diff options
Diffstat (limited to '13881-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 13881-0.txt | 1023 |
1 files changed, 1023 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/13881-0.txt b/13881-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6fded4 --- /dev/null +++ b/13881-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1023 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13881 *** + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + + +CATHERINE CLIVE + + +THE CASE OF Mrs. _CLIVE_ + +(1744) + + + +_Introduction by_ + +RICHARD C. FRUSHELL + + + +To + +H.T. Swedenberg, Junior + +_founder, protector, friend_ + + _He that delights to_ Plant _and_ Set, + _Makes_ After-Ages _in his_ Debt. + + Where could they find another formed so fit, + To poise, with solid sense, a sprightly wit? + Were these both wanting, as they both abound, + Where could so firm integrity be found? + + +The verse and emblem are from George Wither, _A Collection of Emblems, +Ancient and Modern_ (London, 1635), illustration xxxv, page 35. + +The lines of poetry (123-126) are from "To My Honoured Kinsman John +Driden," in John Dryden, _The Works of John Dryden_, ed. Sir Walter +Scott, rev. and corr. George Saintsbury (Edinburgh: William Patterson, +1885), xi, 78. + + + * * * * * + + +GENERAL EDITORS + +William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles +Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles +David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + +Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan +James L. Clifford, Columbia University +Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia +Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles +Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago +Louis A. Landa, Princeton University +Earl Miner, Princeton University +Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota +Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles +Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +James Sutherland, University College, London +H.T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles +Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +Curt A. Zimansky, State University of Iowa + + +CORRESPONDING SECRETARY + +Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library + + +EDITORIAL ASSISTANT + +Jean T. Shebanek, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library + + +Typography by Wm. M. Cheney + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Among other things, the licensing act of 1737 stipulated that Covent +Garden and Drury Lane exclusively were the patented and licensed +theaters (respectively) in London, a fact directly related to the revolt +of prestigious players six years later. Although there were sporadic +performances of "legitimate" drama in unlicensed playhouses between 1737 +and 1743, full-time professional actors and actresses were in effect +locked into the approved theaters during the regular theatrical season. +Suspecting a cartel directed against them personally and professionally +by the "Bashas" Rich at Covent Garden and Fleetwood at Drury Lane,[1] +the players from Drury Lane in the summer of 1743 banded together and +refused to perform the next season until salaries and playing conditions +improved. Tardy and partial payment of salary was the surface sore +point, unprincipled and unwarranted manipulation by the managers the +underlying one. As the Macklin-Garrick quarrel attests,[2] the conflict +was not only between labor and management; but the latter confrontation +is central to the conflict in 1743 and the subject of _The Case of Mrs. +Clive Submitted to the Publick_, published in October, 1744, by which +time Catherine (Kitty) Clive had established herself as not only first +lady of comedy but also as somewhat of a patriot of the acting +profession and the Drury Lane company. + +Coming to Drury Lane in 1728 while still in her teens, Kitty Rafter +(1711-1785) quickly became a favorite of the town by virtue of her +singing voice, vivacity, and gift for mimicry. Admired first as a +singing actress, Miss Rafter in 1731 gave unequivocal notice of her +considerable talent as a comic actress in the role of Nell in Coffey's +_The Devil to Pay_, one of several hundred she mastered. Her +specialties: Flora in _The Wonder_, Lady Bab in _High Life Below +Stairs_, Lappet in _The Miser_, Catherine in _Catherine and Petruchio_, +Mrs. Heidelberg in _The Clandestine Marriage_, and the Fine Lady in +_Lethe_. Mrs. Clive's (on 4 Oct. 1733, Miss Rafter married George Clive, +a barrister) popularity as comedienne and performer of prologues and +epilogues is indicated by the frequency of her performances and long +tenure at Drury Lane (she retired in 1769) and documented by the +panegyrics of Fielding, Murphy, Churchill, Garrick, Dr. Johnson, Horace +Walpole, Goldsmith, fellow players, contemporary memoir writers, and +audiences who admired her.[3] Dr. Johnson, I feel, gives the most +balanced, just contemporary appraisal of Mrs. Clive the actress: "What +Clive did best, she did better than Garrick; but could not do half so +many things well; she was a better romp than any I ever saw in +nature."[4] Part of the half she could not do well were tragedy roles, +attested to by Thomas Davies, who comments on her performances as +Ophelia in _Hamlet_ and Zara in _The Mourning Bride_: "Of Mrs. Clive's +Ophelia I shall only say, that I regret that the first comic actress in +the world should so far mistake her talents as to attempt it." And on +Zara, "for her own benefit, the comic Clive put on the royal robes of +Zara: she found them too heavy, and, very wisely, never wore them +afterwards."[5] Part of the half she could do well is noticed, once +again, by Davies: particularly adroit and distinguished in chambermaid +parts, Mrs. Clive + + excelled also in characters of caprice and affectation, from the + high-bred Lady Fanciful to the vulgar Mrs. Heidelberg; in country + girls, romps, hoydens and dowdies, superannuated beauties, viragos + and humourists; she had an inimitable talent in ridiculing the + extravagant action and impertinent consequence of an + Opera-singer--of which she gave an excellent specimen in _Lethe_. + Her mirth was so genuine that whether it was restrained to the arch + sneer, and suppressed half-laugh, or extended to the downright + honest burst of loud laughter, the audience was sure to accompany + her [my punctuation].