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On an autumn evening, a dumpy, rather pale, middle-aged man sits down to write a letter to a friend.

He's been trying for years to make it as a writer, but every time he seems close to success,

it's been snatched away from him. And he's just had bad news

of one final knockback. He's broke and he can't see a way to carry on. I begin to look upon myself as one

already dead, he writes. If a stone should mark the place of my grave, see these words put upon it.

Life is a jest and all things show it. I thought so once,

but now I know it. And your father's purpose eats for the escape of prisoners must amount to a

considerable sum in the year. Money well timed and properly applied will do anything.

If you had an office solicit you're due.

Within a year he's the most successful writer on the London stage.

His next play, The Beggars Opera, set partly in Newgate Prison and with a cast of thieves,

prostitutes and corrupt jailers, is the hit of 1728.

The theatre's crowded every night, souvenir portraits of the leading lady sell like hotcakes,

...