initial commit of ebook 15151HEADmain

1 files changed, 14889 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/15151.txt b/15151.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0fcf54d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/15151.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14889 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of the Play, by Dutton Cook
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Book of the Play
+       Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character
+
+Author: Dutton Cook
+
+Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15151]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF THE PLAY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Riikka Talonpoika and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A BOOK OF THE PLAY
+
+_Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character._
+
+BY
+
+DUTTON COOK,
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"ART IN ENGLAND," "HOBSON'S CHOICE," "PAUL FOSTER'S DAUGHTER,"
+"BANNS OF MARRIAGE" ETC. ETC.
+
+
+_THIRD AND REVISED EDITION._
+
+
+In One Volume
+
+
+London:
+
+SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
+CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET.
+
+1881.
+
+
+CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,
+CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
+
+
+This book, as I explained in the preface to its first edition,
+published in 1876, is designed to serve and entertain those interested
+in the transactions of the Theatre. I have not pretended to set forth
+anew a formal and complete History of the Stage; it has rather been my
+object to traverse by-paths connected with the subject--to collect and
+record certain details and curiosities of histrionic life and
+character, past and present, which have escaped or seemed unworthy the
+notice of more ambitious and absolute chroniclers. At most I would
+have these pages considered as but portions of the story of the
+British Theatre whispered from the side-wings.
+
+Necessarily, the work is derived from many sources, owes much to
+previous labours, is the result of considerable searching here and
+there, collation, and selection. I have endeavoured to make
+acknowledgment, as opportunity occurred, of the authorities I stand
+indebted to, for this fact or that story. I desire, however, to make
+express mention of the frequent aid I have received from Mr. J. Payne
+Collier's admirable "History of English Dramatic Poetry" (1831),
+containing Annals of the Stage to the Restoration. Mr. Collier, having
+enjoyed access to many public and private collections of the greatest
+value, has much enriched the store of information concerning our
+Dramatic Literature amassed by Malone, Stevens, Reed, and Chalmers.
+Referring to numberless published and unpublished papers, to sources
+both familiar and rare, Mr. Collier has been enabled, moreover, to
+increase in an important degree our knowledge of the Elizabethan
+Theatre, its manners and customs, ways and means. I feel that I owe
+to his archaeological studies many apt quotations and illustrative
+passages I could scarcely have supplied from my own unassisted
+resources.
+
+Some additions to the text I have deemed expedient. The few
+errors--they were very few and unimportant--discovered in the first
+edition I have corrected in the present publication; certain
+redundancies I have suppressed; here and there I have ventured upon
+condensation, and generally I have endeavoured to bring my statements
+into harmony with the condition of the stage at the present moment.
+Substantially, however, the "Book of the Play" remains what it was at
+the date of its original issue, when it was received by the reading
+public with a kindness and cordiality I am not likely to forget.
+
+DUTTON COOK.
+
+69, GLOUCESTER CRESCENT, REGENT'S PARK, N.W.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+    CHAPTER I.
+    PLAYGOERS
+
+    CHAPTER II.
+    THE MASTER OF THE REVELS
+
+    CHAPTER III.
+    THE LICENSER OF PLAYHOUSES
+
+    CHAPTER IV.
+    THE EXAMINER OF PLAYS
+
+    CHAPTER V.
+    A BILL OF THE PLAY
+
+    CHAPTER VI.
+    STROLLING PLAYERS
+
+    CHAPTER VII.
+    "PAY HERE"
+
+    CHAPTER VIII.
+    IN THE PIT
+
+    CHAPTER IX.
+    THE FOOTMEN'S GALLERY
+
+    CHAPTER X.
+    FOOT-LIGHTS
+
+    CHAPTER XI.
+    "COME, THE RECORDERS!"
+
+    CHAPTER XII.
+    PROLOGUES
+
+    CHAPTER XIII.
+    THE ART OF "MAKING-UP"
+
+    CHAPTER XIV.
+    PAINT AND CANVAS
+
+    CHAPTER XV.
+    THE TIRING-ROOM
+
+    CHAPTER XVI.
+    "HER FIRST APPEARANCE"
+
+    CHAPTER XVII.
+    STAGE WHISPERS
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII.
+    STAGE GHOSTS
+
+    CHAPTER XIX.
+    THE BOOK OF THE PLAY
+
+    CHAPTER XX.
+    "HALF-PRICE AT NINE O'CLOCK"
+
+    CHAPTER XXI.
+    THE DRAMA UNDER DIFFICULTIES
+
+    CHAPTER XXII.
+    STAGE BANQUETS
+
+    CHAPTER XXIII.
+    STAGE WIGS
+
+    CHAPTER XXIV.
+    "ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS"
+
+    CHAPTER XXV.
+    STAGE STORMS
+
+    CHAPTER XXVI.
+    "DOUBLES"
+
+    CHAPTER XXVII.
+    BENEFITS
+
+    CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    THUNDERS OF APPLAUSE
+
+    CHAPTER XXIX.
+    REAL HORSES
+
+    CHAPTER XXX.
+    THE "SUPER"
+
+    CHAPTER XXXI.
+    "GAG"
+
+    CHAPTER XXXII.
+    BALLETS AND BALLET-DANCERS
+
+    CHAPTER XXXIII.
+    CORRECT COSTUMES
+
+    CHAPTER XXXIV.
+    HARLEQUIN AND CO.
+
+    CHAPTER XXXV.
+    "GOOSE"
+
+    CHAPTER XXXVI.
+    EPILOGUES
+
+
+
+
+A BOOK OF THE PLAY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PLAYGOERS.
+
+
+The man who, having witnessed and enjoyed the earliest performance of
+Thespis and his company, followed the travelling theatre of that
+primeval actor and manager, and attended a second and a third
+histrionic exhibition, has good claim to be accounted the first
+playgoer. For recurrence is involved in playgoing, until something of
+a habit is constituted. And usually, we may note, the playgoer is
+youthful. An old playgoer is almost a contradiction in terms. He is
+merely a young playgoer who has grown old. He talks of the plays and
+players of his youth, but he does not, in truth, visit the theatre
+much in his age; and invariably he condemns the present, and applauds
+the past. Things have much degenerated and decayed, he finds; himself
+among them, but of that fact he is not fully conscious. There are no
+such actors now as once there were, nor such actresses. The drama has
+declined into a state almost past praying for. This is, of course, a
+very old story. "Palmy days" have always been yesterdays. Our
+imaginary friend, mentioned above, who was present at the earliest of
+stage exhibitions, probably deemed the second and third to be less
+excellent than the first; at any rate, he assuredly informed his
+friends and neighbours, who had been absent from that performance,
+that they had missed very much indeed, and had by no means seen
+Thespis at his best. Even nowadays, middle-aged playgoers, old enough
+to remember the late Mr. Macready, are trumped, as it were, by older
+playgoers, boastful of their memories of Kemble and the elder Kean.
+And these players, in their day and in their turn, underwent
+disparagement at the hands of veterans who had seen Garrick. Pope,
+much as he admired Garrick, yet held fast to his old faith in
+Betterton. From a boy he had been acquainted with Betterton. He
+maintained Betterton to be the best actor he had ever seen. "But I
+ought to tell you, at the same time," he candidly admitted, "that in
+Betterton's time the older sort of people talked of Hart's being his
+superior, just as we do of Betterton's being superior to those now."
+So in the old-world tract, called "Historia Histrionica"--a dialogue
+upon the condition of the early stage, first published in
+1699--Trueman, the veteran Cavalier playgoer, in reply to Lovewit, who
+had decided that the actors of his time were far inferior to Hart,
+Mohun, Burt, Lacy, Clun, and Shatterel, ventures to observe: "If my
+fancy and memory are not partial (for men of age are apt to be
+over-indulgent to the thoughts of their youthful days), I dare assure
+you that the actors I have seen before the war--Lowin, Taylor,
+Pollard, and some others--were almost as far beyond Hart and his
+company as those were beyond these now in being." In truth, age brings
+with it to the playhouse recollections, regrets, and palled appetite;
+middle life is too much prone to criticism, too little inclined to
+enthusiasm, for the securing of unmixed satisfaction; but youth is
+endowed with the faculty of admiring exceedingly, with hopefulness,
+and a keen sense of enjoyment, and, above all, with very complete
+power of self-deception. It is the youthful playgoers who are ever the
+best friends of the players.
+
+As a rule, a boy will do anything, or almost anything, to go to a
+theatre. His delight in the drama is extreme--it possesses and absorbs
+him completely. Mr. Pepys has left on record Tom Killigrew's "way of
+getting to see plays when he was a boy." "He would go to the 'Red
+Bull' (at the upper end of St. John Street, Clerkenwell), and when the
+man cried to the boys--'Who will go and be a devil, and he shall see
+the play for nothing?' then would he go in and be a devil upon the
+stage, and so get to see plays." In one of his most delightful papers,
+Charles Lamb has described his first visit to a theatre. He "was not
+past six years old, and the play was 'Artaxerxes!' I had dabbled a
+little in the 'Universal History'--the ancient part of it--and here
+was the Court of Persia. It was being admitted to a sight of the past.
+I took no proper interest in the action going on, for I understood not
+its import, but I heard the word Darius, and I was in the midst of
+'Daniel.' All feeling was absorbed in vision. Gorgeous vests, gardens,
+palaces, princesses, passed before me. I knew not players. I was in
+Persepolis for the time, and the burning idol of their devotion almost
+converted me into a worshipper. I was awe-struck, and believed those
+significations to be something more than elemental fires. It was all
+enchantment and a dream. No such pleasure has since visited me but in
+dreams." Returning to the theatre after an interval of some years, he
+vainly looked for the same feelings to recur with the same occasion.
+He was disappointed. "At the first period I knew nothing, understood
+nothing, discriminated nothing. I felt all, loved all, wondered
+all--'was nourished I could not tell how.' I had left the temple a
+devotee, and was returned a rationalist. The same things were there
+materially; but the emblem, the reference was gone! The green curtain
+was no longer a veil drawn between two worlds, the unfolding of which
+was to bring back past ages, to present a 'royal ghost'--but a certain
+quantity of green baize, which was to separate the audience for a
+given time from certain of their fellow-men who were to come forward
+and pretend those parts. The lights--the orchestra lights--came up a
+clumsy machinery. The first ring, and the second ring, was now but a
+trick of the prompter's bell--which had been, like the note of the
+cuckoo, a phantom of a voice; no hand seen or guessed at which
+ministered to its warning. The actors were men and women painted. I
+thought the fault was in them; but it was in myself, and the
+alteration which those many centuries--of six short twelvemonths--had
+wrought in me." Presently, however, Lamb recovered tone, so to speak,
+as a playgoer. Comparison and retrospection soon yielded to the
+present attraction of the scene, and the theatre became to him, "upon
+a new stock, the most delightful of recreations."
+
+Audiences have always been miscellaneous. Among them not only youth
+and age, but rich and poor, wise and ignorant, good and bad, virtuous
+and vicious, have alike found representation. The gallery and the
+groundlings have been catered for not less than the spectators of the
+boxes and private rooms; yet, upon the whole, the stage, from its
+earliest period, has always provided entertainment of a reputable and
+wholesome kind. Even in its least commendable condition--and this, so
+far as England is concerned, we may judge to have been during the
+reign of King Charles II.--it yet possessed redeeming elements. It was
+never wholly bad, though it might now and then come very near to
+seeming so. And what it was, the audience had made it. It reflected
+their sentiments and opinions; it accorded with their moods and
+humours; it was their creature; its performers were their most
+faithful and zealous servants.
+
+Playgoers, it appears, were not wont to ride to the theatre in coaches
+until late in the reign of James I. Taylor, the water-poet, in his
+invective against coaches, 1623, dedicated to all grieved "with the
+world running on wheels," writes: "Within our memories our nobility
+and gentry could ride well mounted, and sometimes walk on foot,
+gallantly attended with fourscore brave fellows in blue coats, which
+was a glory to our nation, far greater than forty of these leathern
+tumbrels! Then, the name of coach was heathen Greek. Who ever saw, but
+upon extraordinary occasions, Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Francis Drake
+ride in a coach? They made small use of coaches; there were but few in
+those times; and they were deadly foes to sloth and effeminacy. It is
+in the memory of many when, in the whole kingdom, there was not one!
+It is a doubtful question whether the devil brought tobacco into
+England in a coach, for both appeared at the same time." According to
+Stow, coaches were introduced here 1564, by Guilliam Boonen, who
+afterwards became coachman to the queen. The first he ever made was
+for the Earl of Rutland; but the demand rapidly increased, until there
+ensued a great trade in coach-making, insomuch that a bill was brought
+into Parliament, in 1601, to restrain the excessive use of such
+vehicles. Between the coachmen and the watermen there was no very
+cordial understanding, as the above quotation from Taylor sufficiently
+demonstrates. In 1613 the Thames watermen petitioned the king, that
+the players should not be permitted to have a theatre in London, or
+Middlesex, within four miles of the Thames, in order that the
+inhabitants might be induced, as formerly, to make use of boats in
+their visits to the playhouses in Southwark. Not long afterwards
+sedans came into fashion, still further to the prejudice of the
+watermen. In the Induction to Ben Jonson's "Cynthia's Revels,"
+performed in 1600, mention is made of "coaches, hobby-horses, and
+foot-cloth nags," as in ordinary use. In 1631 the churchwardens and
+constables, on behalf of the inhabitants of Blackfriars, in a petition
+to Laud, then Bishop of London, prayed for the removal of the
+playhouse from their parish, on the score of the many inconveniences
+they endured as shopkeepers, "being hindered by the great recourse to
+the playes, especially of coaches, from selling their commodities, and
+having their wares many times broken and beaten off their stalls."
+Further, they alleged that, owing to the great "recourse of coaches,"
+and the narrowness of the streets, the inhabitants could not, in an
+afternoon, "take in any provision of beere, coales, wood, or hay;" the
+passage through Ludgate was many times stopped up, people "in their
+ordinary going" much endangered, quarrels and bloodshed occasioned,
+and disorderly people, towards night, gathered together under pretence
+of waiting for those at the plays. Christenings and burials were many
+times disturbed; persons of honour and quality dwelling in the parish
+were restrained, by the number of coaches, from going out or coming
+home in seasonable time, to "the prejudice of their occasions;" and it
+was suggested that, "if there should happen any misfortune of fire,"
+it was not likely that any order could possibly be taken, since, owing
+to the number of the coaches, no speedy passage could be made for
+quenching the fire, to the endangering both of the parish and of the
+city. It does not appear that any action on the part of Laud or the
+Privy Council followed this curious petition.
+
+It seems clear that the Elizabethan audiences were rather an unruly
+congregation. There was much cracking of nuts and consuming of pippins
+in the old playhouses; ale and wine were on sale, and tobacco was
+freely smoked by the upper class of spectators, for it was hardly yet
+common to all conditions. Previous to the performance, and during its
+pauses, the visitors read pamphlets or copies of plays bought at the
+playhouse-doors, and, as they drank and smoked, played at cards. In
+his "Gull's Horn Book," 1609, Dekker tells his hero, "before the play
+begins, fall to cards;" and, winning or losing, he is bidden to tear
+some of the cards and to throw them about, just before the entrance of
+the prologue. The ladies were treated to apples, and sometimes applied
+their lips to a tobacco-pipe. Prynne, in his "Histriomastix," 1633,
+states that, even in his time, ladies were occasionally "offered the
+tobacco-pipe" at plays. Then, as now, new plays attracted larger
+audiences than ordinary. Dekker observes, in his "News from Hell,"
+1606, "It was a comedy to see what a crowding, as if it had been at a
+new play, there was upon the Acherontic strand." How the spectators
+comported themselves upon these occasions, Ben Jonson, "the Mirror of
+Manners," as Mr. Collier well surnames him, has described in his
+comedy "The Case is Altered," acted at Blackfriars about 1599. "But
+the sport is, at a new play, to observe the sway and variety of
+opinion that passeth it. A man shall have such a confused mixture of
+judgment poured out in the throng there, as ridiculous as laughter
+itself. One says he likes not the writing; another likes not the plot;
+another not the playing; and sometimes a fellow that comes not there
+past once in five years, at a Parliament time or so, will be as
+deep-mired in censuring as the best, and swear, by God's foot, he
+would never stir his foot to see a hundred such as that is!" The
+conduct of the gallants, among whom were included those who deemed
+themselves critics and wits, appears to have usually been of a very
+unseemly and offensive kind. They sat upon the stage, paying sixpence
+or a shilling for the hire of a stool, or reclined upon the rushes
+with which the boards were strewn. Their pages were in attendance to
+fill their pipes; and they were noted for the capriciousness and
+severity of their criticisms. "They had taken such a habit of dislike
+in all things," says Valentine, in "The Case is Altered," "that they
+will approve nothing, be it ever so conceited or elaborate; but sit
+dispersed, making faces and spitting, wagging their upright ears, and
+cry: 'Filthy, filthy!'" Ben Jonson had suffered much from the censure
+of his audiences. In "The Devil is an Ass," he describes the demeanour
+of a gallant occupying a seat upon the stage. Fitsdottrell says:
+
+    To day I go to the Blackfriars playhouse,
+    Sit in the view, salute all my acquaintance;
+    Rise up between the acts, let fall my cloak;
+    Publish a handsome man and a rich suit--
+    And that's a special end why we go thither.
+
+Of the cutpurses, rogues, and evil characters of both sexes who
+frequented the old theatres, abundant mention is made by the poets and
+satirists of the past. In this respect there can be no question that
+the censure which was so liberally awarded was also richly merited.
+Mr. Collier quotes from Edmund Gayton, an author who avowedly "wrote
+trite things merely to get bread to sustain him and his wife," and who
+published, in 1654, "Festivous Notes on the History of the renowned
+Don Quixote," a curious account of the behaviour of our early
+audiences at certain of the public theatres. "Men," it is observed,
+"come not to study at a playhouse, but love such expressions and
+passages which with ease insinuate themselves into their
+capacities.... On holidays, when sailors, watermen, shoemakers,
+butchers, and apprentices are at leisure, then it is good policy to
+amaze those violent spirits with some tearing tragedy full of fights
+and skirmishes ... the spectators frequently mounting the stage, and
+making a more bloody catastrophe among themselves than the players
+did." Occasionally, it appears, the audience compelled the actors to
+perform, not the drama their programmes had announced, but some other,
+such as "the major part of the company had a mind to: sometimes
+'Tamerlane;' sometimes 'Jugurtha;' sometimes 'The Jew of Malta;' and,
+sometimes, parts of all these; and, at last, none of the three taking,
+they were forced to undress and put off their tragic habits, and
+conclude the day with 'The Merry Milkmaids.'" If it so chanced that
+the players were refractory, then "the benches, the tiles, the lathes,
+the stones, oranges, apples, nuts, flew about most liberally; and as
+there were mechanics of all professions, everyone fell to his own
+trade, and dissolved a house on the instant, and made a ruin of a
+stately fabric. It was not then the most mimical nor fighting man
+could pacify; prologues nor epilogues would prevail; the Devil and the
+Fool [evidently two popular characters at this time] were quite out of
+favour; nothing but noise and tumult fills the house," &c. &c.
+
+Concerning the dramatist of the time, upon the occasion of the first
+performance of his play, his anxiety, irascibility, and peculiarities
+generally, Ben Jonson provides sufficient information. "We are not so
+officiously befriended by him," says one of the characters in the
+Induction to "Cynthia's Revels," "as to have his presence in the
+tiring-house, to prompt us aloud, stamp at the bookholder [or
+prompter], swear at our properties, curse the poor tireman, rail the
+musick out of tune, and sweat for every venial trespass we commit as
+some author would." While, in the Induction to his "Staple of News,"
+Jonson has clearly portrayed himself. "Yonder he is," says Mirth, in
+reply to some remark touching the poet of the performance, "within--I
+was in the tiring-house awhile, to see the actors dressed--rolling
+himself up and down like a tun in the midst of them ... never did
+vessel, or wort, or wine, work so ... a stewed poet!... he doth sit
+like an unbraced drum, with one of his heads beaten out," &c. The
+dramatic poets, it may be noted, were admitted gratis to the theatres,
+and duly took their places among the spectators. Not a few of them
+were also actors. Dekker, in his "Satiromastix," accuses Jonson of
+sitting in the gallery during the performance of his own plays,
+distorting his countenance at every line, "to make gentlemen have an
+eye on him, and to make players afraid" to act their parts. A further
+charge is thus worded: "Besides, you must forswear to venture on the
+stage, when your play is ended, and exchange courtesies and
+compliments with the gallants in the lords' rooms (or boxes), to make
+all the house rise up in arms, and cry: 'That's Horace! that's he!
+that's he! that's he that purges humours and diseases!'"
+
+Jonson makes frequent complaint of the growing fastidiousness of his
+audience, and nearly fifty years later, the same charge against the
+public is repeated by Davenant, in the Prologue to his "Unfortunate
+Lovers." He tells the spectators that they expect to have in two hours
+ten times more wit than was allowed their silly ancestors in twenty
+years, who
+
+                        to the theatre would come,
+    Ere they had dined, to take up the best room;
+    There sit on benches not adorned with mats,
+    And graciously did vail their high-crowned hats
+    To every half-dressed player, as he still
+    Through the hangings peeped to see how the house did fill.
+    Good easy judging souls! with what delight
+    They would expect a jig or target fight;
+    A furious tale of Troy, which they ne'er thought
+    Was weakly written so 'twere strongly fought.
+
+As to the playgoers of the Restoration we have abundant information
+from the poet Dryden, and the diarist Pepys. For some eighteen years
+the theatres had been absolutely closed, and during that interval very
+great changes had occurred. England, under Charles II., seemed as a
+new and different country to the England of preceding monarchs. The
+restored king and his courtiers brought with them from their exile in
+France strange manners, and customs, and tastes. The theatre they
+favoured was scarcely the theatre that had flourished in England
+before the Civil War. Dryden reminds the spectators, in one of his
+prologues--
+
+    You now have habits, dances, scenes, and rhymes,
+    High language often, ay, and sense sometimes.
+
+There was an end of dramatic poetry, as it was understood under
+Elizabeth. Blank verse had expired or swooned away, never again to be
+wholly reanimated. Fantastic tragedies in rhyme, after the French
+pattern, became the vogue; and absolute translations from the French
+and Spanish for the first time occupied the English stage. Shakespeare
+and his colleagues had converted existing materials to dramatic uses,
+but not as did the playwrights of the Restoration. In the Epilogue to
+the comedy of "An Evening's Love; or, The Mock Astrologer," borrowed
+from "Le Feint Astrologue" of the younger Corneille, Dryden, the
+adapter of the play, makes jesting defence of the system of
+adaptation. The critics are described as conferring together in the
+pit on the subject of the performance:
+
+                        They kept a fearful stir
+    In whispering that he stole the Astrologer:
+    And said, betwixt a French and English plot,
+    He eased his half-tired muse on pace and trot.
+    Up starts a Monsieur, new come o'er, and warm
+    In the French stoop and pull-back of the arm:
+    "Morbleu," dit-il, and cocks, "I am a rogue,
+    But he has quite spoiled the 'Feigned Astrologue!'"
+
+The poet is supposed to make excuse:
+
+    He neither swore, nor stormed, as poets do,
+    But, most unlike an author, vowed 'twas true;
+    Yet said he used the French like enemies,
+    And did not steal their plots but made them prize.
+
+Dryden concludes with a sort of apology for his own productiveness,
+and the necessity of borrowing that it involved:
+
+    He still must write, and banquier-like, each day
+    Accept new bills, and he must break or pay.
+    When through his hands such sums must yearly run,
+    You cannot think the stock is all his own.
+
+Pepys, who, born in 1633, must have had experiences of youthful
+playgoing before the great Civil War, finds evidence afterwards of
+"the vanity and prodigality of the age" in the nightly company of
+citizens, 'prentices, and others attending the theatre, and holds it a
+grievance that there should be so many "mean people" in the pit at two
+shillings and sixpence apiece. For several years, he mentions, he had
+gone no higher than the twelvepenny, and then the eighteenpenny
+places. Oftentimes, however, the king and his court, the Duke and
+Duchess of York, and the young Duke of Monmouth, were to be seen in
+the boxes. In 1662 Charles's consort, Catherine, was first exhibited
+to the English public at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, when
+Shirley's "Cardinal" was represented. Then there are accounts of
+scandals and indecorums in the theatre. Evelyn reprovingly speaks of
+the public theatres being abused to an "atheistical liberty." Nell
+Gwynne is in front of the curtain prattling with the fops, lounging
+across and leaning over them, and conducting herself saucily and
+impudently enough. Moll Davis is in one box, and my Lady Castlemaine,
+with the king, in another. Moll makes eyes at the king, and he at her.
+My Lady Castlemaine detects the interchange of glances, and "when she
+saw Moll Davies she looked like fire, which troubled me," said Mr.
+Pepys, who, to do him justice, was often needlessly troubled about
+matters with which, in truth, he had very little concern. There were
+brawls in the theatre, and tipsiness, and much license generally. In
+1682 two gentlemen, disagreeing in the pit, drew their swords and
+climbed to the stage. There they fought furiously until a sudden
+sword-thrust stretched one of the combatants upon the boards. The
+wound was not mortal, however, and the duellists, after a brief
+confinement by order of the authorities, were duly set at liberty.
+
+The fop of the Restoration was a different creature to the Elizabethan
+gallant. Etherege satirised him in his "Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling
+Flutter," Dryden supplying the comedy with an epilogue, in which he
+fully described certain of the prevailing follies of the time in
+regard to dress and manners. The audience are informed that
+
+             None Sir Fopling him or him can call,
+    He's knight of the shire and represents you all!
+    From each he meets he culls whate'er he can;
+    Legion's his name, a people in a man.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    His various modes from various fathers follow;
+    One taught the toss, and one the new French wallow;
+    His sword-knot this, his cravat that designed;
+    And this the yard-long snake he twirls behind.
+    From one the sacred periwig he gained,
+    Which wind ne'er blew nor touch of hat profaned.
+    Another's diving bow he did adore,
+    Which, with a shog, casts all the hair before,
+    Till he with full decorum brings it back,
+    And rises with a water-spaniel shake.
+
+Upon another occasion the poet writes:
+
+    But only fools, and they of vast estate,
+    The extremity of modes will imitate,
+    The dangling knee-fringe and the bib-cravat.
+
+While the fops were thus equipped, the ladies wore vizard-masks, and
+upon the appearance of one of these in the pit--
+
+    Straight every man who thinks himself a wit,
+    Perks up, and managing his comb with grace,
+    With his white wig sets off his nut-brown face.
+
+For it was the fashion of the gentlemen to toy with their soaring,
+large-curled periwigs, smoothing them with a comb. Between the fops
+and the ladies goodwill did not always prevail. The former were, no
+doubt, addicted to gross impertinence in their conversation.
+
+    Fop Corner now is free from civil war,
+    White wig and vizard-mask no longer jar,
+    France and the fleet have swept the town so clear.
+
+So Dryden "prologuised" in 1672, attributing the absence of "all our
+braves and all our wits" to the war which England, in conjunction with
+France, had undertaken against the Dutch.
+
+Queen Anne, in 1704, expressly ordered that "no woman should be
+allowed, or presume to wear, a vizard-mask in either of the
+theatres." At the same time it was commanded that no person, of what
+quality soever, should presume to go behind the scenes, or come upon
+the stage, either before or during the acting of any play; and that no
+person should come into either house without paying the price
+established for their respective places. And the disobedient were
+publicly warned that they would be proceeded against, as "contemners
+of our royal authority and disturbers of the public peace."
+
+These royal commands were not very implicitly obeyed. Vizard-masks may
+have been discarded promptly, but there was much crowding, behind the
+scenes and upon the stage, of persons of quality for many years after.
+Garrick, in 1762, once and for ever, succeeded in clearing the boards
+of the unruly mob of spectators, and secured room to move upon the
+scene for himself and his company. But it was only by enlarging his
+theatre, and in such wise increasing the number of seats available for
+spectators in the auditory of the house, that he was enabled to effect
+this reform. From that date the playgoers of the past grew more and
+more like the playgoers of the present, until the flight of time
+rendered distinction between them no longer possible, and merged
+yesterday in to-day. There must have been a very important change in
+the aspect of the house, however, when hair powder went out of fashion
+in 1795; when swords ceased to be worn--for, of course, then there
+could be no more rising of the pit to slash the curtain and scenery,
+to prick the performers, and to lunge at the mirrors and decorations;
+when gold and silver lace vanished from coats and waistcoats, silks
+and velvets gave place to broadcloth and pantaloons; and when,
+afterwards, trousers covered those nether limbs which had before, and
+for so long a period, been exhibited in silk stockings. Yet these
+alterations were accomplished gradually, no doubt. All was not done in
+a single night. Fashion makes first one convert, and then another, and
+so on, until all are numbered among her followers and wear the livery
+she has prescribed. Garrick's opinion of those playgoers of his time,
+whom he at last banished from his stage, may be gathered from the
+dialogue between AEsop and the Fine Gentleman, in his farce of "Lethe."
+AEsop inquires: "How do you spend your evening, sir?" "I dress in the
+evening," says the Fine Gentleman, "and go generally behind the
+scenes of both playhouses; not, you may imagine, to be diverted with
+the play, but to intrigue and show myself. I stand upon the stage,
+talk loud, and stare about, which confounds the actors and disturbs
+the audience. Upon which the galleries, who hate the appearance of one
+of us, begin to hiss, and cry, 'Off, off!' while I, undaunted, stamp
+my foot, so; loll with my shoulder, thus; take snuff with my right
+hand, and smile scornfully, thus. This exasperates the savages, and
+they attack us with volleys of sucked oranges and half-eaten pippins."
+"And you retire?" "Without doubt, if I am sober; for orange will stain
+silk, and an apple may disfigure a feature."
+
+In the Italian opera-houses of London there have long prevailed
+managerial ordinances touching the style of dress to be assumed by the
+patrons of those establishments; the British playgoer, however,
+attending histrionic performances in his native tongue has been left
+to his own devices in that respect. It cannot be said that much harm
+has resulted from the full liberty permitted him, or that neglect on
+his part has impaired the generally attractive aspect of our
+theatrical auditories. Nevertheless, occasional eccentricity has been
+forthcoming, if only to incur rebuke. We may cite an instance or two.
+
+In December, 1738, the editor of _The London Evening Post_ was thus
+addressed by a correspondent assuming the character of Miss Townley:
+
+     "I am a young woman of fashion who love plays, and should be
+     glad to frequent them as an agreeable and instructive
+     entertainment, but am debarred that diversion by my relations
+     upon account of a sort of people who now fill or rather infest
+     the boxes. I went the other night to the play with an aunt of
+     mine, a well-bred woman of the last age, though a little formal.
+     When we sat down in the front boxes we found ourselves
+     surrounded by a parcel of the strangest fellows that ever I saw
+     in my life; some of them had those loose kind of great-coats on
+     which I have heard called _wrap-rascals_, with gold-laced hats,
+     slouched in humble imitation of _stage-coachmen_; others aspired
+     at being _grooms_, and had dirty boots and spurs, with black
+     caps on, and long whips in their hands; a third sort wore scanty
+     frocks, with little, shabby hats, put on one side, and clubs in
+     their hands. My aunt whispered me that she never saw such a set
+     of slovenly, unmannerly footmen sent to keep places in her life,
+     when, to her great surprise, she saw those fellows, at the end
+     of the act, pay the box-keeper for their places."
+
+In 1730 the "Universal Spectator" notes: "The wearing of swords, at
+the Court end of the town, is, by many polite young gentlemen, laid
+aside; and instead thereof they carry large oak sticks, with great
+heads and ugly faces carved thereon."
+
+Elliston was, in 1827, lessee and manager of the Surrey Theatre.
+"Quite an opera pit," he said to Charles Lamb, conducting him over the
+benches of that establishment, described by Lamb as "the last retreat
+of his every-day waning grandeur." The following letter--the
+authenticity of which seems to be vouched for by the actor's
+biographer--supplies a different view of the Surrey audience of that
+date:
+
+     "_August 10th, 1827._
+
+     "SIR,--I really must beg to call your attention to a most
+     abominable nuisance which exists in your house, and which is, in
+     a great measure, the cause of the minor theatres not holding the
+     rank they should amongst playhouses. I mean the admission of
+     _sweeps_ into the theatre in the very dress in which they climb
+     chimneys. This not only incommodes ladies and gentlemen by the
+     obnoxious odour arising from their attire, but these sweeps take
+     up twice the room of other people because the ladies, in
+     particular, object to their clothes being soiled by such
+     unpleasant neighbours. I have with my wife been much in the
+     habit of visiting the Surrey Theatre, and on three occasions we
+     have been annoyed by these sweeps. People will not go, sir,
+     where sweeps are; and you will find, sooner or later, these
+     gentlemen will have the whole theatre to themselves unless an
+     alteration be made. I own, at some theatres, the managers are
+     too particular in dress; those days are passed, and the public
+     have a right to go to theatrical entertainments in their morning
+     costumes; but this ought not to include the sweeps. It is not a
+     week ago since a lady in a nice white gown sat down on the very
+     spot which a nasty sweep had just quitted, and, when she got up,
+     the sight was most horrible, for she was a very heavy lady and
+     had laughed a good deal during the performance; but it was no
+     laughing matter to her when she got home. I hope I have said
+     quite enough, and am your
+
+     "WELL-WISHER."
+
+     "R.W. Elliston, Esq."
+
+No doubt some reform followed upon this urgent complaint.
+
+Regulations as to dress are peculiar to our Italian opera-houses, are
+unknown, as Mr. Sutherland Edwards writes in his "History of the
+Opera," "even in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where, as the theatres are
+directed by the Imperial Government, one might expect to find a more
+despotic code of laws in force than in a country like England. When an
+Englishman goes to a morning or evening concert, he does not present
+himself in the attire of a scavenger, and there is no reason for
+supposing that he would appear in any unbecoming garb if liberty of
+dress were permitted to him at the opera.... If the check-takers are
+empowered to inspect and decide as to the propriety of the cut and
+colour of clothes, why should they not also be allowed to examine the
+texture? On the same principle, too, the cleanliness of opera-goers
+ought to be inquired into. No one whose hair is not properly brushed
+should be permitted to enter the stalls, and visitors to the pit
+should be compelled to show their nails."
+
+There have been, from time to time, protests, unavailing however,
+against the tyranny of the opera-managers. In his "Seven Years of the
+King's Theatre" (1828), Mr. Ebers publishes the remonstrance of a
+gentleman refused admission to the opera on the score of his imperfect
+costume, much to his amazement; "for," he writes, "I was dressed in a
+superfine blue coat with gold buttons, white waistcoat, fashionable
+tight drab pantaloons, white silk stockings and dress shoes, _all worn
+but once, a few days before, at a dress concert, at the Crown and
+Anchor Tavern_." He proceeds to express his indignation at the idea of
+the manager presuming to enact sumptuary laws without the intervention
+of the Legislature, and adds threats of legal proceedings and an
+appeal to a British jury. "I have mixed," he continues, "too much in
+genteel society not to know that black breeches, or pantaloons, with
+black silk stockings, is a very prevailing full dress, and why is it
+so? Because it is convenient and economical, _for you can wear a pair
+of white silk stockings but once without washing, and a fair of black
+is frequently worn for weeks without ablution._ P.S.--I have no
+objection to submit an inspection of my dress of the evening in
+question to you or any competent person you may appoint." Of this
+offer it would seem that Mr. Ebers did not avail himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE MASTER OF THE REVELS.
+
+
+Lords of Misrule and Abbots of Unreason had long presided over the
+Yuletide festivities of Old England; in addition to these
+functionaries King Henry VIII. nominated a Master and Yeoman of the
+Revels to act as the subordinates of his Lord Chamberlain, and
+expressly to provide and supervise the general entertainments and
+pastimes of the court. These had already been ordered and established
+after a manner that seemed extravagant by contrast with the economical
+tastes of the preceding sovereign, who yet had not shown indifference
+to the attractions of poetry, music, and the stage. But Henry VIII.,
+according to the testimony of Hall, was a proficient, not less in arms
+than in arts; he exercised himself daily in shooting, singing,
+dancing, wrestling, "casting of the bar, playing at the recorders,
+flute, virginals, and in setting of songs, making of ballettes; and
+did set two goodly masses, every in them five parts, which were sung
+oftentimes in his chapel, and afterwards in divers other places."
+Early in his reign he appointed Richard Gibson, one of his father's
+company of players, to be "yeoman tailor to the king," and
+subsequently "serjeant-at-arms and of the tents and revels;" and in
+1546 he granted a patent to Sir Thomas Cawarden, conferring upon him
+the office of "Magistri Jocorum, Revellorum et Mascorum, omnium et
+singulorum nostrorum, vulgariter nuncupatorum Revells et Masks," with
+a salary of L10 sterling--a very modest stipend; but then Sir Thomas
+enjoyed other emoluments from his situation as one of the gentlemen
+of the Privy Chamber. The Yeoman of the Revels, who assisted the
+Master and probably discharged the chief duties of his office,
+received an annual allowance of L9 2s. 6d., and eight players of
+interludes were awarded incomes, of L3 6s. 8d. To these remote
+appointments of "yeoman tailor," and "Master of the Revels," is due
+that office of "Licenser of Plays," which, strange to say, is extant
+and even flourishing in the present year of grace.
+
+As Chalmers has pointed out, however, in his "Apology for the
+Believers in the Shakespearean Papers," the King's Chamberlain, or, as
+he was styled in all formal proceedings of the time, Camerarius
+Hospitii, had the government and superintendence of the king's hunting
+and revels, of the comedians, musicians, and other royal servants; and
+was, by virtue of the original constitution of his office, the real
+Master of the Revels, "the great director of the sports of the court
+by night as well as of the sports of the field by day." Still the
+odium of his office, especially in its relation to plays and players,
+could not but attach to his subordinates and deputies the Masters of
+the Revels; "tasteless and officious tyrants," as Gifford describes
+them in a note to Ben Jonson's "Alchemist," "who acted with little
+discrimination, and were always more ready to prove their authority
+than their judgment, the most hateful of them all being Sir Henry
+Herbert," appointed by Charles I. to an office which naturally expired
+when the Puritans suppressed the stage and did their utmost to
+exterminate the players. At the Restoration, however, Herbert resumed
+his duties; but he found, as Chalmers relates, "that the recent times
+had given men new habits of reasoning, notions of privileges, and
+propensities to resistance. He applied to the courts of justice for
+redress; but the verdicts of judges were contradictory; he appealed to
+the ruler of the state, but without receiving redress or exciting
+sympathy: like other disputed jurisdictions, the authority of the
+Master of the Revels continued to be oppressive till the Revolution
+taught new lessons to all parties."
+
+It is to be observed, however, that the early severities and arbitrary
+caprices to which the players were subjected, were not attributable
+solely to the action of the Masters of the Revels. The Privy Council
+was constant in its interference with the affairs of the theatre. A
+suspicion was for a long time rife that the dramatic representations
+of the sixteenth century touched upon matters of religion or points of
+doctrine, and oftentimes contained matters "tending to sedition and to
+the contempt of sundry good orders and laws." Proclamations were from
+time to time issued inhibiting the players and forbidding the
+representation of plays and interludes. In 1551 even the actors
+attached to the households of noblemen were not allowed to perform
+without special leave from the Privy Council; and the authorities of
+Gray's Inn, once famous for its dramatic representations, expressly
+ordered that there should be "no comedies called interludes in this
+house out of term time, but when the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
+is solemnly observed." Upon the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553,
+dramatic representations, whether or not touching upon points of
+religious doctrine, appear to have been forbidden for a period of two
+years. In 1556 the Star Chamber issued orders, addressed to the
+justices of the peace in every county in the kingdom, with
+instructions that they should be rigorously enforced, forbidding the
+representation of dramatic productions of all kinds. Still, in Mary's
+reign, certain miracle plays, designed to inculcate and enforce the
+tenets of the Roman Catholic religion, were now and then encouraged by
+the public authorities; and in 1557 the Queen sanctioned various
+sports and pageants of a dramatic kind, apparently for the
+entertainment of King Philip, then arrived from Flanders, and of the
+Russian ambassador, who had reached England a short time before.
+
+The players had for a long while few temptations to resist authority,
+whether rightfully or wrongfully exercised. Sufferance was the badge
+of their tribe. They felt constrained to submit without question or
+repining, when loud-toned commands were addressed to them, dreading
+lest worse things should come about. It was a sort of satisfaction to
+them, at last, to find themselves governed by so distinguished a
+personage as the Lord Chamberlain, or even by his inferior officer the
+Master of the Revels. It was true that he might, as he often did, deal
+with them absurdly and severely; but even in this abuse of his power
+there was valuable recognition of their profession--it became invested
+with a measure of lawfulness, otherwise often denied it by common
+opinion. How it chanced that a member of the royal household ruled not
+only the dramatic representations of the court, but controlled
+arbitrarily enough, plays and players generally, no one appeared to
+know, or thought it worth while to inquire. As Colley Cibber writes:
+"Though in all the letters patent for acting plays, &c., since King
+Charles I.'s time, there has been no mention of the Lord Chamberlain,
+or of any subordination to his command or authority, yet it was still
+taken for granted that no letters patent, by the bare omission of such
+a great officer's name, could have superseded or taken out of his
+hands that power which time out of mind he always had exercised over
+the theatre. But as the truth of the question seemed to be wrapt in a
+great deal of obscurity in the old laws, made in former reigns,
+relating to players, &c., it may be no wonder that the best companies
+of actors should be desirous of taking shelter under the visible power
+of a Lord Chamberlain, who, they knew, had at his pleasure favoured
+and protected, or borne hard upon them; but be all this as it may, a
+Lord Chamberlain, from whencesoever his power might be derived, had,
+till of later years, had always an implicit obedience paid to it."
+
+Among the duties undertaken by the Lord Chamberlain was the licensing
+or refusing new plays, with the suppression of such portions of them
+_as_ he might deem objectionable; which province was assigned to his
+inferior, the Master of the Revels. This, be it understood, was long
+before the passing of the Licensing Act of 1737, which indeed,
+although it gave legal sanction to the power of the Lord Chamberlain,
+did not really invest him with much more power than he had often
+before exercised. Even in Charles II.'s time, the representation of
+"The Maid's Tragedy," of Beaumont and Fletcher, had been forbidden by
+an order from the Lord Chamberlain. It was conjectured that "the
+killing of the king in that play, while the tragical death of King
+Charles I. was then so fresh in people's memory, was an object too
+horribly impious for a public entertainment;" and, accordingly, the
+courtly poet Waller occupied himself in altering the catastrophe of
+the story, so as to save the life of the king. Another opinion
+prevailed, to the effect that the murder accomplished by the heroine
+Evadne offered "a dangerous example to other Evadnes then shining at
+court in the same rank of royal distinction." In the same reign also,
+Nat Lee's tragedy of "Lucius Junius Brutus," "was silenced after three
+performances;" it being objected that the plan and sentiments of it
+had too boldly vindicated, and might inflame, Republican principles. A
+prologue, by Dryden, to "The Prophetess," was prohibited, on account
+of certain "familiar metaphorical sneers at the Revolution" it was
+supposed to contain, at a time when King William was prosecuting the
+war in Ireland. Bank's tragedy of "Mary, Queen of Scotland," was
+withheld from the stage for twenty years, owing to "the profound
+penetration of the Master of the Revels, who saw political spectres in
+it that never appeared in the presentation." From Cibber's version of
+"Richard III.," the first act was wholly expunged, lest "the
+distresses of King Henry VI., who is killed by Richard in the first
+act, should put weak people too much in mind of King James, then
+living in France." In vain did Cibber petition the Master of the
+Revels "for the small indulgence of a speech or two, that the other
+four acts might limp on with a little less absurdity. No! He had not
+leisure to consider what might be separately inoffensive!" So, too,
+some eight years before the passing of the Licensing Act, Gay's ballad
+opera of "Polly," designed as a sequel to "The Beggar's Opera,"
+incurred the displeasure of the Chamberlain, and was denied the
+honours of representation.
+
+Nor was it only on political grounds that the Lord Chamberlain or the
+Master of the Revels exercised his power. The "View of the Stage,"
+published by the nonjuring clergyman, Jeremy Collier, in 1697, first
+drew public attention to the immorality and profanity of the dramatic
+writers of that period. The diatribes and rebukes of Collier, if here
+and there a trifle overstrained, were certainly, for the most part,
+provoked by the nature of the case, and were justified by the result.
+Even Cibber, who had been cited as one of the offenders, admits that
+"his calling our dramatic writers to this strict account had a very
+wholesome effect upon those who wrote after this time. They were now a
+great deal more upon their guard ... and, by degrees, the fair sex
+came again to fill the boxes on the first day of a new comedy, without
+fear of censure." For some time, it seems, the ladies had been afraid
+of venturing "bare-faced" to a new comedy, till they had been assured
+that they could do it without risk of affront; "or if," as Cibber
+says, "their curiosity was too strong for their patience, they took
+care, at least, to save appearances, and rarely came upon the first
+days of acting but in masks, then daily worn and admitted in the pit,
+the side-boxes, and gallery." This reform of the drama, it is to be
+observed, was really effected, not by the agency of the Chamberlain or
+any other court official, but by force of the just criticism,
+strenuously delivered, of a private individual. But now, following the
+example of Collier, the Master of the Revels, in his turn, insisted
+upon amendment in this matter, and oftentimes forbade the performance
+of whole scenes that he judged to be vicious or immoral. He had
+constituted himself a _Censor Morum_; a character in which the modern
+Licenser of Plays still commends himself to our notice.
+
+Moreover, the Chamberlain had arrogated to himself the right of
+interfering in dramatic affairs upon all occasions that he judged
+fitting. Upon his authority the theatres were closed at any moment,
+even for a period of six weeks, in the case of the death of the
+sovereign. If any disputes occurred between managers and actors, even
+in relation to so small a matter as the privileges of the latter, the
+Chamberlain interfered to arrange the difficulty according to his own
+notion of justice. No actor could quit the company of one patent
+theatre, to join the forces of the other, without the permission of
+the Chamberlain, in addition to the formal discharge of his manager.
+Powell, the actor, even suffered imprisonment on this account,
+although it was thought as well, after a day or two, to abandon the
+proceedings that had been taken against him. "Upon this occasion,"
+says Cibber, with a mysterious air, and in very involved terms,
+"behind the scenes at Drury Lane, a person of great quality, in my
+hearing, inquiring of Powell into the nature of his offence ... told
+him, that if he had patience, or spirit enough to have stayed in his
+confinement till he had given him notice of it, he would have found
+him a handsomer way of coming out of it!" Of the same actor, Powell,
+it is recorded that he once, at Will's Coffee House, "in a dispute
+about playhouse affairs, struck a gentleman whose family had been some
+time masters of it." A complaint of the actor's violence was lodged at
+the Chamberlain's office, and Powell having a part in the play
+announced for performance upon the following day, an order was sent to
+silence the whole company, and to close the theatre, although it was
+admitted that the managers had been without cognisance of their
+actor's misconduct! "However," Cibber narrates, "this order was
+obeyed, and remained in force for two or three days, till the same
+authority was pleased, or advised, to revoke it. From the measures
+this injured gentleman took for his redress, it may be judged how far
+it was taken for granted that a Lord Chamberlain had an absolute power
+over the theatre." An attempt, however, upon the authority of the
+Chamberlain to imprison Dogget, the actor, for breach of his
+engagement with the patentees of Drury Lane Theatre, met with signal
+discomfiture. Dogget forthwith applied to the Lord Chief Justice Holt
+for his discharge under the Habeas Corpus Act, and readily obtained
+it, with, it may be gathered, liberal compensation for the violence to
+which he had been subjected.
+
+The proceedings of the Lord Chamberlain had, indeed, become most
+oppressive. Early in 1720, the Duke of Newcastle, then Lord
+Chamberlain, took upon himself to close Drury Lane Theatre. Steele,
+then one of the patentees, addressed the public upon the subject. He
+had lived in friendship with the duke; he owed his seat in Parliament
+to the duke's influence. He commenced with saying: "The injury which I
+have received, great as it is, has nothing in it so painful as that it
+comes from whence it does. When I complained of it in a private letter
+to the Chamberlain, he was pleased to send his secretary to me with a
+message to forbid me writing, speaking, corresponding, or applying to
+him in any manner whatsoever. Since he has been pleased to send an
+English gentleman a banishment from his person and counsels in a style
+thus royal, I doubt not but that the reader will justify me in the
+method I take to explain this matter to the town." Steele could obtain
+no redress, however. He was virtually dispossessed of his rights as
+patentee. He estimated his loss at nine thousand eight hundred pounds,
+and concluded his statement of the case with the words: "But it is
+apparent the King is grossly and shamelessly injured ... I never did
+one act to provoke this attempt, nor does the Chamberlain pretend to
+assign any direct reason of forfeiture, but openly and wittingly
+declares that he will ruin Steele.... The Lord Chamberlain and many
+others may, perhaps, have done more for the House of Hanover than I
+have, but I am the only man in his majesty's dominions, who did all he
+could." For some months Steele was replaced by other patentees, of
+whom Cibber was one, more submissive to "the lawful monarch of the
+stage," as Dennis designated the Chamberlain; but in 1721, upon the
+intervention of Walpole, Steele was restored to his privileges. It is
+not clear, however, that he took any legal measures to obtain
+compensation for the wrong done him. Cibber is silent upon the
+subject; because, it has been suggested, the Chamberlain had been
+instrumental in obtaining him the appointment of poet laureate, which
+could hardly have devolved upon him in right of his poetic
+qualifications.
+
+Nevertheless, Cibber had been active in organising a form of
+opposition to the authority of the Chamberlain and the Master of the
+Revels, which, although it seemed of a trifling kind, had yet its
+importance. For it turned upon the question of fees. The holders of
+the patents considered themselves sole judges of the plays proper to
+be acted in their theatres. The Master of the Revels claimed his fee
+of forty shillings for each play produced. The managers, it seems,
+were at liberty to represent new plays without consulting him, and to
+spare him the trouble of reading the same--provided always they paid
+him his fees. But these they now thought it expedient to withhold from
+him. Cibber was deputed to attend the Master of the Revels, and to
+inquire into the justice of his demand, with full powers to settle the
+dispute amicably. Charles Killigrew at this time filled the office,
+having succeeded his father Thomas, who had obtained the appointment
+of Master of the Revels upon the death of Sir Henry Herbert in 1673.
+Killigrew could produce no warrant for his demand. Cibber concluded
+with telling him that "as his pretensions were not backed with any
+visible instrument of right, and as his strongest plea was custom, the
+managers could not so far extend their complaisance as to continue the
+payment of fees upon so slender a claim to them." From that time
+neither their plays nor his fees gave either party any further
+trouble. In 1725 Killigrew was succeeded as Master of the Revels by
+Charles Henry Lea, who for some years continued to exercise "such
+authority as was not opposed, and received such fees as he could find
+the managers willing to pay."
+
+The first step towards legislation in regard to the theatres and the
+licensing of plays was made in 1734, when Sir John Barnard moved the
+House of Commons "for leave to bring in a bill for restraining the
+number of houses for playing of interludes and for the better
+regulating common players of interludes." It was represented that
+great mischief had been done in the city of London by the playhouses:
+youth had been corrupted, vice encouraged, trade and industry
+prejudiced. Already the number of theatres in London was double that
+of Paris. In addition to the opera-house, the French playhouse in the
+Haymarket, and the theatres in Covent Garden, Drury Lane, Lincoln's
+Inn Fields, and Goodman's Fields, there was now a project to erect a
+new playhouse in St. Martin's-le-Grand. It was no less surprising than
+shameful to see so great a change in the temper and inclination of the
+British people; "we now exceeded in levity even the French themselves,
+from whom we learned these and many other ridiculous customs, as much
+unsuitable to the mien and manners of an Englishman or a Scot, as they
+were agreeable to the air and levity of a Monsieur." Moreover, it was
+remarked that, to the amazement and indignation of all Europe, Italian
+singers received here "set salaries equal to those of the Lords of the
+Treasury and Judges of England!" The bill was duly brought in, but was
+afterwards dropped, "on account of a clause offered to be inserted ...
+for enlarging the power of the Lord Chamberlain with respect to the
+licensing of plays." It is curious to find that Tony Aston, a popular
+comedian of the time, who had been bred an attorney, was, upon his own
+petition, permitted to deliver a speech in the House of Commons
+against Sir John Barnard's bill.
+
+But two years later the measure was substantially passed into law. The
+theatres had certainly given in the meantime serious provocation to
+the authorities. The power of the Chamberlain and the Master of the
+Revels had been derided. Playhouses were opened and plays produced
+without any kind of license. At the Haymarket, under the management of
+Fielding, who styled his actors "The Great Mogul's Comedians," the
+bills announcing that they had "dropped from the clouds" (in mockery,
+probably, of "His Majesty's Servants" at Drury Lane, or of another
+troop describing themselves as "The Comedians of His Majesty's
+Revels"), the plays produced had been in the nature of political
+lampoons. Walpole and his arts of government were openly satirised,
+Fielding having no particular desire to spare the prime minister,
+whose patronage he had vainly solicited. In the play entitled
+"Pasquin, a Dramatic Satire on the Times; being the rehearsal of two
+plays, viz., a Comedy, called The Election, and a Tragedy, called the
+Life and Death of Common Sense," the satire was chiefly aimed at the
+electoral corruptions of the age, the abuses prevailing in the learned
+professions, and the servility of place-men who derided public virtue,
+and denied the existence of political honesty. "Pasquin," it may be
+noted, was received with extraordinary favour, enjoyed a run of fifty
+nights, and proved a source of both fame and profit to its author. But
+the play of "The Historical Register of 1736," produced in the spring
+of 1737, contained allusions of a more pointed and personal kind, and
+gravely offended the government. Indeed, the result could hardly have
+been otherwise. Walpole himself was brought upon the stage, and under
+the name of Quidam violently caricatured. He was exhibited silencing
+noisy patriots with bribes, and then joining with them in a dance--the
+proceedings being explained by Medley, another of the characters,
+supposed to be an author: "Sir, every one of these patriots has a hole
+in his pocket, as Mr. Quidam the fiddler there knows; so that he
+intends to make them dance till all the money has fallen through,
+which he will pick up again, and so not lose a halfpenny by his
+generosity!" The play, indeed, abounded in satire of the boldest kind,
+in witty and unsparing invective; as the biographer of Fielding
+acknowledges, there was much in the work "well calculated both to
+offend and alarm a wary minister of state." Soon both "Pasquin" and
+"The Historical Register" were brought under the notice of the
+Cabinet. Walpole felt "that it would be inexpedient to allow the stage
+to become the vehicle of anti-ministerial abuse." The Licensing Act
+was resolved upon.
+
+The new measure was not avowedly aimed at Fielding, however. It was
+preceded by incidents of rather a suspicious kind. Gifford, the
+manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre, professing to have received from
+some anonymous writer a play of singular scurrility, carried the work
+to the prime minister. The obsequious manager was rewarded with one
+thousand pounds for his patriotic conduct, and the libellous nature of
+the play he had surrendered was made the excuse for the legislation
+that ensued. It was freely observed at the time, however, that Gifford
+had profited more by suppressing the play than he could possibly have
+gained by representing it, and that there was something more than
+natural in the appositeness of his receipt of it. If honest, it was
+suggested that he had been trapped by a government spy, who had sent
+him the play, solely that he might deal with it as he did; but it was
+rather assumed that he had disingenuously curried favour with the
+authorities, and sold himself for treasury gold. The play in question
+was never acted or printed; nor was the name of the author, or of the
+person from whom the manager professed to have received it, ever
+disclosed. Horace Walpole, indeed, boldly ascribed it to Fielding, and
+asserted that he had discovered among his father's papers an imperfect
+copy of the play. But the statement has not obtained much acceptance.
+
+The ministry hurried on their Licensing Bill. It was entitled "An Act
+to explain and amend so much of an Act made in the twelfth year of
+Queen Anne, entitled 'An Act for reducing the laws relating to rogues,
+vagabonds, sturdy beggars, and vagrants, into one Act of Parliament;
+and for a more effectual punishing such rogues, vagabonds, sturdy
+beggars, and vagrants, and sending them whither they ought to be
+sent,' as relates to common players of interludes." But its chief
+object--undisclosed by its title, was the enactment that, for the
+future, every dramatic piece, including prologues and epilogues,
+should, previous to performance, receive the license of the Lord
+Chamberlain, and that, without his permission, no London theatre,
+unprotected by a patent, should open its doors. Read a first time on
+the 24th of May, 1737, the bill was passed through both Houses with
+such despatch that it received the royal assent on the 8th of June
+following. It was opposed in the House of Commons by Mr. Pulteney, and
+in the House of Lords by the Earl of Chesterfield, whose impressive
+speech on the occasion is one of the few specimens that survive of the
+parliamentary eloquence of the period. With the passing of the
+Licensing Act, Fielding's career as manager and dramatist was brought
+to a close. He was constrained to devote himself to the study of the
+law, and subsequently to the production of novels. And with the
+passing of the Licensing Act terminated the existence of the Master
+of the Revels; the Act, indeed, made no mention of him, ignored him
+altogether. He survived, however, under another name--still as the
+Chamberlain's subordinate and deputy. Thence forward he was known as
+the Licenser of Playhouses and Examiner of Plays.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE LICENSER OF PLAYHOUSES.
+
+
+The Act of 1737 for licensing plays, playhouses, and players, and
+legalising the power the Lord Chamberlain had long been accustomed to
+exercise, although readily passed by both Houses of Parliament, gave
+great offence to the public. The Abbe Le Blanc, who was visiting
+England at this period, describes the new law as provoking a
+"universal murmur in the nation." It was openly complained of in the
+newspapers; at the coffee-houses it was denounced as unjust and
+"contrary to the liberties of the people of England." Fear prevailed
+that the freedom of the press would next be invaded. In the House of
+Lords Chesterfield had stigmatised the measure both as an encroachment
+on liberty and an attack on property. "Wit, my lords," he said, "is a
+sort of property. It is the property of those that have it, and too
+often the only property they have to depend on. It is, indeed; but a
+precarious dependence. Thank God, we, my lords, have a dependence of
+another kind. We have a much less precarious support, and, therefore,
+cannot feel the inconveniences of the bill now before us; but it is
+our duty to encourage and protect wit, whosoever's property it may be....
+I must own I cannot easily agree to the laying of a tax upon wit;
+but by this bill it is to be heavily taxed--it is to be excised; for
+if this bill passes, it cannot be retailed in a proper way without a
+permit; and the Lord Chamberlain is to have the honour of being chief
+gauger, supervisor, commissioner, judge and jury." At this time,
+however, it is to be noted that parliamentary reporting was forbidden
+by both Houses. The general public, therefore, knew little of Lord
+Chesterfield's eloquent defence of the liberty of the stage.
+
+The Act was passed in June, when the patent theatres, according to
+custom, were closed for the summer. Some two months after their
+reopening in the autumn all dramatic representations were suspended
+for six weeks, in consequence of the death of Queen Caroline. In
+January was presented at Covent Garden "A Nest of Plays," as the
+author, one Hildebrand Jacob, described his production: a combination
+of three short plays, each consisting of one act only, entitled
+respectively, "The Prodigal Reformed," "Happy Constancy," and "The
+Trial of Conjugal Love." The performance met with a very unfavourable
+reception. The author attributed the ill success of his work to its
+being the first play licensed by the authority of the Lord Chamberlain
+under the new bill, many spectators having predetermined to silence,
+under any circumstances, "the first fruits of that Act of Parliament."
+And this seems, indeed, to have been the case. The Abbe Le Blanc, who
+was present on the occasion, writes: "The best play in the world would
+not have succeeded that night. There was a disposition to damn
+whatever might appear. The farce in question was damned, indeed,
+without the least compassion. Nor was that all, for the actors were
+driven off the stage, and happy was it for the author that he did not
+fall into the hands of this furious assembly." And the Abbe proceeds
+to explain that the originators of this disturbance were not
+"schoolboys, apprentices, clerks, or mechanics," but lawyers, "a body
+of gentlemen perhaps less honoured, but certainly more feared here
+than they are in France," who, "from living in colleges (Inns of
+Court), and from conversing always with one another, mutually preserve
+a spirit of independency through the body, and with great ease form
+cabals.... At Paris the cabals of the pit are only among young
+fellows, whose years may excuse their folly, or persons of the meanest
+education and stamp; here they are the fruit of deliberation in a very
+grave body of people, who are not less formidable to the minister in
+place than to the theatrical writers." But the Abbe relates that on a
+subsequent occasion, when another new play having been announced, he
+had looked for further disturbance, the judicious dramatist of the
+night succeeded in calming the pit by administering in his prologue a
+double dose of incense to their vanity. "Half-an-hour before the play
+was to begin the spectators gave notice of their dispositions by
+frightful hisses and outcries, equal, perhaps, to what were ever heard
+at a Roman amphitheatre." The author, however, having in part tamed
+this wild audience by his flattery, secured ultimately its absolute
+favour by humouring its prejudices after the grossest fashion. He
+brought upon the stage a figure "with black eyebrows, a ribbon of an
+ell long under his chin, a bag-peruke immoderately powdered, and his
+nose all bedaubed with snuff. What Englishman could not know a
+Frenchman by this ridiculous figure?" The Frenchman was presently
+shown to be, for all the lace down every seam of his coat, nothing but
+a cook, and then followed severe satire and criticism upon the manners
+and customs of France. "The excellence and virtues of English beef
+were extolled, and the author maintained that it was owing to the
+qualities of its juice that the English were so courageous and had
+such a solidity of understanding, which raised them above all the
+nations in Europe; he preferred the noble old English pudding beyond
+all the finest ragouts that ever were invented by the greatest
+geniuses that France ever produced." These "ingenious strokes" were
+loudly applauded by the audience, it seems, who, in their delight at
+the abuse lavished upon the French, forgot that they came to condemn
+the play and to uphold the ancient liberties of the stage. From that
+time forward, the Abbe states, "the law was executed without the least
+trouble; all the plays since have been quietly heard, and either
+succeeded or not according to their merits."
+
+When Garrick visited Paris he declined to be introduced to the Abbe Le
+Blanc, "on account of the irreverence with which he had treated
+Shakespeare." There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Abbe, although
+he wrote amusing letters, was a very prejudiced person, and his
+evidence and opinions touching the English stage must be received with
+caution. So far as can be ascertained, especially by study of the
+"History of the Stage" (compiled by that industrious clergyman, Mr.
+Genest, from the playbills in the British Museum), but few new plays
+were produced in the course of the season immediately following the
+passing of the Licensing Act; certainly no new play can be found
+answering the description furnished by the Abbe with due regard to the
+period he has fixed for its production. Possibly he referred to the
+"Beaux' Stratagem," in which appear a French officer and an
+Irish-French priest, and which was certainly represented some few
+nights after the condemnation of Mr. Jacob's "Nest of Plays."
+Farquhar's comedy was then thirty years old, however. Nor has the Abbe
+done full justice to the public opposition offered to the Licensing
+Act. At the Haymarket Theatre a serious riot occurred in October,
+1738, fifteen months after the passing of the measure. Closed against
+the English actors the theatre was opened by a French company, armed
+with a license from the Lord Chamberlain. A comedy, called "L'Embarras
+de Richesses," was announced for representation "by authority." The
+house was crowded immediately after the opening of the doors. But the
+audience soon gave evidence of their sentiments by singing in chorus
+"The Roast Beef of Old England." Then followed loud huzzas and general
+tumult. Deveil, one of the Justices of the Peace for Westminster, who
+was present, declared the proceedings to be riotous, and announced his
+intention to maintain the King's authority. He stated, further, that
+it was the King's command that the play should be acted, and that all
+offenders would be immediately secured by the guards in waiting. In
+opposition to the magistrate it was maintained "that the audience had
+a legal right to show their dislike to any play or actor; that the
+judicature of the pit had been acquiesced in, time immemorial; and as
+the present set of actors were to take their fate from the public,
+they were free to receive them as they pleased." When the curtain drew
+up the actors were discovered standing between two files of
+grenadiers, with their bayonets fixed and resting on their firelocks.
+This seeming endeavour to secure the success of French acting by the
+aid of British bayonets still more infuriated the audience. Even
+Justice Deveil thought it prudent to order the withdrawal of the
+military. The actors attempted to speak, but their voices were
+overborne by hisses, groans, and "not only catcalls, but all the
+various portable instruments that could make a disagreeable noise." A
+dance was next essayed; but even this had been provided against:
+showers of peas descended upon the stage, and "made capering very
+unsafe." The French and Spanish Ambassadors, with their ladies, who
+had occupied the stage-box, now withdrew, only to be insulted outside
+the theatre by the mob, who had cut the traces of their carriages. The
+curtain at last fell, and the attempt to present French plays at the
+Haymarket was abandoned, "the public being justly indignant that
+whilst an arbitrary Act suppressed native talent, foreign adventurers
+should be patronised and encouraged." It must be said, however, that
+the French actors suffered for sins not their own, and that the wrath
+of the public did not really reach the Lord Chamberlain, or effect any
+change in the Licensing Act.
+
+For twenty years the Haymarket remained without a license of any
+endurance. The theatre was occasionally opened, however, for brief
+seasons, by special permission of the Chamberlain, or in defiance of
+his authority, many ingenious subterfuges being resorted to, so that
+the penalties imposed by the Act might be evaded. One of the
+advertisements ran--"At Cibber's Academy, in the Haymarket, will be a
+concert, after which will be exhibited (gratis) a rehearsal, in form
+of a play, called Romeo and Juliet." Macklin, the actor, opened the
+theatre in 1744, and under the pretence of instructing "unfledged
+performers" in "the science of acting," gave a variety of dramatic
+representations. It was expressly announced that no money would be
+taken at the doors, "nor any person admitted but by printed tickets,
+which will be delivered by Mr. Macklin, at his house in Bow Street,
+Covent Garden." At one of these performances Samuel Foote made his
+first appearance upon the stage, sustaining the part of Othello.
+Presently, Foote ventured to give upon the stage of the Haymarket, a
+monologue entertainment, called "Diversions of a Morning." At the
+instance of Lacy, however, one of the patentees of Drury Lane Theatre,
+whom Foote had satirised, the performance was soon prohibited. But
+Foote was not easily discouraged; and, by dint of wit and impudence,
+for some time baffled the authorities. He invited his friends to
+attend the theatre, at noon, and "drink a dish of chocolate with him."
+He promised that he would "endeavour to make the morning as diverting
+as possible;" and notified that "Sir Dilbury Diddle would be there,
+and Lady Betty Frisk had absolutely promised." Tickets, without which
+no person would be admitted, were to be obtained at George's Coffee
+House, Temple Bar. Some simple visitors, no doubt, expected that
+chocolate would be really served to them. But the majority were
+content with an announcement from the stage that, while chocolate was
+preparing, Mr. Foote would, with the permission of his friends,
+proceed with his instruction of certain pupils he was educating in the
+art of acting. Under this pretence a dramatic representation was
+really given, and repeated on some forty occasions. Then he grew
+bolder, and opened the theatre in the evening, at the request, as he
+stated, "of several persons who are desirous of spending an hour with
+Mr. Foote, but find the time inconvenient." Instead of chocolate in
+the morning, Mr. Foot's friends were therefore invited to drink "a
+dish of tea" with him at half-past six in the evening. By-and-by, his
+entertainment was slightly varied, and described as an Auction of
+Pictures. Eventually, Foote obtained from the Duke of Devonshire, the
+Lord Chamberlain, a permanent license for the theatre, and the
+Haymarket took rank as a regular and legal place of entertainment, to
+be open, however, only during the summer months. Upon Foote's decease,
+the theatre devolved upon George Colman, who obtained a continuance of
+the license.
+
+The theatre in Goodman's Fields underwent experiences very similar to
+those of the Haymarket. Under the provisions of the Licensing Act its
+performances became liable to the charge of illegality. It was without
+a patent or a license. It was kept open professedly for concerts of
+vocal and instrumental music, divided into two parts. Between these
+parts dramatic performances were presented gratis. The obscurity of
+the theatre, combined with its remote position, probably protected it
+for some time from interference and suppression. But on the 19th
+October, 1741, at this unlicensed theatre, a gentleman, who, as the
+playbill of the night untruly stated, had never before appeared on any
+stage, undertook the part of Richard III. in Cibber's version of
+Shakespeare's tragedy. The gentleman's name was David Garrick. Had he
+failed the theatre might have lived on. But his success was fatal to
+it. The public went in crowds from all parts of the town to see the
+new actor. "From the polite ends of Westminster the most elegant
+company flocked to Goodman's Fields, insomuch that from Temple Bar the
+whole way was covered with a string of coaches." The patentees of
+Drury Lane and Covent Garden interfered, "alarmed at the deficiency
+of their own receipts," and invoked the aid of the Lord Chamberlain.
+The Goodman's Fields Theatre was closed, and Garrick was spirited away
+to Drury Lane, with a salary of 600 guineas a-year, a larger sum than
+had ever before been awarded to any performer.
+
+It will be seen that the Chamberlain had deemed it his mission to
+limit, as much as possible, the number of places of theatrical
+entertainment in London. Playgoers were bidden to be content with
+Drury Lane and Covent Garden; it was not conceivable to the noblemen
+and commoners occupying the Houses of Parliament, or to the
+place-holders in the Chamberlain's office, or in the royal household,
+that other theatres could possibly be required.
+
+Still attempts were occasionally made to establish additional places
+of entertainment. In 1785, John Palmer, the actor famous as the
+original Joseph Surface, laid the first stone of a new theatre, to be
+called the East London, or Royalty, in the neighbourhood of the old
+Goodman's Fields Theatre, which had been many years abandoned of the
+actors and converted into a goods warehouse. The building was
+completed in 1787. The opening representation was announced; when the
+proprietors of the patent theatres gave warning that any infringement
+of their privileges would be followed by the prosecution of Mr. Palmer
+and his company. The performances took place, nevertheless, but they
+were stated to be for the benefit of the London Hospital, and not,
+therefore, for "hire, gain, or reward;" so the actors avoided risk of
+commitment as rogues and vagabonds. But necessarily the enterprise
+ended in disaster. Palmer, his friends alleged, lost his whole
+fortune; it was shrewdly suspected, however, that he had, in truth, no
+fortune to lose. In any case he speedily retired from the new theatre.
+It was open for brief seasons with such exhibitions of music, dancing,
+and pantomime, as were held to be unaffected by the Act, and
+permissible under the license of the local magistrates. From time to
+time, however, the relentless patentees took proceedings against the
+actors. Delpini, the clown, was even committed to prison for
+exclaiming "Roast Beef!" in a Christmas pantomime. By uttering words
+without the accompaniment of music he had, it appeared, constituted
+himself an actor of a stage play.
+
+Some five-and-twenty years later, Elliston was now memorialising the
+king, now petitioning the House of Commons and the Privy Council, in
+reference to the opening of an additional theatre. He had been in
+treaty for the Pantheon, in Oxford Street, and urged that "the
+intellectual community would be benefited by an extension of license
+for the regular drama." As lessee of the Royal Circus or Surrey
+Theatre, he besought liberty to exhibit and perform "all such
+entertainments of music and action as were commonly called pantomimes
+and ballets, together with operatic or musical pieces, accompanied
+with dialogue in the ordinary mode of dramatic representations,"
+subject, at all times, to the control and restraint of the Lord
+Chamberlain, "in conformity to the laws by which theatres possessing
+those extensive privileges were regulated." But all was in vain. The
+king would not "notice any representation connected with the
+establishment of another theatre." The other petitions were without
+result.
+
+Gradually, however, it became necessary for the authorities to
+recognise the fact that the public really did require more amusements
+of a theatrical kind than the privileged theatres could furnish. But
+the regular drama, it was held, must still be protected: performed
+only on the patent boards. So now "burletta licenses" were issued,
+under cover of which melodramas were presented, with entertainments of
+music and dancing, spectacle and pantomime. In 1809, the Lyceum or
+English Opera House, which for some years before had been licensed for
+music and dancing, was licensed for "musical dramatic entertainments
+and ballets of action." The Adelphi, then called the Sans Pareil
+Theatre, received a "burletta license" about the same time. In 1813 the
+Olympic was licensed for similar performances and for horsemanship;
+but it was for a while closed again by the Chamberlain's order, upon
+Elliston's attempt to call the theatre Little Drury Lane, and to
+represent upon its stage something more like the "regular drama" than
+had been previously essayed at a minor house. "Burletta licenses" were
+also granted for the St. James's in 1835, and for the Strand in 1836.
+
+And, in despite of the authorities, theatres had been established on
+the Surrey side of the Thames; but, in truth, for the accommodation of
+the dwellers on the Middlesex shore. Under the Licensing Act, while
+the Chamberlain was constituted licenser of all new plays throughout
+Great Britain, his power to grant licenses for theatrical
+entertainments was confined within the city and liberties of
+Westminster, and wherever the sovereign might reside. The Surrey, the
+Coburg (afterwards the Victoria), Astley's, &c., were, therefore, out
+of his jurisdiction. There seemed, indeed, to be no law in existence
+under which they could be licensed. They affected to be open under a
+magistrate's license for "music, dancing, and public entertainments."
+But this, in truth, afforded them no protection when it was thought
+worth while to prosecute the managers for presenting dramatic
+exhibitions. For although an Act, passed in the 28th year of George
+III., enabled justices of the peace, under certain restrictions, to
+grant licenses for dramatic entertainments, their powers did not
+extend to within twenty miles of London. Lambeth was thus neutral
+ground, over which neither the Lord Chamberlain nor the country
+justices had any real authority, with this difficulty about the
+case--performances that could not be licensed could not be legalised.
+
+The law continued in this unsatisfactory state till the passing, in
+1843, of the Act for Regulating Theatres. This deprived the patent
+theatres of their monopoly of the "regular drama," in that it extended
+the Lord Chamberlain's power to grant licenses for the performance of
+stage plays to all theatres within the parliamentary boundaries of the
+City of London and Westminster, and of the Boroughs of Finsbury and
+Marylebone, the Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, and Southwark, and also
+"within those places where Her Majesty, her heirs and successors,
+shall, in their royal persons, occasionally reside;" it being fully
+understood that all the theatres then existing in London would receive
+forthwith the Chamberlain's license "to give stage plays in the
+fullest sense of the word;" to be taken to include, according to the
+terms of the Act, "every tragedy, comedy, farce, opera, burletta,
+interlude, melodrama, pantomime, or other entertainment of the stage,
+or any part thereof."
+
+Thus, at last, more than a century after the passing of the Licensing
+Act, certain of its more mischievous restrictions were in effect
+repealed. A measure of free trade in theatres was established. The
+Lord Chamberlain was still to be "the lawful monarch of the stage,"
+but in the future his rule was to be more constitutional, less
+absolute than it had been. The public were no longer to be confined to
+Drury Lane and Covent Garden in the winter, and the Haymarket in the
+summer. Actors were enabled, managers and public consenting, to
+personate Hamlet or Macbeth, or other heroes of the poetic stage, at
+Lambeth, Clerkenwell, or Shoreditch, anywhere indeed, without risk of
+committal to gaol. It was no longer necessary to call a play a
+"burletta," or to touch a note upon the piano, now and then, in the
+course of a performance, so as to justify its claim to be a musical
+entertainment; all subterfuges of this kind ceased.
+
+It was with considerable reluctance, however, that the Chamberlain, in
+his character of Licenser of Playhouses, divested himself of the
+paternal authority he had so long exercised. He still clung to the
+notion that he was a far better judge of the requirements and desires
+of playgoers than they could possibly be themselves. He was strongly
+of opinion that the number of theatres was "sufficient for the
+theatrical wants of the metropolis." He could not allow that the
+matter should be regulated by the ordinary laws of supply and demand,
+or by any regard for the large annual increase of the population.
+Systematically he hindered all enterprise in the direction of new
+theatres. It was always doubtful whether his license would be granted,
+even after a new building had been completed. He decided that he must
+be guided by his own views of "the interests of the public." It is not
+clear that he possessed authority in this respect other than that
+derived from custom and the traditions of his office. The Act of 1843
+contained no special provisions on the subject. But he insisted that
+all applicants for the licensing of new theatres should be armed with
+petitions in favour of the proposal, signed by many of the inhabitants
+in the immediate vicinity of the projected building; he 'required the
+Police Commissioners to verify the truth of these petitions, and to
+report whether inconvenience was likely to result in the way of
+interruption of traffic, or otherwise, from the establishment of a new
+theatre. Further, he obtained the opinion of the parish authorities,
+the churchwardens, &c., of the district; he was even suspected of
+taking counsel with the managers of neighbouring establishments; "in
+short, he endeavoured to convince himself generally that the grant of
+the license would satisfy a legitimate want"--or what the Chamberlain
+in his wisdom, or his unwisdom, held to be such.
+
+Under these conditions it is not surprising that for nearly a quarter
+of a century there was no addition made to the list of London
+theatres. But time moves on, and even Chamberlains have to move with
+it. Of late years there has been no difficulty in regard to the
+licensing of new theatres, and the metropolis has been the richer by
+many well-conducted houses of dramatic entertainment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE EXAMINER OF PLAYS.
+
+
+The Lord Chamberlain holds office only so long as the political party
+to which he is attached remains in power. He comes in and goes out
+with the ministry. Any peculiar fitness for the appointment is not
+required of him; it is simply a reward for his political services. Of
+course different Chamberlains have entertained different opinions of
+the duties to be performed in regard to the theatres; and, in such
+wise, much embarrassment has arisen. The Chamberlain's office is
+supported by a grant from the Civil List, which is settled upon the
+accession of the sovereign. In addition, fees are received for the
+licensing of theatres, and for the examination of plays.
+
+The Examiner of Plays has long been recognised as a more permanent
+functionary than the Lord Chamberlain, although it would seem the
+precise nature of his appointment has never been clearly understood.
+"I believe," said Mr. Donne, the late Examiner, in his evidence before
+the Parliamentary Committee of 1866, "that it is an appointment that
+expires with the sovereign (at least, I infer so from the evidence
+which Mr. Colman gave in the year 1833), but I cannot say that from my
+own knowledge: I believe it to be an appointment for life."
+
+In truth, the Examiner is simply the employe of the Chamberlain,
+appointed by him, and holding the office only so long as the superior
+functionary shall deem fitting. There is no instance on record,
+however, of the displacement of an Examiner, or of the cancelling by
+one Chamberlain of the appointment made by his predecessor. Power of
+this kind, however, would seem to be vested in the Chamberlain for the
+time being. Colman's evidence, it may be noted, is of no present
+worth. He was appointed as a consequence of the old Licensing Act,
+repealed in 1843.
+
+The first Licenser of Plays sworn in after the passing of the
+Licensing Act of 1737 was William Chetwynd, with a salary of L400
+a-year. But this deputy of the Chamberlain was in his turn allowed a
+deputy, and one Thomas Odell was appointed assistant examiner, with a
+salary of L200 a-year. Strange to say, it was this Odell who had first
+opened a theatre in Goodman's Fields, which, upon the complaint of the
+civic authorities, who believed the drama to be a source of danger to
+the London apprentices of the period, he had been compelled forthwith
+to close. He applied to George II, for a royal license, but met with a
+peremptory refusal. In 1731 he sold his property to one Giffard, who
+rebuilt the theatre, and, dispensing with official permission,
+performed stage plays between the intervals of a concert, until
+producing Garrick, and obtaining extraordinary success by that
+measure, he roused the jealousy of the authorities, and was compelled
+to forego his undertaking.
+
+The Licenser's power of prohibition was exercised very shortly after
+his appointment, in the case of two tragedies: "Gustavus Vasa," by
+Henry Brooke, and "Edward and Eleonora," by James Thomson. Political
+allusions of an offensive kind were supposed to lurk somewhere in
+these works. "Gustavus Vasa" was especially forbidden "on account of
+some strokes of liberty which breathed through several parts of it."
+On the Irish stage, however, over which the Chamberlain had no power,
+the play was performed as "The Patriot;" while, by the publication of
+"Gustavus Vasa," Mr. Brooke obtained L1000 or so from a public curious
+as to the improprieties it was alleged to contain, and anxious to
+protest against the oppressive conduct of the Licenser. In 1805, with
+the permission of the Chamberlain, the play was produced at Covent
+Garden, in order that Master Betty, the Young Roscius, might personate
+the hero. But the youthful actor failed in the part, and the tragedy,
+being found rather dull, was represented but once. At this time Mr.
+Brooke had been dead some years. In a preface to his play he had
+vouched for its purity, and denounced the conduct of the Licenser, as
+opposed to the intention of the Legislature, Dr. Johnson assisting his
+cause by the publication of an ironical pamphlet--"A Vindication of
+the Licenser from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr.
+Brooke." Modern readers may well be excused for knowing little of the
+dramatist whose "Gustavus Vasa" had no great deal to recommend it,
+perhaps, beyond the fact of its performance having been prohibited.
+Yet some few years since, it may be noted, the late Charles Kingsley
+made endeavours, more strenuous than successful, to obtain applause
+for Brooke's novel, "The Fool of Quality;" but although a new and
+handsome edition of this work was published, it was received with some
+apathy by the romance-reading public.
+
+The author of "The Seasons" hardly seems a writer likely to give
+offence designedly to a Chamberlain. But Thomson was a sort of Poet
+Laureate to Frederick, Prince of Wales, then carrying on fierce
+opposition to the court of his father, and the play of "Edward and
+Eleonora"--a dramatic setting of the old legend of Queen Eleanor
+sucking the poison from her husband's arm--certainly contained
+passages applicable to the differences existing between the king and
+his heir-apparent. In the first scene, one of the characters demands--
+
+    Has not the royal heir a juster claim
+    To share his father's inmost heart and counsels,
+    Than aliens to his interest, those who make
+    A property, a market of his honour?
+
+And King Edward apostrophises his dead sire--
+
+    O my deluded father! little joy
+    Hadst thou in life, led from thy real good
+    And genuine glory, from thy people's love,
+    The noblest aim of kings, by smiling traitors!
+
+In 1775, however, the play was produced at Covent Garden. George III.
+was king, and the allusions to the squabbles of his father and
+grandfather were not, perhaps, supposed to be any longer of the
+remotest concern or significance to anybody.
+
+At this time and long afterwards, the Licenser regarded it as his
+chief duty to protect the court against all possibility of attack from
+the stage. With the morality of plays he did not meddle much; but he
+still clung to the old superstition that the British drama had only a
+right to exist as the pastime of royalty; plays and players were still
+to be subservient to the pleasure of the sovereign. The British
+public, who, after all, really supported the stage, he declined to
+consider in the matter; conceding, however, that they were at liberty
+to be amused at the theatre, provided they could achieve that end in
+strict accordance with the prescription of the court and its
+Chamberlain. In George III.'s time King Lear was prohibited, because
+it was judged inexpedient that royal insanity should be exhibited upon
+the stage. In 1808 a play, called "The Wanderer," adapted from
+Kotzebue, was forbidden at Covent Garden, in that it dealt with the
+adventures of Prince Charles Edward, the Pretender. Even after the
+accession of Queen Victoria, a license was refused to an English
+version of Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas," lest playgoers should perceive in
+it allusions to the matrimonial choice her Majesty was then about to
+make.
+
+The Licenser's keenness in scenting a political allusion oftentimes,
+indeed, entailed upon him much and richly-merited ridicule. The
+production, some fifty years ago, of a tragedy called "Alasco"
+furnishes a notable instance of the absurdity of his conduct in this
+respect. "Alasco" was written by Mr. Shee, a harmless gentleman
+enough, if at that time a less fully-developed courtier than he
+appeared when, as Sir Martin Archer Shee, he occupied the presidential
+chair of the Royal Academy. Possibly some suspicion attached to the
+dramatist by reason of his being an Irishman and a Roman Catholic. In
+any case, the Licenser found much to object to in "Alasco." The play
+was in rehearsal at Covent Garden; but so many alterations and
+suppressions were insisted on, that its representation became
+impracticable. We may note a few of the lines expunged by the
+Licenser:
+
+    With most unworthy patience have I seen
+    My country shackled and her sons oppressed;
+    And though I've felt their injuries, and avow
+    My ardent hope hereafter to avenge them, &c.
+
+    Tyrants, proud lord, are never safe, nor should be;
+    The ground is mined beneath them as they tread;
+    Haunted by plots, cabals, conspiracies,
+    Their lives are long convulsions, and they shake,
+    Surrounded by their guards and garrisons!
+
+          Some slanderous tool of state,
+    Some taunting, dull, unmannered deputy!
+
+The words in italics were to be expunged from the following passages:
+
+    Tis ours to rescue from the oblivious grave
+    _Where tyrants have contrived to bury them,_
+    A gallant race--a nation--_and her fame;
+    To gather up the fragments of our state,
+    And in its cold, dismembered body, breathe
+    The living soul of empire._
+
+    Fear God and love the king--the soldier's faith--
+    Was always my religion; and I know
+    No heretics but cowards, knaves, and traitors--
+    _No, no, whate'er the colour of his creed,
+    The man of honour's orthodox._
+
+It is difficult now to discover what offence was contained in these
+lines, and many more such as these, which were also denounced by the
+Licenser. Shee expostulated--for he was not a meek sort of man by any
+means, and he knew the advantages of a stir to one aiming at
+publicity--appealed from the subordinate to the superior, from the
+Examiner to the Chamberlain, then the Duke of Montrose, and wrote to
+the newspapers; but all in vain. The tragedy could not be performed.
+That the stage lost much it would be rash to assert. "Alasco" was
+published, and those who read it--they were not many--found it
+certainly harmless; but not less certainly pompous and wearisome.
+However, that Shee was furnished with a legitimate grievance was
+generally agreed, although in "Blackwood's Magazine," then very
+intense in its Toryism, it was hinted that the dramatist, his religion
+and his nationality being considered, might be in league with the
+author of "Captain Rock," and engaged in seditious designs against the
+peace and Protestantism of Ireland! Some five years later, it may be
+noted, "Alasco" was played at the Surrey Theatre, without the
+slightest regard for the opinion of the Examiner of Plays, or with any
+change in the passages he had ordered to be expunged. Westminster was
+not then very well informed as to what happened in Lambeth, and
+probably it was not generally known that "Alasco," with all its
+supposed seditious utterances unsilenced, could be witnessed upon the
+Surrey stage. Nor is there any record that anybody was at all the
+worse, or the treasury of the theatre any the better, for the
+representation of the forbidden tragedy.
+
+The Examiner of Plays at this time was George Colman the younger, who
+was appointed to the office, less on account of the distinction he
+enjoyed as a dramatist, than because he was a favourite and a sort of
+boon companion of George IV. Colman had succeeded a Mr. Larpent, who
+had filled the post for some twenty years, and who, notwithstanding
+that, as a strict Methodist, he scarcely seemed a very fit person to
+pronounce judgment upon stage plays, had exercised the powers
+entrusted to him with moderation. It was generally agreed that he was
+a considerate and benignant ruler, and that his career as Examiner
+offered few occasions for remark, although upon its close some
+surprise was excited at the exposure for sale by public auction of the
+many manuscripts of plays, &c., which were found in his possession,
+and which should certainly have been preserved among the archives of
+the Chamberlain's office. Colman, however, proved a very tyrant--a
+consummate Jack-in-office. As a gentleman of rather unbridled habits
+of life, and the author of "Broad Grins" and other works certainly
+paying small heed to the respectabilities, it had been hoped that he
+would deal leniently with his brother playwrights. But he carried to
+fanatic extravagance his devotion to the purity of the stage. Warned
+by earlier example, few dramas which could possibly be considered of a
+political complexion were now submitted for examination. Still the
+diction of the stage demanded a measure of liberty. But Mr. Colman
+would not allow a lover to describe his mistress as "an angel." He
+avowed that "an angel was a character in Scripture, and not to be
+profaned on the stage by being applied to a woman!" The exclamation,
+"Oh, Providence!" was not permitted. The words "heaven" and "hell" he
+uniformly expunged. "Oh, lud!" and "Oh, la!" were condemned for
+irreverence. Oaths and all violent expletives were strictly
+prohibited.
+
+Now it was rather an imprecatory age. Men swore in those days, not
+meaning much harm, or particularly conscious of what they were doing,
+but as a matter of bad habit, in pursuance of a custom certainly
+odious enough, but which they had not originated, and could hardly be
+expected immediately to overcome. In this way malediction formed part
+of the manners of the time. How could these be depicted upon the stage
+in the face of Mr. Colman's new ordinance? There was great
+consternation among actors and authors. Plays came back from the
+Examiner's office so slashed with red ink that they seemed to be
+bleeding from numerous wounds; line after line had been prohibited;
+and by Colman of all people! Critics amused themselves by searching
+through his own dramatic writings, and cataloguing the bad language
+they contained. The list was very formidable. There were comminations
+and anathemas in almost every scene. The matter was pointed out to
+him, but he treated it with indifference. He was a writer of plays
+then; but now he was Examiner of Plays. His point of view was changed,
+that was all. It was no fault of his if there had been neglect of duty
+on the part of previous examiners. Mr. Arnold, the proprietor and
+manager of the Lyceum Theatre, expostulated with him on the subject.
+In a play by John Banim, one of the authors of the "Tales of the
+O'Hara Family," Colman had forbidden certain lines to be chanted by
+monks and nuns in a scene of a foreign cathedral. It was too profane.
+What about the singing of "God save the King" upon the stage? That had
+been sanctioned by custom, Colman maintained; but he could not regard
+it as a precedent. Was he prepared to mutilate Portia's great speech
+in the "Merchant of Venice?" Certainly he was; but then custom had
+sanctioned it, and playgoers were not prepared for any meddling with
+the text of Shakespeare. He admitted, however, that he did not trouble
+himself to ascertain whether his excisions were carried into effect
+when the plays came to be represented. "My duty," he said, "is simply
+to object to everything immoral or politically dangerous. When I have
+marked my objections the play is licensed, subject to the omission of
+the passages objected to; beyond this I have nothing to do, or an
+examiner would become a spy as well as a censor on the theatre." Any
+breach of the law was therefore left to be remedied by the action of
+the "common informer" of the period.
+
+As evidence of Colman's lack of conscientiousness in this matter, a
+letter he wrote to Mr. Frederick Yates, in 1829, may be cited. A
+dramatic author, the friend both of Colman and Yates, had bitterly
+complained of the retrenchments made by the Examiner in a certain
+play, or, to follow Colman's own words, had stated "that his comedy
+would be sure to be damned by the public, owing to the removal of some
+devilish good jokes by the Examiner." "Cannot you, my dear Fred,
+instruct him better?" wrote Colman. "The play, you know, must be
+printed in strict accordance with my obliterations; but if the parts
+be previously given out, it will be difficult to induce the actors to
+preach from my text!" No doubt upon this hint the actors spake. Only,
+in that case, of what good was the Examiner, regarded as a public
+servant?
+
+It was questioned at the time whether the Chamberlain, by his deputy,
+was not exercising more authority than he was really clothed with,
+under virtue of the Licensing Act. He was entitled to prohibit the
+performance of any play; but could he make terms with the managers,
+and cut and carve their manuscripts, forcing upon them his capricious
+alterations? Further, it was asked by what right he delegated his
+power to another? The Act made no mention of his deputy or of such an
+officer as an Examiner of Plays. And then, as to the question of fees.
+What right had he to exact fees? There was no mention of fees in the
+Act. No doubt the managers had long been in the habit of paying
+fees--L2 2s. for every piece, song, &c. But it was urged that this was
+simply to secure expedition in the examination of their plays, which
+they were bound to submit to the Chamberlain fourteen days at least
+before representation, and not in pursuance of any legal enactment.
+The Examiner of Plays received a salary from the Chamberlain for the
+labour he performed; why should he levy a tax upon managers and
+authors, and so be paid twice over for the same work?