[6] + +Mrs. Clive's stature as a comic actress would, then, seemingly make her +a prize for Rich or Fleetwood, but they did their best to thwart her +career and happiness at their theaters. + +I suspect that their motivation in so doing was fear that her temper, +her influence with other actors and her audiences, and her strong +loyalty to her profession would hinder their legislated power to control +absolutely London theaters, players, and audiences in 1743. Not much +investigation is required to see Mrs. Clive at her clamoring best, at +various times head to head with Susannah Cibber, Peg Woffington, +Woodward, Shuter, or Garrick. Her letters to Garrick show that as late +as the sixties she was quite capable of vitriol when she felt that she +or her friends were unjustly treated. Tate Wilkinson was surely correct +in describing her as "a mixture of combustibles; she was passionate, +cross, and vulgar," often simultaneously.[7] If this were the case in +mere greenroom tiffs or casual correspondence, how the ire of "the +Clive" must have been excited by the cartelists, who did their utmost to +keep her out of joint and almost out of sight. + +In 1733, Fielding, who furthered Mrs. Clive's career by writing and +editing parts of his plays for her and publicly praising her as a woman +and as an actress, wrote the following encomium on her professional +integrity in his "Epistle to Mrs. Clive," prefatory to _The Intriguing +Chambermaid_: + + The part you have maintained in the present dispute between the + players and the patentees, is so full of honour, that had it been + in higher life, it would have given you the reputation of the + greatest heroine of the age. You looked on the cases of Mr. + Highmore and Mrs. Wilks with compassion, nor could any promises or + views of interest sway you to desert them; nor have you scrupled + any fatigue ... to support the cause of those whom you imagine + injured and distressed; and for this you have been so far from + endeavouring to exact an exorbitant reward from persons little able + to afford it, that I have known you to offer to act for nothing, + rather than the patentees should be injured by the dismission of + the audience.[8] + +Fielding is, of course, referring to the 1733 dispute in which Mrs. +Clive (and Macklin) among the principal players stayed with the +ineffective proprietor of Drury Lane, John Highmore. Jealous that +Highmore and not he gained control of Drury Lane after former +shareholders either died or sold out, Theophilus Cibber demanded, among +other things, that Highmore share profits with his players rather than +pay fixed salaries. He then led the Drury Lane players in revolt in the +autumn of 1733 to the New Haymarket where they played without a license +until March of the 1733-1734 season, at which time they returned to +Drury Lane under the new management of Fleetwood. The actors at least +partially won this battle, and although Highmore tried to have the +vagrant act enforced, the players returned to Drury Lane unscathed. With +Highmore gone, a period of uneasy peace obtained. The players, however, +were not to win so easily the next dispute, the one that took place +after the passage of the licensing act.[9] + +Mrs. Clive's decision to stay with Highmore rather than defect was +probably made because "two women--Mrs. Wilks, the widow of her [Kitty's] +old theatrical idol, and Mrs. Booth--were in he direction of the +theater.[10] But in light of Fielding's words and her actions and +statements in regard to the welfare of Drury Lane and its actors +throughout her career, I believe that Mrs. Clive, although not pleased +with aspects of Highmore's reign, also refused to defect because she +felt that the manager was basically in the right, that her fellow +players would be destitute or at least open to hardship without +employment there, and that the audiences would take offense at such +unprofessional and selfish behavior from their "servants." The "Town," +as her own play _The Rehearsal_ (I.i. 159-170) shows, was always her +judge in matters professional. + +Fielding's prologue to his revised _Author's Farce_ (1734), spoken by +Mrs. Clive, compares the settled, prosperous former days at Drury Lane +with those of 1734, when "... _alas! how alter'd is our Case!/ I view +with Tears this poor deserted Place_."[11] With few exceptions, the +"place" continued strangely in decline even with a competent company and +often with a full house. The falling-off continued until the advent of +Garrick, who with Lacy in 1747 co-managed the theater into a new era. + +From the mid-thirties until 1743, Mrs. Clive appears in roles she had +made famous as well as those newly written with her particular talents +in mind. Fielding, turning more and more to political satire and soon to +another literary form, had little need of her services;[12] but others +did, and the years between the licensing act and 1743 find Mrs. Clive in +demand as the affected lady of quality, speaker of humorous epilogues, +performer in Dublin, and singer of such favorites as "Ellen-a-Roon," +"The Cuckoo," and "The Life of a Beau." This period is also marked by +Mrs. Clive's first professional venture with David Garrick, in his +_Lethe_, the beginning of a relationship to become one of the most +tempestuous and fruitful in all theater history. + +As I intimated at the outset, the licensing act mainly troubled the +London players because of the power of monopoly it invested in Fleetwood +and Rich. Not only were the forums for dramatic presentation now +restricted, but so was professional freedom. The problem, therefore, was +as much philosophical as it was geographical. From the sixteenth century +to 1737, English players had some freedom (albeit limited) to rebel from +intolerable authority and to form their own company.