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Police report: Macheath.

A general rapscallion, police were first alerted about a chivalrous highwayman who was gaining notoriety on Beggar's Opera Ave. After the German band Brecht and the Shockers released their no.1 track Mack the Knife, based on the culprit, his notoriety only grew. The general public seem to be enthralled by this villain, whose story is eerily reminiscent of Jack Sheppard. Husbands loath him, women love him, and consequences don’t seem to know who he is. While we almost managed to hang him, he was pardoned at the last minute, and joined his (supposedly) true wife Polly in what can only be described as a shameful day for justice. After this, things seem to go off the rails, as he was supposedly seen trying to escape unnoticed to Tasmania with Jenny Diver on a criminal deportation ship. Along the way the ship was attacked by pirates in the South Pasific, with the only evidence of its destruction being a small message in a bottle which washed up in Australia reading: “I killed Macheath, so there is no point looking for him really. He is remarkably dead, and I plan on keeping him that way”. Yours Truely, Captain Crook, Pirate King. So as it is clear to see, he is clearly dead and should not be looked for. 

Officer Tiger Brown. 

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Jack Sheppard

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Jack Sheppard - The real life Macheath

Macheath, especially how he is portrayed in the Beggar's Opera, is thought to be based (in part) off real life criminal Jack Sheppard. Sheppard was a petty thief, whose fame came from the dramatic ways he escaped prison. With his first two escapes, he used his sheets to lower himself, and in the second escaped with his wife Lyon, out of the prison. After a brief stint as a highwayman, the authorities got Lyon drunk so that she would reveal his whereabouts. It worked, and Sheppard was once again in the hands of the law. They would turn out to be slippery hands, however, as Lyon distracted the guards during a visit, giving him enough time to remove a loose bar and make his escape dressed in women’s clothing that Lyon had given him. His escape happened in the nick of time too, as it was on the same day that the warrant for his death arrived. By this point the cockney had captured the imaginations of the public, due to his seeming ability to escape any prison. He did not seem to have such luck, however, with evading capture, for he was soon once again behind bars. Although manacles were locked around his legs, twice guards found tools such as files in his cell. Taking advantage of a kerfuffle in the court house, he managed to break through the ceiling even with his legs still chained together. Breaking through six bolted doors, he then found himself on a roof 20 meters above the ground. Going back to his cell, he grabbed a blanket which he used to climb over to a nearby house. Still in shackles, he escaped to a cowshed where he bribed a black smith to remove the iron from his legs. They were later found in the room of one of his mistresses, Kate Cook. After returning to the city disguised as a beggar, he quickly stole a suit and some jewelry, spending the rest of the time with two mistresses. The police found him blind drunk, and placed him in a situation that even Sheppard could not escape. He was placed under constant surveillance, and loaded with 140kg of iron weights. Although many begged for him not to be executed, and instead be merely exiled, the warrant for his death held firm. Jack’s luck had seemingly run thin, as all of his attempts to thwart the gallows one last time were discovered. He was hung for the full 15 minutes, after being led through London in a festival. About a third of London had come to watch the hanging, and purchase books written about his life and many great escapes. John Gay would use Sheppard as the base for Macheath in the Beggars opera, as at the time he was Sheppard was considered a hero to the common man.

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Jack the Knife

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Macheath’s best friends list:

1: Jenny

2: Macheath

3: Vanderbluff

4: Captain Crook

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Arc of Macheath:

Early in the play Macheath, while being bad, is not as nasty as he is to become. This allows the grossness and evil of Mr. Ducat to shine, while also allowing for the pirates to be somewhat likeable. Macheath, or as everyone else knows him Captain Crook, is in love with Jenny, and it is obvious that he loves her much more than she loves him. This is an ironic twist, as it is often the other way round when it comes to love and Macheath. This unbalanced relationship at first endears the audience to Macheath, who seems to be for the most part harmless. However, as the play progresses, the casual violence Macheath shows towards Mana shows a darker side that was not seen in the beggar’s opera. I think this is interesting, because it challenges the common image of pirates being fun happy go lucky scoundrels. In reality, Crook had come to the South Pacific to steal and murder from whoever lived there. This jarring contrast between the goof who is in the palm of Jenny’s hand and the evil invader who is happy to use torture to get what he wants forces the audience to think about why pirates, who are literally just roaming bands of thieves on boats, are often romatised. The evilness of Macheath towards the end adds to the satisfaction of him dying, and also gives Polly the opportunity to renounce him and start her life as the Pirate Queen.