+
+Now, on the subject of fees Colman was certainly most rapacious. He
+spared no effort to increase, in this way, the emoluments of his
+office. Did an actor on a benefit night advertise any new songs,
+glees, or other musical performance--Colman was prompt to demand a fee
+of L2 2s. for every separate production. Occasional addresses,
+prologues, and epilogues, were all rated as distinct stage plays, and
+the customary fees insisted upon. One actor, long famous as "Little
+Knight," so far defeated this systematic extortion that he strung
+together a long list of songs, recitations, imitations, &c., which he
+wished to have performed at his benefit with any nonsense of dialogue
+that came into his head, and so sent them to be licensed as one piece.
+They were licensed accordingly; the dialogue was all omitted, and the
+ingenious actor aided his benefit by saving L8 8s. or L10 10s., which
+would otherwise have found their way into the pocket of the Examiner.
+When the French plays were performed in London, in 1829, Colman
+insisted that a fee must be paid for every vaudeville or other light
+piece of that class produced. As some three or four of such works were
+presented every night--the same plays being rarely repeated--it was
+computed that the Examiner's fees amounted upon an average to L6 6s. a
+night. During an interval, however, the Duke of Devonshire succeeding
+the Duke of Montrose as Chamberlain, this demand was not enforced;
+eventually a compromise was agreed upon, and a reduced fee of L1 1s.
+was levied upon each vaudeville, &c. Colman even succeeded in rating
+as a stage play, an astronomical lecture, delivered at the Lyceum. The
+"At Homes" of Mathews were of course taxed, a "slight sketch and
+title" being submitted to the Examiner, the actor professing to speak
+without any precise text, but simply from "heads and hints before him
+to refer to should his memory falter." In an attempt to levy a fee on
+account of an oratorio performed at Covent Garden, Colman failed,
+however; it was proved that the libretto was entirely composed of
+passages from the Scriptures. After great discussion it was ultimately
+decided that the Bible did not need the license of the Lord
+Chamberlain.
+
+Colman died in 1836, and was succeeded as Examiner of Plays by Mr.
+Charles Kemble, who, strange to say, while holding that appointment
+returned to the stage for a short season and performed certain of his
+most celebrated characters. He resigned the office in 1840, and his
+son John Mitchell Kemble then held it in his stead. On the death of
+John Mitchell Kemble, in 1857, Mr. William Bodham Donne, the late
+Examiner, received the appointment. Mr. Donne, however, had in truth
+performed the duties of the office as the deputy of the Chamberlain's
+deputy since the year 1849. As he informed the Parliamentary committee
+of 1866, he had received a salary of L320, subject to deduction on
+account of income-tax. Further, the Examiner receives fees for every
+play examined. Two guineas are paid for every play of three acts or
+more; under three acts the fee is L1 1s. For every song sung in a
+theatre a fee of 5s. is paid. As Mr. Donne explained to the
+committee, he had examined between 1857 and 1866 about 1800 plays.
+
+It is to be noted that in 1843 the Act for Regulating Theatres,
+commonly known as Sir James Graham's Act, became law. By this measure
+the powers of the Lord Chamberlain were enlarged and more firmly
+established; he was empowered to charge such fees as he might deem fit
+in regard to every play, prologue, epilogue, or part thereof, intended
+to be produced or acted in Great Britain, although no fee was in any
+case to exceed L2 2s. in amount. Further, it was made lawful for him,
+whenever he should be of opinion that it was fitting for the
+preservation of good manners, decorum, or of the public peace so to
+do, to forbid the performance of any stage play, or any act, scene or
+part thereof, or any prologue or epilogue or any part thereof,
+anywhere in Great Britain or in any such theatre as he should specify,
+and either absolutely or for such time as he should think fit. It was
+enacted, moreover, that the term "stage play" should be taken to
+include "every tragedy, comedy, farce, opera, burletta, interlude,
+melodrama, pantomime, or other entertainment of the stage."
+
+The Act provides for no appeal against the decision of the
+Chamberlain. His government was to be quite absolute. If he chose to
+prohibit the performance of Shakespeare's plays, for instance, no one
+could question his right to take that strong measure; only another Act
+of Parliament could, under such circumstances, restore Shakespeare, to
+the stage. Of the Examiner of Plays the Act made no mention: that
+office continued to be the creation simply of the Lord Chamberlain,
+and without any sort of legal status. The old Licensing Act of 1737
+was absolutely repealed; yet, unaccountably enough, Mr. Donne's
+appointment, bearing date 1857, and signed by the Marquis of
+Breadalbane, then Lord Chamberlain, began: "Whereas in consequence of
+an Act of Parliament, made in the tenth year of the reign of His late
+Majesty King George the Second," &c. &c.
+
+The intensity of George Colman's regard for "good manners and decorum"
+has no doubt furnished a precedent to later Examiners. For some time
+little effort was made again to apply the stage to the purposes of
+political satire. Mr. Buckstone informed the Parliamentary Committee
+that an attempt made about 1846, to represent the House of Commons
+upon the stage of the Adelphi--Mr. Buckstone was to have personated
+the Lord John Russell of that date--had been promptly forbidden; and
+the late Mr. Shirley Brooks stated that a project of dramatising Mr.
+Disraeli's novel of "Coningsby" had also, in regard to its political
+bearing, been interdicted by the Chamberlain. Few other essays in this
+direction appear worth noting, until we come to a few seasons back,
+when certain members of the administration were caricatured upon the
+stage of the Court Theatre, after a fashion that speedily brought down
+the rebuke of the Chamberlain, and the exhibition was prohibited
+within his jurisdiction. But the question of "good manners and
+decorum" has induced much controversy. For where, indeed, is
+discoverable an acceptable standard of "good manners and decorum"? In
+such matters there is always growth and change of opinion. Sir Walter
+Scott makes mention of an elderly lady, who, reading over again
+certain books she had deemed in her youth to be of a most harmless
+kind, was shocked at their exceeding grossness. She had unconsciously
+moved on with the civilising and refining influences of her time. And
+the question of morality in relation to the drama is confessedly very
+difficult to deal with. "It must be something almost of a scandalous
+character to warrant interference," says Mr. Donne. "If you sift the
+matter to the very dross, two-thirds of the plays of any period in the
+history of the stage must be condemned. Where there is an obvious
+intention, or a very strong suspicion of an intention to make wrong
+appear right or right appear wrong, those are the cases in which I
+interfere, or those in which there is any open scandal, or any
+inducement to do wrong is offered; but stage morality is--the morality
+of the stage, and generally, quite as good as the morality of the
+literature of fiction." This does not define the Examiner's principle
+of action very clearly. As instances of his procedure, it may be
+stated that upon religious grounds he has forbidden such operas as the
+"Nabuco" of Verdi and the "Mose in Egitto" of Rossini, allowing them
+to be presented, however, when their names were changed to "Nino" and
+"Zora" or "Pietro l'Eremita" respectively. On the other hand, while
+prohibiting "La Dame aux Camelias"[1] of M. Alexandre Dumas fils, he
+has sanctioned its performance as the opera "La Traviata." "I think,"
+explained Mr. Donne, "that if there is a musical version of a piece it
+makes a difference, for the story is then subsidiary to the music and
+singing." Prohibiting "Jack Sheppard" he yet licensed for
+representation an adaptation of a French version of the same piece.
+Madame Ristori was not allowed to appear in the tragedy of "Myrrha,"
+and the dramas which French companies of players visiting this country
+from time to time have designed to produce, have been severely dealt
+with, the Examiner forgetting, apparently, that such works should
+rather be judged by a foreign than a native standard of "good manners
+and decorum." As a result, we have the strange fact of the Examiner
+stepping between the English public and what have been judged to be
+the masterpieces of the French stage.
+
+     [1] "La Dame aux Camelias" obtained a license at last, and was
+     played for the first time in England at the Gaiety Theatre, on
+     the 11th June, 1881, with Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt as the
+     representative of the leading character.
+
+The Chamberlain has also held it to be a part of his duty to interfere
+in regard to certain of the costumes of the theatre, when these seemed
+to be more scanty than seemliness required, and from time to time he
+has addressed expostulations to the managers upon the subject. It must
+not be concluded, however, that from his action in the matter, much
+change or amendment has ensued.
+
+In America there is no Lord Chamberlain, Examiner of Plays, or any
+corresponding functionary. The stage may be no better for the absence
+of such an officer, but it does not seem to be any the worse.
+
+In 1832, the late Lord Lytton (then Mr. Bulwer), addressing the House
+of Commons on the laws affecting dramatic literature, said of the
+authority vested in the Lord Chamberlain: "I am at a loss to know what
+advantages we have gained by the grant of this almost unconstitutional
+power. Certainly, with regard to a censor, a censor upon plays seems
+to me as idle and unnecessary as a censor upon books.... The public
+taste, backed by the vigilant admonition of the public press, may,
+perhaps, be more safely trusted for the preservation of theatrical
+decorum, than any ignorant and bungling censor who (however well the
+office may be now fulfilled) might be appointed hereafter; who, while
+he might strain at gnats and cavil at straws, would be without any
+other real power than that of preventing men of genius from submitting
+to the caprice of his opinions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A BILL OF THE PLAY.
+
+
+Are there, nowadays, any collectors of playbills? In the catalogues of
+secondhand booksellers are occasionally to be found such entries as:
+"Playbills of the Theatre Royal, Bath, 1807 to 1812;" or "Hull Theatre
+Royal--various bills of performances between 1815 and 1850;" or
+"Covent Garden Theatre--variety of old bills of the last century
+pasted in a volume;" yet these evidences of the care and diligence of
+past collectors would not seem to obtain much appreciation in the
+present. The old treasures can generally be purchased at a very
+moderate outlay. Still, if scarceness is an element of value, these
+things should be precious. It is in the nature of such ephemera of the
+printing-press to live their short hour, and disappear with exceeding
+suddenness. They may be originally issued in hundreds or even in
+thousands; but once gone they are gone for ever. Relative to such
+matters there is an energy of destruction that keeps pace with the
+industry of production. The demands of "waste" must be met: fires must
+be lighted. So away go the loose papers, sheets and pamphlets of the
+minute. They have served their turn, and there is an end of them.
+Hence the difficulty of obtaining, when needed, a copy of a newspaper
+of old date, or the guide-book or programme of a departed
+entertainment, or the catalogue of a past auction of books or
+pictures. It has been noted that, notwithstanding the enormous
+circulation it enjoyed, the catalogue of our Great Exhibition of a
+score of years ago is already a somewhat rare volume. Complete sets of
+the catalogues of the Royal Academy's century of exhibitions are
+possessed by very few. And of playbills of the English stage from the
+Restoration down to the present time, although the British Museum can
+certainly boast a rich collection, yet this is disfigured here and
+there by gaps and deficiencies which cannot now possibly be supplied.
+
+The playbill is an ancient thing. Mr. Payne Collier states that the
+practice of printing information as to the time, place, and nature of
+the performances to be presented by the players was certainly common
+prior to the year 1563. John Northbrooke, in his treatise against
+theatrical performers, published about 1579, says: "They used to set
+up their bills upon posts some certain days before, to admonish people
+to make resort to their theatres." The old plays make frequent
+reference to this posting of the playbills. Thus, in the Induction to
+"A Warning for Fair Women," 1599, Tragedy whips Comedy from the stage,
+crying:
+
+    'Tis you have kept the theatre so long
+    Painted in playbills upon every post,
+    While I am scorned of the multitude.
+
+Taylor, the water-poet, in his "Wit and Mirth," records the story of
+Field the actor's riding rapidly up Fleet Street, and being stopped by
+a gentleman with an inquiry as to the play that was to be played that
+night. Field, "being angry to be stayed upon so frivolous a demand,
+answered, that he might see what play was to be played upon every
+post. 'I cry you mercy,' said the gentleman. 'I took you for a post,
+you rode so fast.'"
+
+It is strange to find that the right of printing playbills was
+originally monopolised by the Stationers' Company. At a later period,
+however, the privilege was assumed and exercised by the Crown. In
+1620, James I. granted a patent to Roger Wood and Thomas Symcock for
+the sole printing, among other things, of "all bills for playes,
+pastimes, showes, challenges, prizes, or sportes whatsoever." It was
+not until after the Restoration that the playbills contained a list of
+the _dramatis personae_, or of the names of the actors. But it had been
+usual, apparently, with the title of the drama, to supply the name of
+its author, and its description as a tragedy or comedy. Shirley, in
+the prologue to his "Cardinal," apologises for calling it only a
+"play" in the bill:
+
+    Think what you please, we call it but a "play:"
+    Whether the comic muse, or lady's love,
+    Romance or direful tragedy it prove,
+    The bill determines not.
+
+From a later passage in the same prologue Mr. Collier judges that the
+titles of tragedies were usually printed, for the sake of distinction,
+in red ink:
+
+              ----and you would be
+    Persuaded I would have't a comedy
+    For all the purple in the name.
+
+But this may be a reference to the colour of a cardinal's robes. There
+is probably no playbill extant of an earlier date than 1663. About
+this time, in the case of a new play, it was usual to state in the
+bill that it had been "never acted before."
+
+In the earliest days of the stage, before the invention of printing,
+the announcement that theatrical performances were about to be
+exhibited was made by sound of trumpet, much after the manner of
+modern strollers and showmen at fairs and street-corners. Indeed, long
+after playbills had become common, this musical advertisement was
+still requisite for the due information of the unlettered patrons of
+the stage. In certain towns the musicians were long looked upon as the
+indispensable heralds of the actors. Tate Wilkinson, writing in 1790,
+records that a custom obtained at Norwich, "and if abolished it has
+not been many years," of proclaiming in every street with drum and
+trumpet the performances to be presented at the theatre in the
+evening. A like practice also prevailed at Grantham. To the
+Lincolnshire company of players, however, this musical preface to
+their efforts seemed objectionable and derogatory, and they
+determined, on one of their visits to the town, to dispense with the
+old-established sounds. But the reform resulted in empty benches.
+Thereupon the "revered, well-remembered, and beloved Marquis of
+Granby" sent for the manager of the troop and thus addressed him: "Mr.
+Manager, I like a play; I like a player; and I shall be glad to serve
+you. But, my good friend, why are you all so offended at and averse to
+the noble sound of a drum? I like it, and all the inhabitants like
+it. Put my name on your playbill, provided you drum, but not
+otherwise. Try the effect on to-morrow night; if then you are as
+thinly attended as you have lately been, shut up your playhouse at
+once; but if it succeeds, drum away!" The players withdrew their
+opposition and followed the counsel of the marquis. The musical
+prelude was again heard in the streets of Grantham, and crowded houses
+were obtained. The company enjoyed a prosperous season, and left the
+town in great credit. "And I am told," adds Wilkinson, "the custom is
+continued at Grantham to this day."
+
+An early instance of the explanatory address, signed by the dramatist
+or manager, which so frequently accompanies the modern playbill, is to
+be found in the fly-sheet issued by Dryden in 1665. The poet thought
+it expedient in this way to inform the audience that his tragedy of
+"The Indian Emperor" was to be regarded as a sequel to a former work,
+"The Indian Queen," which he had written in conjunction with his
+brother-in-law, Sir Robert Howard. The handbill excited some
+amusement, by reason of its novelty, for in itself it was but a simple
+and useful intimation. In ridicule of this proceeding, Bayes, the hero
+of the Duke of Buckingham's burlesque, "The Rehearsal," is made to
+say: "I have printed above a hundred sheets of paper to insinuate the
+plot into the boxes."
+
+Chetwood, who had been twenty years prompter at Drury Lane, and in
+1749 published a "History of the Stage," describes a difficulty that
+had arisen in regard to printing the playbills. Of old the list of
+characters had been set forth according to the books of the plays,
+without regard to the merits of the performers. "As, for example, in
+'Macbeth,' Duncan, King of Scotland, appeared first in the bill,
+though acted by an insignificant person, and so every other actor
+appeared according to his dramatic dignity, all of the same-sized
+letter. But latterly, I can assure my readers, I have found it a
+difficult task to please some ladies as well as gentlemen, because I
+could not find letters large enough to please them; and some were so
+fond of elbow room that they would have shoved everybody out but
+themselves, as if one person was to do all and have the merit of all,
+like generals of an army." Garrick seems to have been the first actor
+honoured by capital letters of extra size in the playbills. "The
+Connoisseur," in 1754, says: "The writer of the playbills deals out
+his capitals in so just a proportion that you may tell the salary of
+each actor by the size of the letter in which his name is printed.
+When the present manager of Drury Lane first came on the stage, a new
+set of types, two inches long, were cast on purpose to do honour to
+his extraordinary merit." These distinctions in the matter of printing
+occasioned endless jealousies among the actors. Macklin made it an
+express charge against his manager, Sheridan, the actor, that he was
+accustomed to print his own name in larger type than was permitted the
+other performers. Kean threatened to throw up his engagement at Drury
+Lane on account of his name having been printed in capitals of a
+smaller size than usual. His engagement of 1818 contained a condition,
+"and also that his name shall be continued in the bills of performance
+in the same manner as it is at present," viz., large letters. On the
+other hand, Dowton, the comedian, greatly objected to having his name
+thus particularised, and expostulated with Elliston, his manager, on
+the subject. "I am sorry you have done this," he wrote. "You know well
+what I mean. This cursed quackery. These big letters. There is a want
+of respectability about it, or rather a notoriety, which gives one the
+feeling of an absconded felon, against whom a hue-and-cry is made
+public. Or if there be really any advantage in it, why should I, or
+any single individual, take it over the rest of our brethren? But it
+has a nasty disreputable look, and I have fancied the whole day the
+finger of the town pointed at me, as much as to say, 'That is he! Now
+for the reward!' Leave this expedient to the police officers, or to
+those who have a taste for it. I have none."
+
+Macready, under date of 28th September, 1840, enters in his journal:
+"Spoke to Webster on the subject of next year's engagement. He said
+that he understood I had said that while I was comfortable at the
+Haymarket I would stay. _I mentioned the position of my name on the
+playbills; that it should not, on any occasion be put under any other
+person's, as it had been_; that I should have the right to a private
+box when they were not let," &c.
+
+O'Keeffe relates that once when an itinerant showman brought over to
+Dublin a trained monkey of great acquirements, Mossop engaged the
+animal at a large salary to appear for a limited number of nights at
+his theatre. Mossop's name in the playbill was always in a type nearly
+two inches long, the rest of the performers' names being in very small
+letters. But to the monkey were devoted capitals of equal size to
+Mossop's; so that, greatly to the amusement of the public, on the
+playbills pasted about the town, nothing could be distinguished but
+the words, MOSSOP, MONKEY. Under John Kemble's management, "for his
+greater ease and the quiet of the theatre," letters of unreasonable
+size were abandoned, and the playbills were printed after an amended
+and more modest pattern.
+
+With the rise and growth of the press came the expediency of
+advertising the performances of the theatres in the columns of the
+newspapers. To the modern manager advertisements are a very formidable
+expense. The methods he is compelled to resort to in order to bring
+his plays and players well under the notice of the public, involve a
+serious charge upon his receipts. But of old the case was precisely
+the reverse. The theatres were strong, the newspapers were weak. So
+far from the manager paying money for the insertion of his
+advertisements in the journals, he absolutely received profits on this
+account. The press then suffered under severe restrictions, and was
+most jealously regarded by the governing powers; leading articles were
+as yet unknown; the printing of parliamentary debates was strictly
+prohibited; foreign intelligence was scarcely obtainable; of home news
+there was little stirring that could with safety be promulgated. So
+that the proceedings of the theatres became of real importance to the
+newspaper proprietor, and it was worth his while to pay considerable
+sums for early information in this respect. Moreover, in those days,
+not merely by reason of its own merits, but because of the absence of
+competing attractions and other sources of entertainment, the stage
+was much more than at present an object of general regard. In Andrew's
+"History of British Journalism" it is recorded on the authority of the
+ledger of Henry Woodfall, the publisher of the _Public Advertiser_:
+"The theatres are a great expense to the papers. Amongst the items of
+payment are: Playhouses, L100. Drury Lane advertisements, L64 8s. 6d.;
+Covent Garden ditto, L66 11s. The papers paid L200 a-year to each
+theatre for the accounts of new plays, and would reward the messenger
+with a shilling or half-a-crown who brought them the first copy of a
+playbill." In 1721, the following announcement appeared in the _Daily
+Post_: "The managers of Drury Lane think it proper to give notice that
+advertisements of their plays, by their authority, are published only
+in this paper and the _Daily Courant_, and that the publishers of all
+other papers who insert advertisements of the same plays, can do it
+only by some surreptitious intelligence or hearsay, which frequently
+leads them to commit gross errors, as, mentioning one play for
+another, falsely representing the parts, &c., to the misinformation of
+the town, and the great detriment of the said theatre." And the
+_Public Advertiser_ of January 1st, 1765, contains a notice: "To
+prevent any mistake in future in advertising the plays and
+entertainments of Drury Lane Theatre, the managers think it proper to
+declare that the playbills are inserted by their direction in this
+paper only." It is clear that the science of advertising was but dimly
+understood at this date. Even the shopkeepers then paid for the
+privilege of exhibiting bills in their windows, whereas now they
+require to be rewarded for all exertions of this kind, by, at any
+rate, free admissions to the entertainments advertised, if not by a
+specific payment of money. The exact date when the managers began to
+pay instead of receive on the score of their advertisements, is hardly
+to be ascertained. Genest, in his laborious "History of the Stage,"
+says obscurely of the year 1745: "At this time the plays were
+advertised at three shillings and sixpence each night or advertisement
+in the _General Advertiser_." It may be that the adverse systems went
+on together for some time. The managers may have paid certain journals
+for the regular insertion of advertisements, and received payment from
+less favoured or less influential newspapers for theatrical news or
+information.
+
+One of Charles Lamb's most pleasant papers arose from "the casual
+sight of an old playbill which I picked up the other day; I know not
+by what chance it was preserved so long." It was but two-and-thirty
+years old, however, and presented the cast of parts in "Twelfth Night"
+at Old Drury Lane Theatre, destroyed by fire in 1809. Lamb's delight
+in the stage needs not to be again referred to. "There is something
+very touching in these old remembrances," he writes. "They make us
+think how we once used to read a playbill, not as now, peradventure
+singling out a favourite performer and casting a negligent eye over
+the rest; but spelling out every name down to the very mutes and
+servants of the scene; when it was a matter of no small moment to us
+whether Whitfield or Packer took the part of Fabian; when Benson, and
+Burton, and Phillimore--names of small account--had an importance
+beyond what we can be content to attribute now to the time's best
+actors." The fond industry with which a youthful devotee of the
+theatre studies the playbills could hardly be more happily indicated
+than in this extract.
+
+Mention of Old Drury Lane and its burning bring us naturally to the
+admirable "story of the flying playbill," contained in the parody of
+Crabbe, perhaps the most perfect specimen in that unique collection of
+parodies, "Rejected Addresses." The verses by the pseudo-Crabbe
+include the following lines:
+
+    Perchance while pit and gallery cry "Hats off!"
+    And awed consumption checks his chided cough,
+    Some giggling daughter of the Queen of Love
+    Drops, reft of pin, her playbill from above;
+    Like Icarus, while laughing galleries clap,
+    Soars, ducks, and dives in air the printed scrap;
+    But, wiser far than he, combustion fears;
+    And, as it flies, eludes the chandeliers;
+    Till, sinking gradual, with repeated twirl,
+    It settles, curling, on a fiddler's curl,
+    Who from his powdered pate the intruder strikes,
+    And, for mere malice, sticks it on the spikes.
+
+"The story of the flying playbill," says the mock-preface, "is
+calculated to expose a practice, much too common, of pinning playbills
+to the cushions insecurely, and frequently, I fear, not pinning them
+at all. If these lines save one playbill only from the fate I have
+recorded, I shall not deem my labour ill employed."
+
+Modern playbills may be described as of two classes, indoor and
+out-of-door. The latter are known also as "posters," and may thus
+manifest their connection with the early method of "setting up
+playbills upon posts." Shakespeare's audiences were not supplied with
+handbills as our present playgoers are; such of them as could read
+were probably content to derive all the information they needed from
+the notices affixed to the doors of the theatre, or otherwise publicly
+exhibited. Of late years the vendors of playbills, who were wont
+urgently to pursue every vehicle that seemed to them bound to the
+theatre, in the hope of disposing of their wares, have greatly
+diminished in numbers, if they have not wholly disappeared. Many
+managers have forbidden altogether the sale of bills outside the doors
+of their establishments. The indoor programmes are again divided into
+two kinds. To the lower-priced portions of the house an inferior bill
+is devoted; a folio sheet of thin paper, heavily laden and strongly
+odorous with printers' ink. Visitors to the more expensive seats are
+now supplied with a scented bill of octavo size, which is generally,
+in addition, the means of advertising the goods and inventions of an
+individual perfumer. Attempts to follow Parisian example, and to make
+the playbill at once a vehicle for general advertisements and a source
+of amusing information upon theatrical subjects, have been ventured
+here occasionally, but without decided success. From time to time
+papers started with this object under such titles as the "Opera
+Glass," the "Curtain," the "Drop Scene," &c., have appeared, but they
+have failed to secure a sufficiency of patronage. The playgoer's
+openness to receive impressions or information of any kind by way of
+employment during the intervals of representation, has not been
+unperceived by the advertisers, however, and now and then, as a
+result, a monstrosity called an "advertising curtain" has disfigured
+the stage. Some new development of the playbill in this direction may
+be in store for us in the future. The difficulty lies, perhaps, in the
+gilding of the pill. Advertisements by themselves are not very
+attractive reading, and a mixed audience cannot safely be credited
+with a ruling appetite merely for dramatic intelligence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+STROLLING PLAYERS.
+
+
+It is rather the public than the player that strolls nowadays. The
+theatre is stationary--the audience peripatetic. The wheels have been
+taken off the cart of Thespis. Hamlet's line, "Then came each actor on
+his ass," or the stage direction in the old "Taming of the Shrew"
+(1594), "Enter two players with packs on their backs," no longer
+describes accurately the travelling habits of the histrionic
+profession. But of old the country folk had the drama brought as it
+were to their doors, and just as they purchased their lawn and
+cambric, ribbons and gloves, and other raiment and bravery of the
+wandering pedlar--the Autolycus of the period--so all their playhouse
+learning and experience they acquired from the itinerant actors. These
+were rarely the leading performers of the established London
+companies, however, unless it so happened that the capital was
+suffering from a visitation of the plague. "Starring in the provinces"
+was not an early occupation of the players of good repute. As a rule,
+it was only the inferior actors who quitted town, and as Dekker
+contemptuously says, "travelled upon the hard hoof from village to
+village for cheese and buttermilk." "How chances it they travel?"
+inquires Hamlet concerning "the tragedians of the city"--"their
+_residence_ both in reputation and profit were better both ways." John
+Stephens, writing in 1615, and describing "a common player," observes,
+"I prefix the epithet 'common' to distinguish the base and artless
+appendants of our City companies, which oftentimes start away into
+rustical wanderings, and then, like Proteus, start back again into
+the City number." The strollers were of two classes, however. First,
+the theatrical companies protected by some great personage, wearing
+his badge or crest, and styling themselves his "servants"--just as to
+this day the Drury Lane troop, under warrant of Davenant's patent,
+still boast the title of "Her Majesty's Servants"--who attended at
+country seats, and gave representations at the request or by the
+permission of the great people of the neighbourhood; and secondly, the
+mere unauthorised itinerants, with no claim to distinction beyond such
+as their own merits accorded to them, who played in barns, or in large
+inn-yards and rooms, and against whom was especially levelled the Act
+of Elizabeth declaring that all players, &c., "not licensed by any
+baron or person of high rank, or by two justices of the peace, should
+be deemed and treated as rogues and vagabonds."
+
+The suppression of the theatres by the Puritans reduced all the
+players to the condition of strollers of the lowest class. Legally
+their occupation was gone altogether. Stringent measures were taken to
+abolish stage-plays and interludes, and by an Act passed in 1647, all
+actors of plays for the time to come were declared rogues within the
+meaning of the Act of Elizabeth, and upon conviction were to be
+publicly whipped for the first offence, and for the second to be
+deemed incorrigible rogues, and dealt with accordingly; all stage
+galleries, seats, and boxes were to be pulled down by warrant of two
+justices of the peace; all money collected from the spectators was to
+be appropriated to the poor of the parish; and all spectators of
+plays, for every offence, fined five shillings. Assuredly these were
+very hard times for players, playhouses, and playgoers. Still the
+theatre was hard to kill. In 1648, a provost-marshal was nominated to
+stimulate the vigilance and activity of the lord mayor, justices, and
+sheriffs, and among other duties, "to seize all ballad-singers and
+sellers of malignant pamphlets, and to send them to the several
+militias, and to suppress stage-plays." Yet, all this notwithstanding,
+some little show of life stirred now and then in the seeming corpse of
+the drama. A few players met furtively, assembled a select audience,
+and gave a clandestine performance, more or less complete, in some
+obscure quarter. Secret Royalists and but half-hearted Puritans
+abounded, and these did not scruple to abet a breach of the law, and
+to be entertained now and then in the old time-honoured way.
+
+With the Restoration, however, Thespis enjoyed his own again, and sock
+and buskin became once more lawful articles of apparel. Charles II.
+mounted the throne arm-in-arm, as it were, with a player-king and
+queen. The London theatres reopened under royal patronage, and in the
+provinces the stroller was abroad. He had his enemies, no doubt.
+Prejudice is long-lived, of robust constitution. Puritanism had struck
+deep root in the land, and though the triumphant Cavaliers might hew
+its branches, strip off its foliage, and hack at its trunk, they could
+by no means extirpate it altogether. Religious zealotry, strenuous and
+stubborn, however narrow, had fostered, and parliamentary enactments
+had warranted, hostility of the most uncompromising kind to the player
+and his profession. To many he was still, his new liberty and
+privileges notwithstanding, but "a son of Belial"--ever of near kin to
+the rogue and the vagabond, with the stocks and the whipping-post
+still in his immediate neighbourhood, let him turn which way he would.
+And then, certainly, his occupation had its seamy side. With this the
+satirists, who loved censure rather for its wounding than its healing
+properties, made great play. They were never tired of pointing out and
+ridiculing the rents in the stroller's coat; his shifts, trials,
+misfortunes, follies, were subjects for ceaseless derision. What Grub
+Street and "penny-a-lining" have been to the vocation of letters,
+strolling and "barn-strutting" became to the histrionic profession--an
+excuse for scorn, underrating, and mirth, more or less bitter.
+
+Still strolling had its charms. To the beginner it afforded a kind of
+informal apprenticeship, with the advantage that while a learner of
+its mysteries, he could yet style himself a full member of the
+profession of the stage, and share in its profits. He was at once bud
+and flower. What though the floor of a ruined barn saw his first crude
+efforts, might not the walls of a patent theatre resound by-and-by
+with delighted applause, tribute to his genius? It was a free, frank,
+open vocation he had adopted; it was unprotected and unrestricted by
+legislative provisions in the way of certificates, passes,
+examinations, and diplomas. There was no need of ticket, or voucher,
+or preparation of any kind to obtain admission to the ranks of the
+players. "Can you shout?" a manager once inquired of a novice. "Then
+only shout in the right places, and you'll do." No doubt this implied
+that even in the matter of shouting some science is involved. And
+there may be men who cannot shout at all, let the places be right or
+wrong. Still the stage can find room and subsistence of a sort for
+all, even for mutes. But carry a banner, walk in a procession, or form
+one of a crowd, and you may still call yourself actor, though not an
+actor of a high class, certainly. The histrionic calling is a ladder
+of many rungs. Remain on the lowest or mount to the highest--it is
+only a question of degree--you are a player all the same.
+
+The Thespian army had no need of a recruiting-sergeant or a press-gang
+to reinforce its ranks. There have always been amateurs lured by the
+mere spectacle of the foot-lights, as moths by a candle. Crabbe's
+description of the strollers in his "Borough" was a favourite passage
+with Sir Walter Scott, and was often read to him in his last fatal
+illness:
+
+    Of various men these marching troops are made,
+    Pen-spurning clerks and lads contemning trade;
+    Waiters and servants by confinement teased,
+    And youths of wealth by dissipation eased;
+    With feeling nymphs who, such resource at hand,
+    Scorn to obey the rigour of command, &c. &c.
+
+And even to the skilled and experienced actors a wandering life
+offered potent attractions. Apart from its liberty and adventure, its
+defiance of social convention and restraint, ambition had space to
+stir, and vanity could be abundantly indulged in the itinerant
+theatre. Dekker speaks of the bad presumptuous players, who out of a
+desire to "wear the best jerkin," and to "act great parts, forsake the
+stately and more than Roman city stages," and join a strolling
+company. By many it was held better to reign in a vagrant than to
+serve in an established troop--preferable to appear as Hamlet in the
+provinces than to play Horatio or Guildenstern in town. And then, in
+the summer months, when the larger London houses were closed,
+strolling became a matter of necessity with a large number of actors;
+they could gain a subsistence in no other way. "The little theatre in
+the Haymarket," as it was wont to be called, which opened its doors in
+summer, when its more important neighbours had concluded their
+operations, could only offer engagements to a select few of their
+companies. The rest must needs wander. Whatever their predilections,
+they were strollers upon compulsion.
+
+Indeed, strolling was only feasible during summer weather. Audiences
+could hardly be moved from their firesides in winter, barns were too
+full of grain to be available for theatrical purposes, and the players
+were then glad to secure such regular employment as they could,
+however slender might be the scale of their remuneration. There is a
+story told of a veteran and a tyro actor walking in the fields early
+in the year, when, suddenly, the elder ran from the path, stopped
+abruptly, and planting his foot firmly upon the green-sward, exclaimed
+with ecstasy: "Three, by heaven! _That_ for managers!" and snapped his
+fingers. His companion asked an explanation of this strange conduct.
+"You'll know before you have strutted in three more barns," said the
+"old hand." "In winter, managers are the most impudent fellows living,
+because they know we don't like to travel, don't like to leave our
+nests, fear the cold, and all that. But when I can put my foot upon
+three daisies--summer's near, and managers may whistle for me!"
+
+The life was not dignified, perhaps, but it had certain picturesque
+qualities. The stroller toiling on his own account, "padding the
+hoof," as he called journeying on foot--a small bundle under his arm,
+containing a few clothes and professional appliances--wandered from
+place to place, stopping now at a fair, now at a tavern, now at a
+country-house, to deliver recitations and speeches, and to gain such
+reward for his labours as he might. Generally he found it advisable,
+however, to join a company of his brethren and share profits with
+them, parting from them again upon a difference of opinion or upon the
+receipts diminishing too seriously, when he would again rely upon his
+independent exertions. Sometimes the actor was able to hire or
+purchase scenes and dresses, the latter being procured generally from
+certain shops in Monmouth Street dealing in cast clothes and tarnished
+frippery that did well enough for histrionic purposes; then, engaging
+a company, he would start from London as a manager, to visit certain
+districts where it was thought that a harvest might be reaped. The
+receipts were divided among the troop upon a prearranged method. The
+impresario took shares in his different characters of manager,
+proprietor, and actor. Even the fragments of the candles that had
+lighted the representations were divided amongst the company.
+Permission had always to be sought of the local magnates before a
+performance could be given; and the best-dressed and most
+cleanly-looking actor was deputed to make this application, as well as
+to conciliate the farmer or innkeeper, whose barn, stable, or great
+room was to be hired for the occasion. Churchill writes:
+
+    The strolling tribe, a despicable race,
+    Like wandering Arabs, shift from place to place.
+    Vagrants by law, to justice open laid,
+    They tremble, of the beadle's lash afraid;
+    And fawning, cringe for wretched means of life
+    To Madame Mayoress or his worship's wife.
+
+"I'm a justice of the peace and know how to deal with strollers," says
+Sir Tunbelly, with an air of menace, in "The Relapse." The
+magistrates, indeed, were much inclined to deal severely with the
+wandering actor, eyeing his calling with suspicion, and prompt to
+enforce the laws against him. Thus we find in "Humphrey Clinker," the
+mayor of Gloucester eager to condemn as a vagrant, and to commit to
+prison with hard labour, young Mr. George Dennison, who, in the guise
+of Wilson, a strolling player, had presumed to make love to Miss Lydia
+Melford, the heroine of the story.
+
+In truth, the stroller's life, with all its seeming license and
+independence, must always have been attended with hardship and
+privation. If the player had ever deemed his art the "idle calling"
+many declared it to be, he was soon undeceived on that head. There was
+but a thin partition between him and absolute want; meanwhile his
+labour was incessant. The stage is a conservative institution,
+adhering closely to old customs, manners, and traditions, and what
+strolling had once been it continued to be almost for centuries. "A
+company of strolling comedians," writes the author of "The Road to
+Ruin," who had himself strolled in early life, "is a small kingdom, of
+which the manager is the monarch. Their code of laws seems to have
+existed, with little variation, since the days of Shakespeare." Who
+can doubt that Hogarth's famous picture told the truth, not only of
+the painter's own time, but of the past and of the future? The poor
+player followed a sordid and wearisome routine. He was constrained to
+devote long hours to rehearsal and to the study of various parts,
+provided always he could obtain a sight of the book of the play, for
+the itinerant theatre afforded no copyist then to write neatly out
+each actor's share in the dialogues and speeches. Night brought the
+performance, and, for the player engaged as "utility," infinite change
+of dress and "making-up" of his face to personate a variety of
+characters. The company would, probably, be outnumbered by the
+_dramatis personae_, in which case it would devolve upon the actor to
+assume many parts in one play. Thus, supposing Hamlet to be announced
+for representation, the stroller of inferior degree might be called
+upon to appear as Francisco, afterwards as a lord-in-waiting in the
+court scenes, then as Lucianus, "nephew to the king," then as one of
+the grave-diggers, then as a lord again, or, it might be, Osric, the
+fop, in the last act. Other duties, hardly less arduous, would fall to
+him in the after-pieces. "I remember," said King, the actor famous as
+being the original Sir Peter Teazle and Lord Ogleby, "that when I had
+been but a short time on the stage, I performed one night King
+Richard, sang two comic songs, played in an interlude, danced a
+hornpipe, spoke a prologue, and was afterwards harlequin, in a sharing
+company; and after all this fatigue my share came to threepence and
+three pieces of candle!" A strolling manager of a later period was
+wont to boast that he had performed the complete melodrama of "Rob
+Roy" with a limited company of five men and three women. Hard-worked,
+ill-paid, and, consequently, ill-fed, the stroller must have often led
+a dreary and miserable life enough. The late Mr. Drinkwater Meadows
+used to tell of his experiences with a company that travelled through
+Warwickshire, and their treasury being empty, depended for their
+subsistence upon their piscatorial skill. They lived for some time,
+indeed, upon the trout streams of the county. They plied rod and line,
+and learned their parts at the same time. "We could fish and study,
+study and fish," said the actor. "I made myself perfect in Bob Acres
+while fishing in the Avon, and committed the words to my memory quite
+as fast as I committed the fish to my basket."
+
+The straits and necessities of the strollers have long been a source
+of entertainment to the public. In an early number of the "Spectator,"
+Steele describes a company of poor players then performing at Epping.
+"They are far from offending in the impertinent splendour of the
+drama. Alexander the Great was acted by a fellow in a paper cravat.
+The next day the Earl of Essex seemed to have no distress but his
+poverty; and my Lord Foppington wanted any better means to show
+himself a fop than by wearing stockings of different colours. In a
+word, though they have had a full barn for many days together, our
+itinerants are so wretchedly poor that the heroes appear only like
+sturdy beggars, and the heroines gipsies." It is added that the stage
+of these performers "is here in its original situation of a cart." In
+the "Memoirs of Munden" a still stranger stage is mentioned. A
+strolling company performing in Wales had for theatre a bedroom, and
+for stage a large four-post bed! The spaces on either side were
+concealed from the audience by curtains, and formed the tiring-rooms
+of the ladies and gentlemen of the troop. On this very curious stage
+the comedian afterwards famous as Little Knight, but then new to his
+profession, appeared as Acres in "The Rivals," and won great applause.
+Goldsmith's Strolling Player is made to reveal many of the smaller
+needs and shifts of his calling, especially in the matter of costume.
+"We had figures enough, but the difficulty was to dress them. The same
+coat that served Romeo, turned with the blue lining outwards, served
+for his friend Mercutio: a large piece of crape sufficed at once for
+Juliet's petticoat and pall; a pestle and mortar from a neighbouring
+apothecary answered all the purposes of a bell; and our landlord's own
+family, wrapped in white sheets, served to fill up the procession. In
+short, there were but three figures among us that might be said to be
+dressed with any propriety; I mean the nurse, the starved apothecary,
+and myself." Of his own share in the representation the stroller
+speaks candidly enough: "I snuffed the candles, and, let me tell you,
+that without a candle-snuffer the piece would lose half its
+embellishments." But there has always been forthcoming a very abundant
+supply of stories of this kind, not always to be understood literally,
+however, concerning the drama under difficulties, and the comical side
+of the player's indigence, distresses, and quaint artifices to conceal
+his poverty.
+
+A word should be said as to the courage and enterprise of our early
+strollers. Travelling is nowadays so easy a matter that we are apt to
+forget how solemnly it was viewed by our ancestors. In the last
+century a man thought about making his will as a becoming preliminary
+to his journeying merely from London to Edinburgh. But the strollers
+were true to themselves and their calling, though sometimes the
+results of their adventures were luckless enough. "Our plantations in
+America have been voluntarily visited by some itinerants, Jamaica in
+particular," writes Chetwood, in his "History of the Stage" (1749). "I
+had an account from a gentleman who was possessed of a large estate in
+the island that a company in the year 1733 came there and cleared a
+large sum of money, where they might have made moderate fortunes if
+they had not been too busy with the growth of the country. They
+received three hundred and seventy pistoles the first night of the
+'Beggar's Opera,' but within the space of two months they buried their
+third Polly and two of their men. The gentlemen of the island for some
+time took their turns upon the stage to keep up the diversion; but
+this did not hold long; for in two months more there were but one old
+man, a boy, and a woman of the company left. The rest died either with
+the country distemper or the common beverage of the place, the noble
+spirit of rum-punch, which is generally fatal to new-comers. The
+shattered remains, with upwards of two thousand pistoles in bank,
+embarked for Carolina, to join another company at Charlestown, but
+were cast away in the voyage. Had the company been more blessed with
+the virtue of sobriety, &c., they might perhaps have lived to carry
+home the liberality of those generous islanders."
+
+It is to be observed that the strolling profession had its divisions
+and grades. The "boothers," as they are termed, have to be viewed as
+almost a distinct class. These carry their theatre, a booth, about
+with them, and only pretend to furnish very abridged presentments of
+the drama. With them "Richard III.," for instance, is but an
+entertainment of some twenty minutes' duration. They are only anxious
+to give as many performances as possible before fresh assemblies of
+spectators in as short a time as may be. "Boothers" have been known to
+give even six distinct exhibitions on Saturday nights. And they
+certainly resort to undignified expedients to lure their audiences.
+They parade in their theatrical attire, dance quadrilles and
+hornpipes, fight with broadswords, and make speeches on the external
+platform of their booth. Histrionic art is seen to little advantage
+under these conditions, although it should be said that many notable
+players have commenced the study of their profession among the
+"boothers." The travelling circus is again a distinct institution, its
+tumblers and riders only in a very distant and illegitimate way
+connected with even the humblest branches of the great Thespian
+family.
+
+But strolling, in its old sense, is fast expiring. Barns have ceased
+to be temples of the drama. The railways carry the public to the
+established theatres; London stars and companies travelling in
+first-class carriages, with their secretary and manager, visit in turn
+the provincial towns, and attract all the playgoers of the
+neighbourhood. The country manager, retaining but a few "utility
+people," is well content to lend his stage to these dignified players,
+who stroll only nominally, without "padding the hoof," or the least
+chance of hardship or privation attending their rustical wanderings.
+Their travels are indeed more in the nature of royal progresses. Even
+for the "boothers" times have changed. Waste lands on which to "pitch"
+their playhouses are now hard to find; the "pleasure fairs," once
+their chief source of profit, become more and more rare; indeed, there
+is a prevalent disposition nowadays to abolish altogether those
+old-fashioned celebrations. And worse than all, perhaps, the audiences
+have become sophisticated and critical, and have not so much simple
+faith and hearty goodwill to place at the disposal of the itinerants.
+Centralisation has now affected the stage. The country is no longer
+the nursery and training-school of the player. He commences his career
+in London, and then regales the provinces with an exhibition of his
+proficiency. The strollers are now merged in the "stars." The
+apprentice has become the master, which may possibly account for the
+fact, that the work accomplished is not invariably of first-rate
+quality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"PAY HERE."
+
+
+Acting, as a distinct profession, seems to have been known in England
+at least as far back as the reign of Henry VI. There had been
+theatrical exhibitions in abundance, however, at a much earlier
+period. Stow, in his "Survey of London," in 1599, translates from the
+"Life of Thomas a Becket," by Fitzstephen, who wrote about 1182,
+mention of "the shews upon theatres and comical pastimes" of London,
+"its holy playes, representations of miracles which holy confessors
+have wrought, or representations of tormentes wherein the constancie
+of martirs appeared." As Mr. Payne Collier observes, "no country in
+Europe, since the revival of letters, has been able to produce any
+notice of theatrical performances of so early a date as England." But
+our primitive stage was a chapel-of-ease, as it were, to the Church.
+The plays were founded upon the lives of the saints, or upon the
+events of the Old and New Testaments, and were contrived and performed
+by the clergy, who borrowed horses, harness, properties, and hallowed
+vestments from the monasteries, and did not hesitate even to paint and
+disguise their faces, in order to give due effect to their
+exhibitions, which were presented not only in the cathedrals,
+churches, and cemeteries, but also "on highways or greens," as might
+be most convenient. In 1511, for instance, the miracle-play of "St.
+George of Cappadocia" was acted in a croft, or field, at Basingborne,
+one shilling being paid for the hire of the land. The clergy, however,
+were by no means unanimous as to the propriety and policy of these
+dramatic representations. They were bitterly attacked in an
+Anglo-French poem, the "Manuel de Peche," written about the middle of
+the thirteenth century, and ascribed to Robert Grossetete, who became
+Bishop of Lincoln in 1235. Gradually the kind of histrionic monopoly
+which the Church had long enjoyed was invaded. Education spread, and
+many probably found themselves as competent to act as the clergy.
+Still, the ecclesiastical performers for some time resisted all
+attempts to interfere with what they viewed as their especial
+privileges and vested interests. In 1378 the scholars or choristers of
+St. Paul's petitioned Richard II. to prohibit certain ignorant and
+inexperienced persons from acting the history of the Old Testament, to
+the prejudice of the clergy of the Church, who had expended large sums
+in preparing plays founded upon the same subject. But some few years
+later the parish clerks of London, who had been incorporated by Henry
+III., performed at Skinner's Well, near Smithfield, in the presence of
+the king, queen, and nobles of the realm, a play which occupied three
+days in representation. As Warton remarks, however, in his "History of
+English Poetry," the parish clerks of that time might fairly be
+regarded as a "literary society," if they did not precisely come under
+the denomination of a religious fraternity.
+
+The religious or miracle plays soon extended their boundaries, became
+blended with "mummings," or "disguisings," and entertainments of
+pageantry. Morals, interludes, and masques were gradually brought upon
+the scene. Dancers, singers, jugglers, and minstrels became
+indispensable to the performances. The Church and the Theatre drifted
+apart; were viewed in time as wholly independent establishments. The
+actor asserted his individuality; his profession was recognised as
+distinct and complete in itself; companies of players began to stroll
+through the provinces. The early moral-play of the "Castle of
+Perseverance," which is certainly as old as the reign of Henry VI.,
+was represented by itinerant actors, who travelled round the country
+for that purpose, preceded by their standard-bearers and trumpeters,
+to announce on what day, and at what hour, the performance would take
+place. It would seem that the exhibition concluded at nine o'clock in
+the morning, so that the playgoers of the period must probably have
+assembled so early as six. In the reign of Edward IV. the actors first
+obtained parliamentary recognition. The Act passed in 1464,
+regulating the apparel to be worn by the different classes of society,
+contains special exception in favour of henchmen, pursuivants,
+sword-bearers to mayors, messengers, minstrels, and "players in their
+interludes." The first royal personage who entertained a company of
+players as his servants was probably Richard III. when Duke of
+Gloucester, who seems, moreover, to have given great encouragement to
+music and musicians. In the reign of Henry VII. dramatic
+representations were frequent in all parts of England. The king
+himself had two companies of players, the "gentlemen of the chapel,"
+and his "players of interludes."
+
+The early actors, whose performances took place in the open air or in
+public places, doubtless obtained recompense for their labours much
+after the manner of our modern street exhibitors: by that system of
+"sending round the hat," which too many lookers-on nowadays consider
+as an intimation to depart about their business, leaving their
+entertainment unpaid for. The companies of players in the service of
+any great personage were in the receipt of regular salaries, were
+viewed as members of his household, and wore his livery. They probably
+obtained, moreover, largess from the more liberally disposed
+spectators of their exertions. But as the theatre became more and more
+a source of public recreation, it was deemed necessary to establish
+permanent stages, and a tariff of charges for admission to witness the
+entertainments. For a long time the actors had been restricted to the
+mansions of the nobility, and to the larger inn-yards of the city. In
+1574, however, the Earl of Leicester, through his influence with Queen
+Elizabeth, obtained for his company of players, among whom was
+included James Burbadge, the father of the famous Shakespearean actor,
+Richard Burbadge, a patent, under the Great Seal, empowering the
+actors, "during the queen's pleasure, to use, exercise, and occupy the
+art and faculty of playing tragedies, comedies, interludes, and stage
+plays, as well for the recreation of the queen's subjects as for her
+own solace and pleasure, within the city of London and its liberties,
+and within any cities, towns, and boroughs throughout England." This
+most important concession to the players was strenuously opposed by
+the Lord Mayor and Corporation, who maintained that "the playing of
+interludes and the resort to the same" were likely to provoke "the
+infection of the plague," were "hurtfull in corruption of youth," were
+"great wasting both of the time and thrift of many poor people," and
+"great withdrawing of the people from publique prayer and from the
+service of God." At last they proposed, as a compromise, that the
+players of the queen, or of Lord Leicester--for these titles seem to
+have been bestowed upon the actors indifferently--should be permitted
+to perform within the city boundaries upon certain special conditions,
+to the effect that their names and number should be notified to the
+Lord Mayor and the Justices of Middlesex and Surrey, and that they
+should not divide themselves into several companies; that they should
+be content with playing in private houses, at weddings, &c., without
+public assemblies, or "if more be thought good to be tolerated," that
+they should not play openly till the whole deaths in London had been
+for twenty days under fifty a week; that they should not play on the
+Sabbath or on holy days until after evening prayer; and that no
+playing should be in the dark, "nor continue any such time but as any
+of the auditoire may returne to their dwellings in London before
+sonne-set, or at least before it be dark." These severe restrictions
+so far defeated the objects of the civic powers, that they led in
+truth to the construction of three theatres beyond the Lord Mayor's
+jurisdiction, but sufficiently near to its boundaries to occasion him
+grave disquietude. About 1576 Burbadge built his theatre in the
+Liberty of the Blackfriars--a precinct in which civic authority was at
+any rate disputed. Within a year or so The Curtain and The Theatre,
+both in Shoreditch, were also opened to the public. The Mayor and
+Corporation persistently endeavoured to assert authority over these
+establishments, but without much practical result. It may be added
+that the Blackfriars Theatre was permanently closed in 1647, part of
+the ground on which it stood, adjoining Apothecaries' Hall, still
+bearing the name of Playhouse Yard; that The Theatre in Shoreditch was
+abandoned about 1598 (it was probably a wooden erection, and in twenty
+years might have become untenantable); and that The Curtain fell into
+disuse at the beginning of the reign of Charles I.
+
+The prices of admission to the theatres varied according to the
+estimation in which they were held, and were raised on special
+occasions. "Twopenny rooms," or galleries, were to be found at the
+larger and more popular theatres. In Goffe's "Careless Shepherdess,"
+1656, acted at the Salisbury Court Theatre, appear the lines:
+
+    I will hasten to the money-box
+    And take my shilling out again;
+    I'll go to the Bull or Fortune, and there see
+    A play for twopence and a jig to boot.
+
+The money received was placed in a box, and there seems to have been
+one person specially charged with this duty. Dekker, dedicating one of
+his plays to his "friends and fellows," the queen's servants, wishes
+them "a full audience and one honest doorkeeper." Even thus early the
+absolute integrity of the attendants of the theatre would appear to
+have been a subject of suspicion. "Penny galleries" are referred to by
+some early writers, and from a passage in the "Gull's Horn Book,"
+1609--"Your groundling and gallery commoner buys his sport for a
+penny"--it is apparent that the charges for admission to the yard,
+where the spectators stood, and to the galleries, where they sat on
+benches, were the same. In Dekker's "Satiromastix," one of the
+characters speaks scornfully of "penny bench theatres," where a
+gentleman or an honest citizen "might sit with his squirrel by his
+side cracking nuts." But according to the Induction to Ben Jonson's
+"Bartholomew Fair," first acted in 1614, at the Hope, a small dirty
+theatre on the Bankside, which had formerly been used for
+bear-baiting, the prices there ranged from sixpence to half-a-crown.
+"It shall be lawful for any man to judge his six pen'worth, his twelve
+pen'worth, so to his eighteen pence, two shillings, half-a-crown, to
+the value of his place; provided always his place get not above his
+wit ... Marry, if he drop but sixpence at the door, and will censure a
+crown's worth, it is thought there is no conscience or justice in
+that." It is probable, however, that the dramatist was referring to
+the prices charged at the first representation of his play. Sixpence
+might then be the lowest admission; on other occasions, twopence, or
+even one penny. The prologue to "Henry VIII." states:
+
+            Those that come to see
+    Only a show or two, and so agree,
+    The play may pass; if they be still and willing,
+    I'll undertake, may see away their shilling
+    Richly in two short hours.
+
+And there is evidence that in Shakespeare's time one shilling was the
+price of admission to the best rooms or boxes. Sir Thomas Overbury
+writes in his "Characters," published in 1614: "If he have but twelve
+pence in his purse he will give it for the best room in a playhouse."
+And the "Gull's Horn Book," 1609, counsels, "At a new play you take up
+the twelvepenny room next the stage, because the lords and you may
+seem to be hail-fellow well met!"
+
+But it is plain that the tariff of admission was subject to frequent
+alterations, and that as money became more abundant, the managers
+gradually increased their charges. In the "Scornful Lady" "eighteen
+pence" is referred to as though it were the highest price of admission
+to the Blackfriars Theatre. Sir John Suckling writes, about the middle
+of the seventeenth century:
+
+    The sweat of learned Jonson's brain,
+    And gentle Shakespeare's easier strain,
+    A hackney-coach conveys you to,
+    In spite of all that rain can do,
+    And for your eighteenpence you sit,
+    The lord and judge of all fresh wit.
+
+It must always be doubtful, however, as to the precise portion of the
+theatre these writers intended to designate. As Mr. Collier suggests,
+the discordances between the authorities on this question arise,
+probably, from the fact that "different prices were charged at
+different theatres at different periods."
+
+In our early theatres, the arrangements for receiving the money of the
+playgoers were rather of a confused kind. There would seem to have
+been several doors, one within the other, at any of which visitors
+might tender their admission money. It was understood that he who,
+disapproving the performance, withdrew after the termination of the
+first act of the play, was entitled to receive back the amount he had
+paid for his entrance. This system led to much brawling and fraud. The
+matter was deemed important enough to justify royal intervention. An
+order was issued in 1665, reciting that complaints had been made by
+"our servants, the actors in the Royal Theatre," of divers persons
+refusing to pay at the first door of the said theatre, thereby
+obliging the doorkeepers to send after, solicit, and importune them
+for their entrance-money, and stating it to be the royal will and
+pleasure, for the prevention of these disorders, and so that such as
+are employed by the said actors might have no opportunity of deceiving
+them, that all persons thenceforward coming to the said theatre should
+at the first door pay their entrance-money, which was to be restored
+to them again in case they returned the same way before the end of the
+act. The guards attending the theatre, and all others whom it might
+concern, were charged to see that this order was obeyed, and to return
+to the Lord Chamberlain the names of such persons as offered "any
+violence contrary to this our pleasure."
+
+Apparently the royal decree was not very implicitly obeyed by the
+playgoers. At any rate we find, under date January 7th, 1668, the
+following entry in Mr. Pepys's "Diary" bearing upon the matter: "To
+the Nursery, but the house did not act to-day; and so I to the other
+two playhouses, into the pit to gaze up and down, and there did by
+this means for nothing see an act in the 'School of Compliments,' at
+the Duke of York's house, and 'Henry IV.' at the King's House; but not
+liking either of the plays, I took my coach again and home." At the
+trial of Lord Mohun, in 1692, for the murder of Mountford, the actor,
+John Rogers, one of the doorkeepers of the theatre, deposes that he
+applied to his lordship and to Captain Hill, his companion, "for the
+overplus of money for coming in, because they came out of the pit upon
+the stage. They would not give it. Lord Mohun said if I brought any of
+our masters he would slit their noses." It was the fashion for patrons
+of the stage at this time to treat its professors with great scorn,
+and often to view them with a kind of vindictive jealousy, "I see the
+gallants do begin to be tired with the vanity and pride of the theatre
+actors, who are indeed grown very proud and rich," noted Pepys, in
+1661. In the second year of her reign, Queen Anne issued a decree "for
+the better regulation of the theatres," the drama being at this period
+the frequent subject of royal interference, and strictly commanded
+that "no person of what quality soever should presume to go behind the
+scenes, or come upon the stage, either before or during the acting of
+any play; that no woman should be allowed, or presume to wear, a
+vizard mask in either of the theatres; and that no person should come
+into either house without paying the price established for their
+respective places."
+
+As the stage advanced more and more in public favour, the actors
+ceased to depend for existence upon private patronage and found it
+unnecessary to be included among the retinue and servants of the
+great. After the Restoration patents were granted to Killigrew and
+Davenant, and their companions were described as the servants of the
+king and of the Duke of York respectively; but individual noblemen no
+longer maintained and protected "players of interludes" for their own
+private amusement. And now the court began to come to the drama
+instead of requiring that the drama should be carried to the court.
+Charles II. was probably the first English monarch who habitually
+joined with the general audience and occupied a box at a public
+theatre. In addition, he followed the example of preceding sovereigns,
+and had plays frequently represented before him at Whitehall and other
+royal residences. These performances took place at night, and were
+brilliantly lighted with wax candles. With the fall of the Stuart
+dynasty the court theatricals ceased almost altogether. Indeed, in
+Charles's time there had been much decline in the dignity and
+exclusiveness of these entertainments; admission seems to have been
+obtainable upon payment at the doors, as though at a public theatre.
+Evelyn writes in 1675: "I saw the Italian Scaramuccio act before the
+king at Whitehall, people giving money to come in, which was very
+scandalous, and never so before at court diversions. Having seen him
+act in Italy many years past, I was not averse from seeing the most
+excellent of that kind of folly."
+
+It is to be observed that in Pepys's time, and long afterwards, the
+prices of admission to the theatres were: Boxes, four shillings; pit,
+two shillings and sixpence; first gallery, one shilling and sixpence;
+and upper gallery, one shilling. It became customary to raise the
+prices whenever great expenses had been incurred by the manager in the
+production of a new play or of a pantomime. As the patent theatres
+were enlarged or rebuilt, however, the higher rate of charges became
+permanently established. After the famous O.P. riots the scale agreed
+upon was: Boxes, seven shillings; pit, three shillings; galleries, two
+shillings and one shilling; with half-price at nine o'clock. In later
+times these charges have been considerably reduced. Half price has
+been generally abolished, however, and many rows of the pit have been
+converted into stalls at seven or ten shillings each. Altogether, it
+may perhaps be held that in Western London, although theatrical
+entertainments have been considerably cheapened, they still tax the
+pockets of playgoers more severely than need be.
+
+Country managers would seen to have ruled their scale of charges in
+strict accordance with the means of their patrons; to have been
+content, indeed, with anything they could get from the provincial
+playgoers. Mr. Bernard, the actor, in his "Retrospections," makes
+mention of a strolling manager, once famous in the north of England
+and in Ireland, and known popularly as Jemmy Whitely, who, in
+impoverished districts, was indifferent as to whether he received the
+public support in money or "in kind." It is related of him that he
+would take meat, fowl, vegetables, &c., and pass in the owner and
+friends for as many admissions as the food was worth. Thus very often
+on a Saturday his treasury resembled a butcher's warehouse, rather
+than a banker's. At a village on the coast the inhabitants brought him
+nothing but fish; but as the company could not subsist without its
+concomitants of bread, potatoes, and spirits, a general appeal was
+made to his stomach and sympathies, and some alteration in the terms
+of admission required. Jemmy, accordingly, after admitting nineteen
+persons one evening for a shad apiece, stopped the twentieth, and
+said, "I beg your pardon, my darling, I am extremely sorry to refuse
+you; but if we eat any more fish, by the powers, we shall all be
+turned into mermaids!"
+
+A famous provincial manager, or "manageress," was one Mrs. Baker,
+concerning whom curious particulars are related in the "Memoirs of
+Thomas Dibdin," and in the "Life of Grimaldi, the Clown." The lady
+owned theatres at Canterbury, Rochester, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells,
+Faversham, Deal, and other places, but was understood to have
+commenced her professional career in connection with a puppet-show, or
+even the homely entertainment of Punch and Judy. But her industry,
+energy, and enterprise were of an indomitable kind. She generally
+lived in her theatres, and rising early to accomplish her marketing
+and other household duties, she proceeded to take up her position in
+the box-office, with the box-book open before her, and resting upon it
+"a massy silver inkstand, which, with a superb pair of silver
+trumpets, several cups, tankards, and candlesticks of the same pure
+metal, it was her honest pride to say she had paid for with her own
+hard earnings." While awaiting the visits of those desirous to book
+their places for the evening, she arranged the programme of the
+entertainments. Her education was far from complete, however, for
+although she could read she was but an indifferent scribe. By the help
+of the scissors, needle, thread, and a bundle of old playbills, she
+achieved her purpose. She cut a play from one bill, an interlude from
+another, a farce from a third, and sewing the slips neatly together
+avoided the use of pen and ink. When the name of a new performer had
+to be introduced she left a blank to be filled up by the first of her
+actors she happened to encounter, presuming him to be equal to the use
+of a pen. She sometimes beat the drum, or tolled the bell behind the
+scenes, when the representation needed such embellishments, and
+occasionally fulfilled the duties of prompter. In this respect it was
+unavoidable that she should be now and then rather overtasked. On one
+special evening she held the book during the performance of the old
+farce of "Who's the Dupe?" The part of Gradus was undertaken by her
+leading actor, one Gardner, and in the scene of Gradus's attempt to
+impose upon the gentleman of the story, by affecting to speak Greek,
+the performer's memory unfortunately failed him. He glanced
+appealingly towards the prompt-side of the stage. Mrs. Baker was mute,
+examining the play-book with a puzzled air. "Give me the word, madam,"
+whispered the actor. "It's a hard word, Jem," the lady replied. "Then
+give me the next." "That's harder." The performer was at a
+stand-still; the situation was becoming desperate. "The next!" cried
+Gardner, furiously. "Harder still!" answered the prompter, and then,
+perplexed beyond bearing, she flung the book on the stage, and
+exclaimed aloud: "There, now you have them all; take your choice."
+
+The lady's usual station was in front of the house, however She was
+her own money-taker, and to this fact has been ascribed the great good
+fortune she enjoyed as a manager. "Now then, pit or box, pit or
+gallery, box or pit!" she cried incessantly. "Pit! Pit!" half-a-dozen
+voices might cry. "Then pay two shillings. Pass on, Tom Fool!" for so
+on busy nights she invariably addressed her patrons of all classes.
+To a woman who had to quit the theatre, owing to the cries of the
+child she bore in her arms disturbing the audience, Mrs. Baker
+observed, as she returned the entrance-money, "Foolish woman! Foolish
+woman! Don't come another night till half-price, and then give your
+baby some Dalby's Carminative." "I remember," writes Dibdin, "one very
+crowded night patronised by a royal duke at Tunbridge Wells, when Mrs.
+Baker was taking money for three doors at once, her anxiety and very
+proper tact led her, while receiving cash from one customer, to keep
+an eye in perspective on the next, to save time, as thus: 'Little
+girl! get your money ready, while this gentleman pays. My lord! I'm
+sure your lordship has silver. Let that little boy go in while I give
+his lordship change. Shan't count after your ladyship. Here comes the
+duke! Make haste! His royal highness will please to get his ticket
+ready while my lady--now, sir! Now your royal highness!' 'Oh dear,
+Mrs. Baker, I've left my ticket in another coat-pocket!' 'To be sure
+you have! Take your royal highness's word! Let his royal highness
+pass! His royal highness has left his ticket in his _other_
+coat-pocket.' Great laughter followed, and I believe the rank and
+fashion of the evening found more entertainment in the lobby than on
+the stage."
+
+On the occasion of Grimaldi's engagement, "for one night only," it was
+found necessary to open the doors of the Maidstone Theatre at a very
+early hour, to relieve the thoroughfare of the dense crowd which had
+assembled. The house being quite full, Mrs. Baker locked up the box in
+which the receipts of the evening had been deposited, and, going round
+to the stage, directed the performances to be commenced forthwith,
+remarking, reasonably enough, "that the house could but be full, and
+being full to the ceiling now, they might just as well begin at once,
+and have business over so much the sooner." Greatly to the
+satisfaction of the audience, the representation accordingly began
+without delay, and terminated shortly after nine o'clock.
+
+It should be added that Mrs. Baker had been a dancer in early life,
+and was long famed for the grace of her carriage and the elegance of
+her curtsey. Occasionally she ventured upon the stage dressed in the
+bonnet and shawl she had worn while receiving money and issuing
+tickets at the door, and in audible tones announced the performances
+arranged for future evenings, the audience enthusiastically welcoming
+her appearance. A measure of her manifold talents was shared by other
+members of her family. Her sister, Miss Wakelin, was principal comic
+dancer to the theatre, occasional actress, wardrobe keeper, and
+professed cook, being, rewarded for her various services by board and
+lodging, a salary of L1 11s. 6d. per week, and a benefit in every town
+Mrs. Baker visited, with other emoluments by way of perquisites. Two
+of Mrs. Baker's daughters were also members of her company, and
+divided between them the heroines of tragedy and comedy. One Miss
+Baker subsequently became the wife of Mr. Dowton, the actor.
+
+A settled distrust of the Bank of England was one of Mrs. Baker's most
+marked peculiarities. At the close of the performance she resigned the
+position she had occupied for some five hours as money-taker for pit,
+boxes, and gallery, and retired to her chamber, carrying the receipts
+of the evening in a large front pocket. This money she added to a
+store contained in half-a-dozen large china punch-bowls, ranged upon
+the top shelf of an old bureau. For many years she carried her savings
+about with her from town to town, sometimes retaining upon her person
+gold in rouleaux to a large amount. She is even said to have kept in
+her pocket for seven years a note for L200. At length her wealth
+became a positive embarrassment to her. She deposited sums in country
+banks and in the hands of respectable tradesmen, at three per cent.,
+sometimes without receiving any interest whatever, but merely with a
+view to the safer custody of her resources. It was with exceeding
+difficulty that she was eventually persuaded to become a fundholder.
+She handed over her store of gold to her stockbroker with
+extraordinary trepidation. It is satisfactory to be assured that at
+last she accorded perfect confidence to the Old Lady in Threadneedle
+Street, increased her investments from time to time, and learned to
+find pleasure in visiting London half-yearly to receive her dividends.
+
+Altogether Mrs. Baker appears to have been a thoroughly estimable
+woman, cordially regarded by the considerate members of the theatrical
+profession with whom she had dealings. While recording her
+eccentricities, and conceding that occasionally her language was more
+forcible and idiomatic than tasteful or refined, Dibdin hastens to
+add that "she owned an excellent heart, with much of the appearance
+and manners of a gentlewoman." Grimaldi was not less prompt in
+expressing his complete satisfaction in regard to his engagements with
+"the manageress." Dibdin wrote the epitaph inscribed above her grave
+in the cathedral yard of Rochester. A few lines may be extracted, but
+it must be said that the composition is of inferior quality:
+
+                                   Alone, untaught,
+    And self-assisted (save by Heaven), she sought
+    To render each his own, and fairly save
+    What might help others when she found a grave;
+    By prudence taught life's troubled waves to stem,
+    In death her memory shines, a rich, unpolished gem.
+
+It is conceivable--so much may perhaps be added by way of concluding
+note--that Mrs. Baker unconsciously posed as a model, and lent a
+feature or two, when the portrait came to be painted of even a more
+distinguished "manageress," whose theatre was a caravan, however,
+whose company consisted of waxen effigies, and who bore the name
+of--Jarley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+IN THE PIT.
+
+
+There is something to be written about the rise and fall of the pit:
+its original humility, its possession for a while of great authority,
+and its forfeiture, of late years, of power in the theatre. We all
+know Shakespeare's opinion of "the groundlings," and how he held them
+to be, "for the most part, capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb
+shows and noise." The great dramatist's contemporaries entertained
+similar views on this head. They are to be found speaking with supreme
+contempt of the audience occupying the _yard_; describing them as
+"fools," and "scarecrows," and "understanding, grounded men."
+
+Our old theatres were of two classes, public and private. The
+companies of the private theatres were more especially under the
+protection of some royal or noble personage. The audiences they
+attracted were usually of a superior class, and certain of these were
+entitled to sit upon the stage during the representation. The
+buildings, although of smaller dimensions than the public theatres
+boasted, were arranged with more regard for the comfort of the
+spectators. The boxes were enclosed and locked. There were _pits_
+furnished with seats, in place of the _yards_, as they were called, of
+the public theatres, in which the "groundlings" were compelled to
+stand throughout the performance. And the whole house was roofed in
+from the weather; whereas the public theatres were open to the sky,
+excepting over the stage and boxes. Moreover, the performances at the
+private theatres were presented by candle or torch light. Probably it
+was held that the effects of the stage were enhanced by their being
+artificially illuminated, for in these times, at both public and
+private theatres, the entertainments commenced early in the afternoon,
+and generally concluded before sunset, or, at any rate, before dark.
+
+As patience and endurance are more easy to the man who sits than to
+the standing spectator, it came to be understood that a livelier kind
+of entertainment must be provided for the "groundlings" of the public
+theatres than there was need to present to the seated pit of the
+private playhouses. The "fools of the yard" were charged with
+requiring "the horrid noise of target-fight," "cutler's work," and
+vulgar and boisterous exhibitions generally. These early patrons of
+the more practical parts of the drama are entitled to be forbearingly
+judged, however. Their comfort was little studied, and it is not
+surprising, under the circumstances, that they should have favoured a
+brisk and vivacious class of representations. The tedious playwright
+did not merely oppress their minds; he made them remember how weary
+were their legs.
+
+But it is probable that the tastes thus generated were maintained long
+after the necessity for their existence had departed, and that, even
+when seats were permitted them, the "groundlings" still held by their
+old forms of amusement, demanding dramas of liveliness, incident, and
+action, and greatly preferring spectacle to speeches. From the
+philosophical point of view the pit had acquired a bad name, and
+couldn't or wouldn't get quit of it. Still it is by no means clear
+that the sentiments ascribed to the pit were not those of the audience
+generally.
+
+Nevertheless the pit was improving in character. Gradually it boasted
+a strong critical leaven; it became the recognised resort of the more
+enlightened playgoers. Dryden in his prologues and epilogues often
+addresses the pit, as containing notably the judges of plays and the
+more learned of the audience. "The pit," says Swift, in the
+introduction to his "Tale of a Tub," "is sunk below the stage, that
+whatever of weighty matter shall be delivered thence, whether it be
+lead or gold, may fall plump into the jaws of certain critics, as I
+think they are called, which stand ready open to devour them." "Your
+bucks of the pit," says an old occasional address of later date,
+ascribed to Garrick, but on insufficient evidence:
+
+    Your bucks of the pit are miracles of learning,
+    Who point out faults to show their own discerning;
+    And critic-like bestriding martyred sense,
+    Proclaim their genius and vast consequence.
+
+There were now critics by profession, who duly printed and published
+their criticisms. The awful Churchill's favourite seat was in the
+front row of the pit, next the orchestra. "In this place he thought he
+could best discern the real workings of the passions in the actors, or
+what they substituted instead of them," says poor Tom Davies, whose
+dread of the critic was extreme. "During the run of 'Cymbeline,'" he
+wrote apologetically to Garrick, his manager, "I had the misfortune to
+disconcert you in one scene, for which I did immediately beg your
+pardon; and did attribute it to my accidentally seeing Mr. Churchill
+in the pit; with great truth, it rendered me confused and unmindful of
+my business." Garrick had himself felt oppressed by the gloomy
+presence of Churchill, and learnt to read discontent in the critic's
+lowering brows. "My love to Churchill," he writes to Colman; "his
+being sick of Richard was perceived about the house."
+
+That Churchill was a critic of formidable aspect, the portrait he
+limned of himself in his "Independence" amply demonstrates:
+
+    Vast were his bones, his muscles twisted strong,
+    His face was short, but broader than 'twas long;
+    His features though by nature they were large,
+    Contentment had contrived to overcharge
+    And bury meaning, save that we might spy
+    Sense low'ring on the pent-house of his eye;
+    His arms were two twin oaks, his legs so stout
+    That they might bear a mansion-house about;
+    Nor were they--look but at his body there--
+    Designed by fate a much less weight to bear.
+    O'er a brown cassock which had once been black,
+    Which hung in tatters on his brawny back,
+    A sight most strange and awkward to behold,
+    He threw a covering of blue and gold. &c. &c.
+
+This was not the kind of man to be contemptuously regarded or
+indiscreetly attacked. Foote ventured to designate him "the clumsy
+curate of Clapham," but prudently suppressed a more elaborate lampoon
+he had prepared. Murphy launched an ode more vehement than decent in
+its terms. Churchill good-humouredly acknowledged the justice of the
+satire; he had said, perhaps, all he cared to say to the detriment of
+Murphy, and was content with this proof that his shafts had reached
+their mark. Murphy confirms Davies's account of Churchill's seat in
+the theatre:
+
+    No more your bard shall sit
+    In foremost row before the astonished pit,
+    And grin dislike, and kiss the spike,
+    And twist his mouth and roll his head awry,
+    The arch-absurd quick glancing from his eye.
+
+Charles Lamb was a faithful patron of the pit. In his early days there
+had been such things as "pit orders." "Beshrew the uncomfortable
+manager who abolished them!" he exclaims. Hazlitt greatly preferred
+the pit to the boxes. Not simply because the fierceness of his
+democratic sentiments induced in him a scorn of the visitors to the
+boxes, as wrapped up in themselves, fortified against impressions,
+weaned from all superstitious belief in dramatic illusions, taking so
+little interest in all that was interesting, disinclined to discompose
+their cravats or their muscles, "except when some gesticulation of Mr.
+Kean, or some expression of an author two hundred years old, violated
+the decorum of fashionable indifference." These were good reasons for
+his objection to the boxes. But he preferred the pit, in truth,
+because he could there see and hear so very much better. "We saw Mr.
+Kean's Sir Giles Overreach on Friday night from the boxes," he writes
+in 1816, "and are not surprised at the incredulity as to this great
+actor's powers entertained by those persons who have only seen him
+from that elevated sphere. We do not hesitate to say that those who
+have only seen him at that distance have not seen him at all. The
+expression of his face is quite lost, and only the harsh and grating
+tones of his voice produce their full effect on the ear. The same
+recurring sounds, by dint of repetition, fasten on the attention,
+while the varieties and finer modulations are lost in their passage
+over the pit. All you discover is an abstraction of his defects, both
+of person, voice, and manner. He appears to be a little man in a great
+passion," &c.
+
+But the pit was not famous merely as the resort of critics. The
+"groundlings" had given place to people of fashion and social
+distinction. Mr. Leigh Hunt notes that the pit even of Charles II.'s
+time, although now and then the scene of violent scuffles and brawls,
+due in great part to the general wearing of swords, was wont to
+contain as good company as the pit of the Opera House five-and-twenty
+years ago. A reference to Pepys's "Diary" justifies this opinion.
+"Among the rest here the Duke of Buckingham to-day openly sat in the
+pit," records Pepys, "and there I found him with my Lord Buckhurst,
+and Sedley, and Etheridge the poet." Yet it would seem that already
+the visitors to the pit had declined somewhat in quality. Pepys, like
+John Gilpin's spouse, had a frugal mind, however bent on pleasure. He
+relates, in 1667, with some sense of injury, how once, there being no
+room in the pit, he was forced to pay four shillings and go into one
+of the upper boxes, "which is the first time I ever sat in a box in my
+life."
+
+One does not now look to find members of the administration or cabinet
+ministers occupying seats in the pit. Yet the "Journals of the Right
+Honourable William Windham," some time Chief Secretary to the Lord
+Lieutenant of Ireland, and afterwards Colonial Secretary, tell of his
+frequent visits to the pit of Covent Garden. Nor does he "drop into"
+the theatre, after dining at his club, as even a bachelor of fashion
+might do without exciting surprise. Playgoing is not an idle matter to
+him. And he is accompanied by ladies of distinction, his relatives and
+others. "Went about half-past five to the pit," he records; "sat by
+Miss Kemble, Steevens, Mrs. Burke, and Miss Palmer," the lady last
+named being the niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who afterwards married
+Lord Inchiquin. "Went in the evening to the pit with Mrs. Lukin" (the
+wife of his half-brother). "After the play, went with Miss Kemble to
+Mrs. Siddons's dressing-room: met Sheridan there, with whom I sat in
+the waiting room, and who pressed me to sup at his house with Fox and
+G. North." Assuredly "the play," not less than the pit, was more
+highly regarded in Windham's time than nowadays.
+
+Though apart from our present topic, it is worth noting that Windham
+may claim to have anticipated Monsieur Gambetta as a statesman
+voyaging in a balloon. Ballooning was a hobby of Windham's. He was a
+regular attendant of ascents, and inspected curiously the early aerial
+machines of Blanchard and Lunardi. Something surprised at his own
+temerity, he travelled the air himself, rose in a balloon--probably
+from Vauxhall--crossed the river at Tilbury, and descended in safety
+after losing his hat. He regretted that the wind had not been
+favourable for his crossing the Channel. "Certainly," he writes, "the
+experiences I have had on this occasion will warrant a degree of
+confidence more than I have ever hitherto indulged. I would not wish a
+degree of confidence more than I enjoyed at every moment of the time."
+
+To return to the pit for a concluding note or two. Audiences had come
+to agree with Hazlitt, that "it was unpleasant to see a play from the
+boxes," that the pit was far preferable. Gradually the managers--sound
+sleepers as a rule--awakened to this view of the situation, and
+proceeded accordingly. They seized upon the best seats in the pit, and
+converted them into stalls, charging for admission to these a higher
+price than they had ever levied in regard to the boxes. Stalls were
+first introduced at the Opera House in the Haymarket in the year 1829.
+Dissatisfaction was openly expressed, but although the overture was
+hissed--the opera being Rossini's "La Donna del Lago"--no serious
+disturbance arose. There had been a decline in the public spirit of
+playgoers. The generation that delighted in the great O.P. riot had
+pretty well passed away. Such another excitement was not possible;
+energy and enthusiasm on such a subject seemed to have been exhausted
+for ever by that supreme effort. So the audience paid the increased
+price or stayed away from the theatre--for staying away from the
+theatre could now be calmly viewed as a reasonable alternative. "The
+play" was no more what once it had been, a sort of necessary of life.
+The example of the Opera manager was presently followed by all other
+theatrical establishments, and high-priced stalls became the rule
+everywhere. The pit lost its old influence--was, so to say,
+disfranchised. It was as one of the old Cinque Ports which the
+departing sea and the ever indrifting sand have left high and dry,
+unapproachable by water, a port only in name. It was divided and
+conquered. The most applauded toast at the public banquet of the O.P.
+rioters--"The ancient and indisputable rights of the pit"--will never
+more be proposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FOOTMEN'S GALLERY.
+
+
+Of old the proprietors of theatres acted towards their patrons upon
+the principle of "first come, first served." If you desired a good
+place at the playhouse it was indispensably necessary to go early and
+to be in time: to secure your seat by bodily occupation of it.
+Box-offices, at which places might be engaged a fortnight in advance
+of the performance, were as yet unknown. The only way, therefore, by
+which people of quality and fashion could obtain seats without the
+trouble of attending at the opening of the doors for that purpose, was
+by sending on their servants beforehand to occupy places until such
+time as it should be convenient for the masters and mistresses to
+present themselves at the theatre. When Garrick took his benefit at
+Drury Lane in 1744, the play--"Hamlet"--was to begin at six o'clock,
+and in the bills of the day ladies were requested _to send their
+servants by three o'clock._ It was further announced that by
+particular desire five rows of the pit would be railed into boxes, and
+that servants would be permitted to keep places on the stage, which,
+for the better accommodation of the ladies, would be railed into
+boxes.
+
+The custom of sending servants early to the theatre to secure seats in
+this way was, no doubt, a very old one; and, of course, at the
+conclusion of the entertainment they were compelled to be again in
+attendance with the carriages and chairs of their employers.
+Meanwhile, they assembled in the lobbies and precincts of the
+playhouse in great numbers, and considerable noise and confusion thus
+ensued. In the prologue to Carlell's tragi-comedy of "Arviragus,"
+1672, Dryden writes, begging the public to support rather the English
+than the French performers who were visiting London:
+
+    And therefore, Messieurs, if you'll do us grace.
+    Send lacqueys early to preserve your place;
+
+and in one of his epilogues he makes mention of the nuisance
+occasioned by the noisy crowd of servants disturbing the performance:
+
+    Then for your lacqueys and your train beside,
+    By whate'er name or title dignified,
+    They roar so loud, you'd think behind the stairs,
+    Tom Dove and all the brotherhood of bears;
+    They've grown a nuisance beyond all disasters,
+    We've none so great but their unpaying masters.
+    We beg you, sirs, to beg your men that they
+    Would please to give us leave to hear the play.
+
+"Tom Dove," it may be noted, was a "bear-ward," or proprietor of
+bears, of some fame; his name is frequently mentioned in the light
+literature of the period.
+
+At this time the servants were admitted gratis to the upper gallery of
+the theatre on the conclusion of the fourth act of the play of the
+evening. In 1697, however, Rich, the manager of the theatre in
+Lincoln's Inn Fields, placed his gallery at their disposal, without
+charge, during the whole of the evening. Cibber speaks of this
+proceeding on the part of Rich as the lowest expedient to ingratiate
+his company in public favour. Alarmed by the preference evinced by the
+town for the rival theatre in Drury Lane, Rich conceived that this new
+privilege would incline the servants to give his house "a good word in
+the respective families they belonged to," and, further, that it would
+greatly increase the applause awarded to his performances. In this
+respect his plan seems to have succeeded very well.
+
+Cibber relates that "it often thundered from the full gallery above,
+while the thin pit and boxes below were in the utmost serenity." He
+proceeds to add, however, that the privilege, which from custom
+ripened into right, became the most disgraceful nuisance that ever
+depreciated the theatre. "How often," he exclaims, "have the most
+polite audiences in the most affecting scenes of the best plays been
+disturbed and insulted by the noise and clamour of these savage
+spectators!"
+
+The example set by Rich seems to have been soon followed by other
+managers. For many years the right of the footmen to occupy the upper
+gallery without payment was unchallenged. In 1737, however, Mr.
+Fleetwood, manager of Drury Lane Theatre, announced his determination
+to put an end to a privilege which it was generally felt had grown
+into a serious nuisance. A threatening letter was sent to him, which
+he answered by offering a reward of fifty guineas for the discovery of
+its author or authors. The letter is given in full in Malcolm's
+"Anecdotes of London," 1810:
+
+     "SIR,--We are willing to admonish you before we attempt our
+     design; and, provided you will use us civil and admit us into
+     your gallery, which is our property according to Formalities;
+     and if you think proper to come to a composition this way,
+     you'll hear no further; and if not, our intention is to join a
+     body _incognito_, and reduce the playhouse to the ground.--We
+     are, INDEMNIFIED."
+
+A riot of an alarming nature followed. The footmen, denied admission
+to their own gallery, as they regarded it, assembled in a body of
+three hundred, and, armed with offensive weapons, broke into the
+theatre, and, taking forcible possession of the stage, wounded some
+twenty-five persons who had opposed their entrance. Great confusion
+prevailed. The Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the
+Royal Family were in the theatre at the time. Colonel Deveil, justice
+of the peace, who was also present, after attempting in vain to read
+the Riot Act ("he might as well have read Caesar's 'Commentaries,'"
+observed a facetious critic), caused some of the ringleaders to be
+arrested, and thirty of them were sent to Newgate. While in prison,
+they were supported by the subscriptions of their sympathising
+brethren. Meanwhile, anonymous letters were thrown down the areas of
+people of fashion, denouncing vengeance against all who attempted to
+deprive the footmen of their liberty and property. A further attack
+upon the theatre was expected. For several nights a detachment of
+fifty soldiers protected the building and its approaches; but the
+public peace was not further disturbed. The footmen were compelled to
+acknowledge themselves defeated. They were admitted _gratis_ to the
+upper gallery no more.
+
+Arnot's "History of Edinburgh," 1789, contains an account of a
+servants' riot in the theatre of that city on the occasion of the
+second performance of the Rev. Mr. Townley's farce of "High Life Below
+Stairs," originally played at Drury Lane in 1759. The footmen, highly
+offended at the representation of a farce reflecting on their
+fraternity, resolved to prevent its repetition. In Edinburgh the
+footmen's gallery still existed. "That servants might not be kept
+waiting in the cold, nor induced to tipple in the adjacent ale-houses
+while they waited for their masters, the humanity of the gentry had
+provided that the upper gallery should afford gratis admission to the
+servants of such persons as were attending the theatre." On the second
+night of the performance of the farce, Mr. Love, one of the managers
+of the theatre, came upon the stage, and read a letter he had
+received, containing the most violent threatenings both against the
+actors and the house, in case "High Life Below Stairs" should be
+represented, and declaring "that above seventy people had agreed to
+sacrifice fame, honour, and profit to prevent it." In spite of this
+menace, however, the managers ordered that the performance should
+proceed. Immediately a storm of disapprobation arose in the footmen's
+gallery. The noise continued, notwithstanding the urgent orders
+addressed to the servants to be quiet. Many of the gentlemen
+recognised among this unruly crew their individual servants. When
+these would not submit to authority, their masters, assisted by others
+in the house, went up to the gallery; but it was not until after a
+battle, in which the servants were fairly overpowered and thrust out
+of the house, that quietness was restored.
+
+After this disturbance, the servants were not only deprived of the
+freedom of the playhouse, but the custom of giving them "vails," which
+had theretofore universally prevailed in Scotland, was abolished.
+"Nothing," writes Mr. Arnot, "can tend more to make servants
+rapacious, insolent, and ungrateful, than allowing them to display
+their address in extracting money from the visitors of their lord."
+After the riot in the footmen's gallery, the gentlemen of the county
+of Aberdeen resolved neither to give, nor to allow their servants to
+receive, any money from their visitors under the name of drink-money,
+card-money, &c., and instead, augmented their wages. This example was
+"followed by the gentlemen of the county of Edinburgh, by the Faculty
+of Advocates, and other respectable public bodies; and the practice
+was utterly exploded over all Scotland."
+
+It was not only while they occupied the gallery, however, that the
+footmen contrived to give offence to the audience. Their conduct while
+they kept places for their employers in the better portions of the
+house, appears to have been equally objectionable. In the _Weekly
+Register_ for March 25th, 1732, it is remarked: "The theatre should be
+esteemed the centre of politeness and good manners, yet numbers of
+them [the footmen] every evening are lolling over the boxes, while
+they keep places for their masters, with their hats on; play over
+their airs, take snuff, laugh aloud, adjust their cocks'-combs, or
+hold dialogues with their brethren from one side of the house to the
+other." The fault was not wholly with the footmen, however: their
+masters and mistresses were in duty bound to come earlier to the
+theatre and take possession of the places retained for them. But it
+was the fashion to be late: to enter the theatre noisily, when the
+play was half over, and even then to pay little attention to the
+players. In Fielding's farce of "Miss Lucy in Town," produced in 1742,
+when the country-bred wife inquires of Mrs. Tawdry concerning the
+behaviour of the London fine ladies at the playhouses, she is
+answered: "Why, if they can they take a stage-box, where they let the
+footman sit the two first acts to show his livery; then they come in
+to show themselves--spread their fans upon the spikes, make curtsies
+to their acquaintance, and then talk and laugh as loud as they are
+able."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FOOT-LIGHTS.
+
+
+As the performances of the Elizabethan theatres commenced at three
+o'clock in the afternoon, and the public theatres of the period were
+open to the sky (except over the stage and galleries), much artificial
+lighting could not, as a rule, have been requisite. Malone, in his
+account of the English stage prefixed to his edition of "Shakespeare,"
+describes the stage as formerly lighted by means of two large branches
+"of a form similar to those now hung in churches." The pattern of
+these branches may be seen in the frontispiece to "Kirkman's
+Collection of Drolls," printed in 1672, representing a view of a
+theatrical booth. In time, however, it was discovered that the
+branches obstructed the view of the spectators, and were otherwise
+incommodious; they then gave place to small circular wooden frames
+furnished with candles, eight of which were hung on the stage, four on
+either side. The frontispiece to the Dublin edition of Chetwood's
+"History of the Stage," 1749, exhibits the stage lighted by hoops of
+candles in this way, suspended from the proscenium, and with no
+foot-lights between the actors and the musicians in the orchestra. It
+is probable that these candles were of wax or tallow, accordingly as
+the funds of the theatrical manager permitted. Mr. Pepys, in his
+"Diary," February 12th, 1667, chronicles a conversation with
+Killigrew, the manager of the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. "He tells
+me that the stage is now, by his pains, a thousand times better and
+more glorious than ever heretofore. _Now, wax candles and many of
+them; then, not above 3 lb. of tallow._ Now, all things civil: no
+rudeness anywhere; then, as in a bear-garden," &c. The body of the
+house, according to Malone, was formerly lighted "by cressets or large
+open lanthorns of nearly the same size with those which are fixed in
+the poop of a ship."
+
+The use of candles involved the employment of candle-snuffers, who
+came on at certain pauses in the performance to tend and rectify the
+lighting of the stage. Goldsmith's Strolling Player narrates how he
+commenced his theatrical career in this humble capacity: "I snuffed
+the candles; and let me tell you, that without a candle-snuffer the
+piece would lose half its embellishment." The illness of one of the
+actors necessitated the pressing of the candle-snuffer into the
+company of players. "I learnt my part," he continues, "with
+astonishing rapidity, and bade adieu to snuffing candles ever after. I
+found that nature had designed me for more noble employment, and I was
+resolved to take her when in the humour." But the duties of a
+candle-snuffer, if not very honourable, were somewhat arduous. It was
+the custom of the audience, especially among those frequenting the
+galleries, to regard him as a butt, with whom to amuse themselves
+during the pauses between the acts. Something of this habit is yet
+extant. Even nowadays the appearance of a servant on the stage for the
+necessary purposes of the performance--to carry chairs on or off, to
+spread or remove a carpet, &c.--is frequently the signal for cries of
+derision from the gallery. Of old the audience proceeded to greater
+extremities--even to hurling missiles of various kinds at the
+unfortunate candle-snuffer. In Foote's comedy of "The Minor," Shift,
+one of the characters, describes the changing scenes of his life. From
+a linkboy outside a travelling theatre he was promoted to employment
+within. "I did the honours of the barn," he says, "by sweeping the
+stage and clipping the candles. Here my skill and address were so
+conspicuous that it procured me the same office the ensuing winter, at
+Drury Lane, where I acquired intrepidity, the crown of all my
+virtues.... For I think, sir, he that dares stand the shot of the
+gallery, in lighting, snuffing, and sweeping, the first night of a new
+play, may bid defiance to the pillory with all its customary
+compliments.... But an unlucky crab-apple applied to my right eye by a
+patriot gingerbread baker from the Borough, who would not suffer
+three dancers from Switzerland because he hated the French, forced me
+to a precipitate retreat."
