain ebooks

The Beggar’s Opera

by John Gay

43 of 75 · Contents · Download EPUB

Air XXXVI

Polly.
 Cease your Funning;
 Force or Cunning
Never shall my Heart trapan.
 All these Sallies
 Are but Malice
To seduce my constant Man.
 ’Tis most certain,
 By their flirting
Women oft’ have Envy shown.
 Pleas’d, to ruin
 Others wooing;
Never happy in their own.

Polly. Decency, Madam, methinks might teach you to behave yourself with some Reserve with the Husband, while his Wife is present.

Macheath. But seriously, Polly, this is carrying the Joke a little too far.

Lucy. If you are determin’d, Madam, to raise a Disturbance in the Prison, I shall be obliged to send for the Turnkey to shew you the Door. I am sorry, Madam, you force me to be so ill-bred.

Polly. Give me leave to tell you, Madam: These forward Airs don’t become you in the least, Madam. And my Duty, Madam, obliges me to stay with my Husband, Madam.

← Back to The Beggar’s Opera

Scroll to Top