A few weeks after her first letter, Mary Delaney returned to the subject ("The Beggar's Opera" had been a sensational success at its premiere in London in 1728):'The opera is too good for the vile taste of the town; it (Lotario) is condemned never more to appear on the stage after this night...The present opera is disliked because it is too much studied, and they love nothing but minuets and ballads, in short the Beggars' Opera and Hurlothrumbo are only worthy of applause.