+
+Mr. Richard Jenkins, in his "Memoirs of the Bristol Stage," published
+in 1826, relates how one Winstone, a comic actor, who sometimes
+essayed tragical characters, appeared upon a special occasion as
+Richard III. He played his part so energetically, and flourished his
+sword to such good purpose while demanding "A horse! a horse!" in the
+fifth act that "the weapon coming in contact with a rope by which one
+of the hoops of tallow candles was suspended, the blazing circle (not
+the golden one he had looked for) fell round his neck and lodged
+there, greatly to his own discomfiture and to the amusement of the
+audience." The amazed Catesby of the evening, instead of helping his
+sovereign to a steed, is said to have been sufficiently occupied with
+extricating him from his embarrassing situation. Winstone, indeed,
+seems to have enjoyed some fame on the score of eccentricity. He took
+leave of the stage in 1784, being then about eighty years of age. But
+he was at this time so afflicted with deafness that it was impossible
+for him to "catch the word" from the prompter at the side of the
+stage. To assist him, therefore, in the delivery of his farewell
+address, one of the performers, provided with a copy of the speech,
+was stationed behind the speaker and instructed to keep moving forward
+and backward as he did, like his shadow. The effect must certainly
+have been whimsical. Winstone had been a pupil of Quin's, and had
+played Downright to Garrick's Kitely in "Every Man in his Humour," at
+Drury Lane, in 1751. He was a constant attendant at the Exchange
+Coffee House, the established resort of the Bristol merchants. "He had
+the good fortune at one time to win a considerable prize in the
+lottery, and often looked in at the insurance offices, where he
+sometimes received premiums as an underwriter of ships and cargoes."
+In consequence, he obtained much patronage, and always inserted at the
+head of the playbills of his benefit, "By desire of several eminent
+merchants."
+
+Garrick, in 1765, after his return from Italy (according to Jackson's
+"History of the Scottish Stage"), introduced various improvements in
+the theatre, and amongst them, the employment of a row of foot-lights
+in lieu of the old circular chandeliers over head. The labours of the
+candle-snuffers in front of the curtain were probably brought to a
+conclusion soon afterwards, when oil-lamps took the place of candles.
+The snuffer then found his occupation gone. Probably the trimming of
+the lamps became his next duty; and then, as time went on, he
+developed into a "gasman," that most indispensable attendant of the
+modern theatre.
+
+Thackeray, in his novel of "The Virginians," has some very apposite
+remarks upon the limited state of illumination in which our ancestors
+were content to dwell. "In speaking of the past," he writes, "I think
+the night-life of society a hundred years since was rather a _dark_
+life. There was not one wax-candle for ten which we now see in a
+ladies' drawing-room: let alone gas and the wondrous new illuminations
+of clubs. Horrible guttering tallow smoked and stunk in passages. The
+candle-snuffer was a notorious officer in the theatre. See Hogarth's
+pictures: how dark they are, and how his feasts are, as it were,
+begrimed with tallow! In 'Mariage a la Mode,' in Lord Viscount
+Squanderfield's grand saloons, where he and his wife are sitting
+yawning before the horror-stricken steward when their party is over,
+there are but eight candles--one on each table and half-a-dozen in a
+brass chandelier. If Jack Briefless convoked his friends to oysters
+and beer in his chambers, Pump Court, he would have twice as many. Let
+us comfort ourselves by thinking that Louis Quatorze in all his glory
+held his revels in the dark, and bless Mr. Price and other Luciferous
+benefactors of mankind for abolishing the abominable mutton of our
+youth."
+
+The first gas-lamp appeared in London in the year 1809, Pall Mall
+being the first and for some years the only street so illuminated.
+Gradually, however, the new mode of lighting made way, and stole from
+the streets into manufactories and public buildings, and, finally,
+into private houses. The progress was not very rapid however; for we
+find that gas was not introduced into the Mall of St. James's Park
+until the year 1822. It is difficult to fix the exact date when gas
+foot-lights appeared upon the stage. But in the year 1828 an explosion
+took place in Covent Garden Theatre by which two men lost their lives.
+Great alarm was excited. The public were afraid to re-enter the
+theatre. The management published an address in which it was stated
+that the gas-fittings would be entirely removed from the interior of
+the house, and safer methods of illumination resorted to. In order to
+effect the necessary alterations the theatre was closed for a
+fortnight, during which the Covent Garden company appeared at the
+English Opera House, or Lyceum Theatre, and an address was issued on
+behalf of the widows of the men who had been killed by the explosion.
+In due time, however, the world grew bolder on the subject, and gas
+reappeared upon the scene. Some theatres, however (being probably
+restricted by the conditions of their leases), were very tardy in
+adopting the new system of lighting. Mr. Benjamin Webster, in his
+speech in the year 1853, upon his resigning the management of the
+Haymarket Theatre after a tenancy of fifteen years, mentions, among
+the improvements he had originated during that period, that he had
+"introduced gas for the fee of L500 a-year, and the presentation of
+the centre chandelier to the proprietors."
+
+The employment of gas-lights in theatres was strenuously objected to
+by many people. In the year 1829 a medical gentleman, writing from
+Bolton Row, and signing himself "Chiro-Medicus," addressed to a public
+journal a remonstrance on the subject. He had met with several fatal
+cases of apoplexy which had occurred in the theatres, or a few hours
+after leaving them, and he had been led, with some success, as he
+alleged, to investigate the cause. It appeared to him "that the strong
+vivid light evolved from the numerous gas-lamps on the stage so
+powerfully stimulated the brain through the medium of the optic
+nerves, as to occasion a preternatural determination of blood to the
+head, capable of producing headache or giddiness: and if the subject
+should at the time laugh heartily, the additional influx of blood
+which takes place, may rupture a vessel, the consequence of which will
+be, from the effusion of blood within the substance of the brain, or
+on its surface, fatal apoplexy." From inquiries he had made among his
+professional brethren who had been many years in practice in the
+Metropolis, it appeared to him that the votaries of the drama were by
+no means so subject to apoplexy or nervous headache _before_ the
+adoption of gas-lights. Some of his medical friends were of opinion
+that the air of the theatre was very considerably deteriorated by the
+combustion of gas, and that the consumption of oxygen, and the new
+products, and the escape of hydrogen, occasioned congestion of the
+vessels of the head. He thought it probable that this deterioration
+of the air might act in conjunction with the vivid light in producing
+either apoplexy or nervous headache. He found, moreover, that the
+actors were subject not only to headache, but also to weakness of
+sight and attacks of giddiness, from the action of the powerfully
+vivid light evolved from the combustion of gas; and he noted that the
+pupils of the eyes of all actors or actresses, who had been two or
+three years on the stage, were much dilated; though this, he thought,
+might be attributable to the injurious pigments they employed to
+heighten their complexions; common rouge containing either red oxide
+of lead or the sulphuret of mercury, and white paint being often
+composed of carbonate of lead, all of which were capable of acting
+detrimentally upon the optic nerve.
+
+The statements of "Chiro-Medicus" may seem somewhat overcharged; yet,
+after allowance has been made for that exaggerated way of putting the
+case which seems habitual to "the faculty" when it takes up with a new
+theory, a sufficient residuum of fact remains to justify many of the
+doctor's remarks. That a headache too often follows hard upon a
+dramatic entertainment must be tolerably plain to anyone who has ever
+sat in a theatre. Surely a better state of things must have existed a
+century ago, when the grandsires and great-grandsires of us Londoners
+were in the habit of frequenting the theatres night after night,
+almost as punctually as they ate their dinner or sipped their claret
+or their punch. To look in at Drury Lane or Covent Garden, if only to
+witness an act or two of the tragedy or comedy of the evening, was a
+sort of duty with the town gentlemen, wits, and Templars, a hundred
+years back, when George III. was king. But gas had not then superseded
+wax, and tallow, and oil.
+
+Beyond increasing the _quantity_ of light, stage management has done
+little since Garrick's introduction of foot-lights, or "floats," as
+they are technically termed, in the way of satisfactorily adjusting
+the illumination of the stage. The light still comes from the wrong
+place: from below instead of, naturally, from above. In 1863, Mr.
+Fechter, at the Lyceum, sank the _floats_ below the surface of the
+stage, so that they should not intercept the view of the spectator;
+and his example has been followed by other managers; and of late
+years, owing to accidents having occurred to the dresses of the
+dancers when they approached too near to the foot-lights, these have
+been carefully fenced and guarded with wire screens and metal bars.
+Moreover, the dresses of the performers have been much shortened. But
+the obvious improvement required still remains to be effected.
+
+George Colman the younger, in his "Random Records," describes an
+amateur dramatic performance in the year 1780, at Wynnstay, in North
+Wales, the seat of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. The theatre had formerly
+been the kitchen of the mansion--a large, long, rather low-pitched
+room. One advantage of these characteristics, according to Mr. Colman,
+was the fact that the foot-lights, or _floats_, could be dispensed
+with: the stage was lighted by a row of lamps affixed to a large beam
+or arch above the heads of the performers--"on that side of the arch
+nearest to the stage, so that the audience did not see the lamps,
+which cast a strong vertical light upon the actors. This," he writes,
+"is as we receive light from nature; whereas the operation of the
+_float_ is exactly upon a reversed principle, and throws all the
+shades of the actor's countenance the wrong way." This defect,
+however, appeared to our author to be irremediable; for, as he argues,
+"if a beam to hold lamps as at Wynnstay were placed over the
+proscenium at Drury Lane or Covent Garden Theatre, the goddesses in
+the upper tiers of boxes, and the two and one shilling gods in the
+galleries, would be completely intercepted from a view of the stage."
+Still, Mr. Colman was not without hope that "in this age of
+improvement, while theatres are springing up like mushrooms, some
+ingenious architect may hit upon a remedy. At all events," he
+concludes, "it is a grand desideratum."
+
+Colman was writing in the year 1830. It is rather curious to find him
+describing theatres as "springing up like mushrooms," when it is
+considered that, notwithstanding the enormous extension of London, and
+the vast increase of its population, but one or two theatres were
+added to it for some thirty years. Meanwhile, the "ingenious
+architect," to whom he looked hopefully to amend the lighting of the
+stage, has not yet appeared. But then, one does not meet ingenious
+architects every day.
+
+A concluding note may be added touching the difficulties that may
+ensue from the system of lighting the theatres by means of gas.
+
+On December 3rd, 1872, there occurred the strike of some 2400 stokers;
+and, as a consequence, the West-end of London was involved in complete
+darkness, while in the City the supply of gas was limited to a very
+few streets. Upon the theatres this deprivation fell heavily. The
+performances were given up in despair at some houses, and carried on
+at others in a very restricted manner, by suddenly calling into
+requisition the twilight of tallow-candles and oil-lamps. The
+following advertisements, among many others of like tenor, appearing
+in _The Times_ of the 4th December, are illustrative of the situation
+of affairs:
+
+     SPECIAL NOTICE.--COURT THEATRE.--This theatre, from its
+     situation, is in no way affected by the Gas Strike, and will be
+     open every evening, and brilliantly illuminated.
+
+     ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.--The management having received no notice
+     that, in consequence of the strike, the supply of gas would be
+     discontinued, found at the last moment no light could be
+     obtained, and were compelled to inform the crowds at the door
+     that there would be no performance. _All Tickets_ issued last
+     night will be available this evening.
+
+     GAS.--GAIETY.--SPECIAL NOTICE.--Arrangements (if necessary) have
+     been made to light this Theatre with lime-lights and oil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+"COME, THE RECORDERS!"
+
+
+Among the earlier emotions of the youthful playgoer, whose enthusiasm
+for dramatic representations is generally of a very fervid and
+uncompromising kind, must be recognised his pity for the money-taker,
+forbidden by the cares of office to witness a performance, and his
+envy of the musicians, so advantageously stationed for the incessant
+enjoyment of the delights of the theatre. But he perceives, with
+regretful wonder, that these gentlemen are habitually negligent of
+their opportunities, and fail to appreciate the peculiar happiness of
+their position; that they are apt, indeed, their services not being
+immediately required, to abandon their instruments, and quietly to
+steal away through the cramped doorway that admits to the mysterious
+regions beneath the stage. He is grieved to note that for them, at any
+rate, the play is _not_ "the thing." One or two may remain--the
+performer on the drum, I have observed, is often very faithful in this
+respect, though I have failed to discover any special reason why a
+love of histrionic efforts should be generated by his professional
+occupation--but the majority of the orchestra clearly manifest an
+almost indecent alacrity in avoiding all contemplation of the displays
+on the other side of the foot-lights. They are but playgoers on
+compulsion. They even seem sometimes, when they retain their seats, to
+prefer gazing at the audience, rather than at the actors, and thus to
+advertise their apathy in the matter. And I have not heard that the
+parsimonious manager, who proposed to reduce the salaries of his
+musicians on the ground that they every night enjoyed admission to the
+best seats, for which they paid nothing, "even when stars were
+performing," ever succeeded in convincing his band of the justice of
+his arguments.
+
+The juvenile patron of the drama will, of course, in due time become
+less absorbed in his own view of the situation, and learn that just as
+one man's meat is another man's poison, so the pleasures of some are
+the pains of others. He will cease to search the faces of the
+orchestra for any evidence of "pride of place," or enjoyment of
+performances they witness, not as volunteers, but as pressed men. He
+will understand that they are at work, and are influenced by a natural
+anxiety to escape from work as soon as may be. So, the overture ended,
+they vanish, and leave the actors to do their best or their worst, as
+the case may be. But our young friend's sentiments are not peculiar to
+himself--have been often shared, indeed, by very experienced persons.
+We have heard of comic singers and travelling entertainment givers who
+have greatly resented the air of indifference of their musical
+accompanist. They have required of him that he should feel amused, or
+affect to feel amused, by their efforts. He has had to supplement his
+skill as a musician by his readiness as an actor. It has been thought
+desirable that the audience should be enabled to exclaim: "The great
+So-and-So _must_ be funny! Why, see, the man at the piano, who plays
+for him every night, who has, of course, seen his performances scores
+and scores of times, even _he_ can't help laughing, the great
+So-and-So is so funny." The audience, thus convinced, find themselves,
+no doubt, very highly amused. Garrick himself appears, on one occasion
+at any rate, to have been much enraged at the indifference of a
+member of his band. Cervetto, the violoncello player, once ventured to
+yawn noisily and portentously while the great actor was delivering an
+address to the audience. The house gave way to laughter. The
+indignation of the actor could only be appeased by Cervetto's absurd
+excuse, that he invariably yawned when he felt "the greatest rapture,"
+and to this emotion the address to the house, so admirably delivered
+by his manager, had justified him in yielding. Garrick accepted the
+explanation, perhaps rather on account of its humour than of its
+completeness.
+
+Music and the drama have been inseparably connected from the most
+remote date. Even in the cart of Thespis some corner must have been
+found for the musician. The custom of chanting in churches has been
+traced to the practice of the ancient and pagan stage. Music pervaded
+the whole of the classical drama, was the adjunct of the poetry: the
+play being a kind of recitation, the declamation composed and written
+in notes, and the gesticulations even being accompanied. The old
+miracle plays were assisted by performers on the horn, the pipe, the
+tabret, and the flute--a full orchestra in fact. Mr. Payne Collier, in
+his "Annals of the Stage," points out that at the end of the prologue
+to "Childermas Day," 1512, the minstrels are required to "do their
+diligence," the same expression being employed at the close of the
+performance, when they are besought either themselves to dance, or to
+play a dance for the entertainment of the company:
+
+    Also ye menstrelles doth your diligence
+    Afore our depertying geve us a daunce.
+
+The Elizabethan stage relied greatly upon the aid of trumpets,
+cornets, &c., for the "soundings" which announced the commencement of
+the prologue, and for the "alarums" and "flourishes" which occurred in
+the course of the representation. Malone was of opinion that the band
+consisted of some eight or ten musicians stationed in "an upper
+balcony over what is now called the stage-box." Collier, however,
+shows that the musicians were often divided into two bands, and quotes
+a stage direction in Marston's "Antonio's Revenge," 1602: "While the
+measure is dancing, Andrugio's ghost is placed betwixt the music
+houses." In a play of later date, Middleton's "Chaste Maid in
+Cheapside," 1630, appears the direction: "While the company seem to
+weep and mourn, there is a sad song in the music-room." Boxes were
+then often called rooms, and one was evidently set apart for the use
+of the musicians. In certain of Shakespeare's plays the musicians are
+clearly required to quit their room for awhile, and appear upon the
+stage among the _dramatis personae._
+
+The practice of playing music between the acts is of long standing,
+the frequent inappropriateness of these interludes having been
+repeatedly commented on, however. A writer in the last century
+expressly complains that at the end of every act, the audience,
+"carried away by a jig of Vivaldi's, or a concerto of Giardini's, lose
+every warm impression relative to the piece, and begin again cool and
+unconcerned as at the commencement of the representation." He
+advocates the introduction of music adapted to the subject: "The music
+after an act should commence in the tone of the preceding passion, and
+be gradually varied till it accords with the tone of the passion that
+is to succeed in the next act," so that "cheerful, tender, melancholy,
+or animated impressions" may be inspired, as the occasion may need. At
+the conclusion of the second act of "Gammer Gurton's Needle," 1566,
+Diccon, addressing himself to the musicians, says simply: "In the
+meantime, fellows, pipe up your fiddles." But in a later play, the
+"Two Italian Gentlemen," by Anthony Munday, printed about 1584, the
+different kinds of music to be played after each act are stated,
+whether a "pleasant galliard," a "solemn dump," or a "pleasant
+allemaigne." So Marston in his "Sophonisba," 1606, indicates
+particularly the instruments he would have played during the pauses
+between the acts. After act one, "the cornets and organs playing loud
+full of music;" after act two, "organs mixed with recorders;" after
+act three, "organs, viols, and voices;" with "a base lute and a treble
+viol" after act four. In the course of this play, moreover, musical
+accompaniments of a descriptive kind were introduced, the stage
+direction on two occasions informing us that "infernal music plays
+softly." Nabbes, in the prologue to his "Hannibal and Scipio," 1637,
+alludes at once to the change of the place of action of the drama, and
+to the performance of music between the acts:
+
+    The place is sometimes changed, too, with the scene,
+    Which is transacted as the music plays
+    Betwixt the acts.
+
+The closing of the theatres by the Puritans, in 1642, plainly
+distressed the musicians almost as much as the players. Their
+occupation was practically gone, although not declared illegal by Act
+of Parliament. "Our music," writes the author of "The Actor's
+Remonstrance," 1643, "that was held so delectable and precious that
+they scorned to come to a tavern under twenty shillings for two hours,
+now wander with their instruments under their cloaks--I mean such as
+have any--into all houses of good fellowship, saluting every room
+where there is company with: 'Will you have any music, gentlemen?'"
+
+At the Restoration, however, king, actors, and orchestra all enjoyed
+their own again. Presently, for the first time it would seem in an
+English theatre, the musicians were assigned that intrenched position
+between the pit and the stage they have so long maintained. "The front
+of the stage is opened, and the band of twenty-four violins with the
+harpsicals and theorbos which accompany the voices are placed between
+the pit and the stage. While the overture is playing the curtain rises
+and discovers a new frontispiece joined to the great pilasters on each
+side of the stage," &c. So runs one of the preliminary stage
+directions in the version of Shakespeare's "Tempest," arranged by
+Dryden and Davenant for performance at the Duke's Theatre, Lincoln's
+Inn Fields, in 1667. The change was, no doubt, introduced by Davenant
+in pursuance of French example. The authors of the "Histoire
+Universelle des Theatres" state, regarding the French stage, that
+after the disuse of the old chorus in 1630, "a la place du chant qui
+distinguoit les actes et qui marquoit les repos necessaires, on
+introduisit des joueurs d'instrumens, qui d'abord furent places sur
+les ailes du theatre, ou ils executoient differens airs avant la
+commencement de la piece et entre les actes. Ensuite ils furent mis au
+fond des troisieme loges, puis aux secondes, enfin entre le theatre et
+la parterre, ou ils sont restes."
+
+Theatres differ little save in regard to their dimensions. The minor
+house is governed by the same laws, is conducted upon the same system,
+as the major one. It is as a humbler and cheaper edition, but it
+repeats down to minute particulars the example of its costly original.
+The orchestra, or some form of orchestra, is always indispensable.
+Even that street-corner tragedy which sets forth the story of Punch
+and Judy, could not be presented without its pandean-pipe
+accompaniment. The lowest vagrant theatre must, like the lady in the
+nursery ballad, have music wherever it goes. No doubt this is often of
+most inferior quality, suggestive of a return to very early musical
+methods. But poverty constrains to primitiveness. Mr. Pepys,
+comparing the state of the stage under Killigrew to what it had been
+in earlier years, notes: "Then, two or three fiddlers; now, nine or
+ten of the best," &c. The orchestra of a strolling theatre has been
+known to consist of one fiddler only, and he has been required to
+combine with his musical exertions the discharge of secretarial
+duties, enlivened by occasional appearances on the stage to strengthen
+casts, or help fill up the scene. The strollers' band is often of
+uncertain strength. For when the travelling company meets with
+misadventure, the orchestra are usually the first to prove unfaithful.
+They are the Swiss of the troop. The receipts fail, and the musicians
+desert. They carry their gifts elsewhere, and seek independent
+markets. The fairs, the racecourses, the country inn-doors, attract
+the fiddler, and he strolls on his own account, when the payment of
+salaries is suspended. A veteran actor was wont to relate his
+experiences of fifty years ago as a member of the Stratford-upon-Avon
+company, when the orchestra consisted only of a fife and a tambourine,
+the instrumentalists performing, as they avowed, "not from notes but
+entirely by ear." Presently the company removed to Warwick for the
+race week. But here the managerial difficulties increased--no band
+whatever could be obtained! This was the more distressing in that the
+performances were to be of an illegitimate character: a "famous
+tight-rope dancer" had been engaged. The dancer at once declared that
+his exhibition without music was not for a moment to be thought of.
+One of the company thereupon obligingly offered his services. He could
+play upon the violin: four tunes only. Now, provided an instrument
+could be borrowed for the occasion, and provided, moreover, the
+tight-rope artist could dance to the tune of "There's Nae Luck," or
+"Drink to Me Only," or "Away with Melancholy," or the "National
+Anthem," here was a way out of the dilemma, and all might yet be well.
+Unfortunately a violin was not forthcoming at any price, and the
+dancer declared himself quite unable to dance to the airs stated! How
+was faith to be kept with the public? At the last moment a
+barrel-organ was secured. The organist was a man of resources. In
+addition to turning the handle of his instrument, he contrived to play
+the triangle and the pan-pipes. Here, then, was a full band. The
+dancer still demurred. He must be assisted by a "clown to the rope,"
+to chalk his soles, amuse the audience while he rested, and perform
+other useful duties. Another obliging actor volunteered his help. He
+would "by special desire and on this occasion only," appear as clown.
+So having played Pangloss in the "Heir at Law," the first piece, he
+exchanged his doctorial costume for a suit of motley, and the
+performance "drew forth," as subsequent playbills stated, "universal
+and reiterated bursts of applause from a crowded and elegant
+audience." The experiment of the barrel-organ orchestra was not often
+repeated. The band of the Leamington Theatre was lent to the Warwick
+house, the distance between the establishments being only two miles.
+The Leamington audience were provided with music at the commencement
+of the evening only; the Warwick playgoers dispensed with orchestral
+accompaniments until a later period in the performances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+PROLOGUES.
+
+
+"It is singular," Miss Mitford wrote to Mr. Fields, her American
+publisher, "that epilogues were just dismissed at the first
+representation of one of my plays--'Foscari,' and prologues at
+another--'Rienzi.'" "Foscari" was originally produced in 1826;
+"Rienzi" in 1828. According to Mr. Planche, however, the first play of
+importance presented without a prologue was his adaptation of Rowley's
+old comedy, "A Woman never Vext," produced at Covent Garden on
+November 9th, 1824, with a grand pageant of the Lord Mayor's Show as
+it appeared in the time of Henry VI. At one of the last rehearsals,
+Fawcett, the stage manager, inquired of the adapter if he had written
+a prologue? "No." "A five-act play and no prologue! Why, the audience
+will tear up the benches!" But they did nothing of the kind. They took
+not the slightest notice of the omission. After that, little more was
+heard of the time-honoured custom which had ruled that prologues
+should, according to Garrick's description of them--
+
+    Precede the play in mournful verse,
+    As undertakers stalk before the hearse;
+    Whose doleful march may strike the harden'd mind,
+    And wake its feeling for the dead behind.
+
+People, indeed, began rather to wonder why they had ever required or
+been provided with a thing that was now found to be, in truth, so
+entirely unnecessary.
+
+The prologues of our stage date from the earliest period of the
+British drama. They were not so much designed, as were the prologues
+of the classical theatre, to enlighten the spectators touching the
+subject of the forthcoming play; but were rather intended to bespeak
+favour for the dramatist, and to deprecate adverse opinion.
+Originally, indeed, the prologue-speaker was either the author himself
+in person, or his representative. In his prologue to his farce of "The
+Deuce is in Him," George Colman, after a lively fashion, points out
+the distinction between the classical and the British forms of
+prefatory address:
+
+    What does it mean? What can it be?
+    A little patience--and you'll see.
+    Behold, to keep your minds uncertain,
+    Between the scene and you this curtain!
+    So writers hide their plots, no doubt,
+    To please the more when all comes out!
+    Of old the Prologue told the story,
+    And laid the whole affair before ye;
+    Came forth in simple phrase to say:
+      "'Fore the beginning of the play
+      I, hapless Polydore, was found
+      By fishermen, or others, drowned!
+      Or--I, a gentleman, did wed
+      The lady I would never bed,
+      Great Agamemnon's royal daughter,
+      Who's coming hither to draw water."
+    Thus gave at once the bards of Greece
+    The cream and marrow of the piece;
+    Asking no trouble of your own
+    To skim the milk or crack the bone.
+      The poets now take different ways,
+      "E'en let them find it out for Bayes!"
+
+The prologue-speaker of the Elizabethan stage entered after the
+trumpets had sounded thrice, attired in a long cloak of black cloth or
+velvet, occasionally assuming a wreath or garland of bays, emblematic
+of authorship. In the "Accounts of the Revels in 1573-74," a charge is
+made for "bays for the prologgs." Long after the cloak had been
+discarded it was still usual for the prologue-speaker to appear
+dressed in black. Robert Lloyd, in his "Familiar Epistle to George
+Colman," 1761, writes:
+
+    With decent sables on his back
+    (Your 'prologuisers' all wear black)
+    The prologue comes; and, if it's mine
+    It's very good and very fine.
+    If not--I take a pinch of snuff,
+    And wonder where you got such stuff.
+
+Upon this subject, Mr. Payne Collier notes a stage direction in the
+Induction to Heywood's "Four 'Prentices of London," 1615: "Enter
+three, in black cloaks, at the doors." Each of them advancing to speak
+the prologue, the first exclaims--"What mean you, my masters, to
+appear thus before your times? Do you not know that I am the prologue?
+Do you not see this long black velvet cloak upon my back? Have you not
+sounded thrice?" So also, in the Induction to Ben Jonson's "Cynthia's
+Revels," two of the children of the chapel contend for the privilege
+of speaking the prologue, one of them maintaining his claim by
+pleading "possession of the cloak."
+
+The custom of regarding the "prologuiser" as the author or his
+representative, seems gradually to have been departed from, and
+prologues came to be delivered by one of the chief actors in the play,
+in the character he was about to undertake, or in some other assumed
+for the occasion. A certain solemnity of tone, however, was usually
+preserved in the prologue to tragedy--the goodwill and merciful
+consideration of the audience being still entreated for the author and
+his work, although considerable licence was permitted to the comedy
+prologue. And the prologues acquired more and more of a dramatic
+nature, being divided sometimes between two and three speakers, and
+less resembling formal prologues than those Inductions of which the
+early dramatists, and especially Ben Jonson, seem to have been so
+unreasonably fond. The prologue to "The Poetaster" is spoken, in part,
+by Envy "rising in the midst of the stage," and, in part, by an
+official representative of the dramatist. So, the prologue to
+Shakespeare's Second Part of "King Henry IV." is delivered by Rumour,
+"painted full of tongues;" a like office being accomplished by Gower
+and Chorus, in regard to the plays of "Pericles" and "King Henry V."
+It is to be noted that but few of Shakespeare's prologues and
+epilogues have been preserved. Malone conjectures that they were not
+held to be indispensable appendages to a play in Shakespeare's time.
+But Mr. Collier is probably more correct in assuming that they were
+often retrenched by the printer, because they could not be brought
+within the compass of a page, and because he was unwilling to add
+another leaf. In addition to those mentioned above, the prologues to
+"King Henry VIII.," "Troilus and Cressida," and "Romeo and Juliet" are
+extant, and have the peculiarity of informing the audience, after the
+old classical fashion, something as to the nature of the entertainment
+to be set before them. To the tragedy of "The Murder of Gonzago,"
+contained in "Hamlet," Shakespeare, no doubt, recognising established
+usage, provided the prologue:
+
+    For us and for our tragedy
+    Here stooping to your clemency,
+    We beg your hearing patiently.
+
+Steele, writing in _The Guardian,_ in 1713, expresses much concern for
+the death of Mr. Peer, of the Theatre Royal, "who was an actor at the
+Restoration, and took his theatrical degree with Betterton, Kynaston,
+and Harris." Mr. Peer, it seems, especially distinguished himself in
+two characters, "which no man ever could touch but himself." One of
+these was the Apothecary in "Caius Marius," Otway's wretched
+adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet;" the other was the speaker of the
+prologue to the play in "Hamlet." It is plain that Mr. Peer's
+professional rank was not high; for these characters are not usually
+undertaken by performers of note. Steele admits that Peer's eminence
+lay in a narrow compass, and to that attributes "the enlargement of
+his sphere of action" by his employment as property-man in addition to
+his histrionic duties. Peer, however, is described as delivering the
+three lines of prologue "better than any man else in the world," and
+with "universal applause." He spoke "with such an air as represented
+that he was an actor and with such an inferior manner as only acting
+an actor, as made the others on the stage appear real great persons
+and not representatives. This was a nicety in acting that none but the
+most subtle player could so much as conceive." It is conceivable,
+however, that some of this subtlety existed rather in the fancy of the
+critic than in the method of the player. This story of Mr. Peer is
+hardly to be equalled; yet Davies relates of Boheme, the actor, that
+when, upon his first appearance upon the stage, he played with some
+"itinerants" at Stratford-le-Bow, his feeling but simple manner of
+delivering Francisco's short speech in "Hamlet"--
+
+    For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
+    And I am sick at heart--
+
+at once roused the audience to a sense of his merits. "His salary was
+immediately increased by the manager; and he proved afterwards a great
+ornament of the stage."
+
+The delivery of a prologue by an actress--that is to say, of course,
+by a boy in female dress, personating the character of a
+woman--appears to have been an unusual proceeding upon the Elizabethan
+stage. Mr. Collier has noted instances, however. In the case of the
+prologue to "Every Woman in her Humour," 1609, spoken by the heroine
+Flavia, "Enter Flavia as a Prologue," runs the stage direction; and
+she begins--"Gentles of both sexes and of all sorts, I am sent to bid
+ye welcome. I am but instead of a prologue, for a she prologue is as
+rare as a usurer's alms." And the prologue to Shirley's "Coronation,"
+1640, was also delivered by one of the representatives of female
+character. A passage is worth quoting, for its description of ordinary
+prologue-speaking at this time:
+
+    Since 'tis become the title of our play,
+    A woman once in a Coronation may
+    With pardon speak the prologue, give as free
+    A welcome to the theatre, as he
+    That with a little beard, a long black cloak,
+    With a starched face and supple leg hath spoke
+    Before the plays this twelvemonth. Let me then
+    Present a welcome to these gentlemen.
+    If you be kind and noble you will not
+    Think the worse of me for my petticoat.
+
+It would seem that impatience was sometimes expressed at the poetic
+prologues and lengthy Inductions of the dramatists. The prologue to
+Beaumont and Fletcher's "Woman Hater," 1607, begins: "Gentlemen,
+Inductions are out of date, and a prologue in verse is as stale as a
+black velvet cloak and a bay garland; therefore you have it in plain
+prose, thus----." But the alteration did not please, apparently; at
+any rate, upon a subsequent production of the play, the authors
+furnished it with a prologue in verse of the old-established pattern.
+
+The Elizabethan dramatists often took occasion in their prologues to
+lecture the audience upon their conduct in the theatre, exhorting them
+to more seemly manners, and especially informing them that nothing of
+an indecorous nature would be presented upon the scene. The prologue
+to "The Woman Hater," above mentioned, pronounces "to the utter
+discomfort of all twopenny gallery men," that there is no impropriety
+contained in the play, and bids them depart, if they have been looking
+for anything of the kind. "Or if there be any lurking amongst you in
+corners," it proceeds, "with table books who have some hope to find
+fit matter to feed his malice on, let them clasp them up and slink
+away, or stay and be converted." Of the play, it states: "Some things
+in it you may meet with which are out of the common road: a duke there
+is, and the scene lies in Italy, as those two things lightly we never
+miss." The audience, however, are warned not to expect claptraps, or
+personal satire. "You shall not find in it the ordinary and overworn
+way of jesting at lords and courtiers and citizens, without taxation
+of any particular or new vice by them found out, but at the persons of
+them; such, he that made this, thinks vile, and for his own part vows
+that he never did think but that a lord, lord-born, might be a wise
+man, and a courtier an honest man." In the same way Shakespeare's
+prologue to "Henry VIII." welcomes those "that can pity," and "such as
+give their money out of hope, they may believe." But they are plainly
+told they will be deceived who have come to hear a merry graceless
+play--
+
+    A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
+    In a long motley coat guarded with yellow.
+
+The prologue to Ben Jonson's "Staple of News" entreats the audience to
+abstain from idle conversation, and to attend to his play, so that
+they may hear as well as see it.
+
+                    He'd have you wise,
+    Much rather by your ears than by your eyes;
+    And prays you'll not prejudge his play for ill,
+    Because you mark it not and sit not still,
+    But have a longing to salute or talk.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Alas! what is it to his scene to know
+    How many coaches in Hyde Park did show
+    Last spring? what fun to-day at Medley's was?
+    If Dunstan or the Phoenix best wine has? &c. &c.
+
+In the Induction the prologue is interrupted by the entrance of four
+gentlewomen, "lady-like attired," representative of Mirth, Tattle,
+Expectation, and Censure or Curiosity. The last-named is charged with
+coming to the theatre "to see who wears the new suit to-day; whose
+clothes are best formed, whatever the part be; which actor has the
+best leg and foot; what king plays without cuffs, and his queen
+without gloves; who rides post in stockings and dances in boots." It
+is to be noted, too, that at this time the audience occupying the
+humbler places in the theatre are very harshly spoken of in the
+prologues. They are referred to as--
+
+                   The vulgar sort
+    Of nutcrackers that only come for sport--
+
+and as "grounds of your people that sit in the oblique caves and
+wedges of your house, your sinful sixpenny mechanicks," &c.
+
+It is plain, however, that the rudeness of Ben Jonson's prologues had
+given offence, for, indeed, he employed them not merely to lecture his
+audience, but also to lash and laugh to scorn rival playwrights. So to
+"The Magnetic Lady" no prologue was provided, but an Induction, in the
+course of which "a boy of the house" discourses with two gentlemen
+concerning the play, and explains that the author will "not be
+entreated to give it a prologue. He has lost too much that way
+already, he says. He will not woo the Gentile ignoramus so much. But
+careless of all vulgar censure, as not depending on common
+approbation, he is confident it shall super-please judicious
+spectators, and to them he leaves it to work with the rest by example
+or otherwise." Further, the boy gives valuable advice upon the subject
+of criticism, bidding the gentlemen take seats and "fly everything you
+see to the mark, and censure it freely, so you interrupt not the
+series or thread of the argument, to break or pucker it with
+unnecessary questions. For I must tell you that a good play is like a
+skein of silk, which, if you take by the right end you may wind off at
+pleasure on the bottom or card of your discourse in a tale or so--how
+you will; but if you light on the wrong end you will pull all into a
+knot or elf-lock, which nothing but the shears or a candle will undo
+or separate."
+
+After the Restoration prologues appear to have been held more than
+ever necessary to theatrical exhibitions. The writing of prologues
+even became a kind of special and profitable vocation. Dryden's
+customary fee for a prologue was five guineas, which contented him,
+until in 1682 he demanded of Southerne ten guineas for a prologue to
+"The Loyal Brothers," alleging that the players had hitherto had his
+goods too cheaply, and from that time forward ten guineas would be his
+charge. Dryden is to be accounted the most famous and successful of
+prologue writers, but it must be said that his productions of this
+class are deplorably disfigured by the profligacy of his time, and
+that all their brilliancy of wit does not compensate for their
+uncleanness. Dryden's prologues are also remarkable, for their
+frequent recognition of the critics as a class apart from the ordinary
+audience; not critics as we understand them exactly, attached to
+journals and reviewing plays for the instruction of the public, but
+men of fashion affecting judicial airs, and expressing their opinions
+in clubs and coffee-houses, and authors charged with attending the
+theatres in the hope of witnessing the demolition of a rival bard. The
+prologue to "All for Love" opens with the lines--
+
+    What flocks of critics hover here to-day,
+    As vultures wait on armies for their prey,
+    All gaping for the carcase of a play!
+
+And presently occurs the familiar passage--
+
+    Let those find fault whose wit's so very small,
+    They've had to show that they can think at all.
+    Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
+    He who would search for pearls must dive below.
+    Fops may have leave to level all they can,
+    As pigmies would be glad to lop a man.
+    Half wits are fleas, so little and so light,
+    We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.
+
+Another prologue begins--
+
+    They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write,
+    Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite;
+    A playhouse gives them fame; and up then starts
+    From a mean fifth-rate wit, a man of parts.
+
+The more important critics are described as--
+
+    A jury of the wits who still stay late,
+    And in their club decree the poor play's fate;
+    Their verdict back is to the boxes brought,
+    Thence all the town pronounces it their thought.
+
+"The little Hectors of the pit" are also spoken of, and there is
+mention of "Fop-corner," the prototype of "Fop's-alley" of later
+years. Now, "a kind, hearty pit" is prayed for, and now, in a prologue
+delivered before the University of Oxford, stress is laid upon the
+advantages of "a learned pit." It may be noted, too, that the
+prologues of Dryden, apart from their wit, and overlooking, if that
+can possibly be managed, their distressing grossness, are invaluable
+for the accurate and minute pictures they present of English life,
+manners, costumes, and character in the reign of Charles II.
+
+In right of the many quotations it has supplied to literature and
+conversation, Dr. Johnson's prologue spoken by Garrick upon the
+opening of Drury Lane Theatre, in 1747, may claim to be considered the
+most famous production of its class. It is not, in truth, however, a
+prologue as prologues are ordinarily understood, but rather an
+address, written to suit special circumstances, and having no
+connection with any particular play. Boswell describes it as
+"unrivalled for just and manly criticism on the whole range of the
+English stage, as well as for poetic excellence," and records that it
+was during the season often called for by the audience. Johnson's
+prologue to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of "The Good-natured Man"
+was certainly open to the charge brought against it of undue
+solemnity. The first lines--
+
+    Press'd with the load of life the weary mind
+    Surveys the general toil of human kind--
+
+when enunciated in the sepulchral tones of Bensley, the tragedian,
+were judged to have a depressing effect upon the audience--a
+conclusion which seems reasonable and probable enough, although
+Boswell suggested that "the dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour
+shine the more." Goldsmith himself was chiefly disturbed at the line
+describing him as "our little bard," which he thought likely to
+diminish his dignity, by calling attention to the lowness of his
+stature. "Little bard" was therefore altered to "anxious bard."
+Johnson also supplied a prologue to Kelly's posthumous comedy of "A
+Word to the Wise" (represented in 1770, for the benefit of the
+author's widow and children), although he spoke contemptuously of the
+departed dramatist as "a dead staymaker," and confessed that he hated
+to give away literary performances, or even to sell them too cheaply.
+"The next generation," he said, "shall not accuse me of beating down
+the price of literature; one hates, besides, to give what one is
+accustomed to sell. Would not you, now"--and here he turned to his
+brewer friend, Mr. Thrale--"rather give away money than porter?" To
+his own tragedy of "Irene," Johnson supplied a spirited prologue,
+which "awed" the house, as Boswell believed. In the concluding lines
+he deprecated all effort to win applause by other than legitimate
+means:
+
+    Be this at least his praise, be this his pride:
+    To force applause no modern arts are tried;
+    Should partial catcalls all his hopes confound,
+    He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound;
+    Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit,
+    He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit;
+    No snares to captivate the judgment spreads,
+    Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads.
+    Unmoved, though witlings sneer and rivals rail,
+    Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.
+    He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain;
+    With merit needless, and without it vain.
+    In Reason, Nature, Truth he dares to trust:
+    Ye fops be silent, and ye wits be just!
+
+Of prologues generally, Johnson pronounced that Dryden's were superior
+to any that David Garrick had written, but that Garrick had written
+more good prologues than Dryden. "It is wonderful that he has been
+able to write such a variety of them." Garrick's prologues and
+epilogues are, indeed, quite innumerable, and are, almost invariably,
+sparkling, witty, and vivacious. They could scarcely fail to win the
+favour of an audience; and then oftentimes they had the additional
+advantage of being delivered by himself.
+
+Prologues seem to have been a recognised vehicle of literary courtesy.
+Authors favoured each other with these addresses as a kind of
+advertisement of the good understanding that prevailed between
+them--an evidence of respect, friendliness, and encouragement. Thus
+Addison's tragedy of "Cato" was provided with a prologue by Pope--the
+original line, "Britons, arise! be worth like this approved," being
+"liquidated" to "Britons attend!"--for the timid dramatist was alarmed
+lest he should be judged a promoter of insurrection. Addison in his
+turn furnished the prologue to Steele's "Tender Husband," while Steele
+favoured Vanbrugh with a prologue to his comedy of "The Mistake."
+Johnson, as we have seen, now and then provided his friends with
+prologues. The prologue to Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" was
+written by Garrick, to be spoken by Woodward, the actor, "dressed in
+black, and holding a handkerchief to his eyes;" the prologue to "The
+School for Scandal" was also the work of Garrick. Sheridan, it may be
+noted, supplied a prologue to Savage's tragedy of "Sir Thomas
+Overbury," on the occasion of its revival at Covent Garden,
+thirty-four years after the death of its author. Among the last of the
+prologues was one written by Mr. Charles Dickens to Dr. Westland
+Marston's poetic drama, "The Patrician's Daughter."
+
+Prologues have now vanished, however, and are not likely to be
+reintroduced. It must be added that they showed symptoms of decline in
+worth long before they departed. Originally apologies for players and
+dramatists--at a time when the histrionic profession was very lightly
+esteemed--they were retained by the conservatism of the stage as
+matters of form, long after they had forfeited all genuine excuse for
+their existence. The name is still retained, however, and applied to
+the introductory, or, to use Mr. Boucicault's word, "proloquial" acts
+of certain long and complicated plays, which seem to require for their
+due comprehension the exhibition to the audience of events antecedent
+to the real subject of the drama. But these "proloquial acts" are
+things quite apart from the old-fashioned prologue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE ART OF "MAKING-UP."
+
+
+When, to heighten the effect of their theatrical exhibitions, Thespis
+and his playfellows first daubed their faces with the lees of wine,
+they may be said to have initiated that art of "making-up" which has
+been of such important service to the stage. Paint is to the actor's
+face what costume is to his body--a means of decoration or disguise,
+as the case may require; an aid to his assuming this or that
+character, and concealing the while his own personal identity from the
+spectator. The mask of the classical theatre is only to be associated
+with a "make-up," in that it substituted a fictitious facial
+expression for the actor's own. Roscius is said to have always played
+in a vizard, on account of a disfiguring obliquity of vision with
+which he was afflicted. It was an especial tribute to his histrionic
+merits that the Romans, disregarding this defect, required him to
+relinquish his mask, that they might the better appreciate his
+exquisite oratory and delight in the music of his voice. In much later
+years, however, "obliquity of vision" has been found to be no obstacle
+to success upon the stage. Talma squinted, and a dramatic critic,
+writing in 1825, noted it as a strange fact that "our three light
+comedians, Elliston, Jones, and Browne," each suffered from "what is
+called a cast in the eye."
+
+To young and inexperienced players a make-up is precious, in that it
+has a fortifying effect upon their courage, and relieves them in some
+degree of consciousness of their own personality. They are the better
+enabled to forget themselves, seeing their identity can hardly be
+present to the minds of others. Garrick made his first histrionic
+essay as Aboan, in the play of "Oroonoko," "a part in which his
+features could not easily be discerned: under the disguise of a black
+countenance he hoped to escape being known, should it be his
+misfortune not to please." When Bottom the Weaver is allotted the part
+of Pyramus, intense anxiety touching his make-up is an early sentiment
+with him. "What beard were I best to play it in?" he inquires. "I will
+discharge it in either your straw-coloured beard, your orange-tawny
+beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard,
+your perfect yellow." Clearly the beard was an important part of the
+make-up at this time. Farther on, Bottom counsels his brother clowns:
+"Get your apparel together, good strings to your beards, new ribbons
+to your pumps;" and there are especial injunctions to the effect that
+Thisbe shall be provided with clean linen, that the lion shall pare
+his nails, and that there shall be abstinence from onions and garlic
+on the part of the company generally.
+
+Old John Downes, who was prompter at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn
+Fields from 1662 to 1706, and whose "Roscius Anglicanus" is a most
+valuable history of the stage of the Restoration, describes an actor
+named Johnson as being especially "skilful in the art of painting,
+which is a great adjument very promovent to the art of elocution." Mr.
+Waldron, who, in 1789, produced a new edition of the "Roscius
+Anglicanus," with notes by Tom Davies, the biographer of Garrick,
+decides that Downes's mention of the "art of painting" has reference
+to the art of "painting the face and marking it with dark lines to
+imitate the wrinkles of old age." This, Waldron continues, "was
+formerly carried to excess on the stage, though now a good deal
+disused. I have seen actors, who were really older than the characters
+they were to represent, mark their faces with black lines of Indian
+ink to such a degree that they appeared as if looking through a mask
+of wire." And Mr. Waldron finds occasion to add that "Mr. Garrick's
+skill in the necessary preparation of his face for the aged and
+venerable Lear, and for Lusignan, was as remarkable as his performance
+of those characters was admirable."
+
+In 1741 was published "An Historical and Critical Account of the
+Theatres in Europe," a translation of a work by "the famous Lewis
+Riccoboni, of the Italian Theatre at Paris." The author had visited
+England in 1727, apparently, when he had conversed with the great Mr.
+Congreve, finding in him "taste joined with great learning," and
+studied with some particularity the condition of the English stage.
+"As to the actors," he writes, "if, after forty-five years' experience
+I may be entitled to give my opinion, I dare advance that the best
+actors in Italy and France come far short of those in England." And he
+devotes some space to a description of a performance he witnessed at
+the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, dwelling especially upon the
+skill of an actor who personated an old man. "He who acted the old man
+executed it to the nicest perfection which one could expect in no
+player who had not forty years' experience.... I made no manner of
+doubt of his being an old comedian, who, instructed by long
+experience, and, at the same time, assisted by the weight of years,
+had performed it so naturally. But how great was my surprise when I
+learned that he was a young man of about twenty-six! I could not
+believe it; but I owned that it might be possible had he only used a
+trembling and broken voice, and had only an extreme weakness possessed
+his body, because I conceived it possible for a young actor, by the
+help of art, to imitate that debility of nature to such a pitch of
+exactness; but the wrinkles of his face, his sunken eyes, and his
+loose and yellow cheeks, the most certain marks of a great old age,
+were incontestable proofs against what they said to me.
+Notwithstanding all this I was forced to submit to truth, because I
+know for certain that the actor, to fit himself for the part of the
+old man, spent an hour in dressing himself, and that, with the
+assistance of several pencils, he disguised his face so nicely and
+painted so artificially a part of his eyebrows and eyelids, that, at
+the distance of six paces, it was impossible not to be deceived. I was
+desirous to be a witness of this myself, but pride hindered me; so,
+knowing I must be ashamed, I was satisfied with a confirmation of it
+from other actors. Mademoiselle Salle, among others, who then shone
+upon that stage, confessed to me that the first time she saw him
+perform she durst not go into a passage where he was, fearing lest she
+should throw him down should she happen to touch him in passing by."
+Assuredly a more successful make-up than this could not be desired. In
+conclusion, Signor Riccoboni flatters himself that his reference to
+this matter may not be thought altogether useless; "it may let us know
+to what an exactness the English comedians carry the imitation of
+nature, and may serve for a proof of all that I have advanced of the
+actors of the English theatre."
+
+Dogget, the old comedian of Queen Anne's time--to whom we owe an
+annual boat-race upon the Thames for a "coat and badge," and,
+inferentially, the popular burletta of "The Waterman"--was remarkably
+skilful, according to Colley Cibber, "in dressing a character to the
+greatest exactness ... the least article of whatever habit he wore
+seemed to speak and mark the different humour he represented; a
+necessary care in a comedian, in which many have been too remiss or
+ignorant." This is confirmed by another critic, who states that Dogget
+"could with the greatest exactness paint his face so as to represent
+the ages of seventy, eighty, and ninety, distinctly, which occasioned
+Sir Godfrey Kneller to tell him one day at Button's Coffee House, that
+'he excelled him in painting, for that he could only paint from the
+originals before him, but that he (Dogget) could vary them at
+pleasure, and yet keep a close likeness.'" In the character of
+Moneytrap, the miser, in Vanbrugh's comedy of "The Confederacy,"
+Dogget is described as wearing "an old threadbare black coat, to which
+he had put new cuffs, pocket-lids, and buttons, on purpose to make its
+rusticness more conspicuous. The neck was stuffed so as to make him
+appear round-shouldered, and give his head the greater prominency; his
+square-toed shoes were large enough to buckle over those he wore in
+common, which made his legs appear much smaller than usual."
+Altogether, Mr. Dogget's make-up appears to have been of a very
+thorough and artistic kind.
+
+Garrick's skill "in preparing his face" has been already referred to,
+upon the authority of Mr. Waldron. From the numerous pictures of the
+great actor, and the accounts of his histrionic method furnished by
+his contemporaries, it would seem, however, as though he relied less
+upon the application of paint than upon his extraordinary command of
+facial expression. At a moment's notice he completely varied his
+aspect, "conveying into his face every possible kind of passion,
+blending one into another, and as it were shadowing them with an
+infinite number of gradations.... In short," says Dibdin, "his face
+was what he obliged you to fancy it: age, youth, plenty, poverty,
+everything it assumed." Certainly an engraved portrait of Garrick as
+Lear, published in 1761, does not suggest his deriving much help from
+the arts of making-up or of costume. He wears a short robe of velvet,
+trimmed with ermine, his white wig is disordered and his shirt-front
+is much crumpled; but otherwise his white silk hose, lace ruffles,
+high-heeled shoes and diamond buckles, are more appropriate to Sir
+Peter Teazle than to King Lear. And as much may be said of his
+closely-shaven face, the smooth surface of which is not disturbed by
+the least vestige of a beard. Yet the King Lears of later times have
+been all beard, or very nearly so. With regard to Garrick's appearance
+in the part of Lusignan, Davies relates how, two days before his
+death, the suffering actor, very wan and sallow of countenance, slow
+and solemn of movement, was seen to wear a rich night-gown, like that
+which he always wore in Lusignan, the venerable old king of Jerusalem;
+he presented himself to the imagination of his friend as if he was
+just ready to act that character.
+
+Charles Mathews, the elder, no doubt possessed much of Garrick's power
+of changing at will his facial aspect. At the theatre of course he
+resorted to the usual methods of making-up for the part he played; but
+the sudden transformations of which his "At Homes" largely consisted
+were accomplished too rapidly to be much assisted by pencilling the
+face, as were indeed the feats he sometimes accomplished in private
+circles, for the entertainment of his friends. In the biography of her
+husband, Mrs. Mathews relates how his advice was once sought by Godwin
+the novelist, just before the publication of his story of "Cloudesly,"
+on a matter--the art of making-up--the actor was held to have made
+peculiarly his own. Godwin wrote to him: "My dear Sir,--I am at this
+moment engaged in writing a work of fiction, a part of the incidents
+of which will consist in escapes in disguises. It has forcibly struck
+me that if I could be indulged in the pleasure of half-an-hour's
+conversation with you on the subject, it would furnish me with some
+hints, which, beaten on the anvil of my brain, would be of eminent
+service to me on the occasion," &c. A meeting was appointed, and, at
+an early date the author dined at the actor's cottage. Godwin, anxious
+not to outrage probability in his story, sought information as to "the
+power of destroying personal identity." Mathews assumed several
+disguises, and fully satisfied his visitor upon the point in question.
+"Soon after," writes Mrs. Mathews, "a gentleman, an eccentric
+neighbour of ours, broke in upon us as Mr. Godwin was expressing his
+wonder at the variety of expression, character, and voice of which Mr.
+Mathews was capable. We were embarrassed, and Mr. Godwin evidently
+vexed at the intruder. However, there was no help for it; the servant
+had admitted him, and he was introduced in form to Mr. Godwin. The
+moment Mr. Jenkins (for such was his name) discovered the
+distinguished person he had so luckily for him dropped in upon, he was
+enthusiastically pleased at the event, talked to Mr. Godwin about all
+his works, inquired about the forthcoming book--in fact, bored him
+through and through. At last the author turned to my husband for
+refuge against this assault of admiration, and discovered that his
+host had left the room. He therefore rose from his seat and approached
+the window leading to the lawn, Mr. Jenkins officiously following, and
+insisting upon opening it for him; and while he was urging a
+provokingly obstinate lock, the object of his devoted attention waited
+behind him for release. The casement at length flew open, and Mr.
+Godwin passing the gentleman with a courteous look of thanks, found to
+his astonishment that Mr. Jenkins had disappeared, and that Mr.
+Mathews stood in his place!" Students of "Cloudesly" may discover
+therein the result of Godwin's interview with Mathews, and their
+discussion concerning the art of making-up and disguise.
+
+Some fifty years ago Mr. Leman Thomas Rede published "The Road to the
+Stage, a Player's Vade-Mecum." setting forth, among other matters,
+various details of the dressing-rooms behind the curtain. Complaint
+was made at the time that the work destroyed "the romance of the
+profession," and laid bare the mysteries of the actor's life, such as
+the world in general had small concern with. But Mr. Rede's
+revelations do not tell very much; at any rate, the secrets he deals
+with have come to be things of common knowledge. Nor are his
+instructions upon the art of making-up to be accounted highly in these
+times. "Light-comedy calves," he tells us, "are made of ragged silken
+hose;" and what may be called "Othello's blacking," is to be composed
+of "burnt cork, pulverised and mixed with porter." Legs coming before
+the foot-lights must of course be improved by mechanical means, when
+nature has been unkind, or time has destroyed symmetry; but art has
+probably discovered a better method of concealing deficiencies than
+consists in the employment of "ragged silken hose." The veteran light
+comedian, Lewis, who at a very advanced age appeared in juvenile
+characters, to the complete satisfaction of his audience, was famed
+for his skill in costume and making-up. But one night, a roguish
+actress, while posted near him in the side-wings, employed herself in
+converting one of his calves into a pincushion. As soon as he
+discovered the trick, he affected to feel great pain, and drew up his
+leg as though in an agony; but he had remained too long unconscious of
+the proceeding to persuade lookers-on of the genuineness of his limb's
+symmetry. With regard to Othello's complexion, there is what the
+Cookery Books call "another way." Chetwood, in his "History of the
+Stage," 1749, writes: "The composition for blackening the face are
+(_sic_) ivory-black and pomatum; which is with some pains cleaned with
+fresh butter." The information is given in reference to a performance
+of Othello by the great actor Barton Booth. It was hot weather, and
+his complexion in the later scenes of the play had been so disturbed,
+that he had assumed "the appearance of a chimney-sweeper." The
+audience, however, were so impressed by the art of his acting, that
+they disregarded this mischance, or applauded him the more on account
+of it. On the repetition of the play he wore a crape mask, "with an
+opening proper for the mouth, and shaped in form for the nose." But in
+the first scene one part of the mask slipped so that he looked "like a
+magpie." Thereupon he was compelled to resort again to lamp-black. The
+early Othellos, it may be noted, were of a jet-black hue, such as we
+now find on the faces of Christy Minstrels; the Moors of later times
+have been content to paint themselves a dark olive or light mahogany
+colour. But a liability to soil all they touch has always been the
+misfortune of Othellos. There was great laughter in the theatre one
+night when Stephen Kemble, playing Othello for the first time with
+Miss Satchell as Desdemona, kissed her before smothering her, and left
+an ugly patch of soot upon her cheek. However, as Miss Satchell
+subsequently became Mrs. Stephen Kemble, it was held that sufficient
+amends had been made to her for the soiling she had undergone.
+
+Another misadventure, in regard to the complexion of Shakespeare's
+Moor, has been related of an esteemed actor, for many years past
+attached to the Haymarket Theatre. While but a tyro in his profession,
+he had undertaken to appear as Othello, for one night only, at the
+Gravesend Theatre. But, not being acquainted with the accustomed
+method of blackening his skin, and being too nervous and timid to make
+inquiry on the subject, he applied to his face a burnt cork, simply.
+At the conclusion of the performance, on seeking to resume his natural
+hue, by the ordinary process of washing in soap and water, he found,
+to his great dismay, that the skin of his face was peeling off rather
+than the colour disappearing! The cork had been too hot by a great
+deal, and had injured his cuticle considerably. With the utmost haste,
+although announced to play Hamlet on the following evening, the
+actor--who then styled himself Mr. Hulsingham, a name he forthwith
+abandoned--hired a post-chaise and eloped from Gravesend.
+
+Making-up is in requisition when the performer desires to look either
+younger or older than he or she really is. It is, of course, with the
+first-named portion of the art that actresses are chiefly concerned,
+although the beautiful Mrs. Woffington, accepting the character of
+Veturia in Thomson's "Coriolanus," did not hesitate to assume the
+aspect of age, and to paint lines and wrinkles upon her fair face. But
+she was a great artist, and her loveliness was a thing so beyond all
+question that she could afford to disguise it or to seem to slight it
+for a few nights; possibly it shone the brighter afterwards for its
+brief eclipse. Otherwise, making-up pertains to an actor's "line of
+business," and is not separable from it. Once young or once old he so
+remains, as a rule, until the close of his professional career. There
+is indeed a story told of a veteran actor who still flourished in
+juvenile characters, while his son, as a matter of choice, or of
+necessity, invariably impersonated the old gentlemen of the stage. But
+when the two players met in a representation of "The Rivals," and Sir
+Anthony the son, had to address Captain Absolute the father, in the
+words of the dramatist: "I'll disown you; I'll unget you; I'll never
+call you Jack again!" the humour of the situation appealed too
+strongly to the audience, and more laughter than Sheridan had ever
+contemplated was stirred by the scene.
+
+The veterans who have been accused of superfluously lagging upon the
+stage, find an excuse for their presence in the skill of their
+make-up. For the age of the players is not to be counted, by the
+almanack, but appraised in accordance with their looks. On the stage
+to seem young is to be young, though occasionally it must happen that
+actors and audience are not quite in agreement upon this question of
+aspect. There have been many youthful dramatic heroines very well
+stricken in years; ingenues of advanced age, and columbines who might
+almost be crones; to say nothing of "young dogs" of light comedians,
+who in private life are well qualified to appear as grandsires, or
+even as great-grandfathers. But ingenuity in painting the face and
+padding the figure will probably long secure toleration for
+patriarchal Romeos, and even for matriarchal Juliets.
+
+Recent discoveries have no doubt benefited the toilets of the players,
+which, indeed, stood in need of assistance, the fierce illumination of
+the modern stage being considered. In those palmy but dark days of the
+drama, when gas and lime-lights were not, the disguising of the
+mischief wrought by time must have been a comparatively easy task.
+
+However, supply, as usual, has followed demand, and there are now
+traders dealing specially in the materials for making-up, in
+theatrical cosmetics of the best possible kind at the lowest possible
+prices: "Superfine rouge, rose for lips, blanc (liquid and in powder),
+pencils for eyebrows, creme de l'imperatrice and fleur-de-riz for
+softening the skin," &c. Further, there are the hairdressers, who
+provide theatrical wigs of all kinds, and advertise the merits of
+their "old men's bald pates," which must seem a strange article of
+sale to those unversed in the mysteries of stage dressing-rooms. One
+inventive person, it may be noted, loudly proclaims the merits of a
+certain "spirit gum" he has concocted, using which, as he alleges, "no
+actor need fear swallowing his moustache"--so runs the form of his
+advertisement.
+
+Of Mademoiselle Guirnard, the famous French opera-dancer, it is
+related that her portrait, painted in early youth, always rested upon
+her dressing-table. Every morning, during many years, she carefully
+made up her face to bring her looks in as close accord as possible
+with the loveliness of her picture. For an incredible time her success
+is reported to have been something marvellous. But at last the
+conviction was forced upon her that her facial glories had departed.
+Yet her figure was still perfectly symmetrical, her grace and agility
+were as supreme as they had ever been. She was sixty-four, when,
+yielding to the urgent entreaties of her friends, she consented to
+give a "very last" exhibition of her art. The performance was of a
+most special kind. The curtain was so far lowered as to conceal
+completely the head and shoulders of the dancer. "Il fut impossible
+aux spectateurs," writes a biographer of the lady, "de voir autre que
+le travail de ses jambes dont le temps avait respecte l'agilite et les
+formes pures et delicates!"
+
+By way of final word on the subject, it may be stated that making-up
+is but a small portion of the histrionic art; and not, as some would
+have it, the very be-all and end-all of acting. It is impossible not
+to admire the ingenuity of modern face-painting upon the stage, and
+the skill with which, in some cases, well-known personages have been
+represented by actors of, in truth, totally different physical aspect;
+but still there seems a likelihood of efforts of this kind being urged
+beyond reasonable bounds. So, too, there appears to be an excessive
+use of cosmetics and colouring by youthful performers, who really need
+little aid of this kind, beyond that application of the hare's-foot
+which can never be altogether dispensed with. Moreover, it has become
+necessary for players, who have resolved that their faces shall be
+pictures, to decide from what part of the theatre such works of art
+are to be viewed. At present many of these over-painted countenances
+may "fall into shape," as artists say, when seen from the back benches
+of the gallery, for instance; but judged from a nearer standpoint they
+are really but pictorial efforts of a crude, uncomfortable, and
+mistaken kind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PAINT AND CANVAS.
+
+
+Vasari, the historian of painters, has much to say in praise of the
+"perspective views" or scenes executed by Baldassare Peruzzi, an
+artist and architect of great fame in his day, who was born in 1480 at
+Florence, or Volterra, or Siena, it is not known which, each of these
+noble cities of Tuscany having claimed to be his birthplace. When the
+Roman people held high festival in honour of Giuliano de Medici, they
+obtained various works of art from Baldassare, including a scene
+painted for a theatre, so admirably ingenious and beautiful, that very
+great amazement is said to have been awakened in every beholder. At a
+later period, when the "Calandra," written by the Cardinal di
+Bibiena--"one of the first comedies seen or recited in the vulgar
+tongue"--was performed before Pope Leo, the aid of Baldassare was
+sought again, to prepare the scenic adornments of the representation.
+His labours were successful beyond measure; two of his scenes, painted
+upon this or upon some other occasion, Vasari pronounced to be
+"surprisingly beautiful, opening the way to those of a similar kind
+which have been made in our own day." The artist was a fine colourist,
+well skilled in perspective, and in the management of light, insomuch
+that his drawings did not look "like things feigned, but rather as the
+living reality." Vasari relates that he conducted Titian to see
+certain works of Peruzzi, of which the illusion was most complete. The
+greater artist "could by no means be persuaded that they were simply
+painted, and remained in astonishment, when, on changing his point of
+view, he perceived that they were so." Dying in 1536, Baldassare was
+buried in the Rotondo, near the tomb of Raffaelo da Urbino, all the
+painters, sculptors, and architects of Rome attending the interment.
+That he was an artist of the first rank was agreed on all hands. And
+he is further entitled to be remembered as one of the very earliest of
+great scene-painters.
+
+In England, some six-and-thirty years later, there was born an artist
+and architect of even greater fame than Peruzzi: Inigo Jones, who,
+like Peruzzi, rendered important aid to the adornment of the stage. In
+his youth Inigo had studied landscape-painting in Italy. At Rome he
+became an architect; as Walpole expresses it, "he dropped the pencil
+and conceived Whitehall."
+
+Meanwhile a taste, even a sort of passion, had arisen at the English
+court for masques and pageants of extraordinary magnificence. Poetry,
+painting, music, and architecture were combined in their production.
+Ben Jonson was the laureate; Inigo Jones the inventor and designer of
+the scenic decorations; Laniere, Lawes, and Ferabosco contributed the
+musical embellishments; the king, the queen, and the young nobility
+danced in the interludes. On these entertainments L3000 to L5000 were
+often expended, and on more public occasions L10,000 and even L20,000.
+"It seems," says Isaac Disraeli, "that as no masque writer equalled
+Jonson, so no 'machinist' rivalled Inigo Jones." For the great
+architect was wont to busy himself in devising mechanical changes of
+scenery, such as distinguishes modern pantomime. Jonson, describing
+his "Masque of Blackness," performed before the court at Whitehall, on
+Twelfth Night, 1605, says: "For the scene was drawn a landscape,
+consisting of small woods, and here and there a void place, filled
+with hangings; which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot
+forth, as if it flowed to the land, raised with waves, which seemed to
+move, and in some places the billows to break, as imitating that
+orderly disorder which is common in nature." Then follows a long
+account of the appearance, attire, and "sprightly movements of the
+masquers:" Oceanus, Oceaniae, Niger and his daughters, with Tritons,
+mermaids, mermen, and sea-horses, "as big as the life." "These thus
+presented," he continues, "the scene behind seemed a vast sea, and
+united with this that flowed forth, from the termination or horizon of
+which (being the head of the stage, which was placed in the upper end
+of the hall) was drawn by the lines of perspective, the whole work
+shooting downwards from the eye, which decorum made it more
+conspicuous, and caught the eye afar off with a wondering beauty, to
+which was added an obscure and cloudy night piece, that made the whole
+set off. So much for the bodily part, which was of Master Inigo
+Jones's design and art." Indeed, Inigo was not simply the
+scene-painter; he also devised the costumes, and contrived the
+necessary machinery. In regard to many of these entertainments, he was
+responsible for "the invention, ornaments, scenes, and apparitions,
+with their descriptions;" for everything, in fact, but the music or
+the words to be spoken or sung.
+
+These masques and court pageants gradually brought movable scenery
+upon the stage, in place of the tapestries, "arras cloths,"
+"traverses," or curtains drawn upon rods, which had previously
+furnished the theatre. Still the masques were to be distinguished from
+the ordinary entertainments of the public playhouses. The court
+performances knew little of regular plot or story; ordinarily avoided
+all reference to nature and real life; and were remarkable for the
+luxurious fancifulness and costly eccentricity they displayed. They
+were provided by the best writers of the time, and in many cases were
+rich in poetic merit. Still they were expressly designed to afford
+valuable opportunities to the musical composer, to the ballet-dancers,
+mummers, posture-makers, and costumiers. The regular dramas, such as
+the Elizabethan public supported, could boast few attractions of this
+kind. It was altogether without movable scenery, although possessed of
+a balcony or upper stage, used to represent, now the walls of a city,
+as in "King John," now the top of a tower, as in "Henry VI.", or
+"Antony and Cleopatra," and now the window to an upper chamber. Mr.
+Payne Collier notes that in one of the oldest historical plays extant,
+"Selimus, Emperor of the Turks," published in 1594, there is a
+remarkable stage direction demonstrating the complete absence of
+scenery, by the appeal made to the simple good faith of the audience.
+The hero is represented conveying the body of his father in a solemn
+funeral procession to the Temple of Mahomet. The stage direction runs:
+"Suppose the Temple of Mahomet"--a needless injunction, as Mr. Collier
+remarks, if there had existed the means of exhibiting the edifice in
+question to the eyes of the spectators. But the demands upon the
+audience to abet the work of theatrical illusion, and with their
+thoughts to piece out the imperfections of the dramatists, are
+frequently to be met with in the old plays. Of the poverty of the
+early stage, in the matter of scenic decorations, there is abundant
+evidence. Fleckno, in his "Short Discourse of the Stage," 1664, by
+which time movable scenery had been introduced, writes: "Now for the
+difference between our theatres and those of former times; they were
+but plain and simple, with no other scenes nor decorations of the
+stages but only old tapestry, and the stage strewed with rushes."
+
+The simple expedient of writing up the names of the different places,
+where the scene was laid in the progress of a play, or affixing a
+placard to that effect upon the tapestry at the back of the stage,
+sufficed to convey to the spectators the intentions of the author.
+"What child is there," asks Sir Philip Sidney, "that, coming to a play
+and seeing Thebes written in great letters on an old door, doth
+believe that it is Thebes?" Oftentimes, too, opportunity was found in
+the play itself, or in its prologue, to inform the audience of the
+place in which the action of the story is supposed to be laid. "Our
+scene is Rhodes," says old Hieronymo in Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy," 1588.
+And the title of the play was also exhibited in the same way, so that
+the audience did not lack instruction as to the purport of the
+entertainment set before them.
+
+The introduction of movable scenes upon the stage has been usually
+attributed to Sir William Davenant, who, in 1658, evading the
+ordinance of 1647, by which the theatres were peremptorily closed,
+produced, at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, an entertainment rather than a
+play, entitled "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expressed by
+vocal and instrumental music, and by art of perspective in scenes:" an
+exhibition which Cromwell is generally supposed to have permitted,
+more from his hatred of the Spaniards than by reason of his tolerance
+of dramatic performances. The author of "Historia Histrionica," a
+tract written in 1699, also expressly states that "after the
+Restoration, the king's players acted publicly at the Red Bull for
+some time, and then removed to a new-built playhouse in Vere Street,
+by Clare Market; there they continued for a year or two, and then
+removed to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, where they first made use
+of scenes, which had been a little before introduced upon the public
+stage by Sir William Davenant." It is to be observed, however, that
+inasmuch as the masques, such as the court of Charles I. had so
+favoured, were sometimes produced at the public theatres, and could
+hardly have been presented there, shorn of the mechanical appliances
+and changes which constituted a main portion of their attractiveness,
+movable scenery, or stage artifices that might fairly be so described,
+could not be entirely new to a large portion of the public. Thus the
+masque of "Love's Mistress, or the Queen's Masque," by Thomas Heywood,
+1640, was "three times presented before their Majesties at the Phoenix
+in Drury Lane;" Heywood expressly acknowledging his obligation to
+Inigo Jones, who "changed the stage to every act, and almost to every
+scene."
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that the introduction of scenery was
+hailed unanimously as a vast improvement upon the former condition of
+the stage. There was, no doubt, abundance of applause; a sufficient
+number of spectators were well pleased to find that now their eyes
+were to be addressed not less than their ears and their minds, and
+were satisfied that exhibitions of the theatre would be presently much
+more intelligible to them than had hitherto been the case. Still the
+sages shook their heads, distrusting the change, and prophesying evil
+of it. Even Mr. Payne Collier has been moved by his conservative
+regard for the Elizabethan stage and the early drama to date from the
+introduction of scenery the beginning of the decline of our dramatic
+poetry. He holds it a fortunate circumstance for the poetry of our old
+plays, that "painted movable scenery" had not then been introduced.
+"The imagination only of the auditor was appealed to, and we owe to
+the absence of painted canvas many of the finest descriptive passages
+in Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and immediate followers." Further,
+he states his opinion that our old dramatists "luxuriated in passages
+descriptive of natural or artificial scenery, because they knew their
+auditors would have nothing before their eyes to contradict the
+poetry; the hangings of the stage made little pretensions to anything
+but coverings for the walls, and the notion of the place represented
+was taken from what was said by the poet, and not from what was
+attempted by the painter."
+
+It need hardly be stated that the absence of scenes and scene-shifting
+had by no means confined the British drama to a classical form,
+although regard for "unity of place," at any rate, might seem to be
+almost logically involved in the immovable condition of the
+stage-fittings. Some two or three plays, affecting to follow the
+construction adopted by the Greek and Roman stage, are certainly to be
+found in the Elizabethan repertory, but they had been little favoured
+by the playgoers of the time, and may fairly be viewed as exceptions
+proving the rule that our drama is essentially romantic. Indeed, our
+old dramatists were induced by the absence of scenery to rely more and
+more upon the imagination of their audience. As Mr. Collier observes:
+"If the old poets had been obliged to confine themselves merely to the
+changes that could at that early date have been exhibited by the
+removal of painted canvas or boarding, we should have lost much of
+that boundless diversity of situation and character allowed by this
+happy absence of restraint." At the same time, the liberty these
+writers permitted themselves did not escape criticism from the devout
+adherents of the classical theatre. Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Apology
+for Poetry," 1595, is severe upon the "defectious" nature of the
+English drama, especially as to its disregard of the unities of time
+and place. "Now," he says, three ladies "walk to gather flowers, and
+then we must believe the stage to be a garden; by-and-by we hear news
+of shipwreck in the same place, and then we are to blame if we accept
+it not for a rock; upon the back of that comes out a hideous monster,
+and then the miserable beholders are bound to take it for a cave;
+while in the meantime two armies fly in, represented with four swords
+and bucklers, and then, what hard heart will not receive it for a
+pitched field?" Dryden, it may be noted, in his "Essay of Dramatic
+Poesie," has a kindred passage as to the matters to be acted on the
+stage, and the things "supposed to be done behind the scenes."
+
+Of the scenery of his time, Mr. Pepys makes frequent mention, without,
+however, entering much into particulars on the subject. In August,
+1661, he notes the reproduction of Davenant's comedy of "The Wits,"
+"never acted yet with scenes;" adding, "and, indeed, it is a most
+excellent play and admirable scenes." A little later he records a
+performance of "'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,' done with scenes very
+well, but, above all, Betterton did the prince's part beyond
+imagination." It is satisfactory to find that in this case, at any
+rate, the actor held his ground against the scene-painter. Under
+another date, he refers to a representation of "The Faithful
+Shepherdess" of Fletcher, "a most simple thing, and yet much thronged
+after and often shown; but it is only for the scene's sake, which is
+very fine." A few years later he describes a visit "to the King's
+Playhouse all in dirt, they being altering of the stage, to make it
+wider. But my business," he proceeds, "was to see the inside of the
+stage, and all the 'tiring-rooms and machines; and, indeed, it was a
+sight worth seeing. But to see their clothes, and the various sorts,
+and what a mixture of things there was--here a wooden leg, there a
+ruff, here a hobby-horse, there a crown, would make a man split
+himself to see with laughing; and particularly Lacy's wardrobe and
+Shotrell's. But then, again, to think how fine they show on the stage
+by candlelight, and how poor things they are to look at too near at
+hand, is not pleasant at all. The machines are fine, and," he
+concludes, "the paintings very pretty." In October, 1667, he records
+that he sat in the boxes for the first time in his life, and
+discovered that from that point of view "the scenes do appear very
+fine indeed, and much better than in the pit."
+
+The names of the artists whose works won Mr. Pepys's applause have not
+come down to us. Of Robert Streeter, sergeant-painter to King Charles
+II., there is frequent mention made in the "Diary" of Evelyn, who
+highly lauds the artist's "very glorious scenes and perspectives,"
+which adorned Dryden's play of "The Conquest of Granada," on its
+representation at Whitehall. Evelyn, not caring much for such
+entertainments, seems, nevertheless, to have frequently attended the
+plays and masques of the Court. In February, 1664, he saw acted "The
+Indian Queen" of Sir Robert Howard and Dryden--"a tragedy well
+written, so beautiful with rich scenes as the like had never been seen
+here, or haply (except rarely) elsewhere on a mercenary theatre." At a
+later date, one Robert Aggas, a painter of some fame, is known to have
+executed scenes for the theatre in Dorset Garden. Among other
+scene-painters of distinction, pertaining to a comparatively early
+period of the art, may be noted Nicholas Thomas Dall, a Danish
+landscape-painter, who established himself in London in 1760, was long
+occupied as scene-painter at Covent Garden Theatre, and became an
+Associate of the Royal Academy in 1771; Hogarth, who is reported to
+have painted a camp scene for the private theatre of Dr. Hoadley, Dean
+of Winchester; John Richards, a member of the Royal Academy, who,
+during many years, painted scenes for Covent Garden; Michael Angelo
+Rooker, pupil of Paul Sandby, and one of the first Associates of the
+Academy, who was scene-painter at the Haymarket; Novosielsky, the
+architect of the Opera House, Haymarket, who also supplied that
+establishment with many notable scenes, and, to pass over many minor
+names, De Loutherbourg, Garrick's scene-painter, and one of the most
+renowned artists of his period.
+
+It will be remembered that Mr. Puff, in "The Critic," giving a
+specimen of "the puff direct" in regard to a new play, says: "As to
+the scenery, the miraculous powers of Mr. De Loutherbourg are
+universally acknowledged. In short, we are at a loss which to admire
+most, the unrivalled genius of the author, the great attention and
+liberality of the managers, the wonderful abilities of the painter, or
+the incredible exertions of all the performers." Shortly after his
+arrival in England, about 1770, De Loutherbourg became a contributor
+to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. In 1780 he was elected an
+Associate; in the following year he obtained the full honours of
+academicianship. His easel-pictures were for the most part landscapes,
+effective and forcible after an unconventional fashion, and wholly at
+variance with the "classically-composed" landscapes then in vogue.
+Turner, when, in 1808, he was appointed Professor of Perspective to
+the Royal Academy, is said to have taken up his abode at Hammersmith,
+in order that he might be near De Loutherbourg, for whose works he
+professed cordial admiration. The old scene-painter's bold and strong
+effects, his daring treatment of light and shade, his system of
+colour, bright even to gaudiness, probably arrested the attention of
+the younger artist, and were to him exciting influences. Upon De
+Loutherbourg's landscapes, however, little store is now placed; but as
+a scene-painter he deserves to be remembered for the ingenious reforms
+he introduced. He found the scene a mere "flat" of strained canvas
+extending over the whole stage. He was the first to use "set scenes"
+and "raking pieces." He also invented transparent scenes with
+representations of moonlight, sunshine, firelight, volcanoes, &c., and
+obtained new effects of colour by means of silken screens of various
+hues placed before the foot and side lights. He discovered, too, that
+ingenious effects might be obtained by suspending gauzes between the
+scene and the spectators. These are now, of course, but commonplace
+contrivances; they were, however, distinctly the inventions of De
+Loutherbourg, and were calculated to impress the playgoers of his time
+very signally. To Garrick De Loutherbourg rendered very important
+assistance, for Garrick was much inclined for scenic decorations of a
+showy character, although as a rule he restricted these embellishments
+to the after-pieces, and for the more legitimate entertainments of his
+stage was content to employ old and stock scenery that had been of
+service in innumerable plays. Tate Wilkinson, writing in 1790, refers
+to a scene then in use which he remembered so far back as the year
+1747. "It has wings and a flat of Spanish figures at full length, and
+two folding-doors in the middle. I never see those wings slide on, but
+I feel as if seeing my old acquaintance unexpectedly."
+
+Of later scene-painters, such as Roberts and Stanfield, Grieve and
+Telbin, and to come down to the present time, Beverley and Calcott,
+Hawes Craven and O'Connor, there seems little occasion to speak; the
+achievements of these artists are matters of almost universal
+knowledge. It is sufficient to say that in their hands the art they
+practise has been greatly advanced, even to the eclipse now and then
+of the efforts of both actors and dramatists.
+
+Some few notes, however, may be worth making in relation to the
+technical methods adopted by the scene-painter. In the first place, he
+relies upon the help of the carpenter to stretch a canvas tightly over
+a frame, or to nail a wing into shape; and subsequently it is the
+carpenter's duty, with a small sharp saw, to cut the edge of irregular
+wings, such as representations of foliage or rocks, an operation known
+behind the curtain as "marking the profile." The painter's studio is
+usually high up above the rear of the stage--a spacious room, well
+lighted by means of skylights or a lantern in the roof. The canvas,
+which is of course of vast dimensions, can be raised to the ceiling,
+or lowered through the floor, to suit the convenience of the artist,
+by means of machinery of ingenious construction. The painter has
+invariably made a preliminary water-colour sketch of his scene, on
+paper or cardboard. Oftentimes, with the help of a miniature stage,
+such as schoolboys delight in, he is enabled to form a fair estimate
+of the effect that may be expected of his design. The expansive canvas
+has been sized over, and an outline of the picture to be painted--a
+landscape, or an interior, as the case may be--has been boldly marked
+out by the artist. Then the assistants and pupils ply their brushes,
+and wash in the broad masses of colour, floods of light, and clouds of
+darkness. The dimensions of the canvas permit of many hands being
+employed upon it, and the work proceeds therefore with great rapidity.
+But the scene-painter is constant in his supervision of his
+subordinates, and when their labours are terminated, he completes the
+design with numberless improving touches and masterly strokes. Of
+necessity, much of the work is of a mechanical kind; scroll-work,
+patterned walls, or cornices are accomplished by "stencilling" or
+"pouncing"--that is to say, the design is pricked upon a paper, which,
+being pressed upon the canvas, and smeared or dabbed with charcoal,
+leaves a faint trace of the desired outline. The straight lines in an
+architectural scene are traced by means of a cord, which is rubbed
+with colour in powder, and, having been drawn tight, is allowed to
+strike smartly against the canvas, and deposit a distinct mark upon
+its surface. Duty of this kind is readily accomplished by a boy, or a
+labourer of little skill. Scenes of a pantomime order, in which
+glitter is required, are dabbed here and there by the artist with thin
+glue; upon these moist places, Dutch metal--gold or silver leaf--is
+then fixed, with a result that large audiences have never failed to
+find resplendent and beautiful. These are some, but, of course, a few
+only, of the methods and mysteries of the scene-painter's art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE TIRING-ROOM.
+
+
+The information that has come down to us in relation to the wardrobe
+department of the Elizabethan theatre, and the kind of costumes worn
+by our early actors, is mainly derived from the diaries of Philip
+Henslowe and his partner, Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich
+College. Henslowe became a theatrical manager some time before 1592,
+trading also as a pawnbroker, and dealing rather usuriously with the
+players and playwrights about him. Alleyn married the step-daughter of
+Henslowe, and thereupon entered into partnership with him. Malone has
+made liberal extracts from Henslowe's inventories, which bear date
+1598-99, and were once safely possessed by Dulwich College, but have
+now, for the most part, disappeared. Among the articles of dress
+enumerated appear "Longshanks' suit;" "Tamberlane's breeches of
+crimson velvet," and the same hero's "coat with coper lace;" "Harye
+the Fifth's velvet gown and satin doublet, laid with gold lace;"
+Dido's robe and Juno's frock; Robin Hood's hat and green coat; and
+Merlin's gown and cape. Then there are gowns and caps for senators,
+suits for torchbearers and janissaries, shepherds' coats, yellow
+leather doublets for clowns, robes of rich taffety and damask, suits
+of russet and of frieze, fools' caps and bells, cloth of gold, French
+hose, surplices, shirts, farthingales, jerkins, and white cotton
+stockings. From another document, the cost of theatrical apparel may
+be fairly estimated. A list headed: "Note of all such goods as I have
+bought for the company of my Lord Admiral's men, since the 3rd April,
+1598," has the sum paid for each article plainly stated, and contains
+such items as: "Bought a damask cassock, garded with velvet, eighteen
+shillings;" "bought a payer of paned rownd hose of cloth, whiped with
+silk, drawn out with taffety, and one payer of long black woollen
+stockens, eight shillings;" "bought a robe for to go invisibell and a
+gown for Nembia, three pounds ten shillings" (Malone conjecturing that
+the mysterious "robe for to go invisibell" pertained to some drama in
+which the wearer of the garment specified was supposed to be unseen by
+the rest of the performers); "bought a doublet of white satten layd
+thick with gold lace, and a pair of rowne paned hose of cloth of
+silver, the panes layd with gold lace, seven pounds ten shillings,"
+and so on.
+
+Alleyn's inventory still exists, or did exist very recently, in his
+own handwriting, at Dulwich College; it is without heading or date,
+and relates almost exclusively to the dresses worn by himself in his
+personation of various characters upon the stage. It is of interest,
+seeing that it demonstrates the assumption by Alleyn of various parts,
+if not in Shakespeare's plays, at any rate in the earlier dramas upon
+which the poet founded certain of his noblest works. Thus the actor's
+list makes mention of "a scarlet cloke with two brode gould laces with
+gould down the same, for Leir"--meaning, doubtless, "King Lear;" "a
+purple satin cloke, welted with velvett and silver twist, Romeo's;"
+"Hary the VIII. gowne;" "blew damask cote for the Moor in Venis;" and
+"spangled hoes in Pericles." Such entries as "Faustus jerkin and
+cloke," "Priams hoes in Dido," and "French hose for the Guises,"
+evidence that the actor took part in Marlowe's "Faustus" and "Massacre
+of Paris," and the tragedy of "Dido," by Marlowe and Nash. Then there
+are cloaks and gowns, striped and trimmed with gold lace and ermine,
+suits of crimson, and orange-tawny velvet, cloth of gold and silver,
+jerkins and doublets of satin taffety and velvet, richly embroidered,
+and hose of various hues and patterns. The actor's wardrobe was
+clearly most costly and complete, and affords sufficient proof that
+theatrical costumes generally, even at that early date, were of a
+luxurious nature. In considering the prices mentioned in Henslowe's
+list, the high value of money in his time should of course be borne in
+mind.
+
+It is plain, however, that splendour was much more considered than
+appropriateness of dress. Some care might be taken to provide Robin
+Hood with a suit of Lincoln green; to furnish hoods and frocks for
+friars and royal robes for kings; but otherwise actors, dramatists,
+and audience demanded only that costly and handsome apparel should
+appear upon the scene. Indeed, the desire for correctness of dress
+upon the stage is of modern origin. Still, now and then may be found,
+even in very early days, some inclination towards carefulness in this
+respect; as when, in 1595, Thomas Nevile, Vice-Chancellor of the
+University of Cambridge, applied to Lord Treasurer Burghley for the
+loan of the royal robes in the Tower, in order to perform, "for the
+exercise of young gentlemen and scholars in our college," certain
+comedies and one tragedy, in which "sondry personages of greatest
+estate were to be represented in ancient princely attire, which is
+nowhere to be had but within the office of the roabes of the Tower."
+This request, it seems, had been granted before, and probably was
+again complied with on this occasion. Indeed, at a much later date
+there was borrowing from the stores of the Tower for the decoration of
+the stage; as Pope writes:
+
+    Back fly the scenes and enter foot and horse:
+    Pageant on pageants in long order drawn,
+    Peers, heralds, bishops, ermine, gold, and lawn;
+    The champion, too! And to complete the jest,
+    Old Edward's armour beams on Cibber's breast.
+
+By way of reflecting the glories of the coronation of George II.,
+"Henry VIII.," with a grand spectacle of a coronation, had been
+presented at the theatres, the armour of one of the kings of England
+having been brought from the Tower for the due accoutrement of the
+champion. And here we may note a curious gravitation of royal finery
+towards the theatre. Downes, in his "Roscius Anglicanus," describes
+Sir William Davenant's play of "Love and Honour," produced in 1662, as
+"richly cloathed, the king giving Mr. Betterton his coronation suit,
+in which he acted the part of Prince Alvaro; the Duke of York giving
+Mr. Harris his, who did Prince Prospero; and my lord of Oxford gave
+Mr. Joseph Price his, who did Lionel, the Duke of Parma's son."
+Presently we find the famous Mrs. Barry acting Queen Elizabeth in the
+coronation robes of James II.'s queen, who had before presented the
+actress with her wedding suit. Mrs. Barry is said to have given her
+audience a strong idea of Queen Elizabeth. Mrs. Bellamy played
+Cleopatra in a silver tissue "birthday" dress that had belonged to the
+Princess of Wales; and a suit of straw-coloured satin, from the
+wardrobe of the same illustrious lady, was worn by the famous Mrs.
+Woffington, in her performance of Roxana. The robes worn by Elliston,
+when he personated George IV., and represented the coronation of that
+monarch upon the stage of Drury Lane, were probably not the originals.
+These became subsequently the property of Madame Tussaud, and long
+remained among the treasures of her waxwork exhibition in Baker
+Street. A tradition prevails that Elliston's robes were carried to
+America by Lucius Junius Booth, the actor, who long continued to
+assume them in his personation of Richard III., much to the
+astonishment of the more simple-minded of his audience, who naively
+inquired of each other whether the sovereigns of Great Britain were
+really wont to parade the streets of London in such attire? Among
+other royal robes that have likewise descended to the stage, mention
+may also be made of the coronation dress of the late Queen Adelaide,
+of which Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, became the ultimate
+possessor.
+
+Many noblemen and fine gentlemen also favoured the actors with gifts
+of their cast clothes, and especially of those "birthday suits"--Court
+dresses of great splendour, worn for the first time at the birthday
+levees, or drawing-rooms of the sovereign. As Pope writes:
+
+    Or when from Court a birthday suit bestowed,
+    Sinks the lost actor in the tawdry load.
+
+Indeed, to some of the clothes worn by actors a complete history is
+attached. The wardrobe of Munden, the comedian, contained a black
+Genoa velvet coat, which had once belonged to King George II.; while
+another coat boasted also a distinguished pedigree, and could be
+traced to Francis, Duke of Bedford, who had worn it on the occasion of
+the Prince of Wales's marriage. It had originally cost L1000! But then
+it had been fringed with precious stones, of which the sockets only
+remained when it fell into the hands of the dealers in second-hand
+garments; but, even in its dilapidated state, Munden had given L40 for
+it. Usually, however, fine clothes, such as "birthday suits," became
+the property rather of the tragedians than the comedians. Cibber
+describes the division on the subject of dress, existing in the
+"Commonwealth" company, of which he formed a member, in 1696. "The
+tragedians," he writes, "seemed to think their rank as much above the
+comedians as the characters they severally acted; when the first were
+in their finery, the latter were impatient at the expense, and looked
+upon it as rather laid out upon the real than the fictitious person of
+the actor. Nay, I have known in our company this ridiculous sort of
+regret carried so far that the tragedian has thought himself injured
+when the comedian pretended to wear a fine coat." Powel, the
+tragedian, surveying the dress worn by Cibber as Lord Foppington,
+fairly lost his temper, and complained, in rude terms, that he had not
+so good a suit in which to play Caesar Borgia. Then, again, when
+Betterton proposed to "mount" a tragedy, the comic actors were sure to
+murmur at the cost of it. Dogget especially regarded with impatience
+"the costly trains and plumes of tragedy, in which, knowing himself to
+be useless, he thought they were all a vain extravagance." Tragedy,
+however, was certainly an expensive entertainment at this time.
