Rob Roy MacGregor
Preserved but no longer current.
See ROB ROY. Macheath, Captain (mak hethO- A highway- man, hero of The Beggar's Opera by John. Gay (1685-1732), which was produced as a satire on and protest against the fashionable Italian opera, based on classical subjects. It took London by storm when produced in 1727.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Rob Roy MacGregor” mean?
See ROB ROY. Macheath, Captain (mak hethO- A highway- man, hero of The Beggar's Opera by John. Gay (1685-1732), which was produced as a satire on and protest against the fashionable Italian opera, based on classical subjects. It took London by storm when produced in 1727.
Is “Rob Roy MacGregor” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.