[13] This freedom, +this choice, as Lord Chesterfield pointed out in his speech against the +act, was severely attenuated in 1737, and was to remain so in varying +degrees until the monopoly the act allowed was legislated dead in 1843. +But it was a cartel between the managers that the players most feared, +and there is evidence in the pamphlets growing out of the struggle of +1743 that such a fear was well-founded. + +The playing conditions at Drury Lane in the early forties were not good, +a situation directly attributable to the ineptitude and highhandedness +of Fleetwood (and his treasurer Pierson) and his refusal to pay salaries +in full and on time. The manager's accommodating side-show performers in +his company did not help. Macklin, as Fleetwood's lieutenant, had to try +to pacify actors, workmen, creditors; as actor he commiserated with the +players. With the coming of Garrick from Goodman's Fields to Drury Lane +late in the 1741-1742 season and with a progressively disgruntled Clive +all the principals in the revolt are under one--leaky--roof. + +In light of the number and variety of the published commentary which +accompanied the revolt, perhaps a highlighting of Clive's _Case_ would +be the most efficient way to elucidate some of the major difficulties +involved. After addressing herself to "the Favour of the Publick," with +encouragement from her friends,[14] Mrs. Clive strikes the key note of +her essay: injustice and oppression, specifically seen in the cartel's +threat to "Custom," an iterative word throughout the essay. Mrs. Clive +first speaks of salary, a matter obviously important to her "Liberty and +Livelihood."[15] One writer on the dispute, in a quasi-satirical tract, +denounces the managers in this regard and in so doing echoes Mrs. Clive: +"When there are but two Theatres allowed of, shall the Masters of those +two Houses league together, and oblige the Actors either to take what +Salary or Treatment they graciously vouchsafe to offer them, and to be +parcelled out and confined to this House or t'other, just as they in +their Wisdoms think meet; or else to be banished the Kingdom for a +Livelihood? This is Tyranny with a Vengeance--but perhaps these generous +noble-spirited Masters may intend their Performers a Compliment in it, +and by thus fixing them to one Place, effectually wipe off that odious +Appellation of Vagabonds, which has been sometimes given them."[16] The +licensing act, subsequent cartel, and mistreatment of players were then +not only in the mind of Mrs. Clive. Treated in most of the arguments for +or against the players was salary, but it was only a cover hiding an +underlying malaise. + +Implying that the managers set out to ruin certain performers, including +herself, Mrs. Clive accuses them of putting on "a better Face to the +Town" by publishing (inaccurate) salary figures--a ploy to get public +sanction for lower salaries. Mrs. Clive alludes to salaries published +ostensibly by Fleetwood in the papers (e.g., _Gentleman's Magazine_, +XIII, October 1743, 553), where the pay of such lights as Garrick, +Macklin, Pritchard, and Clive in the 1742-1743 season is made to seem +higher than the salaries of such worthies as Wilks, Betterton, Cibber, +and Oldfield in the 1708-1709 season. The actors, in presenting their +case (_Gentleman's Magazine_, XIII, November 1743, 609), hit at +Fleetwood for citing 1708-1709 salaries, for "the Stage [then] both of +_Drury-Lane_ and the _Hay-market_, were in so wretched a Condition ... +as not to be worth any body's Acceptance." The players use instead +salaries of the 1729 players "to place the salaries of the present +Actors in a true light," since the stage in that year flourished. In +1729, Wilks, the highest paid actor, earned more than his later equal, +Garrick. All other principals' salaries were comparable. + +The main complaint of Fleetwood's company, then, was not only base +salary but the "Fallacy" of the manager's account and his "setting down +besides the Manager's Charges, every benefit Night, what is got by the +Actor's own private Interests in Money and Tickets, as also the Article +of 50L for Cloaths, added to the Actresses Account, which is absolutely +an Advantage to the Manager, as they always lay out considerably more." +This evidence, if not in itself damning to Fleetwood's designs toward +his actors, at least indicates the internecine breach at Drury Lane. +(The inter-theater conflict, important for its effect on repertory and +morale, is adequately examined in theater histories and lies outside my +interests in this essay.) + +Mrs. Clive admits, however, that reduced, unpaid, or "handled" salaries +were not the first fear of the actors; it was instead, she says, the +fear of what "would happen from an Agreement supposed to be concluded +betwixt the two Managers, which made 'em apprehend, that if they +submitted to act under such Agreements, they must be absolutely in the +Managers Power." As the writer of _The Case Between the Managers_ (p. +11) presents it, a conversation between a personified Covent Garden and +Drury Lane would have gone like this: "Well, but, Brother _Drury_, we +can manage that matter [how to keep audiences]--Suppose you and I make a +Cartel; for instance, agree for every other Theatre, and oblige +ourselves by this Cartel to reduce by near one half the Salaries of our +principal Performers--I'gad, we may cramp 'em rarely this way--they must +serve us at any rate we tax their Merit at, for they'll then have no +where else to go to." Drury Lane responds, "D--n me, if that is not +divinely thought--my dear Friend, give me a Kiss." + +Late in the summer of 1743, several months before the salary figures +described above, Garrick, Macklin, Clive, and Mrs. Pritchard among the +principal players attempted to obtain another license to set up their +own company in the Haymarket: shades of 1733. They applied to the +Chamberlain Grafton--who denied it, in part perhaps because put out that +Garrick commanded over L500 a year. There was no chance, therefore, to +sidestep the monopoly effected by the licensing act. Leading the +secession, Garrick agreed with his colleagues to stay out until redress +was forthcoming. Redress did not come, the defectors lost, Fleetwood +won. He starved