الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Roughly speaking, literary comparisons are addressing what is universal in the literatures of the world. Human beings are intrinsically of common nature irrespective of the where and the when. As Shakespeare puts it; the world is a stage in which everyone should claim a certain role, either tragic or comic. This explains why life poses a ‗self-consuming‘ fact; life mocks its own mockery through literary works. This study is all about life that literature dramatizes and celebrates to be read and enacted to entertain and educate the readers and theatre-goers. Despite their discrepancy of time and place, playwrights have a tremendous consensus on the fixity of human malaise over the ages and in every nook and cranny. They might be at odds as how to approach those pressing issues like justice, love, friendship, etc., yet they agree on the inevitability of achieving them. Dramatists delve deep into the human psyches to provide their audience with no more than a lived experience, derived from them and addressed to them. The Age of Reason, in which pope and Swift reigned supreme, had attempted a life of restraint. It opted for prescriptivism and proscriptivism as governing principles in life and literature. Unfortunately, the declared decorum and propriety were a façade concealing prejudice and immorality. The morals of the eighteenth century were still prevalent in the twentieth century and beyond. Even in the twenty-first century, the same code of ethics is there—or no definite morality at all. A world rigidly made up of ―haves‖ and ―have-nots‖, so to speak, eye-brow classes and down–trodden classes. Both classes claim clarity and decency, yet none put it right. True, we are in the twenty–first century with its sophistication and complication. However, that drastic change that has been long cherished never witnessed; they are the very same ethics as corrupt as before, the supremacy of money, by all means, is selling in a profit–motivated humanity For Politics has a common ground to share with theft, prostitution and disorder— they all neglect morality. Gay is amongst the eighteenth century playwrights who tried hard enough to unleash a bitter sarcasm of the then double standards in his dramatic productions, particularly in The Beggar’s Opera. In a similar analogy, the Great Depression of the early decades of the twentieth century had swept the world. It had a powerfully knock-on effect on all. Only the upper classes survived its devastating impact. Comedy has proven appropriate in recording the most critical moments of the human individuals and communities. John Gay‘s resounding play, The Beggar’s Opera, and Alfred Farag‘s Atwa Abu Matwa embark upon subtle clampdown on their communities‘ injustice and corruption .Both plays, though written in different time spans, tackle the same themes of love, friendship and political corruption. But most notably is the very idea of justice. The comedies are populated with characters of the ‗lower type‘, like rogues, prostitutes, thieves, pickpockets, beggars, and their likes. Not only did characters speak of politics; they sing tuneful ballads as well. It is worth noticing that the comic performance intertwined with pastoral ballads add impetus to one another. Thus, the situation is an eventful controversy of political, social, economic and religious issues which surfaced then and continue to exist now, as the screw turns and turns. It seems that either diachronically or synchronically, the same old calamities of humanity re-emerge over and over again. It is rest assured that nowhere is secure against the invulnerability of societal circumstances. Humans are marooned amid disproportionate conditions which brought them low; launching notorious careers and overlooking any trace of justice and morality— seriously— a naturalistic world! Comparatists have agreed that analogy of themes and technique are the most fruitful investigation in all genres. For they are inseparable when pinpointing the comparative notes detected in literary works derived from discrepant cultural milieu. The two plays understudy, i.e. The Beggar’s Opera and Atwa Abu Matwa have the makings of a stimulating comparative study. In so far as the criteria of comparative probe is concerned; all of the two combine comedy and ballads to tackle serious and universal concerns. Taking into their heed the socio-economic interests of their times, the two playwrights attempt at a sketchy but minute overview of a world entangled in utilitarianism and injustice, via comic prototypes from the underworld.