+Dryden's "All for Love" had been revived at a cost of nearly L600 for
+dresses--"a sum unheard of for many years before on a like occasion."
+It was, by-the-way, the production of this tragedy, in preference to
+his "adaptation" of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," that so bitterly
+angered Dennis, the critic, and brought about his fierce enmity to
+Cibber.
+
+To the hero of tragedy a feathered headdress was indispensable; the
+heroine demanded a long train borne by one or two pages. Pope writes:
+
+    Loud as the wolves on Orca's stormy steep
+    Howl to the roarings of the northern deep,
+    Such is the shout, the long-applauded note,
+    At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's petticoat.
+
+Hamlet speaks of a "forest of feathers" as part of an actor's
+professional qualification. Addison, writing in "The Spectator" on the
+methods of aggrandising the persons in tragedy, denounces as
+ridiculous the endeavour to raise terror and pity in the audience by
+the dresses and decorations of the stage, and takes particular
+exception to the plumes of feathers worn by the conventional hero of
+tragedy, rising "so very high, that there is often a greater length
+from his chin to the top of his head than to the sole of his foot. One
+would believe that we thought a great man and a tall man the same
+thing." Then he describes the embarrassment of the actor, forced to
+hold his neck extremely stiff and steady all the time he speaks, when,
+"notwithstanding any anxieties which he pretends for his mistress, his
+country, or his friends, one may see by his action that his greatest
+care and concern is to keep the plume of feathers from falling off his
+head." The hero's "superfluous ornaments" having been discussed, the
+means by which the heroine is invested with grandeur are next
+considered: "The broad sweeping train that follows her in all her
+motions, finds constant employment for a boy who stands behind her, to
+open and spread it to advantage. I do not know how others are affected
+at this sight, but I must confess my eyes are wholly taken up with the
+page's part; and as for the queen, I am not so attentive to anything
+she speaks, as to the right adjusting of her train, lest it should
+chance to trip up her heels, or incommode her as she walks to and fro
+upon the stage. It is, in my opinion, a very odd spectacle to see a
+queen venting her passion in a disordered motion, and a little boy
+taking care all the while that they do not ruffle the tail of her
+gown. The parts that the two persons act on the stage at the same time
+are very different; the princess is afraid that she should incur the
+displeasure of the king, her father, or lose the hero, her lover,
+whilst her attendant is only concerned lest she should entangle her
+feet in her petticoat." In the same way Tate Wilkinson, writing in
+1790 of the customs of the stage, as he had known it forty years
+before, describes the ladies as wearing large hoops and velvet
+petticoats, heavily embossed and extremely inconvenient and
+troublesome, with "always a page behind to hear the lovers' secrets,
+and keep the train in graceful decorum. If two princesses," he
+continues, "meet on the stage, with the frequent stage-crossings then
+practised, it would now seem truly entertaining to behold a page
+dangling at the tail of each heroine." The same writer, referring to
+the wardrobe he possessed as manager of the York and Hull theatres,
+describes the dresses as broadly seamed with gold and silver lace,
+after a bygone fashion that earned for them the contempt of London
+performers. "Yet," he proceeds, "those despicable clothes had, at
+different periods of time, bedecked real lords and dukes," and were of
+considerable value, if only to strip of their decorations and take to
+pieces. He laments the general decline in splendour of dress, and
+declares that thirty years before not a Templar, or decently-dressed
+young man, but wore a rich gold-laced hat and scarlet waistcoat, with
+a broad gold lace, also laced frocks for morning dress.
+
+Monmouth Street, St. Giles's, is now known by another name; but for
+many years its dealers in cast clothes rendered important aid to the
+actors and managers. It was to Monmouth Street, as he confesses, that
+Tate Wilkinson hastened, when permitted to undertake the part of the
+Fine Gentleman in Garrick's farce of "Lethe," at Covent Garden. For
+two guineas he obtained the loan, for one night only, of a heavy
+embroidered velvet spangled suit of clothes, "fit," he says, "for the
+king in 'Hamlet.'" Repeating the character, he was constrained to
+depend upon the wardrobe of the theatre, and appeared in "a very short
+old suit of clothes, with a black velvet ground and broad gold
+flowers, as dingy as the twenty-four letters on a piece of gilded
+gingerbread"--the dress, indeed, which Garrick had worn when playing
+Lothario, in "The Fair Penitent," ten years before. And it was to
+Monmouth Street that Austin repaired, when cast for a very inferior
+part--a mere attendant--in the same tragedy, in order to equip himself
+as like to Garrick as he could--for Garrick was to reappear as
+Lothario in a new suit of clothes. "Where did you get that coat from,
+Austin?" asked the great actor, surveying his subordinate. "Sir!"
+replied Austin boldly, "it is part of my country wardrobe." The
+manager paused, frowned, reflected. Soon he was satisfied that the
+effect of Austin's dress would be injurious to his own, especially as
+Austin was of superior physical proportions. "Austin," he said at
+length, "why, perhaps you have some other engagement--besides, the
+part is really beneath you. Altogether, I will not trouble you to go
+on with me." And not to go on as an attendant upon Lothario was
+precisely what Austin desired.
+
+O'Keeffe, in his "Memoirs," has related a curious instance of the
+prompt bestowal of an article of apparel upon an actor attached to the
+Crow Street Theatre, Dublin. Macklin's farce of "The True-born
+Irishman" was in course of performance for the first time. During what
+was known as "the Drum Scene" ("a 'rout' in London is called a 'drum'
+in Dublin," O'Keeffe explains),--when an actor, named Massink, had
+entered as the representative of Pat FitzMongrel--a gentleman, who
+with a large party occupied the stage-box, was seen to rise from his
+chair, with the view, as it seemed, of interrupting the performance.
+It should be stated that the gentleman was known to have recently
+inherited a large fortune, and had evinced a certain eccentricity of
+disposition. He was now of opinion that an attempt was being made to
+personate him on the stage. "Why, that's me!" he cried aloud, pointing
+to the figure of Pat FitzMongrel. "But what sort of a rascally coat is
+that they've dressed me in! Here, I'll dress you, my man!" So saying
+he stood up, divested himself of the rich gold-laced coat he wore, and
+flung it on to the stage. "Massink took it up smiling, stepped to the
+wing, threw off his own, and returned upon the stage in the
+gentleman's fine coat, which produced the greatest amount of applause
+and pleasure among the audience."
+
+    To suit the dress demands the actor's art,
+    Yet there are some who overdress the part.
+    To some prescriptive right gives settled things--
+    Black wigs to murderers, feathered hats to kings.
+    But Michael Cassio might be drunk enough,
+    Though all his features were not grimed with snuff.
+    Why should Poll Peachum shine in satin clothes?
+    Why every devil dance in scarlet hose?
+
+Thus, in regard to the conventionalism of stage costumes, wrote
+Churchill's friend, Robert Lloyd, in his poem of "The Actor," 1762.
+And something he might have added touching the absurd old fashion of
+robing the queens of tragedy invariably in black, for it seemed agreed
+generally that "the sceptred pall of gorgeous tragedy" should be taken
+very literally, and should "sweep by" in the funereal fashion of sable
+velvet. "Empresses and queens," writes Mrs. Bellamy, the actress, in
+1785, "always appeared in black velvet, with, upon extraordinary
+occasions, the additional finery of an embroidered or tissue
+petticoat; the younger actresses in cast gowns of persons of quality,
+or altered habits rather soiled; whilst the male portion of the
+_dramatis personae_ strutted in tarnished laced coats and waistcoats,
+full bottom or tie wigs, and black worsted stockings." Yet the lady
+once ventured to appear as Lady Macbeth, and to wear the while a dress
+of white satin. This took place at Edinburgh, and the startling
+innovation was only to be accounted for by the fact that the wardrobes
+of the actresses and of the company she had joined had been
+accidentally consumed by fire. Some portion of the theatre had been
+also destroyed, but boards were hastily nailed down and covered with
+carpets, so as to form a temporary stage until the damage could be
+repaired. Meantime appeal was made to the ladies of Edinburgh to lend
+clothes to the "burnt out" actress, who estimated the loss of her
+theatrical finery at L900, there being among the ashes of her property
+"a complete set of garnets and pearls, from cap to stomacher." Dresses
+of various kinds poured in, however. "Before six o'clock I found
+myself in possession of above forty, and some of these almost new, as
+well as very rich. Nor did the ladies confine themselves to outward
+garments only. I received presents of all kinds and from every part of
+the adjacent country." But inasmuch as "no black vestment of any kind
+had been sent among the numerous ones of different colours which had
+been showered upon me by the ladies," the necessity arose for dressing
+Lady Macbeth for the very first time in white satin.
+
+Mrs. Bellamy, according to her own account, had been wont to take
+great pains and to exercise much good taste in regard to the costume
+she assumed upon the stage. She claimed to have discarded hooped
+skirts, while those unwieldy draperies were still greatly favoured by
+other actresses, and to have adopted a style of dress remarkable for
+an elegant simplicity then very new to the stage. Still, the lady has
+freely admitted that she could be very gorgeous upon occasions; and
+concerning one of two grand tragedy dresses she had obtained from
+Paris, she has something of a history to narrate. The play was to be
+the "Alexander" of Nat Lee; the rival actresses were to appear--Mrs.
+Bellamy as Statira, and the famous Mrs. Woffington as Roxana. The
+ladies did not love each other--rival actresses oftentimes do not love
+each other--and each possessed a temper. Moreover, each was a beauty:
+Mrs. Woffington, a grand brunette, dark browed, with flashing eyes
+and stately mien: Mrs. Bellamy, a blonde, blue-eyed and
+golden-haired--an accomplished actress, if an affected one. Now, Mrs.
+Bellamy's grand dress of deep yellow satin, with a robe of rich purple
+velvet, was found to have a most injurious effect upon the delicate
+straw-coloured skirts of Mrs. Woffington; they seemed to be reduced to
+a dirty white hue. The ladies fairly quarrelled over their dresses. At
+length, if we may adopt Mrs. Bellamy's account of the proceeding, Mrs.
+Woffington's rage was so kindled "that it nearly bordered on madness.
+When, oh! dire to tell! she drove me off the carpet and gave me the
+_coup de grace_ almost behind the scenes. The audience, who, I
+believe, preferred hearing my last dying speech to seeing her beauty
+and fine attitude, could not avoid perceiving her violence, and
+testified their displeasure at it." Possibly the scene excited mirth
+in an equal degree. Foote forthwith prepared a burlesque, "The
+Green-room Squabble; or, A Battle Royal between the Queen of Babylon
+and the Daughter of Darius." The same tragedy, it may be noted, had at
+an earlier date been productive of discord in the theatre. Mrs. Barry,
+as Roxana, had indeed stabbed her Statira, Mrs. Boutell, with such
+violence that the dagger, although the point was blunted, "made its
+way through Mrs. Boutell's stays and entered about a quarter of an
+inch into the flesh." It is not clear, however, that this contest,
+like the other, is to be attributed to antagonism in the matter of
+dress.
+
+The characteristics of the "tiring-room" have always presented
+themselves in a ludicrous light to the ordinary observer. There is
+always a jumble of incongruous articles, and a striking contrast
+between the ambitious pretensions of things and their real
+meanness--between the facts and fictions of theatrical life. Mr.
+Collier quotes from Brome's comedy, "The Antipodes," 1640, a curious
+account of the contents of the "tiring-house" of that time. Byeplay,
+an actor, one of the characters, is speaking of the hero Peregrine,
+who is in some sort a reflection of Don Quixote:
+
+    He has got into our tiring-house amongst us,
+    And ta'en a strict survey of all our properties.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Whether he thought 'twas some enchanted castle,
+    Or temple hung and piled with monuments
+    Of uncouth and of varied aspects,
+    I dive not to his thoughts....
+    But on a sudden, with thrice knightly force,
+    And thrice thrice puissant arm, he snatched down
+    The sword and shield that I played Bevis with;
+    Rusheth among the foresaid properties,
+    Kills monster after monster, takes the puppets
+    Prisoners, knocks down the Cyclops, tumbles all
+    Our jigambobs and trinkets to the wall.
+    Spying at last the crown and royal robes
+    I' the upper wardrobe, next to which by chance,
+    The devils vizors hung and their flame-painted
+    Skin-coats, these he removed with greater fury,
+    And (having cut the infernal ugly faces
+    All into mammocks), with a reverend hand
+    He takes the imperial diadem, and crowns
+    Himself King of the Antipodes and believes
+    He has justly gained the kingdom by his conquest.
+
+A later dealing with the same subject may be quoted from Dr.
+Reynardson's poem of "The Stage," dedicated to Addison, and first
+published in 1713:
+
+    High o'er the stage there lies a rambling frame,
+    Which men a garret vile, but players the tire-room name:
+    Here all their stores (a merry medley) sleep
+    Without distinction, huddled in a heap.
+    Hung on the self-same peg, in union rest
+    Young Tarquin's trousers and Lucretia's vest,
+    Whilst, without pulling coifs, Roxana lays,
+    Close by Statira's petticoat, her stays....
+    Near these sets up a dragon-drawn calash;
+    There's a ghost's doublet, delicately slashed,
+    Bleeds from the mangled breast and gapes a frightful gash....
+    Here Iris bends her various-painted arch,
+    There artificial clouds in sullen order march;
+    Here stands a crown upon a rack, and there
+    A witch's broomstick, by great Hector's spear:
+    Here stands a throne, and there the cynic's tub,
+    Here Bullock's cudgel, and there Alcides' club.
+    Beards, plumes, and spangles in confusion rise,
+    Whilst rocks of Cornish diamonds reach the skies;
+    Crests, corslets, all the pomp of battle join
+    In one effulgence, one promiscuous shine.
+    Hence all the drama's decorations rise,
+    Hence gods descend majestic from the skies.
+    Hence playhouse chiefs, to grace some antique tale,
+    Buckle their coward limbs in warlike mail, &c. &c.
+
+Of the theatrical wardrobe department of to-day it is unnecessary to
+say much. Something of the bewildering incongruity of the old
+"tiring-room" distinguishes it--yet with a difference. The system of
+the modern theatre has undergone changes. Wardrobes are now often
+hired complete from the costume and masquerade shops. The theatrical
+costumier has become an independent functionary, boasting an
+establishment of his own, detached from the theatre. Costume plays are
+not much in vogue now, and in dramas dealing with life and society at
+the present date, the actors are understood to provide their own
+attire. Moreover, there is now little varying of the programme, and,
+in consequence, little demand upon the stock wardrobe of the
+playhouse. Still, when in theatres of any pretension, entertainments
+in the nature of spectacles or pantomimes are in course of
+preparation, there is much stir in the wardrobe department. There are
+bales of cloth to be converted into apparel for the supernumeraries,
+yards and yards of gauze and muslin for the ballet; spangles, and
+beads, and copper lace in great profusion; with high piles of white
+satin shoes. Numerous stitchers of both sexes are at work early and
+late, while from time to time an artist supervises their labours. His
+aid has been sought in the designing of the costumes, so that they may
+be of graceful and novel devices in fanciful or eccentric plays, or
+duly correct when an exhibition, depending at all upon the history of
+the past, is about to be presented by the manager.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"HER FIRST APPEARANCE."
+
+
+From the south-western corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields a winding and
+confined court leads to Vere Street, Clare Market. Midway or so in the
+passage there formerly existed Gibbon's Tennis Court--an establishment
+which after the Restoration, and for some three years, served as a
+playhouse; altogether distinct, be it remembered, from the far more
+famous Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, situate close by in Portugal
+Street, at the back of the College of Surgeons. Nevertheless, the Vere
+Street Theatre, as it was called, can boast something of a history; at
+any rate, one event of singular dramatic importance renders it
+memorable. For on Saturday, the 8th of December, 1660, as historians
+of the drama relate, it was the scene of the first appearance upon the
+English stage of the first English actress. The lady played Desdemona;
+and a certain Mr. Thomas Jordan, an actor and the author of various
+poetical pieces, provided for delivery upon the occasion a "Prologue
+to introduce the first woman that came to act on the stage in the
+tragedy called 'The Moor of Venice.'"
+
+So far the story is clear enough. But was this Desdemona really the
+first English actress? Had there not been earlier change in the old
+custom prescribing that the heroines of the British drama should be
+personated by boys? It is certain that French actresses had appeared
+here so far back as 1629. Prynne, in his "Histriomastix," published in
+1633, writes: "They have now their female players in Italy and other
+foreign parts, and Michaelmas, 1629, they had French women-actors in
+a play personated at Blackfriars, to which there was great resort."
+These ladies, however, it may be noted, met with a very unfavourable
+reception. Prynne's denunciation of them was a matter of course. He
+had undertaken to show that stage-plays of whatever kind were most
+"pernicious corruptions," and that the profession of "play-poets" and
+stage-players, together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of
+stage-plays, was unlawful, infamous, and misbecoming Christians. He
+speaks of the "women-actors" as "monsters," and applies most severe
+epithets to their histrionic efforts: "impudent," "shameful,"
+"unwomanish," and such like. Another critic, one Thomas Brande, in a
+private letter discovered by Mr. Payne Collier in the library of
+Lambeth Palace, and probably addressed to Laud while Bishop of London,
+writes of the just offence to all virtuous and well-disposed persons
+in this town "given by the vagrant French players who had been
+expelled from their own country," and adds: "Glad am I to say they
+were hissed, hooted, and pippin-pelted" (pippin-pelted is a good
+phrase) "from the stage, so as I do not think they will soon be ready
+to try the same again." Mr. Brande was further of opinion that the
+Master of the Revels should have been called to account for permitting
+such performances. Failing at Blackfriars, the French company
+subsequently appeared at the Fortune and Red Bull Theatres, but with a
+similar result, insomuch that the Master of the Revels, Sir Henry
+Herbert, who had duly sanctioned their performance, records in his
+accounts that, "in respect of their ill luck," he had returned some
+portion of the fees they had paid him for permission to play.
+
+Whether these French "women-actors" failed because of their sex or
+because of their nationality, cannot now be shown. They were the first
+actresses that had ever been seen in this country. But then they were
+not of English origin, and they appeared, of course, in a foreign
+drama. Still, of English actresses antecedent to the Desdemona of the
+Vere Street Theatre, certain traces have been discovered. In Brome's
+comedy of "The Court Beggar," acted at the Cockpit Theatre, in 1632,
+one of the characters observed: "If you have a short speech or two,
+the boy's a pretty actor, and his mother can play her part;
+women-actors now grow in request." Was this an allusion merely to the
+French actresses that had been seen in London some few years before,
+or were English actresses referred to? Had these really appeared, if
+not at the public theatres, why, then, at more private dramatic
+entertainments? Upon such points doubt must still prevail. It seems
+certain, however, that a Mrs. Coleman had presented herself upon the
+stage in 1656, playing a part in Sir William Davenant's tragedy of
+"The Siege of Rhodes"--a work produced somehow in evasion of the
+Puritanical ordinance of 1647, which closed the theatres and forbade
+dramatic exhibitions of every kind; for "The Siege of Rhodes,"
+although it consisted in a great measure of songs with recitative,
+explained or illustrated by painted scenery, did not differ much from
+an ordinary play. Ianthe, the heroine, was personated by Mrs. Coleman,
+whose share in the performance was confined to the delivery of
+recitative. Ten years later the lady was entertained at his house by
+Mr. Pepys, who speaks in high terms both of her musical abilities and
+of herself, pronouncing her voice "decayed as to strength, but mighty
+sweet, though soft, and a pleasant jolly woman, and in mighty good
+humour."
+
+If this Mrs. Coleman may be classed rather as a singer than an
+actress, and if we may view Davenant's "Siege of Rhodes" more as a
+musical entertainment than as a regular play, then no doubt the claim
+of the Desdemona of Clare Market to be, as Mr. Thomas Jordan described
+her, "the first woman that came to act on the stage," is much
+improved. And here we may say something more relative to the Vere
+Street Theatre. It was first opened in the month of November, 1660;
+Thomas Killigrew, its manager, and one of the grooms of the king's
+bedchamber, having received his patent in the previous August, when a
+similar favour was accorded to Sir William Davenant, who, during
+Charles I.'s reign, had been possessed of letters patent. King Charles
+II., taking it into his "princely consideration" that it was not
+necessary to suppress the use of theatres, but that if the evil and
+scandal in the plays then acted were taken away, they might serve "as
+innocent and harmless divertisement" for many of his subjects, and
+having experience of the art and skill of his trusty and well-beloved
+Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, granted them full power to
+elect two companies of players, and to purchase, build and erect, or
+hire, two houses or theatres, with all convenient rooms and other
+necessaries thereunto appertaining, for the representation of
+tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, and all other entertainments of
+that nature. The managers were also authorised to fix such rates of
+admission as were customary or reasonable "in regard of the great
+expenses of scenes, music, and such new decorations as have not been
+formerly used:" with full power "to make such allowances out of that
+which they shall so receive to the actors and other persons employed
+in the same representations, in both houses respectively, as they
+shall think fit." For these patents other grants were afterwards
+substituted, Davenant receiving his new letters on January 15th, and
+Killigrew _his_ on April 25th, 1662. The new grants did not differ
+much from the old ones, except that the powers vested in the patentees
+were more fully declared. No other companies but those of the two
+patentees were to be permitted to perform within the cities of London
+and Westminster; all others were to be silenced and suppressed.
+Killigrew's actors were styled the "Company of his Majesty and his
+Royal Consort;" Davenant's the "Servants of his Majesty's
+dearly-beloved brother, James, Duke of York." The better to preserve
+"amity and correspondence" between the two theatres, no actor was to
+be allowed to quit one company for the other without the consent of
+his manager being first obtained. And forasmuch as many plays formerly
+acted contained objectionable matter, and the women's parts therein
+being acted by men in the habits of women, gave offence to some, the
+managers were further enjoined to act no plays "containing any
+passages offensive to piety and good manners, until they had first
+corrected and purged the same;" and permission was given that all the
+women's parts to be acted by either of the companies for the time to
+come might be performed by women, so that recreations which, by reason
+of the abuses aforesaid, were scandalous and offensive, might by such
+reformation be esteemed not only harmless delights, but useful and
+instructive representations of human life to such of "our good
+subjects" as should resort to see the same.
+
+These patents proved a cause of numberless dissensions in future
+years. Practically they reduced the London theatres to two. Before the
+Civil War there had been six: the Blackfriars and the Globe, belonging
+to the same company, called the King's Servants; the Cockpit or
+Phoenix, in Drury Lane, the actors of which were called the Queen's
+Servants; a theatre in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, occupied by the
+Prince's Servants; and the Fortune, in Golden Lane, and the Red Bull
+in St. John Street, Clerkenwell--establishments for the lower class,
+"mostly frequented by citizens and the meaner sort of people." Earlier
+Elizabethan theatres, the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope, seem to have
+closed their career some time in the reign of James I.
+
+The introduction of actresses upon the English stage has usually been
+credited to Sir William Davenant, whose theatre, however, did not open
+until more than six months after the performance of "Othello," with an
+actress in the part of Desdemona, at Killigrew's establishment in Vere
+Street. "Went to Sir William Davenant's opera," records Pepys, on July
+2nd, 1661, "this being the fourth day it had begun, and the first that
+I have seen it." Although regular tragedies and comedies were acted
+there, Pepys constantly speaks of Davenant's theatre as the _opera_,
+the manager having produced various musical pieces before the
+Restoration. Of the memorable performance of "Othello" in Vere Street,
+on December 10th, 1660, Pepys makes no mention. He duly chronicles,
+however, a visit to Killigrew's theatre on the following 3rd January,
+when he saw the comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" performed; "it being
+very well done, and was the first time that ever I saw women come upon
+the stage." He had seen the same play in the previous November, when
+it was represented by male performers only. But even after the
+introduction of actresses the heroines of the stage were still
+occasionally impersonated by men. Thus in January, 1661, Pepys saw
+Kynaston appear in "The Silent Woman," and pronounced the young actor
+"the prettiest woman in the whole house." As Cibber states, the stage
+"could not be so suddenly supplied with women but that there was still
+a necessity to put the handsomest young men into petticoats."
+
+Strange to say, the name of the actress who played Desdemona under
+Killigrew's management in 1660 has not been discovered. Who, then, was
+the first English actress, assuming that she was the Desdemona of the
+Vere Street Theatre? She must be looked for in Killigrew's company.
+His "leading lady" was Mrs. Ann Marshall, of whom Pepys makes
+frequent mention, who is known to have obtained distinction alike in
+tragedy and in comedy, and to have personated such characters as the
+heroine of Beaumont and Fletcher's "Scornful Lady," Roxana in
+"Alexander the Great," Calphurnia in "Julius Caesar," Evadne in "The
+Maid's Tragedy," and so on; there is no record, however, of her having
+appeared in the part of Desdemona. Indeed, this part is not invariably
+assumed by "leading ladies;" it has occasionally devolved upon the
+_seconda donna_ of the company. And in a representation of "Othello"
+on February 6th, 1669, at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane (to which
+establishment Killigrew and his troop had removed from Vere Street in
+April, 1663), it is certain, on the evidence of Downes's "Roscius
+Anglicanus," that a Mrs. Hughes played the part of Desdemona to the
+Othello of Burt, the Iago of Mohun, and the Cassio of Hart. Now, was
+this Mrs. Hughes, who had been a member of Killigrew's company from
+the first, the Desdemona on whose behalf, nine years before, Mr.
+Thomas Jordan wrote his apologetic prologue? It seems not unlikely. At
+the same time it must be stated that there are other claimants to the
+distinction. Tradition long pointed to Mrs. Betterton, the wife of the
+famous tragedian, as the first woman who ever appeared on the English
+stage. She was originally known as Mrs. Saunderson--the title of
+Mistress being applied alike to maidens and matrons at the time of the
+Restoration--and married her illustrious husband about the year 1663.
+She was one of four principal actresses whom Sir William Davenant
+lodged at his own house, and she appeared with great success as Ianthe
+upon the opening of his theatre with "The Siege of Rhodes." Pepys,
+indeed, repeatedly refers to her by her dramatic name of Ianthe. Has
+the belief that she was the first actress arisen from confusing her
+assumption of Ianthe with the performance of the same part by Mrs.
+Coleman in 1656, a fact of which mention has already been made?
+Otherwise it is hardly creditable that she, one of Davenant's
+actresses, had been previously attached to Killigrew's company, and
+had in such wise chanced to play Desdemona in Vere Street. There is no
+evidence of this whatever, nor can it be discovered that she appeared
+as Desdemona at any period of her career. The Vere Street Desdemona,
+we repeat, must be looked for in Killigrew's company, which commenced
+operations more than half a year before the rival theatre. It is true
+that some time before the opening of this theatre Davenant had been
+the responsible manager in regard to certain performances at the
+Blackfriars Theatre and elsewhere; but there is no reason to suppose
+that actresses took part in these entertainments; it is known, indeed,
+that the feminine characters in the plays exhibited were sustained by
+the young actors of the company--Kynaston, James Nokes, Angel, and
+William Betterton. Altogether, Mrs. Betterton's title to honour as the
+first English actress seems defective; and as much may be said of the
+pretensions of another actress, Mrs. Norris, although she has met with
+support from Tom Davies in his "Dramatic Miscellanies," and from Curl
+in his "History of the Stage," a very unworthy production. Mrs. Norris
+was an actress of small note attached to Davenant's company; she was
+the mother of Henry Norris, a popular comedian, surnamed "Jubilee
+Dicky," from his performance of the part of Dicky in Farquhar's
+"Constant Couple." Chetwood correctly describes her as "ONE of the
+first women that came on the stage as an actress." To her, as to Mrs.
+Betterton, the objection applies that she was a member of Davenant's
+company--not of Killigrew's--and therefore could not have appeared in
+Vere Street. Moreover, she never attained such a position in her
+profession as would have entitled her to assume a part of the
+importance of Desdemona.
+
+On the whole, the case of Mrs. Hughes seems to have the support of
+more probabilities than any other. But even if it is to be accepted as
+a fact that she was in truth the first actress, there the matter
+remains. Very little is known of the lady. She lived in a world which
+kept scarcely any count of its proceedings--which left no record
+behind to be used as evidence, either for or against it. She was in
+her time the subject of talk enough, very likely; was admired for her
+beauty, possibly for her talents too; but hardly a written scrap
+concerning her has come down to us. The ordinary historian of the
+time, impressed with a sense of the dignity of his task, did not
+concern himself with the players, and rated as insignificant and
+unworthy of his notice such matters as the pursuits, pastimes, tastes,
+manners, and customs of the people. We know more of the manner of life
+in Charles II.'s time from the diarist Pepys than from all the writers
+of history put together. Unfortunately, concerning Mrs. Hughes, even
+Pepys is silent. It is known that in addition to the character of
+Desdemona, which she certainly sustained in February, 1669, at any
+rate, she also appeared as Panura, in Fletcher's "Island Princess,"
+and as Theodosia, in Dryden's comedy of "An Evening's Love, or, The
+Mock Astrologer," to the Jacyntha of Nell Gwynne; there is scarcely a
+record of her assumption of any other part, unless she be the same
+Mrs. Hughes who impersonated Mrs. Monylove, in a comedy called "Tom
+Essence," produced at the Dorset Garden Theatre in 1676. But it is
+believed that she quitted or was taken from her profession--was "erept
+the stage," to employ old Downes's phrase--at an earlier date. The
+famous Prince Rupert of the Rhine was her lover. He bought for her, at
+a cost of L20,000, the once magnificent seat of Sir Nicholas Crispe,
+near Hammersmith, which afterwards became the residence of the
+Margrave of Brandenburg; and at a later date the retreat of Queen
+Caroline, the wife of George IV. Ruperta, the daughter of Mrs. Hughes,
+was married to Lieutenant-General Howe, and, surviving her husband
+many years, died at Somerset House about 1740. In the "Memoirs" of
+Count Grammont mention is found of Prince Rupert's passion for the
+actress. She is stated to have "brought down and greatly subdued his
+natural fierceness." She is described as an impertinent gipsy, and
+accused of pride, in that she conducted herself, all things
+considered, unselfishly, and even with some dignity. The King is said
+to have been "greatly pleased with this event"--he was probably amused
+at it; Charles II. was very willing at all times to be amused--"for
+which great rejoicings" (why rejoicings?) "were made at Tunbridge; but
+nobody was bold enough to make it the subject of satire, though the
+same constraint was not observed with other ridiculous personages."
+Upon the Prince the effect of his love seems to have been marked
+enough. "From this time adieu alembics, crucibles, furnaces, and all
+the black furniture of the forges; a complete farewell to all
+mathematical instruments and chemical speculations; sweet powder and
+essences were now the only ingredients that occupied any share of his
+attention." Further of Mrs. Hughes there is nothing to relate, with
+the exception of the use made of her name by the unseemly and
+unsavoury Tom Brown in his "Letters from the Dead to the Living." Mrs.
+Hughes and Nell Gwynne are supposed to address letters to each other,
+exchanging reproaches in regard to the impropriety of their manner of
+life. Nell Gwynne accuses her correspondent of squandering her money
+and of gaming. "I am ashamed to think that a woman who had wit enough
+to tickle a Prince out of so fine an estate should at last prove such
+a fool as to be bubbled of it by a little spotted ivory and painted
+paper." "Peg Hughes," as she is called, replies, congratulating
+herself upon her generosity, treating the loss of her estate as "the
+only piece of carelessness I ever committed worth my boast," and
+charging "Madam Gwynne" with vulgar avarice and the love of "lucre of
+base coin." We can glean nothing more of the story of Mrs. Hughes.
+
+It is uncertain indeed in what degree the advent of the first actress
+affected her audience; whether the novelty of the proceeding gratified
+or shocked them the more. It was really a startling innovation--a
+wonderful improvement as it seems to us; yet assuredly there were
+numerous conservative playgoers who held fast to the old ways of the
+theatre, and approved "boy-actresses"--not needing such aids to
+illusion as the personation of women by women, but rather objecting
+thereto, for the same reason that they deprecated the introduction of
+scenery, because of appeal and stimulus to the imagination of the
+audience becoming in such wise greatly and perilously reduced. Then of
+course there were staid and sober folk who judged the profession of
+the stage to be most ill-suited for women. And certainly this view of
+the matter was much confirmed by the conduct of our earlier actresses,
+which was indeed open to the gravest reproach. From Mr. Jordan's
+prologue may be gathered some notion of the situation of the
+spectators on the night, or rather the afternoon, of December 8th,
+1660. The theatre was probably but a poor-looking structure, hastily
+put together in the Tennis-court to serve the purpose of the manager
+for a time merely. Seven years later, Tom Killigrew, talking to Mr.
+Pepys, boasted that the stage had become "by his pains a thousand
+times better and more glorious than ever before." There had been
+improvement in the candles; the audience was more civilised; the
+orchestra had been increased; the rushes had been swept from the
+stage; everything that had been mean was now "all otherwise." The
+manager possibly had in his mind during this retrospect the condition
+of the Vere Street Theatre while under his management. The audience
+possessed an unruly element. 'Prentices and servants filled the
+gallery; there were citizens and tradesmen in the pit, with yet a
+contingent of spruce gallants and scented fops, who combed their wigs
+during the pauses in the performance, took snuff, ogled the ladies in
+the boxes, and bantered the orange-girls. The prologue begins:
+
+    I come, unknown to any of the rest,
+    To tell the news: I saw the lady drest--
+    The woman plays to-day; mistake me not,
+    No man in gown or page in petticoat.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    'Tis possible a virtuous woman may
+    Abhor all sorts of looseness and yet play;
+    Play on the stage--where all eyes are upon her:
+    Shall we count that a crime France counts an honour?
+    In other kingdoms husbands safely trust 'em.
+    The difference lies only in the custom.
+
+The gentlemen sitting in that "Star Chamber of the house, the pit,"
+were then besought to think respectfully and modestly of the actress,
+and not to run "to give her visits when the play is done." We have,
+then, a picture of the male performers of female characters:
+
+    But to the point: in this reforming age
+    We have intent to civilise the stage.
+    Our women are defective, and so sized
+    You'd think they were some of the guard disguised;
+    For, to speak truth, men act, that are between
+    Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen;
+    With bone so large and nerve so incompliant.
+    When you call Desdemona, _enter giant_.
+
+The prologue concludes with a promise, which certainly was not kept,
+that the drama should be purged of all offensive matter:
+
+    And when we've put all things in this fair way,
+    Barebones himself may come to see a play.
+
+In the epilogue the spectators were asked: "How do you like
+her?"--especial appeal being made to those among the audience of the
+gentler sex:
+
+    But, ladies, what think _you_? For if you tax
+    Her freedom with dishonour to your sex,
+    She means to act no more, and this shall be
+    No other play but her own tragedy.
+    She will submit to none but your commands,
+    And take commission only from your hands.
+
+The ladies, no doubt, applauded sufficiently, and "women-actors" from
+that time forward became more and more secure of their position in the
+theatre. At the same time it would seem that there lingered in the
+minds of many a certain prejudice against them, and that some
+apprehension concerning the reception they might obtain from the
+audience often occupied the managers. A prologue to the second part of
+Davenant's "Siege of Rhodes," acted in April, 1662, demonstrates that
+the matter had still to be dealt with cautiously. Indulgence is
+besought for the bashful fears of the actresses, and their shrinking
+from the judgment and observation of the wits and critics is much
+dwelt upon.
+
+It is worthy of note that the leading actors who took part in the
+representation of "Othello" at the Vere Street Theatre had all in
+early life been apprentices to older players, and accustomed to
+personate the heroines of the stage. Thus Burt, the Othello of the
+cast, had served as a boy under the actors Shanke and Beeston at the
+Blackfriars and Cockpit Theatres respectively. Mohun, the Iago, had
+been his playfellow at this time; so that when Burt appeared as
+Clariana in Shirley's tragedy of "Love's Cruelty," Mohun represented
+Bellamonte in the same work. During the Civil War Mohun had drawn his
+sword for the king, acquiring the rank of major, and acquitting
+himself as a soldier with much distinction. He was celebrated by Lord
+Rochester as the AEsopus of the stage; Nat Lee delighted in his acting,
+exclaiming: "O Mohun, Mohun, thou little man of mettle, if I should
+write a hundred plays, I'd write one for thy mouth!" And King Charles
+ventured to pun upon his name as badly as even a king might when he
+said of some representation: "Mohun (pronounce _Moon_) shone like a
+sun; Hart like the moon!" Charles Hart, the Cassio of the Vere Street
+Theatre, could boast descent from Shakespeare's sister Joan, and
+described himself as the poet's great-nephew. He, too, fought for the
+king in the great Civil War, serving as a lieutenant of horse under
+Sir Thomas Dallison in Prince Rupert's regiment. He had been
+apprenticed to Robinson the actor, and had played women's parts at the
+Blackfriars Theatre, winning special renown by his performance of the
+Duchess in Shirley's tragedy of "The Cardinal." As an actor Hart won
+extraordinary admiration; he soon took the lead of Burt, and from his
+physical gifts and graces was enabled even to surpass Mohun in
+popularity. He introduced Nell Gwynne to the stage, and became one of
+the sharers in the management and profits of the theatrical company to
+which he was attached.
+
+There was soon an ample supply of actresses, and a decline altogether
+in the demand for boy-performers of female characters. There was an
+absolute end, indeed, of that industry; the established actors had no
+more apprentices, now to serve as their footboys and pages, and now as
+heroines of tragedy and comedy. A modern playgoer may well have a
+difficulty in believing that these had ever any real existence,
+sharing Lamb's amazement at a boy-Juliet, a boy-Desdemona, a
+boy-Ophelia. There must have been much skill among the players; much
+simple good faith, contentment, and willingness to connive at
+theatrical illusion on the part of the audience. It must have been
+hard to tolerate a heroine with too obvious a beard, or of very
+perceptible masculine breadth of shoulders, length of limb, and
+freedom of gait. Let us note in conclusion that there is clearly a
+"boy-actress" among the players welcomed by Hamlet to Elsinore,
+although the modern stage has rarely taken note of the fact. The
+player-queen, when not robed for performance in the tragedy of "The
+Mousetrap," should wear a boy's dress. "What, my young lady and
+mistress!" says Hamlet jestingly to the youthful apprentice; and he
+adds allusion to the boy's increase of stature: "By'r lady, your
+ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude
+of a _chopine!_"--in other words: "How the boy has grown!"--a chopine
+being a shoe with a heel of inordinate height. And then comes
+reference to that change of voice from alto to bass which attends
+advance from boyhood to adolescence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+STAGE WHISPERS.
+
+
+When the consummate villain of melodrama mysteriously approaches the
+foot-lights, and, with a scowl at the front row of the pit, remarks:
+"I must dissemble," or something to that effect, it is certain that he
+is perfectly audible in all parts of the theatre in which he performs;
+and yet it is required of the personages nearest to him on the
+stage--let us say, the rival lover he has resolved to despatch and the
+beauteous heroine he has planned to betray--that they should pretend
+to be absolutely deaf to his observation, the manifest gravity of its
+bearing upon their interests and future happiness notwithstanding.
+Moreover, we who are among the spectators are bound to credit this
+curious auricular infirmity on the part of the lover and the lady. We
+can of course hear perfectly well the speech of their playfellow, and
+are thoroughly aware that from their position they must of necessity
+hear it at least as distinctly as we do. Yet it is incumbent upon us
+to ignore our convictions and perceptions on this head. For, indeed,
+the drama depends for its due existence and conduct upon a system of
+connivance and conspiracy, in which the audience, no less than the
+actors, are comprehended. The makeshifts and artifices of the theatre
+have to be met half-way, and indulgently accepted.
+
+The stage could not live without its whispers, which, after all, are
+only whispers in a non-natural sense. For that can hardly be in truth
+a whisper, which is designed to reach the ears of some hundreds of
+persons. But the "asides" of the theatre are a convenient and
+indispensable method of revealing to the audience the state of mind of
+the speaker, and of admitting them to his confidence. The novelist can
+stop his story, and indulge in analytical descriptions of his
+characters, their emotions, moods, intentions, and opinions; but the
+dramatist can only make his creatures intelligible by means of the
+speeches he puts into their mouths. So, for the information of the
+audience and the carrying on of the business of the scene, we have
+soliloquies and asides, the artful delivery of which, duly to secure
+attention and enlist sympathy, evokes the best abilities of the
+player, bound to invest with an air of nature and truth-seeming purely
+fictitious and unreasonable proceedings.
+
+But there are other than these recognised and established whispers of
+the stage. Voices are occasionally audible in the theatre which
+obviously were never intended to reach the public ear. The existence
+of such a functionary as the prompter may be one of those things which
+are "generally known;" but the knowledge should not come, to those who
+sit in front of the curtain, from any exercise of their organs of
+sight or of sound. To do the prompter justice, he is rarely visible;
+but his tones, however still and small they may pretend to be,
+sometimes travel to those whom they do not really concern. One of the
+first scraps of information acquired by the theatrical student relates
+to the meaning of the letters P.S. and O.P. Otherwise he might,
+perhaps, have some difficulty in comprehending the apparently magnetic
+attraction which one particular side of the proscenium has for so many
+of our players. We say _our_ players advisedly, for the position of
+the prompter is different on the foreign stage. Abroad, and, indeed,
+during alien and lyrical performances in this country, he is hidden in
+a sort of gipsy-tent in front of the desk of the conductor. The
+accommodation provided for him is limited enough; little more than his
+head can be permitted to emerge from the hole cut for him in the
+stage. But his situation has its advantages. He cannot possibly be
+seen by the audience; he can conveniently instruct the performers
+without requiring them "to look off" appealingly, or to rush
+desperately to the wing to be reminded of their parts; while the
+sloping roof of his temporary abode has the effect of directing his
+whispers on to the stage, and away from the spectators. It seems
+strange that this system of posting the prompter in the van instead
+of on the flank of the actors has never been permanently adopted in
+this country. But a change of the kind indicated would certainly be
+energetically denounced by a number of very respectable and sensible
+people as "un-English," an objection that is generally regarded as
+quite final and convincing, although it is conceivable, at any rate,
+that a thing may be of fair value and yet of foreign origin. "Gad,
+sir, if a few very sensible persons had been attended to we should
+still have been champing acorns!" observed Luttrell the witty, when
+certain enlightened folk strenuously opposed the building of Waterloo
+Bridge on the plea that it would spoil the river!
+
+It is certain, however, that with the first introduction here of
+operatic performances came the gipsy-tent, or hut, of the prompter.
+The singers voted it quite indispensable. It was much ridiculed, of
+course, by the general public. It was even made the special subject of
+burlesque on a rival stage. A century ago the imbecility was indulged
+in of playing "The Beggar's Opera" with "the characters reversed," as
+it was called; that is to say, the female characters were assumed by
+the actors, the male by the actresses. This was at the Haymarket
+Theatre, under George Colman's management. The foolish proceeding won
+prodigious applause. A prologue or preliminary act in three scenes was
+written for the occasion. The fun of this introduction seems now gross
+and flat enough. Towards the conclusion of it, we read, a
+stage-carpenter raised his head through a trap in the centre of the
+stage. He was greeted with a roar of laughter from the gallery. The
+prompter appears on the scene and demands of the carpenter what he
+means by opening the trap? The carpenter explains that he designs to
+prompt the performers after the fashion of the Opera House on the
+other side of the Haymarket. "Psha!" cries the prompter, "none of your
+Italian tricks with me! Shut up the trap again! I shall prompt in my
+old place; for we won't do all they do on the other side of the way
+till they can do all we do on ours." So soundly English a speech is
+received with great cheering--the foreigners and their new-fangled
+ways are laughed to scorn, and the performance is a very complete
+success.
+
+To singers, the convenient position of the prompter is a matter of
+real importance. Their memories are severely tried, for, in addition
+to the words, they have to bear in mind the music of their parts.
+While delivering their scenas they are compelled to remain almost
+stationary, well in front of the stage, so that their voices may be
+thrown towards their audience and not lose effect by escaping into the
+flies. Meanwhile their hasty movement towards a prompter in the wings,
+upon any sudden forgetfulness of the words of their songs, would be
+most awkward and unseemly. It is very necessary that their prompter
+and their conductor should be their near neighbours, able to render
+them assistance and support upon the shortest notice. But this
+proximity of the prompter has, perhaps, induced them to rely too much
+upon his help, and to burden their memories too little. The majority
+of singers are but indifferently acquainted with the words they are
+required to utter. They gather these as they want them, from the
+hidden friend in his hutch at their feet. The occupants of the
+proscenium boxes at the opera-houses must be familiarly acquainted
+with the tones of the prompter's voice, as he delivers to the singers,
+line by line, the matter of their parts; and occasionally these stage
+whispers are audible at a greater distance from the foot-lights. In
+operatic performances, however, the words are of very inferior
+importance to the music; the composer quite eclipses the author. A
+musician has been known to call a libretto the "verbiage" of his
+opera. The term was not perhaps altogether inappropriate. Even actors
+are apt to underrate the importance of the speeches they are called
+upon to deliver, laying the greater stress upon the "business" they
+propose to originate, or the scenic effects that are to be introduced
+into the play. They sometimes describe the words of their parts as
+"cackle." But perhaps this term also may be accepted as applying,
+fitly enough, to much of the dialogue of the modern drama.
+
+It is a popular notion that, although all persons may not be endowed
+with histrionic gifts, it is open to everybody to perform the duties
+of a prompter without preparation or study. Still the office requires
+some exercise of care and judgment. "Here's a nice mess you've got me
+into," said once a tragedian, imperfect in his text, to an
+inexperienced or incautious prompter. "What am I to do now? Thanks to
+you, I've been and spoken all the next act!" And the prompter has a
+task of serious difficulty before him when the actors are but
+distantly acquainted with their parts, or "shy of the syls," that is,
+syllables, as they prefer to describe their condition. "Where have
+they got to now?" he has sometimes to ask himself, when he finds them
+making havoc of their speeches, missing their cues, and leading him a
+sort of steeple-chase through the book of the play. It is the golden
+rule of the player who is "stuck"--at a loss for words--to "come to
+Hecuba," or pass to some portion of his duty which he happens to bear
+in recollection. "What's the use of bothering about a handful of
+words?" demanded a veteran stroller. "I never stick. I always say
+something and get on, and no one has hissed me yet!" It was probably
+this performer, who, during his impersonation of Macbeth, finding
+himself at a loss as to the text soon after the commencement of his
+second scene with Lady Macbeth, coolly observed: "Let us retire,
+dearest chuck, and con this matter over in a more sequestered spot,
+far from the busy haunts of men. Here the walls and doors are spies,
+and our every word is echoed far and near. Come, then, let's away!
+False heart must hide, you know, what false heart dare not show." A
+prompter could be of little service to a gentleman so fertile in
+resources. He may be left to pair off with that provincial Montano who
+modernised his speech in reference to Cassio:
+
+    And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
+    Should hazard such a place as his own second
+    With one of an ingraft infirmity.
+    It were an honest action to say
+    So to the Moor--
+
+into "It's a pity, don't you think, that Othello should place such a
+man in such an office. Hadn't we better tell him so, sir?"
+
+In small provincial or strolling companies it often becomes expedient
+to press every member of the establishment into the service of the
+stage. We read of a useful property-man and scene-shifter who was
+occasionally required to fill small parts in the performance, such,
+for instance, as "the cream-faced loon" in "Macbeth," and who thus
+explained his system of representation, admitting that from his other
+occupations he could rarely commit perfectly to memory the words he
+was required to utter. "I tell you how I manage. I inwariably
+contrives to get a reg'lar knowledge of the natur' of the
+_char_-ac-ter, and ginnerally gives the haudience words as near like
+the truth as need be. I seldom or never puts any of you out, and takes
+as much pains as anybody can expect for two-and-six a week extra,
+which is all I gets for doing such-like parts as mine. I finds
+Shakespeare's parts worse to get into my head nor any other; he goes
+in and out so to tell a thing. I should like to know how I was to say
+all that rigmarole about the wood coming; and I'm sure my telling
+Macbeth as Birnam Wood was a-walking three miles off the castle, did
+very well. But some gentlemen is sadly pertickler, and never considers
+circumstances!"
+
+Such players as this provoke the despair of prompters, who must often
+be tempted to close their books altogether. It would almost seem that
+there are some performers whom it is quite vain to prompt: it is safer
+to let them alone, doing what they list, lest bad should be made
+worse. Something of this kind happened once in the case of a certain
+Marcellus. Hamlet demands of Horatio concerning the ghost of "buried
+Denmark:" "Stayed it long?" Horatio answers: "While one with moderate
+haste might tell a hundred." Marcellus should add: "Longer, longer."
+But the Marcellus of this special occasion was mute. "Longer, longer,"
+whispered the prompter. Then out spoke Marcellus, to the consternation
+of his associates: "Well, say two hundred!" So prosaic a Marcellus is
+only to be matched by that literal Guildenstern who, when besought by
+Hamlet to "Play upon this pipe," was so moved by the urgent manner of
+the tragedian, that he actually made the attempt, seizing the
+instrument, and evoking from it most eccentric sounds.
+
+It is curious how many of the incidents and details of representation
+escape the notice of the audience. And here we are referring less to
+merits than to mischances. Good acting may not always obtain due
+recognition; but then how often bad acting and accidental deficiencies
+remain undetected! "We were all terribly out, but the audience did not
+see it," actors will often candidly admit. Although we in front
+sometimes see and hear things we should not, some peculiarity of our
+position blinds and deafens us too much. Our eyes are beguiled into
+accepting age for youth, shabbiness for finery, tinsel for splendour.
+Garrick frankly owned that he had once appeared upon the stage so
+inebriated as to be scarcely able to articulate, but "his friends
+endeavoured to stifle or cover this trespass with loud applause," and
+the majority of the audience did not perceive that anything
+extraordinary was the matter. What happened to Garrick on that
+occasion has happened to others of his profession. And our ears do not
+catch much of what is uttered on the stage. Young, the actor, used to
+relate that on one occasion, when playing the hero of "The Gamester"
+to the Mrs. Beverley of Sarah Siddons, he was so overcome by the
+passion of her acting as to be quite unable to proceed with his part.
+There was a long pause, during which the prompter several times
+repeated the words which Beverley should speak. Then "Mrs. Siddons
+coming up to her fellow-actor, put the tips of her fingers upon his
+shoulders, and said, in a low voice, 'Mr. Young, recollect yourself.'"
+Yet probably from the front of the house nothing was seen or heard of
+this. In the same way the players will sometimes prompt each other
+through whole scenes, interchange remarks as to necessary adjustments
+of dress, or instructions as to "business" to be gone through, without
+exciting the attention of the audience. Kean's pathetic whisper, "I am
+dying, speak to them for me," when, playing for the last time, he sank
+into the arms of his son, was probably not heard across the orchestra.
+
+Mrs. Fanny Kemble, in her "Journal" of her Tour in America, gives an
+amusing account of a performance of the last scene of "Romeo and
+Juliet," not as it seemed to the spectators, but as it really was,
+with the whispered communications of the actors. Romeo, at the words
+"Quick, let me snatch thee to thy Romeo's arms," pounced upon his
+playfellow, plucked her up in his arms "like an uncomfortable bundle,"
+and staggered down the stage with her. Juliet whispers; "Oh, you've
+got me up horridly! That'll never do; let me down! Pray let me down!"
+But Romeo proceeds, from the acting version of the play, be it
+understood:
+
+    There, breathe a vital spirit on thy lips,
+    And call thee back, my soul, to life and love!
+
+Juliet continues to whisper: "Pray put me down; you'll certainly throw
+me down if you don't set me on the ground directly." "In the midst of
+'cruel, cursed fate,' his dagger fell out of his dress. I, embracing
+him tenderly, crammed it back again, because I knew I should want it
+at the end." The performance thus went on:
+
+    ROMEO. Tear not my heart-strings thus!
+    They break! they crack! Juliet! Juliet!
+                                              [_Dies._
+
+    JULIET (_to corpse_). Am I smothering you?
+
+    CORPSE. Not at all. But could you, do you think, be so kind as to put
+    my wig on again for me? It has fallen off.
+
+    JULIET (_to corpse_). I'm afraid I can't, but I'll throw my muslin
+    veil over it. You've broken the phial, haven't you? (_Corpse
+    nodded_).
+
+    JULIET (_to corpse_). Where's your dagger?
+
+    CORPSE (_to Juliet_). 'Pon my soul I don't know.
+
+The same vivacious writer supplies a corresponding account of the
+representation of "Venice Preserved," in which, of course, she
+appeared as Belvidera. "When I went on, I was near tumbling down at
+the sight of my Jaffier, who looked like the apothecary in 'Romeo and
+Juliet,' with the addition of some devilish red slashes along his
+thighs and arms. The first scene passed off well, but, oh! the next,
+and the next to that! Whenever he was not glued to my side (and that
+was seldom), he stood three yards behind me; he did nothing but seize
+my hand and grapple it so hard that, unless I had knocked him down
+(which I felt much inclined to try), I could not disengage myself. In
+the senate scene, when I was entreating for mercy, and struggling, as
+Otway has it, for my life, he was prancing round the stage in every
+direction, flourishing his dagger in the air. I wish to heaven I had
+got up and run away: it would have been natural, and have served him
+extremely right. In the parting scene--oh, what a scene it
+was!--instead of going away from me when he said, 'Farewell for ever!'
+he stuck to my skirts, though in the same breath that I adjured him,
+in the words of my part, not to leave me, I added, aside, 'Get away
+from me, oh do!' When I exclaimed, 'Not one kiss at parting!' he kept
+embracing and kissing me like mad, and when I ought to have been
+pursuing him, and calling after him, 'Leave thy dagger with me!' he
+hung himself up against the wing, and remained dangling there for five
+minutes. I was half crazy. I prompted him constantly, and once, after
+struggling in vain to free myself from him, was obliged, in the middle
+of my part, to exclaim, 'You hurt me dreadfully, Mr. ----.' He clung to
+me, cramped me, crumpled me--dreadful! I never experienced anything
+like this before, and made up my mind that I never would again."
+
+Yet the ludicrous imperfections of this performance passed unnoticed
+by the audience. The applause seems to have been unbounded, and the
+Jaffier of the night was even honoured by a special call before the
+curtain!
+
+There is hardly necessity for further record of the curiosities of
+stage whispers; but here is a story of a _sotto voce_ communication
+which must have gravely troubled its recipient. A famous Lady Macbeth,
+"starring" in America, had been accidentally detained on her journey
+to a remote theatre. She arrived in time only to change her dress
+rapidly and hurry on the scene. The performers were all strangers to
+her. At the conclusion of her first soliloquy, a messenger should
+enter to announce the coming of King Duncan. But what was her
+amazement to hear, in answer to her demand, "What is your tidings?"
+not the usual reply, "The king comes here to-night," but the whisper,
+spoken from behind a Scotch bonnet, upheld to prevent the words
+reaching the ears of the audience, "Hush! I'm Macbeth. We've cut the
+messenger out--go on, please!"
+
+Another disconcerted performer must have been the provincial Richard
+III., to whom the Ratcliffe of the theatre--who ordinarily played
+harlequin, and could not enter without something of that tripping and
+twirling gait peculiar to pantomime--brought the information, long
+before it was due, that "the Duke of Buckingham is taken!" "Not yet,
+you fool," whispered Richard. "Beg pardon; thought he was," cried
+Harlequin Ratcliffe, as, carried away by his feelings or the force of
+habit, he threw what tumblers call "a Catherine wheel," and made a
+rapid exit.
+
+We conclude with noting a stage whisper of an old-established and yet
+most mysterious kind. In a book of recent date dealing with theatrical
+life, we read that the words "John Orderly" uttered by the proprietor
+of a strolling theatre, behind the scenes, or in the wings of his
+establishment, constitute a hint to the players to curtail the
+performances and allow the curtain to fall as soon as may be. Who was
+"John Orderly," and how comes his name to be thus used as a watchword?
+The Life of Edwin the actor, written by (to quote Macaulay) "that
+filthy and malignant baboon, John Williams, who called himself
+Anthony Pasquin," and published late in the last century, contains the
+following passage: "When theatric performers intend to abridge an act
+or play, they are accustomed to say, we will 'John Audley' it. It
+originated thus: In the year 1749, Shuter was master of a booth at
+Bartholomew Fair in West Smithfield, and it was his mode to lengthen
+the exhibition until a sufficient number of persons were gathered at
+the door to fill the house. This event was signified by a fellow
+popping his head in at the gallery door and bellowing out 'John
+Audley!' as if in the act of inquiry, though the intention was to let
+Shuter know that a fresh audience were in high expectation below. The
+consequence of this notification was that the entertainments were
+instantly concluded, and the gates of the booth thrown open for a new
+auditory." That "John Audley" should be in time corrupted into "John
+Orderly," is intelligible enough. We don't look to the showman or the
+strolling manager for nicety or correctness of pronunciation. But
+whether such a person as John Audley ever existed, who he was, and
+what he did, that his name should be handed down in this way, from
+generation to generation, we are still left inquiring.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+STAGE GHOSTS.
+
+
+The ghost, as a vehicle of terror, a solvent of dramatic difficulties,
+and a source of pleasurable excitement to theatrical audiences, seems
+to have become quite an extinct creature. As Bob Acres said of
+"damns," ghosts "have had their day;" or perhaps it would be more
+correct to say, their night. It may be some consolation to them,
+however, in their present fallen state, to reflect that they were at
+one time in the enjoyment of an almost boundless prosperity and
+popularity. For long years they were accounted among the most precious
+possessions of the stage. Addison writes in "The Spectator": "Among
+the several artifices which are put in practice by the poets, to fill
+the minds of the audience with terror, the first place is due to
+thunder and lightning, which are often made use of at the descending
+of a god, at the vanishing of a devil, or at the death of a tyrant. I
+have known a bell introduced into several tragedies with good effect,
+and have seen the whole assembly in very great alarm all the while it
+has been ringing. But there is nothing which delights and terrifies
+our English theatre so much as a ghost, especially when he appears in
+a bloody shirt. A spectre has very often saved a play, though he has
+done nothing but stalked solemnly across the stage, or rose through a
+cleft in it and sunk again without speaking one word. There may be a
+proper season for these several terrors, and when they only come in as
+aids and assistances to the poet, they are not only to be excused but
+to be applauded."
+
+The reader may be reminded that Shakespeare has evinced a very
+decided partiality for ghosts. In "The Second Part of King Henry VI.,"
+Bolingbroke, the conjurer, raises up a spirit. In "Julius Caesar,"
+Brutus is visited in his tent by the ghost of the murdered Caesar. In
+"Hamlet," we have, of course, the ghost of the late king. In "Macbeth"
+the ghost of Banquo takes his seat at the banquet, and in the caldron
+scene we are shown apparitions of "an armed head," "a bloody child,"
+"a child crowned, with a tree in his hand," and "eight kings" who pass
+across the stage, "the last with a glass in his hand." In "Richard
+III." quite a large army of ghosts present and address themselves
+alternately to Richard and to Richmond. The ghosts of Prince Edward,
+Henry VI., Clarence, Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan, Hastings, the two
+young Princes, Queen Anne, and Buckingham invoke curses upon the
+tyrant and blessings upon his opponent. It would be hard to find in
+the annals of the drama another instance of such an assembly of
+apparitions present upon the stage at the same time.
+
+In Otway's tragedy of "Venice Preserved," the ghosts of Jaffier and
+Pierre, which confronted the distracted Belvidera in the last scene,
+were for a long time very popular apparitions, although in later
+performances of the play it was thought proper to omit them, and to
+allow the audience to imagine their presence, or to conclude that
+Belvidera only fancied that she saw them. Here, however, is the
+extract from the original play:
+
+    BELVIDERA. Ha! look there!
+           [_The Ghosts of Jaffier and Pierre rise together, both bloody._
+    My husband bloody, and his friend too! Murder!
+    Who has done this? Speak to me, thou sad vision!
+                                                     [_Ghosts sink._
+    On these poor trembling knees, I beg it. Vanished!
+    Here they went down. Oh! I'll dig, dig the den up.
+    You shan't delude me thus. Ho! Jaffier, Jaffier,
+    Peep up and give me but a look. I have him!
+    I've got him, father! Oh, now I'll smuggle him!
+    My love! my dear! my blessing! help me! help me!
+    They have hold on me, and drag me to the bottom.
+    Nay, now they pull so hard. Farewell.             [_She dies._
+
+    MAID. She's dead.
+    Breathless and dead.
+
+This may seem very sad stuff, but it would be unfair to judge Otway's
+plays by this one extract. "Venice Preserved" is now shelved as an
+acting drama, but it was formerly received with extraordinary favour,
+and is by no means deficient in poetic merit. Campbell, the poet,
+speaks of it, in his life of Mrs. Siddons, as "a tragedy which so
+constantly commands the tears of audiences that it would be a work of
+supererogation for me to extol its tenderness. There may be dramas
+where human character is depicted with subtler skill--though Belvidera
+might rank among Shakespeare's creations; and 'Venice Preserved' may
+not contain, like 'Macbeth' and 'Lear,' certain high conceptions which
+exceed even the power of stage representation--but it is as full as a
+tragedy can be of all the pathos that is transfusable into action."
+Belvidera was one of Mrs. Siddons's greatest characters. Campbell
+notes that "until the middle of the last century the ghosts of Jaffier
+and Pierre used to come in upon the stage, haunting Belvidera in her
+last agonies, which certainly require no aggravation from spectral
+agency." The play was much condensed for presentment on the stage; but
+it would not appear that Belvidera's dying speech, quoted above, was
+interfered with. Boaden, in his memoir of the actress, expressly
+commends Mrs. Siddons's delivery of the passage, "I'll dig, dig the
+den up!" and the action which accompanied the words.
+
+For the time ghosts had been only incidental to a performance;
+by-and-by they were to become the main features and attractions of
+stage representation. Still they had not escaped ridicule and
+caricature. Fielding, in his burlesque tragedy of "Tom Thumb,"
+introduced the audience to a scene between King Arthur and the ghost
+of Gaffer Thumb. The king threatens to kill the ghost, and prepares to
+execute his threat, when the apparition kindly explains to him, "I am
+a ghost and am already dead." "Ye stars!" exclaims King Arthur, "'tis
+well."
+
+In his humorous notes to the published play, Fielding states, with
+mock gravity: "Of all the particulars in which the modern stage falls
+short of the ancient, there is none so much to be lamented as the
+great scarcity of ghosts. Whence this proceeds I will not presume to
+determine. Some are of opinion that the moderns are unequal to that
+sublime sort of language which a ghost ought to speak. One says
+ludicrously that ghosts are out of fashion; another that they are
+properer for comedy; forgetting, I suppose, that Aristotle hath told
+us that a ghost is the soul of tragedy," &c. &c. But when, towards the
+commencement of the present century, melodrama was first brought upon
+the boards, the novels of Mrs. Radcliffe were being dramatised, and
+such pieces as "The Tale of Mystery," "The Bleeding Nun," and "The
+Castle Spectre," were obtaining public favour, it was clear that room
+was being made for the stage ghost; the way was cleared for it to
+become the be-all and the end-all of the performance, the prominent
+attraction of the evening.
+
+Here is an extract from Lewis's "Castle Spectre," including certain
+stage directions, by no means the least important part of the play.
+
+     _Enter_ HASSAN, _hastily_.
+
+     HASSAN. My lord, all is lost! Percy has surprised the castle,
+     and speeds this way!
+
+     OSMOND. Confusion! Then I must be sudden! Aid me, Hassan!
+
+     HASSAN _and_ OSMOND _force_ ANGELA _from her father, who
+     suddenly disengages himself from_ MULEY _and_ ALARIC. OSMOND,
+     _drawing his sword, rushes upon_ REGINALD, _who is disarmed, and
+     beaten upon his knees; when at the moment that_ OSMOND _lifts
+     his arm to stab him,_ EVELINA'S _ghost throws herself between
+     them_. OSMOND _starts back and drops his sword._
+
+     OSMOND. Horror! What form is this?
+
+     ANGELA. Die!
+
+     _Disengages herself from_ HASSAN, _who springs suddenly forward,
+     and plunges her dagger in_ OSMOND'S _bosom, who falls with a
+     loud groan and faints. The ghost vanishes._ ANGELA _and_
+     REGINALD _rush into each other's arms._
+
+"The Castle Spectre" enjoyed great success. It was supported by the
+whole strength of the Drury Lane company, John Kemble appearing as
+Earl Percy, and Mrs. Jordan as the heroine, and was repeated some
+fifty nights during its first season.
+
+It may be worth recording that in the course of the play, the great
+John Kemble was required to execute, not exactly what is now known as
+a "sensation header," but still a gymnastic feat of some difficulty
+and danger. Earl Percy has something of the agility of a harlequin
+about him, and when he obtains admission into his enemy's castle to
+rescue Angela, he is required to climb from a sofa up to a gothic
+window high above him, and then, alarmed by the approach of his negro
+sentinels, to fall from the height flat again at full length upon his
+sofa, and to pretend to be asleep as his guards had previously left
+him. Kemble is said to have done this "as boldly and suddenly as if
+he had been shot." When people complimented him upon his unsuspected
+agility, he would answer: "Nay, gentlemen, Mr. Boaden has exceeded all
+compliment upon this feat of mine, for he counselled me from Macbeth
+to 'jump the life to come.'" "It was melancholy," comments Mr. Boaden,
+recording the success of the play, "to see the abuse of such talents;"
+and then he adds the remarkable opinion: "It is only in a barn that
+the Cato of a company should be allowed to risk his neck!"
+
+Against "The Castle Spectre" the critics, of course, raised their
+voices. Its popularity was viewed with much bitterness and jealousy.
+"The great run the piece had," writes the reverend author of "The
+History of the Stage," "is a striking proof that success is a very
+uncertain criterion of merit. The plot is rendered contemptible by the
+introduction of the ghost." "I hope it will not be hereafter
+believed," cried Cooke the actor, "that 'The Castle Spectre' could
+attract crowded houses when the most sublime productions of the
+immortal Shakespeare could be played to empty benches." A dispute
+arising in the green-room of the theatre between Lewis and Sheridan,
+Lewis offered to bet all the money which the play had brought that he
+was in the right. "No," said Sheridan, "I can't afford to bet so much
+as that; but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll bet you all it's worth."
+Still, there was no cavilling down the play. The stage ghost was
+triumphant. He had attained his apogee. "The Castle Spectre" remained
+a stock piece for years, and has even appeared upon the stage in quite
+recent times.
+
+Formerly the public had been satisfied with a very prosaic ghost. A
+substantial figure, with a whitened face, and a streak of red paint on
+his brow, was thrust through a trap-door, and it was held that all had
+been done that was necessary in the way of stage illusion. The ghost
+of Hamlet's father was frequently attired in a suit of real armour
+borrowed from the Tower. There is a story of a ghost thus heavily
+accoutred, who, overcome by the weight of his harness, fell down on
+the stage and rolled towards the foot-lights, the pit raising an alarm
+lest the poor apparition should indeed be burnt by the fires of the
+lamps. Barton Booth, the great actor in the time of Queen Anne and
+George I., is said to have been the first representative of the ghost
+in "Hamlet" who wore list shoes to deaden the noise of his footsteps
+as he moved across the stage. In the poem of "The Actor," by Robert
+Lloyd, the friend of Churchill, published in 1757, we have an explicit
+description of the treatment of ghosts then in vogue upon the stage,
+with special reference to the ghost of "our dear friend" Banquo:
+
+    But in stage customs what offends me most
+    Is the slip-door, and slowly rising ghost.
+    Tell me--nor count the question too severe--
+    Why need the dismal powdered forms appear?
+    When chilling horrors shake the affrighted king,
+    And guilt torments him with her scorpion sting,
+    When keenest feelings at his bosom pull,
+    And fancy tells him that the seat is full;
+    Why need the ghost usurp the monarch's place,
+    To frighten children with his mealy face?
+    The king alone should form the phantom there,
+    And talk and tremble at the vacant chair.
+
+Farther on the poet discourses of the ghosts in "Venice Preserved," of
+which mention has already been made:
+
+    If Belvidera her loved lost deplore,
+    Why for twin spectres burst the yawning floor?
+    When, with disordered starts and horrid cries,
+    She paints the murdered forms before her eyes,
+    And still pursues them with a frantic stare,
+    'Tis pregnant madness brings the visions there.
+    More instant horror would enforce the scene
+    If all her shudderings were at shapes unseen.
+
+It may have been due to Lloyd's poem, and to the opinions it expressed
+and obtained favour for, that when Drury Lane Theatre opened in 1794
+with a performance of "Macbeth," the experiment was tried of omitting
+the appearance of Banquo's ghost, and leaving its presence to be
+imagined by the spectators. The alteration, however, was not found to
+be agreeable to the audience. While granting that Mr. Kemble's fine
+acting was almost enough to make them believe they really did see the
+ghost, they preferred that there should be no mistake about the
+matter, and that Banquo's shade should come on bodily--be distinctly
+visible. Further, they were able to point to Shakespeare's stage
+direction: "Enter the ghost of Banquo, and sits in Macbeth's place."
+Surely there could be no mistake, they argued, as to what the
+dramatist himself intended. In subsequent performances the old system
+was restored, and in all modern representations of the tragedy the
+phantom has not failed to be visible to the spectators. Nevertheless
+Banquo's ghost remains the _crux_ of stage managers. How to get him
+on? How to get him off? How to make him look anything like a
+ghost--respectable, if not awful? How to avoid that distressing titter
+generally audible among those of the spectators who cannot suppress
+their sense of the ludicrous even in one of Shakespeare's grandest
+scenes? Upon a darkened stage a ghost, skilfully attired in vaporous
+draperies, may be made sufficiently impressive, as in "Hamlet," for
+instance. The shade of the departed king, if tolerably treated, seldom
+provokes a smile, even from the most hardened and jocose of
+spectators. But in "Macbeth" the scene must be well lighted, for the
+nobles, courtiers, and guests are at high banquet; and the ghost must
+appear towards the front of the stage, otherwise Macbeth will be
+compelled to turn his back upon the public, and his simulated horror
+will be absolutely thrown away; if the actor's face cannot be seen,
+his acting, of necessity, goes for little or nothing. Even in our own
+days of triumphant stage illusion, it must be owned that the
+presentment of Banquo's ghost still remains incomplete and
+unsatisfactory; but where such adroit managers as Mr. Macready, Mr.
+Charles Kean, and Mr. Phelps (to name no more) have failed, it seems
+vain to hope for success. Pictorially, Banquo's ghost has fared
+better, as all who are acquainted with Mr. Maclise's "Macbeth" will
+readily acknowledge.
+
+A curious fact in connection with the Banquo of Betterton's time may
+here be noted. Banquo was represented by an actor named Smith; the
+ghost, however, was personated by another actor--Sandford. Why this
+division of the part between two performers? Smith was possessed of a
+handsome face and form, whereas Sandford was of "a low and crooked
+figure." He was the stage villain of his time, and was famed for his
+uncomely and malignant aspect; "the Spagnolet of the stage," Cibber
+calls him; but it is certainly strange that he should therefore have
+enjoyed a prescriptive right to impersonate ghosts.
+
+The attempted omission of Banquo's ghost, however, made it clear that
+the old substantial shade emerging from a trap-door in the stage had
+ceased to satisfy the town. Something more was required. The public
+were becoming critical about their ghosts. Credit could not be given
+to the spirits of the theatre if they exceeded a certain consistency.
+There was a demand for something vaporous and unearthly, gliding,
+transparent, mysterious. Scenic illusion was acquiring an artistic
+quality. The old homely simple processes of the theatre were exploded.
+The audience would only be deceived upon certain terms. Mr. Boaden,
+adapting Ann Radcliffe's "Romance of the Forest" to the stage of
+Covent Garden Theatre, records the anxiety he felt about the proper
+presentment of its supernatural incidents. The contrivance he hit upon
+has since become one of the commonplaces of theatrical illusion. It
+was arranged that the spectre should be seen through a bluish-gray
+gauze, so as to remove the too corporeal effect of a live actor, and
+convert the moving substance into a gliding essence.
+
+The plan, however, was not carried into effect without considerable
+difficulty. Mr. Harris, the manager, ordered a night rehearsal of the
+play, so that the author might judge of the success of the effects
+introduced. The spectre was to be personated by one Thompson, a portly
+jovial actor, whose views as to the treatment of the supernatural upon
+the stage were of a very primitive kind. He appeared upon the scene
+clad in the conventional solid armour of the theatre, with over all a
+gray gauze veil, as stiff as buckram, thrown about him. Mr. Boaden
+describes his horror and astonishment at the misconception. It had
+been intended that the gauze, stretched on a frame, should cover a
+portal of the scene, and that the figure of the spectre should be seen
+dimly through it. But even then the contour of Thompson was found very
+inappropriate to a phantom. It was necessary to select for the part an
+actor of a slighter and taller form. At length a representative of the
+ghost was found in the person of Follet, the clown, "celebrated for
+his eating of carrots in the pantomimes." Follet readily accepted the
+part: his height was heroic, he was a skilled posture-maker, he was
+well versed in the duties of a mime. Still there was a further
+difficulty. The ghost had to speak--only two words, it is true--he had
+to utter the words "Perished here!" and, as the clown very frankly
+admitted: "'Perished here' will be exactly the fate of the author if
+I'm left to say it." The gallery would recognise the clown's voice,
+and all seriousness would be over for the evening. It was like the ass
+in the lion's skin--he would bray, and all would be betrayed. At last
+it was determined that the part should be divided; Follet should
+perform the actions of the ghost, while Thompson, in the wings, out of
+the sight of the audience, should pronounce the important words. The
+success of the experiment was signal. Follet, in a closely-fitting
+suit of dark-gray stuff, made in the shape of armour, faintly visible
+through the sheet of gauze, flitted across the stage like a shadow,
+amidst the breathless silence of the house, to be followed presently,
+on the falling of the curtain, by peal after peal of excited applause.
+
+A humorous story of a stage ghost is told in Raymond's "Life of
+Elliston," aided by an illustration from the etching-needle of George
+Cruikshank, executed in quite his happiest manner. Dowton the actor,
+performing a ghost part--to judge from the illustration, it must have
+been the ghost in "Hamlet," but the teller of the story does not say
+formally that such was the fact--had, of course, to be lowered in the
+old-fashioned way through a trap-door in the stage, his face being
+turned towards the audience. Elliston and De Camp, concealed beneath
+the stage, had provided themselves with small ratan canes, and as
+their brother-actor slowly and solemnly descended, they applied their
+sticks sharply and rapidly to the calves of his legs, unprotected by
+the plate armour that graced his shins. Poor Dowton with difficulty
+preserved his gravity of countenance, or refrained from the utterance
+of a yell of agony while in the presence of the audience. His lower
+limbs, beneath the surface of the stage, frisked and curvetted about
+"like a horse in Ducrow's arena." His passage below was maliciously
+made as deliberate as possible. At length, wholly let down, and
+completely out of the sight of the audience, he looked round the
+obscure regions beneath the stage to discover the base perpetrators of
+the outrage. He was speechless with rage and burning for revenge.
+Elliston and his companion had of course vanished. Unfortunately, at
+that moment, Charles Holland, another member of the company,
+splendidly dressed, appeared in sight. The enraged Dowton, mistaking
+his man, and believing that Holland's imperturbability of manner was
+assumed and an evidence of his guilt, seized a mop at that moment at
+hand immersed in very dirty water, and thrusting it in his face,
+utterly ruined wig, ruffles, point-lace, and every particular of his
+elaborate attire. In vain Holland protested his innocence and
+implored for mercy; his cries only stimulated the avenger's exertions,
+and again and again the saturated mop did desperate execution over the
+unhappy victim's finery.
+
+Somewhat appeased at last, Dowton stayed his hand; but in the meantime
+Holland was summoned to appear upon the stage. The play was
+proceeding--what was to be done! All was confusion. It was not
+possible for Holland to present himself before the audience in such a
+plight as he had been reduced to. An apology was made "for the sudden
+indisposition of Mr. Holland," and the public were informed that "Mr.
+De Camp had kindly undertaken to go on for the part." Whether Dowton
+ever discovered his real persecutors is not stated. The story, indeed,
+may not be true, or it may be much rouged and burnt-corked, as are so
+many theatrical anecdotes, to conceal its natural poverty and weakness
+of constitution. But it is an amusing legend in any case.
+
+The melodrama of "The Corsican Brothers," first produced in England at
+the Princess's Theatre in 1852, and splendidly revived at the Lyceum
+by Mr. Irving in 1880, reawakened the public interest in the ghosts of
+the theatre; and the spectre that rose from the stage as from a
+cellar, and crossing it, gained his full stature gradually as he
+proceeded, was for some time a great popular favourite, though
+burlesque dogged his course, and a certain ridicule always attended
+his exertions. The fidgety musical accompaniment brought from Paris,
+and known as "The Ghost Melody," by M. Varney, excited much
+admiration, while the intricate stage machinery involved in the
+production of the apparition of Louis dei Franchi gave additional
+interest to the performance. Of late years the modern drama has made
+scarcely any addition to our stock of stage ghosts. The ingenious
+invention known as the Spectral Illusion of Messrs. Dircks and Pepper
+obtained great favour at one time, and awakened some interest upon the
+subject of theatrical phantoms. But it soon became clear that the
+public cared for the Illusion, and not for the Spectre. They were
+concerned about the mechanism of the contrivance, not awed by the
+supernatural appearances it brought before them. When once you begin
+to inquire by what process a ghost is produced, it is clear you are
+not moved by its character as a spectre merely. Puppets lose their
+power to please when the spectators are bent upon detecting the wires
+by which they are made to move.
+
+The old melodramatic stage ghost--the spectre of "The Castle Spectre"
+school of plays--the phantom in a white sheet with a dab of red paint
+upon its breast, that rose from behind a tomb when a blow was struck
+upon a gong and a teaspoonful of blue fire was lighted in the wings,
+probably found its last home in the travelling theatre long known as
+"Richardson's." Expelled from the regular theatre, it became a
+wanderer upon the face of the earth, appearing at country fairs, and
+bringing to bear upon remote agricultural populations those terrors
+that had long since lost all value in the eyes of the townsfolk. It
+lived to become a thing of scorn. "Richardson's Ghost" became a byword
+for a bankrupt phantom--a preposterous apparition, that was, in fact,
+only too thoroughly seen through: not to apply the words too
+literally. Whether there is still a show calling itself "Richardson's"
+(the original Richardson died a quarter of a century ago, and his
+immediate followers settled in a permanent London theatre long years
+back), and whether there is yet a phantom perambulating the country
+and calling itself "Richardson's Ghost," may be left to the very
+curious to inquire into and determine. The travelling theatre nowadays
+has lost its occupation. When the audiences began to travel, the stage
+could afford to be stationary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BOOK OF THE PLAY.
+
+
+Mr. Thackeray has described a memorable performance at the Theatre
+Royal, Chatteries. Arthur Pendennis and his young friend Harry Foker
+were among the audience; Lieutenants Rodgers and Podgers, and Cornet
+Tidmus, of the Dragoons, occupied a private box. The play was "The
+Stranger." Bingley, the manager, appeared as the hero of the sombre
+work; Mrs. Haller was impersonated by Miss Fotheringay. "I think ye'll
+like Miss Fotheringay in Mrs. Haller, or me name's not Jack Costigan,"
+observed the father of the actress. Bingley, we are told, was great in
+the character of the Stranger, and wore the tight pantaloons and
+Hessian boots which stage tradition has duly prescribed as the costume
+of that doleful personage. "Can't stand you in tights and Hessians,
+Bingley," young Mr. Foker had previously remarked. He had the stage
+jewellery on too, selecting "the largest and most shining rings for
+himself," and allowing his little finger to quiver out of his cloak,
+with a sham diamond ring covering the first joint of the finger, and
+twiddling it in the faces of the pit. It is told of him that he made
+it a favour to the young men of his company to go on in light-comedy
+parts with that ring. They flattered him by asking its history. "It
+had belonged to George Frederick Cooke, who had had it from Mr. Quin,
+who may have bought it for a shilling." But Bingley fancied the world
+was fascinated by its glitter.
+
+And he read out of that stage-book--the genuine and old-established
+"book of the play"--that wonderful volume, "which is not bound like
+any other book in the world, but is rouged and tawdry like the hero or
+heroine who holds it; and who holds it as people never do hold books:
+and points with his finger to a passage, and wags his head ominously
+at the audience, and then lifts up eyes and finger to the ceiling,
+professing to derive some intense consolation from the work between
+which and heaven there is a strong affinity. Any one," proceeds the
+author of "Pendennis," "who has ever seen one of our great light
+comedians X., in a chintz dressing-gown, such as nobody ever wore, and
+representing himself as a young nobleman in his apartments, and
+whiling away the time with light literature, until his friend Sir
+Harry shall arrive, or his father shall come down to breakfast--anybody,
+I say, who has seen the great X. over a sham book, has indeed had
+a great pleasure, and an abiding matter for thought."
+
+The Stranger reads from morning to night, as his servant Francis
+reports of him. When he bestows a purse upon the aged Tobias, that he
+may be enabled to purchase his only son's discharge from the army, he
+first sends away Francis with the stage-book, that there may be no
+witness of the benevolent deed. "Here, take this book, and lay it on
+my desk," says the Stranger; and the stage direction runs: "Francis
+goes into the lodge with the book." Bingley, it is stated, marked the
+page carefully, so that he might continue the perusal of the volume
+off the stage if he liked. Two acts later, and the Stranger is again
+to be beheld, "on a seat, reading." But after that he has to put from
+him his precious book, for the incidents of the drama demand his very
+serious attention.
+
+Dismissed from the Stranger, however, the stage-book probably
+reappears in the afterpiece. In how many dramatic works figures this
+useful property--the "book of the play"? Shakespeare has by no means
+disdained its use. Imogen is discovered reading in her bed in the
+second act of "Cymbeline." She inquires the hour of the lady in
+attendance:
+
+                        Almost midnight, madam.
+
+    IMOGEN. I have read three hours, then; mine eyes are weak.
+    Fold down the leaf where I have left! To bed!
+
+By-and-by, when Iachimo steals from his trunk to "note the chamber,"
+he observes the book, examines it, and proclaims its nature:
+
+                       She hath been reading late
+    The tale of Tereus! here's the leaf turned down
+    Where Philomel gave up.
+
+Brutus reads within his tent:
+
+    Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turned down
+    Where I left reading? Here it is, I think.
+    How ill this taper burns! Ha! Who comes here?
+
+And thereupon enters the ghost of Caesar, and appoints a meeting at
+Philippi.
+
+In the third act of "The Third Part of King Henry VI.," that monarch
+enters, "disguised, with a prayer-book." Farther on, when a prisoner
+in the Tower, he is "discovered sitting with a book in his hand, the
+Lieutenant attending;" when Gloucester enters, abruptly dismisses the
+Lieutenant, and forthwith proceeds to the assassination of the king.
+
+But Gloucester himself is by-and-by to have dealings with the "book of
+the play." In the seventh scene of the third act of "King Richard
+III.," a stage direction runs: "Enter Gloucester in a gallery above,
+between two bishops." Whereupon the Lord Mayor, who has come with
+divers aldermen and citizens to beseech the duke to accept the crown
+of England, observes:
+
+    See where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen!
+
+Says Buckingham:
+
+    Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
+    To stay him from the fall of vanity;
+    And, see, a book of prayer in his hand;
+    True ornaments to know a holy man.
+
+The mayor and citizens departing, Gloucester, in Cibber's acting
+version of the tragedy, was wont wildly to toss his prayer-book in the
+air. Here is an apposite note from John Taylor's "Records of my Life,"
+relative to Garrick's method of accomplishing this piece of stage
+business: "My father, who saw him perform King Richard on the first
+night of his appearance at Goodman's Fields, told me that the audience
+were particularly struck with his manner of throwing away the book
+when the lord mayor and aldermen had retired, as it manifested a
+spirit totally different from the solemn dignity which characterised
+the former old school, and which his natural acting wholly
+overturned."
+
+A certain antiquary, when Kemble first assumed the part of Richard,
+took objection to the prayer-book he affected to read in this scene.
+"This book," writes Boaden, "for aught I know the 'Secret History of
+the Green Room,' which Kemble took from the property-man before he
+went on, our exact friend said should have been some illuminated
+missal. This was somewhat inconsistent, because one would suppose the
+heart of the antiquary must have grieved to see the actor skirr away
+so precious a relic of the dark ages, as if, like Careless, in 'The
+School for Scandal,' he would willingly 'knock down the mayor and
+aldermen.'" It was at this time, probably, that antiquarianism first
+stirred itself on the subject of scenic decorations. The solitary
+banner unfurled by Kemble, as Richard, bore a white rose embroidered
+upon it. "What!" cried the antiquaries, "a king of England battling
+with invaders and yet not displaying his royal banner!" And remark was
+made upon the frequent mention of armour that occurs in the later
+scenes of the play. We have "locked up in steel;" "What! is my beaver
+easier than it was?" "And all my armour laid into my tent;" "The
+armourers accomplishing the knights;" "With clink of hammers closing
+rivets up;" "Your friends up and buckle on their armour." Yet, as
+Boaden relates, it was no less strange than true, that, in Kemble's
+time, "excepting the breastplate and thigh-pieces on Richmond, not one
+of the _dramatis personae_ had the smallest particle of armour upon him
+in either army."
+
+There is a stage-book in "King Henry VIII." The Duke of Norfolk, in
+the second act, "opens a folding-door; the king is discovered sitting
+and reading pensively." The book of Prospero is spoken of, but not
+seen. In "Hamlet" the stage-book plays an important part. Says
+Polonius to Ophelia, when he and Claudius would be "lawful espials" of
+her meeting with Hamlet:
+
+                            Read on this book,
+    That show of such an exercise may colour
+    Your loneliness.
+
+The book is now usually a missal which the lady employs at her
+orisons. But it is oftentimes--for so stage-management will have
+it--the identical volume with which Hamlet had entered reading in an
+earlier act, and which he describes, upon being interrogated by
+Polonius, as containing, "words, words, words!" and "slanders, sir!"
+It was John Kemble's way, we are told, to tear out a leaf from the
+book at this period of the performance, by way of conveying the
+"stronger impression of Hamlet's wildness." The actor's method of
+rendering this scene has not been adopted by later representatives of
+the character. Indeed, a long run of the tragedy, such as happens in
+these times, would involve serious outlay for stage-books, if so
+destructive a system were persisted in. Moreover, there is no sort of
+warrant in the text for tearing a leaf out of the "satirical rogue's"
+work.
+
+The "book of the play" frequently figures in theatrical anecdote.
+Wilkinson relates, that when Reddish made his first essay upon the
+stage, he inserted a paragraph in the newspaper, informing the public
+that he was "a gentleman of easy fortune." He appeared as Sir John
+Dorilant, in "The School for Lovers," and in the course of his
+performance threw from him an elegantly-bound book, which he was
+supposed to have been studying. Observing this, a gentleman in the pit
+inquired of Macklin, who happened to be present: "Pray, sir, do you
+think such conduct natural?" "Why, no, sir," Macklin replied gravely,
+"not in a Sir John Dorilant, but strictly natural as Mr. Reddish; for,
+as you know, he has advertised himself as a gentleman of easy
+fortune." It has been pointed out, however, that the inaccuracy, fatal
+to so many anecdotes, affects even this one. The book is thrown away
+in strict accordance with the stage directions of the play; and it is
+so treated, not by Sir John Dorilant, but by another character named
+Belmont.
+
+Macklin administered a similar rebuke, while his comedy of "The
+True-born Irishman" was in rehearsal, to an actor personating one of
+the characters, and acquitting himself very indifferently. Upon his
+mispronouncing the name of Lady Kennegad, Macklin stepped up to him
+and demanded angrily, "What trade he was of?" The player replied that
+he was a gentleman. Macklin rejoined: "Stick to that, sir! stick to
+that; for you will never be an actor."
+
+In Farquhar's comedy of "The Inconstant," when Bisarre is first
+addressed by Mirabel and Duretete, Miss Farren, playing Bisarre, held
+a book in her hand, which she affected to have been reading before she
+spoke. Mrs. Jordan, we are told, who afterwards assumed the character,
+declined to make use of the stage-book, and dispensed with it
+altogether. She sat perfectly still, affecting to be lost in thought.
+Then, before speaking, she took a pinch of snuff! Half a century ago a
+heroine who indulged in snuff was deemed no more objectionable than is
+one of our modern heroes of the stage, who cannot forego cigars or
+cigarettes.
+
+There is a stage-book to be seen in "The School for Scandal." Joseph
+Surface affects to pore over its pages immediately after he has
+secreted Lady Teazle behind the screen, and while Sir Peter is on the
+stairs. "Ever improving himself," notes Sir Peter, and then taps the
+reader on the shoulder. Joseph starts. "I have been dozing over a
+stupid book," he says; and the stage direction bids him "gape, and
+throw down the book." And many volumes are needed in "The Rivals."
+Miss Languish's maid Lucy returns after having traversed half the
+town, and visited all the circulating libraries in Bath. She has
+failed to obtain "The Reward of Constancy;" "The Fatal Connexion;"
+"The Mistakes of the Heart;" "The Delicate Mistress, or the Memoirs of
+Lady Woodford." But she has secured, as she says, "taking the books
+from under her cloak, and from her pockets, 'The Gordian Knot' and
+'Peregrine Pickle.' Here are 'The Tears of Sensibility' and 'Humphry
+Clinker.' This, 'The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality,' written by
+herself; and here the second volume of 'The Sentimental Journey.'"
+
+     LYDIA. Heigh-ho! What are those books by the glass?
+
+     LUCY. The great one is only "The Whole Duty of Man," where I
+     press a few blonds, ma'am.
+
+     LYDIA. Very well; give me the sal volatile.
+
+     LUCY. Is it in a blue cover, ma'am?
+
+     LYDIA. My smelling-bottle, you simpleton!
+
+     LUCY. Oh, the drops! Here, ma'am.
+
+Presently the approach of Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Anthony Absolute is
+announced. Cries Lydia: "Here, my dear Lucy, hide these books. Quick,
+quick. Fling 'Peregrine Pickle' under the toilet; throw 'Roderick
+Random' into the closet; put 'The Innocent Adultery' into 'The Whole
+Duty of Man;' thrust 'Lord Aimworth' under the sofa; cram 'Ovid'
+behind the bolster; there, put 'The Man of Feeling' into your
+pocket--so, so--now lay 'Mrs. Chapone' in sight, and leave 'Fordyce's
+Sermons' open on the table."
+
+     LUCY. O, burn it, ma'am. The hairdresser has torn away as far as
+     "Proper Pride."
+
+     LYDIA. Never mind; open at "Sobriety." Fling me "Lord
+     Chesterfield's Letters." Now for 'em!
+
+It will be perceived that the property-master of the theatre is here
+required to produce quite a library of stage-books. Does he buy them
+by the dozen, from the nearest book-stall--out of that trunk full of
+miscellaneous volumes, boldly labelled, "All these at fourpence"? And
+does he then recover them with the bright blue or scarlet that is so
+dear to him, daubing them here and there with his indispensable Dutch
+metal? Of course their contents can matter little. Like all the other
+things of the theatre, they are not what they pretend to be, nor what
+they would have the audience think them. The "book of the play" is
+something of a mystery. Let us take for granted, however, that it is
+rarely interesting to the reader, that it is not one of those volumes
+which, when once taken up, cannot again be laid down--which thrill,
+enchain, and absorb. For otherwise what might happen? When some
+necessary question of the play had to be considered, the actor,
+over-occupied with the volume in his hand, fairly tied and bound by
+its chain of interest, might forget his part--the book might ruin the
+play. Of course such an accident could not be permitted. The
+stage-book is bound to be a dull book, however much it may seem to
+entertain Brutus and Henry, the Stranger and Bisarre, Hamlet and
+Joseph Surface, Imogen and Lydia Languish. It is in truth, a book for
+all stage-readers. Now it is a prayer-book--as in the case of Richard
+III.; and now, in "The Hunchback," it is "Ovid's Art of Love."
