SOURCE: Coleridge, S. T. “Sir George Etherege, & c.” In Omniana; or Horae Otiosiores, by Robert Southey and S. T. Coleridge, edited by Robert Gittings, pp. 185-88. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.

In the following essay from a collection that was originally published in 1812, Coleridge discusses the immoral nature of Etherege's works, censuring the playwright for “lampoon[ing the noblest passions of humanity in order to pander for its lowest appetites.”]

Often and often had I read Gay's Beggar's Opera, and always delighted with its poignant wit and original satire, and if not without noticing its immorality, yet without any offence from it. Some years ago, I for the first time saw it represented in one of the London Theatres; and such were the horror and disgust with which it imprest me, so grossly did it outrage all the best feelings of my nature, that even the angelic voice...