them in not out, Garrick was persuaded to return to +Drury Lane (which he does in early December, 1743) by the entreaties of +several of the destitute seceded players who asked him to accede to +Fleetwood's terms. As Garrick explains to Macklin (see note 2), he did +so because he had the economic welfare of his fellow actors at heart. +Macklin infuriated with him and Clive disappointed in him, both refused +to accept Garrick's decision, and hence became renegade. Macklin, +uninvited back by Fleetwood, admired Olive's decision to have no part in +signing a petition presented to her by her fellow defectors who +understood that the refusal of a separate license dissolved their bond. +Macklin writes in his Reply to _Mr. Garrick's Answer_ (p. 27) that "it +ought to be known that when this Letter was carried to Mrs. Clive, and +her Name to it desired, she had the Honour and Spirit to refuse, upon +any Consideration, to be made so ridiculous a Tool to so base a +Purpose." + +Others were not so generous as Macklin. The author of _The Disputes +between the Director of D----y, and the Pit Potentates,_ one "B.Y.," +champions the cause of the non-principal players against such as Mrs. +Clive, "for the low-salary'd Players are always at the labouring Oar, +and at constant Expence, while the rest are serv'd up once or twice in a +Week each, as very fine Dishes," one of whom, he says, is Mrs. Clive, an +"avaritious" person whom he is confident "has found, and feels, her +Error by this Time."[17] The writer then details the particular +hardships of Mrs. Roberts, Mrs. Horton, and Mr. Mills, hardships caused +by such greedy principals as Clive. B.Y. obviously chose to ignore the +compassion of Mrs. Clive for the low-salaried players expressed in her +Case. + +Evidence that Mrs. Clive was in no position to be avaricious and that a +debilitating cartel in fact existed is found in her own essay. When the +defected players returned to Drury Lane (except Macklin, whom Fleetwood +considered the cause of the theater's troubles) late in 1743, Fleetwood +offered Mrs. Clive a salary incompatible with her talent and lower than +his previous "agreements" with her. Clive says, "They were such as I was +advis'd not to accept, because it was known they were proposed for no +reason but to insult me, and make me seek for better at the other +Theatre; for I knew it had been settled, by some dark Agreement, that +Part of the Actors were to go to Covent-Garden Theatre, and others to +Drury-Lane." + +Led to believe that she would find comfort and acceptance at Covent +Garden based on previous encouragement by Rich to have her join his +company,[18] Mrs. Clive realized that the dark agreement was a fact, for +"When I apply'd to him, he offered me exactly the same which I had +refused at the other Theatre." She managed a bit more salary, however, +and out of necessity agreed to play. More rankling to Mrs. Clive than +basic salary was her being forced to pay for her benefit. The extant +Clive-Garrick correspondence points to the pride she took in not only a +"clear" benefit but one held during that part of the month she dictated. +As is the case with salary, the basis for this complaint was +unreasonable manipulation by the managers, loss of freedom, and an +unjustified break with tradition: "I had had one [a benefit] clear of +all Expence for Nine Years before; an Advantage the first Performers had +been thought to merit for near Thirty Years, and had grown into a +Custom." + +Mrs. Clive did not regularly play for Rich until December 1743, from +which time she "determined to stay there," doing all in her power to +please her audiences and him. Yet she "found, by his Behaviour to me, it +was designed I should not continue with him." Clive's specific +exposition of Rich's mistreatment of her is a portrait of an actress +aware of her worth and of a manager at his worst. Fired from Covent +Garden--against custom and justice--at the end of the season without +being told, Mrs. Clive could not arrange to play in Ireland, where she +was a great favorite,[19] for Rich's cheat did not become clear to her +until summer was too far advanced. Clive says it all when she observes +"it is unlawful to act any where but with them." Fleetwood was the only +alternative for the next season, and he still owed her £160. 12s. At the +time of Clive's Case (October, 1744) Fleetwood had not yet contacted her +for engagement at Drury Lane even though he could not "but know I am +disengag'd from the other Theatre." Nor could have Clive expected much +of a salary from him even if he did call on her since the last season he +offered her "not near half as much as he afterwards agreed to give +another Performer, and less than he then gave to some others in his +Company." Mrs. Clive could not but conclude that the managers were in +league to distress her.[20] In the final third of her essay, Mrs. Clive +presents a rather touching account of the personal costs of a piece of +legislation which was itself manipulated and "interpreted in the narrow +sense of forming the legal safeguard to the patent monopoly."[21] + +The "Ladies" who had promised their protection to Mrs. Clive obviously +were influential in convincing Rich to re-hire her, for less than one +month after the appearance of Clive's Case the Prince of Wales and his +Princess sponsored at the Haymarket a concert for her benefit,[22] and +her name is regularly listed in the Covent Garden playbills soon after. +The absence of publicity from Mrs. Clive, or about her, suggests that +her second short year at Covent Garden was fairly acceptable to all +concerned, although Portia in _The Merchant of Venice_ was hardly her +forte. + +The next season finds her back at Drury Lane, where she reigns +uncontested queen of comedy for more than twenty years. In addition to +the return of Clive, the 1745-1746 season (one poor in attendance and +new plays) at Drury Lane is noteworthy because of a reinstated Macklin, +a de-throned Fleetwood, a new manager (Lacy), a well-balanced company +soon to be augmented by player-manager Garrick, prospects for a bright +future--and a theatrical monopoly stronger than ever.