The Beggar's Opera () a suscité des réactions très diverses. Le journal Craftsman mentionnait sa popularité :
«This Week a Dramatick Entertainment has been exhibited at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, entitled The Beggar’s Opera, which has met with a general Applause, insomuch that the Waggs say it has made Rich very Gay, and probably will make Gay very Rich.»
The Craftsman - 3 février 1728
«We hear that the British Opera, commonly called The Beggar's Opera, continues to be acted, at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields with general Applause, to the great Mortification of the Performers and Admirers of the Outlandish Opera in the Haymarket.»
The Craftsman - 17 février 1728
Deux semaines après la soirée d'ouverture, un article parut dans The Craftsman, le principal journal d'opposition, protestant ostensiblement contre le travail de Gay et en fait, plein d'ironie, l'aidant ironiquement à faire la satire de l'établissement de Walpole en prétendant prendre parti pour le gouvernement:
«It will, I know, be said, by these libertine Stage-Players, that the Satire is general; and that it discovers a Consciousness of Guilt for any particular Man to apply it to Himself. But they seem to forget that there are such things as Innuendo’s (a never-failing Method of explaining Libels)… Nay the very Title of this Piece and the principal Character, which is that of a Highwayman, sufficiently discover the mischievous Design of it; since by this Character every Body will understand One, who makes it his Business arbitrarily to levy and collect Money on the People for his own Use, and of which he always dreads to give an Account – Is not this squinting with a vengeance, and wounding Persons in Authority through the Sides of a common Malefactor?»
The Craftsman - 17 février 1728
Le commentateur note la dernière remarque du mendiant: «That the lower People have their Vices in a Degree as well as the Rich, and are punished for them», ce qui implique que les gens riches ne sont pas aussi punis.
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