+According to the prompt-book of the play, Modus is to enter "with a
+neatly-bound book."
+
+    HELEN. What is the book?
+
+    MODUS. Tis "Ovid's Art of Love."
+
+    HELEN. That Ovid was a fool.
+
+    MODUS. In what?
+
+    HELEN. In that.
+    To call that thing an art which art is none.
+
+She strikes the book from his hand, and reproves him for reading in
+the presence of a lady.
+
+    MODUS.  Right you say,
+    And well you served me, cousin, so to strike
+    The volume from my hand. I own my fault:
+    So please you--may I pick it up again?
+    I'll put it in my pocket.
+
+It is the misfortune of the "book of the play" to be much maltreated
+by the _dramatis personae_. It is now flung away, now torn, now struck
+to earth; the property-master, it may be, watching its fate from the
+side-wings--anxious not so much because of its contents or intrinsic
+value, as on account of the gaudy cover his art has supplied it with,
+and the pains he must take to repair any injuries it may receive in
+the course of the performance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+"HALF-PRICE AT NINE O'CLOCK."
+
+
+The plan of admitting the public to the theatres at "half-price,"
+after the conclusion of a certain portion of the entertainments of the
+evening, has, of late years, gone out of fashion. Half-price was an
+institution of old date, however, and by no means without advantage to
+the playgoer.
+
+Formerly, the prices of admission to the theatres were not fixed so
+definitely as at present. In Colley Cibber's time it was held to be
+reasonable that the prices should be raised whenever a new play was
+produced, on account of which any great expense in the way of scenery,
+dresses, and decorations had been incurred, or when pantomimes were
+brought out, involving an outlay of a thousand pounds or so. After the
+bloom had a little worn off these novelties, the prices fell again to
+their old standard; consisting for some years of four shillings, two
+shillings and sixpence, eighteenpence, and one shilling.
+
+In November, 1744, when Mr. Fleetwood was manager of Drury Lane, he
+was charged by the public with raising his charges too capriciously,
+without the excuse of having presented his patrons with a new or a
+costly entertainment. Thereupon ensued a disturbance in the theatre,
+and Mr. Fleetwood was required by the audience to give an immediate
+explanation of his conduct. The manager pleaded that not being an
+actor he was exempt from the necessity of appearing on the stage
+publicly before the audience; but he gave notice, through one of his
+players, that he was willing to confer with any persons might be
+deputed to meet him in his own room. A deputation accordingly went
+from the pit to confer with the manager, and the house waited
+patiently their return. The result of the consultation was stated in a
+note to the playbill of the following day (Saturday):
+
+"Whenever a pantomime or farce shall be advertised, the advanced
+prices shall be returned to those who do not choose to stay; and, on
+Thursday next, will be published the manager's reasons for his conduct
+in the present dispute."
+
+This arrangement was very far from giving satisfaction, however, and
+the disturbance was renewed the next night. A country gentleman, who
+had distinguished himself by the warmth and violence of his
+expressions of disapproval, was forcibly removed by the constables
+from the upper boxes and carried before a magistrate, who, however, it
+would seem, declined to entertain the charge against the offender. The
+theatre was closed for two or three nights, and a notice appeared in
+the playbills: "The great damage occasioned by the disturbances makes
+it impossible to perform." The manager published an address to the
+public in _The General Advertiser_, setting forth a statement of the
+case and justifying his conduct.
+
+He reminded the public that the extraordinary disturbances which had
+lately occurred greatly affected their diversions as well as his
+property. He apprehended that the reasons of complaint assigned were,
+"the exhibition of pantomimes, advanced prices, and insults on the
+audience." As to the first charge, he submitted that, however
+distasteful pantomimes might be to the delicacy of some judgments, yet
+they were suited to the taste of many others; and as the playhouse
+might be considered as the general mart of pleasure, it was only from
+the variety of entertainment the different desires of the public could
+be supplied. He urged that the receipts of the house were sufficient
+evidence that without the occasional performance of pantomimes he
+could not afford to produce plays of a higher class. With regard to
+the advance in prices, he hoped he should be thought justified in that
+measure, when the great increase in his expenses was considered.
+Further, he conceived he should be no longer the subject of the
+displeasure of the public, since he had complied with the demand that
+the advanced prices should be returned to those who quitted the
+theatre after the first piece, without waiting to see the pantomime.
+He denied that he had ever had any intention to insult the audience.
+The arrest of the gentleman in the upper boxes was not in consequence
+of his orders, nor was he in anyway acquainted with the fact until
+after the discharge of the prisoner. There had been a quarrel in the
+theatre and much confusion consequent upon some persons flinging the
+candles and sconces on the stage. He denied that he had employed
+"bruisers" to coerce the audience. The peace-officers, carpenters, and
+scenemen (which last, on account of the pantomime, were very
+numerous), and other servants of the theatre, had not appeared until
+the tumult was at its height. The benches were being torn up, and
+there were threats of storming the stage and demolishing the scenes.
+If any "bruisers" were in the pit, the manager presumed that they must
+have entered the house with the multitude who came in after the
+doorkeepers had been driven from their posts. Finally, he appealed to
+the public to pronounce whether, after the concession he had made, and
+the injury he had sustained, to the extent of several hundred pounds,
+they would persist in a course which would only deprive them of their
+diversions, the players of subsistence, and compel him to resign his
+property.
+
+This appeal had its effect: the disturbance ceased: although there was
+some discontent that an arrangement so profitable to the manager had
+been agreed to. It was found that in practice, when people were once
+comfortably seated, "very few ever went out to demand their advanced
+money; and those few very soon grew tired of doing so; until at last
+it settled in the quiet payment of the advanced prices." Mr.
+Fleetwood, however, did not long continue in the management.
+
+In the year 1763 there occurred another disturbance. An adaptation of
+Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona," by Mr. Benjamin Victor, had
+been produced at Drury Lane Theatre. It was played five nights with
+success, but, on the sixth, when, according to the old theatrical
+custom, the receipts went to the author of the adaptation, the
+performance was interrupted. "A set of young men," writes Mr. Victor,
+"who called themselves 'The Town,' had consulted together and
+determined to compel the manager to admit them at the end of the third
+act at half-price to every performance except in the run of a new
+pantomime; and they chose to make that demand on the sixth night of
+'The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' though it was printed on the playbills
+'for the benefit of the author of the alterations.'" The performance
+of the play was actually forbidden. One Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was the
+avowed ringleader of the reformers, harangued the audience from the
+boxes, and set forth in very warm language the impositions of the
+managers, vehemently pleading the right of the public to fix the price
+of their bill of fare. Garrick came forward to address the house, but
+was received with a storm of disapprobation, and refused a hearing.
+The uproar continued; the benches were torn up, and the lustres and
+girandoles broken. Ultimately, the money taken at the doors was
+returned to the audience, and the theatre cleared.
+
+On the following night, Mr. Mallet's tragedy of "Elvira" was played
+for the first time. The disturbance was renewed, and Mr. Garrick was
+called for. He was asked peremptorily: "Will you or will you not give
+admittance for half-price after the third act of a play, except during
+the first winter a pantomime is performed?" The manager, dreading a
+repetition of the riot of the preceding evening, replied in the
+affirmative. A demand was then made for an apology from Moody the
+actor, who had interfered to prevent the theatre being fired. Moody
+appeared, and, after an Irish fashion, expressed regret that he had
+displeased the audience "by saving their lives in putting out the
+fire." This pleasantry was very ill received. Mr. Fitzpatrick's party
+insisted that the actor should go down on his knees and implore their
+pardon. Moody refused with an oath, and abruptly quitted the stage. He
+was received with open arms by Garrick in the wings, who assured him
+he should not suffer for his spirited conduct. But the tumult in the
+theatre became so great, that the manager was compelled to promise
+that Moody should not appear on the stage while he was under the
+displeasure of the public. A reconciliation was some time afterwards
+brought about between the actor and his audience. It may be noted that
+in 1763, according to a manuscript memorandum in his own hand
+(discovered by Mr. Parkes), Sir Phillip Francis, the supposed
+"Junius," commenced to write anonymously for the Press, the occasion
+being "a row in a theatre, to help Fitzpatrick out of the scrape."
+
+Mr. Fitzpatrick's plan of reform was supposed to be chiefly levelled
+at Mr. Garrick, yet it became evident that the management of the rival
+theatre must be made to accept the regulations that had been imposed
+on Drury Lane. With this view the rioters paid a visit to Covent
+Garden, where the opera of "Artaxerxes" was being represented. Mr.
+Fitzpatrick delivered his inflammatory speech from the boxes, and
+insisted upon immediate compliance with the demands of his party. Mr.
+Beard, the manager, replied with great firmness. He stated that operas
+had never been performed at such low prices as at his theatre; that
+his expenses were very great; and, he urged, that the public should
+not grudge the full price of admission, seeing that no expense in the
+way of actors, dresses, scenery, music, and decorations of all kinds,
+had been spared for their entertainment. Finally, he declined to
+accept the tariff of admission proposed by Mr. Fitzpatrick. A riot
+then ensued, and so much damage was done that the carpenters were
+employed for four or five days in repairing the theatre. Mr. Beard,
+however, by means of a chief justice's warrant, brought two or three
+of the rioters before Lord Mansfield. His lordship solemnly cautioned
+Mr. Fitzpatrick that if any loss of life were to occur in consequence
+of the breach of the peace he had instigated, the law would hold him
+accountable for the disaster. This somewhat checked the violence of
+the rioters, who contented themselves thenceforward with laughing and
+hissing, and forbore to inflict injury upon the furniture and fittings
+of the theatre. Mr. Beard, at last, finding it impossible to keep open
+the doors of his theatre to any purpose, submitted to the terms of the
+dictators; peace was restored, and half-price established.
+
+The exception made in favour of new pantomimes was much remarked upon
+at the time. It was declared that the effect of the arrangement would
+be to exalt a worthless class of entertainment at the expense of
+tragedy and comedy; in order to obtain full prices the managers would
+be encouraged to produce a succession of pantomimes, to the neglect of
+works of real dramatic worth. Further, it was declared that the
+proceedings of Mr. Fitzpatrick, though professedly in the interests of
+the public, were, in truth, due to motives of private resentment and
+malice. According to Davies, in his "Life of Garrick," there would
+seem to be much reason for this charge. Mr. Fitzpatrick was a
+gentleman of moderate fortune, constantly attending the theatres,
+frequenting the coffee-houses about Covent Garden, and dabbling in
+dramatic criticism. He had been introduced to Garrick, had been
+received with much favour by the great actor, and placed on the free
+list of Drury Lane. His success somewhat turned his brain. He began to
+conceive himself a person of great importance. He assumed severely
+critical airs, and published letters in "The Craftsman," dealing with
+the players, and especially with Garrick, after a very arrogant and
+acrimonious fashion. Garrick took up his pen to reply, and in his poem
+"The Fribbleriad"--the hero of which is named Fizgigg--he rather
+severely satirised his critic. Churchill, following suit, to the
+eighth edition of his "Rosciad" added fifty lines, scourging Mr.
+Fitzpatrick savagely enough. The "half-price" disturbance was the
+method of replying to these attacks of the actor and his friend, which
+Mr. Fitzpatrick found to be the most suitable and convenient. Arthur
+Murphy, however, says for Mr. Fitzpatrick, that he was admired for his
+talents and amiable manners, and that Churchill caricatured him in the
+"Rosciad" to gratify the resentment of Garrick. In any case, however,
+it would be hard to justify the riot of which Fitzpatrick was
+certainly the instigator.
+
+In 1817, the experiment was tried at the English Opera House, or
+Lyceum Theatre, of giving two distinct performances in the evening, in
+lieu of taking half-price at nine o'clock. The management alleged that
+objection had been taken to the length of theatrical performances,
+which were often made to extend over five hours; that the half-price
+system did not remedy the evil complained of by those whose habits of
+life or avocations would not permit their early attendance at the
+theatre. "Many persons who would be desirous to witness the early part
+of a performance, are indisposed to pay the price of a whole evening's
+entertainment, for that portion of it only which they can enjoy; and
+it may reasonably be supposed that thousands who might wish to enter
+the theatre at a later hour (as at the usual time for second price),
+are wholly excluded by the certainty of finding the best seats
+occupied. Thus numberless persons, from the one or the other cause,
+are deterred from frequenting the amusements of the stage." In order,
+therefore, to accommodate the patrons who required the performances
+to commence at an early hour, and to gratify those who demanded that
+the entertainments should be continued until late, it was proposed to
+divide every evening's entertainment into two distinct parts or
+performances. Each performance was to consist of a full three-act
+opera; or of a short opera with a ballet or musical entertainment. The
+first performance was to begin at six o'clock, and to last till about
+nine; and the second performance was to begin at half-past nine, and
+to conclude at twelve; the prices to either performance being
+considerably reduced. "We are fully aware," said the public address of
+the management, "that we shall have to encounter many professional
+jokes on this occasion, but we are prepared to smile at the
+good-humoured raillery of our friends, and the hostile attempts of our
+enemies, who may both, perhaps, be inclined to call this a
+'Bartholomew Fair scheme.' Let them call it what they will, we know
+that our sole aim is to exist by your favour, and by devising all
+means for your entertainment, till we ultimately receive an honest
+reward for our labours."
+
+The new plan was not found to work very well, however. A very thin
+audience attended the first performance, and a few hisses were heard
+in opposition to the project; the friends of the management applauding
+lustily. At the conclusion of the first entertainment, certain
+obstinate persons refused to resign their seats and make way for their
+successors, though the stage lamps were extinguished and they were
+threatened with total darkness. The manager then came forward, and
+formally announced that the first performance had concluded. One or
+two then threw their money on the stage, as the price of their
+admission to the second performance, and finding that the malcontents
+were resolved to keep their seats, the manager submitted and retired.
+The plan was only continued for ten nights, when the theatre was
+closed for the season. In a farewell address, the manager stated that
+the experiment, so far as he could judge, had succeeded; during the
+ten nights, compared with the ten nights preceding, an addition of
+one-third having been made to the number of persons visiting the
+theatre. Still, he did not feel justified in pledging himself to
+continue the arrangement in future seasons. There was indeed no
+further trial of the double-performance system in lieu of half-price.
+
+It is rather curious to find the plan of half-price having any sort
+of effect upon dramatic literature, yet we find, in the "Autobiography
+of Thomas Dibdin," 1827, the following advice, given him by Lewis, the
+stage-manager at Covent Garden, in regard to writing for the stage,
+and apropos of Mr. Dibdin's comedy, called "Liberal Opinions":
+
+"MY DEAR TOM,--This will be your first five-act production, and don't
+be offended if an old practitioner ventures to offer (from the respect
+he bears you) the fruits of his long experience. Half-price is a very
+proper privilege for those whose time or pockets do not afford them an
+opportunity of visiting the theatre earlier; but it is often the bane
+of an author on the first night of a five-act play. The new-comers
+know nothing of the foregone part of the drama; and having no context
+with which to connect allusions in the fourth and fifth acts, are apt
+to damn without consideration that which they are no judges of--
+
+    And what they cannot comprehend deny.
+
+"To be fore-armed against this contingency, contrive to make some
+character (either in the heat of passion, or in any way you please)
+briefly run over all the foregoing parts of the story, so as to put
+everyone in possession of what they otherwise would have lost by
+absence; and, take my word, you will reap the benefit of it."
+
+Mr. Dibdin expresses so much gratitude for Mr. Lewis's counsel, and
+recommends it so earnestly to the consideration of all young
+dramatists, that we cannot doubt that some effect upon subsequent
+writings for the stage must in this indirect way have resulted from
+the half-price system, and in avoidance of its disadvantages, as set
+forth by the stage-manager of Covent Garden Theatre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE DRAMA UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+For such a triumph as fanaticism enjoyed over the fine arts in England
+during and for some time after the great Civil War, no parallel can be
+found in the history of any other nation. And it was not, be it
+remembered, the work of a capricious and cruel despot; it was the
+tyranny of a solemn legislative assembly. Hypocrisy had some share in
+the proceeding, very likely; but in the main the Puritanism of the
+time was sincere even to its frenzies of intolerance. Good men and
+true held that they were doing only what was sound, and wise, and
+right, when they made ruthless war upon poetry, and painting, and all
+the refinements and graces of life, denouncing them as scandals and
+sins, ungodly devices, pernicious wiles of the author of all evil;
+when they peremptorily closed the doors of the theatres, and dismissed
+actors, authors, managers, and all concerned, to absolute starvation.
+
+In the England of that time, no doubt, Puritanism obtained supporters
+out of respect for superior power; just as in France, at a later date,
+Republicanism gained converts by means of terror. The prudent, when
+conflict and tumult are at hand, will usually side with the stronger
+combatant. Thus it was with little resistance that there passed
+through both Houses of Parliament, in 1647, the ordinance by virtue of
+which the theatres were to be dismantled and suppressed; all actors of
+plays to be publicly whipped; and all spectators and playgoers, for
+every offence, condemned to forfeit five shillings. This was the
+_coup de grace;_ for the stage had already undergone many and severe
+assaults. The player's tenure of his art had become more and more
+precarious, until acting seemed to be as a service of danger. The
+ordinance of 1647 closed the theatres for nearly fourteen years; but
+for some sixteen years before the stage had been in a more or less
+depressed condition. Scarcely any new dramatists of distinction had
+appeared after 1630. The theatres were considerably reduced in number
+by the time 1636 was arrived at. Then came the arbitrary closing of
+the playhouses--professedly but for a season. Thus in 1636 they were
+closed for ten months; in 1642 for eighteen months. In truth
+Puritanism carried on its victorious campaign against the drama for
+something like thirty years; while even at an earlier date there had
+been certain skirmishing attacks upon the stage. With the first
+Puritan began the quarrel with the players. As Isaac Disraeli has
+observed, "we must go back to the reign of Elizabeth to comprehend an
+event which occurred in that of Charles I." A sanctimonious sect urged
+extravagant reforms--at first, perhaps, in all simplicity--founding
+their opinions upon cramped and literal interpretations of divine
+precepts, and forming views of human nature "more practicable in a
+desert than a city, and rather suited to a monastic order than to a
+polished people." Still, these fanatics could scarcely have dreamed
+that power would ever be given them to carry their peculiar theories
+into practice, and to govern a nation as though it were composed
+entirely of precisians and bigots. For two generations--from the
+Reformation to the Civil War--the Puritans had been the butt of the
+satirical, the jest of the wits--ridiculed and laughed at on all
+sides. Then came a time, "when," in the words of Macaulay, "the
+laughers began to look grave in their turn. The rigid ungainly zealots
+... rose up in arms, conquered, ruled, and, grimly smiling, trod down
+under their feet the whole crowd of mockers."
+
+Yet from the first the Puritans had not neglected the pen as a weapon
+of offence. In 1579 Stephen Gosson published his curious pamphlet
+bearing the lengthy title of "The Schoole of Abuse, containing a
+pleasant Invective against Poets, Pipers, Jesters, and such like
+Catterpillars of a Commonwealth; setting up the Flag of Defiance to
+their mischievous exercise, and overthrowing their Bulwarks, by
+Profane Writers, natural reason, and common experience: A Discourse
+as pleasant for gentlemen that favour learning as profitable for all
+that will follow virtue." Gosson expresses himself with much quaint
+force, but he is not absolutely intolerant. He was a student of Oxford
+University, had in his youth written poems and plays, and even
+appeared upon the scene as an actor. Although he had repented of these
+follies, he still viewed them without acrimony. To his pamphlet we are
+indebted for certain interesting details in regard to the manners and
+customs of the Elizabethan playgoers. A further attack upon the
+theatre was led by Dr. Reynolds, of Queen's College, who was greatly
+troubled by the performance of a play at Christchurch, and who
+published, in 1593, "The Overthrow of Stage Plays," described by
+Disraeli as "a tedious invective, foaming at the mouth of its text
+with quotations and authorities." Reynolds was especially severe upon
+"the sin of boys wearing the dress and affecting the airs of women;"
+and thus unconsciously helped on a change he would have regarded as
+still more deplorable--the appearance of actresses upon the stage. But
+a fiercer far than Reynolds was to arise. In 1633 Prynne produced his
+"Histriomastix; or, The Player's Scourge," a monstrous work of more
+than a thousand closely-printed quarto pages, devoted to the most
+searching indictment of the stage and its votaries. The author has
+been described as a man of great learning, but little judgment; of
+sour and austere principles, but wholly deficient in candour. His book
+was judged libellous, for he had unwittingly aspersed the Queen in his
+attack upon the masques performed at Court. He was cited in the Star
+Chamber, and sentenced to stand in the pillory, to lose both ears, to
+pay a heavy fine, and to undergo imprisonment for life. This severe
+punishment probably stimulated the Puritans, when opportunity came to
+them, to deal mercilessly with the actors by way of avenging Prynne's
+wrongs, or of expressing sympathy with his sufferings.
+
+And it is to be noted that early legislation in regard to the players
+had been far from lenient. For such actors as had obtained the
+countenance of "any Baron of this Realme," or "any other honourable
+personage of greater degree," exception was to be made; otherwise, all
+common players in interludes, all fencers, bearwards, and minstrels,
+were declared by an Act passed in the 14th year of Elizabeth to be
+rogues and vagabonds, and, whether male or female, liable on a first
+conviction "to be grievously whipped and burned through the gristle of
+the right ear with an hot iron of the compass of an inch about,
+manifesting his or her roguish kind of life;" a second offence was
+adjudged to be felony; a third entailed death without benefit of
+clergy or privilege of sanctuary. Meanwhile, the regular companies of
+players to whom this harsh Act did not apply, were not left
+unmolested. The Court might encourage them, but the City would have
+none of them. They had long been accustomed to perform in the yards of
+the City inns, but an order of the Common Council, dated December,
+1575, expelled the players from the City. Thereupon public playhouses
+were erected outside the "liberties" or boundaries of the City. The
+first was probably the theatre in Shoreditch; the second, opened in
+its immediate neighbourhood, was known as the Curtain; the third,
+built by John Burbadge and other of the Earl of Leicester's company of
+players, was the famous Blackfriars Theatre. These were all erected
+about 1576, and other playhouses were opened soon afterwards. Probably
+to avoid the penalties of the Act of Elizabeth, all strolling and
+unattached players made haste to join regular companies, or to shelter
+themselves under noble patronage. And now the Church raised its voice,
+and a controversy which still possesses some vitality touching the
+morality or immorality of playhouses, plays and players, was fairly
+and formally entered upon. A sermon preached at Paul's Cross,
+November, 1577, "in the time of the plague," by the Rev. T. Wilcocks,
+denounced in strong language the "common plays" in London, and the
+multitude that flocked to them and followed them, and described "the
+sumptuous theatre houses" as a continual monument of London's
+prodigality and folly. Performances, it seems, had for a while been
+forbidden because of the plague. "I like the policy well if it hold
+still," said the preacher; "for a disease is but bodged and patched up
+that is not cured in the cause, and the cause of plague is sin, if you
+look to it well; and the cause of sin are playes; therefore, the cause
+of plagues are playes." It is clear, too, that the clergy had become
+affected by a certain jealousy of the players, the sound of whose
+trumpet attracted more attention than the ringing of the church-bells,
+and brought together a larger audience. John Stockwood, schoolmaster
+of Tunbridge, who preached at Paul's Cross on St. Bartholomew's Day,
+1578, demanded, "will not a filthy play, with the blast of a trumpet,
+sooner call thither a thousand than an hour's tolling bring to the
+sermon a hundred?" It was, moreover, an especial grievance to the
+devout at this period that plays were represented on a Sunday, the
+church and the theatre being thus brought into positive rivalry and
+antagonism. The clergy saw with dismay that their own congregations
+were thin and listless, while crowded and excited audiences rewarded
+the exertions of the players. Mr. Stockwood, declining to discuss
+whether plays were or not wholly unlawful, yet protested with good
+reason that in a Christian commonwealth they were intolerable on the
+seventh day, and exclaimed against the "horrible profanity" and
+"devilish inventions" of the lords of misrule, morrice, and May-day
+dancers, whom he accused of tripping about the church, even during the
+hours of service, and of figuring in costumes which, by their texture
+and scantiness, outraged ordinary notions of decency.
+
+But notwithstanding this old-established opposition to the theatres on
+the part of both Churchmen and Puritans, and the severe oppression of
+the players by the authorities, it is yet indisputable that the
+English were essentially a playgoing people; proud, as well they might
+be, of the fact that they possessed the finest drama and the best
+actors in the world. And, allowing for the licence and grossness which
+the times permitted if they did not encourage, and a certain liberty
+of speech and action allowed time out of mind to the clowns of the
+stage, the drama suppressed by the Puritans was of sound and wholesome
+constitution, rich in poetry of the noblest class. It is sufficient to
+say, indeed, that it was the drama of Shakespeare and his
+contemporaries. To a very large class, therefore, the persecution of
+the players and the suppression of the stage must have been grave
+misfortune and real privation. To many the theatre still supplied not
+merely recreation but education and enlightenment as well. That there
+was any rising of the public on behalf of the players does not appear.
+Puritanism was too strong for opposition; and besides, the playgoer,
+by the nature of his favourite pursuit, almost avows himself a man of
+peace and obedient to the law. The public had to submit, as best it
+could, to the tyranny of fanaticism. But that bitter mortification was
+felt by very many may be taken for granted.
+
+The authors were deprived of occupation so far as concerned the stage;
+they sought other employment for their pens; printing a play, however,
+now and then, by way of keeping their hands in as dramatists. The
+managers, left with nothing to manage, perhaps turned to trade in
+quest of outlet for their energies--the manager has been always
+something of the trader. But for the actors, forbidden to act, what
+were they to do? They had been constituted Malignants or Royalists
+almost by Act of Parliament. The younger players promptly joined the
+army of King Charles. Mohun acquired the rank of captain, and at the
+close of the war, served in Flanders, receiving the pay of a major.
+Hart became a lieutenant of horse, under Sir Thomas Dallison, in the
+regiment of Prince Rupert. In the same troop served Burt as cornet,
+and Shatterel as quartermaster. Allen, of the Cockpit, was a major and
+quartermaster-general at Oxford. Robinson, serving on the side of the
+King, was long reputed to have lost his life at the taking of Basing
+House. The story went that the Cromwellian General Harrison had, with
+his own hands, slain the actor, crying, as he struck him down: "Cursed
+is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently." Chalmers
+maintains, however, that an entry in the parish register of St.
+Anne's, Blackfriars, of the death and burial of "Richard Robinson, a
+player," in March, 1647, negatives this account of the actor's fate.
+Possibly there were two actors bearing the not uncommon name of
+Robinson. These were all players of note, who had acquitted themselves
+with applause in the best plays of the time. Of certain older actors,
+unable to bear arms for the king, Lowin turned innkeeper, and died, at
+an advanced age, landlord of the Three Pigeons at Brentford. He had
+been an actor of eminence in the reign of James I.; "and his poverty
+was as great as his age," says one account of him. Taylor, who was
+reputed to have been taught by Shakespeare himself the correct method
+of interpreting the part of Hamlet, died and was buried at Richmond.
+These two actors, as did others probably, sought to pick up a little
+money by publishing copies of plays that had obtained favour in
+performance, but had not before been printed. Thus, in 1652, Beaumont
+and Fletcher's "Wild Goose Chase" was printed in folio, "for the
+public use of all the ingenious, and the private benefit of John Lowin
+and Joseph Taylor, servants to his late Majesty, and by them dedicated
+to the honoured few lovers of dramatic poesy: wherein they modestly
+intimate their wants, and that with sufficient cause, for whatever
+they were before the wars, they were afterwards reduced to a
+necessitous condition." Pollard, possessed of some means, withdrew to
+his relatives in the country, and there ended his days peacefully.
+Perkins and Sumner lodged humbly together in Clerkenwell, and were
+interred in that parish. None of these unfortunate old actors lived to
+see the re-opening of the theatres or the restoration of the monarchy.
+
+But one actor is known to have sided with the Parliament and against
+the King. He renounced the stage and took up the trade of a jeweller
+in Aldermanbury. This was Swanston who had played Othello, and had
+been described as "a brave roaring fellow, who would make the house
+shake again." "One wretched actor only," Mr. Gifford writes, in the
+introduction to his edition of Massinger, "deserted his sovereign."
+But it may be questioned whether Swanston really merited this
+reprehension. He was a Presbyterian, it seems, and remained true to
+his political opinions, even though these now involved the abandonment
+of his profession. If his brother-players fought for the King, they
+fought no less for themselves, and for the theatre the Puritans had
+suppressed. Nor is the contrast Mr. Gifford draws, between the conduct
+of our actors at the time of the Civil War, and the proceedings of the
+French players during the first French Revolution, altogether fair. As
+Isaac Disraeli has pointed out, there was no question of suppressing
+the stage in France--it was rather employed as an instrument in aid of
+the Revolution. The actors may have sympathised sincerely with the
+royal family in their afflicted state, but it was hardly to be
+expected that men would abandon, on that account, the profession of
+their choice, in which they had won real distinction, and which seemed
+to flourish the more owing to the excited condition of France. The
+French Revolution, in truth, brought to the stage great increase of
+national patronage.
+
+The Civil War concluded, and the cause of King Charles wholly lost,
+the actors were at their wits' end to earn bread. Certain of them
+resolved to defy the law, and to give theatrical performances in spite
+of the Parliament. Out of the wreck of the companies of the different
+theatres they made up a tolerable troop, and ventured to present some
+few plays, with as much caution and privacy as possible, at the
+Cockpit, in Drury Lane. This was in the winter of 1648. Doubtless
+there were many to whom the stage was dear, who were willing enough to
+encourage the poor players. Playgoing had now become as a vice or a
+misdemeanour, to be prosecuted in secret--like dram-drinking. The
+Cockpit representations lasted but a few days. During a performance of
+Fletcher's tragedy of "Rollo, Duke of Normandy," in which such
+excellent actors as Lowin, Taylor, Pollard, Burt, and Hart were
+concerned, a party of troopers beset the house, broke in about the
+middle of the play, and carried off the players, accoutred as they
+were in their stage dresses, to Hatton House, then a prison, where,
+after being detained some time, they were plundered of their clothes
+and dismissed. "Afterwards, in Oliver's time," as an old chronicler of
+dramatic events has left upon record, "they used to act privately,
+three or four miles or more out of town, now here, now there,
+sometimes in noblemen's houses--in particular Holland House, at
+Kensington--where the nobility and gentry who met (but in no great
+numbers) used to make a sum for them, each giving a broad-piece or the
+like." The widow of the Earl of Holland who was beheaded in March,
+1649, occupied Holland House at this time. She was the granddaughter
+of Sir Walter Cope, and a stout-hearted lady, who doubtless took pride
+in encouraging the entertainments her late lord's foes had tried so
+hard to suppress. Alexander Goffe, "the woman-actor at Blackfriars,"
+acted as "Jackal" on the occasion of these furtive performances. He
+had made himself known to the persons of quality who patronised plays,
+and gave them notice of the time when and the place where the next
+representation would "come off." A stage-play, indeed, in those days
+was much what a prize-fight has been in later times--absolutely
+illegal, and yet assured of many persistent supporters. Goffe was
+probably a slim, innocent-looking youth, who was enabled to baffle the
+vigilance of the Puritan functionaries, and to pass freely and
+unsuspected between the players and their patrons. At Christmas-time
+and during the few days devoted to Bartholomew Fair, the actors, by
+dint of bribing the officer in command of the guard at Whitehall, and
+securing in such wise his connivance, were enabled to present
+performances at the Red Bull in St. John Street. Sometimes the Puritan
+troopers were mean enough to accept the hard-earned money of these
+poor players, and, nevertheless, to interrupt their performance,
+carrying them off to be imprisoned and punished for their breach of
+the law. But their great trouble arose from the frequent seizure of
+their wardrobe by the covetous soldiers. The clothes worn by the
+players upon the stage were of superior quality--fine dresses were of
+especial value in times prior to the introduction of scenery--and the
+loss was hard to bear. The public, it was feared, would be loath to
+believe in the merits of an actor who was no better attired than
+themselves. But at length it became too hazardous, as Kirkman relates,
+in the preface to "The Wits, or Sport upon Sport," 1672, "to act
+anything that required any good cloaths; instead of which painted
+cloath many times served the turn to represent rich habits." Kirkman's
+book is a collection of certain "scenes or parts of plays ... the
+fittest for the actors to represent at this period, there being little
+cost in the cloaths, which often then were in great danger to be
+seized by the soldiers." These "select pieces of drollery, digested
+into scenes by way of dialogue, together with variety of humours of
+several nations, fitted for the pleasure and content of all persons,
+either in court, city, county, or camp," were first printed in 1662,
+by H. Marsh, and were originally contrived by Robert Cox, a comic
+genius in his way, who exhibited great ingenuity in evading the
+ordinances of Parliament, and in carrying on dramatic performances in
+spite of the Puritans. He presented at the Red Bull what were
+professedly entertainments of rope-dancing, gymnastic feats, and such
+coarse practical fun as may even now be seen in the circus of
+strolling equestrian companies; but with these he cunningly
+intermingled select scenes from the comedies of the best English
+dramatists. From Kirkman's book, which is now highly prized from its
+rarity, it appears that the "drollery" entitled "The Bouncing Knight,
+or the Robbers Robbed," is, in truth, a famous adventure of Sir John
+Falstaff's, set forth in close accordance with the original text;
+while the comedy of "Rule a Wife and have a Wife" is reduced to a
+brief entertainment called "The Equal Match." Other popular plays are
+similarly dealt with. But Cox, it seems, invented not less than he
+borrowed. Upon the foundation of certain old-established farces, he
+raised up entertainments something of the nature of the extemporary
+comedy of Italy: characters being devised or developed expressly with
+a view to his own performance of them. "All we could divert ourselves
+with," writes Kirkman, "were these humours and pieces of plays, which,
+passing under the name of a merry conceited fellow called Bottom the
+Weaver, Simpleton the Smith, John Swabber, or some such title, were
+only allowed us, and that by stealth too ... and these small things
+were as profitable and as great get-pennies to the actors as any of
+our late famed plays." He relates, moreover, that these performances
+attracted "a great confluence of auditors," insomuch that the Red
+Bull, a playhouse of large size, was often so full, that "as many went
+back for want of room as had entered;" and that meanly as these
+"drolls" might be thought of in later times, they were acted by the
+best comedians "then and now in being." Especially he applauds the
+actor, author, and contriver of the majority of the farces--"the
+incomparable Robert Cox." Isaac Disraeli gives him credit for
+preserving alive, as it were by stealth, the suppressed spirit of the
+drama. That he was a very natural actor, or what would now be called
+"realistic," may be judged from the story told of his performance of a
+comic blacksmith, and his securing thereby an invitation to work at
+the forge of a master smith, who had been present among the audience.
+"Although your father speaks so ill of you," said the employer of
+labour, "if you will come and work with me, I will give you
+twelvepence a-week more than I give any other journeyman." As Kirkman
+adds: "Thus was he taken for a smith bred, that was, indeed, as much
+of any trade."
+
+It seems certain that for some few years prior to the Restoration
+there had been far less stringent treatment of the players than in the
+earlier days of the triumph of Puritanism. Cromwell, perhaps, rather
+despised the stage than condemned it seriously on religious grounds;
+the while he did not object to indulge in buffoonery and horseplay,
+even in the gallery of Whitehall. Some love of music he has been
+credited with, and this, perhaps, induced him to tolerate the operatic
+dramas of Sir William Davenant, which obtained representation during
+the Commonwealth: such as "The History of Sir Francis Drake,"
+"represented by instrumental and vocal music, and by art of
+Perspective in Scenes," and "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru."
+According to Langbaine, the two plays called "The Siege of Rhodes"
+were likewise acted _"in stilo recitativo"_ during the time of the
+Civil Wars, and upon the Restoration were rewritten and enlarged for
+regular performance at the Duke of York's Theatre, in Lincoln's Inn
+Fields. It seems to have been held that a play was no longer a play if
+its words were sung instead of spoken--or these representations of
+Davenant's works may have been altogether stealthy, and without the
+cognisance of the legal authorities of the time. Isaac Disraeli,
+however, has pointed out that in some verses, published in 1653, and
+prefixed to the plays of Richard Brome, there is evident a tone of
+exultation at the passing away of power from the hands of those who
+had oppressed the actors. The poet, in a moralising vein, alludes to
+the fate of the players as it was affected by the dissolution of the
+Long Parliament:
+
+    See the strange twirl of times! When such poor things
+    Outlive the dates of parliaments or kings!
+    This revolution makes exploded wit
+    Now see the fall of those that ruined it;
+    And the condemned stage hath now obtained
+    To see her executioners arraigned.
+    There's nothing permanent; those high great men
+    That rose from dust to dust may fall again;
+    And fate so orders things that the same hour
+    Sees the same man both in contempt and power!
+
+For complete emancipation, however, the stage had to wait some years;
+until, indeed, it pleased Monk, acting in accordance with the desire
+of the nation, to march his army to London, and to restore the
+monarchy. Encamped in Hyde Park, Monk was visited by one Rhodes, a
+bookseller, who had been formerly occupied as wardrobe-keeper to King
+Charles I.'s company of comedians in Blackfriars, and who now applied
+to the general for permission to reopen the Cockpit in Drury Lane as a
+playhouse. Monk, it seems, held histrionic art in some esteem; at any
+rate the City companies, when with his council of state he dined in
+their halls, were wont to entertain him with performances of a
+theatrical kind: satirical farces, dancing and singing, "many shapes
+and ghosts, and the like; and all to please His Excellency the Lord
+General," say the newspapers of the time. Rhodes obtained the boon he
+sought, and, promptly engaging a troop of actors, reopened the
+Cockpit. His chief actor was his apprentice, Thomas Betterton, the son
+of Charles I.'s cook. For some fifty years the great Mr. Betterton
+held his place upon the stage, and upon his death was interred with
+something like royal honours in Westminster Abbey.
+
+Of the fate of Rhodes nothing further is recorded. He was the first to
+give back to Londoners a theatre they might visit legally and safely;
+and that done, he is heard of no more. Killigrew and Davenant were
+soon invested with patent rights, and entitled to a monopoly of
+theatrical management in London; probably they prospered by displacing
+Rhodes--but so much cannot be positively asserted.
+
+The drama was now out of its difficulties. Yet the influence and
+effect of these did not soon abate. Upon them followed indeed a sort
+of after-crop of troubles, seriously injurious to the stage. The
+Cavaliers engendered a drama that was other than the drama the
+Puritans had destroyed. The theatre was restored, it is true, but with
+an altered constitution. It was not only that the old race of poets
+and dramatists had died out, and that writing for the stage was as a
+new profession, almost as a lost art. Taste had altered. As Evelyn
+regretfully notes in 1662, after witnessing a performance of
+Hamlet--to which, perhaps, the audience paid little heed, although the
+incomparable Betterton appeared in the tragedy--"but now the old plays
+begin to disgust this refined age, since his Majesty's being so long
+abroad." Shakespeare and his brother-bards were out of fashion. There
+was a demand for tragedies of the French school--with rhyming lines
+and artificial sentiment--for comedies of intrigue and equivoque,
+after a foreign pattern, in lieu of our old English plays of wit,
+humour, and character. Plagiarism, translation, and adaptation took up
+a secure position on the stage. The leading playwrights of the
+Restoration--Dryden, Shadwell, Durfey, Wycherley--all borrowed freely
+from the French. Dryden frankly apologised--he was required to produce
+so many plays all could not be of his own inventing. The King
+encouraged appropriation of foreign works. He drew Sir Samuel Tuke's
+attention to an admired Spanish comedy, advising its adaptation to
+the English stage: the result was "The Adventures of Five Hours," a
+work very highly esteemed by Mr. Pepys. The introduction of scenery
+was due in a great measure to French example, although "paintings in
+perspective" had already been seen in an English theatre. But now
+scenery was imperatively necessary to a dramatic performance, and a
+sort of passion arose for mechanical devices and decorative appliances
+of a novel kind. Dryden was no reformer--in truth, to suit his own
+purposes, he pandered laboriously to the follies and caprices of his
+patrons; nevertheless, he was fully sensible of the errors of the
+time, and often chronicles these in his prologues and epilogues. He
+writes:
+
+    True wit has run its best days long ago,
+    It ne'er looked up since we were lost in show,
+    When sense in doggrel rhymes and clouds was lost,
+    And dulness nourished at the actor's cost.
+    Nor stopped it here; when tragedy was done,
+    Satire and humour the same fate have run,
+    And comedy is sunk to trick and pun.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Let them who the rebellion first began
+    To wit, restore the monarch if they can;
+    Our author dares not be the first bold man.
+
+And upon another occasion:
+
+    But when all failed to strike the stage quite dumb,
+    Those wicked engines, called machines, are come.
+    Thunder and lightning now for wit are played,
+    And shortly scenes in Lapland will be laid.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Fletcher's despised, your Jonson out of fashion.
+    And wit the only drug in all the nation.
+
+Actresses, too, were introduced upon the stage in pursuance of
+continental example. But for these there was really great necessity.
+The boys who, prior to the Civil War, had personated the heroines of
+the drama, were now too mature, both in years and aspect, for such an
+occupation.
+
+    Doubting we should never play agen,
+    We have played all our women into men!
+
+says the prologue, introducing the first actress. Hart and Mohun,
+Clun, Shatterel and Burt, who were now leading actors, had been
+boy-actresses before the closing of the theatres. And even after the
+Restoration, Mohun whose military title of major was always awarded
+him in the playbills, still appeared as Bellamante, one of the
+heroines of Shirley's tragedy of "Love's Cruelty." But this must have
+been rather too absurd. At the time of the Restoration Mohun could
+hardly have been less than thirty-five years of age. It is to be
+noted, however, that Kynaston, a very distinguished boy-actress, who,
+with Betterton, was a pupil of Rhodes, arose after the Restoration. Of
+the earlier boy-actresses, their methods and artifices of performance,
+Kynaston could have known nothing. He was undoubtedly a great artist,
+winning extraordinary favour both in male and female characters, the
+last and perhaps the best of all the epicene stage-players of the
+past.
+
+But if the stage, after the Restoration, differed greatly from what it
+had been previously, it yet prospered and gained strength more and
+more. It was most fortunate in its actors and actresses, who lent it
+invaluable support. It never attained again the poetic heights to
+which it had once soared; but it surrendered gradually much of its
+grossness and its baser qualities, in deference to the improving
+tastes of its patrons, and in alarm at the sound strictures of men
+like Jeremy Collier. The plagiarist, the adapter, and the translator
+did not relax their hold upon it; but eventually it obtained the aid
+of numerous dramatists of enduring distinction. The fact that it again
+underwent decline is traceable to various causes--among them, the
+monopoly enjoyed by privileged persons under the patents granted by
+Charles II.; the bungling intervention of court officials invested
+with supreme power over the dramatic literature of the nation; and
+defective copyright laws, that rendered justice neither to the native
+nor to the foreign writer for the theatre. And something, too, the
+stage of later years has been affected by a change in public taste,
+which has subordinated the play to the novel or poem, and converted
+playgoers into the supporters of circulating libraries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+STAGE BANQUETS.
+
+
+A veteran actor of inferior fame once expressed his extreme dislike to
+what he was pleased to term "the sham wine-parties" of Macbeth and
+others. He was aweary of the Barmecide banquets of the stage, of
+affecting to quaff with gusto imaginary wine out of empty pasteboard
+goblets, and of making believe to have an appetite for wooden apples
+and "property" comestibles. He was in every sense a poor player, and
+had often been a very hungry one. He took especial pleasure in
+remembering the entertainments of the theatre in which the necessities
+of performance, or regard for rooted tradition, involved the setting
+of real edible food before the actors. At the same time he greatly
+lamented the limited number of dramas in which these precious
+opportunities occurred.
+
+He had grateful memories of the rather obsolete Scottish melodrama of
+"Cramond Brig;" for in this work old custom demanded the introduction
+of a real sheep's head with accompanying "trotters." He told of a
+North British manager who was wont--especially when the salaries he
+was supposed to pay were somewhat in arrear, and he desired to keep
+his company in good humour and, may be, alive--to produce this play on
+Saturday nights. For some days before the performance the dainties
+that were destined to grace it underwent exhibition in the green-room.
+A label bore the inscription: "This sheep's head will appear in the
+play of 'Cramond Brig' on next Saturday night. God save the King!" "It
+afforded us all two famous dinners," reveals our veteran. "We had a
+large pot of broth made with the head and feet; these we ate on
+Saturday night; the broth we had on Sunday." So in another Scottish
+play, "The Gentle Shepherd" of Allan Ramsay, it was long the custom on
+stages north of the Tweed to present a real haggis, although niggard
+managers were often tempted to substitute for the genuine dish a far
+less savoury if more wholesome mess of oatmeal. But a play more famous
+still for the reality of its victuals, and better known to modern
+times, was Prince Hoare's musical farce, "No Song no Supper." A
+steaming-hot boiled leg of lamb and turnips may be described as quite
+the leading character in this entertainment. Without this appetising
+addition the play has never been represented. There is a story,
+however, which one can only hope is incorrect, of an _impresario_ of
+oriental origin, who supplying the necessary meal, yet subsequently
+fined his company all round, on the ground that they had "combined to
+destroy certain of the properties of the theatre."
+
+There are many other plays in the course of which genuine food is
+consumed on the stage. But some excuse for the generally fictitious
+nature of theatrical repasts is to be found in the fact that eating
+during performance is often a very difficult matter for the actors to
+accomplish. Michael Kelly, in his "Memoirs," relates that he was
+required to eat part of a fowl in the supper scene of a bygone
+operatic play called, "A House to be Sold." Bannister at rehearsal had
+informed him that it was very difficult to swallow food on the stage.
+Kelly was incredulous however. "But strange as it may appear," he
+writes, "I found it a fact that I could not get down a morsel. My
+embarrassment was a great source of fun to Bannister and Suett, who
+were both gifted with the accommodating talent of stage feeding.
+Whoever saw poor Suett as the lawyer in 'No Song no Supper,' tucking
+in his boiled leg of lamb, or in 'The Siege of Belgrade,' will be
+little disposed to question my testimony to the fact." From this
+account, however, it is manifest that the difficulty of "stage
+feeding," as Kelly calls it, is not invariably felt by all actors
+alike. And probably, although the appetites of the superior players
+may often fail them, the supernumerary or the representative of minor
+characters could generally contrive to make a respectable meal if the
+circumstances of the case supplied the opportunity.
+
+The difficulty that attends eating on the stage does not, it would
+seem, extend to drinking, and sometimes the introduction of real and
+potent liquors during the performance has led to unfortunate results.
+Thus Whincop, to whose tragedy called "Scanderbeg," published in 1747,
+added "a List of all the Dramatic Authors, with some Account of their
+Lives," &c., describes a curious occurrence at the Theatre Royal in
+1693. A comedy entitled "The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot," written
+by one Higden, and now a very scarce book, had been produced; but on
+the first representation, "the author had contrived so much drinking
+of punch in the play that the actors almost all got drunk, and were
+unable to get through with it, so that the audience were dismissed at
+the end of the third act." Upon subsequent performances of the comedy
+no doubt the management reduced the strength of the punch, or
+substituted some harmless beverage, toast-and-water perhaps, imitative
+of that ardent compound so far as mere colour is concerned. There have
+been actors, however, who have refused to accept the innocent
+semblance of vinous liquor supplied by the management, and especially
+when, as part of their performance, they were required to simulate
+intoxication. A certain representative of Cassio was wont to carry to
+the theatre a bottle of claret from his own cellar, whenever he was
+called upon to sustain that character. It took possession of him too
+thoroughly, he said, with a plausible air, to allow of his affecting
+inebriety after holding an empty goblet to his lips, or swallowing
+mere toast-and-water or small beer. Still his precaution had its
+disadvantages. The real claret he consumed might make his intemperance
+somewhat too genuine and accurate; and his portrayal of Cassio's
+speedy return to sobriety might be in such wise very difficult of
+accomplishment. So there have been players of dainty taste, who,
+required to eat in the presence of the audience, have elected to bring
+their own provisions, from some suspicion of the quality of the food
+provided by the management. We have heard of a clown who, entering the
+theatre nightly to undertake the duties of his part, was observed to
+carry with him always a neat little paper parcel. What did it contain?
+bystanders inquired of each other. Well, in the comic scenes of
+pantomime it is not unusual to see a very small child, dressed perhaps
+as a charity-boy, crossing the stage, bearing in his hands a slice of
+bread-and-butter. The clown steals this article of food and devours
+it; whereupon the child, crying aloud, pursues him hither and thither
+about the stage. The incident always excites much amusement; for in
+pantomimes the world is turned upside-down, and moral principles have
+no existence; cruelty is only comical, and outrageous crime the best
+of jokes. The paper parcel borne to the theatre by the clown under
+mention enclosed the bread-and-butter that was to figure in the
+harlequinade. "You see I'm a particular feeder," the performer
+explained. "I can't eat bread-and-butter of anyone's cutting. Besides,
+I've tried it, and they only afford salt butter. I can't stand that.
+So as I've got to eat it and no mistake, with all the house looking at
+me, I cut a slice when I'm having my own tea, at home, and bring it
+down with me."
+
+Rather among the refreshments of the side-wings than of the stage must
+be counted that reeking tumbler of "very brown, very hot, and very
+strong brandy-and-water," which, as Dr. Doran relates, was prepared
+for poor Edmund Kean, as, towards the close of his career, he was wont
+to stagger from before the foot-lights, and, overcome by his exertions
+and infirmities, to sink, "a helpless, speechless, fainting, bent-up
+mass," into the chair placed in readiness to receive the shattered,
+ruined actor. With Kean's prototype in acting and in excess, George
+Frederick Cooke, it was less a question of stage or side-wing
+refreshments than of the measure of preliminary potation he had
+indulged in. In what state would he come down to the theatre? Upon the
+answer to that inquiry the entertainments of the night greatly
+depended. "I was drunk the night before last," Cooke said on one
+occasion; "still I acted, and they hissed me. Last night I was drunk
+again, and I didn't act; they hissed all the same. There's no knowing
+how to please the public." A fine actor, Cooke was also a genuine
+humorist, and it must be said for him, although a like excuse has been
+perhaps too often pleaded for such failings as his, that his senses
+gave way, and his brain became affected after very slight indulgence.
+From this, however, he could not be persuaded to abstain, and so made
+havoc of his genius, and terminated, prematurely and ignobly enough,
+his professional career.
+
+Many stories are extant as to performances being interrupted by the
+entry of innocent messengers bringing to the players, in the presence
+of the audience, refreshments they had designed to consume behind the
+scenes, or sheltered from observation between the wings. Thus it is
+told of one Walls, who was the prompter in a Scottish theatre, and
+occasionally appeared in minor parts, that he once directed a
+maid-of-all-work, employed in the wardrobe department of the theatre,
+to bring him a gill of whisky. The night was wet, so the girl, not
+caring to go out, intrusted the commission to a little boy who
+happened to be standing by. The play was "Othello," and Walls played
+the Duke. The scene of the senate was in course of representation.
+Brabantio had just stated:
+
+                            My particular grief
+    Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature,
+    That it engluts and swallows other sorrows,
+    And it is still itself--
+
+and the Duke, obedient to his cue, had inquired:
+
+    Why, what's the matter?
+
+when the little boy appeared upon the stage, bearing a pewter measure,
+and explained: "It's just the whisky, Mr. Walls; and I couldna git ony
+at fourpence, so yer awn the landlord a penny: and he says it's time
+you was payin' what's doon i' the book." The senate broke up amidst
+the uproarious laughter of the audience.
+
+Upon our early stage a kind of biscuit--a "marchpane"--was consumed by
+the players when they required to eat upon the stage. In "Romeo and
+Juliet" one of the servants says: "Good thou, save me a piece of
+marchpane." In Marston's "What you Will" occurs the passage:
+
+    Now work the cooks, the pastry sweats with slaves,
+    The marchpanes glitter.
+
+And in Brome's "City Wit" Mrs. Pyannet tells Toby Sneakup: "You have
+your kickshaws, your players' marchpanes--all show and no meat."
+
+Real macaroni in "Masaniello," and real champagne in "Don Giovanni,"
+in order that Leporello may have opportunities for "comic business" in
+the supper scene, are demanded by the customs of the operatic stage.
+Realism generally, indeed, is greatly affected in the modern theatre.
+The audiences of to-day require not merely that real water shall be
+seen to flow from a pump, or to form a cataract, but that real wine
+shall proceed from real bottles, and be fairly swallowed by the
+performers. In Paris, a complaint was recently made that, in a scene
+representing an entertainment in modern fashionable society, the
+champagne supplied was only of a second-rate quality. Through powerful
+opera-glasses the bottle labels could be read, and the management's
+sacrifice of truthfulness to economy was severely criticised. The
+audience resented the introduction of the cheaper liquor as though
+they had themselves been constrained to drink it.
+
+As part also of the modern regard for realism may be noted the
+"cooking scenes" which have frequently figured in recent plays. The
+old conjuring trick of making a pudding in a hat never won more
+admiration than is now obtained by such simple expedients as frying
+bacon or sausages, or broiling chops or steaks, upon the stage in
+sight of the audience. The manufacture of paste for puddings or pies
+by one of the _dramatis personae_ has also been very favourably
+received, and the first glimpse of the real rolling-pin and the real
+flour to be thus employed has always been attended with applause. In a
+late production, the opening of a soda-water bottle by one of the
+characters was generally regarded as quite the most impressive effect
+of the representation.
+
+At Christmas-time, when the shops are so copiously supplied with
+articles of food as to suggest a notion that the world is content to
+live upon half-rations at other seasons of the year, there is
+extraordinary storing of provisions at certain of the theatres. These
+are not edible, however; they are due to the art of the
+property-maker, and are designed for what are known as the "spill and
+pelt" scenes of the pantomime. They represent juicy legs of mutton,
+brightly streaked with red and white, quartern loaves, trussed fowls,
+turnips, carrots, and cabbages, strings of sausages, fish of all
+kinds, sizes, and colours; they are to be stolen and pocketed by the
+clown, recaptured by the policeman, and afterwards wildly whirled in
+all directions in a general "rally" of all the characters in the
+harlequinade. They are but adroitly painted canvas stuffed with straw
+or sawdust. No doubt the property-maker sometimes views from the wings
+with considerable dismay the severe usage to which his works of art
+are subjected. "He's an excellent clown, sir," one such was once heard
+to say, regarding from his own standpoint the performance of the
+jester in question; "he don't destroy the properties as some do."
+Perhaps now and then, too, a minor actor or a supernumerary, who has
+derided "the sham wine-parties of Macbeth and others," may lament the
+scandalous waste of seeming good victuals in a pantomime. But, as a
+rule, these performers are not fanciful on this, or, indeed, on any
+other subject. They are not to be deceived by the illusions of the
+stage; they are themselves too much a part of its shams and artifices.
+Property legs of mutton are to them not even food for reflection but
+simply "properties," and nothing more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+STAGE WIGS.
+
+
+Wigs have claims to be considered amongst the most essential
+appliances of the actors; means at once of their disguise and their
+decoration. Without false hair the fictions of the stage could
+scarcely be set forth. How could the old look young, or the young look
+old, how could scanty locks be augmented, or baldness concealed, if
+the _coiffeur_ did not lend his aid to the costumier? Nay, oftentimes
+calvity has to be simulated, and fictitious foreheads of canvas
+assumed. Hence the quaint advertisements of the theatrical hairdresser
+in professional organs, that he is prepared to vend "old men's bald
+pates" at a remarkably cheap rate. King Lear has been known to appear
+without his beard--Mr. Garrick, as his portrait reveals, played the
+part with a clean-shaven face, and John Kemble followed his example;
+but could the ghost of Hamlet's father ever have defied the poet's
+portraiture of him, and walked the platform of Elsinore Castle without
+a "sable-silvered" chin? Has an audience ever viewed tolerantly a bald
+Romeo, or a Juliet grown gray in learning how to impersonate that
+heroine to perfection? It is clear that at a very early date the
+players must have acquired the simple arts of altering and amending
+their personal appearance in these respects.
+
+The accounts still extant of the revels at court during the reigns of
+Elizabeth and James contain many charges for wigs and beards. Thus a
+certain John Ogle is paid "for four yeallowe heares for head-attires
+for women, twenty-six shillings and eightpence;" and "for a pound of
+heare twelvepence." Probably the auburn tresses of Elizabeth had made
+blonde wigs fashionable. John Owgle, who is no doubt the same trader,
+receives thirteen shillings and fourpence for "eight long white berds
+at twenty pence the peece." He has charges also on account of "a black
+fyzician's berde," "berds white and black," "heares for palmers,"
+"berds for fyshers," &c. It would seem, however, that these adornments
+were really made of silk. There is an entry: "John Ogle for curling of
+heare made of black silk for Discord's heade (being sixty ounces),
+price of his woorkmanshipp thereon only is seven shillings and
+eightpence;" and mention is made of a delivery to Mrs. Swegoo the
+silk-woman, of "Spanish silke of sundry cullers, weighing four ounces
+and three quarters, at two shillings and sixpence the ounce, to
+garnishe nine heads and nine scarfes for the nine muses; heads of
+heare drest and trimmed at twenty-three shillings and fourpence the
+peece, in all nine, ten pounds ten shillings."
+
+The diary or account-book of Philip Henslowe, the manager, supplies
+much information concerning the usual appointments of a theatre prior
+to the year 1600. In his inventory of dresses and properties, bearing
+date 1598, is included a record of "six head tiers," or attires. An
+early and entertaining account of the contents of a theatrical
+"tiring-room" is to be found in Richard Brome's comedy, "The
+Antipodes," first published in 1640. Byeplay says of Peregrine, the
+leading comic character:
+
+    He has got into our tiring-house amongst us,
+    And ta'en a strict survey of all our properties,
+    Our statues and our images of gods,
+    Our planets and our constellations,
+    Our giants, monsters, furies, beasts, and bugbears,
+    Our helmets, shields, and vizors, hairs and beards.
+
+With the Restoration wigs came into general wear, and gradually the
+beards and moustaches, which had literally flourished so remarkably
+from the time of Elizabeth, were yielded to the razor. At this period
+theatrical costume was simply regulated by the prevailing fashions,
+and made no pretensions to historical truth or antiquarian
+correctness. The actors appeared upon all occasions in the enormous
+perukes that were introduced in the reign of Charles II., and
+continued in vogue until 1720. The flowing flaxen wigs assumed by
+Booth, Wilks, Cibber, and others, were said to cost some forty
+guineas each. "Till within these twenty-five years," writes Tom Davies
+in 1784, "our Tamberlanes and Catos had as much hair on their heads as
+our judges on the bench." Cibber narrates how he sold a superb fair
+full-bottomed periwig he had worn in 1695 in his first play, "The Fool
+in Fashion," to Colonel Brett, so that the officer might appear to
+advantage in his wooing of the Countess of Macclesfield, the lady
+whom, upon unsatisfactory evidence, the poet Savage persistently
+claimed as his mother.
+
+But if the heroes of the theatre delighted in long flaxen hair, it was
+always held necessary that the stage villain's should appear in
+jet-black periwigs. For many years this continued to be an established
+law of the drama. "What is the meaning," demanded Charles II., "that
+we never see a rogue in the play but, odds-fish! they always clap him
+on a black periwig, when it is well known one of the greatest rogues
+in England always wears a fair one?" The king was understood to refer
+to Titus Oates. But this custom was of long life. Davies describes
+"certain actors who were cast into the parts of conspirators,
+traitors, and murderers, who used to disguise themselves in large
+black wigs, and to distort their features in order to appear terrible.
+I have seen," he adds, "Hippesley act the First Murderer in 'Macbeth;'
+his face was made pale with chalk, distinguished with large whiskers
+and a long black wig." "Begin, murderer; leave thy damnable faces and
+begin!" cries Hamlet to Lucianus, the poisoner; so that even in
+Shakespeare's time grimness of aspect on the part of the stage villain
+may have been thought indispensable. Churchill's friend, Lloyd, in his
+admirable poem, "The Actor," published in 1762, writes on this head:
+
+    To suit the dress demands the actor's art,
+    Yet there are those who over-dress the part:
+    To some prescriptive right gives settled things--
+    Black wigs to murderers, feathered hats to kings.
+
+Quin appeared upon the stage almost invariably in a profuse
+full-bottomed periwig. Garrick brought into fashion a wig of much
+smaller size, worn low on the forehead, with five crisp curls on
+either side, and known generally as the "Garrick cut." But the great
+actor occasionally varied the mode of his peruke. The portraits by
+Wood, Sherwin, and Dance exhibit him in three different forms of
+wigs. As Hotspur, he wore "a laced frock and Ramilies wig." When John
+Kemble first played Hamlet he appeared in a black velvet court suit,
+with laced ruffles and powdered hair, if not a periwig. It is to be
+noted, however, that there was nothing in this system of dress to
+shock the spectators of the time. Powdered wigs were the vogue, and it
+was not considered strange that the actor should be attired similarly
+to the audience. Some ventures had been made in the direction of
+correctness of costume, but they had been regarded as rather dangerous
+innovations. Garrick candidly confessed himself timid about the
+matter. Benjamin West once inquired of the actor why he did not reform
+the costume of the stage. "The audience would not stand it," said
+Garrick; "they would throw a bottle at my head if I attempted any
+alteration." The truth was, perhaps, that Garrick had won his triumphs
+under the old system, and was disinclined, therefore, to risk any
+change.
+
+Actors have often been zealous treasurers of theatrical properties and
+appliances, and some have formed very curious collections of
+stage-wigs. Munden, who was most heedful as to his appearance in the
+theatre, always provided his own costume, wearing nothing that
+belonged to the wardrobe of the manager, and giving large sums for any
+dress that suited his fancy. His wigs were said to be of great
+antiquity and value; they were in the care of, and daily inspected by,
+a hairdresser attached to the theatre. Edwin's biography records that
+that actor's "wiggery cost him more than a hundred pounds, and he
+could boast of having perukes in his collection which had decorated
+the heads of monarchs, judges, aldermen, philosophers, sailors,
+jockeys, beaux, thieves, tailors, tinkers, and haberdashers." Suett,
+also a great wig-collector, is reputed to have assumed on the stage,
+in the burlesque of "Tom Thumb," a large black peruke with flowing
+curls, that had once been the property of King Charles II. He had
+purchased this curious relic at the sale of the effects of a Mr.
+Rawle, accoutrement-maker to George III. When the wig was submitted
+for sale, Suett took possession of it, and, putting it on his head,
+began to bid for it with a gravity that the bystanders found to be
+irresistibly comical. It was at once declared that the wig should
+become the actor's property upon his own terms, and it was forthwith
+knocked down to him by the auctioneer. The wig appeared upon the stage
+during many years, until at last it was destroyed, with much other
+valuable property, in the fire which burnt to the ground the
+Birmingham Theatre. Suett's grief was extreme. "My wig's gone!" he
+would say, mournfully, for some time after the fire, to every one he
+met. Suett, Mathews, and Knight were at one time reputed to possess
+the most valuable stock of wigs in the profession. Knight's collection
+was valued, after his death, at L250.
+
+The stage-wig is sometimes liable to unfortunate accidents. In the
+turbulent scenes of tragedy, when the catastrophe is reached, and the
+hero, mortally stricken, falls upon the stage heavily and rigidly, in
+accordance with the ruling of immemorial tradition, the wig, like an
+unskilful rider upon a restive steed, is apt to become unseated. Many
+a defunct Romeo has been constrained to return to life for a moment in
+order that he might entreat Juliet, in a whisper, just as her own
+suicide is imminent, to contrive, if possible, a readjustment of his
+wig, which, in the throes of his demise, had parted from his head, or,
+at least, to fling her veil over him, and so conceal his mischance
+from public observation. To Mr. Bensley, the tragedian, so much
+admired by Charles Lamb, and so little by any other critic, a curious
+accident is said to have happened. He was playing Richard III. in an
+Irish theatre; the curtain had risen, and he was advancing to the
+foot-lights to deliver his opening soliloquy, when an unlucky nail in
+the side wing caught a curl of his full-flowing majestic wig and
+dragged it from his head. He was a pedantic, solemn actor, with a
+sepulchral voice and a stiff stalking gait. Anthony Pasquin has
+recorded a derisive description of his histrionic method:
+
+    With three minuet steps in all parts he advances,
+    Then retires three more, strokes his chin, prates and prances,
+    With a port as majestic as Astley's horse dances.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Should we judge of this man by his visage and note,
+    We'd imagine a rookery built in his throat,
+    Whose caws were immixed with his vocal recitals,
+    While others stole downwards and fed on his vitals.
+
+Still there can be no doubt that he played with extreme
+conscientiousness, and was fully impressed with a sense of his
+professional responsibilities. The loss of his wig must have
+occasioned him acute distress. For a moment he hesitated. What was he
+to do? Should he forget that he was Richard? Should he remember that
+he was only Mr. Bensley? He resolved to ignore the accident, to
+abandon his wig. Shorn of his locks, he delivered his speech in his
+most impressive manner. Of course he had to endure many interruptions.
+An Irish audience is rarely forbearing--has a very quick perception of
+the ludicrous. The jeering and ironic cheering that arose must have
+gravely tried the tragedian. "Mr. Bensley, darling, put on your
+jasey!" cried the gallery. "Bad luck to your politics! Will you suffer
+a Whig to be hung?" But the actor did not flinch. His exit was as
+dignified and commanding as had been his entrance. He did not even
+condescend to notice his wig as he passed it, depending from its nail
+like a scarecrow. One of the attendants of the stage was sent on to
+remove it, the duty being accomplished amidst the most boisterous
+laughter and applause of the whole house.
+
+Mr. Bernard, in his "Retrospections of the Stage," makes humorous
+mention of a provincial manager of the last century who was always
+referred to as "Pentland and his wig," from his persistent adherence
+to an ancient peruke, which, as he declared, had once belonged to
+Colley Cibber. The wig was of the pattern worn on state occasions by
+the Lord Chief Justice of England, a structure of horsehair, that
+descended to the shoulders in dense lappels. Pentland, who had been
+fifty years a manager, was much bent with infirmity, and afflicted
+with gout in all his members, still was wont to appear as the juvenile
+heroes of the drama. But in his every part, whether Hamlet or Don
+Felix, Othello or Lord Townley, he invariably assumed this formidable
+wig. Altogether his aspect and performance must have been of an
+extraordinary kind. He played Plume, the lively hero of Farquhar's
+"Recruiting Officer," dressed in an old suit of regimentals, and
+wearing above his famous wig a prodigious cocked hat. The rising of
+the curtain discovered him seated in an easy-chair with his lower
+limbs swathed in flannels. He was, indeed, unable to walk, or even to
+stand, and throughout the performance had to be wheeled on and off the
+stage. Surely light comedy was never seen under such disadvantageous
+conditions. He endeavoured to compensate for his want of locomotive
+power by taking snuff with great frequency, and waving energetically
+in the air a large and soiled pocket-handkerchief. This Pentland,
+indeed, appears to have been a curious example of the strolling
+manager of the old school. His company consisted but of some
+half-dozen performers, including himself, his wife, and his daughter.
+He journeyed from town to town on a donkey, the faithful companion of
+all his wanderings, with his gouty legs resting upon the panniers,
+into which were packed the wardrobe and scenic embellishments of his
+theatre. On these occasions he always wore his best light-comedy suit
+of brown and gold, his inevitable wig, and a little three-cornered hat
+cocked on one side, "giving the septuagenarian an air of gaiety that
+well accorded with his known attachment to the rakes and heroes of the
+drama; one hand was knuckled in his side--his favourite position--and
+the other raised a pinch of snuff to his nose; and as he passed along
+he nodded and bowed to all about him, and seemed greatly pleased with
+the attention he excited." His company followed the manager on foot.
+Yet for many years Mr. Pentland was the sole purveyor of theatrical
+entertainments to several English counties, and did not shrink from
+presenting to his audiences the most important works in the dramatic
+repertory.
+
+When, in 1817, Edmund Kean played Eustache de Saint Pierre in the play
+of "The Surrender of Calais," he designed to impress the town
+powerfully by the help of a wig made after the pattern of Count
+Ugolino's. "I'll frighten the audience with it," said he; but, as it
+happened, the audience declined to be frightened. On the contrary,
+when the actor appeared upon the scene he was only partially
+recognised by the spectators. Some persons even inquired: "Who is that
+fellow?" None cried: "God bless him!" The wig, in short, was not
+appreciated, for all it was of elaborate construction, and stood up,
+bristling with its gray hairs like a _chevaux de frise_. The tragedian
+very soon gave up the part in disgust.
+
+It is odd to find a stage wig invested with political significance,
+viewed almost as a cabinet question, considered as a possible
+provocation of hostilities between two great nations; yet something of
+this kind happened some fifty years ago. Mr. Bunn, then manager of
+Covent Garden Theatre, had adapted to the English stage Monsieur
+Scribe's capital comedy of "Bertrand et Raton." The scene of the play,
+it may be stated, is laid at Copenhagen, and the subject relates to
+the intrigues that preceded the fall of Struensee in 1772. The
+adaptation was duly submitted to George Colman, the examiner of plays,
+and was by him forwarded to the Earl of Belfast, then Lord
+Chamberlain, with an observation that the work contained nothing of a
+kind that was inadmissible upon the English stage.
+
+Suddenly a rumour was born, and rapidly attained growth and strength,
+to the purport that the leading character of Count Bertrand was
+designed to be a portraiture of Talleyrand, at that time the French
+ambassador at the court of St. James's. Some hesitation arose as to
+licensing the play, and on the 17th of January, 1834, the authorities
+decided to prohibit its representation. Mr. Bunn sought an interview
+with the Chamberlain, urging a reversal of the judgment, and
+undertaking to make any retrenchments and modifications of the work
+that might be thought expedient. The manager could only obtain a
+promise that the matter should be further considered. Already the
+stage had been a source of trouble to the political and diplomatic
+world. It was understood that the Swedish ambassador had abruptly
+withdrawn from the court of the Tuileries in consequence of the
+production in Paris of a vaudeville called "Le Camarade au Lit,"
+reflecting, so many held, upon the early life of Bernadotte, King of
+Sweden. That nothing of this kind should happen in London the
+Chamberlain was determined. He read the comedy most carefully and,
+having marked several passages as objectionable, forwarded it to the
+examiner, from whom, in due course, Mr. Bunn received the following
+characteristic note:
+
+     "January 20th, 1834.
+
+     "MY DEAR B.--With all we have to do, I don't see how I can
+     return the manuscript with alterations before to-morrow. Pray
+     dine with me to-day at half-past five--but come at four. We
+     shall then have time to cut the play before we cut the mutton.
+
+     "Yours most truly,
+
+     "G.C."
+
+Both these "cuttings" were successfully accomplished, and on the 25th
+of January the comedy was officially licensed. Still the authorities
+were uneasy. A suspicion prevailed that Mr. Farren, who was to sustain
+the part of Bertrand, meditated dressing and "making up" after the
+manner of Talleyrand. Sir Thomas Mash, the comptroller of the
+Chamberlain's office, made direct inquiries in this respect. The
+manager supplied a sketch of the costume to be worn by the actor. "I
+knew it was to be submitted to the king," writes Mr. Bunn, and he
+looked forward to the result with anxious curiosity. On the 7th of
+February came an answer from Sir Thomas Mash. "I have the pleasure to
+return your drawing without a syllable of objection." On the 8th,
+"Bertrand et Raton," under the name of "The Minister and the Mercer,"
+was first produced on the English stage.
+
+The success of the performance was unquestionable, but the alarms of
+the authorities were not over. Many of the players took upon
+themselves to restore passages in the comedy which had been effaced by
+the examiner; and, worse than this, Mr. Farren's appearance did not
+correspond with the drawing sent to the Chamberlain's office. His wig
+was especially objectionable; it was an exact copy of the silvery
+silken tresses of Talleyrand, which had acquired a European celebrity.
+It was plain that the actor had "made up" after the portrait of the
+statesman in the well-known engravings of the Congress of Vienna. Mr.
+Bunn had again to meet the angry expostulations of the Chamberlain. On
+the 14th of February he wrote to Lord Belfast: "The passages bearing
+reference to the Queen Matilda in conjunction with Struensee having
+been entirely omitted, will, I trust, be satisfactory to your
+lordship. Until the evening of performance I was not aware what style
+of wig Mr. Farren meant to adopt, such matters being entirely at the
+discretion of performers of his standard. I have since mentioned to
+him the objections which have been pointed out to me, but he has sent
+me word that he cannot consent so to mutilate his appearance, adding
+that it is a wig he wore two years ago in a comedy called 'Lords and
+Commons.'" If this was true there can be little doubt that the wig had
+been dressed anew and curling-ironed into a Talleyrand form that had
+not originally pertained to it. Meantime King William IV. had stirred
+in the matter, despatching his Chamberlain to the Lords Grey and
+Palmerston. "They--said to be exceedingly irate--instantly attended
+the performance. In the box exactly opposite to the one they occupied,
+sat, however, the gentleman himself, _l'homme veritable_, his
+Excellency Prince Talleyrand, _in propria persona_, and he laughed so
+heartily at the play, without once exhibiting any signs of annoyance
+at the appearance of his supposed prototype, that the whole affair
+wore a most absurd aspect; and thus terminated a singular specimen of
+'great cry and little wool.'"
+
+A stage wig has hardly since this risen to the importance of a state
+affair. Yet the Chamberlain has sometimes interfered to stay any
+direct stage portraiture of eminent characters. Thus Mr. Buckstone was
+prohibited from appearing "made up" as Lord John Russell, and Mr. A.
+Wigan, when performing the part of a French naval officer some
+five-and-twenty years ago, was directed by the authorities to reform
+his aspect, which too much resembled, it was alleged, the portraits of
+the Prince de Joinville. The actor effected a change in this instance
+which did not much mend the matter. It was understood at the time
+indeed that he had simply made his costume more correct, and otherwise
+had rather heightened than diminished his resemblance to the son of
+Louis Philippe. Other stage-wig questions have been of minor
+import--relating chiefly to the appropriateness of the _coiffures_ of
+Hamlet and others. Should the Prince wear flaxen tresses or a
+"Brutus"? Should the Moor of Venice appear in a negro's close woolly
+curls, or are flowing locks permissible to him? These inquiries have a
+good deal exercised the histrionic profession from time to time. And
+there have been doubts about hair-powder and its compatibility with
+tragic purposes. Mademoiselle Mars, the famous French actress, decided
+upon defying accuracy of costume, and declined to wear a powdered wig
+in a serious part. Her example was followed by Rachel, Ristori, and
+others. When Auber's "Gustave, ou le Bal Masque," was in rehearsal,
+the singers complained of the difficulty they experienced in
+expressing passionate sentiments in the powdered wigs and stately
+dress of the time of Louis XV. In the masquerade they were therefore
+permitted to assume such costumes as seemed to them suited to the
+violent catastrophe of the story. They argued that _"le moindre geste
+violent peut exciter le rire en provoquant l'explosion d'un nuage
+blanc; les artistes sont donc contraints de se tenir dans une reserve
+et dans une immobilite qui jettent du froid sur toutes les
+situations."_ It is true that Garrick and his contemporaries wore
+hair-powder, and that in their hands the drama certainly did not lack
+vehemently emotional displays. But then the spectators were in like
+case; and _"explosions d'un nuage blanc"_ were probably of too common
+occurrence to excite derision or even attention.
+
+Wigs are still matters of vital interest to the actors, and it is to
+be noted that the theatrical hairdressers have of late years devoted
+much study to this branch of their industry. The light comedian still
+indulges sometimes in curls of an unnatural flaxen, and the comic
+countryman is too often allowed to wear locks of a quite impossible
+crimson colour. Indeed, the headdresses that seem only contrived to
+move the laughter of the gallery, yet remain in an unsatisfactory
+condition. But in what are known as "character wigs" there has been
+marked amendment. The fictitious forehead is now very often artfully
+joined on to the real brow of the performer, without those distressing
+discrepancies of hue and texture which at one time were so very
+apparent, disturbing credibility and destroying illusion. And the
+decline of hair in colour and quantity has often been imitated in the
+theatre with very happy ingenuity. Heads in an iron-gray or partially
+bald state--varying from the first slight thinning of the locks to the
+time when they come to be combed over with a kind of "cat's cradle" or
+trellis-work look, to veil absolute calvity--are now represented by
+the actors with a completeness of a most artistic kind. With the
+ladies of the theatre blond wigs are now almost to be regarded as
+necessaries of histrionic life. This may be only a transient fashion,
+although it seems to have obtained very enduring vitality. Dr. Veron,
+writing of his experiences as manager of the Paris Opera House forty
+years ago, affirms: _"Il y a des beautes de jour et des beautes du
+soir; une peau brune, jaune, ou noire, devient blanche a eclat de la
+lumiere; les cheveux noirs reussissent mieux aussi au theatre que les
+cheveux blonds."_ But the times have changed; the arts of the
+theatrical toilet have no doubt advanced greatly. On the stage now all
+complexions are brilliant, and light tresses are pronounced to be more
+admirable than dark. Yet Dr. Veron was not without skill and learning
+on these curious matters. He discourses learnedly in regard to the
+cosmetics of the theatre--paint and powder, Indian ink and carmine,
+and the chemical preparations necessary for the due fabrication of
+eyebrows and lashes, for making the eyes look larger than life, for
+colouring the cheeks and lips, and whitening the nose and forehead.
+And especially the manager took pride in the capillary artifices of
+his establishment, and employed an "artist in hair," who held almost
+arrogant views of his professional acquirements. "My claim to the
+grateful remembrance of posterity," this superb _coiffeur_ was wont to
+observe, "will consist in the fact that I made the wig in which
+Monsieur Talma performed his great part of Sylla!" The triumphs of the
+scene are necessarily short-lived; they exist only in the recollection
+of actual spectators, and these gradually dwindle and depart as Time
+goes and Death comes. Nevertheless something of this wig-maker's fame
+still survives, although Talma has been dead nearly half a century.
+
+As Sylla, Talma was "made up" to resemble the first Napoleon. Macready
+writes in his "Journal" of Talma's appearance as Sylla: "The toga sat
+upon him as if it had been his daily costume. His _coiffure_ might
+have been taken from an antique bust; but was in strict resemblance of
+Napoleon's. It was reported that several passages had been struck out
+of the text by the censor, under the apprehension of their application
+by the Parisians to the exiled Emperor; and an order was said to have
+been sent from the police forbidding Talma to cross his hands behind
+him, the ordinary habit of Napoleon." The tragedy of "Sylla" was
+written by M. Jouy, and was first performed at the Theatre Francais in
+1822.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+"ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS."
+
+
+It is clear that playgoers of the Shakespearean period dearly loved to
+see a battle represented upon the stage. The great poet thoroughly
+understood his public, and how to gratify it. In some fifteen of his
+plays he has introduced the encounter or the marshalling of hostile
+forces. "Alarums and excursions" is with him a very frequent stage
+direction; and as much may be said of "they fight," or "_exeunt_
+fighting." Combats and the clash of arms he obviously did not count as
+"inexplicable dumb show and noise." He was conscious, however, that
+the battles of the stage demanded a very large measure of faith on the
+part of the spectators. Of necessity they were required to "make
+believe" a good deal. In the prologue to "Henry V." especial apology
+is advanced for the presumption of the dramatist in dealing with so
+comprehensive a subject; and indulgence is claimed for the unavoidable
+feebleness of the representation as compared with the force of the
+reality:
+
+    Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
+    Into a thousand parts divide one man,
+    And make imaginary puissance:
+    Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
+    Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
+    For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
+    Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times;
+    Turning th' accomplishment of many years
+    Into an hour-glass.
+
+These conditions, however, were accepted by the audiences of the time
+in the most liberal spirit. Critics were prone to deride the popular
+liking for "cutler's work" and "the horrid noise of target fight;"
+"the fools in the yard" were censured for their "gaping and gazing" at
+such exhibitions. But the battles of the stage were still fought on;
+"alarums and excursions" continued to engage the scene. Indeed,
+variety and stir have always been elements in the British drama as
+opposed to the uniformity and repose which were characteristics of the
+ancient classical theatre.
+
+Yet our early audiences must have been extremely willing to help out
+the illusions of the performance, and abet the tax thus levied upon
+their credulity. Shakespeare's battles could hardly have been very
+forcibly presented. In his time no "host of auxiliaries" assisted the
+company. "Two armies flye in," Sir Philip Sidney writes in his
+"Apologie for Poetrie," 1595, "represented with four swords and
+bucklers, and what harde heart will not receive it for a pitched
+fielde?" So limited an array would not be deemed very impressive in
+these days; but it was held sufficient by the lieges of Elizabeth.
+Just as the Irish peasant is even now content to describe a mere squad
+of soldiers as "the army," so Shakespeare's audiences were willing to
+regard a few "blue-coated stage-keepers" as a formidable body of
+troops. And certainly the poet sometimes exercised to the utmost the
+imaginations of his patrons. He required them to believe that his
+small stage was immeasurably spacious; that his handful of "supers"
+was in truth a vast multitude. During one scene in "King John" he does
+not hesitate to bring together upon the boards the three distinct
+armies of Philip of France, the Archduke of Austria, and the King of
+England; while, in addition, the citizens of Angiers are supposed to
+appear upon the walls of their town and discuss the terms of its
+capitulation. So in "King Richard III.," Bosworth Field is
+represented, and the armies of Richard and Richmond are made to encamp
+within a few feet of each other. The ghosts of Richard's victims rise
+from the stage and address speeches alternately to him and to his
+opponent. Playgoers who can look back a score of years may remember a
+textual revival of the tragedy, in which this scene was exhibited in
+exact accordance with the original stage directions. Colley Cibber's
+famous acting version was for once discarded, and Richard and Richmond
+on the eve of their great battle quietly retired to rest in the
+presence of each other, and of their audience. However to be
+commended on the score of its fidelity to the author's intentions, the
+scene had assuredly its ludicrous side. The rival tents wore the
+aspect of opposition shower-baths. It was exceedingly difficult to
+humour the idea that the figures occupying the stage could neither see
+nor hear one another. Why, if they but outstretched their arms they
+could have touched each other; and they were supposed to be mutually
+eager for combat to the death! It became manifest, indeed, that the
+spectators had lost greatly their ancestors' old power of "making
+believe." They could no longer hold their reason in suspense for the
+sake of enhancing the effect of a theatrical performance, though
+prepared to be indulgent in that respect. What is called "realism" had
+invaded the stage since Shakespeare's time, and could not now be
+repelled or denied. Hints and suggestions did not suffice; the
+positive and the actual had become indispensable.
+
+There can be no doubt, however, that Shakespeare's battles had
+oftentimes the important aid of real gunpowder. The armies might be
+small; but the noise that accompanied their movements was surely very
+great. The stage direction "alarums and chambers go off" occurs more
+than once in "King Henry V." The Chorus to the play expressly states:
+
+    Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
+    With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur;
+                   ... and the nimble gunner
+    With linstook now the devilish cannon touches,
+    And down goes all before them.
+
+Gunpowder was even employed in plays wherein battles were not
+introduced. Thus at the close of "Hamlet," Fortinbras says: "Go bid
+the soldiers shoot," and the stage direction runs: "A dead march.
+_Exeunt_ bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance
+is shot _off_." And just as, in 1846, the Garrick Theatre, in
+Goodman's Fields, was destroyed by fire, owing to some wadding lodging
+in the flies after a performance of the Battle of Waterloo, so in
+1613, the Globe Theatre, in Southwark, was burnt to the ground from
+the firing of "chambers" during a representation of "King Henry VIII."
+Howes, in his additions to "Stowe's Chronicle," thus describes the
+event: "Also upon St. Peter's Day, 1613, the playhouse or theatre
+called the Globe, upon the Bankside, near London, by negligent
+discharging of a peal of ordnance, close to the south side thereof,
+the theatre took fire, and the wind suddenly dispersed the flame round
+about, and in a very short space the whole building was quite consumed
+and no man hurt; the house being filled with people to behold the
+play, namely, of 'Henry VIII.;' and the next spring it was new builded
+in a far fairer manner than before."
+
+The paucity of Shakespeare's stage armies has sometimes found its
+reflex in the limited means of country theatres of more modern date.
+The ambition of strolling managers is apt to be far in advance of
+their appliances; they are rarely stayed by the difficulties of
+representation, or troubled with doubts as to the adequacy of their
+troupe, in the words of a famous commander, to "go anywhere and do
+anything." We have heard of a provincial Rolla who at the last moment
+discovered that the army, wherewith he proposed to repulse the forces
+of Pizarro, consisted of one supernumerary only. The Peruvian
+chieftain proved himself equal to the situation, however, and adapted
+his speech to the case. Addressing his one soldier, he declaimed in
+his most dignified manner: "My brave associate, partner of my toil, my
+feelings, and my fame, can Rolla's words add vigour to the virtuous
+energies which inspire your heart?" and so on. Thus altered, the
+speech was found to be sufficiently effective.
+
+In his "Essay of Dramatic Poesy," Dryden complains of the "tumults to
+which we are subject in England by representing duels, battles, and
+the like, which renders our stage too like the theatres where they
+fight prizes. For what is more ridiculous than to represent an army
+with a drum and four men behind it, all which the hero of the other
+side is to drive before him? or to see a duel fought and one slain
+with two or three thrusts of the foils, which we know are so blunted
+that we might give a man an hour to kill another in good earnest with
+them?"
+
+Two things were especially prized by the audiences of the past: a
+speech and a combat. "For God's sake, George, give me a speech and let
+me go home!" cried from the pit the wearied country squire of Queen
+Anne's time to his boon companion Powell, the actor, doomed to appear
+in a part deficient in opportunities for oratory. "But, Mr. Bayes,
+might we not have a little fighting?" inquires Johnson, in the
+burlesque of "The Rehearsal," "for I love those plays where they cut
+and slash one another on the stage for a whole hour together."
+
+The single combats that occur in Shakespeare's plays are very
+numerous. There is little need to remind the reader, for instance, of
+the hand-to-hand encounters of Macbeth and Macduff, Posthumus and
+Iachimo, Hotspur and the Prince of Wales, Richard and Richmond. Romeo
+has his fierce brawl with Tybalt, Hamlet his famous fencing scene, and
+there is serious crossing of swords both in "Lear" and "Othello."
+English audiences, from an inherent pugnacity, or a natural
+inclination for physical feats, were wont to esteem highly the combats
+of the stage. The players were skilled in the use of their weapons,
+and would give excellent effect to their mimic conflicts. And this
+continued long after the wearing of swords had ceased to be a
+necessity or a fashion. The youthful actor acquired the art of fencing
+as an indispensable step in his theatrical education. A sword was one
+of the earliest "properties" of which he became possessor. He always
+looked forward to impressing his audience deeply by his skill in
+combat. Charles Mathews, the elder, has recorded in his too brief
+chapters of autobiography, "his passion for fencing which nothing
+could overcome." As an amateur actor he paid the manager of the
+Richmond Theatre seven guineas and a half for permission to undertake
+"the inferior insipid part of Richmond," who does not appear until the
+fifth act of the play. The Richard of the night was a brother-amateur,
+equally enthusiastic, one Litchfield by name. "I cared for nothing,"
+wrote Mathews, "except the last scene of Richmond, but in that I was
+determined, to have my full swing of carte and tierce. I had no notion
+of paying my seven guineas and a half without indulging my passion. In
+vain did the tyrant try to die after a decent time; in vain did he
+give indications of exhaustion; I would not allow him to give in. I
+drove him by main force from any position convenient for his last
+dying speech. The audience laughed; I heeded them not. They shouted; I
+was deaf. Had they hooted I should have lunged on in my
+unconsciousness of their interruption. I was resolved to show them all
+my accomplishments. Litchfield frequently whispered 'Enough!' but I
+thought with Macbeth, 'Damned be he who first cries, Hold, enough!' I
+kept him at it, and I believe we fought almost literally a long hour
+by Shrewsbury clock. To add to the merriment, a matter-of-fact fellow
+in the gallery, who in his innocence took everything for reality, and
+who was completely wrapt up and lost by the very cunning of the scene,
+at last shouted out: 'Why don't he shoot him?'"
+
+The famous Mrs. Jordan was, it seems, unknown to Mathews, present
+among the audience on this occasion, having been attracted from her
+residence at Bushey by the announcement of an amateur Richard. "Years
+afterwards," records Mathews, "when we met in Drury Lane green-room, I
+was relating, amongst other theatrical anecdotes, the bumpkin's call
+from the gallery in commiseration of the trouble I had in killing
+Richard, when she shook me from my feet almost by starting up,
+clasping her hands, and in her fervent, soul-stirring, warm-hearted
+tones, exclaiming: 'Was that you? I was there!' and she screamed with
+laughter at the recollection of my acting in Richmond, and the length
+of our combat."
+
+"Where shall I hit you, Mr. Kean?" inquired a provincial Laertes of
+the great tragedian. "Where you _can_, sir," was the grim reply. For
+Kean had acquired fencing under Angelo, and was proud of his
+proficiency in the art. He delighted in prolonging his combats to the
+utmost, and invested them with extraordinary force and intensity. On
+some occasions he so identified himself with the character he
+represented as to decline to yield upon almost any terms. Hazlitt
+censures certain excesses of this kind which disfigured his
+performance of Richard. "He now actually fights with his doubled
+fists, after his sword is taken from him, like some helpless infant."
+"The fight," writes another critic, "was maintained under various
+vicissitudes, by one of which he was thrown to the earth; on his knee
+he defended himself, recovered his footing, and pressed his antagonist
+with renewed fury; his sword was struck from his grasp--he was
+mortally wounded; disdaining to fall"--and so on. No wonder that many
+Richmonds and Macduffs, after combating with Mr. Kean, were left so
+exhausted and scant of breath as to be scarcely able to deliver
+audibly the closing speeches of their parts. The American stage has a
+highly-coloured story of an English melodramatic actor with the
+pseudonym of Bill Shipton, who, "enacting a British officer in 'The
+Early Life of Washington,' got so stupidly intoxicated that when Miss
+Cuff, who played the youthful hero, had to fight and kill him in a
+duel, Bill Shipton wouldn't die; he even said loudly on the stage
+that he wouldn't. Mary Cuff fought on until she was ready to faint,
+and after she had repeated his cue for dying, which was, 'Cowardly,
+hired assassin!' for the fourteenth time, he absolutely jumped off the
+stage, not even pretending to be on the point of death. Our indignant
+citizens then chased him all over the house, and he only escaped by
+jumping into the coffin which they bring on in Hamlet, Romeo, and
+Richard." The story has its humour, but is not to be implicitly
+credited.
+
+Broad-sword combats were at one time very popular interludes at minor
+theatres. They were often quite distinct performances, prized for
+their own sake, and quite irrespective of their dramatic relevancy. It
+cannot be said that they suggested much resemblance to actual warfare.
+Still they demanded of the performers skill of a peculiar kind, great
+physical endurance and ceaseless activity. The combat-sword was an
+unlikely-looking weapon, very short in the blade, with a protuberant
+hilt of curved bars to protect the knuckles of the combatant. The
+orchestra supplied a strongly-accentuated tune, and the swords clashed
+together in strict time with the music. The fight raged hither and
+thither about the stage, each blow and parry, thrust and guard, being
+a matter of strict pre-arrangement. The music was hurried or slackened
+accordingly as the combat became more or less furious. "One, two,
+three, and under; one, two, three, and over;" "robber's cuts;"
+"sixes"--the encounter had an abundance of technical terms. And each
+performer was allowed a fair share of the feats accomplished: the
+combatants took turns in executing the strangest exploits. Alternately
+they were beaten down on one knee, even lower still, till they crawled
+serpent-wise about the boards; they leaped into the air to avoid
+chopping blows at their lower members; they suddenly span round on
+their heels, recovering themselves in time to guard a serious blow,
+aimed with too much deliberation at some vital portion of their
+frames; occasionally they contrived an unexpected parry by swiftly
+passing the sword from the right hand to the left. Now and then they
+fought a kind of double combat, wielding a sword in either hand.
