'Whore and rogue they call husband and wife:
All professions be-rogue one another'
The tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century. In The Beggar's Opera, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay's highly original depiction of the thieves,...

The series of which this title forms a part examines the way in which all the major editions of Shakespeare's plays have been interpolated by a series of editors who have been systematically changing Shakespeare's texts from the 18th century onwards. This text looks at "Macbeth".