Rich’s Triumphant Entry

Satire on John Rich and his new theatre in Covent Garden with a
procession moving from left to right across the east end of the market
square and entering the colonnade leading to the theatre. John Gay is
carried on a porter’s back preceded by a crowd, one of whom cries “Gay
for ever”. He is followed by Rich, as Harlequin, driving an open
carriage drawn by six satyrs, with Columbine and a spotted dog (a
disguise adopted by Rich as Harlequin in “Perseus and Andromeda”, 1730).
Two authors bow obsequiously to Rich, another wheels a barrow of plays
towards the theatre, bootblacks also bow, but in the lower right-hand
corner, Alexander Pope defecates on sheets from the Beggar’s Opera (the
great triumph of Rich and Gay). Actors in costume, some identified in
the verses below, follow the carriage, and a cart containing properties
including “A Box of Thunder and Lightening”, brings up the rear. Beyond
the main procession is a large crowd of admirers and a closed carriage