[23] In the latter +regard Mrs. Clive's case is revealing in that it gives a new emphasis to +the epithet His Majesties' Servants.[24] + +Indiana State University +Terre Haute + + + + + + +NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION + +[1] _The Dramatic Congress_ (London, 1743). Throughout I use short +titles. + +[2] Three major documents concerning this quarrel are published under +the title _Mr. Macklin's Reply to Mr. Garrick's Answer_ (London, 1743). + +[3] Mrs. Clive's four afterpieces, with their allusions to her +personality and career, are equally revealing. I treat this subject in +"An Edition of the Afterpieces of Kitty Clive," Diss. Duquesne Univ. +1968, and "The Textual Relationship and Biographical Significance of Two +Petite Pieces by Mrs. Catherine (Kitty) Clive," RECTR, 9 (May 1970), +51-58, and "Kitty Clive as Dramatist," _DUJ_, N.S., 32 No. 2 (March +1971), 125-132. + +[4] James Boswell, _Boswell's Life of Johnson_, ed. George Birkbeck +Hill, rev. L.F. Powell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1950), IV, 243. + +[5] _Dramatic Miscellanies_ (London, 1785), III, 131, 376. + +[6] Quoted by [John Genest], _Some Account of the English Stage_ (Bath: +H.E. Carrington, 1832), V, 230. + +[7] _Memoirs of His Own Life_ (York, 1790), II, 257. See _Theatrical +Correspondence in Death. An Epistle from Mrs. Oldfield_ (London, 1743), +p. 7. + +[8] _The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq._, ed. William Ernest +Henley (New York: Croscup & Sterling Co., [1902]; reprinted Barnes & +Noble, 1967), X, 277-278. + +[9] For a useful exposition of the 1733 and 1743 disputes in terms of +the licensing act see Watson Nicholson, _The Struggle for a Free Stage +in London_ (Cambridge, Mass.: Archibald Constable & Co., 1906.). + +[10] Percy Fitzgerald, _The Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive_ (London: A. +Reader, 1888), p. 24. P.J. Crean, "The Life and Times of Kitty Clive," +Diss. Univ. of London, 1933, is, however, the authority on Clive's life. +I am indebted to Professor Crean. + +[11] Quoted in Mary E. Knapp, _Prologues and Epilogues of the Eighteenth +Century_ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961), p. 69. + +[12] Yet, with Fitzgerald (_Life_, p. 34), I believe that Fielding could +have helped Mrs. Clive ready her Case for the press. Certainly the +"correctness" of that printed text could not have been achieved by her +alone. Cf. Clive's MS letters, Appendix, "An Edition of the +Afterpieces." + +[13] See Crean, "Life and Times," p. 215. A pertinent example of actors' +seeking redress is, of course, the revolt of 1694-1695, described by +John Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (London. 1708), pp. 43-44; Augustan +Reprint Society publication number 134 (Los Angeles, 1969), with an +Introduction by John Loftis, is a facsimile of the first edition. + +[14] See Arthur H. Scouten, "Introduction," _The London Stage_ +(Carbondale, III.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1961), Pt. 3, +xcv, cxlvii, and Dramatic Congress, p. 20. + +[15] Cf. James Ralph, _The Case of our Present Theatrical Disputes_ +(London, 1743), pp. 3, 48. + +[16] _The Case Between the Managers of the Two Theatres, and their +Principal Actors_ (London, 1743, misdated 1713), p. 20. Cf. _An +Impartial Examen_ (London, 1744), pp. 10-11, 21-22. See also the three +_Queries_ pamphlets: _Queries to be Answered by the Manager of +Drury-Lane_ (London, 1743); _Queries upon Queries_ (London, 1743); _A +Full Answer to Queries upon Queries_ (London, 1743). + +[17] (London, 1744), pp. 15-16. + +[18] _Dramatic Congress_, p. 22. Thomas Davies, _Memoirs of the Life of +David Garrick_, 3rd Ed. (London, 1781), I, 90, says of Rich: he "seems +to have imbibed, from his very early years, a dislike of the people with +whom he was obliged to live and converse." + +[19] See Clive's afterpiece _The Faithful Irish Woman_ in "An Edition of +the Afterpieces." + +[20] See _Mr. Macklin's Reply to Mr. Garrick's Answer_, pp. 18, 29-30, +and _An Impartial Examen_, pp. 10-11. + +[21] Nicholson, _Struggle for a Free Stage_, p. 124; see, too, pp. +83-86. + +[22] Crean, "Life and Times," p. 254 n. 1, points out that on the very +day of this benefit (2 Nov.) a second notice of Mrs. Clive's Case +appeared. + +[23] See Nicholson's concluding chapter. For other effects of the +licensing act see Scouten, _London Stage_, cxlvii, and Ralph, _Case of +the Present Theatrical Disputes_, pp. 22, 43. + +[24] Since the pamphlets cited here are scarce, some rare, perhaps the +following list of locations will prove helpful. Full titles and partial +bibliographical information are available in Robert W. Lowe, _A +Bibliographical Account of English Theatrical Literature_ (London: J.C. +Nimmo, 1888), p. 95. + +_Dramatic Congress_, Univ. Chicago, Austrian Coll., PR 3346. C3D7 1743. + +_Mr. Macklin's Reply_, Newberry Library, V1845. 54. + +_Theatrical Correspondence in Death_, Harvard, Thr 417. 43. 12. + +_Case of Present Theatrical Disputes_, Newberry Library, Rare Book Room. + +_Case Between the Managers_, Univ. Chicago, Austrian Coll., PN 2596. +L6C22. + +_An Impartial Examen_, Harvard, Thr 465. 20. 23. + +_Queries to be Answered_, Harvard, Thr 465. 20. 22. + +_Queries upon Queries_, Harvard, Thur 465. 20. 12. + +_A Full Answer to Queries_, Harvard, Thr 465. 20. 