+Altogether, indeed, it was an extraordinary entertainment, which
+evoked thunders of applause from the audience. The eccentric agility
+of the combatants, the peculiarities of their method of engagement,
+the stirring staccato music of the band, the clashing of the swords
+and the shower of sparks thus occasioned, were found quite
+irresistible by numberless playgoers. Mr. Crummles, it will be
+remembered, had a very high opinion of this form of entertainment.
+
+Of late, however, the broadsword combat has declined as a theatrical
+attraction if it has not altogether expired. The art involved in its
+presentment is less studied, or its professors are less capable than
+was once the case. And perhaps burlesque has exposed too glaringly its
+ridiculous or seamy side. It was not one of those things that could
+long endure the assaults of travesty. The spell was potent enough in
+its way, but it dissolved when once interruptive laughter became
+generally audible. A creature of theatrical tradition, curiously
+sophisticated and enveloped in absurdities, its long survival is
+perhaps more surprising than the fact of its decease. Some attempt at
+ridiculing it seems to have been made so far back as the seventeenth
+century, in the Duke of Buckingham's "Rehearsal." Two characters
+enter, each bearing a lute and a drawn sword, and alternately fight
+and sing; "so that," as Bayes explains, "you have at once your ear
+entertained with music and good language, and your eye satisfied with
+the garb and accoutrements of war." In the same play, also, the actors
+were wont to introduce hobby-horses, and fight a mimic battle of very
+extravagant nature.
+
+Ridicule of a stage army was one of the established points of humour
+in the old burlesque of "Bombastes Furioso," and many a pantomime has
+won applause by the comical character of the troops brought upon the
+scene. It should be said, however, that of late years the more famous
+battles of the theatre have been reproduced with remarkable liberality
+and painstaking. In lieu of "four swords and bucklers," a very
+numerous army of supernumeraries has marched to and fro upon the
+boards. In the ornate revivals of Shakespeare, undertaken from time to
+time by various managers, especial attention has been directed to the
+effective presentment of the battle scenes. The "auxiliaries" have
+frequently consisted of soldiers selected from the household troops.
+They are reputed to be the best of "supers," imposing of aspect,
+stalwart and straight-limbed, obedient to command, and skilled in
+marching and military formations. Londoners, perhaps, are little aware
+of the services their favourite regiments are prompt to lend to
+theatrical representations. Notably our grand operas owe much to the
+Coldstreams and Grenadiers. After a performance of "Le Prophete" or
+"L'Etoile du Nord," let us say, hosts of these warriors may be seen
+hurrying from Covent Garden back to their barracks. Plays that have
+depended for their success solely upon the battles they have
+introduced have not been frequent of late years, and perhaps their
+popularity may fairly be counted as a thing of the past. We have left
+behind us the times when versatile Mr. Gomersal was found submitting
+to the public by turns his impersonation of Napoleon at Waterloo and
+Sir Arthur Wellesley at Seringapatam; when Shaw, the Lifeguardsman,
+after performing prodigies of valour, died heroically to slow music;
+when Lady Sale, armed with pistol and sabre, fought against heavy
+Afghan odds, and came off supremely victorious. Perhaps the public
+have ceased to care for history thus theatrically illustrated, or
+prefers to gather its information on the subject from despatches and
+special correspondence. The last theatrical venture of this class
+referred to our army's exploits in Abyssinia. But the play did not
+greatly please. Modern battles have, indeed, outgrown the stage, and
+the faculty of making "imaginary puissance" has become lost. In the
+theatre, as elsewhere, the demand is now for the literal, the
+accurate, and the strictly matter of fact.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+STAGE STORMS.
+
+
+Addison accounted "thunder and lightning--which are often made use of
+at the descending of a god or the rising of a ghost, at the vanishing
+of a devil or the death of a tyrant"--as occupying the first place
+"among the several artifices put in practice by the poets to fill the
+minds of an audience with terror." Certainly the stage owes much to
+its storms: they have long been highly prized both by playwrights and
+playgoers, as awe-inspiring embellishments of the scene; and it must
+have been an early occupation of the theatrical machinist to devise
+some means of simulating the uproar of elemental strife. So far back
+as 1571, in the "Accounts of the Revels at Court," there appears a
+charge of L1 2s. paid to a certain John Izarde, for "mony to him due
+for his device in counterfeting thunder and lightning in the play of
+'Narcisses;' and for sundry necessaries by him spent therein;" while
+to Robert Moore, the apothecary, a sum of L1 7s. 4d. is paid for
+"prepared corianders," musk, clove, cinnamon, and ginger comfits, rose
+and "spike" water, "all which," it is noted, "served for flakes of
+snow and haylestones in the maske of 'Janus;' the rose-water sweetened
+the balls made for snow-balls, and presented to her majesty by Janus."
+The storm in this masque must clearly have been of a very elegant and
+courtly kind, with sugar-plums for hailstones and perfumed water for
+rain. The tempests of the public theatres were assuredly conducted
+after a ruder method. In his prologue to "Every Man in his Humour,"
+Ben Jonson finds occasion to censure contemporary dramatists for the
+"ill customs" of their plays, and to warn the audience that his
+production is not as others are:
+
+    He rather prays you will be pleased to see
+    One such to-day as other plays should be;
+    Where neither chorus wafts you o'er the seas,
+    Nor creaking throne comes down the boys to please,
+    Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard
+    The gentlewomen; nor rolled bullet heard
+    To say it thunders; nor tempestuous drum
+    Rumbles to tell you when the storm doth come, &c.
+
+It has been conjectured that satirical allusion was here intended to
+the writings of Shakespeare; yet it is certain that Shakespeare
+sustained a part, most probably that of Old Knowell, in the first
+representation of Jonson's comedy. Storms are undoubtedly of frequent
+occurrence in Shakespeare's plays. Thus, "Macbeth" and "The Tempest"
+both open with thunder and lightning; there is "loud weather" in "The
+Winter's Tale;" there is thunder in "The First Part of King Henry
+VI.," when La Pucelle invokes the fiends to aid her endeavours;
+thunder and lightning in "The Second Part of King Henry VI.," when
+Margery Jourdain conjures up the spirit Asmath; thunder and lightning
+in "Julius Caesar;" a storm at sea in "Pericles," and a hurricane in
+"King Lear." It is to be noted, however, that all these plays could
+hardly have been represented so early as 1598, when "Every Man in his
+Humour" was first performed.
+
+From Jonson's prologue it appears that the rumbling of thunder was at
+that time imitated by the rolling to and fro of bullets or
+cannon-balls. This plan was in time superseded by more ingenious
+contrivances. It is curious to find, however, that some fifty years
+ago one Lee, manager of the Edinburgh Theatre, with a view to
+improving the thunder of his stage, ventured upon a return to the
+Elizabethan system of representing a storm. His enterprise was
+attended with results at once ludicrous and disastrous. He placed
+ledges here and there along the back of his stage, and, obtaining a
+parcel of nine-pound cannon-balls, packed these in a wheelbarrow,
+which a carpenter was instructed to wheel to and fro over the ledges.
+The play was "Lear," and the jolting of the heavy barrow as it was
+trundled along its uneven path over the hollow stage, and the
+rumblings and reverberations thus produced, counterfeited most
+effectively the raging of the tempest in the third act. Unfortunately,
+however, while the King was braving, in front of the scene, the
+pitiless storm at the back, the carpenter missed his footing, tripped
+over one of the ledges, and fell down, wheelbarrow, cannon-balls, and
+all. The stage being on a declivity, the cannon-balls came rolling
+rapidly and noisily down towards the front, gathering force as they
+advanced, and overcoming the feeble resistance offered by the scene,
+struck it down, passed over its prostrate form, and made their way
+towards the foot-lights and the fiddlers, amidst the amusement and
+wonder of the audience, and the amazement and alarm of the Lear of the
+night. As the nine-pounders advanced towards him, and rolled about in
+all directions, he was compelled to display an activity in avoiding
+them, singularly inappropriate to the age and condition of the
+character he was personating. He was even said to resemble a dancer
+achieving the terpsichorean feat known as the egg hornpipe. Presently,
+too, the musicians became alarmed for the safety of themselves and
+their instruments, and deemed it advisable to scale the spiked
+partition which divided them from the pit; for the cannon-balls were
+upon them, smashing the lamps, and falling heavily into the orchestra.
+Meantime, exposed to the full gaze of the house, lay prone, beside his
+empty barrow, the carpenter, the innocent invoker of the storm he had
+been unable to allay or direct, not at all hurt, but exceedingly
+frightened and bewildered. After this unlucky experiment, the manager
+abandoned his wheelbarrow and cannon-balls, and reverted to more
+received methods of producing stage storms.
+
+In 1713, a certain Dr. Reynardson published a poem called "The Stage,"
+which the critics of the time agreed to be a pretty and ingenious
+composition. It was dedicated to Addison, the preface stating that
+"'The Spectator's' account of 'The Distrest Mother' had raised the
+author's expectation to such a pitch that he made an excursion from
+college to see that tragedy acted, and upon his return was commanded
+by the dean to write upon the Art, Rise, and Progress of the English
+Stage; which how well he has performed is submitted to the judgment of
+that worthy gentleman to whom it is inscribed." Dr. Reynardson's poem
+is not a work of any great distinction, and need only be referred to
+here for its mention of the means then in use for raising the storms
+of the theatre. Noting the strange and incongruous articles to be
+found in the tiring-room of the players--such as Tarquin's trousers
+and Lucretia's vest, Roxana's coif and Statira's stays, the poet
+proceeds:
+
+    Hard by a quart of bottled lightning lies
+    A bowl of double use and monstrous size,
+    Now rolls it high and rumbles in its speed,
+    Now drowns the weaker crack of mustard-seed;
+    So the true thunder all arrayed in smoke,
+    Launched from the skies now rives the knotted oak,
+    And sometimes naught the drunkard's prayers prevail,
+    And sometimes condescends to sour the ale.
+
+There is also allusion to the mustard-bowl as applied to theatrical
+uses in "The Dunciad:"
+
+    "Now turn to different sports," the goddess cries,
+    "And learn, my sons, the wondrous power of NOISE.
+    To move, to raise, to ravish every heart,
+    With Shakespeare's nature or with Jonson's art,
+    Let others aim; 'tis yours to shake the soul
+    With thunder rumbling from the mustard-bowl."
+
+And further reference to the frequency of stage storms is continued in
+the well-known lines, written by way of parodying the mention of the
+Duke of Marlborough in Addison's poem "The Campaign:"
+
+    Immortal Rich! how calm he sits at ease,
+    'Mid snows of paper and fierce hail of pease;
+    And proud his mistress' orders to perform,
+    Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.
+
+A note to the early editions of "The Dunciad" explains that the old
+ways of making thunder and mustard were the same, but that of late the
+thunder had been advantageously simulated by means of "troughs of wood
+with stops in them." "Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that
+improvement, I know not," writes the annotator; "but it is certain
+that being once at a tragedy of a new author he fell into a great
+passion at hearing some, and cried: ''Sdeath! that is my thunder.'"
+Dennis's thunder was first heard on the production at Drury Lane
+Theatre, in 1709, of his "Appius and Virginia," a hopelessly dull
+tragedy, which not even the united exertions of Booth, Wilkes, and
+Betterton could keep upon the stage for more than four nights. "The
+Dunciad" was written in 1726, when Pope either did not really know
+that the old mustard-bowl style of storm was out of date, or purposely
+refrained from mentioning the recent invention of "troughs of wood
+with stops in them."
+
+In July, 1709, Drury-lane Theatre was closed by order of the Lord
+Chamberlain, whereon Addison published in "The Tatler" a facetious
+inventory of the goods and movables of Christopher Rich, the manager,
+to be disposed of in consequence of his "breaking up housekeeping."
+Among the effects for sale are mentioned:
+
+    A mustard-bowl to make thunder with.
+
+    Another of a bigger sort, by Mr. D----'s directions, little used.
+
+The catalogue is not of course to be viewed seriously, or it might be
+inferred that Dennis's new thunder was still something of the
+mustard-bowl sort. Other items relative to the storms of the stage and
+their accessories are:
+
+     Spirits of right Nantz brandy for lambent flames and
+     apparitions.
+
+     Three bottles and a half of lightning.
+
+     A sea consisting of a dozen large waves, the tenth bigger than
+     ordinary, and a little damaged.
+
+(According to poetic authority, it may be noted, the tenth wave is
+always the largest and most dangerous.)
+
+     A dozen and a half of clouds trimmed with black, and well
+     conditioned.
+
+     A set of clouds after the French mode, streaked with lightning
+     and furbelowed.
+
+     One shower of snow in the whitest French paper.
+
+     Two showers of a browner sort.
+
+It is probably to this mention of snow-storms we owe the familiar
+theatrical story of the manager who, when white paper failed him, met
+the difficulty of the situation by snowing brown.
+
+The humours of the theatre afforded great diversion to the writers in
+"The Spectator," and the storms of the stage are repeatedly referred
+to in their essays. In 1771, Steele, discoursing about inanimate
+performers, published a fictitious letter from "the Salmoneus of
+Covent Garden," demanding pity and favour on account of the unexpected
+vicissitudes of his fortune. "I have for many years past," he writes,
+"been thunderer to the playhouse; and have not only made as much noise
+out of the clouds as any predecessor of mine in the theatre that ever
+bore that character, but have also descended, and spoke on the stage
+as the Bold Thunderer in 'The Rehearsal.' When they got me down thus
+low, they thought fit to degrade me further, and make me a ghost. I
+was contented with this for these last two winters; but they carry
+their tyranny still further, and not satisfied that I am banished from
+above ground, they have given me to understand that I am wholly to
+depart from their dominions, and taken from me even my subterraneous
+employment." He concludes with a petition that his services may be
+engaged for the performance of a new opera to be called "The
+Expedition of Alexander," the scheme of which had been set forth in an
+earlier "Spectator," and that if the author of that work "thinks fit
+to use firearms, as other authors have done, in the time of Alexander,
+I may be a cannon against Porus; or else provide for me in the burning
+of Persepolis, or what other method you shall think fit."
+
+In 1714, Addison wrote: "I look upon the playhouse as a world within
+itself. They have lately furnished the middle region of it with a new
+set of meteors in order to give the sublime to many modern tragedies.
+I was there last winter at the first rehearsal of the new thunder,
+which is much more deep and sonorous than any hitherto made use of.
+They have a Salmoneus behind the scenes, who plays it off with great
+success. Their lightnings are made to flash more briskly than
+heretofore; their clouds are also better furbelowed and more
+voluminous; not to mention a violent storm locked up in a great chest
+that is designed for 'The Tempest.' They are also provided with a
+dozen showers of snow, which, as I am informed, are the plays of many
+unsuccessful poets, artificially cut and shredded for that vise." In
+an earlier "Spectator" he had written: "I have often known a bell
+introduced into several tragedies with good effect, and have seen the
+whole assembly in a very great alarm all the while it has been
+ringing." Pope has his mention in "The Dunciad" of the same artifice:
+
+    With horns and trumpets now to madness swell.
+    Now sink in sorrow with a tolling bell;
+    Such happy arts attention can command,
+    When fancy flags and sense is at a stand.
+
+The notion of storing lightning in a bottle for use when required
+seems to have been frequently reverted to by the authors of the last
+century as a means of entertaining the public. Thus a writer in "The
+World," in 1754, makes no doubt "of being able to bring thunder and
+lightning to market at a much cheaper price than common gunpowder,"
+and describes a friend who has applied himself wholly to electrical
+experiments, and discovered that "the most effectual and easy method
+of making this commodity is by grinding a certain quantity of air
+between a glass ball and a bag of sand, and when you have ground it
+into fire your lightning is made, and then you may either bottle it
+up, or put it into casks properly seasoned for that purpose, and send
+it to market." The inventor, however, confesses that what he has
+hitherto made is not of a sufficient degree of strength to answer all
+the purposes of natural lightning; but he is confident that he will
+soon be able to effect this, and has, indeed, already so far perfected
+his experiments that, in the presence of several of his neighbours, he
+has succeeded in producing a clap of thunder which blew out a candle,
+accompanied by a flash of lightning which made an impression upon a
+pat of butter standing upon the table. He is also confident that in
+warm weather he can shake all the pewters upon his shelf, and fully
+expects, when his thermometer is at sixty-two degrees and a half, to
+be able to sour all the small beer in his cellar, and to break his
+largest pier-glass. This paper in "The World," apart from its humorous
+intention, is curious as a record of early dabblings in electrical
+experiments. It may be mentioned that in one of Franklin's letters,
+written apparently before the year 1750, the points of resemblance
+between lightning and the spark obtained by friction from an
+electrical apparatus are distinctly stated. It is but some thirty-five
+years ago that Andrew Crosse, the famous amateur electrician, was
+asked by an elderly gentleman, who came to witness his experiments
+with two enormous Leyden jars charged by means of wires stretched for
+miles among the forest trees near Taunton: "Mr. Crosse, don't you
+think it is rather impious to bottle the lightning?"
+
+"Let me answer your question by asking another," said Crosse,
+laughing. "Don't you think it might be considered rather impious to
+bottle the rain-water?"
+
+Further, it may be remembered that curious reference to this part of
+our subject is made by "the gentleman in the small clothes" who lived
+next door to Mrs. Nickleby, and presumed to descend the chimney of her
+house. "Very good," he is reported to have said on that occasion,
+"then bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a
+corkscrew."
+
+The early days of George Frederick Cooke were passed at
+Berwick-upon-Tweed. Left an orphan at a very tender age, he had been
+cared for and reared by two aunts, his mother's sisters, who provided
+him with such education as he ever obtained. There were no play-books
+in the library of these ladies, yet somehow the youth contrived to
+become acquainted with the British drama. Strolling companies
+occasionally visited the town, and a certain passion for the theatre
+possessed the boys of Berwick, with Cooke, of course, among them. They
+formed themselves into an amateur company, and represented, after a
+fashion, various plays, rather for their own entertainment, however,
+than the edification of their friends. And they patronised, so far as
+they could, every dramatic troupe that appeared in the neighbourhood
+of Berwick. But they had more goodwill than money to bestow upon the
+strollers, and were often driven to strange subterfuges in their
+anxiety to see the play, and in their inability to pay the price of
+admission to the theatre. On one occasion Cooke and two or three
+friends secreted themselves beneath the stage, in the hope of stealing
+out during the performance and joining the audience by means of an
+opening in a dark passage leading to the pit. Discovery and
+ignominious ejection followed upon this experiment. Another essay led
+to a curious adventure. Always on the alert to elude the vigilance of
+the doorkeeper, the boys again effected an entrance into the theatre.
+The next consideration was how to bestow themselves in a place of
+concealment until the time for raising the curtain should arrive, when
+they might hope, in the confusion and bustle behind the scenes, to
+escape notice, and enjoy the marvels of the show. "Cooke," records his
+biographer, "espied a barrel, and congratulating himself on this safe
+and snug retreat, he crept in, like the hero of that immortal modern
+drama, 'Tekeli.'" Unfortunately this hiding-place was one of
+considerable peril. Cooke perceived that for companion tenants of his
+barrel he had two large cannon-balls--twenty-four pounders; but being
+as yet but incompletely initiated into the mysteries of the scene, he
+did not suspect the theatrical use to which these implements of war
+were constantly applied. He was in the thunder-barrel of the theatre!
+The play was "Macbeth," and the thunder was required in the first
+scene, to give due effect to the entrance of the witches. "The Jupiter
+Tonans of the theatre, _alias_ the property-man, approached and seized
+the barrel. Judge the breathless fear of my hero--it was too great for
+words, and he only shrunk closer to the bottom of his hiding-place.
+His tormentor proceeded to cover the open end of the barrel with a
+piece of old carpet, and to tie it carefully, to prevent the thunder
+from being spilt. Still George Frederick was most heroically silent;
+the machine was lifted by the Herculean property-man, and carried
+carefully to the side scene, lest in rolling the thunder should rumble
+before its cue. It would be a hopeless task to paint the agitation of
+the contents of the barrel. The property-man, swearing the barrel was
+unusually heavy, placed the complicated machine in readiness, the
+witches entered amid flames of rosin; the thunder-bell rang, the
+barrel renewed its impetus, and away rolled George Frederick and his
+ponderous companions. Silence would now have been no virtue, and he
+roared most manfully, to the surprise of the thunderer, who,
+neglecting to stop the rolling machine, it entered on the stage, and
+George Frederick, bursting off the carpet head of the barrel, appeared
+before the audience just as the witches had agreed to meet when 'the
+hurly-burly's done.'" Cooke's biographer, Mr. William Dunlap, thought
+that this story bore "sufficient marks of probability." It must be
+said, however, that as to anecdotes touching their heroes, biographers
+are greatly prone to be credulous.
+
+The illusions of the stage were much enhanced by Garrick's Alsatian
+scene-painter, Philip James de Loutherbourg, a man of genius in his
+way, and an eminent innovator and reformer in the matter of theatrical
+decoration. Before his time the scenes had been merely strained
+"flats" of canvas, extending the whole breadth and height of the
+stage. He was the first to introduce set scenes and what are
+technically called "raking pieces." He invented transparent scenes,
+with representations of moonlight, rising and setting suns, fires,
+volcanoes, &c., and contrived effects of colour by means of silk
+screens of various hues placed before the foot and side lights. He was
+the first to represent a mist by suspending a gauze between the scene
+and the spectator. For two seasons he held a dioramic exhibition of
+his own, called the Eidophusikon, at the Patagonian Theatre in Exeter
+Change, and afterwards at a house in Panton Square. The special
+attraction of the entertainment was a storm at sea, with the wreck of
+the "Halsewell," East Indiaman. No pains were spared to picture the
+tempest and its most striking effects. The clouds were movable,
+painted upon a canvas of vast size, and rising diagonally by means of
+a winding machine. The artist excelled in his treatment of clouds, and
+by regulating the action of his windlass he could direct their
+movements, now permitting them to rise slowly from the horizon and
+sail obliquely across the heavens and now driving them swiftly along
+according to their supposed density and the power ascribed to the
+wind. The lightning quivered through transparent places in the sky.
+The waves carved in soft wood from models made in clay, coloured with
+great skill, and highly varnished to reflect the lightning, rose and
+fell with irregular action, flinging the foam now here, now there,
+diminishing in size, and dimming in colour, as they receded from the
+spectator. "De Loutherbourg's genius," we are informed, "was as
+prolific in imitations of nature to astonish the ear as to charm the
+sight. He introduced a new art--the picturesque of sound." That is to
+say, he imitated the noise of thunder by shaking one of the lower
+corners of a large thin sheet of copper suspended by a chain; the
+distant firing of signals of distress from the doomed vessel he
+counterfeited by suddenly striking a large tambourine with a sponge
+affixed to a whalebone spring, the reverberations of the sponge
+producing a peculiar echo as from cloud to cloud dying away in the
+distance. The rushing washing sound of the waves was simulated by
+turning round and round an octagonal pasteboard box, fitted with
+shelves, and containing small shells, peas, and shot; while two discs
+of tightly-strained silk, suddenly pressed together, produced a hollow
+whistling sound in imitation of loud and fitful gusts of wind.
+Cylinders, loosely charged with seed and small shot, lifted now at one
+end, now at the other, so us to allow the contents to fall in a
+pattering stream, effectually reproduced the noise of hail and rain.
+The moon was formed by a circular aperture cut in a tin box containing
+a powerful argand lamp, which was placed at the back of the scene, and
+brought near or removed from the canvas as the luminary was supposed
+to be shining brightly or to be obscured by clouds. These contrivances
+of Mr. de Loutherbourg may now, perhaps, be deemed to be of rather a
+commonplace description--they have figured so frequently, and in such
+amplified and amended forms, upon the modern stage; but they were
+calculated to impress the painter's patrons very considerably; they
+were then distinctly innovations due to his curiously inventive
+genius, and the result of much labour and heedful ingenuity. If the
+theatrical entertainments of the present time manifest little progress
+in histrionic art, there has been, at any rate, marked advance in the
+matter of scenic illusions and mechanical effects. The thunder of our
+modern stage storms may no more proceed from mustard-bowls, or from
+"troughs of wood with stops in them," but it is, at any rate,
+sufficiently formidable and uproarious, sometimes exciting, indeed,
+the anxiety of the audience, lest it should crash through the roof of
+the theatre, and visit them bodily in the pit; while for our magnesium
+or lime-light flashes of lightning, they are beyond anything that
+"spirit of right Nantz brandy" could effect in the way of lambent
+flames, have a vividness that equals reality, and, moreover, leave
+behind them a pungent and sulphurous odour that may be described as
+even supernaturally noxious. The stage storm still bursts upon the
+drama from time to time; the theatre is still visited in due course by
+its rainy and tempestuous season; and thunder and lightning are, as
+much as in Addison's time, among the favourite devices of our
+playwrights, "put in practice to fill the minds of an audience with
+terror." The terror may not be quite of the old kind, but still it
+does well enough.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+"DOUBLES."
+
+
+The "doubling" of parts, or the allotment to an actor of more
+characters than one in the same representation, was an early necessity
+of theatrical management. The old dramatists delighted in a long
+catalogue of _dramatis personae_. There are some fifty "speaking parts"
+in Shakespeare's "Henry V.," for instance; and although it was usual
+to press even the money-takers into the service of the stage to figure
+as supernumerary players, there was still a necessity for the regular
+members of the troupe to undertake dual duties. Certain curious stage
+directions cited by Mr. Payne Collier from the old extemporal play of
+"Tamar Cam," mentioned in Henslowe's "Diary" under the date of
+October, 1602, afford evidence of an early system of doubling. In the
+concluding scene of the play four-and-twenty persons are required to
+represent the nations conquered by the hero--Tartars, Bactrians,
+Cattaians, Pigmies, Cannibals, &c., and to cross the stage in
+procession in the presence of the leading characters. The names of
+these performers are supplied, and it is apparent that Messrs. George,
+Thomas Morbeck, Parsons, W. Parr, and other members of the company,
+were present early in the scene as nobles and soldiers in attendance
+upon the conqueror, and later--sufficient time being allowed for them
+to change their costumes--as representatives of "the people of Bohare,
+a Cattaian, two Bactrians," &c.
+
+In proportion as the actors were few, and the _dramatis personae_
+numerous, so the system of doubling, and even trebling parts, more
+and more prevailed. Especially were the members of itinerant companies
+compelled to undertake increase of labour of this kind. It was to
+their advantage that the troupe should be limited in number, so that
+the money accruing from their performances should not be divided into
+too many shares, and, as a consequence, each man's profit reduced too
+considerably. Further, it was always the strollers' principle of
+action to stick at nothing: to be deterred by no difficulties in
+regard to paucity of numbers, deficient histrionic gifts, inadequate
+wardrobes, or absent scenery. They were always prepared to represent,
+somehow, any play that seemed to them to promise advantages to their
+treasury. The labours of doubling fell chiefly on the minor players,
+for the leading tragedian was too frequently present on the scene as
+the hero of the night to be able to undertake other duties. But if the
+player of Hamlet, for instance, was confined to that character, it was
+still competent for the representative of "the ghost of buried
+Denmark" to figure also as Laertes; or for Polonius, his death
+accomplished, to reappear in the guise of Osric or the First
+Gravedigger; to say nothing of such minor arrangements as were
+involved in entrusting the parts of the First Actor, Marcellus, and
+the Second Gravedigger to one actor. Some care had to be exercised
+that the doubled characters did not clash, and were not required to be
+simultaneously present upon the scene. But, indeed, the strollers did
+not hesitate to mangle their author when his stage directions did not
+accord with their convenience. The late Mr. Meadows used to relate
+that when in early life he was a member of the Tamworth,
+Stratford-upon-Avon, and Warwick company, he was cast for Orozembo,
+the Old Blind Man, and the Sentinel in "Pizarro," and took part in a
+mutilated version of Macbeth, in which King Duncan, Hecate, the First
+Murderer, and the Doctor were performed by one actor; the bleeding
+soldier, one of the apparitions, and Seyton by another; and Fleance,
+the Apparition of a crowned head, and the Gentlewoman by the juvenile
+lady of the company, the characters of Donaldbain and Siward being
+wholly omitted.
+
+Harley's first theatrical engagement was with Jerrold, the manager of
+a company at Cranbrook. His salary was fifteen shillings a week, and
+in a representation of "The Honeymoon" he appeared as Jaques, Lampedo,
+and Lopez, accomplishing the task with the assistance of several wigs
+and cloaks. In "John Bull" he played Dan, John Burr, and Sir Francis
+Rochdale; another actor doubling the parts of Peregrine and Tom
+Shuffleton, while the manager's wife represented Mrs. Brulgruddery and
+Frank Rochdale, attiring the latter in a pair of very loose nankeen
+trousers and a very tight short jacket. The entire company consisted
+of "four white males, three females, and a negro." Certain of the
+parts were assigned in the playbills to a Mr. Jones. These, much to
+his surprise, Harley was requested by the manager to assume. "Between
+you and me," he whispered mysteriously to his young recruit, "there's
+no such person as Mr. Jones. Our company's rather thin just now, but
+there's no reason why the fact should be noised abroad." Other
+provincial managers were much less anxious to conceal the paucity of
+their company. A country playbill, bearing date 1807, seems indeed to
+vaunt the system of doubling to which the _impresario_ had been
+driven. The comedy of "The Busy Body" was announced for performance
+with the following extraordinary cast:
+
+    Sir Francis Gripe and Charles       Mr. Johnston.
+    Sir George Airy and Whisper         Mr. Deans.
+    Sir Jealous Traffic and Marplot     Mr. Jones.
+    Miranda and Scentwell               Mrs. Deans.
+    Patch and Isabinda                  Mrs. Jones.
+
+Among other feats of doubling or trebling may be counted the
+performance, on the same night, by a Mrs. Stanley, at the Coburg
+Theatre, of the parts of Lady Anne, Tressell, and Richmond, in
+"Richard III." A Mr. W. Rede once accomplished the difficult feat of
+appearing as Sir Lucius O'Trigger, Fag, and Mrs. Malaprop in a
+representation of "The Rivals," the lady's entrance in the last scene
+having been preceded by the abrupt exit of Sir Lucius and the omission
+of the concluding passages of his part. The characters of King Henry,
+Buckingham, and Richmond, in Cibber's edition of "Richard III.," have
+frequently been undertaken by one performer.
+
+Actors have often appeared in two, and sometimes in three theatres on
+the same evening. This may be the result of their own great
+popularity, or due to the fact of their serving a manager who has
+become lessee of more than one establishment. For twenty-eight nights
+in succession, Grimaldi performed the arduous duties of clown both at
+Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden Theatres. On one occasion he even
+played clown at the Surrey Theatre in addition. It is recorded that
+"the only refreshment he took during the whole evening was one glass
+of warm ale and a biscuit." A postchaise and four was waiting at the
+Surrey Theatre to convey him to Sadler's Wells, and thence to Covent
+Garden, and the postboys urged their horses to a furious speed. It is
+well known that while fulfilling his double engagement he one wet
+night missed his coach, and ran in the rain all the way from
+Clerkenwell to Holborn, in his clown's dress, before he could obtain a
+second vehicle. He was recognised as he ran by a man who shouted:
+"Here's Joe Grimaldi!" And forthwith the most thoroughly popular
+performer of his day was followed by a roaring and cheering mob of
+admirers, who proclaimed his name and calling, threw up their hats and
+caps, exhibited every evidence of delight, and agreed, as with one
+accord, to see him safe and sound to his journey's end. "So the coach
+went on, surrounded by the dirtiest bodyguard that was ever beheld;
+not one of whom deserted his post until Grimaldi had been safely
+deposited at the stage-door of Covent Garden, when, after raising a
+vociferous cheer, such of them as had money rushed round to the
+gallery doors, and making their appearance in the front just as he
+came on the stage, set up a boisterous shout of 'Here he is again!'
+and cheered him enthusiastically, to the infinite amusement of every
+person in the theatre who had got wind of the story."
+
+At one time Elliston, engaged as an actor at Drury Lane, had the
+additional responsibility of two theatrical managements, the Surrey
+and the Olympic. His performers were required to serve both theatres,
+and thus frequently appeared upon the stage in two counties upon the
+same night. In 1834 the two patent theatres were ruled by one lessee,
+whose managerial scheme it was to work the two houses with a company
+and a half. The running to and from Drury Lane and Covent Garden of
+actors half attired, with rouged faces, and loaded with the
+paraphernalia of their art, of dancers in various stages of dress, of
+musicians bearing their instruments and their music-books, was
+incessant, while the interchange of mysterious terms and inquiries,
+such as "Who's on?" "Stage waits," "Curtain down," "Rung up," "First
+music," &c., was sufficiently perplexing to passers-by. At the season
+of Christmas, when the system of double duty was at its height, the
+hardships endured by the performers were severe indeed. The dancers
+were said to pass from one theatre to the other six times during the
+evening, and to undergo no fewer than eight changes of costume.
+
+In the same way the performances at the summer theatre, the Haymarket,
+at the commencement and close of its season, often came into collision
+with the entertainments of the winter houses, and the actor engaged by
+two masters, and anxious to serve both faithfully, had a very arduous
+time of it. How could he possibly be present at the Haymarket and yet
+not absent from Drury Lane or Covent Garden? As a rule the patent
+theatres had the preference, and the summer theatre was compelled for
+a few nights to be content with a very scanty company. On one
+occasion, however, Farley, the actor, achieved the feat of appearing
+both at the Haymarket and Covent Garden on the same night, and in the
+plays presented first at each house. The effort is deserving of
+particular description.
+
+At Covent Garden the curtain rose at half-past six o'clock. In the
+Haymarket the representation commenced at seven. At the former theatre
+Farley was cast for one of the witches in "Macbeth." At the latter he
+was required to impersonate Sir Philip Modelove, in the comedy of "A
+Bold Stroke for a Wife." It was a question of fitting in his exits at
+Covent Garden with his entrances at the Haymarket. A hackney-coach was
+in attendance, provided with a dresser, lighted candles, the necessary
+change of costume, and the means of altering his make-up. His early
+duties as a witch at Covent Garden fulfilled, the actor jumped into
+his coach, and, with the assistance of his dresser, was promptly
+changed from the weird sister of the tragedy to the elderly beau of
+the comedy. He duly arrived at the Haymarket in time to present
+himself as Sir Philip, whose first entrance upon the stage is in the
+second act of the play. This part of his task performed, he hurried
+again to Covent Garden, being transformed on the road from Sir Philip
+back again to the weird sister. Again he left the patent theatre, and
+reached the Haymarket in time to appear as Sir Philip, on the second
+entrance of that character in the fifth act of the play. The actor
+acquitted himself entirely to the satisfaction of his two audiences
+(who were perhaps hardly aware of the extent of his labours), but
+with very considerable strain upon his nervous system. For to add to
+the difficulties of his task, his coachman, indifferent to the counsel
+that the more haste often signifies the worse speed, turning a corner
+too sharply, ran his forewheel against a post, and upset coach, actor,
+dresser, candles, costumes, and all. This untimely accident
+notwithstanding, the actor, with assistance freely rendered by a
+friendly crowd, secured another vehicle, and succeeded in
+accomplishing an exploit that can scarcely be paralleled in histrionic
+records.
+
+But if doubling was sometimes a matter of necessity, it has often been
+the result of choice. Actors have been much inclined to undertake dual
+duty with a view of manifesting their versatility, or of surprising
+their admirers. Benefit-nights have been especially the occasions of
+doubling of this kind. Thus, at a provincial theatre, then under his
+management, Elliston once tried the strange experiment of sustaining
+the characters of both Richard and Richmond in the same drama. The
+entrance of Richmond does not occur until the fifth act of the
+tragedy, when the scenes in which the king and the earl occupy the
+stage become alternate. On making his exit as Richard, Elliston
+dropped his hump from his shoulder, as though it had been a knapsack,
+straightened his deformed limbs, slipped on certain pieces of
+pasteboard armour, and, adorned with fresh head-gear, duly presented
+himself as the Tudor prince. The heroic lines of Richmond delivered,
+the actor hurried to the side-wings, to resume something of the
+misshapen aspect of Richard, and then re-enter as that character. In
+this way the play went on until the last scene, when the combatants
+came face to face. How was their fight to be presented to the
+spectators? This omission of so popular an incident as a broadsword
+combat could not be thought of. The armour of Richmond was forthwith
+shifted on to the shoulders of a supernumerary player, who was simply
+enjoined to "hold his tongue, and fight like the devil." Richard
+slain, Richmond departed. The body of the dead king was borne from the
+stage, and Elliston was then enabled to reappear as Richmond, and
+speak the closing lines of the play.
+
+Among more legitimate exploits in the way of doubling are to be
+accounted the late Mr. Charles Mathews's assumption of the two
+characters of Puff and Sir Fretful Plagiary in "The Critic;" Miss Kate
+Terry's performance both of Viola and Sebastian in "Twelfth Night;"
+Mr. Phelps's appearance as James the First and Trapbois, in the play
+founded upon "The Fortunes of Nigel;" and the rendering by the same
+actor of the parts of the King and Justice Shallow in "The Second Part
+of Henry IV." The worst that can be said for these performances is
+that they incline the audience to pay less heed to the play than to
+the frequent changes of appearance entailed upon the players. The
+business of the scene is apt to be overlooked, and regard wanders
+involuntarily to the transactions of the tiring-room and the
+side-wings. Will the actor be recognisable? will he really have time
+to alter his costume? the spectators mechanically ask themselves, and
+meditation is occupied with such possibilities as a tangled string or
+an obstinate button hindering the performer. All this is opposed to
+the real purpose of playing, and injurious to the actor's art, to say
+nothing of the interests of the dramatist. Illusion is the special
+object of the theatre, and this forfeits its magic when once inquiry
+is directed too curiously to its method of contrivance. Still doubling
+of this kind has always been in favour both with actors and audiences,
+and many plays have been provided especially to give dual occupation
+to the performers. Certain of these have for excuse the fact that
+their fables hinge upon some question of mistaken identity, or strong
+personal resemblance. The famous "Courier of Lyons," founded, indeed,
+upon a genuine _cause celebre_, was a drama of this kind. Here it was
+indispensable that the respectable Monsieur Lesurques and the criminal
+Dubosc, between whom so extraordinary a likeness existed that the one
+suffered death upon the scaffold for a murder committed by the other,
+should be both impersonated by the same performer. "The Corsican
+Brothers," it need hardly be said, narrated the fortunes of the
+twin-born Louis and Fabian dei Franchi, reasonably supposed to be so
+much alike that they could not be known apart. Mademoiselle Rachel
+appeared with success in a drama called "Valeria," written by
+Messieurs Auguste Maquet and Jules Lacroix, for the express purpose,
+it would seem, of rehabilitating the Empress Messalina. The actress
+personated Valeria, otherwise Messalina, and also Cynisca, a
+dancing-girl of evil character, but so closely resembling the empress
+that, as the dramatists argued, history had confounded the two ladies,
+and charged the one with the misdeeds of the other. "Like and Unlike,"
+an adaptation from the French, in which, some years since, Madame
+Celeste was wont to perform at the Adelphi, is also a drama of the
+same class. But, indeed, works contrived for doubling purposes are
+numerous enough. And in this category may be included the elaborate
+melodramas which deal with long lapses of years, and relate the
+adventures of more than one generation, and in which the hero or
+heroine of the earlier scenes reappears at a later stage of the
+performance as his or her own child. Here, however, frequent change of
+dress is not required; the character first personated, when once laid
+aside, is not resumed, but is supposed to have been effectually
+removed from the scene by death, generally of a violent description.
+It is to be added that the applause often won by the actor who doubles
+a part on account of his rapid changes of attire, are in truth due
+much less to him than to the activity of his dresser--a functionary,
+however, who is never seen by the public. Still, calls before the
+curtain have now become such common compliments, that even the
+dressers of the theatre may yet obtain this form of recognition of
+their deserts.
+
+The services of a mute double to assist the illusion of the scene, or
+to spare a leading performer needless fatigue, have often been
+required upon the stage. Such a play as "The Corsican Brothers" could
+scarcely be presented without the aid of a mute player to take the
+place, now of Louis, now of Fabian dei Franchi, to personate now the
+spectre of this twin, now of that. In former days, when the deepest
+tragedy was the most highly esteemed of theatrical entertainments,
+funeral processions, or biers bearing the corpses of departed heroes,
+were among the most usual of scenic exhibitions. Plays closed with a
+surprising list of killed and wounded. But four of the characters in
+Rowe's "Fair Penitent" are left alive at the fall of the curtain, and
+among those survivors are included such subordinate persons as
+Rossano, the friend of Lothario, and Lucilla, the confidante of
+Calista, whom certainly it was worth no one's while to put to death.
+The haughty gallant, gay Lothario, is slain at the close of the fourth
+act, but his corpse figures prominently in the concluding scenes. The
+stage direction runs at the opening of the fifth act: "A room hung
+with black; on one side Lothario's body on a bier; on the other a
+table with a skull and other bones, a book and a lamp on it. Calista
+is discovered on a couch, in black; her hair hanging loose and
+disordered. Soft music plays." In this, as in similar cases, it was
+clearly unnecessary that the personator of the live Lothario of the
+first four acts should remain upon the stage to represent his dead
+body in the fifth. It was usual, therefore, to allow the actor's
+dresser to perform this doleful duty, and the dressers of the time
+seem to have claimed occupation of this nature as a kind of privilege,
+probably obtaining in such wise some title to increase of salary. The
+original Lothario--the tragedy being first represented in 1703--was
+George Powell, an esteemed actor who won applause from Addison and
+Steele, but who appears to have been somewhat of a toper, and was
+generally reputed to obscure his faculties by incessant indulgence in
+Nantes brandy. The fourth act of the play over, the actor was
+impatient to be gone, and was heard behind the scenes angrily
+demanding the assistance of Warren, his dresser, entirely forgetful of
+the fact that his attendant was employed upon the stage in personating
+the corpse of Lothario. Mr. Powell's wrath grew more and more intense.
+He threatened the absent Warren with the severest of punishments. The
+unhappy dresser, reclining on Lothario's bier, could not but overhear
+his raging master, yet for some time his fears were surmounted by his
+sense of dramatic propriety. He lay and shivered, longing for the fall
+of the curtain. At length his situation became quite unendurable.
+Powell was threatening to break every bone in his skin. In his
+dresser's opinion the actor was a man likely to keep his word. With a
+cry of "Here I am, master!" Warren sprang up, clothed in sable
+draperies which were fastened to the handles of his bier. The house
+roared with surprise and laughter. Encumbered by his charnel-house
+trappings, the dead Lothario precipitately fled from the stage. The
+play, of course, ended abruptly. For once the sombre tragedy of "The
+Fair Penitent" was permitted a mirthful conclusion.
+
+Whenever unusual physical exertion is required of a player, a perilous
+fall, or a desperate leap, a trained gymnast is usually engaged as
+double to accomplish this portion of the performance. When in the
+stage versions of "Kenilworth," Sir Richard Varney, in lieu of Amy
+Robsart, is seen to descend through the treacherous trap and incur a
+fall of many feet, we may be sure that it is not the genuine Varney,
+but his double who undergoes this severe fate. The name of the double
+is not recorded in the playbill, however, and he wins little fame,
+let him acquit himself as skilfully as he may. Occasionally, however,
+doubles of this kind are found to emerge from obscurity and establish
+a reputation of their own. In 1820, a pantomime, dealing with the
+fairly tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk," was produced at Drury Lane.
+The part of the hero was allotted to little Miss Povey, who declined,
+however, to undertake Jack's feat of climbing the famous beanstalk, a
+formidable structure reaching from the stage to the roof of the
+theatre. It became necessary to secure a substitute who should present
+some resemblance to the small and slight figure of the young actress,
+and yet be sufficiently strong and courageous to undertake the task
+she demurred to. The matter was one of some difficulty, and for some
+time no competent double was forthcoming. One morning, however,
+Winston, the stage-manager, descried a little active boy, acting as
+waterman's assistant, at the hackney-coach stand in Bedford Street,
+Covent Garden. He was carried to the theatre and his abilities put to
+the test at a rehearsal of the pantomime. His performance was
+pronounced satisfactory. He nightly appeared during the run of "Jack
+and the Beanstalk" as the climbing double of Miss Povey. Subsequently,
+he became one of the pupils of the clown. The boy said he believed his
+name was Sullivan. Years afterwards he was known to fame as Monsieur
+Silvain, ballet-master, and principal dancer of the Academic Royale,
+Paris, an artist of distinction, and a most respectable member of
+society.
+
+Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, has recorded in her Memoirs a
+curious instance of a double being employed in connection with a dummy
+to secure a theatrical illusion of a special kind. The play produced
+at the Olympic Theatre some twenty years ago, was an English version
+of the "Ariane" of Thomas Corneille. In the original, Ariadne, upon
+the discovery of the perfidy of Theseus, falls upon a sword and
+expires. This catastrophe was altered in the adaptation, and a
+startling effect produced by the leaping of the heroine from a rock,
+and her plunging into the sea, while the ship of Theseus is seen
+departing in the distance. It was found necessary that three Ariadnes,
+similarly costumed, and identical in appearance, should lend their aid
+to accomplish this thrilling termination. Mrs. Mowatt, as Ariadne the
+first, paced the shore, and received the agonising intelligence of
+the desertion of Theseus. A ballet-girl, as Ariadne the second,
+climbed the rocks of the Island of Naxos, reaching the highest peak to
+catch the last glimpse of the vanishing vessel. The third Ariadne was
+a most lifelike lay figure, which, on a given signal, was hurled from
+the cliff, and seen to fall into the abyss below.
+
+The greatest difficulty seems to have been experienced at rehearsal in
+persuading Ariadne the second even to walk up the steep rocks of
+Naxos. The poor ballet-girl had been chosen for this duty less because
+of her courage than on account of an accidental resemblance she bore
+to Mrs. Mowatt. "She stopped and shrieked halfway, protested she was
+dizzy, and might fall, and would not advance a step farther. After
+about half-an-hour's delay, during which the poor girl was encouraged,
+coaxed, and scolded abundantly, she allowed the carpenter, who had
+planned the rocky pathway, to lead her carefully up and down the
+declivity, and finally rushed up alone." At a certain cue she was
+required to fall upon her face, concealed from the audience by an
+intercepting rock, and then the lay figure took its flight through the
+air.
+
+The success of the performance appears to have been complete. The
+substitution of the double for Ariadne, and the dummy for the double,
+even puzzled spectators who were provided with powerful opera-glasses.
+"The illusion was so perfect," Mrs. Mowatt writes, "that on the first
+night of the representation, when Ariadne leaped from the rock, a man
+started up in the pit, exclaiming in a tone of genuine horror: 'Good
+God! she is killed!'" How this exclamation must have rejoiced the
+heart of the stage-manager! For one would rather not consider the
+possibility of the "man in the pit" having been placed there by that
+functionary with due instructions as to when and what he was to
+exclaim.
+
+It is a sort of doubling when, in consequence of the illness or
+absence of a performer, his part is read by some other member of the
+company. In this way curious experiments have sometimes been made upon
+public patience. At Dublin, in 1743, Addison's tragedy was announced
+for representation, with Sheridan, the actor, in the character of
+Cato. Sheridan, however, suddenly declined to appear, the costume he
+had usually assumed in his performance of Cato being absent from the
+wardrobe. In this emergency, Theophilus Cibber submitted a proposition
+to the audience that, in addition to appearing as Syphax in the play,
+he should read the part Mr. Sheridan ought to have filled. The offer
+was accepted, the performance ensued, and apparently excited no
+opposition. Sheridan was much incensed, however, and published an
+address to the public. Cibber replied. Sheridan issued a second
+address, to which Cibber again responded. Their correspondence was
+subsequently reprinted in a pamphlet entitled "Sock and Buskin." But
+the fact remained that "Cato" had been represented with the chief part
+not acted, but read by a player who had other duties to fulfil in the
+tragedy. One is reminded of the old-established story of the play of
+"Hamlet" being performed with the omission of the character of the
+Prince of Denmark; a tradition, or a jest, which has long been
+attributed to Joe Miller, or some similar compiler of facetiae. It
+would seem, however, that even this absurd legend can boast some
+foundation of fact. At any rate, Mr. Parke, the respectable oboist of
+the Opera House, who published his Musical Memoirs in 1830, is found
+gravely recording of one Cubit, a subordinate actor and singer of
+Covent Garden Theatre, that once, "when during one of his summer
+engagements at a provincial theatre, he was announced to perform the
+character of Hamlet, he was seized with a sudden and serious illness
+in his dressing-room, just before the play was going to begin;
+whereupon the manager, having 'no more cats than would catch mice,'
+was constrained to request the audience to suffer them to go through
+with the play, omitting the character of Hamlet; which, being complied
+with, it was afterwards considered by the bulk of the audience to be a
+great improvement." Mr. Parke proceeds to record, by way, perhaps, of
+fortifying his story: "Although this may appear ridiculous and
+improbable, an occurrence of a similar kind took place several years
+afterwards at Covent Garden Theatre, when Cooke, the popular actor,
+having got drunk, the favourite afterpiece of 'Love a la Mode' was
+performed before a London audience (he being absent) without the
+principal character, Sir Archy MacSarcasm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+BENEFITS.
+
+
+Philip Henslowe, who, late in the sixteenth century, was proprietor of
+the old Rose Theatre, which stood a little west of the foot of London
+Bridge, at Bankside, combined with his managerial duties the
+occupation of pawnbroker, and was employed, moreover, as a kind of
+commission agent, or middleman, between dramatic authors and actors.
+It probably seemed as natural to the manager to engage in these
+different employments as to require his players to "double" or
+"treble" parts in plays possessed of an unusually long list of
+_dramatis personae_. He had married Agnes Woodward, a widow, whose
+daughter, Joan, became the first wife of Edward Alleyn, the actor, the
+founder of Dulwich College. Henslowe had been the servant of Mrs.
+Woodward, and by his union with her he acquired considerable property.
+Forthwith he constituted himself "a banker of the poor"--to use the
+modern euphonious synonym for pawnbroker--and advanced money for all
+needing it who were able to deposit with him plate, rings, jewels,
+wearing apparel, or other chattels of value. The playwrights of the
+time constantly obtained loans from him, not always that he might
+secure their compositions for his theatre, but often to relieve their
+immediate wants; and it is plain that he constantly availed himself of
+their necessitous condition to effect bargains with them very
+advantageous to his own interests. Robert Daborne, the dramatist, for
+instance, appears to have been particularly impecunious, and he was,
+moreover, afflicted with a pending lawsuit; the sums he obtained for
+his plays from the manager were therefore very disproportionate and
+uncertain. His letters to Henslowe are urgent in solicitations for
+payment on account of work in hand; he was often obliged to send his
+manuscripts piecemeal to the manager, and on one occasion supplied a
+rough draft of the last scene of a play in order to obtain a few
+shillings in advance. The amounts paid for new plays at this time were
+very low. Before 1600 Henslowe never gave more than L8 for a play, but
+after that date there was a considerable rise in prices. In 1613
+Daborne received L20 for his tragedy of "Machiavell and the Devil." In
+the same year, however, for another play, "The Bellman of London," he
+was content to take L12 and "the overplus of the second day." He had
+demanded L20 in the first instance, but being in great stress for
+money, had reduced his terms, beseeching Henslowe "to forsake him not
+in his extremity." Daborne's letters of entreaty indeed expose his
+poverty in a most pathetic manner, while occasionally they betray
+amusingly his vanity as an author. In one of his appeals to the
+manager, he writes: "I did think I deserved as much money as Mr.
+Massinger;" but this estimation of himself and his writings has not
+been confirmed by later ages.
+
+The "overplus of the second day" was probably, as a rule, not very
+considerable, seeing that a payment of L20 down was regarded as a
+higher rate of remuneration than L12 and "the overplus," whatever it
+might produce, in addition. Daborne's needs, however, may have induced
+him to prize unduly "the bird in the hand." Still his brother-authors
+held similar views on the subject. They, too, disliked the overplus
+system, while the managers as resolutely favoured it. So that, apart
+from the consideration that poverty clings to certainty because it
+cannot afford speculation, and that, to the literary character
+especially, a present payment of a specified sum is always more
+precious than possible undefined profits in the future, we may
+conclude that the overplus system generally told to the advantage of
+the managers. In the end the labourers had to yield to the
+capitalists; indeed, they could make little stand against them.
+Authors have never manifested much faculty for harmonious combination,
+and a literary strike was no more conceivable then than now. In time a
+chance of the overplus became hardly separable from the method of
+paying dramatists. It was thought, perhaps, that better works would
+be produced by the writers who were made in some sort dependent for
+profit upon the success of their plays and partners in the ventures of
+the managers. In such wise the loss sustained from the condemnation of
+a play at its first representation would not fall solely upon the
+manager; the author would at least be a fellow-sufferer. Gradually the
+chance of the overplus was deferred from the second to the third
+performance. The system no doubt varied according to the position of
+the dramatist, who, if he were a successful writer, could make his own
+terms, so far as the selection of the overplus night was concerned.
+Sir John Denham, in the prologue to his tragedy, "The Sophy," acted at
+Blackfriars about 1642, speaks of the second _or_ third day's overplus
+as belonging to the poet:
+
+            Gentlemen, if you dislike the play,
+    Pray make no words on't till the second day
+    Or third be passed.
+
+After the Restoration it became a settled practice that what was then
+called "the author's night" should be the third performance of his
+play; and the dramatist in time received further profit from
+subsequent representations.
+
+    Then grant 'em generous terms who dare to write,
+    Since now that seems as dangerous as to fight;
+    If we must yield yet ere the day be fixt,
+    Let us hold out the third, and, if we may, the sixth.
+
+    _Prologue, "The Twin Rivals," Farquhar, produced 1702._
+
+"In Dryden's time," writes Dr. Johnson, explaining that with all his
+diligence in play-writing the poet could not greatly improve his
+fortune,[2] "the drama was very far from that universal approbation
+which it has now obtained. The playhouse was abhorred by the Puritans,
+and avoided by those who desired the character of seriousness or
+decency. A grave lawyer would have debased his dignity, and a young
+trader would have impaired his credit by appearing in those mansions
+of dissolute licentiousness. The profits of the theatre, when so many
+classes of the people were deducted from the audience, were not
+great, and the poet had, for a long time, but a single night. The
+first that had two nights was Southern; and the first that had three
+was Rowe. There were, indeed, in those days, arts of improving a
+poet's profit, which Dryden forbore to practise; but a play seldom
+produced him more than a hundred pounds by the accumulated gain of the
+third night, the dedication, and the copy."
+
+     [2] He had, it was alleged, entered into a contract to furnish
+     four plays in each year.
+
+These "arts of improving a poet's profit" consisted in the canvassing
+his friends and patrons, distributing tickets, and soliciting favour
+in all quarters. By his address in these matters, Southern's tragedy,
+"The Spartan Dame," produced him L500; indeed, he is said to have
+profited more by his writings for the stage than any of his
+contemporaries. Malone states that Addison was the first to abandon
+the undignified custom of appealing personally to the public for
+support. But it has been pointed out that this is an error. Addison
+gave the profits of "Cato" to the managers, and was not required
+therefore to appeal on his own behalf to the public. Goldsmith's
+"Good-natured Man," it may be noted, was played ten consecutive
+nights, and the third, sixth, and ninth performances were advertised
+as "appropriated to the author." These three nights produced him L400,
+and he received L100 more from Griffin, the publisher, for the
+publication of the play--the entire receipts being immediately, with
+characteristic promptness, spent in the purchase of the lease of his
+chambers in Brick Court, Middle Temple, and in handsome furniture,
+consisting of "Wilton carpets, blue moreen mahogany sofas, blue moreen
+curtains, chairs corresponding, chimney-glasses, Pembroke and card
+tables, and tasteful book-shelves." According to Malone, one hundred
+guineas remained for many years, dating from 1726, the standard price
+paid by the publishers for a new play.
+
+In addition to these "authors' nights," performances were occasionally
+given for the benefit of an author suffering from adverse
+circumstances. Thus, in 1733, a performance was organised at the
+Haymarket Theatre for the benefit of Mr. Dennis, the critic and
+dramatist. "The Provoked Husband" was represented, and Pope so far
+laid aside his resentment against his old antagonist as to supply a
+prologue for the occasion. Nevertheless, it was noticed that the poet
+had not been able to resist the temptation of covertly sneering at the
+superannuated author, and certain of the lines in the prologue were
+found susceptible of a satirical application. Happily, poor Dennis,
+protected by his vanity or the decay of his intelligence, perceived
+nothing of this. Indeed, the poor old critic survived the benefit but
+twenty days, dying in the seventy-seventh year of his age. Other
+benefit performances on behalf of distressed men of letters, or their
+families, have frequently been given, even in quite recent times; but
+these are not to be confounded with the "authors' nights," as they
+were originally understood. "Authors' nights," strictly so called,
+have disappeared of late years. Modern dramatists are content to make
+private arrangements in regard to their works with the managers, and
+do not now publicly advance their personal claims upon the general
+consideration. They may profit by an "overplus," or be paid by the
+length of a "run" of their plays, or may sell them out-right at once
+for a stipulated sum. The public have no knowledge of, and no concern
+in, the conditions of their method of transacting business. But from
+the old overplus system of the Elizabethan stage resulted those
+special performances called "benefits," still known to the modern
+playgoer, though now connected in his mind almost altogether with
+actors, and in no degree with authors. Nevertheless, it was for
+authors that benefits were originally instituted, in opposition, as we
+have seen, to their wishes, and solely to suit the convenience and
+forward the interests of managers such as Mr. Henslowe.
+
+Certainly in Shakespeare's time the actors knew nothing of benefits.
+They obtained the best price they could for their services, and the
+risk of profit or loss upon the performance was wholly the affair of
+the manager. Indeed, it was long after the time when the chance of an
+overplus had become systematised as a means of paying authors, that it
+occurred to anyone that actors might also be remunerated in a similar
+way. In olden days the actor's profession was not favourably regarded
+by the general public; his social position was particularly insecure;
+he was looked upon as of close kin to the rogue and the vagabond, and
+with degrading possibilities in connection with the stocks and
+whipping-post never wholly remote from his professional career. An
+Elizabethan player, presuming to submit his personal claims and merits
+to the consideration of the audience, with a view to his own
+individual profit, apart from the general company of which he was a
+member and the manager whom he served, would probably have been deemed
+guilty of a most unpardonable impertinence. Gradually, however, the
+status of the actor improved; people began to concede that he was not
+necessarily or invariably a mountebank, and that certain of the
+qualities and dignities of an art might attach now and then to his
+achievements. The famous Mrs. Barry was, according to Cibber, "the
+first person whose merit was distinguished by the indulgence of having
+an annual benefit play, which was granted to her alone," he proceeds,
+"if I mistake not, first in King James II.'s time, and which became
+not common to others until the division of the company, after the
+death of King William's Queen Mary." However, in the preceding reign,
+in the year 1681, it appears by an agreement made between Davenant,
+Betterton, and others, that Charles Hart and Edward Kynaston were to
+be paid "five shillings apiece for every day there shall be any
+tragedies or comedies or other representations at the Duke's Theatre,
+in Salisbury Court, or wherever the company shall act during the
+respective lives of the said Charles Hart and Edward Kynaston,
+excepting the days the young men or young women play for their own
+profit only." Benefits would certainly seem to be here referred to,
+unless we are to understand the performances to be of a commonwealth
+kind, carried on by the players at their own risk, and independently
+of the managers. Still, to King James's admiring patronage of Mrs.
+Barry, the benefit system, as it is at present known to us, has been
+generally ascribed; and clearly the monarch's memory deserves to be
+cherished on this account by our players. He can ill afford to forego
+the smallest claim to esteem, and undoubtedly he entertained a
+friendly regard for the stage and its professors. Indeed, the Stuarts
+generally were well disposed towards the arts, and a decidedly
+playgoing family.
+
+For some years, however, actors' benefits did not extend beyond the
+case of Mrs. Barry. But in 1695 the patentees of the theatres were so
+unfortunately situated that they could not satisfy the claims of their
+actors, and were compelled to pay them "half in good words and half in
+ready money." Under these circumstances certain of the players
+compounded for the arrears of salary due to them by taking the risk of
+benefit performances. After a season or two these benefits were found
+to be so advantageous to the actors that they were expressly
+stipulated for in their agreements with the managers. On the other
+hand, the managers, jealous of the advantages secured in this wise by
+the players, took care to charge very fully for the expenses of the
+house, which were of course deducted from the gross receipts of the
+benefit-night, and further sought to levy a percentage upon the
+profits obtained by the actors. In 1702 the ordinary charge for house
+expenses, on the occasion of a benefit at Drury Lane, was about L34.
+In Garrick's time the charge rose to L64, and was afterwards advanced
+considerably. Still the actors had special sources of profit. Their
+admirers and patrons were not content to pay merely the ordinary
+prices of admission, but bought their tickets at advanced rates, and
+often sent presents of money in addition. Thus Betterton--whose
+salary, by-the-bye, was only L4 per week--took a benefit in 1709, when
+he received L76 for two-thirds of the receipts upon the ordinary
+scale--one-third being deducted by the manager for expenses--and a
+further sum of L450 for the extra payments and presents of his
+friends. The boxes and pit were "laid together," as it was called, and
+half-a-guinea was charged for admission. "One lady gave him ten
+guineas, some two, and most one guinea. Further, he delivered tickets
+for more persons than the boxes, pit, and stage could hold, and it was
+thought that he cleared L450 at least over and above the L76."
+Certainly the great actor enjoyed on this occasion of his benefit what
+is popularly known as "a bumper."[3]
+
+     [3] Macready, on the occasion of his taking a benefit,
+     invariably refused to receive any payment in excess of the
+     ordinary charges for admission to the theatre, and was wont,
+     with a polite note of thanks, to return the balance to those
+     who, as he judged, had overpaid him for their tickets.
+
+The system of actors' benefits having thus become thoroughly
+established, was soon extended and made applicable to other purposes,
+for the most part of a charitable kind. Thus, in 1711, a benefit
+performance was given in aid of Mrs. Betterton, the widow of the late
+famous tragedian, who had herself been an actress, but had for some
+time ceased to appear on the stage owing to age and other infirmities.
+The "Tatler," after an account of Betterton's funeral, describes
+feelingly the situation of his widow: "The mention I have here made of
+Mr. Betterton, for whom I had, as long as I have known anything, a
+very great esteem and gratitude, for the pleasure he gave me, can do
+him no good; but it may possibly be of service to the unhappy woman he
+has left behind him, to have it known that this great tragedian was
+never in a scene half so moving as the circumstances of his affairs
+created at his departure. His wife, after a cohabitation of forty
+years in the strictest amity, has long pined away with a sense of his
+decay, as well in his person as in his little fortune; and in
+proportion to that she has herself decayed both in health and reason.
+Her husband's death, added to her age and infirmities, would certainly
+have terminated her life, but that the greatness of her distress has
+been her relief by her present deprivation of her senses. This absence
+of her reason is her best defence against age, sorrow, poverty, and
+sickness."[4] Indeed, Steele constantly testifies his fondness for the
+theatre and kindly feeling towards the players, by calling attention
+to the benefit performances, and bespeaking the public favour for
+them, adding much curious mention and humorous criticism of the
+comedians who were especially the objects of his admiration--Pinkethman,
+Bullock, Underbill, Dogget, and others.
+
+     [4] The "Tatler," No. 167, May 4, 1710.
+
+Other benefits, however, less urgently laid claim to the goodwill of
+the public. At the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the year 1726,
+a performance was announced "for the benefit of an author whose play
+is deferred till next season." How far the efforts of this anonymous
+gentleman to raise money upon a sort of contingent reversion of
+literary distinction were encouraged by the playgoers, or whether his
+play ever really saw the light of the stage-lamps, can hardly now be
+discovered. By-and-by performances are given on behalf of objects
+wholly unconnected with players or playwrights. In 1742 a
+representation was advertised, "For the entertainment of the Grand
+Master of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted
+Masons--for the benefit of a brother who has had great misfortunes." A
+season or two later there was a benefit at Drury Lane "for a gentleman
+under misfortunes," when Othello was played by an anonymous actor,
+afterwards to be known to fame as Mr. Samuel Foote. In subsequent
+years benefits were given "for the sufferers by a late fire;" on
+behalf of the soldiers who had fought against the Pretender in the
+year '45; for "Mrs. Elizabeth Forster, the granddaughter of Milton,
+and his only surviving descendant,"[5] when "Comus" was performed, and
+a new prologue, written by Dr. Johnson, was spoken by Garrick; for
+"the Lying-in Hospital in Brownlow Street;" while in the success of
+the production of Dr. Young's tragedy of "The Brothers," played at
+Drury Lane in 1753, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was
+directly concerned--the author having announced that the profits would
+be given in aid of that charity. Nevertheless, the receipts
+disappointed expectation; whereupon the author generously, out of his
+own resources, made up the sum of L1000. A special epilogue was
+written for the occasion by Mallet at Garrick's request; but this was
+so coarsely worded, and so broadly delivered by Mrs. Clive, that Dr.
+Young took offence, and would not suffer the lines to be printed with
+his play.
+
+     [5] The lady is said to have been so little acquainted with
+     diversion or gaiety, that she did not know what was intended
+     when a benefit was offered her. Praiseworthy efforts were made
+     in her interest, but the performance only produced L130.
+
+Among the curiosities of benefits may be recorded a performance that
+took place at Drury Lane in 1744 on behalf of Dr. Clancy, the author
+of one or two plays, who published his memoirs in Dublin in 1750. Dr.
+Clancy was blind, and the playbill was headed with the line from
+Milton, "The day returns, but not to me returns." The play was
+"Oedipus," and the part of Tiresias, the blind prophet, was undertaken
+by Dr. Clancy. The advertisements expressed a hope that "as this will
+be the first instance of any person labouring under so heavy a
+deprivation performing on the stage, the novelty as well as the
+unhappiness of his case will engage the favour and protection of a
+British audience." The performance, which must certainly have been of
+a painful kind, attracted a very numerous audience: and the fact may
+be regarded as proof that an appetite for what is now designated "the
+sensational" was not wholly unknown to the playgoers of the last
+century. It does not appear that Dr. Clancy's representation of the
+blind prophet was repeated, nor is it stated that as an histrionic
+effort it was particularly distinguished. It was enough perhaps that
+the part was played by a man who was really blind, instead of by one
+merely simulating blindness. Ultimately Dr. Clancy's case moved the
+pity of George II., and he was awarded during his life a pension of
+L40 a year from the privy purse.
+
+Other authors have from time to time appeared on the stage to speak
+prologues, or to sustain complete characters; for instance, Tom
+Durfey, Otway, Farquhar, Savage, Murphy, and, to jump to later days,
+Sheridan Knowles. Their appearances, however, cannot be simply
+connected with benefits. In many cases they, no doubt, contemplated
+the adoption of the stage as a profession, though, as a rule, it must
+be said success was denied them in such respect. They played on their
+benefit-nights, of course, but their performances were not limited to
+those occasions.
+
+It is not to be supposed that a benefit could be taken by an actor,
+or, at an earlier date, by an author, without his incurring much
+trouble in regard to preliminary arrangements. The mere issue of a
+list of entertainments, however attractive, was by no means
+sufficient. He was required to call at the houses of his patrons and
+friends, personally to solicit their support on the occasion, and to
+pay his respects to them. Any failure of attention on his part in this
+matter he was bound to make the subject of public explanation and
+apology. It must be remembered that the playgoers of a century ago
+were rather a family than a people. They were limited in number,
+returned to the theatre night after night, naturally demanding that
+constant change of programme which so distinguished the old stage, and
+has been so completely omitted from modern theatrical arrangements,
+and were almost personally known to the actors. This, of course, only
+refers to the visitors to the pit and boxes; the galleries were always
+presumed to be occupied by footmen and apprentices, and persons of no
+consideration whatever, while stalls were not yet in existence.
+Strangers from the country were few--those from foreign parts fewer
+still. The theatre was regarded, as it were, from a household point of
+view; was in some sort supplementary to a man's home, and he therefore
+considered himself entitled to be heard and to take a personal
+interest in regard to its concerns and proceedings. Necessarily this
+feeling diminished as London grew in size and the audience increased
+in numbers, and finally became impossible. An actor knew at last his
+admirers only in the mass; while they lost inevitably all individual
+and private interest in his success. But long after the London
+players had ceased to make calls and to solicit patronage for their
+benefits, the practice still obtained in the provinces, and could on
+no account be abandoned. Thus, in early life, when a member of the
+country company of which her father, Roger Kemble, was manager, the
+great Mrs. Siddons has been seen, as a contemporary writer describes,
+"walking up and down both sides of a street in a provincial town,
+dressed in a red woollen cloak, such as was formerly worn by menial
+servants, and knocking at each door to deliver the playbill of her
+benefit." And to come to a later instance, the reader may bear in mind
+that before that ornament of Mr. Crummles's company, Miss Snevellici,
+took her benefit or "bespeak" at the Portsmouth Theatre, she, in
+company with Nicholas Nickleby, and, for propriety's sake, the Infant
+Phenomenon, canvassed her patrons in the town, and sold tickets to Mr.
+and Mrs. Curdle, Mrs. Borum, and others.
+
+In pursuance of this principle, we find a notice in the bill for Mr.
+Bickerstaff's benefit, at Drury Lane, in May, 1723: "Bickerstaff being
+confined to his bed by his lameness, and his wife lying now dead, has
+nobody to wait on the quality and his friends for him, but hopes
+they'll favour him with their appearance." And when, just before Mr.
+Ryan's benefit at Covent Garden in 1735, he had been attacked by a
+footpad and seriously injured--several of his teeth having been shot
+out, and his face and jawbone much shattered--he addressed a letter in
+_The Daily Post_ to his friends, in which he stated the uncertainty of
+his being ever able to appear on the stage again, and expressed his
+hopes "that they would excuse his not making a personal application to
+them." So again, on the occasion of Mr. Chapman's benefit, in 1739,
+there appears in the playbill an announcement: "N.B.--I being in
+danger of losing one of my eyes, and advised to keep it from the air,
+therefore stir not out to attend my business at the theatre. On this
+melancholy occasion I hope my friends will be so indulgent as to send
+for tickets to my house, the corner of Bow Street, Covent Garden,
+which favour will be gratefully acknowledged by their obedient, humble
+servant, THOMAS CHAPMAN." The excuses set forth in these announcements
+appear to be very sufficient, and no doubt were so regarded by the
+patrons in each case, while at the same time they demonstrate the
+conduct required ordinarily of persons anxious for public support on
+the occasion of their benefits. Excuses of a lighter kind, however,
+seem frequently to have been held adequate by the players. Mr.
+Sheridan, the actor, notifies in 1745 that, "as his benefit was not
+appointed till last Friday, he humbly hopes that such ladies and
+gentlemen as he shall omit to wait on will impute it rather to a want
+of time than to a want of respect and knowledge of his duty." And Mr.
+Yates, who about the same time had migrated from the West-end stage to
+the humbler theatre in Goodman's Fields, and announced Fielding's
+"Miser" for his benefit--"the part of Lovegold to be attempted by Mr.
+Yates after the manner of the late Mr. Griffin"--apologises "for not
+waiting on ladies and gentlemen, as he is not acquainted with that
+part of the town." Whether this somewhat lofty plea of ignorance of
+their neighbourhood, however, affected unfavourably the actor's claims
+upon the denizens of Goodman's Fields, cannot now be ascertained. In
+time notices of this kind disappeared altogether from the playbills.
+At the present day an actor, of course, does his best to conciliate
+patronage, and in his own immediate circle of friends some little
+canvassing probably takes place to promote the sale of tickets; but
+these matters are arranged privately, and the general public is
+relieved from the calls of actors and their personal appeals for
+support. Indeed, the old system is now in a great degree reversed, and
+the actor's place of abode is often stated in his advertisements in
+order that the public may call upon him to obtain tickets for his
+benefit, if they prefer that course to purchasing them in the usual
+way at the box-office of the theatre. In the case of actresses this
+plan has often been found efficacious in diminishing the exuberant
+ardour of certain youthful supporters of the stage, by enabling them
+to discover that the fair performer who had peculiarly stirred their
+dramatic sympathies, was hardly seen to such advantage by daylight, in
+the seclusion of her private dwelling, as when under the glare of gas,
+with distance lending enchantment to rouge and pearl-powder, and
+casting an accommodating veil over divers physical deficiencies and
+unavoidable deteriorations.
+
+As benefits became common, and they were relegated to the close of the
+season, when the general appetite for theatrical entertainments may be
+presumed to be tolerably satiated, the actors found it very necessary
+to put forward performances of an unusual kind to attract patronage
+and stimulate the curiosity of the public. It was understood that on
+these occasions criticism was suspended, and great licence was
+permissible. A benefit came to be a kind of dramatic carnival. Any and
+everything was held to be lawful, and efforts of an experimental kind
+were almost demanded--certainly excused under the circumstances. The
+player who usually appeared wearing the buskin now assumed the sock,
+and the established comedian ventured upon a flight into the regions
+of tragedy. Novelty of some sort was indispensable, and the audience,
+if they might not wholly approve, were yet expected to forbear
+condemning. The comic actors especially availed themselves of their
+privileges, and on the strength of their popularity--the comedian
+always establishing more intimate and friendly relations between
+himself and his audience than are permitted to the tragedian--indulged
+in very strange vagaries. Mr. Spiller, on the occasion of his benefit
+at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1720, issued an
+advertisement: "Whereas I, James Spiller, of Gloucestershire, having
+received an invitation from Hildebrand Bullock, of Liquorpond Street,
+London, to exercise the usual weapons of the noble science of defence,
+will not fail to meet this bold invader, desiring a full stage, blunt
+weapons, and from him much favour." At another time the same actor
+announced his benefit in a kind of mock electioneering address,
+requesting the vote and interest of the public on the ground of his
+being "a person well affected to the establishment of the theatre." To
+recite an epilogue while seated on the back of an ass was a favourite
+expedient of the comedians of the early Georgian period, while the
+introduction of comic songs and mimicry--such as the scene of "The
+Drunken Man," and the song of "The Four-and-Twenty Stock-Jobbers,"
+which Mr. Harper performed on his benefit-night in 1720--was found to
+be a very attractive measure. Authors who were on friendly terms with
+the actors, or had reason to be grateful to them, frequently gave them
+short pieces or wrote special epilogues for their benefits. Sheridan's
+farce, "St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming Lieutenant," was a present
+to Clinch, the actor, and first produced on his benefit-night in 1775.
+Goldsmith felt himself so obliged to Quick and Lee Lewes, who had been
+the original Tony Lumpkin and Young Marlow in "She Stoops to
+Conquer," that for the one he adapted a farce from Sedley's
+translation of "Le Grondeur," and supplied the other with an
+occasional epilogue, written in his pleasantest manner. When Shuter
+selected "The Good-natured Man" for his benefit, the gratified author,
+in a fit of extravagant kindness, sent the actor ten guineas--possibly
+the last he had at the time--for a box ticket.
+
+On the occasion of his first benefit in London, Garrick furnished his
+patrons with a remarkable proof of his versatility, for he represented
+extreme age in "King Lear," and extreme youth in the comedy of "The
+Schoolboy." At his second benefit he again contrasted his efforts in
+tragedy and comedy by appearing as Hastings in "Jane Shore," and Sharp
+in the farce of "The Lying Valet." Kean, for his benefit, danced as
+harlequin, gave imitations of contemporary performers, and sang the
+song of "Tom Tug" after the manner of Mr. Incledon. Other actors of
+very inferior capacity made similar experiments, the fact that the
+performance was "for a benefit," and "for one night only," being
+esteemed in every case a sufficient justification of any eccentricity.
+
+It would be hopeless to attempt any detailed account of the many
+strange deeds done for the sake of benefits. Actresses have encroached
+upon the repertory of their male playfellows, as when Mrs. Woffington
+appeared as Lothario, Mrs. Abington as Scrub, Mrs. Siddons as Hamlet,
+and when portly Mrs. Webb attempted the character of Falstaff. Actors
+have laid hands on characters which usually were deemed the exclusive
+property of the actresses--as when Mr. Dowton resigned his favourite
+part of Sir Anthony Absolute and donned the guise of Mrs. Malaprop.
+The Kembles have sought to make their solemn airs and sepulchral tones
+available in the reckless scenes and hilarious utterances of
+farce--and exuberant comedians of the Keeley and Liston pattern have
+ventured to tincture with whimsicality the woes of tragedy. To draw a
+crowded house and bring money to the treasury was the only aim.
+Benefits, in fact, followed the argument of the old drinking
+song--merriment at all costs to-night, and sobriety, somehow, on the
+morrow--until the benefit season came round again, and then--_da
+capo!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THUNDERS OF APPLAUSE.
+
+
+Addison devotes a number of "The Spectator" to a description of "The
+Trunkmaker in the Upper Gallery"--a certain person so called, who had
+been observed to frequent, during some years, that portion of the
+theatre, and to express his approval of the transactions of the stage
+by loud knocks upon the benches or the wainscot, audible over the
+whole house. It was doubtful how he came to be called the Trunkmaker;
+whether from his blows, resembling those often given with a hammer in
+the shops of such artisans, or from a belief that he was a genuine
+trunkmaker, who, upon the conclusion of his day's work, repaired to
+unbend and refresh his mind at the theatre, carrying in his hand one
+of the implements of his craft. Some, it is alleged, were foolish
+enough to imagine him a perturbed spirit haunting the upper gallery,
+and noted that he made more noise than ordinary whenever the Ghost in
+"Hamlet" appeared upon the scene; some reported that the trunkmaker
+was, in truth, dumb, and had chosen this method of expressing his
+content with all he saw or heard; while others maintained him to be
+"the playhouse thunderer," voluntarily employing himself in the
+gallery when not required to discharge the duties of his office upon
+the roof of the building. The "Spectator," holding that public shows
+and diversions lie well within his province, and that it is
+particularly incumbent upon him to notice everything remarkable
+touching the elegant entertainments of the theatre, makes it his
+business to obtain the best information he can in regard to this
+trunkmaker, and finds him to be "a large black man whom nobody knows;"
+who "generally leans forward on a huge oaken plant," attending closely
+to all that is occurring upon the stage; who is never seen to smile,
+but who, upon hearing anything that pleases him, takes up his staff
+with both hands, and lays it upon the next piece of timber that stands
+in his way, with exceeding vehemence; after which, he composes himself
+to his former posture, till such time as something new sets him again
+at work. Further, it was observed of him, that his blows were so well
+timed as to satisfy the most judicious critics. Upon the expression of
+any shining thought of the poet, or the exhibition of any uncommon
+grace by the actor, the trunkmaker's blow falls upon bench or
+wainscot. If the audience fail to concur with him, he smites a second
+time, when, if the audience still remain unroused, he looks round him
+with great wrath and administers a third blow, which never fails to
+produce the desired effect. Occasionally, however, he is said to
+permit the audience to begin the applause of their own motion, and at
+the conclusion of the proceeding ratifies their conduct by a single
+thwack.
+
+It was admitted that the trunkmaker had rendered important service to
+the theatre, insomuch that, upon his failing to attend at his post by
+reason of serious illness, the manager employed a substitute to
+officiate in his stead, until such time as his health was restored to
+him. The incompetence of the deputy, however, became too manifest;
+though he laid about him with incredible violence, he did it in such
+wrong places, that the audience soon discovered he was not their old
+friend the real trunkmaker. With the players the trunkmaker was
+naturally a favourite; they not only connived at his obstreperous
+approbation, but cheerfully repaid such damage as his blows
+occasioned. That he had saved many a play from condemnation, and
+brought fame to many a performer, was agreed upon all hands. The
+audience are described as looking abashed if they find themselves
+betrayed into plaudits in which their friend in the upper gallery
+takes no part; and the actors are said to regard such favours as mere
+_brutum fulmen_ or empty noise, when unaccompanied by "the sound of
+the oaken plant." Still, the trunkmaker had his enemies, who
+insinuated that he could be bribed in the interest of a bad poet or a
+vicious player; such surmises, however, the "Spectator" averred to be
+wholly without foundation, upholding the justice of his strokes and
+the reasonableness of his admonitions. "He does not deal about his
+blows at random, but always hits the right nail upon the head. The
+inexpressible force wherewith he lays them on sufficiently shows the
+strength of his convictions. His zeal for a good author is indeed
+outrageous, and breaks down every fence and partition, every board and
+plank, that stands within the expression of his applause."
+
+Moreover, the "Spectator" insists upon the value and importance to an
+audience of a functionary thus presiding over them like the director
+of a concert, in order to awaken their attention and beat time to
+their applauses; or, "to raise my simile," Addison continues, "I have
+sometimes fancied the trunkmaker in the upper gallery to be, like
+Virgil's ruler of the winds, seated upon the top of a mountain, who,
+when he struck his sceptre upon the side of it, 'roused a hurricane
+and set the whole cavern in an uproar.'"
+
+In conclusion, the writer, not caring to confine himself to barren
+speculations or to reports of pure matter of fact, without deriving
+therefrom something of advantage to his countrymen, takes the liberty
+of proposing that upon the demise of the trunkmaker, or upon his
+losing "the spring of his arm" by sickness, old age, infirmity, or the
+like, some able-bodied critic should be advanced to his post, with a
+competent salary, and a supply, at the public expense, of bamboos for
+operas, crab-tree cudgels for comedies, and oaken plants for
+tragedies. "And to the end that this place should be always disposed
+of according to merit, I would have none preferred to it who has not
+given convincing proofs both of a sound judgment and a strong arm, and
+who could not upon occasion either knock down an ox, or write a
+comment upon Horace's 'Art of Poetry.' In short, I would have him a
+due composition of Hercules and Apollo, and so rightly qualified for
+this important office that the trunkmaker may not be missed by our
+posterity."
+
+Addison's paper doubtless possessed an element of fact and truth,
+enriched by the fancifulness peculiar to the writer. It was his manner
+thus to embroider commonplace; to enhance the actual by large
+additions of the ideal. There probably existed such a personage as the
+trunkmaker; some visitor to the upper gallery was in the habit of
+expressing approval by strokes of his cudgel upon the wainscot; and
+his frequent presence had obtained the recognition of the other
+patrons of the theatre. It was an easy and a pleasant task to Addison
+to invest this upper-gallery visitor with special critical qualities
+to attribute to his "oaken plant" almost supernatural powers. In any
+case, the trunkmaker was a sort of foreshadowing of the _claqueur_. It
+was reserved for later times to organise applause and reduce success
+to a system. Of old, houses were sometimes "packed" by an author's
+friends to ensure a favourable result to the first representation of
+his play. When, for instance, Addison's "Cato" was first produced,
+Steele, as himself relates, undertook to pack an audience, and
+accordingly filled the pit with frequenters of the Whig coffee-houses,
+with students from the Inns of Court, and other zealous partisans.
+"This," says Pope, "had been tried for the first time in favour of
+'The Distressed Mother' (by Ambrose Phillips), and was now, with more
+efficacy, practised for 'Cato.'" But this was only an occasional
+_claque_. The "band of applauders" dispersed after they had cheered
+their friend and achieved their utmost to secure the triumph of his
+play. And they were unconnected with the manager of the theatre; they
+were not _his_ friends, still less were they his servants, receiving
+wages for their labours, and bound to raise their voices and clap
+their hands in accordance with his directions. For such are the
+genuine _claqueurs_ of to-day.
+
+Dr. Veron, who has left upon record a sort of secret history of his
+management of the Paris Opera House, has revealed many curious
+particulars concerning _les claqueurs_, adding a serious defence of
+the system of artificial applause. The artistic nature, the doctor
+maintains, submitting its merits to the judgment of the general
+public, has great need of the exhilaration afforded by evidence of
+hearty approval and sympathy; the singer and the dancer are thus
+inspired with the courage absolutely necessary to the accomplishment
+of their professional feats; and it is the doctor's experience that
+whenever a song or a dance has been redemanded by the audience, the
+dance has been better danced, and the song better sung, the second
+time of performance than the first. Hence there is nothing harmful,
+but rather something beneficial, in the proceedings of _les
+claqueurs_. Every work produced at the theatre cannot be of the first
+class, and legitimately rouse the enthusiasm of the public; every
+dramatic or lyrical artist cannot invariably, by sheer force of
+talent, overcome the coldness, the languor, or the indifference of an
+audience; yet the general effect of the representation would suffer
+much if all applause, including that of a premeditated and, indeed,
+purchased kind, were entirely withheld; the timid would remain timid,
+talent would remain unrecognised, and, therefore, almost unrevealed,
+if no cheering were heard to reassure, to encourage, to kindle, and
+excite. The suggestion that the public would supply genuine applause
+if only the _claqueurs_ were less liberal with the spurious article,
+Dr. Veron rather evades than discusses.
+
+The chief of the _claqueurs_ in Dr. Veron's time was a certain M.
+Auguste, of Herculean form and imposing address, well suited in every
+respect for the important post he filled. He was inclined to
+costume of very decisive colours--to coats of bright green or
+reddish-brown--presumably that, like a general officer, his forces
+might perceive his presence in their midst by the peculiarity, if not
+the brilliance, of his method of dress. Auguste was without
+education--did not know a note of music; but he understood the
+audience of the Opera House. For long years he had attended every
+representation upon its stage, and experience had made him a most
+skilful tactician. Auguste enjoyed the complete confidence of Dr.
+Veron. _Claqueur_ and manager attended together the rehearsals of
+every new work, and upon the eve of its first performance held a
+cabinet council upon the subject. They reviewed the whole production
+from the first line to the last. "I did not press upon him my
+opinions," says Dr. Veron; "I listened to his; he appraised, he judged
+all, both dance and song, according to his own personal impressions."
+The manager was surprised at the justice of the _claqueur's_ criticism
+by anticipation--at his ingenious plans for apportioning and
+graduating the applause. It was Auguste's principle of action to begin
+modestly and discreetly, especially at the opera, dealing with a
+choice and critical public; to approve a first act but moderately,
+reserving all salvoes of applause for the last act and the _denoument_
+of the performance. Thus, in the last act he would bestow three rounds
+of applause upon a song, to which, had it occurred in the first act,
+he would have given but one. He held that towards the middle of a
+performance success should be quietly fostered, but never forced. For
+the _claqueurs_ of other theatres Auguste entertained a sort of
+disdain. It was, as he averred, the easiest thing in the world to
+obtain success at the Opera Comique, or the Vaudeville. The thing was
+managed there not so much by applause as by laughter. There was the
+less need for careful management; the less risk of vexing the public
+by injudicious approbation. No one could take offence at a man for
+laughing immoderately; he was not chargeable with disingenuousness, as
+in the case of one applauding to excess. Occasionally cries were
+raised of "_A la porte les claqueurs_;" but such a cry as "_A la porte
+les rieurs_," had never been heard. At the Opera House, however, there
+was no occupation for laughers; in the score of an opera, or in the
+plot of a ballet, appeal was never made to a sense of the mirthful.
+Then the opera public was of a susceptible, and even irritable nature;
+it might be led, but it could scarcely be driven; it could be
+influenced by polite and gentle means; it would resent active
+interference, and "a scene" might ensue--even something of a
+disturbance. But M. Auguste implored his manager to be easy on that
+score. Nothing of the kind should happen; he would prove himself
+deserving, worthy of his employer's confidence. "Only," said M.
+Auguste, "those fools, the paying public, certainly give us a great
+deal of trouble!"
+
+The _chef de la claque_ was, of course, supplied with admission
+tickets by the management, and these were issued according to an
+established scale. If the success of a work, already represented many
+times, showed signs of flagging, and needed to be sustained, Auguste
+received some forty or fifty pit tickets; but in the case of a work
+highly approved by the public, and still attracting good houses,
+twenty, or even ten, tickets were held to be sufficient. But on the
+first production of an entirely new entertainment, at least a hundred
+tickets were handed to Auguste. There was then a meeting of the
+_claqueurs_ at some appointed place--usually a wine-shop in the
+neighbourhood of the theatre--and the plan of action was arranged, the
+army of applauders organised and marshalled. Intelligent lieutenants,
+about ten in number, each in command of a detachment of the forces,
+were instructed how to deal with opponents, and to keep watchful eyes
+upon the proceedings of their chief. In addition to a money payment
+and their own entrance tickets, they were accorded other tickets to be
+given only to friends upon whose fidelity they could rely. Certain of
+the _claqueurs_ accepted outpost duty, as it were, and acted in
+isolated positions; others, and these the majority, took close order,
+and fought, so to speak, in column. In addition to his regular forces,
+Auguste engaged supernumerary and irregular troops, known to him as
+_sous-claqueurs_, upon whose discipline and docility he could not
+wholly rely, though he could make them useful by enclosing them in the
+ranks of his seasoned soldiers. The _sous-claqueurs_ were usually
+well-clothed frequenters and well-wishers of the Opera House, anxious
+to attend the first representation of the new work to be produced, and
+willing to pay half-price for their tickets, upon the condition that
+they placed their applause at the disposal of M. Auguste.
+
+The _claqueurs_ were admitted to the theatre and took their seats some
+time before the entrance of the paying public. M. Auguste had thus
+ample opportunity of deciding upon his strategic operations, of
+placing his advance guard, of securing the position of his main army,
+and of defending its flanks and rear. The paying public thus found
+itself curiously intermixed and imprisoned by these hosts of
+_claqueurs_, and victory usually crowned the efforts of M. Auguste,
+who was careful to arrogate to himself the results of the evening's
+proceedings. "What a splendid success I have achieved!" he would say;
+completely ignoring the efforts of the composer, the artists of the
+theatre, and the manager, who were perhaps entitled to some share of
+the glories of the performance.
+
+Auguste, as Dr. Veron relates, made his fortune at the opera. He was
+in receipt of annuities from several artists of established fame.
+Success could hardly be achieved without his aid. The friends,
+patrons, and family of a new artist, to ensure his or her success,
+invariably paid court and money to Auguste, the price of his services
+corresponding with the pretensions of the _debutant_. And then he
+undertook engagements of an exceptional kind, sometimes even to the
+prejudice of his manager. Artists required of him some times a sudden
+increase of their success--that, for a few nights only, an
+extraordinary measure of applause should reward their exertions.
+Their engagements were expiring or were about to be renewed; it was
+desirable to deceive both the public and the manager. The vital
+question of salary was under consideration; an increase of their
+emoluments was most desirable. So, for a while, the mediocre singer or
+dancer obtained from Auguste and his auxiliaries unusual favour, and
+the manager was induced to form very erroneous opinions upon the
+subject. Rumours, too, were artfully circulated to the effect that the
+performer in question had received liberal offers from England or
+Prussia; that his or her merits had roused the attention of rival
+_impresarios_; the Parisian manager was cautioned at all costs to
+retain in his theatre ability and promise so remarkable. But with the
+signing of a new engagement, at an advance of salary, came
+disenchantment. M. Auguste's services were now withdrawn, for the
+performer's object was attained; and the management for some time to
+come was saddled with mediocrity, purchased at a high price.
