Beggar's Opera, Act III as originally perform'd at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1727. [graphic]

Theatrical scene in a prison, after Hogarth's painting illustrating Gay's "The Beggar's Opera". Audience members are shown seated in boxes to the left and right; in the centre, the character of Macheath, a highwayman, stands in shackles; on either side of him, his wife and lover are kneeling before their respective fathers, pleading for intervention on Macheath's behalf; in the background, a group of male figures (Macheath's gang?). Each figure is numbered and listed below under the appropriate category -- performers or audience