Mistress Peachum's Pleasure: The Life of Lavinia, Duchess of Bolton

Mistress Peachum was Lavinia Fenton, an 18th-century actress who was the original Polly Peachum in John Gay’s celebrated play, The Beggar’s Opera. Both Lavinia and the play were overnight sensations; however, she enjoyed only a few months of fame before she caught the eye of the Duke of Bolton, a married aristocrat, and her life of glamour became ever more scandalous. With a cast of politicians and pickpockets, highwaymen and whores, Mistress Peachum's Pleasure brilliantly illuminates the interplay between the theater and the social and political climate of 18th-century London.