+
+But little difficulties and deceptions of this kind notwithstanding,
+Dr. Veron approved the _claque_ system, and constituted himself the
+friend and defender of Auguste. It was not only that Auguste was
+himself a very worthy person--an excellent father of a family, leading
+a steady and creditable kind of life, putting by, for the benefit of
+his children, a considerable portion of his large annual earnings as
+_chef de la claque_--but the advantages of artificial applause and
+simulated success seemed to Dr. Veron to be quite beyond question,
+while wholly justifiable by their results. The manager detected the
+_claque_ system as a pervading element in almost all conditions of
+life. To influence large bodies or assemblies, dexterity and
+stratagem, he declared, were indispensably necessary. The applause
+exacted by Nero, when he recited his verses or played upon the lute,
+or Tiberius, posing himself as an orator before the senate, was the
+work of a _claque_, moved thereto rather by terror, however, than by
+pecuniary considerations. Parliamentary applause he found also to be
+of an artificial kind, produced by the spirit of friendship or the
+ties of party; and he relates how, when the _Constitutionnel_
+newspaper was under his direction, certain leading members attended at
+the printing-office to correct the proofs of their speeches, and never
+failed to enliven them at intervals by the addition of such terms as
+"Cheers," "Loud cheers," "Great cheering," "Sensation," "Excitement,"
+&c. These factitious plaudits, tricks, and manoeuvres of players,
+singers, dancers, and orators, in truth, deceive no one, he
+maintained; while they make very happy, nevertheless, all those who
+have recourse to them.
+
+As a manager, therefore, Dr. Veron invariably opposed the efforts made
+to suppress the _claqueurs_ in the pay of the theatre. He admits that
+sometimes excess of zeal on the part of these hirelings brought about
+public discontent and complaint; but, upon the whole, he judged that
+they exercised a beneficial influence, especially in the prevention of
+cabals or conspiracies against particular artists, and of certain
+scandals attached to the rivalry and jealousy of performers. And to M.
+Auguste he thus addressed himself: "You have a fine part to play;
+great duties to perform: put an end to quarrels; help the weak against
+the strong; never oppose the public; cease applauding on a hint of
+their disapproval; present an example of politeness and decorum;
+conciliate and pacify; above all, prevent all hostile combinations,
+all unjust coalitions, against the artists on the stage, or the works
+represented."
+
+Dr. Veron has said, perhaps, all that could be said for the _claque_
+system; but his plausible arguments and apologies will not carry
+conviction to every mind. There can be no doubt of the value, the
+necessity almost, of applause to the player; but one would much rather
+that the enthusiasm of an audience was wholly genuine, and not
+provided at so much a cheer, let us say, by the manager or the player
+himself. "Players, after all," writes Hazlitt, "have little reason to
+complain of their hard-earned short-lived popularity. One thunder of
+applause from pit, boxes, and gallery is equal to a whole immortality
+of posthumous fame." But if the thunder is but stage thunder? If the
+applause is supplied to order, through the agency of a M. Auguste?
+Upon another occasion Hazlitt expresses more tenderness for the
+ephemeral glories of the actor's art. "When an author dies it is no
+matter, for his work remains. When a great actor dies, there is a void
+produced in society, a gap which requires to be filled up. The
+literary amateur may find employment for his time in reading old
+authors only, and exhaust his entire spleen in scouting new ones; but
+the lover of the stage cannot amuse himself in his solitary
+fastidiousness by sitting to witness a play got up by the departed
+ghosts of first-rate actors, or be contented with the perusal of a
+collection of old playbills; he may extol Garrick, but he must go to
+see Kean, and, in his own defence, must admire, or at least tolerate,
+what he sees, or stay away against his will." And Cibber, in his
+apology, has placed on record an elaborate lament, "that the momentary
+beauties flowing from an harmonious elocution cannot, like those of
+poetry, be their own record; that the animated graces of the actor can
+live no longer than the instant breath and motion that presents them;
+or, at least, can but faintly glimmer through the memory or imperfect
+attestation of a few surviving spectators."
+
+The complete suspension of applause, genuine or factitious, must
+result in the exceeding depression of the player. He must feel himself
+deprived of his proper sustenance; and something of dismay must
+possess him, when he finds that all his efforts move his audience in
+no way; that they are not _en rapport_ with him; that while he labours
+they are listless. Henderson committed himself to the exaggeration
+that no actor could perform well, unless he was systematically
+flattered both on and off the stage. Liston, the comedian, found
+applause, of whatever kind, so absolutely necessary to him that he
+declared he liked to see even a small dog wag his tail in approbation
+of his exertions. Mrs. Siddons complained of the inferior measure of
+applause that she obtained in the theatres of the provinces. At Drury
+Lane her grand bursts of passion were received with prolonged cheering
+and excitement, that gave her rest and breathing-time, and prepared
+her for increased efforts. The playgoers of York were at one time so
+lukewarm in their reception of popular players, that, at the instance
+of Woodward, Tate Wilkinson, the manager, called on the chief patrons
+of the theatre, and informed them that the actor was so mortified by
+their coolness, that he could not play nearly so well in York as in
+London, Dublin, and Edinburgh. The York audience benefited by the
+remonstrance, and on Woodward's next appearance, greatly to his
+delight, awarded him extraordinary applause.
+
+The system of calling, or recalling, a favourite performer, which now
+appears to be established in our theatres, is of foreign origin, and
+was first instituted in London at the Italian Opera House. "It is the
+highest ambition of the opera-singers,--like the Methodists--to have
+a _call_" says Parke, the oboe-player, in his "Musical Memoirs,"
+published in 1830; and he describes the opera season of 1824, when
+Rossini was director and composer to the King's Theatre, and his wife,
+Madame Colbran Rossini, appeared as _prima donna seria_; Madame Pasta
+and Madame Catalani being also engaged for a limited number of nights.
+He relates, as something remarkable, that at the fall of the curtain
+after the performance of Mayer's "Il Fanatico per la Musica," Madame
+Catalani "was _called for_, when she again presented herself, making
+her obeisance, amidst waving of handkerchiefs and tumultuous
+applause." Madame Pasta, after appearing as Desdemona, "also had a
+call when the curtain fell, and was brought back to receive the reward
+due to her distinguished talents." Two seasons later Mr. Parke says,
+in reference to Madame Pasta's performance of Desdemona: "At the end
+of the opera, by desire of the audience, she came forward once more to
+receive that reward which is becoming so common that it will shortly
+cease to be a mark of distinction." And, two seasons after that, of
+her appearance in "Tancredi," he writes: "She, _as usual_, delighted
+the audience; and was, _as usual_, enthusiastically applauded. After
+the curtain fell she was called for, _as usual_, to go through the
+ceremony of being unmercifully applauded."
+
+In the non-operatic theatres it is probable that calls first came in
+vogue when epilogues went out.
+
+The players are called simply to congratulate them on their success,
+and to express some sort of gratitude for their exertions. There is
+nothing to be urged against this method of applauding the performers
+when kept within reasonable bounds. Sometimes it is to be feared,
+however, the least discreet of the audience indulge in calls rather
+for their own gratification--by way of pastime during the interval
+between one play and another--than out of any strict consideration of
+the abilities of the players; and, having called on one or two
+deserving members of a company, proceed to require the presence before
+the curtain of others who have done little to merit the compliment.
+Certain playgoers, indeed, appear to applaud no matter what, simply
+for the sake of applauding. They regard the theatre as a place to be
+noisy in, and for the vehement expression of their own restless
+natures. When they cannot greet a player with acclamations, they will
+clamorously deride a footman, or other servant of the theatre, who
+appears before the foot-lights with a broom, or a watering-pot, a
+carpet, or other necessary of representation; or they will issue
+boisterous commands to the gentlemen of the orchestra to "strike up"
+and afford an interlude of music. To these of the audience it is
+almost painful that a theatre should be peaceful or a stage vacant;
+rather than this should happen they would prefer, if it could possibly
+be contrived, and they were acquainted with his name, that the
+call-boy or the prompter should be called for and congratulated upon
+the valuable aid he had furnished to the performance.
+
+Macready relates in his Memoirs that the practice of "calling on" the
+principal actor was first introduced at Covent Garden Theatre, on the
+occasion of his first performance of the character of Richard the
+Third, on October 19th, 1819. "In obedience to the impatient and
+persevering summons of the house I was desired by Fawcett to go before
+the curtain; and accordingly I announced the tragedy for repetition
+amidst the gratulating shouts that carried the assurance of complete
+success to my agitated and grateful heart." But while loving applause,
+as an actor needs must, Macready had little liking for the honours of
+calls and recalls--heartily disapproving of them, indeed, when they
+seemed to him in any way to disturb the representation. Thus, of his
+performance of Werner at Manchester, in 1845, he writes: "Acted very
+fairly. Called for. _Trash!_" Under date December 23rd, 1844, he
+records: "Acted Virginius [in Paris] with much energy and power to a
+very excited audience. I was loudly called for at the end of the
+fourth act, but could not or would not make so absurd and empirical a
+sacrifice of the dignity of my poor art." Three years later he enters
+in his diary: "Acted King Lear with much care and power, and was
+received by a most kind, and sympathetic, and enthusiastic audience. I
+was called on, the audience trying to make me come on after the first
+act, but of course I could not think of such a thing." But these
+"calls" relate to the conclusion of an act, when, at any rate, the
+drop-scene was fallen, hiding the stage from view, and when, for a
+while, there is a pause in the performance, suspension of theatrical
+illusion. What would Macready have said to "calls" in the course of
+the scene, while the stage is still occupied, with certain of the
+characters of the drama reduced to lay figures by the conduct of their
+playfellows and the public? Yet in modern times Ophelias, after
+tripping off insane to find a watery grave, have been summoned back to
+the stage to acknowledge suavely enough by smiles and curtsies the
+excessive applause of the spectators, greatly to the perplexity of
+King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Laertes, and seriously to the
+injury of the poet's design--and this is but a sample of the follies
+of the modern theatre in this respect.
+
+Such calls, recalls, and imbecile compliments are indeed wholly
+reprehensible, and should be suppressed as strenuously as possible.
+The managers of the Theatre Royal at Dresden some few years since
+forbade the performers to accept calls before the termination of an
+act, as "the practice interrupted the progress of the action on the
+stage," and respectfully requested the audience to abstain from such
+demands in future. Would that this ordinance had obtained more general
+obedience.
+
+Writing in 1830, Mr. Parke describes the custom of encoring performers
+as a prerogative that had been exercised by the public for more than a
+century; and says, with some justice, that it originated more from
+self-love in the audience than from gratitude to those who had
+afforded them pleasure. He considered, however, that encoring had done
+service upon the whole, by exciting emulation, and stimulating singers
+to extraordinary exertion; and that though, in many instances, it
+destroyed the illusion of the scene, it had become so fixed that, in
+spite even of the burlesque of encoring Lord Grizzle's dying song in
+Fielding's "Tom Thumb," it continued to prevail as much as ever. He
+notes it as curious that, "in calling for a repetition, the audiences
+of the French and English theatres should each have selected a word
+forming no part of their respective languages--the former making use
+of the Latin word, _bis_; and the latter the French word, _encore_."
+Double encores, we gather from the same authority, first occurred in
+England, at the Opera House, during the season of 1808, when Madame
+Catalani was compelled to sing three times one of her songs in the
+comic opera, "La Freschetana." As none of the great singers, her
+predecessors--Mara, Banti, Grassini, and Billington--had ever received
+a similar compliment, this appeared extraordinary, until the fact
+oozed out that Catalani, as part of her engagement, had stipulated
+for the privilege of sending into the house fifty orders on each night
+of her performance. After this discovery double encores ceased for a
+time at the King's Theatre; but the system reappeared at Covent
+Garden, by way of compliment to Braham, each time the great tenor sang
+the favourite polacca in the opera of "The Cabinet;" and subsequently
+like honours were paid to Sinclair upon his return from Italy. Until
+then, it would seem, Mr. Sinclair had been well satisfied with one
+encore, and exceedingly anxious that smaller favour should, on no
+account, be withheld from him. When he played the part of Don Carlos,
+in the opera of "The Duenna," he was disappointed with the measure of
+applause bestowed upon his efforts, and complained that the obbligato
+cadenza--which Mr. Parke had time out of mind played on the oboe in
+the symphony of the song, "Had I a heart for falsehood framed"--interfered
+with the effect of his singing, and that the applause which was
+obtained by the cadenza deprived him of his encore. Accordingly
+he requested that the cadenza might be suppressed. "Though
+I thought this a mean and silly application," says Mr. Parke, "I
+complied with it, and never interfered with his encores afterwards."
+It must be said for Sinclair, however, that encores had come to be
+regarded as tests of a singer's merits, and that a re-engagement at
+the theatre sometimes depended upon this demonstration of public
+approval. At Vauxhall Gardens, indeed, the manager--"who was not,"
+says Mr. Parke, "a musical luminary"--formed his opinion of the
+capacities of his singers from the report of a person appointed to
+register the number of encores obtained by each during the season. The
+singers who had received the most encores were forthwith re-engaged
+for the next year. Upon the whole, however, the system was not found
+to be completely satisfactory. The inferior vocalists, stimulated by
+the fear of losing their engagements, took care to circulate orders
+judiciously among their friends, with instructions as to the songs
+that were to be particularly applauded; and it frequently resulted
+that the worst performers, if the most artful manoeuvrers, were at the
+head of the poll at the end of the season, and re-engaged over the
+heads of superior artists, and greatly to the ultimate detriment of
+the concern. In reference to this system of obtaining encores, Mr.
+Parke cautiously observes: "Without presuming to insinuate that it was
+surreptitiously introduced into our English theatres, I may be
+permitted to observe, after forty years' experience in theatrical
+tactics, that it would not be difficult, through a judicious
+distribution of determined _forcers_ in various parts of a theatre,
+with Herculean hands and stentorian voices, to achieve that enviable
+distinction." Possibly the reader, bearing in mind certain great
+successes and double and treble encores of our own time, may confirm,
+from his own experience, Mr. Parke's opinions and suggestions in this
+direction.
+
+It was a rule of the theatre of the last century that, although the
+audience were at liberty to demand the presence of an actor upon the
+stage, particularly with a view to his giving an explanation of any
+matter in which he had offended them, this privilege did not extend to
+the case of anyone connected with the theatre other than in a
+histrionic capacity. Thus, when in the year 1744 a serious riot
+occurred in Drury-lane Theatre, relative to the excessive charges made
+for admission to an old entertainment--it being understood that for
+new entertainments it was permissible to raise the prices--"the
+Manager (Mr. Fleetwood) was called for by the audience in full cry;
+but, not being an actor, he pleaded his privilege of being exempted
+from appearing on the stage before them, and sent them word by one of
+the performers that he was ready to confer with any persons they
+should depute to meet him in his own room. A deputation accordingly
+went from the pit, and the house patiently waited their return."
+
+At this time, no doubt, the actor laboured under certain social
+disadvantages; and the manager who did not act, however insignificant
+a person otherwise, was generally regarded as enjoying a more
+dignified position than that occupied by the most eminent of
+performers. In time, of course, the status of the actor improved, and
+he outgrew the supposititious degradation attaching to his exercise of
+his profession. We have lived to see composers, authors, and even
+scene-painters summoned before the foot-lights, nothing loath,
+apparently, to accept this public recognition of their merits. But
+these are innovations of quite recent date. In a reputable literary
+and critical journal,[6] of forty years back, appears an account of
+the production at the English Opera House (now the Lyceum Theatre) of
+the opera of "Nourjahad," the work of the late Mr. E.J. Loder, of
+Bath, then described as the leader of the theatrical orchestra there,
+and the son and successor of Mr. Loder, whose talents as a musician
+had been long known in that city, and at the Philharmonic and other
+concerts. Much praise is awarded to the work, and then we find the
+following paragraph:
+
+     [6] _The Athenaeum._
+
+"The silly practice of calling for a favourite actor at the end of a
+play was upon this occasion, for the first time, extended to a
+composer; and Mr. E.J. Loder was produced upon the stage to make his
+bow. As the chance portion of the audience could not possibly be aware
+that a gentleman so little known in London was present, it would have
+betrayed less of the secrets of the prison-house if this bit of
+nonsense had not been preconcerted by injudicious and over-zealous
+friends. The turn of successful authors will, we suppose, come next;
+and, therefore, such of them as are not actors had better take a few
+lessons in bowing over the lamps and be ready. We know some half-dozen
+whom this process would cause to shake in their shoes more vehemently
+than even the already accumulated anxieties of a first night."
+
+The critic was, in some sort, a seer. The turn of the authors arrived
+in due course, some years later, although history has not been careful
+to record the name of the first English dramatist who appeared before
+the curtain and bowed "over the lamps." How far the accomplishment of
+this proceeding is attended by shaking in the shoes, is preluded by
+lessons in the art of deportment, or adds to the anxieties of a first
+representation, must be left for some successful playwright to reveal.
+
+It may be noted that this calling for the author is also of foreign
+origin. The first dramatist called before the curtain in France was
+Voltaire, after the production of "Merope;" the second was Marmontel,
+after the representation of his tragedy of "Dionysius." More than a
+century ago the author of a "Letter to Mr. Garrick" observed that it
+was then usual in France for the audience of a new and well-approved
+tragedy to summon the author before them that he might personally
+receive the tribute of public approbation due to his talents. "Nothing
+like this," he writes, "ever happened in England." "And I may say,
+never will," commented the author of a reply to the letter, with more
+confidence than correctness of prophecy. Further, he writes, "I know
+not how far a French audience may carry their complaisance, but, were
+I in the author's case, I should be unwilling to trust to the civility
+of an English pit or gallery.... Suppose that every play that is
+offered should be received, and suppose that some one of them should
+happen to be damned, might not an English audience on this occasion
+call for the author, not to partake of their applause, indeed, but to
+receive the tokens of their displeasure?" Fears of this kind have been
+proved groundless, however. When a play has been condemned, the actors
+and the manager may suffer, and be subjected sometimes to very
+considerable affront; but the public wrath is not visibly inflicted
+upon the author. He is left to the punishment of his reflections and
+his disappointed hopes. Certainly he incurs no bodily risk from the
+incivility of the pit or gallery. But the old violent method of
+condemning a play is nearly out of vogue. The offending work is now
+left to expire of inanition, as it were. Empty benches and a void
+treasury are found to be efficacious means of convincing a manager
+that he has failed in his endeavour to entertain the public.
+
+For some time the successful author, yielding to the demand that he
+should appear personally before the audience, was content to "bow his
+acknowledgments"--for so the proceeding is generally described--from a
+private box. It was felt, however, that this was but a half measure.
+He could be seen by a portion of the audience only. From the private
+box to the stage was but a step, and the opinion prevailed that if he
+was to appear at all, he must manifest himself thoroughly, and allow
+the whole house a fair opportunity of viewing him. Still it should be
+understood that it is at the option of the dramatist to present
+himself publicly or to remain in private, and leave the audience to
+form such conjectures as may occur to them concerning the nature of
+his physical aspect. The public have no more real right to insist on
+the dramatic author's crossing the stage than to require that a
+successful poet, or novelist, or historian, shall remain on view at
+his publisher's for a specified time after the production of his
+latest work. It is necessary to insist on this, because a little scene
+that occurred a short time since in a London theatre shows some
+misapprehension on the subject in the minds of certain of the public.
+A successful play had been produced by a well-known writer, who was
+called for in the usual manner at the conclusion of the performance.
+The stage-manager explained the non-appearance of the author--he was
+not in the house. Thereupon an angry gentleman stood up in the pit,
+and demanded "Why isn't he here? He was here during the performance,
+because I saw him." The stage-manager could only repeat that the
+dramatist was not then in the theatre. "But he never appears when he's
+called for," cried the complainant; and he proceeded to mention
+instances in support of his statement, the stage-manager being
+detained upon the stage some time during the progress of his argument.
+The sympathies of the house appeared to be altogether with the
+expostulant, and the notion that the author had any right to please
+himself in the matter failed to obtain countenance. Upon a subsequent
+occasion, indeed, the author in question--another of his works having
+been given to the stage--thought it prudent to comply with the public
+demand, and, though with evident reluctance, presented himself before
+the foot-lights, to be inspected by his admirers and to receive their
+congratulations. He yielded to a tyranny he was quite justified in
+resisting. Other authors, though whether or not from unwillingness to
+appear can hardly be affirmed, have forborne to attend the first
+representation of their plays, and the audience have been compelled to
+be content with the announcement--"Mr. ---- is absent from London."
+Sometimes particulars are supplied, and happy Mr. ---- is stated to be
+"probably, at that precise moment, enjoying his cigar upon the
+esplanade at Brighton," it being added, that "intelligence of the
+triumphant reception of his new play shall be forthwith despatched to
+him by means of the electric telegraph."
+
+If the name of the English author who first bowed over the foot-lights
+cannot now be ascertained, a dramatist perfectly willing to adopt that
+course can nevertheless be mentioned. To Talfourd the representation
+of his dramatic works was always a source of intense delight. He would
+travel almost any distance to see one of his plays upon the boards.
+Macready has left some curious particulars touching the first
+production of "Ion": "Was called for very enthusiastically by the
+audience, and cheered on my appearance most heartily.... Miss Ellen
+Tree was afterwards called forward. Talfourd came into my room and
+heartily shook hands with me and thanked me. He said something about
+Mr. Wallack, the stage-manager, wishing him _to go on the stage as
+they were calling; but it would not be right_. I said: _'On no account
+in the world.'_ He shortly left me, and, as I heard, was made to go
+forward to the front of his box and receive the enthusiastic tribute
+of the house's grateful delight." How happy he must have been! In
+1838, concerning the first night of Sheridan Knowles's play of
+"Woman's Wit," Macready writes: "Acted Walsingham in a very crude,
+nervous, unsatisfactory way. Avoided a call by going before the
+curtain to give out the play; there was very great enthusiasm. Led on
+Knowles in obedience to the call of the audience." But Knowles was not
+an author only, he was an actor also--he had trod the boards as his
+own Master Walter, and in other parts, although he was not included in
+the cast of "Woman's Wit." No doubt, from Macready's point of view,
+this distinguished his case clearly from that of Talfourd's.
+
+After the calling on of authors came the calling on of scene-painters.
+But of late, with the help of much salutary criticism on the subject,
+a disposition has arisen to check this very preposterous method of
+acknowledging the merits of a worthy class, who should be satisfied
+with learning from the wings or the back of the stage the admiration
+excited by their achievements, and should consider themselves in such
+wise as sufficiently rewarded. If they are to appear between their
+scenes and the public, why not also the costumiers and the
+gas-fitters, and the numberless other contributors to theatrical
+success and glory? Indeed, as a rule, the applause, calls, and encores
+of the theatre are honours to be conferred on singers and actors only,
+are their rightful and peculiar property, and should hardly be
+diverted from them or shared with others, upon any pretence whatever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+REAL HORSES.
+
+
+A horse in the highway is simply a horse and nothing more; but,
+transferred to the theatre, the noble animal becomes a _real_ horse.
+The distinction is necessary in order that there may be no confusing
+the works of nature with the achievements of the property-maker. Not
+that this indispensable dramatic artist shrinks from competition. But
+he would not have ascribed to him the production of another
+manufactory, so to say. His business is in counterfeits; he views with
+some disdain a genuine article. When the famous elephant Chunee
+stepped upon the stage of Covent Garden, the chief performer in the
+pantomime of "Harlequin and Padmanaba, or the Golden Fish," the
+creature was but scornfully regarded by Mr. Johnson, the property-man
+of Drury Lane. "I should be very sorry," he cried, "if I could not
+make a better elephant than that!" And it would seem that he
+afterwards justified his pretensions, especially in the eyes of the
+playgoers prizing imitative skill above mere reality. We read in the
+parody of Coleridge, in "Rejected Addresses":
+
+    Amid the freaks that modern fashion sanctions,
+    It grieves me much to see live animals
+    Brought on the stage. Grimaldi has his rabbit,
+    Laurent his cat, and Bradbury his pig;
+    Fie on such tricks! Johnson, the machinist,
+    Of former Drury, imitated life
+    Quite to the life! The elephant in Blue Beard,
+    Stuffed by his hand, wound round his lithe proboscis
+    As spruce as he who roared in Padmanaba.
+
+But no doubt an artificial elephant is more easily to be fabricated
+than an artificial horse. We do not encounter real elephants at every
+turn with which to compare the counterfeit. The animal is of bulky
+proportions and somewhat ungainly movements. With a frame of
+wicker-work and a hide of painted canvas, the creature can be fairly
+represented. But a horse is a different matter. Horses abound,
+however, and have proved themselves, time out of mind, apt pupils.
+They can readily be trained and taught to perform all kinds of feats
+and antics. So the skill of the property-maker is not taxed. He stands
+on one side, and permits the real horse to enter upon the mimic scene.
+
+When Don Adriano de Armado, the fantastical Spaniard of "Love's
+Labour's Lost," admits that he is "ill at reckoning," and cannot tell
+"how many is one thrice told," his page Moth observes "how easy it is
+to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words,
+the dancing horse will tell you." This is without doubt an allusion to
+a horse called Marocco, trained by its master, one Banks, a Scotchman,
+to perform various strange tricks. Marocco, a young bay nag of
+moderate size, was exhibited in Shakespeare's time in the courtyard of
+the Belle Sauvage Inn, on Ludgate Hill, the spectators lining the
+galleries of the hostelry. A pamphlet, published in 1595, and entitled
+"Maroccos Exstaticus, or Bankes Bay Horse in a Traunce; a Discourse
+set down in a Merry Dialogue between Bankes and his Beast," contains a
+wood-print of the performing animal and his proprietor. Banks's horse
+must have been one of the earliest "trained steeds" ever exhibited.
+His tricks excited great amazement, although they would hardly now be
+accounted very wonderful. Marocco could walk on his hind legs, and
+even dance the Canaries. At the bidding of his master he would carry a
+glove to a specified lady or gentleman, and tell, by raps with his
+hoof, the numbers on the upper face of a pair of dice. He went
+through, indeed, much of what is now the regular "business" of the
+circus horse. In 1600 Banks amazed London by taking his horse up to
+the vane on the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. Marocco visited Scotland
+and France, and in these countries his accomplishments were generally
+attributable to witchcraft. Banks rashly encouraged the notion that
+his nag was supernaturally endowed. An alarm was raised that Marocco
+was possessed by the Evil One. To relieve misgivings and escape
+reproach, Banks made his horse pay homage to the sign of the cross,
+and called upon all to observe that nothing satanic could have been
+induced to perform this act of reverence. A rumour at one time
+prevailed that the horse and his master had both, as "subjects of the
+Black Power of the world," been burned at Rome by order of the Pope.
+More authentic accounts, however, show Banks as surviving to Charles
+I.'s time, and thriving as a vintner in Cheapside. But it is to be
+gathered from Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," that of old
+certain performing horses suffered miserably for their skill. In a
+little book, "Le Diable Bossu," Nancy, 1708, allusion is made to the
+burning alive at Lisbon, in 1707, of an English horse, whose master
+had taught him to know the cards; and Grainger, in his "Biographical
+History of England," 1779, states that, within his remembrance, "a
+horse, which had been taught to perform several tricks, was, with its
+owner, put into the Inquisition."
+
+Marocco was but a circus horse; there is no evidence to show that he
+ever trod the stage or took any part in theatrical performances. It is
+hard to say, indeed, when horses first entered a regular theatre.
+Pepys chronicles, in 1668, a visit "to the King's Playhouse, to see an
+old play of Shirley's, called 'Hide Park,' the first day acted
+[revived], where horses are brought upon the stage." He expresses no
+surprise at the introduction of the animals, and this may not have
+been their first appearance on the scene. He is content to note that
+"Hide Park" is "a very moderate play, only an excellent epilogue
+spoken by Beck Marshall." The scene of the third and fourth acts of
+the comedy lies in the Park, and foot and horse races are represented.
+The horses probably were only required to cross the stage once or
+twice.
+
+A representation of Corneille's tragedy of "Andromeda," in 1682,
+occasioned great excitement in Paris, owing to the introduction of a
+"real horse" to play the part of Pegasus. The horse was generally
+regarded as a kind of Roscius of the brute creation, and achieved an
+extraordinary success. Adorned with wings and hoisted up by machinery,
+he neighed and tossed his head, pawed and pranced in mid-air after a
+very lively manner. It was a mystery then, but it is common enough
+knowledge now, that the horse's histrionic skill is founded upon his
+appetite. Kept without food for some time the horse becomes naturally
+moved at the sight of a sieve of corn in the side-wings. His feats,
+the picking up of gloves and handkerchiefs, even the pulling of
+triggers, originate but in his efforts to find oats. By-and-by his
+memory is exercised, and he is content to know that after the
+conclusion of his "business" he will be rewarded with oats behind the
+scenes. The postponement of his meals attends his failure to
+accomplish what is required of him. Of old, perhaps, some cruel use of
+whip and spur may have marked the education of the "trick-horse." But
+for a long time past the animal's fears have not been appealed to, but
+simply his love of food. Horses are very sagacious, and their natural
+timidity once appeased, they become exceedingly docile. An untrained
+horse has often shown himself equal to the ordinary requirements of
+the equestrian manager after only four days of tuition.
+
+Pope satirised the introduction of horses in Shakespeare's "Henry
+VIII.," revived with great splendour in 1727, when a representation
+was given of the coronation of Anne Bullen, and the royal champion,
+duly mounted and caparisoned, proclaimed his challenge. But for many
+years the appearances on the stage of equine performers were only of
+an occasional kind. It was not until the rebuilding of Astley's, in
+1803, that the equestrian drama became an established entertainment.
+An extensive stage was then added to the circus, and "horse
+spectacles," as they were called, were first presented. A grand drama
+called "The Blood-Red Knight," produced in 1810, resulted in a profit
+to the proprietors of L18,000, a handsome sum, seeing that the season
+at that time only extended from Easter to the end of September.
+
+The triumphs of Astley's excited the envy of the Covent Garden
+managers. Colman's drama of "Blue Beard" was reproduced, with Mr.
+Johnson's imitation elephant and a troop of real horses. The
+performance was presented on forty-four nights, a long run in those
+days. There was, of course, much wrath excited by this degradation of
+the stage. A contemporary critic writes: "A novel and marked event
+occurred at this theatre on this evening (18th of February, 1811),
+which should be considered as a black epocha for ever by the loyal
+adherents to wit and the Muses. As the Mussulmen date their
+computation of years from the flight of Mahomet, so should the hordes
+of folly commence their triumphant register from the open flight of
+common-sense on this memorable night, when a whole troop of horses
+made their first appearance in character at Covent Garden." The
+manager was fiercely denounced for his unscrupulous endeavours "to
+obtain money at the expense of his official dignity." Another critic,
+alleging that "the dressing-rooms of the new company of comedians were
+under the orchestra," complained that "in the first row of the pit the
+stench was so abominable, one might as well have sitten in a stable."
+Still the "equestrian drama" delighted the town. "Blue Beard" was
+followed by Monk Lewis's "Timour the Tartar," in which more horses
+appeared. Some hissing was heard at the commencement of the new drama,
+and placards were exhibited in the pit condemning the horses; but in
+the end "Timour" triumphed over all opposition, and rivalled the run
+of "Blue Beard." It is to be remembered, especially by those who
+insist so much on the degeneracy of the modern theatre, that these
+"horse spectacles" were presented in a patent house during the palmy
+days of the drama, while the Kemble family was still in possession of
+the stage of Covent Garden.
+
+These equestrian doings were satirised at the Haymarket Theatre in the
+following summer. "The Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh, or the Rovers of
+Weimar," was produced, being an adaptation by Colman of a burlesque,
+attributed to Canning, in "The Anti-Jacobin." It was designed to
+ridicule not merely the introduction of horses upon the stage, but
+also the then prevailing taste for morbid German dramas of the
+Kotzebue school. The prologue was in part a travestie of Pope's
+prologue to "Cato," and contained references to the plays of "Lovers'
+Vows" and "The Stranger."
+
+    To lull the soul by spurious strokes of art,
+    To warp the genius and mislead the heart,
+    To make mankind revere wives gone astray,
+    Love pious sons who rob on the highway,
+    For this the foreign muses trod our stage,
+    Commanding German schools to be the rage.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Dear Johnny Bull, you boast much resolution,
+    With, thanks to Heaven, a glorious constitution;
+    Your taste, recovered half from foreign quacks,
+    Takes airings now on English horses' backs.
+    While every modern bard may raise his name,
+    If not on lasting praise, on stable fame.
+    Think that to Germans you have given no check,
+    Think bow each actor horsed has risked his neck;
+    You've shown them favour. Oh, then, once more show it
+    To this night's Anglo-German horse-play poet.
+
+In the course of the play the sentimental sentinel in "Pizarro" was
+ridiculed, and the whole concluded with a grand battle, in which the
+last scene of "Timour the Tartar" was imitated and burlesqued.
+"Stuffed ponies and donkeys frisked about with ludicrous agility,"
+writes a critic of the time. The play was thoroughly successful, and
+would seem to have retrieved the fortunes of the theatre, which had
+been long in a disastrous condition.
+
+Drury Lane also struck a blow at the "horse spectacles" of the rival
+house. In 1812 was produced "Quadrupeds; or, The Manager's Last Kick."
+This was only a revised version of the old burlesque of "The Tailors,
+a Tragedy for Warm Weather," usually ascribed to Foote. In the last
+scene an army of tailors appeared, mounted on asses and mules, and
+much fun of a pantomimic kind ensued. Some years later, however, Drury
+Lane was content to derive profit from a drama in which "real horses"
+appeared, with the additional attraction of "real water." This was
+Moncrieff's play of "The Cataract of the Ganges." Indeed, Drury Lane
+was but little entitled to vaunt its superiority in the matter. In
+1803 its treasury had greatly benefited from the feats of the "real
+dog" in Reynolds's melodrama "The Caravan." "Real water," indeed, had
+been brought upon the stage by Garrick himself, who owed his
+prosperity, not more to his genius as an actor than to his ingenuity
+as a purveyor of pantomime and spectacles. One of his addresses to his
+audience contains the lines--
+
+    What eager transport stares from every eye,
+    When pulleys rattle and our genii fly,
+    When tin cascades like falling waters gleam,
+    Or through the canvas bursts the real stream,
+    While thirsty Islington laments in vain
+    Half her New River rolled to Drury Lane.
+
+Of late years a change has come over the equestrian drama. The circus
+flourishes, and quadrupeds figure now and then upon the stage, but the
+"horse spectacle" has almost vanished. The noble animal is to be seen
+occasionally on the boards, but he is cast for small parts only, is
+little better than a four-footed supernumerary. He comes on to aid
+the pageantry of the scene; even opera does not disdain his services
+in this respect. A richly-caparisoned charger performs certain simple
+duties in "Masaniello," in "Les Huguenots," "L'Etoile du Nord,"
+"Martha," "La Juive," and some few other operas. The late M. Jullien
+introduced quite a troop of cavalry in his "Pietro il Grande," but
+this homage to horseflesh notwithstanding, the world did not greatly
+prize the work in question. The horse no longer performs "leading
+business." Plays are not now written for him. He is no longer required
+to evince the fidelity and devotion of his nature by knocking at
+street-doors, rescuing a prisoned master, defending oppressed
+innocence, or dying in the centre of the stage to slow music.
+Something of a part seemed promised him when the popular drama of
+"Flying Scud" was first represented; at least, he supplied that work
+with its title. But it was speedily to be perceived that animal
+interests had been subordinated to human. More prominent occupation by
+far was assigned to the rider than to the horse. A different plan of
+distributing parts prevailed when "The High-mettled Racer" and kindred
+works adorned the stage. A horse with histrionic instincts and
+acquirements had something like a chance then. But now he can only
+lament the decline of the equestrian drama. True, the circus is still
+open to him; but in the eyes of a well-educated performing horse a
+circus must be much what a music-hall is in the opinion of a tragedian
+devoted to five-act plays.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE "SUPER."
+
+
+The theatrical supernumerary--or the "super," as he is familiarly
+called--is a man who in his time certainly plays many parts, and yet
+obtains applause in none. His exits and his entrances, his _debut_ and
+his disappearance, alike escape criticism and record. His name is not
+printed in the playbills, and is for ever unknown to his audience.
+Even the persons he is supposed to represent upon the stage always
+remain anonymous. Both as a living and fictitious creature he is
+denied individuality, and has to be considered collectively, massed
+with others, and inseparable from his companion figures. He is not so
+much an actor, as part of the decorations, the animated furniture, so
+to say, of the stage. Nevertheless, "supers" have their importance and
+value. For how could the drama exist without its background groups:
+its soldiers, citizens, peasants, courtiers, nobles, guests, and
+attendants of all kinds? These give prominence, support, and effect to
+the leading characters of the theatre; and these are the "supers."
+
+Upon the French stage the minor assistants of the scene are
+comprehensively described as _les choristes_. In this way the pedigree
+of the "super" gains something of nobility, and may, perhaps, be
+traced back to the chorus of the antique drama, a body charged with
+most momentous duties, with symbolic mysteries of dance and song,
+removed from the perils and catastrophes of the play, yet required in
+regard to these to guide and interpret the sympathies of the
+spectators. In its modern application, however, this generic term has
+its subdivisions, and includes _les choristes_ proper, who boast
+musical attainments, and are obedient to the rule of a _chef
+d'attaque_, or head chorister; _les accessoires_, performers permitted
+speech of a brief kind, who can be entrusted upon occasion with such
+simple functions as opening a door, placing a chair, or delivering a
+letter, and who correspond in many respects with our actors of
+utility; _les figurants_, the subordinate dancers led by a _coryphee_;
+and lastly, _les comparses_, who closely resemble our supernumeraries,
+and are engaged in more or less numbers, according to the exigencies
+of there presentation. Of these aids to performance _les comparses_
+only enjoy no regular salaries, are not formally enrolled among the
+permanent members of the establishment, but are paid simply for
+appearing--seventy-five centimes for the night, and fifty centimes for
+each rehearsal--or upon some such modest scale of remuneration. This
+classification would appear to afford opportunities to ambition. Here
+are steps in the ladder, and merit should be able to ascend. It is
+understood, however, that as a rule _les comparses_ do not rise. They
+are the serfs of the stage, who never obtain manumission. They are as
+conscripts, from whose knapsacks the field-marshal's _baton_ is almost
+invariably omitted. They become veterans, but their length of service
+receives no favourable recognition. _Comparses_ they live, and
+_comparses_ they die, or disappear, not apparently discontented with
+their doom, however. Meantime the _figurant_ cherishes sanguine hopes
+that he may one day rise to a prominent position in the ballet, or
+that he may become an _accessoire_; and the _accessoire_ looks forward
+fervently to ranking in the future among the regular actors or
+_artistes_ of the theatre, with the right of entering its _grand
+foyer_, or superior green-room. Until then he must confine himself and
+his aspirations to the _petit foyer_ set apart for the use of players
+of his class.
+
+Thus it is told of a certain _accessoire_ of the Porte St. Martin, in
+years past, who had won a scarcely appreciable measure of fame for his
+adroitness in handing letters or coffee-cups upon a salver, and even
+for the propriety with which he announced, in the part of a footman,
+the guests and visitors of a drama--such as "Monsieur le Vicomte de
+St. Remy!" or "Madame la Marquise de Roncourt!"--that he applied to
+his manager for an increase of his salary on account of the special
+value of his services. "I do not expect," he frankly said,
+"immediately to receive 25,000 francs, as Monsieur Frederic Lemaitre
+does; no, not yet; although I bear in mind that Monsieur Lemaitre
+began his career with fighting broadsword combats in Madame Saqui's
+circus; but my present salary is but 600 francs a-year, and a slight
+increase--"
+
+"Monsieur Fombonne," interrupted the manager, "I acknowledge the
+justice of your application. I admire and esteem you. You are one of
+the most useful members of my company. I well know your worth; no one
+better."
+
+Monsieur Fombonne, glowing with pleasure, bowed in his best manner.
+
+"I may venture to hope, then--"
+
+"By all means, Monsieur Fombonne. Hope sustains us under all our
+afflictions. Always hope. For my part, hope is the only thing left me.
+Business is wretched. The treasury is empty. I cannot possibly raise
+your salary. But you are an artist, and therefore above pecuniary
+considerations. I do not--I cannot--offer you money. But I can gratify
+a laudable ambition. Hitherto you have ranked only as an _accessoire_;
+from this time forward you are an actor. I give you the right of
+entering the _grand foyer_. You are permitted to call Monsieur
+Lemaitre _mon camarade_; to _tutoyer_ Mademoiselle Theodorine. I am
+sure, Monsieur Fombonne, that you will thoroughly appreciate the
+distinction I have conferred upon you."
+
+Monsieur Fombonne was delighted. He was subsequently to discover,
+however, that some disadvantages attended his new dignity; that the
+medal he had won had its reverse. The _accessoires_ and _figurants_ of
+the theatre always received their salaries on the first day of each
+month. The _artistes_ were not paid until the sixth or seventh day.
+Monsieur Fombonne had to live upon credit for a week as the price of
+his new privileges. His gain was shadowy; his loss substantial.
+
+With the choristers proper we are not here much concerned. They are
+not fairly to be classed among "supers," and they pertain almost
+exclusively to the lyric stage. It is to be noted, however, that they
+are in some sort evidence of the connection that once existed between
+the Church and the Theatre; the ecclesiastical and the laical drama.
+At any rate, the chorus singers often undertake divided duties in this
+respect, and accept engagements both at the cathedral and the
+opera-house. And sometimes it has happened that the discharge of their
+dual obligations has involved them in serious difficulties. Thus, some
+years since, there is said to have been a Christmas spectacle in
+preparation at the Opera House in Paris. The entertainment was of a
+long and elaborate kind, and for its perfect production numberless
+rehearsals, early and late, dress and undress, were imperatively
+necessary. Now the chorus of the opera also represented the choir of
+Notre Dame. It was a season of the year for which the Church has
+appointed many celebrations. The singers were incessantly running to
+and fro between the Opera House and Notre Dame. Often they had not a
+moment to spare, and punctuality in attending their appointments was
+scarcely possible, while the trouble of so frequently changing their
+costumes was extremely irksome to them. On one occasion a dress
+rehearsal at the theatre, which commenced at a very late hour, after
+the conclusion of the ordinary performance of the evening, was so
+protracted that the time for the early service at the cathedral was
+rapidly approaching. The chorus appeared as demons at the opera, and
+wore the tight-fitting scaly dresses which time out of mind have been
+invested upon the stage with diabolical attributes. What were they to
+do? Was there time to undress and dress again? Scarcely. Besides, was
+it worth the trouble? It was very dark; bitterly cold; there was not a
+soul to be seen in the streets; all Paris was abed and asleep.
+Moreover, the door of the sacristy would be ready open to receive
+them, and their white stoles would be immediately obtainable. Well,
+the story goes that these desperate singers, accoutred as they were,
+ran as fast as they could to Notre Dame, veiled their satanic dresses
+beneath the snowy surplices of the choir, and accomplished their
+sacred duties without any discovery of the impropriety of their
+conduct. It is true they encountered in their course a patrol of the
+civic guard; but the representatives of law and order, forming
+probably their own conclusions as to the significance of the demoniac
+apparition, are said to have prudently taken to flight in an opposite
+direction.
+
+Upon our early English stage the "super" had frequent occupation; the
+Shakespearean drama, indeed, makes large demands upon the mute
+performers. The stage at this time was not very spacious, however,
+and was in part occupied by the more pretentious of the spectators,
+who, seated upon stools, or reclining upon the rushes which strewed
+the boards, were attended by their pages, and amused themselves with
+smoking their pipes and noisily criticising the performance. There was
+little room therefore for any great number of supernumeraries. But
+spectacles--to which the "super" has always been indispensable--had
+already won the favour of playgoers. Sir Henry Wotton writes in 1613
+of a new play produced at the Globe Theatre, "called 'All is True,'
+representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry VIII., which
+was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and
+majesty, even to matting of the stage; the knights of the order with
+their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats and
+the like; sufficient, in truth, within a while to make greatness very
+familiar, if not ridiculous." "Supers" must surely have been employed
+on this occasion. It is clear, however, that the money-takers, or
+"gatherers," as they were called, after the audience had assembled,
+and their presence was no longer needed at the doors, were accustomed
+to appear upon the stage as the representatives of guards, soldiers,
+&c. An early play refers to the combats of the scene being
+accomplished by "the blue-coated stage-keepers," or attendants. And
+the actors were classified at this time, according to their
+professional standing, as "whole sharers," "three-quarter sharers,"
+"half sharers," and "hired men," or "servitors." The leading players
+were as joint proprietors in the undertaking, and divided the receipts
+among them according to a prearranged scale. Minor characters were
+sustained by the "servitors," who were paid, as our actors are at the
+present time, by weekly wages, and had no other interest in the
+success of the theatre with which they were associated, beyond desire
+that its exchequer might always be equal to their claims upon it.
+Philip Henslowe's "Diary" contains an entry regarding a non-sharing
+actor: "Hiered as a covenant servant Willyam Kendall--to give him for
+his said servis everi week of his playing in London ten shillings, and
+in the countrie five shillings, for the which he covenaunteth to be
+redye at all houres to play in the house of the said Philip, and in no
+other." It may be noted that Shakespeare's first connection with the
+Globe Theatre is shown upon fair evidence to have been originally
+that of a "servitor." In that case the poet must often have been
+required to appear in very subordinate characters--perhaps even
+characters not entrusted with speech. Will it inflame too violently
+the ambition of our modern "supers" to suggest to them that very
+possibly Shakespeare himself may have preceded them in the performance
+of their somewhat inglorious duties? The hired men or servitors were
+under the control and in the pay of the proprietor or manager of the
+theatre, and their salaries constituted no charge upon the shares of
+the chief actors. Still these were entitled to complain, apparently,
+if the hired men were too few in number to give due effect to the
+representations. In 1614 a dispute arose between Henslowe and his
+sharing actors, by reason of his having suddenly reduced his expenses
+by dismissing "four hired men." He had previously sought to charge
+their stipends upon the shares, although bound by agreement to defray
+these expenses out of the money derived from the galleries--at this
+time, perhaps, a managerial perquisite. But in addition to the
+servitors, as the representatives of minor and mute characters, there
+were also available the journeymen or apprentices of the more eminent
+performers. If they paid no premium upon being articled, novices were
+at any rate bound in return for the education they received to hand
+their earnings, or a large part of them, to their masters. And this is
+precisely the case at the present time in regard to the pupils of
+musical professors and the teachers of singing, dancing, and feats of
+the circus. The services of the apprentices were transferable, and
+could be bought and sold. There is quite a slave-trade aspect about
+the following entry in Henslowe's "Diary." "Bowght my boye Jeames
+Brystow, of William Augusten, player, the 8th of December, 1597, for
+eight pounds." Augustine Phillips, the actor, one of Shakespeare's
+partners, who died in 1605, and who by his will bequeathed to
+Shakespeare "a thirty shillings peece in gould," also gave to "Samuell
+Gilborne, my late apprentice, the some of fortye shillings, and my
+mouse-coloured velvit hose, and a white taffety dublet, a blacke
+taffety sute, my purple cloke, sword and dagger, and my base viall."
+He also gave to "James Sands, my apprentice, the some of forty
+shillings and a citterne, a bandore, and a lute, to be paid and
+delivered unto him at the expiration of his terme of yeres in his
+indentur of apprenticehood." From his bequests of musical instruments,
+it has been conjectured that Phillips sometimes played in what is now
+called the orchestra of the theatre. A sum of forty shillings in
+Elizabeth's time represents the value of about ten pounds of our
+currency. What with its "gatherers," "servitors," and journeymen, the
+Shakespearean stage was obviously provided sufficiently with
+supernumerary assistants.
+
+The "super" is useful, even ornamental in his way, though it behoves
+him always to stand aloof from the foot-lights, so that distance may
+lend his aspect as much enchantment as possible; but he is not highly
+esteemed by the general public. In truth he has been long the object
+of ridicule and caricature. He is charged with stupidity, and is
+popularly considered as a very absurd sort of creature. But he has
+resigned his own volition; he has but to obey. He is as a puppet whose
+wires are pulled by others. He is under the rule of a "super-master,"
+who is in his turn governed by the wavings of the prompter's white
+flag in the wings, the prompter being controlled by the stage-manager,
+who is supposed to be the executant of the dramatist's intentions. The
+"super's" position upon the stage is strictly defined for him;
+sometimes even marked on the boards with chalk. He may not move until
+the word of command is given him, and then every change of station or
+attitude must be pursuant to previous instruction. And his duties are
+sometimes arduous. He may often be required to change his attire and
+assume a new personality in the course of one night's performances. A
+member of a band of brigands in one scene, he may in another be
+enrolled in a troop of soldiers, sent to combat with and capture those
+malefactors. In the same play he may wear now the robes of a nobleman,
+and now the rags of a mendicant. A demon possessed of supernatural
+powers at the opening of a pantomime, he is certain before its close
+to be found among those good-natured people who saunter across the
+stage for the sole purpose, as it would seem, of being assaulted and
+battered by the clown and pantaloon. It is not surprising altogether
+that a certain apathy gradually steals over him, and that such
+intelligence as he ever possessed becomes in time somewhat numbed by
+the peculiar nature of his profession. Moreover, in regard to the play
+in which he takes part he is generally but dimly informed. Its plot
+and purpose are mysteries to him. He never sees it represented or
+rehearsed as an entirety. His own simple duties accomplished, he is
+hurried to the rear of the stage to be out of the way of the actors.
+Why he bends his knee to one performer and loads another with fetters;
+why there is banning in this scene and blessing in that; why the
+heroine in white adores the gallant in blue and abominates her suitor
+in red, are to him inexplicable matters. The dramas in which he
+figures only impress his mind in relation to the dresses he is
+constrained to assume during their representation, the dresses being
+never of his own choosing, rarely fitting him, and their significance
+being always outside his comprehension. To him the tragedy of "King
+John" is but the occasion on which he and his fellows "wore them
+tin-pots on our 'eads;" "Julius Caesar" the play in which "we went on
+in sheets." "What are we supposed to be?" a curious "super" once
+inquired of a more experienced comrade. "Blessed if I know!" was the
+answer. "Demons, I expect." They were clothing themselves in
+chain-mail, and were "supposed to be"--Crusaders.
+
+The "super's" dress is, indeed, his prime consideration, and out of it
+arises his greatest grievance. He must surrender himself
+unconditionally to the costumier, and obey implicitly his behests.
+Summer or winter he has no voice in the question; he must clothe
+himself warmly or scantily, just as he is bidden. "Always fleshings
+when there's a frost," a "super" was once heard to grumble, who
+conceived the classical system of dress or undress--and for that
+matter, perhaps, the classical drama also--to be invented solely for
+his inconvenience and discomfort. But more trying than this antique
+garb is the demoniac mask of pantomime, which is as a diver's helmet
+ill provided with appliances for admitting air or permitting outlook.
+The group of panting "supers," with their mimic heads under their
+arms--their faces smeared with red or blue, in accordance with
+direction, not of their own choice--to be discovered behind the scenes
+during the performance of a Christmas piece, is an impressive portion
+of the spectacle, although it is withheld from the contemplation of
+the audience. There have been "supers" who have approached very near
+to death by suffocation, from the hurtful nature of their attire,
+rather than fail in the discharge of their duties. For there is
+heroism everywhere.
+
+The stage has always been fertile in the matter of anecdotage, and of
+course comical stories of "supers" have abounded; for these, the
+poorest of players are readily available for facetious purposes. Thus,
+so far back as the days of Quin, there is record of a curious
+misapprehension on the part of the supernumeraries of the time. Quin's
+pronunciation was of a broad old-fashioned kind, a following of a
+traditional method of elocution from which Garrick did much to release
+the theatre. The play was Thomson's "Coriolanus," and Quin appeared as
+the hero. In the scene of the Roman ladies' entry in procession, to
+solicit the return to Rome of Coriolanus, the stage was filled with
+tribunes and centurions of the Volscian army, bearing fasces, their
+ensigns of authority. Quin, as the hero, commanded them to "lower
+their fasces" by way of homage to the matrons of Rome. But the
+representatives of the centurions understood him to mean their
+_faces_, and much to the amusement of the audience all reverently
+bowed their heads with absurd unanimity.
+
+But it is as the performers of "guests" that the "supers" have
+especially moved derision in our theatres; and, indeed, on the
+Parisian stage _les invites_ have long been established provocatives
+of laughter. The assumption of evening dress and something of the
+manners of polite society has always been severely trying to the
+supernumerary actor. What can he really know of balls and fashionable
+assemblies? Of course speech is not demanded of him, nor is his
+presence needed very near to the proscenium, but he is required to
+give animation to the background, and to be as easy and graceful as he
+may in his aspect and movements. The result is not satisfactory. He is
+more at home in less refined situations. He is prone to indulge in
+rather grotesque gestures, expressive of admiration of the brilliant
+decorations surrounding him, and profuse, even servile gratitude for
+the hospitality extended to him. He interchanges mute remarks,
+enlivened by surprising grimaces, with the lady of the ballet, in the
+shabbiest of ball dresses, who hangs affectionately upon his arm. The
+limited amount of his stipend naturally asserts itself in his costume,
+which will not bear critical investigation. His boots are of the
+homeliest and sometimes of the muddiest; coarse dabs of rouge appear
+upon his battered cheeks; his wig--for a "super" of this class almost
+always wears a wig--is unkempt and decayed; his white cravat has a
+burlesque air; and his gloves are of cotton. There are even stories
+extant of very economical "supers" who have gone halves in a pair of
+"berlins," and even expended rouge on but one side of their faces,
+pleading that they were required to stand only on the right or the
+left of the stage, as the case might be, and as they could thus be
+seen but in profile by the audience, these defects in their appearance
+could not possibly attract notice. Altogether the "super's" least
+effective performance is that of "a guest."
+
+It is a real advance for a "super" when he is charged with some small
+theatrical task, which removes him from the ranks of his fellows. He
+acquires individuality, though of an inferior kind. But his promotion
+entails responsibilities for which he is not always prepared. Lekain,
+the French tragedian, playing the part of Tancred, at Bordeaux,
+required a supernumerary to act as his squire, and carry his helmet,
+lance, and shield. Lekain's personal appearance was insignificant, and
+his manner at rehearsal had been very subdued. The "super" thought
+little of the hero he was to serve, and deemed his own duties slight
+enough. But at night Lekain's majesty of port, and the commanding tone
+in which he cried, _"Suivez moi!"_ to his squire, so startled and
+overcame that attendant that he suddenly let fall, with a great crash,
+the weapons and armour he was carrying. Something of the same kind has
+often happened upon our own stage. "You distressed me very much, sir,"
+said a famous tragedian once to a "super," who had committed default
+in some important business of the scene. "Not more than you frightened
+me, sir," the "super" frankly said. He was forgiven his failure on
+account of the homage it conveyed to the tragedian's impressiveness.
+
+M. Etienne Arago, writing some years since upon _les choristes_, calls
+attention to the important services rendered to the stage by its mute
+performers, and demands their wider recognition. He ventures to hold
+that as much talent is necessary to constitute a tolerable _figurant_
+as to make a good actor. He describes the _figurant_ as a multiform
+actor, a dramatic chameleon, compelled by the special nature of his
+occupation, or rather by its lack of special nature, to appear young
+or old, crooked or straight, noble or base-born, savage or civilised,
+according to the good pleasure of the dramatist. "Thus, when Tancred
+declaims, _'Toi, superbe Orbassan, c'est toi que je defie!'_ and
+flings his gauntlet upon the stage, Orbassan has but to wave his hand
+and an attendant advances boldly, stoops, picks up the gage of
+battle, and resumes his former position. That is thought to be a very
+simple duty. But to accomplish it without provoking the mirth of the
+audience is _le sublime du metier--le triomphe de l'art!_"
+
+The emotions of an author who for the first time sees himself in
+print, have often been descanted upon. The sensations of a "super,"
+raised from the ranks, entrusted with the utterance of a few words,
+and enabled to read the entry of his own name in the playbills, are
+scarcely less entitled to sympathy. His task may be slight enough, the
+measure of speech permitted him most limited; the reference to him in
+the programmes may simply run--
+
+    CHARLES (a waiter)     Mr. JONES,
+
+or even
+
+    RAILWAY PORTER         Mr. BROWN,
+
+but the delight of the performer is infinite. His promotion is indeed
+of a prodigious kind. Hitherto but a lay-figure, he is now endowed
+with life. He has become an actor! The world is at length informed of
+his existence. He has emerged from the crowd, and though it may be but
+for a moment, can assert his individuality. He carries his part about
+with him everywhere--it is but a slip of paper with one line of
+writing running across it. He exhibits it boastfully to his friends.
+He reads it again and again; recites it in every tone of voice he can
+command--practises his elocutionary powers upon every possible
+occasion. A Parisian _figurant_, advanced to the position of
+_accessoire_, was so elated that he is said to have expressed surprise
+that the people he met in the streets did not bow to him; that the
+sentinels on guard did not present arms as he passed. His reverence
+for the author in whose play he is to appear is boundless; he regards
+him as a second Shakespeare, if not something more. His devotion to
+the manager, who has given him the part, for a time approaches
+deliriousness.
+
+"_Our_ new play will be a great go!" a promoted "super" once observed
+to certain of his fellows, "_I_ play a policeman! I go on in the last
+scene, and handcuff Mr. Rant. I have to say, 'Murder's the charge!
+Stand back!' Won't that _fetch_ the house?"
+
+There are soldiers doomed to perish in their first battle. And there
+have been "supers" who have failed to justify their advancement, and,
+silenced for ever, have had to fall back into the ranks again. The
+French stage has a story of a _figurant_ who ruined at once a new
+tragedy and his own prospects by an unhappy _lapsus linguae_, the
+result of undue haste and nervous excitement. He had but to cry aloud,
+in the crisis of the drama: "_Le roi se meurt!_" He was perfect at
+rehearsal; he earned the applause even of the author. A brilliant
+future, as he deemed, was open to him. But at night he could only
+utter, in broken tones: "_Le meurt se roi!_" and the tragic situation
+was dissolved in laughter. So, in our own theatre, there is the
+established legend of Delpini, the Italian clown, who, charged to
+exclaim at a critical moment: "Pluck them asunder!" could produce no
+more intelligible speech than "Massonder em plocket!" Much mirth in
+the house and dismay on the stage ensued. But Delpini had gained his
+object. He had become qualified as an actor to participate in the
+benefits of the Theatrical Fund. As a mere pantomimist he was without
+a title. But John Kemble had kindly furthered the claim of the foreign
+clown by entrusting him for once with "a speaking part." The
+tragedian, however, had been quite unprepared for the misadventure
+that was to result.
+
+It used to be said that at the Parisian Cirque, once famous for its
+battle-pieces, refractory "supers" were always punished by being
+required to represent "the enemy" of the evening: the Russians,
+Prussians, English, or Arabs, as the case might be--who were to be
+overcome by the victorious soldiers of France--repulsed at the point
+of the bayonet, trampled upon and routed in a variety of ignominious
+ways. The representatives of "the enemy" complained that they could
+not endure to be hopelessly beaten night after night. Their
+expostulation was unpatriotic; but it was natural. For "supers" have
+their feelings, moral as well as physical. At one of our own theatres
+a roulette-table was introduced in a scene portraying the _salon_ at
+Homburg, or Baden-Baden. Certain of the "supers" petitioned that they
+should not always appear as the losing gamesters. They desired
+sometimes to figure among the winners. It need hardly be said that the
+money that changed hands upon the occasion was only of that valueless
+kind that has no sort of currency off the stage.
+
+When "supers" appear as modern soldiers in action, it is found
+advisable to load their guns for them. They fear the "kick" of their
+weapons, and will, if possible, avoid firing them. Once in a military
+play a troop of grenadiers were required to fire a volley. Their
+officer waved his sword and gave the word of command superbly; but no
+sound followed, save only that of the snapping of locks: Not a gun had
+been loaded. An unfortunate unanimity had prevailed among the
+grenadiers. Each had forborne to load his weapon, trusting that his
+omission would escape notice in the general noise, and assured that a
+shot more or less could be of little consequence. It had occurred to
+no one of them that his scheme might be put into operation by others
+beside himself--still less that the whole band might adopt it. But
+this had happened. For the future their guns were given them loaded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+"GAG."
+
+
+The stage, like other professions, is in some sort to be considered as
+a distinct nation, possessing manners, customs, a code, and, above
+all, a language of its own. This, by the outside world, is designated
+"slang;" just as in one country the tongue of another is vulgarly
+described as gibberish. Now and then, however, a word escapes from the
+peculiar vocabulary of the players, and secures the recognition and
+acceptance of the general public. It may not be forthwith registered
+in formal dictionaries, or sanctioned by the martinets of speech and
+style; still, like a French sou or a Jersey halfpenny appearing
+amongst our copper coins, it obtains a fair degree of currency and
+circulation, with little question as to the legitimacy of the mint
+from which it originally issued.
+
+"Gag" is a word of this class. It belongs of right to the actors, but
+of its age or derivation nothing can be ascertained, Modern
+lexicography of the best repute does not acknowledge it, and for a
+long time it remained unnoticed, even by the compilers of glossaries
+of strange and cant terms. Thus, it is not to be found in "Grose's
+Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," published in 1796. This is
+a coarse, but certainly a comprehensive work, and from its omitting to
+register "gag," we may assume that the word had no ascertained
+existence in Grose's time. In the "Slang Dictionary; or, The Vulgar
+Words, Street Phrases, and 'Fast' Expressions of High and Low
+Society," published in 1864, "gag" is duly included, and defined to
+be "language introduced by an actor into his part." Long before this,
+however, the word had issued from the stage-door, and its
+signification had become a matter of general knowledge.
+
+And even if the word be comparatively new, the thing it represents and
+defines is certainly old enough, dating, probably, from the very birth
+of the drama. So soon as the author began to write words for the
+actors to deliver, so soon, be sure, did the comedians begin to
+interpolate speech of their own contriving. For, as a rule, gag is the
+privilege and the property of the comic performer. The tragedian does
+not gag. He may require his part to be what is called "written up" for
+him, and striking matter to be introduced into his scenes for his own
+especial advantage, but he is generally confined to the delivery of
+blank verse, and rhythmical utterances of that kind do not readily
+afford opportunities for gag. There have been Macbeths who have
+declined to expire upon the stage after the silent fashion prescribed
+by Shakespeare, and have insisted upon declaiming the last dying
+speech with which Garrick first enriched the character. But these are
+actors of the past. If Shakespeare does not often appear upon the
+modern stage, at any rate he is not presented in the disguised and
+mutilated form which won applause in what are now viewed as the "palmy
+days" of the drama. And the prepared speeches introduced by the
+tragedians, however alien they may be to the dramatist's intentions,
+and independent of his creations, are not properly to be considered as
+gag.
+
+It was in 1583, according to Howes' additions to Stow's "Chronicle,"
+that Queen Elizabeth, at the request of Sir Francis Walsingham, and
+with the advice of Mr. Edmond Tyllney, her Master of the Revels,
+selected twelve performers out of some of the companies of her
+nobility, to be her own dramatic servants, with the special title of
+the Queen's Players. They duly took the oaths of office, and were
+allowed wages and liveries as Grooms of the Chambers. Among these
+actors were included Robert Wilson, described as gifted with "a quick,
+delicate, refined, extemporal wit;" and Richard Tarleton, of "a
+wondrous, plentiful, pleasant, extemporal wit." From this it would
+almost seem that these comedians owed their fame and advancement to
+their skill and inventiveness in the matter of gagging. No doubt these
+early actors bore some relation to the jesters who were established
+members of noble households, and of whom impromptu jokes and
+witticisms were looked for upon all occasions. Moreover, at this time,
+as Mr. Payne Collier judges, "extemporal plays," in the nature of the
+Italian _Commedie al improviso_, were often presented upon the English
+stage. The actors were merely furnished with a "plat," or plot of the
+performance, and were required to fill in and complete the outline, as
+their own ingenuity might suggest. Portions of the entertainments were
+simply dumb show and pantomime, but it is clear that spoken dialogue
+was also resorted to. In such cases the "extemporal wit," or gagging
+of the comic actors, was indispensably necessary. The "comedians of
+Ravenna," who were not "tied to any written device," but who,
+nevertheless, had "certain grounds or principles of their own," are
+mentioned in Whetstone's "Heptameron," 1582, and references to such
+performers are also to be found in Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy," and Ben
+Jonson's "Case is Altered." In "Antony and Cleopatra" occurs the
+passage:
+
+                The quick comedians
+    Extemporally will stage us and present
+    Our Alexandrian revels.
+
+And Mr. Collier conjectures that when Polonius, speaking of the
+players, informs Hamlet that, "for the law of writ and the liberty,
+these are your only men," he is to be understood as commending their
+excellence, both in written performances and in such as left them at
+liberty to invent their own discourse.
+
+But however intelligible and excusable its origin, it is certain that
+by the time Shakespeare was writing, the "extemporal wit" of the
+theatre had come to be a very grave nuisance. There is no need to set
+forth here his memorable rebuke of the clowns who demonstrate their
+"pitiful ambition" by speaking more than their parts warrant. It is to
+be observed, however, that while this charge is levelled only at the
+clowns, or comic performers, the faults of the serious players by no
+means escape uncriticised. The same speech condemns alike the rant of
+the tragedians and the gag of the comedians. Both are regarded as
+unworthy means of winning the applause of the "groundlings" in one
+case, and the laughter of "barren spectators" in the other. Sad to
+say, Hamlet, in his character of reformer of stage abuses, failed to
+effect much good. The vices of the Elizabethan theatre are extant, and
+thriving in the Victorian. It is even to be feared that the
+interpolations of the clowns have sometimes crept into and disfigured
+the Shakespearean text, much to the puzzlement of the commentators.
+Often as Hamlet's reforming speech has been recited, it has been
+generally met and nullified by someone moving "the previous question."
+At the same time, while there is an inclination to decry perhaps too
+strenuously the condition of the modern stage, it is fair to credit it
+with a measure of amendment in regard both to rant and gag. Of late
+years rant has certainly declined in public favour, and the
+"robustious perriwig-pated fellow" tearing a passion to tatters, to
+very rags, is a less familiar spectacle upon our boards than formerly;
+albeit, this statement is obviously open to the reply that the system
+of "o'er doing Termagant," and "out-Heroding Herod" has ceased to
+prevail, inasmuch as the tragedies and vehement plays, which gave it
+opportunity and excuse, have vanished from the existing dramatic
+repertory. And gag, except perhaps in relation to certain
+interpolations, which are founded upon enduring, if absurd, histrionic
+traditions, acknowledges stricter limitations than it once did. A
+gagging Polonius, Dogberry, Gobbo, or Gravedigger could scarcely
+expect much toleration from a modern audience; while it is true
+enough, that these famous personages do not often present themselves
+upon the scene in these times. As a rule, the gag of the present
+period is to be found mainly in those more frivolous and ephemeral
+entertainments, which are not much to be damnified by any excesses
+with which the comedians may be chargeable.
+
+There is no gainsaying that in all times gag has been indulgently
+considered, and even encouraged by the majority of the audience.
+Establishing relations of a most intimate kind with his audience, the
+comic actor obtains from them absolute licence of speech and conduct.
+He becomes their "spoiled child," his excesses are promptly applauded,
+and even his offences against good taste are speedily pardoned.
+
+Of early gagging comedians, one of the most noted appears to have been
+Will Pinkethman, who flourished under William and Mary, and won
+honourable mention from Sir Richard Steele, in "The Tatler." Cibber
+describes Pinkethman as an imitator of Leigh, an earlier actor of
+superior and more legitimate powers. Pinkethman's inclination for
+"gamesome liberties" and "uncommon pleasantries" was of a most
+extravagant kind. Davies says of him that he "was in such full
+possession of the galleries that he would hold discourse with them for
+several minutes." Nor could he be induced to amend his method of
+performance. It was in vain the managers threatened to fine him for
+his exuberances; he was too surely a public favourite to be severely
+treated. At one time he came to a "whimsical agreement" with Wilks,
+the actor, who suffered much from his playfellow's eccentricities,
+that "whenever he was guilty of corresponding with the gods he should
+receive on his back three smart strokes of Bob Wilks's cane." But even
+this penalty, it would seem, Wilks was too good-natured to enforce. On
+one occasion, however, as Davies relates, Pinkethman so persisted in
+his gagging as to incur the displeasure of the audience. The comedy
+was Farquhar's "Recruiting Officer;" Wilks played Captain Plume, and
+Pinkethman one of the recruits. The captain enlisting him inquired his
+name. Instead of giving the proper answer, Pinkethman replied: "Why,
+don't you know my name, Bob? I thought every fool knew that." Wilks
+angrily whispered to him the name of the recruit, Thomas Appleton.
+"Thomas Appleton?" he cried aloud. "No, no, my name's Will
+Pinkethman!" Then, addressing himself to the gallery, he said: "Hark
+ye, friends; you know my name up there, don't you?" "Yes, Master
+Pinkey," was the answer, "we know your name well enough." The house
+was now in an uproar. At first the audience enjoyed the folly of
+Pinkethman, and the distressed air of Wilks; but soon the joke grew
+tiresome, and hisses became distinctly audible. By assuming as
+melancholy an expression as he could, and exclaiming with a strong
+nasal twang: "Odds, I fear I'm wrong," Pinkethman was enabled to
+restore the good-humour of his patrons. It would seem that on other
+occasions he was compelled to make some similar apology for his
+misdemeanours. "I have often thought," Cibber writes, "that a good
+deal of the favour he met with was owing to this seeming humble way of
+waiving all pretences to merit, but what the town would please to
+allow him." A satiric poem, called "The Players," published in 1733,
+contains the following reference to Pinkethman:
+
+    Quit not your theme to win the gaping rout,
+    Nor aim at Pinkey's leer with "S'death, I'm out!"
+    An arch dull rogue, who lets the business cool,
+    To show how nicely he can play the fool,
+    Who with buffoonery his dulness clokes,
+    Deserves a cat-o'-nine-tails for his jokes.
+
+At this time, Pinkethman had been dead some years, and it is explained
+in a note, that no "invidious reflection upon his memory" was
+intended, but merely a caution to others, who, less gifted, should
+presume to imitate conduct which had not escaped censure even in his
+case. With all his irregularities, Pinkethman was accounted a
+serviceable actor, and was often entrusted with characters of real
+importance, such as Dr. Caius, Feeble, Abel Drugger, Beau Clincher,
+Humphrey Gubbin, and Jerry Blackacre.
+
+But an actor who outdid even Pinkethman in impertinence of speech was
+John Edwin, a comedian who enjoyed great popularity late in the last
+century. A contemporary critic describes him "as one of those
+extraordinary productions that would do immortal honour to the sock,
+if his extravasations of whim could be kept within bounds, and if the
+comicality of his vein could be restrained by good taste." Reynolds,
+the dramatist, relates that on one occasion he was sitting in the
+front row of the balcony-box at the Haymarket, during the performance
+of O'Keeffe's farce of "The Son-in-Law," Parsons being the Cranky and
+Edwin the Bowkitt of the night. In the scene of Cranky's refusal to
+bestow his daughter upon Bowkitt, on the ground of his being such an
+ugly fellow, Edwin coolly advanced to the foot-lights, and said:
+"Ugly! Now I submit, to the decision of an enlightened British public,
+which is the ugliest fellow of us three; I, old Cranky, or that
+gentleman in the front row of the balcony-box?" Here he pointed to
+Reynolds, who hastened to abandon his position. Parsons was
+exceedingly angry at the interruption, but the audience appear to have
+tolerated, and even enjoyed the gag. As Reynolds himself leniently
+writes: "Many performers before and since the days of Edwin have
+acquired the power, by private winks, irrelevant buffoonery and
+dialogue, to make their fellow-players laugh, and thus confound the
+audience and mar the scene; Edwin, disdaining this confined and
+distracting system, established a sort of entre-nous-ship (if I may
+venture to use the expression) with the audience, and made them his
+confidants; and though wrong in his principle, yet so neatly and
+skilfully did he execute it, that instead of injuring the business of
+the stage, he frequently enriched it."
+
+Edwin seems, indeed, to have been an actor of some genius,
+notwithstanding his "extravasations of whim," and an habitual
+intemperance, which probably hastened the close of his professional
+career--for the man was a shameless sot. "I have often seen him,"
+writes Boaden, "brought to the stage-door, senseless and motionless,
+lying at the bottom of a coach." Yet, if he could but be made to
+assume his stage-clothes, and pushed towards the lamps, he would rub
+his eyes for a moment, and then consciousness and extraordinary humour
+returned to him together, and his acting suffered in no way from the
+excesses which had overwhelmed him. Eccentricity was his forte, and it
+was usually found necessary to have characters expressly written for
+him; but there can be no doubt that he was very highly esteemed by the
+playgoers of his time, who viewed his loss to the stage as quite
+irreparable.
+
+But of the comedians it may be said, that they not only "gag"
+themselves, but they are the cause of "gagging" in others. Their
+interpolations are regarded as heirlooms in the Thespian family. It is
+the comic actor's constant plea, when charged with adding to some
+famous part, that he has only been true to the traditions of previous
+performers. One of the most notable instances of established gag is
+the burlesque sermon introduced by Mawworm, in the last scene of "The
+Hypocrite." This was originated by Mathews, who first undertook the
+part at the Lyceum in 1809, and who designed a caricature of an
+extravagant preacher of the Whitfield school, known as Daddy Berridge,
+whose strange discourses at the Tabernacle in the Tottenham Court Road
+had grievously afflicted the actor in his youth. Mawworm's sermon met
+with extraordinary success; on some occasions it was even encored, and
+the comedy has never since been presented without this supreme effort
+of gag. Liston borrowed the address from Mathews, and gained for it so
+great an amount of fame, that the real contriver of the interpolation
+had reason to complain of being deprived of such credit as was due to
+him in the matter. The sermon is certainly irresistibly comical, and a
+fair outgrowth of the character of Mawworm; at the same time it must
+be observed that Mawworm is himself an excrescence upon the comedy,
+having no existence in Cibber's "Non-Juror," upon which "The
+Hypocrite" is founded, or in "Tartuffe," from whence Cibber derived
+the subject of his play.
+
+In the same way the additions made by the actors to certain of
+Sheridan's comedies--such as Moses's redundant iterations of "I'll
+take my oath of that!" in "The School for Scandal," and Acres's
+misquotation of Sir Lucius's handwriting: "To prevent the trouble that
+might arise from our both undressing the same lady," in "The Rivals,"
+are gags of such long standing, that they may date almost from the
+first production of those works. Sheridan himself supervised the
+rehearsals, and took great pains to perfect the representation; but,
+with other dramatists, he probably found himself much at the mercy of
+the players. He even withheld publication of "The School for Scandal,"
+in order to prevent inadequate performance of the comedy; but this
+precaution was attended with the worst results. The stage long
+suffered from the variety of defective copies of the work that
+obtained circulation. The late Mr. John Bernard, the actor, in his
+amusing "Retrospections of the Stage," has confessed that, tempted by
+an addition of ten shillings a-week to his salary, he undertook to
+compile, in a week, an edition of "The School for Scandal" for the
+Exeter Theatre, upon the express understanding that the manuscript
+should be destroyed at the end of the season. Bernard had three parts
+in his possession, for upon various occasions he had appeared as Sir
+Peter, as Charles, and as Sir Benjamin. Two members of the Exeter
+company were acquainted with the speeches of Old Rowley, Lady Teazle,
+and Mrs. Candour, while actors at a distance, upon his request, sent
+him by post the parts of Joseph and Sir Oliver. With these materials,
+assisted by his general knowledge of the play, obtained from his
+having appeared many times in authentic versions of it, the compiler
+prepared a fictitious and piratical edition of "The School for
+Scandal," which fully served the purpose of the manager, and drew good
+houses for the remainder of the season.
+
+Altogether, while few writers have done so much for the stage as
+Sheridan, few have met with less reverent treatment at the hands of
+the actors. "The Critic" has long been known in the theatre as a
+"gag-piece;" that is, a play which the performers consider themselves
+entitled to treat with the most merciless licence. In this respect
+"The Critic" has followed the fate of an earlier work to which it owes
+much of its origin--"The Rehearsal," by the Duke of Buckingham. It is
+curious how completely Sheridan's own satire has escaped its due
+application. "This is always the way at the theatre," says Puff; "give
+these fellows a good thing and they never know when to have done with
+it." "The Critic" is not very often played nowadays; but every
+occasion of its revival is disfigured by the freedoms and buffoonery
+of its representatives. Modern costume is usually worn by Mr. Puff and
+his friends; and the anachronism has its excuse, perhaps, in the fact
+that the satire of the dramatist is as sound and relevant now as it
+was in the last century. And some modification of the original text
+might be reasonably permitted. For instance, the reference by name to
+the long-since departed actors, King, Dodd, and Palmer, and the once
+famous scene-painter, Mr. De Loutherbourg, must necessarily now escape
+the comprehension of a general audience. But the idiotic
+interpolations, and the gross tomfoolery the actors occasionally
+permit themselves in the later scenes of the play, should not be
+tolerated by the audience upon any plea or pretext whatever.
+
+One kind of gag is attributable to failure of memory or deficiency of
+study on the part of the player. "I haven't got my words; I must gag
+it," is a confession not unfrequently to be overheard in the theatre.
+Incledon, the singer, who had been in early life a sailor before the
+mast, in the royal navy, was notorious for his frequent loss of memory
+upon the stage. In his time the word "vamp" seems to have prevailed as
+the synonym of gag. A contemporary critic writes of him: "He could
+never vamp, to use a theatrical technical which implies the
+substitution of your own words and ideas when the author's are
+forgotten. Vamping requires some tact, if not talent; and Incledon's
+former occupation had imparted to his manners that genuine salt-water
+simplicity to which the artifices of acting were insurmountable
+difficulties." Incledon had, however, a never-failing resource when
+difficulty of this kind occurred to him, and loss of memory, and
+therefore of speech, interrupted his performances. He forthwith
+commenced a verse of one of his most popular ballads! The amazement of
+his fellow-actors at this proceeding was, on its first adoption, very
+great indeed. "The truth is, I forgot my part, sir," Incledon frankly
+explained to the perplexed manager, "and I could not catch the cue. I
+assure you, sir, that my agitation was so great, that I was compelled
+to introduce a verse of 'Black-eyed Susan,' in order to gain time and
+recover myself." Long afterwards, when the occupants of the green-room
+could hear Incledon's exquisite voice upon the stage, they were wont
+to ask each other, laughingly: "Is he singing his music, or is he
+merely recollecting his words?"
+
+That excellent comedian, the late Drinkwater Meadows, used to relate a
+curious gagging experience of his early life as a strolling player. It
+was at Warwick, during the race week. He was to play Henry Moreland,
+in "The Heir-at-Law," a part he had never previously performed, and of
+which, indeed, he knew little or nothing. There was no rehearsal, the
+company was "on pleasure bound," and desired to attend the races with
+the rest of Warwickshire. No book of the play was obtainable. A study
+of the prompt-book had been promised; but the prompter was not to be
+found; he was probably at the races, and his book with him. The
+representative of Henry Moreland could only consult with the actor who
+was to play Steadfast--for upon Steadfast's co-operation Moreland's
+scenes chiefly depend. "Don't bother about it," said Steadfast. "Never
+mind the book. I'll come down early to the house, and as we're not
+wanted till the third act we can easily go over our scenes quietly
+together before we go on. We shall be all right, never fear. It's a
+race-night; the house will be full and noisy. Little of the play will
+be heard, and we need not be over and above particular as to the syls"
+(syllables).
+
+But Steadfast came down to the theatre very late, instead of early,
+and troubled with a thickness of speech and an unsteadiness of gait
+that closely resembled the symptoms of intoxication. "Sober!" he said,
+in reply to some insinuation of his comrade, "I'm sober as a judge.
+I've been running to get here in time, and that's agitated me. I
+shall be all right when I'm on. Take care of yourself, and don't fret
+about me."
+
+The curtain was up, and they had to face the foot-lights. Moreland
+waited for Steadfast to begin. Steadfast was gazing vacantly about
+him, silent save for irrepressible hiccups. The audience grew
+impatient, hisses became audible, and an apple or two was hurled upon
+the stage. Moreland, who had gathered something of the subject of the
+scene, found it absolutely necessary to say something, and began to
+gag:
+
+"Well, Steadfast" (_aside to him_, "Stand still, can't you?"), "here
+we are in England, nay, more, in London, its metropolis, where
+industry flourishes and idleness is punished." (A pause for thought
+and reply; with little result.) "Proud London, what wealth!" (Another
+pause, and a hiccup from Steadfast.) "What constant bustle, what
+activity in thy streets!" (No remark could be extracted from
+Steadfast. It was necessary to proceed.) "And now, Steadfast, my
+inestimable friend, that I may find my father and my Caroline well and
+happy, is the dearest, the sole aspiration of my heart!" Steadfast
+stared and staggered, then suddenly exclaiming gutturally, "Amen!"
+reeled from the stage, quickly followed by Henry Moreland, amid the
+derision and hisses of the spectators. "Treat you cruelly!" said
+Steadfast, incoherently in the wings. "Nothing of the sort. You quite
+confounded me with your correctness. You told me you didn't know your
+words, and I'll be hanged if you were not 'letter perfect.' It went
+off capitally, my dear boy, so now let's go over our next scene." But
+the manager deemed it advisable to omit from the play all further
+reference to Moreland and Steadfast.
+
+To performers who gag either wantonly, or by reason of imperfect
+recollection of their parts, few things are more distressing than a
+knowledge that someone among the audience is in possession of a book
+of the play to be represented. Even the conscientious and
+thoroughly-prepared actor is apt to be disconcerted when he hears the
+flutter of leaves being turned over in the theatre, and discovers that
+his speeches are being followed, line for line and word for word, by
+critics armed with the author's text. On such occasions his memory is
+much inclined to play him false, and a sudden nervousness will often
+mar his best efforts. But, to the gagging player, a sense that his
+sins and failings are in this way liable to strict note and discovery,
+is grievously depressing. Some years ago a strolling company visited
+Andover, and courageously undertook to represent an admired comedy,
+with which they could boast but the very faintest acquaintance.
+Scarcely an actor, indeed, knew a syllable of his part. It was agreed
+that gag must be the order of the night, and that the performance must
+be "got through" anyhow. But the manager, eyeing and counting his
+house through the usual peephole in the curtain, perceived a gentleman
+in the boxes holding in his hands a printed copy of the play. The
+alarm of the company became extreme. A panic afflicted them, and their
+powers of gag were paralysed. They refused to confront the
+foot-lights. The audience grew impatient; the fiddlers were weary of
+repeating their tunes. Still the curtain did not rise. At length the
+manager presented himself with a doleful apologetic face. "Owing to an
+unfortunate accident," he said, "the company had left behind them the
+prompt-book of the play. The performance they had announced could not,
+therefore, be presented; unless," and here the speech was especially
+pointed to the gentleman in the boxes, "anyone among the audience, by
+a happy chance, happened to have brought to the theatre a copy of the
+comedy." The gentleman rose and said his book was much at the service
+of the manager, and it was accordingly handed to him. The players
+forthwith recovered their spirits; exposure of their deficiencies was
+no longer possible; and the performance passed off to the satisfaction
+of all concerned.
+
+It has been suggested that gag is leniently, and even favourably
+considered by audiences; and it should be added that dramatists often
+connive at the interpolations of the theatre. For popular actors
+characters are prepared in outline, as it were, with full room for the
+embellishments to be added in representation. "Only tell me the
+situations; never mind about the 'cackle,'" an established comedian
+will observe to his author: "I'll 'fill it out,'" or "I shall be able
+to 'jerk it in,' and make something of the part." It is to be feared,
+indeed, that gag has secured a hold upon the stage, such as neither
+time nor teaching can loosen. More than a century ago, in the
+epilogue as supplied to Murphy's comedy, Garrick wrote:
+
+    Ye actors who act what our writers have writ,
+    Pray stick to your parts and spare your own wit;
+    For when with your own you unbridle your tongue,
+    I'll hold ten to one you are "all in the wrong!"
+
+But this, with other cautioning of like effect, has availed but
+little. The really popular actor gains a height above the reach of
+censure. He has secured a verdict that is scarcely to be impeached or
+influenced by exceptional criticism. Still it may be worth while to
+urge upon him the importance of moderation, not so much for his own
+art's sake--on that head over-indulgence may have made him
+obdurate--but in regard to his playfellows of inferior standing. He is
+their exemplar; his sins are their excuses; and the licence of one
+thus vitiates the general system of representation.
+
+The French stage is far more hedged round with restrictions than is
+our own, and cultivates histrionic art with more scrupulous care. In
+its better works gag is not tolerated, although free range is accorded
+it in productions of the opera bouffe and vaudeville class. Here the
+wildest liberty prevails, and the gagging actor is recognised as
+exercising his privileges and his wit within lawful bounds. The
+Parisian theatres may, indeed, be divided into the establishments
+wherein gag is applauded, and those wherein it is abominated. By way
+of a concluding note upon the subject, let an authentic story of
+successful French gag be briefly narrated.
+
+Potier, the famous comedian, was playing the leading part in a certain
+vaudeville, and was required, in the course of the performance, to sit
+at the table of a cheap cafe and consume a bottle of beer. The beer
+was brought him by a _figurant_, or mute performer, in the character
+of a waiter, charged with the simple duty of drawing the cork from the
+bottle and filling the glass of the customer. Potier was struck with
+the man's neat performance of his task, and especially with a curious
+comical gravity which distinguished his manner, and often bestowed
+upon the humble actor an encouraging smile or a nod of approval. The
+man at length urged a request that he might, as he poured out the
+beer, be permitted to say a few words. Potier sanctioned the gag. It
+moved the laughter of the audience. Potier gagged in reply: and there
+was more laughter. During later representations the waiter was allowed
+further speeches, relieved by the additional gag of Potier, until at
+the end of a week it was found that an entirely new scene had been
+added to the vaudeville, and eventually the conversation between
+Potier and the _garcon_--not a line of which had been invented or
+contemplated by the dramatist--became the chief attraction of the
+piece. It was the triumph of gag. The _figurant_, from this modest and
+accidental beginning of his career as an actor, speedily rose to be
+famous. He was afterwards known to the world as ARNAL, one of the most
+admirable of Parisian _farceurs_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+BALLETS AND BALLET-DANCERS.
+
+
+Dr. Barten Holyday, in the notes to his translation of "Juvenal,"
+published at Oxford in 1673, describes the Roman plays as being
+followed by an exodium "of the nature of a _jig_ after a play, the
+more cheerfully to dismiss the spectators"--the word "jig" signifying
+in the doctor's time something almost of a _ballet divertissement_,
+with an infusion of rhyming songs or speeches delivered by the clown
+of the theatre to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor. Jigs of this
+kind commonly terminated the performances upon the Elizabethan stage,
+which otherwise consisted of one dramatic piece only. Mr. Payne
+Collier holds that these supplemental exhibitions probably originated
+with, and certainly depended mainly upon, the actors who supported the
+characters of fools and clowns in the regular dramatic representations.
+He points out that Tarleton, one of Queen Elizabeth's players,
+much famed for his comicality, obtained great success by his
+efforts in jigs, and that, upon the showing of the tract entitled
+Tarleton's "News from Purgatory," jigs usually lasted for an hour. The
+precise nature of these entertainments cannot now be ascertained; for
+although each jig had what may be called its _libretto_, which was
+duly printed and published when the popularity of the work so
+required, yet no specimen of any such performance is now extant. The
+Stationers' registers, however, contain entries in 1595 of two jigs
+described respectively as Phillips's "Jig of the Slippers," and
+Kempe's "Jig of the Kitchen-stuff Woman." Other jigs referred to by
+contemporary writers are "The Jig of the Ship" and "The Jig of
+Garlick." It may be assumed, therefore, that each jig possessed
+special characteristics in the nature of distinct plot and characters;
+but in what respects "The Jig of the Kitchen-stuff Woman," let us say,
+differed from "The Jig of Garlick," or what was the precise story
+either was supposed to narrate, we must now be content to leave to the
+conjecture of the curious.
+
+Probably dancing, as a dramatic entertainment, first came upon our
+stage in the form of these jigs. Of course, as a means of recreation
+among all ranks of people, it had thriven since a very remote period.
+Into the question of the state of dancing prior to the invention of
+any method of denoting by signs or characters the length or duration
+of sounds, we need scarcely enter. Doubtless music was felt and
+appreciated by a sort of instinct long before it was understood
+scientifically, or duly measured out and written down upon a
+recognised system. If dancing is to be viewed as dependent upon its
+correspondence with mensurable music, it must date simply from the
+invention of the Cantus Mensurabilis, attributed by some writers to
+Franco, the scholastic of Liege, who flourished in the eleventh
+century; and by others to Johannes de Muris, doctor of Sorbonne and a
+native of England, at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
+
+There were dances of the court and dances of the people. The Morris
+dance, which seems to have been an invention of the Moors, had firmly
+established itself in England in the sixteenth century. The country
+dance was even of earlier date. The old Roundel or Roundelay has been
+described by ancient authorities as an air appropriate to dancing, and
+would indicate little more than a circular dance with the hands
+joined. Among the nobler and statelier dances in vogue at the court of
+the Tudors, were the Pavan (from _pavo_, a peacock), with the Galliard
+(a lighter measure, which was probably to the Pavan what in later
+years the Gavotte was to the Minuet), the Passamezzo, the Courant, and
+the Saraband. Sir John Elyot, who published in 1531 his book called
+"The Governor," wherein he avers that dancing by persons of both sexes
+is a mystical representation of matrimony, mentions other dances, such
+as Bargenettes and Turgyons, concerning which no explanation can be
+offered, except perhaps that the former may be derived from Berger,
+and be something of a shepherd's dance. There was also an esteemed
+dance called the Braule, in which several persons joining hands danced
+together in a ring, which was no doubt identical with the Branle or
+Brantle mentioned by Mr. Pepys in his description of a grand ball at
+Whitehall: "By-and-by comes the king and queen, the duke and duchess,
+and all the great ones; and after seating themselves the king takes
+out the Duchess of York, and the Duke the Duchess of Buckingham; the
+Duke of Monmouth my Lady Castlemaine; and so other lords other ladies;
+and they danced the Brantle. After that the king led a lady a single
+Coranto; and then the rest of the lords, one after another, other
+ladies. Very noble it was and great pleasure to see. Then to country
+dances; the king leading the first, which he called for.... The manner
+was, when the king dances, all the ladies in the room, and the queen
+herself, stand up; and indeed he dances rarely and much better than
+the Duke of York."
+
+Dancing, however, had degenerated in King Charles's time. In his
+"Table Talk," Selden writes of the matter in very quaint terms: "The
+court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you had
+the grave measures, then the Corantoes and the Galliards, and this
+kept with ceremony; and at length to Trenchmore and the cushion-dance;
+then all the company dances, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no
+distinction. So in our court in Queen Elizabeth's time gravity and
+state were kept up. In King James's time things were pretty well. But
+in King Charles's time there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the
+cushion-dance, _omnium gatherum_, tolly polly, hoite cum toite." The
+Trenchmore was a lively dance, mention of which may be found in "The
+Pilgrim" and "Island Princess" of Beaumont and Fletcher, and in "The
+Rehearsal" of the Duke of Buckingham. The last editor of Selden, it
+may be noted, by altering the word to "Frenchmore," has considerably
+obscured the author's meaning.
+
+In former times men of the gravest profession did not disdain to
+dance. Even the judges, in compliance with ancient custom, long
+continued to dance annually on Candlemas Day in the hall of Serjeants'
+Inn, Chancery Lane. Lincoln's Inn, too, had its revels--four in each
+year--with a master duly elected of the society to direct the
+pastimes. Nor were these "exercises of dancing," as Dugdale calls
+them, merely tolerated; they were held to be "very necessary, and much
+conducing to the making of gentlemen more fit for their books at other
+times." Indeed, it appears that, by an order made in James I.'s time,
+the junior bar was severely dealt with for declining to dance: "the
+under barristers were by decimation put out of commons for example's
+sake, because the whole bar offended by not dancing on Candlemas Day
+preceding, according to the ancient order of this society, when the
+judges were present; with this, that if the like fault were committed
+afterwards they should be fined or disbarred."