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This is a real pirate. Macheath wishes he was this cool. 

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So what happened between the Beggar’s Opera and the start of Polly?

After the Beggar's Opera, Macheath quite honestly became tired of Polly and how she completely adored him. Upon hearing that his only lover who was not that fussed about him was about to be deported to a Tasmanian Prison Colony, he disguised himself and joined her, planning to escape once they landed and head to mainland Australia. This would never come to be, as the ship was raided by Pirates. Killing the Pirate King by slashing his throat with a small pen knife, Macheath declared himself Captain Crook and commandeered the ship and its crew. After a few months at sea preying on small traders and prison ships headed towards Australia, Crook hatches a plan to mount a land based attack in order to establish power and wealth. Honestly, he was also not a great captain, having no previous nautical knowledge. And so, with some persuasion from Jenny who was starting to dream of land, he landed the ship and began to plan his land invasion.

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Now that’s an Irate Pirate 

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Motivations

While Macheath has always been a fan of plunder, his skullduggery and thievery were at first as much to build his reputation as they were the loot. He is obsessed with himself, and for the first time he is also having to consider the feelings of someone else that he cares about - Jenny. This creates a source of tension between Jenny and Macheath, as he has had to sacrifice his reputation in order to hide with her. This is evident in the line “after all, was it not for you I disguised myself?” Although he has had to hide the name of Macheath, he takes great pleasure in the notoriety that his new alter ego Crook has garnered. 

Another motivation of Crooks, which differs from how the ‘chivalrous thief’ Macheath from the Beggar's Opera would have acted, is his love for violence. Feeling powerless in his relationship with Jenny, he revels in lashing out and hurting others. This is evident in his tourture of Mana, as well as his initial willingness to go to battle. When the option arises for Macheath to swindle the pirates and head for the ships, which the old Macheath no doubt would have jumped at, he pauses; part of the reason he came to these lands is to murder.

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A letter from a lady: On matters Macheath

Hello Dear. The strangest thing happened to me today. A masked man robbed our carriage. I was quite overcome, both by the threat on my life, and by the presence of a celebrity! For it was indeed Mcheath, the most devious of scoundrels, who clambered upon the cart and demanded I handed over all valuables. Well, perhaps the most valuable thing he stole from me was my heart. I’m sorry darling, but I am now engaged to Macheath! Our love is like a raging fire, passionate and burning, everlasting and golden in the soft autumn air.. Hold on, where did he go?! MACHEATH!

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Probably one of Macheath’s many lovers...

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Relationships

When people say that they are married to their country, they may do so out of a sort of patriotism. For Macheath, it is due to a sizable chunk of England being under the impression that they are married to him. Romance has gotten him out of many tricky spots, such as imprisonment in the Beggar’s Opera. Until he met Jenny, he had not reciprocated feelings with anyone. He had spent hours longingly staring at his own biceps, but other than that love was a foriegn feeling to him. It was a tool that was used for him to get what he wanted. That is, until the roles flipped and he started to be used by Jenny, manipulated through his love for her like he had done so many others. The difference being, of course, that when he did it everyone thought of him as a charming, debenor rouge; when she does it she’s a controlling hussy. 

The only friendship he really has within the crew is Vanderbluff, who does all of the actual sailing of the ship. Vanderbluff can hang around Macheath, and look past his gaping character flaws, because he is in love with him; the rest of the pirates just think of him as irritating.

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Obstacles

1: He does not really know how to Captain a boat; luckily Vanderbluff does this for him. 

2: This is his first time invading a nation, and because of this, he does not know that he should always keep an escape route open. He doesn't, and is forced into combat, in which what he lacks in skill he makes up for in sheer violence. 

3: Not the brightest, he has got to where he is in life primarily from other people being in love with him. 

4: His love for Jenny is seen by the crew as the biggest obstacle stopping Macheath from taking the island, as instead of being attentive to the battle he is busy canoodling with her.   

5: He has never been able to be content with a normal life, and loves seeing his name in the papers. This is also what drives his violence, as he needs for Captain Crook to be known all throughout the British Empire. 

6: Racist: he does call the Islanders savages. This is an obstacle between Macheath and actually being a likeable character.