Quote 2
“Some
read the Bible; others take a Law Degree / Some join the Church
and some attack the State / While some remove the celery from their
plate / And then devise a theory. / By evening all are busy moralizing
/ But when the night is falling, they are rising.”
When Mrs. Peachum sings these verses
in “The Ballad of Sexual Submissiveness,” in the interlude before
Act II, scene I, she claims that when people are faced with trouble,
they will not give up their habits or physical urges like sex. She
reveals that she knows only one way to approach and apprehend the
elusive master criminal, Macheath—to find him at the brothel he
cannot abandon, even when he is being hunted. By enlisting the help
of Jenny in her quest to find Macheath, Mrs. Peachum implies that
the power of seduction is far greater than the power of the police
department. Mrs. Peachum also knows that Jenny will accept money
in return for betraying Macheath. Her mention of “some remove the
celery from their plate,” displays another distinction between different
types of people. Bible reading and celery removal are thus seen
comparably hollow pursuits. Mrs. Peachum points out just how false
this notion is by stating, outright, that the men who pray by day
are the ones clamoring for sexual gratification at night. Brecht’s
bawdy lyrics make her case.
