The Threepenny Opera: Act 2, Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

It is a Thursday afternoon, and Macheath is waiting in the stable, reclining on his and Polly’s stolen bed. Polly enters in a tizzy, warning Macheath that Peachum has met with Brown—the two of them are now plotting to catch Macheath. Brown “gave in” to Peachum but has apparently urged Polly to give Macheath a heads up and warn him that he should “disappear for a while.” Macheath insists he won’t flee—Scotland Yard has nothing on him, and he refuses to hide like a coward.

Polly, however, produces a list of charges against Macheath she wrote down during Peachum and Brown’s meeting—it includes two murders, thirty burglaries, twenty robberies, and assorted charges of arson, forgery, perjury, and statutory rape—all in the course of less than two years. In response to the laundry list of charges, Macheath replies only that the underage girls he bedded “told [him] they were twenty-one.” Polly warns Macheath that Brown has told her there’s nothing more he can do to protect the thief.

Macheath tells Polly that if he’s to flee, she must take over the “business.” Polly begs Macheath not to talk about business, but he pushes ledgers and account books into her face. He enumerates the money and stolen goods each of his thugs have brought in and begins telling her which men to turn in and send to the gallows for being unproductive—and which ones to promote. Polly, however, is still distracted by her grief—she begs Macheath to remain true while he’s away. Macheath makes several declarations of love, and Polly thanks him for thinking of her even when the police are after him.

Macheath gives Polly instructions as to how to launder money from the “business” to clear suspicion. In four weeks, he tells her, it’ll be time to turn in a number of thugs to take the heat off Macheath. Polly asks how Macheath will bear to look his men in the face when he knows he’s going to betray them—at that very moment, the gang enters, excited by their plans to rob the coronation parade. Macheath orders the men to go ahead with their plans alone—he is taking a “short trip” out to the countryside. Matthew and Robert lament that Macheath will miss the coronoation. Macheath orders the men to obey Polly in his absence. The men are skeptical about taking orders from a woman—but when Polly yells at them loudly and profanely for underestimating her, they clap their hands and welcome her as their “new captain.”

Macheath laments missing out on the coronation—it is sure to be a “gold mine” for crime between all the empty houses and drunk aristocrats roaming the streets. He makes a veiled threat to his men, warning them that if they try to take credit for their own crimes—rather than attributing them to Macheath, to make it look like the legendary gangster can get away with anything—while he’s gone, there will be consequences. The men agree, and remind Polly that payday is on Thursday before leaving the stable. 

As Macheath prepares to leave, Polly grows increasingly anxious. She is afraid that he will forget her—or seek the company of another woman in the countryside. Macheath promises Polly that he loves only her and would never bother with “secondhand goods.” Polly begs Macheath to stay, but he says he must go. Polly tells Macheath of a strange dream she had about the moon—in the dream, the moon looked “thin, like a penny that’s all worn away.” Macheath ignores Polly’s omen, promises he loves her, and hurries away. Alone in the stable, Polly sings a lament in which she confesses her fear that Macheath will never return—and that their marriage, so recently begun, is already ended. She regrets failing to listen to her parents, who knew this would all come to pass.

In a brief interlude, Mrs. Peachum and Ginny Jenny step toward the front of the stage. Mrs. Peachum urges Jenny to report any sighting of Macheath to the police in the next few days or weeks to the police at once. Jenny says that surely Macheath won’t be wasting his time in whorehouses with the police after him, but Mrs. Peachum predicts that Macheath is not one to give up old habits. Mrs. Peachum begins singing “The Ballad of Sexual Submissiveness.” In it, she sings about how a man like Macheath—“a shark with all the world to swim in”—is repeatedly brought down by his basest instincts. He has no regard for the Bible, for the law, or for anything but women. When night falls, Mrs. Peachum insists, men like Macheath “are rising.”