Neoclassicism

In reading Beggar's Opera, I didn't see the neoclassicism influence until Doug pointed it out. I still am having trouble understanding how and why Gay used neoclassical ideals. Charles's French influence brought the neoclassical ideals to England, but they went through many different channels to arrive in England. The Italians developed neoclassical ideals from their interpretation of what the Greeks were doing, but most of this interpretation is based off the Roman interpretation, which is not the most accurate of interpretation. The problem with the neoclassical ideals is that they are prescriptive instead of descriptive as in Aristotle's Poetics where he describes why Oedipus is an effective tragedy. The Italians focused on the rules of neoclassicism, and the French took this a step further, creating the French national theatre. However, England, it appears, did not take to this prescriptive (and restrictive) development of theatre. Beggar's Opera is episodic, a mixture of tragedy and comedy, violates all three unities, decorum, and verisimilitude, and requires no elaborate scenic effects. I don't see Gay as imitating neoclassical ideals so much as playing with the audience's expectations of theatre and opera. Audiences, now mostly upper-class, would have certain expectations of theatre, but would not expect a rigid adherence to the neoclassical ideals. As a result, I believe Gay is violating every existing type of drama in order to create something that is completely different from everything else. 

-Lauren Sandelius