12. + +_Disputes between the Director_, Univ. Chicago, Austrian Coll., PN 2596. +L7D832. + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The facsimile of _The Case of Mrs. Clive_ (1744) is reproduced from a +copy of the first edition (Shelf Mark: PN 2598. C45A2) in The Lilly +Library, Indiana University. The total type-page (p. 9) measures 145 X +78 mm. + + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASE OF MRS. _CLIVE_ + +[Price Six Pence.] + + + * * * * * + + +THE CASE OF MRS. _CLIVE_ + +Submitted to the PUBLICK. + +[Illustration: Printer's trophy-style decoration] + +_LONDON:_ + +Printed for B. DOD at the _Bible_ and _Key_ in _Ave-Mary-Lane_ near +_Stationers-Hall_. MDCCXLIV. + +[Price Six Pence.] + + + * * * * * + +THE CASE OF MRS. _CLIVE_ + +Submitted to the PUBLICK. + + +In order to put an End to ſome falſe Reports, which have been raiſed in +Relation to my not acting this Seaſon, as well as to beſpeak the Favour +of the Publick, I have, by the Advice of my Friends, ventured to addreſs +my ſelf to them, from whom I have received many and great Marks of +Favour, and whoſe further Protection I now ſtand in need of. + +I know Appeals of this Nature, which relate to Diſputes that happen at a +Theatre, are by ſome thought preſuming and impertinent, ſuppoſing they +are too trifling to demand Attention: But, as I perſuade my ſelf that +Injuſtice and Oppreſſion are by no means thought Matters of Indifference +by any who have Humanity, I hope I ſhall not be thought to take too +great a Liberty. I am the more encouraged to hope this from Experience; +it having been obſerved, that thoſe Performers, who have had the +Happineſs to pleaſe on the Stage, and who never did any thing to offend +the Publick, whenever they have been injured by thoſe who preſided over +Theatres, have ſeldom, if ever, failed of Redreſs upon repreſenting the +Hardſhips they met with: And, as I at this time, apprehend my ſelf to +be greatly oppreſſed by the Managers of both Theatres, I hope I ſhall be +juſtified in taking this Method of acquainting the Publick with my Caſe, +ſubmitting it to their Determination. + +Before the Diſputes happened betwixt the Manager of _Drury-Lane_ Theatre +and his Actors, I had articled for Five Years to receive Three Hundred +Pounds a Year, tho' another Performer on that Stage received for Seven +Years Five Hundred Guineas, _per_ Year; and at the Expiration of my +Agreements the Manager offered me an additional Salary to continue at +that Theatre. + +And ſince I have mentioned thoſe Diſputes, which ended ſo greatly to the +Diſadvantage of the Actors, I muſt beg Leave to endeavour to ſet that +Matter in a clear Light, which hitherto has been miſrepreſented to the +Publick: I think my ſelf obliged to this, as the Hardſhips I at preſent +labour under are owing to that Diſagreement; if any think I treat this +Matter too ſeriouſly, I hope they will remember, that however trifling +ſuch Things may appear to them, to me, who am ſo much concerned in 'em, +they are of great Importance, ſuch as my Liberty and Livelihood depend +on. + +As only two Theatres were authoriſed, the Managers thought it was in +their Power to reduce the Incomes of thoſe Performers, who could not +live independant of their Profeſſion; but in order to make this appear +with a better Face to the Town, it was agreed to complain of the Actors +Salaries being too great, and accordingly a falſe Account was publiſhed +of them in the daily Papers, by whom I will not ſay: Whether, or no, +ſome particular Salaries were ſo, I will not pretend to determine; yet, +in the whole, they did not amount to more than had been allowed for +many Years, when the Theatre was under a frugal and exact Regulation; +when the Managers punctually fulfilled, not only all Engagements to +their Actors, but to every other Perſon concerned in the Theatre, and +raiſed very conſiderable Fortunes for themſelves. + +But ſuppoſing the Expence of the Theatre too high, I am very certain it +was not the Actors refuſing to ſubmit to a proper Reduction of them, +which made ſo many of them quit the Stage, but from great Hardſhips they +underwent, and greater which they feared would happen from an Agreement +ſuppoſed to be concluded betwixt the two Managers, which made 'em +apprehend, that if they ſubmitted to act under ſuch Agreements, they +muſt be abſolutely in the Managers Power; and the Event has proved that +their Fears were not ill-grounded, as I doubt not but I ſhall make +appear. + +When the Actors Affairs obliged 'em to return to the Theatres laſt +Winter, under ſuch Abatements of their Salaries as hardly afforded the +greater Part of them a Subſiſtence, I was offered, by the Manager of +_Drury-Lane_ Theatre, ſuch Terms as bore no Proportion to what he gave +other Performers, or to thoſe he had offered me at the beginning of the +Seaſon. They were ſuch as I was adviſ'd not to accept, becauſe it was +known they were propoſed for no reaſon but to inſult me, and make me +ſeek for better at the other Theatre; for I knew it had been ſettled, by +ſome dark Agreement, that Part of the Actors were to go to +_Covent-Garden_ Theatre, and others to _Drury-Lane_; I did, indeed, +apprehend I ſhould meet with better Terms at _Covent-Garden_, becauſe +that Manager had made many Overtures to get me into his Company the +preceding Seaſon, and many times before: But when I apply'd to him, he +offered me exactly the ſame which I had refuſed at the other Theatre, +and which I likewiſe rejected, but was perſuaded to accept ſome very +little better, rather than ſeem obſtinate in not complying as well as +others, and yielded ſo far to the Neceſſity of the Time, as to Act under +a much leſs Salary than ſeveral other Performers on that Stage, and +ſubmitted to pay a Sum of Money for my Benefit, notwithſtanding I had +had one clear of all Expence for Nine Years before; an Advantage the +firſt Performers had been thought to merit for near Thirty Years, and +had grown into a Cuſtom. + +When I was fixed at that Theatre I determined to ſtay there; I did, in +all things which related to my Profeſſon, ſubmit intirely to that +Manager's Direction, and, with the help of other principal Performers, +did greatly promote his Intereſt, as was evident from the Audiences +after we went to Act there; but I found, by his Behaviour to me, it was +deſigned I ſhould not continue with him, but return the next Seaſon to +_Drury-Lane._ + +The Agreements betwixt that Manager and me were verbal, but made before +two Gentlemen of Character and Fortune, on whom I muſt depend for the +fulfilling of them; they were for one Year. At the end of the +Acting-ſeaſon the Manager ſent an Office-keeper to me with ſome Salary +that was due, who required a Receipt in full; I told him a very great +Part of my Agreements were yet due, and requeſted to ſee the Manager, +who came and acknowledged them, and promiſed to bring one of the +Gentlemen who was preſsent at our Ingagements in a Day or two and pay me, +and then he ſaid he had done with me; but he has not paid