Three Hours After Marriage tells the story of Doctor Fossil, a pompous ageing scientist, who has just married a much younger woman, Mrs Townley who is then immediately beset by two rival suitors who try to win her affections.
[2][3] The cast included Benjamin Johnson as Doctor Fossil, Anne Oldfield as Mrs Townley, Margaret Bicknell as Phoebe Clinket, Colley Cibber as Plotwell, William Penkethman as Underplot, Henry Norris as Possum, Elizabeth Willis as Prue, Thomas Walker as the First Actor, James Quin as the Second Actor and John Bowman as Sir Tremendous.
Charles Johnson, in the preface to the published version of his The Sultaness called Three Hours "Long-labour'd Nonsense" and it was also attacked in Leonard Welsted's 1717 Palaemon to Caelia, or, The Triumvirate and in the Poetical Register by Giles Jacob, who stated that it included scenes that "trespass on Female Modesty".
A probable influence on this was Richard Steele, joint manager of Drury Lane, who was a friend of Doctor John Woodward one of the major targets of the play's mockery.
While there is scholarly consensus about the active role of Arbuthnot and Pope in Three Hours After Marriage, however, The Beggar's Opera is generally considered Gay's own work.