# Mr. Peachum — The Beggar’s Opera character guide

> Mr. Peachum in The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Peachum, Mr. Peachum

**First appearance:** 0005-the-beggar-s-opera

## Snapshot

A thief-taker who runs London's criminals like a ledger, and who would hang his own son-in-law if the price were right.

## Who they are

Peachum sits at his account book sorting rogues into profit and loss, protecting the industrious and 'booking' the lazy for execution with the calm of a man auditing taxes. He sees all professions as variations on his own — 'the statesman, because he's so great, thinks his trade as honest as mine' — and treats his daughter's marriage as a bad debt. His cold arithmetic drives the plot: when Macheath becomes a liability, Peachum's professional machinery grinds toward the gallows, and the play's satire sharpens into something genuinely menacing.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_beggar_s_opera_se/characters/peachum
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- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_beggar_s_opera_se/characters