me, nor have I +ever ſeen him ſince, or as much as heard from him. + +It has always been a Cuſtom in Theatres, that if ever any Actor or +Actreſs was to be diſcharged, or their Allowance leſſen'd, they were +acquainted with it at the End of the Seaſon; the Reaſon of this will +appear to be the giving them a proper Notice to provide for themſelves: +This the Manager of _Covent-Garden_ did to all his Company whom he +deſigned to diſcharge, or whoſe Allowance was to be leſſen'd, except to +me, which made me actually then conclude he determined I ſhould +continue with him, 'till I was undeceived by his Play-Bills with the +Names of other Actreſſes in Parts I uſed to perform; ſo that he has not +only broke thro' the Cuſtoms of the Theatre, but thoſe in practice +almoſt every where, in diſmiſſing me, and has done me a real Injury in +ſuch an unprecedented Act of Injuſtice; for had I been informed of his +Deſign at the End of the Seaſon, I could have made Terms to have acted +in _Ireland_, where I had met with moſt uncommon Civilities, and +received very great Advantages, which I ſhall ever remember with the +utmoſt Gratitude, and take this and every other Opportunity to +acknowledge. + +As I have ſaid, it has been a Cuſtom to give Actors Notice of a +Diſcharge: I muſt at the ſame time obſerve, That it never was a Cuſtom +to diſcharge any, but upon Neglect of their Buſineſs, or ſuch as were +obnoxious to the Publick; this Maxim extended even to thoſe of the +loweſt Claſs; but to thoſe, on whoſe Performances the Town had been +pleaſed to ſtamp a Value, by their Indulgence and Applauſe, the Stage +was always a Support, even after Age or any Accident had made 'em +incapable of their Profeſſion; for the then Patentees thought it as +great a Piece of Inſolence to deprive the Publick of their Pleaſures, as +of Cruelty and Injuſtice to deny thoſe a Subſiſtence who had contributed +towards 'em; for they knew and acknowledged, that the Publick was the +only Support of all, conſequently had an indiſputable Right to be +pleaſed in the beſt manner poſſible. + +It is pretended by the Managers, that they have the ſame Right to +diſcharge an Actor that a Maſter has to turn away a Servant, than which +nothing can be more falſe and abſurd; for, when a Maſter diſmiſſes a +Servant, there are many thouſands beſides to apply to; but when the +Managers diſmiſs an Actor, where are they to apply? It is unlawful to +act any where but with them; Neceſſity or Inclination brings every one +to the Stage; if the former happens to be the Caſe, they will not +readily find an Employment; and if the latter, they will not be fit for +one; ſo that it will appear an Act of great Injuſtice and Oppreſſion. If +it ſhould be objected, That the Actors Demands are ſo exorbitant, that +the Managers cannot comply with 'em? I have already endeavoured to ſhow, +that tho' two or three Salaries might be thought ſo in general, they did +not amount to more than had been allowed, and very conſiderable Profits +ariſing to the Patentees. But there is a very melancholy Inſtance, that +the Actors Demands is not the Reaſon of diſmiſſing 'em, but the Will of +the Manager alone; since laſt Seaſon an Actor and Actreſs returned to +_Drury-Lane_ under ſuch Abatements as that Manager thought proper, and +ſuch as were in no degree equal to their Merit; and yet, at the +beginning of this Seaſon, were diſmiſſed, after having been from their +Infancy on the Stage, and having no other Profeſſions to live by, and +very numerous Families to ſupport. + +The Manager of _Drury-Lane_ tho' he can't but know I am diſengag'd from +the other Theatre, has not made any Application to me to act with him, +which he has done to ſeveral others who quitted that Stage at the Time I +did: The Reaſons which obliged me to leave him ſtill ſubſiſt: He owes +me a Hundred and Sixty Pounds, twelve Shillings, which he has +acknowledged to be juſtly due, and promiſed Payment of it by laſt +_Chriſtmas_ to a Perſon of too great Conſequence for me to mention here, +the greater Part of it Money I expended for Cloaths for his Uſe. He +offer'd me, laſt Seaſon, not near half as much as he afterwards agreed +to give another Performer, and leſs than he then gave to ſome others in +his Company; ſo that I muſt conclude, as every one knows there are +Agreements betwixt the Managers, that there is a Deſign to diſtreſs me, +and reduce me to ſuch Terms as I cannot comply with. + +I am ſorry I am reduced to ſay any thing in favour of myſelf; but, as I +think I merit as much as another Performer, and the Managers are ſo +deſirous to convince me of the contrary, I hope I ſhall be excuſed; +eſpecially when I declare, that at this time, I am not in the leaſt vain +of my Profeſſion. + +As to my Performances, the Audience are the only, proper Judges: But I +may venture to affirm, That my Labour, and Application, have been +greater than any other Performers on the Stage. I have not only acted in +almoſt all the Plays, but in Farces and Muſical Entertainments; and very +frequently two Parts in a Night, even to the Prejudice of my Health. I +have been at a very great Expence in Maſters for Singing; for which +Article alone, the Managers now give five and ſix Pounds a Week. My +additional Expences, in belonging to the Theatre, amount to upwards of +one Hundred Pounds a Year, in Clothes, and other Neceſſaries; and the +pretended great Salaries, of ten and twelve Pounds a Week, which have +been ſo artfully, and falſly repreſented to the Town, to the Prejudice +of the Actors, will, upon Enquiry, appear to be no more than half as +much, ſince they performed half Seaſon, at the Theatres, very ſeldom +above three or four Days a Week; ſo taking in the long Vacation, when +there are no Plays at all, to thoſe Days the preſent Managers omit +acting, a Salary which appears to be great, will be found, in effect, to +be very moderate; and thoſe which are leſs, not a Sufficiency. + +I have now finiſhed all I propoſed; I have ſhown in how aggravating a +manner, without any Reaſon aſſigned, and at a Time a very conſiderable +Sum of Money was owing to me, I have been turn'd out of _Covent-Garden_ +Theatre. The Manager of _Drury-Lane,_ tho' he can't but know what juſt +Reaſons I had for quitting him, has never apply'd to me to return, nor +made the leaſt Excuſe for not paying my Arrears, tho' due ſo long, and +after promiſing Payment near a Year, notwithſtanding I have, for many +Years, not only endeavour'd, but ſucceeded, in greatly promoting that +Manager's Intereſt, as is known to himſelf and his whole Company. + +The Reaſon of my taking the Liberty to communicate theſe Things to the +Publick, is moſt earneſtly to interceed for their Favour and Protection, +from whom I have always met with great Generoſity and Indulgence: For, +as I have already declared, in a Letter publiſhed by me laſt Year in the +Daily Papers, that I had not a Fortune to ſupport me, independent of my +Profeſſion, I doubt not but it will appear, I have not made any +conſiderable Acquiſition to it ſince, having not received two Hundred +Pounds Salary for acting in Plays, Farces, and Singing; tho' other +Performers have received more than twice that Sum. I have, in +Conſideration of theſe Hardſhips, been promiſed the Protection of many +Ladies, to whom I have the Honour to be perſonally known, and will not +doubt the Concurrence of the Publick, in receiving my Performance in the +beſt manner I am, at preſent, capable of, which I ſhall always moſt +gratefully Acknowledge. + +C. CLIVE + +FINIS. + + + * * * * * + + +WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY + +UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES + +THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + +PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT + + + * * * * * + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + +PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT + + +1948-1949 + +16. Henry Nevil Payne, _The Fatal Jealousie_ (1673). + +17. Nicholas Rowe. _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear_ +(1709). + +18. Anonymous, "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 +(1719), and Aaron Hill, Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). + + +1949-1950 + +19. Susanna Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709). + +20. Lewis Theobald, _Preface to the Works of Shakespeare_ (1734). + +22. Samuel Johnson, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), and two +_Rambler_ papers (1750). + +23. John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). + + +1951-1952 + +26. Charles Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1792). + +31. Thomas Gray, _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard_ (1751), and +_The Eton College Manuscript_. + + +1952-1953 + +41. Bernard Mandeville, _A Letter to Dion_ (1732). + + +1962-1963 + +98. Selected Hymns Taken Out of Mr. Herbert's _Temple_ ... (1697). + + +1964-1965 + +109. Sir William Temple, _An Essay Upon the Original and Nature of +Government_ (1680). + +110. John Tutchin, _Selected Poems_ (1685-1700). + +111. Anonymous, _Political Justice_ (1736). + +112. Robert Dodsley, _An Essay on Fable_ (1764). + +113. T.R., _An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning_ (1698). + +114. Two Poems Against Pope: Leonard Welsted. _One Epistle to Mr. A. +Pope_ (1730), and Anonymous, _The Blatant Beast_ (1742). + + +1965-1966 + +115. Daniel Defoe and others, _Accounts of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal_. + +116. Charles Macklin, _The Covent Garden Theatre_ (1752). + +117. Sir Roger L'Estrange, _Citt and Bumpkin_ (1680). + +118. Henry More, _Enthusiasmus Triumphatus_ (1662). + +119. Thomas Traherne, _Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation_ +(1717). + +120. Bernard Mandeville, _Aesop Dress'd or a Collection of Fables_ +(1740). + + +1966-1967 + +123. Edmond Malone, _Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Mr. +Thomas Rowley_ (1782). + +124. Anonymous, _The Female Wits_ (1704). + +125. Anonymous, _The Scribleriad_ (1742). Lord Hervey, _The Difference +Between Verbal and Practical Virtue_ (1742). + + +1967-1968 + +129. Lawrence Echard, Prefaces to _Terence's Comedies_ (1694) and +_Plautus's Comedies_ (1694). + + +1968-1969 + +133. John Courtenay, _A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral +Character of the Late Samuel Johnson_ (1786). + +134. John Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708). + +135. Sir John Hill, _Hypochondriasis, a Practical Treatise_ (1766). + +136. Thomas Sheridan, _Discourse ... Being Introductory to His Course of +Lectures on Elocution and the English Language_ (1759). + +137. Arthur Murphy, _The Englishman From Paris_ (1736). + + +1969-1970 + +138. [Catherine Trotter], _Olinda's Adventures_ (1718). + +139. John Ogilvie, _An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients_ +(1762). + +140. _A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling_ (1726) and _Pudding Burnt to +Pot or a Compleat Key to the Dissertation on Dumpling_ (1727). + +141. Selections from Sir Roger L'Estrange's _Observator_ (1681-1687). + +142. Anthony Collins, _A Discourse Concerning Ridicule and Irony in +Writing_ (1729). + +143. _A Letter From A Clergyman to His Friend, With An Account of the +Travels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver_ (1726). + +144. _The Art of Architecture, A Poem. In Imitation of Horace's Art of +Poetry_ (1742). + + +1970-1971 + +145-146. Thomas Shelton, _A Tutor to Tachygraphy, or Short-writing_ +(1642) and _Tachygraphy_ (1647). + +147-148. _Deformities of Dr. Samuel Johnson_ (1782). + +149. _Poeta de Tristibus: or the Poet's Complaint_ (1682). + +150. Gerard Langbaine, _Momus Triumphans: or the Plagiaries of the +English Stage_ (1687). + + +1971-1972 + +151-152. Evan Lloyd, _The Methodist._ A Poem (1766). + +153. _Are these Things So?_ (1740), and _The Great Man's Answer to Are +these Things So?_ (1740). + +154. Arbuthnotiana: _The Story of the St. Alb-ns Ghost_ (1712), and _A +Catalogue of Dr. Arbuthnot's Library_ (1779). + +155-156. A Selection of Emblems from Herman Hugo's _Pia Desideria_ +(1624), with English Adaptations by Francis Quarles and Edmund Arwaker. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Case of Mrs. Clive, by Catherine Clive + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13881 *** |