+
+Gradually jigs disappeared from the stage. Even in 1632, when Shirley
+wrote his comedy of "Changes, or Love in a Maze," jigs had been
+discontinued at Salisbury Court Theatre, and probably at other private
+playhouses. Shirley complains that, instead of a jig at the end, a
+dance in the middle of the piece was now required by the spectators.
+Possibly that dance of all the _dramatis personae_ with which so many
+of the old comedies conclude is due to the earlier fashion of
+terminating theatrical performances by a jig.
+
+With Sir William Davenant as patentee and manager of the Duke's
+Theatre, stage dancing and singing acquired a more distinguished
+position among theatrical entertainments. It was Davenant's object, by
+submitting attractions of this nature to the public, to check the
+superiority enjoyed by Killigrew, the patentee of the Theatre Royal,
+and the comedians privileged to call themselves "His Majesty's
+Servants." Davenant, indeed, first brought upon the English stage what
+were then called "dramatic operas," but what we should now rather
+designate "spectacles," including Dryden's version of "The Tempest,"
+the "Psyche" of Shadwell, and the "Circe" of Charles Davenant, "all
+set off," as Cibber writes of them, "with the most expensive
+decorations of scenes and habits, with the best voices and dancers."
+Sir John Hawkins describes these productions as "musical dramas," or
+"tragedies with interludes set to music."
+
+But as yet the ballet, or rather the ballet of action--which may be
+defined to be a ballet with a plot or story of some kind told by means
+of dancing dumb motions, and musical accompaniments--was not known
+upon our stage; and when an entertainment of this kind did make its
+appearance it was promptly designated a pantomime, and so has become
+confused with the distinct kind of performances still presented under
+that name at our larger theatres at Christmas time. "When one company
+is too hard for another," writes Cibber, "the lower in reputation has
+always been forced to exhibit some new-fangled foppery to draw the
+multitude after them;" which is, however, only a way of saying that
+managers need the stimulus of opposition to induce them to provide new
+entertainments. In 1721 there was great rivalry between Drury
+Lane--Cibber being one of its managers--and the theatre then newly
+erected in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Of the "new-fangled foppery," which
+it now became necessary for the one theatre to resort to as a weapon
+of offence against its rival, singing and dancing had been effectual
+instances. But singing was not to be thought of under the
+circumstances; as Cibber writes: "At the time I am speaking of, our
+English music had been so discountenanced since the taste of Italian
+operas prevailed, that it was to no purpose to pretend to it. Dancing,
+therefore, was now the only weight in the opposite scale, and as the
+new theatres sometimes found their account in it, it could not be safe
+for us wholly to neglect it. To give even dancing, therefore, some
+improvement, and to make it something more than motion without
+meaning, the fable of Mars and Venus was formed into a connected
+presentation of dances in character, wherein the passions were so
+happily expressed, and the whole story so intelligibly told by a mute
+narrative of gesture only, that even thinking spectators allowed it
+both a pleasing and a rational entertainment." This was certainly a
+ballet of action, and it is remarkable that the production involved
+but a small outlay; the managers, distrusting its reception, did not
+venture "to decorate it with any extraordinary expense of scenes or
+habits." Great success, however, attended the performance, and from it
+is to be dated the establishment both of ballet and pantomime upon our
+stage. "From this original hint, then, but every way unequal to it,
+sprang forth that succession of monstrous medleys that have so long
+infested the stage, and which arose upon one another alternately at
+both houses, outvying in expense, like contending bribes on both sides
+at an election, to secure a majority of the multitude." Cibber indeed
+waxes very wrath over the matter, and appears to desire that lawful
+authority should "interpose to put down these poetical drams, these
+gin-shops of the stage, that intoxicate its auditors and dishonour
+their understanding with a levity for which I want a name." But
+Cibber's anger is in truth very much that of a manager vying with the
+liberal outlay of a rival, and in such wise forced to expend large
+sums in costly entertainments.
+
+At an earlier date ballet-dancers had been imported from France. Some
+time about 1704 the great Mr. Betterton and his company, suffering
+from insufficient patronage at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields,
+had been reduced to resort to "foreign novelties." Three of the most
+famous dancers of the French Opera, L'Abbee, Balon, and Mademoiselle
+Subligny, were at several times brought over at extraordinary rates to
+revive that sickly appetite which plain sense and nature had satiated.
+In Paris, indeed, the ballet was very securely instituted. The
+Academie Royale de Musique et de Danse had been founded in 1669, and
+from that date the ballet, as an entertainment of dancing only, may be
+said to have come into being. There had been earlier ballets, but
+these were of the nature of old English masques, and consisted of
+songs and spoken dialogues in addition to dances; the term _ballet_,
+it need hardly be explained, being derived from the Italian _ballata_,
+the parent of our own _ballad_. At first the French Opera or Academy
+suffered from the smallness of its troop; vocalists could be obtained
+from the church choirs, but for the ballet it was hard to find
+recruits; and sometimes young boys were pressed into the service, and
+constrained to personate nymphs, dryads, and shepherdesses--"_danseurs_,"
+writes a French historian of the Opera, "_qui sous un masque et des
+vetements feminins, les formes arrondies par l'art et le coton,
+n'excitaient qu'un enthousiasme modere_." At court there
+was no lack of dancers of the gentler sex, however, and at court
+the ballet prospered greatly. A ballet performed in 1681 was at
+any rate strongly cast, since there appeared among the dancers Madame
+la Dauphine, the Princesse de Conti, and Mdlle. de Nantes, supported
+by the Dauphin, the Prince de Conti, and the Duc de Vermandois; but
+these distinguished personages probably sang more than they danced.
+Louis XIV. frequently figured in ballets, one of his favourite
+characters being the Sun in "Flora," said to be the eighteenth ballet
+in which he had played a part. Lulli, the composer, director of the
+Opera, paid great attention to the ballet, occasionally appearing as a
+dancer; as a singer and comic actor he had already acquired fame. To
+Lulli has been attributed the introduction of rapid dancing, in
+opposition to the solemn and deliberate steps favoured by the court
+during the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. It may be added, that
+the king held out a measure of encouragement to such of his nobility
+and courtiers as were disposed to follow his example and exhibit upon
+the scene. "It is our pleasure," he says in the patent granted to the
+Abbe Perrin, the first director of the French Opera, 1669, "that all
+gentlemen and ladies may sing in the said pieces and representations
+of our Royal Academy, without being considered on that account to
+derogate from their letters of nobility or from their privileges,
+rights, and immunities." The dramatic ballet, or ballet of action, is
+said to have been invented by the Duchesse du Maine, whose theatrical
+entertainments at Sceaux rivalled the festivities of Versailles, and
+obtained the preference of many nobles of the court. The lady,
+however, unfortunately meddled with the Spanish conspiracy--she should
+have confined herself to the plots of ballets--and forthwith the
+establishment at Sceaux was broken up. In this way Mouret, her musical
+director, who also composed several operas and ballets for the
+Academy, suffered severe loss; eventually he went mad and died in the
+lunatic asylum at Charenton.
+
+Mademoiselle de Subligny came to England armed with letters of
+introduction from Thiriot and the Abbe Dubois to John Locke of all
+people! Locke probably was not very sympathetic in regard to the
+lady's art, yet respect for his friends led him to bestow upon her due
+civility and attention; according to Fontenelle, he constituted
+himself her _homme d'affaires_. Another dancer, Mademoiselle Salle,
+whose charms and graces Voltaire had celebrated in verse, appeared in
+London with letters of introduction from Fontenelle to Montesquieu,
+then ambassador at the court of St. James's. It is clear that the
+ballet-dancers were becoming personages of real importance.
+
+Mdlle. Salle, it seems, achieved extraordinary success in the year
+1734 at Covent Garden Theatre, which a French journal of that date
+describes curiously as the _Theatre du Commun Jardin_. The lady was an
+admirable dancer, and brought with her complete dramatic ballets, the
+characters in which were appropriately dressed according to the time
+and place of the story they related; for Mdlle. Salle was a reformer
+in the matter of stage costumes. She discarded paniers and hoops and
+false hair. As Galatea in a ballet upon the story of Pygmalion, she
+wore nothing, we are told, "in addition to her bodice and under
+petticoats, but a simple robe of muslin draped after the manner of a
+Greek statue." She won great applause, too, by her performance of
+Ariadne in a ballet called "Bacchus and Ariadne," the beauty of her
+dances, attitudes, and gestures, and her skill in depicting by
+movements without words, grief, anger, love, and despair, obtaining
+the warmest approval. She was patronised by the king, queen, and the
+royal family, and her benefit produced an "overflow" and something
+more; tickets were sold at most exorbitant prices, and the people
+fought for places both with swords and fists. There are stories, too,
+of purses full of gold being flung upon the stage, with showers of
+bonbons--not ordinary sugar-plums, but rouleaux of guineas tightly
+wrapped up in bank-notes. The dancer is said to have profited by her
+benefit to the extent of some L10,000. It must be owned, however, that
+the story of Mdlle. Salle's success is of a very highly-coloured
+description, and can only be credited absolutely by persons largely
+endowed with credulity.
+
+Satire, of course, found occupation in the successes of the
+ballet-dancers. In 1742 Hogarth published his "Charmers of the Age," a
+caricature of the aspects and attitudes of M. Desnoyer and the Signora
+Barberina, then performing at Drury Lane Theatre. A grotesque air was
+given to these artists, popularly regarded as personifications of
+grace and elegance, and a measured line was added to the drawing that
+their leaps and bounds might be fairly estimated.
+
+It was in France, however, that the _ballerina_ secured her greatest
+triumph, and the _ballet d'action_ attained its fullest vitality. The
+dancer became a power in the State, influencing princes, ministers,
+and people. Poets were her slaves, and oftentimes philosophers were
+caught in her toils. From Mdlle. la Fontaine of two centuries since,
+"_la premiere des premieres danseuses_," who received the title of "La
+Reine de la Danse," there being at the time, however, but three other
+professional dancers in Paris, through a long line of most
+distinguished artists, the _ballerina_ of to-day may trace her
+descent. But now, however, there is pause in her success, a cloud over
+her career. Indeed, it must be said, that for a generation almost
+there has been no new triumph registered of the ballet and its
+artists. Here the "opera-dancers," as they were once called, have
+certainly ceased to be. Once standing, as it were, on the tips of
+their toes, they supported opera upon their shoulders. But now there
+are no dancers at the opera. Euterpe has dispensed with the aid of
+Terpsichore; the ballet has fled from the boards of our lyric
+theatres. It has been said, indeed, that the _ballet d'action_ has
+never been really naturalised in this country; that although it has
+thrived for a while, it was but an exotic, needing careful watching
+and tending. Still it was for many years a most prosperous
+entertainment, especially at our Italian opera-house; and it is to be
+noted that its decline has not been confined to this country. Even in
+France, its natural home and headquarters, ballet is by no means what
+it once was. It lives, perhaps, but in a fallen state. There is no
+_danseuse_ now really of the first class. Has the ballet declined on
+this account, or is this to be ascribed to the decline of the ballet?
+Or can it be that the dances of the streets have overcome and ousted
+from their due position the dances of the stage?
+
+After Mdlle. la Fontaine came Mdlles. Roland and Prevost; the famous
+Camargo and her rival Salle, of whom some mention has already been
+made; Mdlle. Marie Madeleine Guimard, exquisitely graceful and
+fascinating, but of such slender proportions that she obtained the
+surname of "_le squelette des Graces_," while witty but malicious,
+perhaps jealous, Sophie Arnould described her as "the spider;"
+Mafleuroy, who married Boeldieu, and Mercandotti, who married Mr. Ball
+Hughes, otherwise "Golden Ball," the greatest gambler of his time,
+which is saying a good deal; Noblet and the Ellslers; Pauline Leroux,
+who became the wife of Lafont, the most elegant actor of the modern
+theatre; Duvernay and Taglioni--to name no more, for we have now come
+to surviving artists--these are among the more famous of the "Reines
+de la Danse" who have ruled absolutely at the Academie Royale of Paris
+and elsewhere.
+
+In England ballet has enjoyed many triumphs, while it has
+nevertheless experienced sundry disasters. There was great trouble,
+for instance, at Drury-lane Theatre in 1755, when Mr. Garrick's
+"Chinese Festival" with its French dancers was sternly, even savagely,
+condemned by the audience. The manager was over-fond of spangles and
+spectacles, or inclined to over-estimate his public's regard for such
+matters, and a sharp but necessary lesson was read to him upon that
+occasion. Then he was very obstinate, and in such wise roused the
+British lion inordinately. He would not withdraw the play from his
+stage; promptly the audience determined that no stage should be left
+him upon which to represent either the "Chinese Festival" or anything
+else. Of course he had to yield at last, as managers must when
+playgoers are resolute; he had to live by pleasing, not displeasing.
+But he did not give way until there had been some six nights of uproar
+and riot. In vain did various noble lords and gentlemen, friends of
+the management, and supporters of spectacle and the ballet, draw their
+swords, endeavouring to awe malcontents, to restore order, and to
+defend the theatre from outrage. The mob would have its way. The
+benches were torn up, the decorations torn down, chandeliers smashed,
+even scenes and properties were ruthlessly destroyed. There was,
+indeed, a wild proposition rife at one time to fire the house and burn
+it to the ground. Garrick could but strike his flag, and yield up his
+"Chinese Festival." Still it was agreed that he had hesitated too
+long. The mob therefore repaired to Southampton Street, and smashed
+his window-panes, doing other mischief to his property there. He began
+even to tremble for his life, and from his friends in power obtained a
+guard of soldiery to protect him. Strange to say, on two of the nights
+of riot the king was present--a fact that did not in the least hinder
+or mitigate the violent demonstrations of the audience.
+
+But it was not so much the ballet that gave offence as the
+ballet-dancers whom Garrick had brought from Paris. They were chiefly
+Swiss, but the audience believed them to be French, and at that time a
+very strong anti-Gallican feeling prevailed in the land. The relations
+between England and France were of an unfriendly kind; the two
+countries were, indeed, on the eve of war. The French, by their
+conduct in America, had incurred the bitterest English enmity. It is
+true that Garrick had projected his spectacle months before this
+feeling had arisen. He was careful so to inform the public, and
+further to state that his ballet-master, M. Noverre, and his sisters
+were Swiss and of a Protestant family; his wife and her sister,
+Germans; and that of the whole _corps de ballet_, sixty in number,
+forty were English. But this availed not. The pit would not regard it,
+holding fast to their opinion that no management should bring over
+parley-voos and frog-eaters to take the bread out of English mouths.
+Peace was at length restored in Drury Lane, and the dancers sent back.
+The management lost L4000; Garrick purchasing knowledge of his public
+at rather a high rate.
+
+And in England the ballet had other enemies than those who concerned
+themselves in regard to the nationality of its professors. It was held
+by many to be, if an art at all--why, then, an art of a shocking kind;
+they could see nothing in it but gross impropriety and unseemliness.
+Now, of course, the ballet has its vulnerable side--it almost needs,
+at any rate it has always assumed, a scantier style of dress than is
+otherwise in ordinary use. And then the movements of the dancer of
+necessity involve greater display of the human form than is required
+by the simpler acts of riding, walking, or sitting. In dancing it is
+inevitable that there should be swaying and bending of the figure,
+possibly waving to and fro of the arms, certainly some standing upon
+the toes, and raising of the nether limbs more or less high in the
+air. Bereft of these measures dancing could not be; still here were
+matters upon which moralists, or persons who so styled themselves,
+were able greatly to enlarge, and concerning which Pharisees, who did
+not so style themselves, but were such nevertheless, had much to say.
+Now just at the close of the last century the world was in very sad
+case; society had gone on from bad to worse: low life was of course
+lower than it had ever before been known to be, and high life was not
+nearly so high as it should have been. There was profligacy in very
+exalted places, and, indeed, dissoluteness and immorality everywhere.
+Thereupon, in 1798, a certain Bishop of Durham made a speech from his
+place in Parliament in regard to the wickedness of the period; and
+especially he drew attention to the dancers of the opera-house. The
+excuse for the prelate's speech was a divorce bill; for in those days
+the peers spiritual and temporal were much occupied in discussing and
+passing divorce bills--an employment of which they have only been
+deprived during quite recent years. His Grace took occasion to
+complain of the frequency of such bills, and, being a true patriot,
+charged the French Government with the despatch of agents to this
+country especially to corrupt our manners. "He considered it a
+consequence of the gross immoralities imported of late years into this
+country from France, the Directory of which country, finding that they
+were not able to subdue us by their arms, appeared as if they were
+determined to gain their ends by destroying our morals; they had sent
+over persons to this country who made the most improper exhibitions in
+our theatres." Now it was true that the manager of the opera-house at
+this time relied greatly upon the attractions of his ballet; operas
+and opera-singers having for a while lost favour with the impresario's
+subscribers and supporters. A leading dancer at this time, however,
+was an Englishwoman--an exception to the rule that makes every
+_premiere danseuse_ of French origin--Miss Rose, reported to be of
+plain features, but of exquisite figure, and gifted with singular ease
+and grace of movement. It is possible that Miss Rose had adopted a
+scantier and lighter method of attire than had prevailed with
+preceding dancers. She had been caricatured, yet not very unkindly, by
+Gillray, the drawing bearing the motto, "No flower that blows is like
+the Rose." The bishop's speech was not without effect. Indeed, he had
+announced his intention upon some future day to move an address to the
+king praying that all opera-dancers might be ordered out of the
+kingdom, as people likely to destroy our morality and religion, and as
+very probably in the pay of France. The manager of the opera-house
+deemed it advisable to postpone his ballet of "Bacchus and Ariadne"
+until new and improved dresses could be prepared for it. Upon the
+entertainment being reproduced, it was found that there had been
+enlargement and elongation of the skirts of the performers, with the
+substitution of inoffensive white silk stockings for the reprehensible
+hose of flesh-colour that had originally been assumed. Of course much
+talk followed upon this, with great laughter and ridicule; caricatures
+of the spiritual peers and the opera-dancers abounded. In a drawing by
+Gillray, Miss Rose, with other _danseuses_, is depicted performing
+what is called "_La Danse a l'Eveque_;" the ladies have assumed, out
+of excessive regard for decorousness and the bishop's arguments, that
+apron of black silk which has long been thought peculiar to prelates.
+Another satirical illustration bore the title of "Ecclesiastical
+Scrutiny; or, The Durham Inquest on Duty." Bishops were represented as
+attending in the dressing department of the opera-house; one is seen
+to be measuring the dancers' skirts with a tailor's yard; another
+arranges their stockings in an ungraceful fashion; while a third
+inspects their corsets, decreeing some change in the form of those
+articles of attire. The Bishop of Durham was further portrayed in
+another broadsheet as armed with his pastoral staff, and sturdily
+contesting hand to hand with the Spirit of Evil arrayed in ballet
+costume. In short, this subject of the bishops and the ballet-girls
+occupied and amused the public very considerably, and doubtless proved
+profitable, as an advertisement of his wares, to the manager of the
+opera-house.
+
+Still the bishops kept a watchful eye upon the proceedings of the
+theatre. In 1805 there is record of a riot at the opera-house, "some
+reforming bishops having warned the managers that if the performances
+were not regularly brought to a close before twelve o'clock on
+Saturday evenings, prosecutions would be commenced." Accordingly, the
+performances were shortened by the omission of an act of the ballet of
+"Ossian," greatly to the dissatisfaction of the audience, who
+assaulted Mr. Kelly, the manager, commenced an attack upon the
+chandeliers, benches, musical instruments, &c., and indeed threatened
+to demolish the theatre. The curtain had fallen at half-past eleven,
+which the audience thought much too early. Of a certain prelate it was
+recorded that he frequently attended the Saturday-night performances
+at the opera-house, and that upon the approach of midnight he was wont
+to stand up in his box holding out his watch at arm's length, by way
+of intimating to the spectators that it was time for them to depart
+and for the theatre to close. Of course this bishop could hardly have
+avoided seeing the ballet; but for whatever distress he may have
+endured on that account, a sense of his efforts to benefit his
+species, including of course the opera-dancers, no doubt afforded him
+a sufficient measure of compensation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+CORRECT COSTUMES.
+
+
+The question of dress has always been of the gravest importance to the
+theatrical profession. It was a charge brought against the actors of
+Elizabeth's time, that they walked about the town in gaudy and
+expensive attire. The author of "The Return from Parnassus," first
+published in 1606, but held to have been written at an earlier date,
+specially refers to the prosperity, and the consequent arrogance of
+the players. He is believed to have had in view Alleyn or even
+Shakespeare:
+
+    Vile world that lifts them up to high degree,
+    And treads us down in grovelling misery!
+    England affords these glorious vagabonds,
+    That carried erst their fardels on their backs,
+    Coursers to ride on through the gazing streets,
+    Sweeping it in their glaring satin suits,
+    And pages to attend their masterships.
+
+But it is clear that these "glorious vagabonds" were regardful that
+their dress should be splendid merely. There was no thought then as to
+the costumes of the stage being appropriate to the characters
+represented, or in harmony with the periods dealt with by the
+dramatists. Nor did the spectators find fault with this arrangement.
+It did not disturb them in the least to find Brutus and Cassius, for
+instance, wearing much the same kind of clothes as Bacon and Raleigh.
+And in this way anachronisms of other kinds readily obtained pardon,
+if indeed they ever moved attention at all. Certainly the hero of an
+early Roman story should not have spoken of gunpowder, much less have
+produced a pistol from his belt; but his conduct in this wise became
+almost reasonable, seeing that he did not wear a toga, but doublet and
+hose--the dress indeed of a gallant of Elizabeth's time.
+
+It is only in quite recent times that the correctness of stage
+costumes has undergone systematic consideration, and been treated as a
+matter of real urgency, although occasional experiments in the
+direction of reform are to be found recorded in early accounts of the
+drama. Mr. Pepys describes his visit to the theatre in 1664, to see
+"Heraclius, or the Emperor of the East," Carlell's translation of
+Corneille, and notes, "the garments like Romans very well ... at the
+beginning, at the drawing up of the curtain, there was the finest
+scene of the emperor and his people about him, standing in their fixed
+and different postures, in their Roman habits, above all that I ever
+saw at any of the theatres." But attempts to be accurate in this way
+were only of an intermittent kind; any enduring amendment can hardly
+be found until we approach a period that is within the recollection of
+living playgoers. Mr. Donne, lately the Examiner of Plays, writes in
+one of his essays on the drama: "We have seen 'The Rivals' performed
+in a sort of chance-medley costume--a century intervening between the
+respective attires of Sir Anthony and Captain Absolute;" and he adds,
+"we have seen the same comedy dressed with scrupulous attention to the
+date of the wigs and hoops; but we doubt whether in any essential
+respect that excellent play was a gainer by the increased care and
+expenditure of the manager." Sir Walter Scott had previously written:
+"We have seen 'Jane Shore' acted with Richard in the old English
+cloak, Lord Hastings in a full court dress, with his white rod like a
+Lord Chamberlain of the last reign, and Jane Shore and Alicia in stays
+and hoops. We have seen Miss Young act Zara, incased in whalebone, to
+an Osman dressed properly enough as a Turk, while Nerestan, a
+Christian knight, in the time of the Crusades, strutted in the white
+uniform of the old French guards!"
+
+Even as late as 1842 a writer in a critical journal, reviewing a
+performance of "She Stoops to Conquer" at the Haymarket Theatre,
+reminds the representatives of Young Marlow and Hastings that the
+costumes they wear being "of the year 1842 accord but ill with those
+of 1772, assumed by the other characters." "The effect of the scene is
+marred by it," writes the critic. And ten years before Leigh Hunt had
+admitted into the columns of his _Tatler_ many letters dwelling upon
+the defects of stage costume in regard to incongruousness and general
+lack of accuracy. One correspondent complains of a performance of "The
+Merry Wives of Windsor" at Covent Garden, in which Bartley had played
+Falstaff "in a dress belonging to the age of the first Charles;" Caius
+had appeared as "a doctor of the reign of William and Mary, with a
+flowing periwig, cocked hat, large cuffs, and ruffles;" while John
+Rugby's costume was that "of a countryman servant of the present day."
+Another remonstrant describes Kean as dressing Othello "more in the
+garb of an Albanian Greek than a Moor; Richard goes through the battle
+without armour, while Richmond is armed _cap-a-pie_; and Young plays
+Macbeth in a green and gilded velvet jacket, and carries a shield
+until he begins to fight, and then throws it away." A third
+correspondent draws attention to "The School for Scandal" and Mr.
+Farren's performance of Sir Peter Teazle in a costume appropriate to
+the date of the comedy, the other players wearing dresses of the
+newest vogue. "Even Sir Oliver," it is added, "appeared in a
+fashionable modern drab greatcoat." In a note Leigh Hunt records his
+opinion that Mr. Farren was right, and that it was "the business of
+all the other performers to dress up to his costume, not for him to
+_wrong_ himself into theirs," and adds, "there is one way of settling
+the matter which puts an end to all questions except that of immediate
+convenience and economy; and this is to do as the French do, who
+rigidly adhere to the costume of the period in which the scene is
+supposed to take place. Something of immediate sympathy is lost,
+perhaps, by this system, for we can hardly admire a young beauty so
+much in the dress of our grandmothers as in such as we see our own
+charmers in; but this defect is compensated by a sense of truth and
+propriety, by the very quaintness and novelty of the ancient aspect,
+and even by the information it conveys to us."
+
+The condition of the Parisian stage in regard to its improved and
+splendid scenery, decorations, and accessories owed much to the
+special intervention and patronage of Louis XIV. Sir Walter Scott
+ascribes to Voltaire "the sole merit of introducing natural and
+correct costumes. Before his time the actors, whether Romans or
+Scythians, appeared in the full dress of the French court; and
+Augustus himself was represented in a huge full-bottomed wig
+surmounted by a crown of laurel." Marmontel, however, claims to have
+had some share in this innovation, and also in the reform of the stage
+method of declamation, which had previously been of a very pompous
+kind. Following his counsels, Mdlle. Clairon, the famous tragic
+actress, had ventured to play Roxana, in the Court Theatre at
+Versailles, "dressed in the habit of a Sultana, without hoop, her arms
+half naked, and in the truth of Oriental costume." With this attire
+she adopted a simpler kind of elocution. Her success was most
+complete. Marmontel was profuse in his congratulations. "But it will
+ruin me," said the actress. "Natural declamation requires correctness
+of costume. My wardrobe is from this moment useless to me; I lose
+twelve hundred guineas' worth of dresses! However, the sacrifice is
+made. Within a week you shall see me play Electra after nature, as I
+have just played Roxana." Marmontel writes: "From that time all the
+actors were obliged to abandon their fringed gloves, their voluminous
+wigs, their feathered hats, and all the fantastic paraphernalia that
+had so long shocked the sight of all men of taste. Lekain himself
+followed the example of Mdlle. Clairon, and, from that moment, their
+talents thus perfected, excited mutual emulation and were worthy
+rivals of each other."
+
+Upon the English stage reform in this matter was certainly a matter of
+slow growth. A German gentleman, Christian Augustus Gottlieb Goede by
+name, who published, in 1821, a long account of a visit he had
+recently made to England, expresses in strong terms his opinions on
+certain peculiarities of its theatre. "You will never behold," he
+writes, "foreign actors dressed in such an absurd style as upon the
+London stage. The English, of all other nations the most superstitious
+worshippers of fashion, are, nevertheless, accustomed to manifest a
+strange indulgence for the incivilities which this goddess encounters
+from their performers. I have seen Mr. Cooke personating the character
+of Sir Pertinax McSycophant in 'The Man of the World,' in a buff coat
+of antique cut, and an embroidered waistcoat which might have figured
+in the court of Charles II.; though this play is of modern date and
+the actor must of course have been familiar with the current costume.
+In 'The Way to Keep Him,' Mr. C. Kemble acted the part of Sir
+Brilliant Fashion, a name which ought to have suggested to him a
+proper style of dress, in a frock absolutely threadbare, an obsolete
+doublet, long pantaloons, a prodigious watch-chain of steel, and a
+huge _incroyable_ under his arm. This last article, indeed, was an
+appendage of 1802, but all the rest presented a genuine portrait of an
+indigent and coxcombical journeyman tailor. He must have known that
+pantaloons and an _incroyable_ rumpled and folded together are
+incongruous articles of apparel--that no gentleman, much less Sir
+Brilliant Fashion, would make his appearance in a threadbare coat; and
+that steel watch-chains, as the chronicles of the Birmingham
+manufactories plainly evince, have been out of date these fourscore
+years. Neither would he, I am perfectly convinced, parade in such a
+costume off the boards of the theatre. Why then should he choose to
+exhibit such a whimsical figure upon them? May I venture to offer my
+own conjecture on the subject? The real cause probably is that an
+absurd costume is perfectly fashionable upon the English stage!"
+
+In reply to these and similar strictures there is nothing much to be
+said, unless it be that actors and audience alike were content with
+things as they were, and that now and then reforms had been attempted,
+without however resulting in any particular success. Garrick had
+rendered the theatre invaluable services both as actor and as
+stage-manager, but he had been unable to effect any very beneficial
+change in the matter of dress. Indeed, it seems probable that his
+attempt to appear as Othello had failed chiefly because he had
+followed Foote's example and attired the character after a Moorish
+fashion, discarding the modern military uniforms in which Quin and
+Barry had been wont to play the part. The actor's short stature, black
+face, and Oriental dress had reminded the audience of the turbaned
+negro pages in attendance upon ladies of quality at that period:
+"Pompey with the teakettle," as Quin had said, having possibly a plate
+of Hogarth's present in his mind; and the innovation, which was
+certainly commendable enough, was unfavourably received, even to
+incurring some contempt. Garrick's dress as Hotspur, "a laced frock
+and a Ramilies wig," was objected to, not for the good reason that it
+was inappropriate, but on the strange ground that it was "too
+insignificant for the character." A critic writing in 1759, while
+timidly advocating the amendment of stage dress, proceeds to doubt
+whether the reform would be "well received by audiences who have been
+so long habituated to such glaring impropriety and negligence in the
+other direction." Clearly alteration was a matter of some difficulty,
+and not to be lightly undertaken.
+
+It is well known that Garrick, in the part of Macbeth, wore a court
+suit of scarlet and gold lace, with, in the latter scenes of the
+tragedy, "a wig," as Lee Lewes the actor says in his Memoirs, "as
+large as any now worn by the gravest of our Barons of the
+Exchequer"--a similar costume being adopted by other Macbeths of that
+time--Smith and Barry for instance. When the veteran actor Macklin
+first played Macbeth in 1774, however, he assumed a "Caledonian
+habit," and although it is said the audience, when they saw "a clumsy
+old man, who looked more like a Scotch piper than a general and a
+prince of the blood, stumping down the stage at the head of an army,
+were generally inclined to laugh," still the attempt at reform won
+considerable approbation. At that time it was held to be
+unquestionable that the correct costume of Macbeth should be that of
+the Highlander of the snuff-shop; but in later days it was discovered
+that even the tartan was an anachronism in such case, and that Macbeth
+and his associates must be clad in stripes, or plain colours. Even the
+bonnet with the eagle's feather, which Sir Walter Scott induced Kemble
+to substitute for his "shuttlecock" headdress of ostrich plumes, was
+held to be inadmissible: the Macbeth of the antiquaries wore a conical
+iron helmet, and was otherwise arrayed in barbaric armour. But when
+Garrick first played Macbeth there were good reasons why the reform to
+be introduced by Macklin at a later date could not be attempted. Mr.
+Jackson, the actor from Edinburgh, who wrote a history of the Scottish
+stage, records that, being engaged at Drury Lane, he had resolved to
+make his first appearance in the part of Young Norval, in the tragedy
+of "Douglas." He writes: "I had provided for the purpose, before I
+left Edinburgh, a Highland dress, accoutred _cap-a-pie_ with a
+broadsword, shield, and dirk, found upon the field of Culloden. But
+here, as usual, fresh impediment arose Lord Bute's administration,
+from causes unnecessary here to enter upon, was become so unpleasing
+to the multitude, that anything confessedly Scotch awakened the embers
+of discussion, and fed the flame of party. Mr. Garrick therefore put a
+direct negative at once upon my appearance in 'Douglas;' 'Oroonoko'
+was substituted in its place; for even to have performed the play of
+'Douglas' would have been hazardous, and to have exhibited the
+Highland dress upon the stage, imprudence in the extreme. Could I have
+supposed, at that period," asks Mr. Jackson--his book bears date
+1793--"that I should live to see the tartan plaid universally worn in
+the politest circles, and its colours the predominating fashion among
+all ranks of the people in the metropolis?" What with the
+predisposition of the audience in favour of the conventional court
+suit, and afterwards their prejudice against the Scotch, on account of
+the '45 and Lord Bute, Garrick could hardly have assumed tartan in
+"Macbeth." A picture by Dawes represents him in the battle-scenes of
+the play as wearing a sort of Spanish dress--slashed trunks, a
+breastplate, and a high-crowned hat!
+
+Macbeth, indeed, was never "dressed" agreeably to the taste of
+antiquarian critics, until the ornate revivals of the tragedy by Mr.
+Phelps, at Sadler's Wells, in 1847, and by Mr. Charles Kean, at the
+Princess's Theatre, some five years later. The costumes were of the
+eleventh century on each of these occasions, Mr. Phelps's version of
+the play being so strictly textual, that the musical embellishments,
+usually attributed to Locke, but in truth supplied by Leveridge, were
+discarded for the first time for very many years. Lady Macduff was
+restored to the list of _dramatis personae_, from which she had so long
+been banished, and the old stage direction in the last scene--"enter
+Macduff with Macbeth's head upon a pole," was implicitly followed. But
+these revivals were a consequence of earlier reproductions of
+Shakespeare, with rigid regard to accuracy of costume, and general
+completeness of decoration. John Kemble had taken certain important
+steps in this direction, and his example had been bettered by his
+brother Charles, under whose management of Covent Garden, "King John"
+was produced, the costumes being supervised by Mr. Planche, and every
+detail of the representation receiving most attentive study. Great
+success attended this experiment, although, in the first instance,
+there had prevailed a strong inclination to deride as "stewpans" the
+flat-topped helmets worn by King John and his barons. After this,
+accuracy of costume, especially in relation to the plays of
+Shakespeare, became the favourite pursuit of managers. Mr. Macready
+ventured upon various revivals, archaic and decorative, at Covent
+Garden and Drury Lane; Mr. Phelps followed suit at Sadler's Wells, and
+Mr. Charles Kean at the Princess's, until it seemed that correctness
+of attire, and splendour of scenery and appointments, could no further
+be carried; indeed, alarm arose lest the drama should perish
+altogether under the weight of upholstery and wardrobe it was doomed
+to bear. Already the art of acting, in its more heroic aspects, had
+undergone decline; there was danger of the player sinking to the level
+of a mere dummy or lay-figure for the exhibition of costly raiment.
+
+Still, these luxurious illustrated editions of Shakespeare were
+attractive and popular, although it is probable that the audience
+esteemed them less for their archaeological merits than on account of
+their charms as spectacles. Indeed, few in the theatre could really be
+supposed to prize the cut of a tunic, or the shape of a headdress, or
+to possess such minute information as enabled them to appraise the
+worth, in that respect, of the entertainment set before them. However,
+pages from the history of costume were displayed, indisputable in
+their correctness, and those who listed might certainly gather
+instruction. Here was to be seen King John in his habit as he lived;
+here appeared the second and third Richards, King Henry, Queen
+Katherine, and Wolsey; now was presented London, with its inhabitants
+in the Middle Ages; now, the Venice of Shylock; and, anon, the
+Bithynia of the days of King Leontes. The spectators applauded the
+finery and the skill of the embellishments; and their favourable
+verdict upon these counts carried with it, presumably, approval of the
+players, and, perhaps, a measure of homage to Shakespeare.
+
+The passion for extreme decoration, in relation both to scenery and
+dresses, has not known abatement of late years, though it has sought
+other subjects than those supplied by Shakespeare--most unwittingly;
+for never could the poet have even dreamed of such a thing as "a
+correct and superb" revival. But the question, as to the benefit done
+to histrionic art by these representations, remains much where it
+was. To revert to the shortcomings of the Elizabethan stage would be,
+of course, impossible; the imaginations of the audience would now
+steadily refuse to be taxed to meet the absence of scenery, the
+incongruity of costumes, and the other deficiencies of the early
+theatre. Some degree of accuracy our modern playgoers would demand, if
+they disdained or disregarded minute correctness. Certainly, there
+would be dissatisfaction if a player, assuming the part of King Henry
+VIII., for instance, neglected to present some resemblance to the
+familiar portraits of the king by Holbein. Yet the same audience would
+be wholly undisturbed by anachronisms touching the introduction of
+silken stockings, or velvet robes, the pattern of plate armour, or the
+fashion of weapons. After all, what is chiefly needed to preserve
+theatrical illusion is a certain harmony of arrangement, which shall
+be so undemonstratively complete as to escape consideration; no false
+notes must be struck to divert attention from the designs of the
+dramatist and from his interpreters, the players; and to these the
+help derived from scenery and dresses should always be subordinated.
+Yet, when has the theatre been thus ordered, or have audiences been so
+disciplined? Beaumont, probably, had good reason for writing to
+Fletcher, concerning a performance of his "Faithful Shepherdess"--
+
+    Nor want they those who as the boy doth dance
+    Between the acts, will censure the whole play;
+    Some like if the wax lights be new that day;
+    But multitudes there are whose judgment goes
+    Headlong according to the actors' clothes.
+
+The playgoers of Garrick's time, and long afterwards, were habituated
+to the defective system of theatrical costume--had grown up with it.
+To them it was part of the stage as they had always known it, and they
+saw no reason for fault-finding. And it is conceivable that many plays
+were little affected by the circumstance that the actors wore court
+suits. It was but a shifting of the period of the story represented, a
+change of venue; and Romeo, in hair-powder, interested just as much as
+though he had assumed an auburn wig. The characters were, doubtless,
+very well played, and the actors appeared, at any rate, as "persons of
+quality." In historical plays one would think the objection to
+anachronism much more obvious; for there distinct events and
+personages and settled dates were dealt with. But there was an
+understanding that stage costume was purely a conventional matter--and
+so came to be tolerated most heterogeneous dressing: the mixing
+together of the clothes of almost all centuries and all countries, in
+a haphazard way, just as they might be discovered heaped up in a
+theatrical wardrobe. It was not a case of simple anachronism; it was
+compound and conflicting. Still, little objection was offered.
+
+And even a critic above quoted, writing in 1759, and proposing greater
+accuracy in the costumes of historical plays, refrains from suggesting
+that comedy should be as strictly treated. He even advances the
+opinion that the system of dress in vogue at the date of the play's
+production should be disregarded according to "the fluctuations of
+fashion." "What should we think," he demanded, "of a Lord Foppington
+now dressed with a large full-bottomed wig, laced cravat, buttons as
+large as apples, or a Millament with a headdress four storeys high?"
+And there is something to be said for this view. The writer of comedy
+pictures manners, and these do not change immediately. His portraits
+remain recognisable for a generation, probably. Lord Foppington had
+descendants, and his likeness, with certain changes of dress, might
+fairly pass for theirs for some time. But, of course, the day must
+arrive when the comedy loses value as a reflection of manners; it is
+interesting as a transcript of the past, but not of the present. It is
+doubtless difficult to fix this date with preciseness; but when that
+has been accomplished the opportunity of the antiquarian costumier has
+arrived.
+
+Macklin, who reformed the costume of Macbeth, also, it should be
+recorded, was the first actor who "dressed Iago properly." It seems
+that formerly the part was so attired, or "made up," that Iago's evil
+nature was "known at first sight; but it is unnatural to suppose that
+an artful villain like him would choose a dress which would stigmatise
+him to everyone. I think," adds the critic, "that as Cassio and he
+belong to one regiment they should both retain the same regimentals."
+By way of final note on the subject is subjoined the opinion of the
+author of "Vivian Grey," recorded in that work touching the dress that
+should be worn by Othello. "In England we are accustomed to deck this
+adventurous Moor in the costume of his native country--but is this
+correct? The Grand Duke of Reisenberg thought not. Othello was an
+adventurer; at an early age he entered, as many foreigners did, into
+the service of Venice. In that service he rose to the highest
+dignities--became general of her armies and of her fleets; and finally
+the viceroy of her favourite kingdom. Is it natural to suppose that
+such a man should have retained, during his successful career, the
+manners and dress of his original country? Ought we not rather to
+admit that, had he done so, his career would in fact not have been
+successful? In all probability he imitated to affectation the manners
+of the country which he had adopted. It is not probable that in such,
+or in any age, the turbaned Moor would have been treated with great
+deference by the common Christian soldier of Venice--or, indeed, that
+the scandal of a heathen leading the armies of one of the most
+powerful of European states, would have been tolerated for an instant
+by indignant Christendom.... Such were the sentiments of the Grand
+Duke of Reisenberg on this subject, a subject interesting to
+Englishmen; and I confess I think they are worthy of attention. In
+accordance with his opinion, the actor who performed Othello appeared
+in the full dress of a Venetian magnifico of the Middle Ages: a fit
+companion for Cornaro, or Grimani, or Barberigo, or Foscari."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+HARLEQUIN AND CO.
+
+
+What is called the "legitimate drama" has always found in pantomime
+just such a rival and a relative as Gloucester's lawfully-begotten son
+Edgar was troubled with in the person of his base-born brother Edmund.
+The authentic professor of histrionic art may even have been addressed
+occasionally by his illicit opponent in something like Edmund's very
+words:
+
+                     Why bastard? wherefore base?
+    When my dimensions are as well compact,
+    My mind as generous and my shape as true,
+    As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
+    With base? with baseness? with bastardy? base, base?
+    Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land;
+    Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
+    As to the legitimate: fine word "legitimate."
+
+The antagonism between the two forms of entertainment is by no means
+of to-day merely. Shakespeare noted with an air of regret that
+"inexplicable dumb shows and noise" enjoyed public admiration in his
+day, and, centuries before, the audiences of the ancient actors
+underwent reduction by reason of the rival performances of the
+dancers, mimes, and mountebanks of the period. The Roman people began
+in time to care less for the comedians than for the mimes. Some of
+these had the art to represent an entire play, such as the "Hercules
+Furens," to the delight and astonishment of the spectators. Augustus
+is said to have reconciled the Romans to many severe imposts by
+recalling their favourite mime and dancer, Pylades, who had been
+banished for pointing with his finger at a spectator who had offended
+him. The "dumb shows" referred to by Hamlet, however, were not so much
+distinct entertainments as excrescences upon the regular performances
+of the theatre, interpolations to win the applause of the groundlings.
+Pantomime proper was a development of ballet; the result of an
+endeavour to connect one dance with another by means of a slight
+string of story. In England systematised entertainments of dancing and
+singing were brought upon the English stage by Davenant, "to check,"
+we are told, "the superiority enjoyed by the royal comedians in their
+exhibition of the regular drama." English singing, however, had
+declined in public favour when the taste for Italian opera arose here
+about the close of the seventeenth century, and dancing became then
+the only feasible counter-attraction to the regular drama. The first
+ballets were produced at small cost; but by-and-by the managers
+increased more and more their expenditure on account of the dancers,
+until the rival theatres were compared to candidates at an election,
+competing in bribery to secure "a majority of the multitude." Cibber,
+while defending himself against Pope's attack upon him in "The
+Dunciad," admitted that he had not virtue enough to starve by opposing
+the public, and pleaded guilty to the charge of having as a manager
+produced very costly ballets and spectacles. At the same time he
+condemned the taste of the vulgar, avowed himself as really on the
+side of truth and justice, and compared himself to Henry IV. of France
+changing his religion in compliance with the wishes of his people!
+
+Hitherto the ballets had dealt exclusively with mythological subjects,
+and nothing of the Italian element comprised in modern pantomime had
+been apparent in our stage performances. It is probable that even upon
+their first introduction to our theatre the real significance of the
+characters of ancient Italian comedy was never wholly comprehended by
+the audience. Few could have then cared to learn that types of
+national or provincial peculiarity, representatives of Venice,
+Bologna, Naples, and Bergamo, respectively, were intended by the
+characters of Pantaloon, the Doctor, Scapin, and Harlequin. Yet, in
+the first instance, the old Italian comedy was brought upon the
+English stage with some regard for its original integrity, and the
+characters were personated by regular actors rather than by mimes. So
+far back as 1687 Mrs. Behn's three-act farce of "The Emperor of the
+Moon" was produced, and in this appeared the characters of Harlequin
+and Scaramouch, who play off many tricks and antics, while there are
+parts in the play corresponding with the pantaloon, the lover, and the
+columbine of more modern pantomime. But at this date, and for some
+years, harlequin was not merely the sentimentalist, attitudiniser, and
+dancer he has since become. He was true to his Italian origin, and
+very much the kind of harlequin encountered on his native soil and
+described by Addison: "Harlequin's part is made up of blunders and
+absurdities; he is to mistake one name for another, to forget his
+errands, and to run his head against every post that appears in his
+way." Marmontel describing, however, the harlequin of the French
+stage, writes: "His character is a mixture of ignorance, simplicity,
+cleverness, stupidity, and grace; he is a kind of sketch of a man, a
+tall child, yet with gleams of reason and wit, and all whose mistakes
+and follies have something arch about them. The true mode of
+representing him is to give him suppleness, agility, the playfulness
+of a kitten, with a certain grossness of appearance, which renders his
+conduct more absurd; his part is that of a patient, faithful valet,
+always in love, always in hot water, either on his master's or his own
+account, troubled and consoled as easily as a child, and whose grief
+is as entertaining as his joy."
+
+It will be observed that the character thus described more nearly
+resembles the modern clown than the modern harlequin, and the early
+harlequins of the English stage were therefore naturally played by the
+low comedians of the time. The harlequin of Mrs. Behn's farce was
+personated by an actor named Jevon, who was followed in the part by
+Pinkethman, a comedian much commended by Steele in "The Tatler."
+Pinkethman was found so amusing in his motley coat, and what Cibber
+calls "that useless unmeaning mask of a black cat," that certain of
+his admirers fancied that much of the drollery and spirit of his
+grimace must be lost by the concealment of his face. Yielding to their
+request, therefore, he played one night without his mask. But the
+result was disappointing. "Pinkethman," it is recorded, "could not
+take to himself the shame of the character without being concealed; he
+was no more harlequin; his humour was quite disconcerted; his
+conscience could not with the same effrontery declare against nature
+without the cover of that unchanging face. Without that armour his
+courage could not come up to the bold strokes that were necessary to
+get the better of common-sense."
+
+Early in the eighteenth century the characters of the Italian comedy
+were introduced into ballets. Harlequin ceased to speak, and assumed
+by degrees a more romantic, a less comic air, and the peculiarities of
+modern pantomime were gradually approached. Rich, the manager of the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields and afterwards of Covent Garden--the
+"immortal Rich" of "The Dunciad"--became famous for his pantomimes,
+and under the name of Lun acquired great distinction as a harlequin.
+Pope handles severely the taste of the town in regard to pantomimes,
+and the excessive expenditure incurred on account of them. "Persons of
+the first quality in England" were accused of attending at these
+representations twenty and thirty times in a season. The line "Lo! one
+vast egg produces human race," had reference to the trick, introduced
+by Rich, of hatching harlequin out of a large egg. This was regarded
+as a masterpiece of dumb show, and is described in glowing terms by a
+contemporary writer. "From the first clipping of the egg, his
+receiving motion, his feeling the ground, his standing upright, to his
+quick harlequin trip round the empty shell, through the whole
+progression, every limb had its tongue and every motion a voice." Rich
+was also famed for his "catching a butterfly" and his "statue scene;"
+his "taking leave of columbine" was described as "graceful and
+affecting;" his trick of scratching his ear with his foot like a dog
+was greatly admired; while in a certain dance he was said to execute
+300 steps in a rapid advance of three yards only. A writer in _The
+World_ (1753) ironically recommended the managers to dispense entirely
+with tragedy and comedy, and to entertain the town solely with
+pantomime, people of taste and fashion having given sufficient proof
+that they thought it the highest entertainment the stage was capable
+of affording--"the most innocent we are sure it is, for where nothing
+is said and nothing meant very little harm can be done." Garrick, it
+was fancied, might start a few objections to this proposal; "but," it
+was added, "with those universal talents which he so happily
+possesses, it is not to be doubted but he will in time be able to
+handle the wooden sword with as much dignity and dexterity as his
+brother Lun."
+
+Possibly harlequin became a mute, in the first instance, to suit the
+limited capacity in the matter of elocution of some such performer as
+Rich; or the original dumbness of the harlequinade figures may be
+attributable to the strictness with which of old the theatres,
+unprotected by patents, were prohibited from giving _spoken_
+entertainments. What were then called the "burletta houses" were
+permitted performances of dancing, singing, tumbling, juggling--anything,
+indeed, but _speech_ unaccompanied by music. The popularity
+of these performances was beyond question, however, and, in time,
+the mute drove the speaking harlequin from the stage: the great
+theatres probably copying the form of pantomimes of the minor houses,
+as they were by-and-by also induced to follow the smaller stages in
+the matter of their melodramas and burlettas.
+
+The comic "openings" known to modern times had no place in Rich's
+pantomimes. These were divided into two parts, the first being devoted
+to scenic surprises and magical transformations of a serious nature,
+and the last to all kinds of comic antics, tumbling and dancing. No
+allusions to passing events or the follies of the day were, however,
+introduced.
+
+Harlequin lost his place as the chief member of the pantomime troop,
+when the part of clown was entrusted to the famous Grimaldi, "the
+Garrick of clowns," as Theodore Hook called him. This great comic
+artist devised the eccentric costume still worn by clowns--the
+original whiteness of the Pierrot's dress being used as a groundwork
+upon which to paint variegated spots, stars, and patches; and nearly
+all the "comic business" of modern harlequinades is of his invention.
+The present dress of the harlequin dates from the beginning of the
+century only. Until then the costume had been the loosely fitting
+parti-coloured jacket and trousers to be seen worn by the figures in
+Watteau's masquerade subjects. In the pantomime of "Harlequin Amulet;
+or, The Magic of Mona," produced at Drury Lane in 1800, Mr. James
+Byrne, the ballet-master, the father of the late Mr. Oscar Byrne,
+appeared as harlequin in "a white silk shape, fitting without a
+wrinkle," into which the coloured silk patches were woven, the whole
+being profusely covered with spangles, and presenting a very sparkling
+appearance. The innovation was not resisted, but was greatly
+applauded, and Mr. Byrne's improved attire is worn by all modern
+harlequins.
+
+Some eighty years ago John Kemble, addressing his scene-painter in
+reference to a forthcoming pantomime, wrote: "It must be _very short,
+very laughable_, and _very cheap_." If the great manager-actor's
+requirements were fairly met, it is certain that the entertainment in
+question was of a kind very different to the pantomime of our day--a
+production that is invariably very long, rarely laughable, and always
+of exceeding costliness. Leigh Hunt complained in 1831 that pantomimes
+were not what they had been, and that the opening, "which used to form
+merely a brief excuse for putting the harlequinade in motion," had
+come to be a considerable part of the performance. In modern pantomime
+it may be said that the opening is everything, and that the
+harlequinade is deferred as long as possible. "Now the fun begins,"
+used to be the old formula of the playbills announcing the
+commencement of the harlequinade, or what is still known in the
+language of the theatre as the "comic business." Perhaps experience
+proved that in point of fact "the fun" did not set in at the time
+stated; at any rate the appearance of harlequin and clown is now
+regarded by many of the spectators as a signal for the certain
+commencement of dreariness, and as a notice to quit their seats. The
+pantomime Kemble had in contemplation, however, was of the fashion
+Leigh Hunt looked back upon regretfully. Harlequin was to enter almost
+in the first scene. "I have hit on nothing I can think of better,"
+writes Kemble, "than the story of King Arthur and Merlin, and the
+Saxon Wizards. The pantomime might open with the Saxon witches
+lamenting Merlin's power over them, and forming an incantation by
+which they create a harlequin, who is supposed to be able to
+counteract Merlin in all his designs for the good of King Arthur. If
+the Saxons came on in a dreadful storm, as they proceeded in their
+magical rites, the sky might brighten and a rainbow sweep across the
+horizon, which, when the ceremonies are completed, should contract
+itself from either end and form the figure of harlequin in the
+heavens; the wizards may fetch him down how they will, and the sooner
+he is set to work the better. If this idea for producing a harlequin
+is not new do not adopt it."
+
+The main difficulty of pantomime-writers at this time seems to have
+been the contriving of some new method of bringing harlequin upon the
+scene. Now he was conjured up from a well, now from a lake, out of a
+bower, a furnace, &c.; but it was always held desirable to introduce
+him to the spectators as early as might be. In Tom Dibdin's pantomime
+of "Harlequin in his Element; or, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air,"
+produced at Covent Garden in 1807, the first scene represents "a
+beautiful garden, with terraces, arcades, fountains," &c. The curtain
+"rises to a soft symphony." Aurino, the Genius of Air, descends on a
+light cloud; Aquina, the Spirit of Water, rises from a fountain;
+Terrena, the Spirit of Earth, springs up a trap; and Ignoso, the
+Genius of Fire, descends amid thunder from the skies. These characters
+interchange a little rhymed dialogue, and discuss which of them is the
+most powerful. Ignoso is very angry, and threatens his associates.
+Terrena demands:
+
+    Fire, why so hot? Your bolts distress not me,
+      But injure the fair mistress of these bowers,
+    Whose sordid guardian would her husband be,
+    For lucre, not for love.
+      Rather than quarrel, let us use our powers,
+    And gift with magic aid some active sprite,
+    To foil the guardian and the girl to right.
+
+The proposition is agreed to, and thereupon, according to stage
+direction, "Harlequin is produced from a bed of parti-coloured
+flowers, and the magic sword is given to him." He is addressed by each
+of the spirits in turn. Then we read: "Ignoso sinks. Aquina strikes
+the fountains; they begin playing. Terrena strikes the ground; a bed
+of roses appears. Harlequin surveys everything, and runs round the
+stage. Earth sinks in the bed of roses, and Water in the fountains.
+Air ascends in the car. Columbine enters dancing; is amazed at the
+sight of Harlequin, who retires from her with equal surprise; they
+follow each other round the fountain in a _pas de deux_. They are
+surprised by the entrance of Columbine's guardian, who comes in
+preceded by servants in rich liveries. Clown, as his running footman,
+enters with a lap-dog. Old man takes snuff; views himself in a
+pocket-glass. Clown imitates him; old man sees Harlequin and
+Columbine, and pursues them round the fountains, but the lovers go
+off, followed by Sir Amoroso and servants." The lovers are pursued
+through some sixteen scenes, till the fairies unite them in the Temple
+of the Elements. At this time, it is to be noted, the last scene held
+that place as a spectacle which is now enjoyed by the transformation
+scene. Throughout the pantomime the relations of Clown and Pantaloon,
+or Sir Amoroso, the guardian (he is called by these titles
+indifferently), as master and servant are carefully preserved.
+
+Although in "Harlequin in his Element" there appears little answering
+to the modern "opening," and no "transformation" of the characters,
+yet both these peculiarities are to be discovered in the famous
+pantomime of "Mother Goose," which was presented to the town a year
+sooner, and was the work of the same author. In "Mother Goose" there
+are four opening scenes and fifteen of harlequinade--the pantomime of
+to-day generally reversing this arrangement of figures. Colin, a young
+peasant, is changed to Harlequin; Collinette, his mistress, to
+Columbine; Squire Bugle to Clown; and Avaro, an old miser, to
+Pantaloon. In the harlequinade are scenes of Vauxhall Gardens, and the
+exterior of St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, with a crowd assembled
+to see the figures strike the bell (these figures were subsequently
+removed to the Marquis of Hertford's villa, in the Regent's Park), a
+grocer's shop and post-office, an inn, a farm-yard, &c.; while many of
+the tricks are identical with those still delighting holiday
+audiences; but the allusions to political events and current topics,
+so dear to modern purveyors of burlesque and pantomime, have no place
+in the entertainment. The doggerel and songs of the opening are
+without puns or pretensions of a comic kind, and must certainly be
+described as rather dull reading.
+
+Without doubt the modern pantomime opening owes much of its form to
+modern burlesque and extravaganza, of which the late Mr. Planche may
+be regarded as the inventor. Mr. Planche's first burlesque was
+produced at Drury Lane in 1818, and was called "Amoroso, King of
+Little Britain." "The _author_!" wrote a fierce critic in
+"Blackwood"--"but even the shoeblacks of Paris call themselves
+_marchands de cirage_!" Mr. Planche had compensation, however. His
+burlesque was quoted in a leading article in _The Times_; the King of
+Little Britain's address to his courtiers, "My lords and
+gentlemen--get out!" was alluded to in relation to a royal speech
+dissolving Parliament. "Amoroso" was a following of "Bombastes
+Furioso." But, by-and-by, Mr. Planche was to proceed to "Pandora,"
+"Olympic Revels," "Riquet with the Tuft," and other productions, the
+manner and character of which have become identified with his name.
+Gradually he created a school of burlesque-writers indeed; but his
+scholars at last rebelled against him and "barred him out," a fate to
+which schoolmasters have been often liable. Still burlesque of the
+worthy Planche form, and of the spuriously imitative kind, which
+copied, and at the same time degraded him, grew and throve, and at
+last invaded the domains of pantomime. "Openings" fell into the hands
+of burlesque-writers, their share in the pantomime work ceasing with
+the transformation scene; punning rhymes and parodies, and comic
+dances, delayed the entrance of clown and harlequin, till at last
+their significance and occupation seem almost to have gone from them.
+The old language of gesture, with perhaps the occasional resort to a
+placard to supplement and interpret the "dumb motions" of the
+performers (a concession to, or an evasion of the old prohibition of
+speech in the "burletta houses"), vanished from the stage. The
+harlequinade characters ceased to take part in the opening, and that
+joy to youthful cunning of detecting the players of the later scenes
+in the disguises of their earlier presentment--harlequin, by the
+accidental revelation of parti-colour and spangles, and clown by the
+chance display of his motley trunk and hose--was gone for ever. Smart
+young ladies in the blonde wigs, the very curt tunics, the fleshings
+and the high heels of burlesque, appeared in lieu of these; and the
+spectacle of the characters in the opening loosening tapes and easing
+buttons in good time to obey the behest of the chief fairy, and
+transform themselves for harlequinade purposes, became an obsolete and
+withdrawn delight.
+
+Yet what were called "speaking pantomimes," that is, pantomimes
+supplied to an unusual extent with spoken matter, were occasionally
+produced in times not long past. Hazlitt mentions, only to condemn
+however, an entertainment answering to this description. It was called
+"Shakespeare _versus_ Harlequin," and was played in 1820. It would
+seem to have been a revival of a production of David Garrick's. "It is
+called a speaking pantomime," writes Hazlitt; "we had rather it had
+said nothing. It is better to act folly than to talk it. The essence
+of pantomime is practical absurdity keeping the wits in constant
+chase, coming upon one by surprise, and starting off again before you
+can arrest the fleeting 'phantom:' the essence of this piece was
+prosing stupidity remaining like a mawkish picture on the stage, and
+overcoming your impatience by the force of _ennui_. A speaking
+pantomime such as this one is not unlike a flying waggon," &c. &c.
+
+"Harlequin _versus_ Shakespeare" was generally voted dreary and a
+failure. Of another "speaking pantomime," called "Harlequin Pat and
+Harlequin Bat; or, The Giant's Causeway," produced at Covent Garden in
+1830, Leigh Hunt writes: "A speaking pantomime is a contradiction in
+terms. It is a little too Irish. It is as much as to say: 'Here you
+have all dumb-show talking.' This, to be sure, is what made Grimaldi's
+talking so good. It was so rare and seasonable that it only proved the
+rule by the exception. The clowns of late speak too much. To keep on
+saying at every turn, 'Hallo!' or 'Don't!' or 'What do you mean?' only
+makes one think that the piece is partly written and not written
+well." We may note that Mr. Tyrone Power, the famous Irish comedian,
+appeared as harlequin in this pantomime, assisted by a skilled
+"double" to accomplish the indispensable attitudinising, dancing, and
+jumping through holes in the wall. Power abandoned his share in the
+performance after a few nights, however, and the part was then
+undertaken by Mr. Keeley, and subsequently by Mr. F. Matthews.
+
+Gradually, speaking was to be heard more and more in pantomimes; and
+some forty years ago an attempt was made to invest this form of
+theatrical entertainment with peculiar literary distinction. In 1842
+the staff of _Punch_, at that time very strong in talent, provided
+Covent Garden with a pantomime upon the subject of King John and Magna
+Charta. The result, however, disappointed public expectation. _Punch_
+was not seen to advantage in his endeavour to assume the guise of
+harlequin. At a later date, Mr. Keeley, at the Lyceum, produced a
+fairy extravaganza of the Planche pattern, called "The Butterfly's
+Ball," and tacked on to it several "comic scenes" for clown and
+pantaloon. The experiment was not wholly successful in the first
+instance; but by degrees the burlesque leaven affected the pantomimic
+constitution, and pantomimes came to be what we find them at present.
+The custom of interrupting the harlequinade by the exhibition of
+dioramic views, at one time contrived annually by Clarkson Stanfield,
+expired about thirty years ago; as a substitute for these came the
+gorgeous transformation scenes, traceable to the grand displays which
+were wont to conclude Mr. Planche's extravaganzas at the Lyceum
+Theatre, when under the management of Madame Vestris. Mr. Planche has
+himself described how the scene-painter came by degrees to take the
+dramatist's place in the theatre. "Year after year Mr. Beverley's
+powers were taxed to outdo his former outdoings. The last scene became
+the first in the estimation of the management. The most complicated
+machinery, the most costly materials were annually put into
+requisition, until their bacon was so buttered it was impossible to
+save it. As to me, I was positively painted out. Nothing was
+considered brilliant but the last scene. Dutch metal was in the
+ascendant." This was some years ago. But any change that may have
+occurred in the situation has hardly been for the better. The author
+ousted the mute; and now the author, in his turn, is overcome by the
+scene-painter, the machinist, and the upholsterer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+"GOOSE."
+
+
+The bird which saved the Capitol has ruined many a play. "Goose," "to
+be goosed," "to get the big-bird," signifies to be hissed, says the
+"Slang Dictionary." This theatrical cant term is of ancient date. In
+the induction to Marston's comedy of "What You Will," 1607, it is
+asked if the poet's resolve shall be "struck through with the blirt of
+a goose breath?" Shakespeare makes no mention of goose in this sense,
+but he refers now and then to hissing as the playgoers' method of
+indicating disapproval. "Mistress Page, remember you your cue," says
+Ford's wife in "The Merry Wives of Windsor." "I warrant thee," replies
+Mistress Page, "if I do not act it, hiss me!" In the Roman theatres it
+is well known that the spectators pronounced judgment upon the efforts
+of the gladiators and combatants of the arena by silently turning
+their thumbs up or down, decreeing death in the one case and life in
+the other. Hissing, however, even at this time, was the usual method
+of condemning the public speaker of distasteful opinions. In one of
+Cicero's letters there is record of the orator Hortensius, "who
+attained old age without once incurring the disgrace of being hissed."
+The prologues of Ben Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher frequently
+deprecate the hissing of the audience.
+
+But theatrical censure, not content with imitating the goose,
+condescended to borrow from another of the inferior animals--the cat.
+Addison devoted one of his papers in "The Spectator" to a Dissertation
+upon Catcalls. In order to make himself master of his subject, he
+professed to have purchased one of these instruments, though not
+without great difficulty, "being informed at two or three toy-shops
+that the players had lately bought them all up." He found that
+antiquaries were much divided in opinion as to the origin of the
+catcall. A fellow of the Royal Society had concluded, from the
+simplicity of its make and the uniformity of its sound, that it was
+older than any of the inventions of Jubal. "He observes very well that
+musical instruments took their first rise from the notes of birds and
+other melodious animals, 'and what,' says he, 'was more natural than
+for the first ages of mankind to imitate the voice of a cat that lived
+under the same roof with them?' He added that the cat had contributed
+more to harmony than any other animal; as we are not only beholden to
+her for this wind instrument, but for our string music in general."
+The essayist, however, is disposed to hold that the catcall is
+originally a piece of English music. "Its resemblance to the voice of
+some of our British songsters, as well as the use of it, which is
+peculiar to our nation, confirms me in this opinion." He mentions that
+the catcall has quite a contrary effect to the martial instrument then
+in use; and instead of stimulating courage and heroism, sinks the
+spirits, shakes the nerves, curdles the blood, and inspires despair
+and consternation at a surprising rate. "The catcall has struck a damp
+into generals, and frightened heroes off the stage. At the first sound
+of it I have seen a crowned head tremble, and a princess fall into
+fits." He concludes with mention of an ingenious artist who teaches to
+play on it by book, and to express by it the whole art of dramatic
+criticism. "He has his bass and his treble catcall: the former for
+tragedy, the latter for comedy; only in tragi-comedies they may both
+play together in concert. He has a particular squeak to denote the
+violation of each of the unities, and has different sounds to show
+whether he aims at the poet or the player," &c.
+
+The conveyance of a catcall to the theatre evidences a predisposition
+to uproarious censure. Hissing may be, in the nature of impromptu
+criticism, suddenly provoked by something held to be offensive in the
+representation; but a playgoer could scarcely have armed himself with
+a catcall without a desire and an intention of performing upon his
+instrument in any case. Of old, audiences would seem to have
+delighted in disturbance upon very light grounds. Theatrical rioting
+was of common occurrence. The rioters were in some sort a disciplined
+body, and proceeded systematically. Their plan of action had been
+previously agreed upon. It was a rule that the ladies should be
+politely handed out of the theatre before the commencement of any
+violent acts of hostility; and this disappearance of the ladies from
+among the audience was always viewed by the management as rather an
+alarming hint of what might be expected. Then wine was sent for into
+the pit, the candles were thrown down, and the gentlemen drew their
+swords. They prepared to climb over the partitions of the orchestra
+and to carry the stage by assault. Now and then they made havoc of the
+decorations of the house, and cut and slashed the curtains, hangings,
+and scenery. At Drury Lane, in 1740, when a riot took place in
+consequence of the non-appearance of Madame Chateauneuf, a favourite
+French dancer, a noble marquis deliberately proposed that the theatre
+should be fired, and a pile of rubbish was forthwith heaped upon the
+stage in order to carry into effect this atrocious suggestion. At the
+Haymarket Theatre, in 1749, the audience, enraged at the famous Bottle
+Conjurer hoax, were incited by the Culloden Duke of Cumberland to pull
+down the house! The royal prince stood up in his box waving his drawn
+sword, which someone, however, ventured to wrest from his grasp. The
+interior fittings of the theatre were completely destroyed; the
+furniture and hangings being carried into the street and made a
+bonfire of, the curtain surmounting the flaming heap like a gigantic
+flag. A riot at the Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1721, led to George I.'s
+order that in future a guard should attend the performances. This was
+the origin of the custom that long prevailed of stationing sentries on
+either side of the proscenium during representations at the patent
+theatres. Of late years the guards have been relegated to the outside
+of the buildings. On the occasion of state visits of royalty to the
+theatre, however--although these are now, perhaps, to be counted among
+things of the past--Beefeaters upon the stage form an impressive part
+of the ceremonial.
+
+Theatrical rioting has greatly declined in violence, as well it might,
+since the O.P. saturnalia of disturbance, which lasted some sixty-six
+nights at Covent Garden Theatre in 1809. Swords were no longer worn,
+but the rioters made free use of their fists, called in professional
+pugilists as their allies, and in addition to catcalls, armed
+themselves with bells, post-horns, whistles, and watchmen's rattles.
+The O.P. riots may be said to have abolished the catcall, but they
+established "goose." Captures of the rioters were occasionally made by
+Brandon, the courageous box-office keeper, and they were charged at
+Bow Street Police Court with persistent hissing, with noisily crying
+"Silence!" and with "unnatural coughing." The charges were not
+proceeded with, but one of the accused, Mr. Clifford, a barrister,
+brought an action against Brandon for false imprisonment. In this case
+the Court of King's Bench decided that, although the audience in a
+public theatre have a right to express the feelings excited at the
+moment by the performance, and in this manner to applaud or hiss any
+piece which is represented, or any performer; yet if a number of
+persons, having come to the theatre with a predetermined purpose of
+interrupting the performance, for this end make a great noise so as to
+render the actors inaudible, though without offering personal violence
+or doing injury to the house, they are in law guilty of a riot.
+Serjeant Best, the counsel for the plaintiff, urged that, as plays and
+players might be hissed, managers should be liable to their share;
+they should be controlled by public opinion; Garrick and others had
+yielded cheerfully to the jurisdiction of the pit without a thought of
+appealing to Westminster Hall. "Bells and rattles," added the
+serjeant, "may be new to the pit; but catcalls, which are equally
+stunning, are as old as the English drama." Apparently, however, the
+catcall, its claim to antiquity notwithstanding, was not favourably
+viewed by the court. In summing up, Chief Justice Mansfield observed:
+"I cannot tell on what grounds many people think they have a right, at
+a theatre, to make such a prodigious noise as to prevent others
+hearing what is going forward on the stage. Theatres are not absolute
+necessaries of life, and any person may stay away who does not approve
+of the manner in which they are managed. If the prices of admission
+are unreasonable, the evil will cure itself. People will not go, and
+the proprietors will be ruined, unless they lower their demand. If the
+proprietors have acted contrary to the conditions of the patent, the
+patent itself may be set aside by a writ of _scire facias_ in the
+Court of Chancery." To the great majority of playgoers it probably
+occurred that hissing was a simpler and more summary remedy of their
+grievances and relief to their feelings than any the Court of Chancery
+was likely to afford. In due time, however, came free trade in the
+drama and the abolition of the special privileges and monopolies too
+long enjoyed by the patent theatres.
+
+After the failure of his luckless farce, "Mr. H.," Charles Lamb wrote
+to Wordsworth: "A hundred hisses (hang the word! I wrote it like
+_kisses_--how different!), a hundred hisses outweigh a thousand claps.
+The former come more directly from the heart." The reception of the
+little play had been of a disastrous kind, and Lamb, sitting in the
+front row of the pit, is said to have joined in condemning his own
+work, and to have hissed and hooted as loudly as any of his
+neighbours. "I had many fears; the subject was not substantial enough.
+John Bull must have solider fare than a letter. We are pretty stout
+about it; have had plenty of condoling friends; but, after all, we had
+rather it should have succeeded. You will see the prologue in most of
+the morning papers. It was received with such shouts as I never
+witnessed to a prologue. It was attempted to be encored.... The
+quantity of friends we had in the house--my brother and I being in
+public offices, &c.--was astonishing, but they yielded at last to a
+few hisses." "Mr. H." could probably in no case have achieved any
+great success, but it may be that its failure was precipitated by the
+indiscreet cordiality of its author's "quantity of friends." They were
+too eager to express approbation, and distributed their applause
+injudiciously. The pace at which they started could not be sustained.
+As Monsieur Auguste, the famous _chef des claqueurs_ at the Paris
+Opera House, explained to Doctor Veron, the manager, "_Il ne fallait
+pas trop chauffer le premier acte; qu'on devait, au contraire,
+reserver son courage et ses forces pour enlever le dernier acte et le
+denoument_." He admitted that he should not hesitate to award three
+rounds of applause to a song in the last act, to which, if it had
+occurred earlier in the representation, he should have given one round
+only. Lamb's friends knew nothing of this sound theory of systematised
+applause. They expended their ammunition at the commencement of the
+struggle, and when they were, so to say, out of range. It was one of
+Monsieur Auguste's principles of action that public opinion should
+never be outraged or affronted; it might be led and encouraged, but
+there should be no attempt to drive it. "Above all things, respect the
+public," he said to his subordinates. Nothing so much stimulates the
+disapprobation of the unbiassed as extravagant applause. Reaction
+certainly ensues; men begin to hiss by way of self-assertion, and out
+of self-respect. They resent an attempt to coerce their opinion, and
+to compel a favourable verdict in spite of themselves. The attempt to
+encore the prologue to "Mr. H." was most unwise. It was a strong
+prologue, but the play was weak. The former might have been left to
+the good sense of the general public; it was the latter that
+especially demanded the watchful support of the author's friends. The
+infirm need crutches, not the robust. The playbills announced, "The
+new farce of 'Mr. H.,' performed for the first time last night, was
+received by an overflowing audience with universal applause, and will
+be repeated for the second time to-morrow." Such are playbills. "Mr.
+H." never that morrow saw. "'Tis withdrawn, and there's an end of it,"
+wrote Lamb to Wordsworth.
+
+Hissing is no doubt a dreadful sound--a word of fear unpleasing to the
+ear of both playwright and player. For there is no revoking, no
+arguing down, no remedying a hiss; it has simply to be endured.
+Playgoers have a giant's strength in this respect; but it must be said
+for them, that of late years at any rate, they have rarely used it
+tyrannously, like a giant. Of all the dramatists, perhaps Fielding
+treated hissing with the greatest indifference. In 1743, his comedy of
+"The Wedding Day" was produced. Garrick had in vain implored him to
+suppress a scene which he urged would certainly endanger the success
+of the piece. "If the scene is not a good one, let them find it out,"
+said Fielding. As had been foreseen, an uproar ensued in the theatre.
+The actor hastened to the green-room, where the author was cheering
+his spirits with a bottle of champagne. Surveying Garrick's rueful
+countenance, Fielding inquired: "What's the matter? Are they hissing
+me now?" "Yes, the very passage I wanted you to retrench. I knew it
+wouldn't do. And they've so horribly frightened me I shall not be
+right again the whole night." "Oh," cried the author, "I did not give
+them credit for it. So they have found it out, have they?" Upon the
+failure of his farce of "Eurydice," he produced an occasional piece
+entitled "Eurydice Hissed," in which Mrs. Charke, the daughter of
+Colley Cibber, sustained the part of Pillage, a dramatic author.
+Pillage is about to produce a new play, and one of his friends
+volunteers to "clap every good thing till I bring the house down."
+"That won't do," Pillage sagaciously replies; "the town of its own
+accord will applaud what they like; you must stand by me when they
+dislike. I don't desire any of you to clap unless when you hear a
+hiss. Let that be your cue for clapping." Later in the play three
+gentlemen enter, and in Shakespearean fashion discuss in blank verse
+the fate of Pillage's production.
+
+    THIRD GENTLEMAN. Oh friends, all's lost! Eurydice is damned.
+
+    SECOND GENTLEMAN. Ha! damned! A few short moments past I came
+    From the pit door and heard a loud applause.
+
+    THIRD GENTLEMAN. 'Tis true at first the pit seemed greatly pleased,
+    And loud applauses through the benches rang;
+    But as the plot began to open more
+    (A shallow plot) the claps less frequent grew,
+    Till by degrees a gentle hiss arose;
+    This by a catcall from the gallery
+    Was quickly seconded: then followed claps;
+    And 'twixt long claps and hisses did succeed
+    A stern contention; victory being dubious.
+    So hangs the conscience, doubtful to determine
+    When honesty pleads here, and there a bribe.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    But it was mighty pleasant to behold
+    When the damnation of the farce was sure,
+    How all those friends who had begun the claps
+    With greatest vigour strove who first should hiss
+    And show disapprobation.
+
+Surely no dramatist ever jested more over his own discomfiture. In
+publishing "Eurydice" he described it as "a farce, as it was d--d at
+the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane." This was a following of Ben Jonson's
+example, who, publishing his "New Inn," makes mention of it as a
+comedy "never acted, but most negligently played by some of the king's
+servants, and more squeamishly beheld and censured by others the
+king's subjects, 1629; and now, at last, set at liberty to the
+readers, his majesty's servants and subjects, to be judged of, 1631."
+
+There is something pathetic in the way Southerne, the veteran
+dramatist, in 1726, bore the condemnation of his comedy of "Money the
+Mistress," at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. The audience hissed
+unmercifully. Rich, the manager, asked the old man, as he stood in the
+wings, "if he heard what they were doing?" "No, sir," said Southerne
+calmly, "I'm very deaf." On the first representation of "She Stoops to
+Conquer," a solitary hiss was heard during the fifth act at the
+improbability of Mrs. Hardcastle, in her own garden, supposing herself
+forty miles off on Crackskull Common. "What's that?" cried Goldsmith,
+not a little alarmed at the sound. "Psha! doctor," replied Colman,
+"don't be afraid of a squib when we have been sitting these two hours
+on a barrel of gunpowder." Goldsmith is said never to have forgiven
+Colman his ill-timed pleasantry. The hiss seems to have been really a
+solitary and exceptional one. It was ascribed by one journal to
+Cumberland, by another to Hugh Kelly, and by a third, in a parody on
+"Ossian," to Macpherson, who was known to be hostilely inclined
+towards Johnson and all his friends. The disapprobation excited by the
+capital scene of the bailiffs in Goldsmith's earlier comedy, "The
+Good-natured Man," had been of a more general and alarming kind,
+however, and was only appeased by the omission of this portion of the
+work. Goldsmith suffered exquisite distress. Before his friends, at
+the club in Gerrard Street, he exerted him greatly to hide the fact of
+his discomfiture; chatted gaily and noisily, and even sang his
+favourite comic song with which he was wont to oblige the company only
+on special occasions. But alone with Johnson he fairly broke down,
+confessed the anguish of his heart, burst into tears, and swore he
+would never write more. The condemnation incurred by "The Rivals," on
+its first performance, led to its being withdrawn for revision and
+amendment. In his preface to the published play Sheridan wrote: "I see
+no reason why an author should not regard a first-night's audience as
+a candid and judicious friend attending, in behalf of the public, at
+his last rehearsal. If he can dispense with flattery, he is sure at
+least of sincerity, and even though the annotation be rude, he may
+rely upon the justness of the comment." This is calm and complacent
+enough, but he proceeds with some warmth: "As for the little puny
+critics who scatter their peevish strictures in private circles, and
+scribble at every author who has the eminence of being unconnected
+with them, as they are usually spleen-swoln from a vain idea of
+increasing their consequence, there will always be found a petulance
+and illiberality in their remarks, which should place them as far
+beneath the notice of a gentleman, as their original dulness had sunk
+them from the level of the most unsuccessful author." This reads like
+a sentence from "The School for Scandal."
+
+In truth, hissing is very hard to endure. Lamb treated the misfortune
+of "Mr. H." as lightly as he could, yet it is plain he took his
+failure much to heart. In his letter signed Semel-Damnatus, upon
+"Hissing at the Theatres," he is alternately merry and sad over his
+defeat as a dramatist. "Is it not a pity," he asks, "that the sweet
+human voice which was given man to speak with, to sing with, to
+whisper tones of love in, to express compliance, to convey a favour,
+or to grant a suit--that voice, which in a Siddons or a Braham rouses
+us, in a siren Catalani charms and captivates us--that the musical
+expressive human voice should be converted into a rival of the noises
+of silly geese and irrational venomous snakes? I never shall forget
+the sounds on my night!" He urges that the venial mistake of the poor
+author, "who thought to please in the act of filling his pockets, for
+the sum of his demerits amounts to no more than that," is too severely
+punished; and he adds, "the provocations to which a dramatic genius is
+exposed from the public are so much the more vexatious as they are
+removed from any possibility of retaliation, the hope of which
+sweetens most other injuries; for the public never writes itself." He
+concludes with an account, written in an Addisonian vein, of a club to
+which he had the honour to belong. "There are fourteen of us, who are
+all authors that have been once in our lives what is called 'damned.'
+We meet on the anniversaries of our respective nights, and make
+ourselves merry at the expense of the public.... To keep up the memory
+of the cause in which we suffered, as the ancients sacrificed a goat,
+a supposed unhealthy animal, to AEsculapius, on our feast-nights we cut
+up a goose, an animal typical of the popular voice, to the deities of
+Candour and Patient Hearing. A zealous member of the society once
+proposed that we should revive the obsolete luxury of viper-broth;
+but, the stomachs of some of the company rising at the proposition, we
+lost the benefit of that highly salutary and antidotal dish."
+
+It is to be observed that when a play is hissed there is this
+consolation at the service of those concerned: they can shift the
+burden of reproach. The author is at liberty to say: "It was the fault
+of the actors. Read my play, you will see that it did not deserve the
+cruel treatment it experienced." And the actor can assert: "I was not
+to blame. I did but speak the words that were set down for me. My fate
+is hard--I have to bear the burden of another's sins." And in each
+case these are reasonably valid pleas. In the hour of triumph,
+however, it is certain that the author is apt to be forgotten, and
+that the lion's share of success is popularly awarded to the players.
+For the dramatist is a vague, impalpable, invisible personage; whereas
+the actor is a vital presence upon the scene; he can be beheld, noted,
+and listened to; it is difficult to disconnect him from the humours he
+exhibits, from the pathos he displays, from the speeches he utters.
+Much may be due to his own merit; but still his debt to the dramatist
+is not to be wholly ignored. The author is applauded or hissed, as the
+case may be, by proxy. But altogether it is perhaps not surprising
+that the proxy should oftentimes forget his real position, and
+arrogate wholly to himself the applause due to his principal.
+
+High and low, from Garrick to the "super," it is probably the actor's
+doom, for more or less reasons, at some time or another, to be hissed.
+He is, as Members of Parliament are fond of saying, "in the hands of
+the house," and may be ill-considered by it. Anyone can hiss, and one
+goose makes many. Lamb relates how he once saw Elliston, sitting in
+state, in the tarnished green-room of the Olympic Theatre, while
+before him was brought for judgment, on complaint of prompter, "one of
+those little tawdry things that flirt at the tails of choruses--the
+pertest little drab--a dirty fringe and appendage of the lamp's
+smoke--who, it seems, on some disapprobation expressed by a 'highly
+respectable' audience, had precipitately quitted her station on the
+boards and withdrawn her small talents in disgust. 'And how dare you,'
+said the manager, 'how dare you, madam, without a notice, withdraw
+yourself from your theatrical duties?' 'I was hissed, sir.' 'And you
+have the presumption to decide upon the taste of the town?' 'I don't
+know that, sir, but I will never stand to be hissed,' was the
+rejoinder of Young Confidence. Then, gathering up his features into
+one significant mass of wonder, pity, and expostulatory
+indignation--in a lesson never to have been lost upon a creature less
+forward than she who stood before him--his words were these: 'They
+have hissed ME!'"
+
+It is understood that this argument failed in its effect, for, after
+all, a hiss is not to be in such wise excused or explained away; its
+application is far too direct and personal. "Ladies and gentlemen, it
+was not I that shot the arrow!" said Braham to his audience, when some
+bungling occurred in the course of his performance of William Tell,
+and the famous apple remained uninjured upon the head of the hero's
+son. If derision was moved by this bungling, still more did the
+singer's address and confession excite the mirth of the spectators. To
+another singer, failure, or the dread of failure, was fraught with
+more tragic consequence. For some sixteen years Adolphe Nourritt had
+been the chief tenor of the Paris Opera House. He had "created" the
+leading characters in "Robert," "Les Huguenots," "La Juive,"
+"Gustave," and "Masaniello." He resigned his position precipitately
+upon the advent of Duprez. The younger singer afflicted the elder with
+a kind of panic. The news that Duprez was among his audience was
+sufficient to paralyse his powers, to extinguish his voice. He left
+France for Italy. His success was unquestionable, but he had lost
+confidence in himself; a deep dejection settled upon him, his
+apprehension of failure approached delirium. At last he persuaded
+himself that the applause he won from a Neapolitan audience was purely
+ironical, was but scoffing ill-disguised. At five in the morning, on
+the 8th of March, 1839, he flung himself from the window of an upper
+floor, and was picked up in the street quite dead. Poor Nourrit! he
+was a man of genius in his way; but for him there would have been no
+grand duet in the fourth act of "Les Huguenots," no cavatina for
+Eleazar in "La Juive;" and to his inventiveness is to be ascribed the
+ballet of "La Sylphide," which Taglioni made so famous.
+
+It is odd to hear of an actor anxious for "goose," and disappointed at
+not obtaining it. Yet something like this happened once during the
+O.P. riots. Making sure that there would be a disturbance in the
+theatre, Mr. Murray, one of John Kemble's company, thought it needless
+to commit his part to memory; he was so certain that he should not be
+listened to. But the uproar suddenly ceased; there was a lull in the
+storm. The actor bowed, stammered, stared, and was what is called in
+the language of the theatre "dead stuck." However, his mind was soon
+at ease; to do him justice the audience soon hissed him to his heart's
+content, and perhaps even in excess of that measure. Subsequently he
+resolved, riot or no riot, to learn something of his part.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+EPILOGUES.
+
+
+Epilogues went out of fashion with pigtails, the public having at last
+decided that neither of these appendages was really necessary or
+particularly ornamental; but a considerable time elapsed before this
+opinion was definitively arrived at. The old English moralities or
+moral plays usually concluded, as Mr. Payne Collier notes, with an
+epilogue in which prayers were offered up by the actors for the king,
+queen, clergy, and sometimes for the commons; the latest instance of
+this practice being the epilogue to a play of 1619, "Two Wise Men and
+All the Rest Fools." "It resteth now," says the "epiloguiser," "that
+we render you very humble and hearty thanks, and that all our hearts
+pray for the king and his family's enduring happiness, and our
+country's perpetual welfare. _Si placet, plaudite._" So also the
+dancer entrusted with the delivery of the epilogue to Shakespeare's
+"Second Part of King Henry IV." may be understood as referring to this
+matter, in the concluding words of his address: "My tongue is weary;
+when my legs are too, I will bid you good-night: and so kneel down
+before you--but, indeed, to pray for the queen." And to this old
+custom of loyal prayer for the reigning sovereign has been traced the
+addition of the words, "Vivat rex," or "Vivat regina," which were wont
+to appear in the playbills, until quite recent times, when our
+programmes became the advertising _media_ of the perfumers.
+
+The main object of the epilogue, however, was as Massinger has
+expressed it in the concluding address of his comedy, "Believe as you
+List"--
+
+    The end of epilogues is to inquire
+    The censure of the play, or to desire
+    Pardon for what's amiss;
+
+and as Theseus states the matter in "The Midsummer Night's Dream:" "No
+epilogue, I pray you, for your play needs no excuse." Sometimes a sort
+of bluntness of speech was affected, as in the epilogue to one of
+Beaumont and Fletcher's comedies:
+
+    Why there should be an epilogue to a play
+    I know no cause. The old and usual way
+    For which they were made was to entreat the grace
+    Of such as were spectators. In this place
+    And time, 'tis to no purpose; for I know,
+    What you resolve already to bestow
+    Will not be altered, whatsoe'er I say
+    In the behalf of us, and of the play;
+    Only to quit our doubts, if you think fit,
+    You may or cry it up or silence it.
+
+It was in order, no doubt, the more to conciliate the audience that
+epilogues assumed, oftentimes, a playfulness of tone that would
+scarcely have been tolerated in the case of prologues. The delivery of
+an epilogue by a woman (i.e. by a boy playing the part of a woman) was
+clearly unusual at the time of the first performance of "As You Like
+It." "It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue," says
+Rosalind; "but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the
+prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a
+good play needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes;
+and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues." There
+can be little doubt that all Shakespeare's plays were originally
+followed by epilogues, although but very few of these have been
+preserved. The only one that seems deficient in dignity, and therefore
+appropriateness, is that above quoted, spoken by the dancer, at the
+conclusion of "The Second Part of King Henry IV." In no case is direct
+appeal made, on the author's behalf, to the tender mercies of the
+audience, although the epilogue to "King Henry VIII." seems to
+entertain misgivings as to the fate of the play:
+
+    'Tis ten to one this play can never please
+    All that are here. Some come to take their ease,
+    An act or two; but those we fear,
+    We have frighted with our trumpets; so, 'tis clear
+    They'll say, 'tis naught: others to hear the city
+    Abused extremely and to cry--_that's witty!_
+    Which we have not done neither; that, I fear,
+    All the expected good we're like to hear
+    For this play at this time is only in
+    The merciful construction of good women:
+    For such a one we showed them.
+
+Prospero delivers the epilogue to "The Tempest;" and the concluding
+lines of "The Midsummer Night's Dream," and of "All's Well that Ends
+Well"--which are not described as epilogues, and should, perhaps,
+rather be viewed as "tags"--are spoken by Puck and the King. The
+epilogues to "King Henry V." and "Pericles" are of course spoken by
+the Chorus and Gower, respectively, who, throughout those plays, have
+favoured the spectators with much discourse and explanation. "Twelfth
+Night" terminates with the clown's nonsense song, which may be an
+addition due less to the dramatist than to the comic actor who first
+played the part.
+
+The epilogues of the Elizabethan stage, so far as they have come down
+to us, are, as a rule, brief and discreet enough; but, after the
+Restoration, epilogues acquired greater length and much more
+impudence, to say the least of it, while they clearly had gained
+importance in the consideration of the audience. And now it became the
+custom to follow up a harrowing tragedy with a most broadly comic
+epilogue. The heroine of the night--for the delivering of epilogues
+now devolved frequently upon the actresses--who, but a few moments
+before, had fallen a most miserable victim to the dagger or the bowl,
+as the case might be, suddenly reappeared upon the stage, laughing,
+alive, and, it may be said, kicking, and favoured the audience with an
+address designed expressly, it would seem, so to make their cheeks
+burn with blushes that their recent tears might the sooner be dried
+up. It is difficult to conceive now that certain of the prologues and
+epilogues of Dryden and his contemporaries could ever have been
+delivered, at any time, upon any stage. Yet they were assuredly
+spoken, and often by women, apparently to the complete satisfaction of
+the playgoers of the time. But, concerning the scandalous condition of
+the stage of the Restoration, there is no need to say anything
+further. The ludicrous epilogue, which has been described as the
+unnatural tacking of a comic tale to a tragical head, was certainly
+popular, however, and long continued so. It was urged, "that the minds
+of the audience must be refreshed, and gentlemen and ladies not sent
+away to their own homes with too dismal and melancholy thoughts about
+them." Certain numbers of "The Spectator" were expressly devoted to
+the discussion of this subject, in the interest, it is now apparent,
+of Ambrose Philips, who had brought upon the stage an adaptation of
+Racine's "Andromaque," and who enjoyed the zealous friendship of
+Addison and Steele. To the tragedy of "The Distressed Mother," as it
+was called, which can hardly have been seen in the theatre since the
+late Mr. Macready, as Orestes, made his first bow to a London audience
+in 1816, an epilogue had been added which had the good fortune to be
+accounted the most admirable production of its class. Steele, under
+the signature of "Physibulus," wrote to describe his visit to Drury
+Lane, in company with his friend Sir Roger, to witness the new
+performance. "You must know, sir, that it is always my custom, when I
+have been well entertained at a new tragedy, to make my retreat before
+the facetious epilogue enters; not but that these pieces are often
+very well written, but, having paid down my half-crown, and made a
+fair purchase of as much of the pleasing melancholy as the poet's art
+can afford me, or my own nature admit of, I am willing to carry some
+of it home with me, and cannot endure to be at once tricked out of
+all, though by the wittiest dexterity in the world." He describes Sir
+Roger as entering with equal pleasure into both parts, and as much
+satisfied with Mrs. Oldfield's gaiety as he had been before with
+Andromache's greatness; and continues: "Whether this were no more than
+an effect of the knight's peculiar humanity, pleased to find that, at
+last, after all the tragical doings, everything was safe and well, I
+do not know; but, for my own part, I must confess I was so
+dissatisfied, that I was sorry the poet had saved Andromache, and
+could heartily have wished that he had left her stone dead upon the
+stage. I found my soul, during the action, gradually worked up to the
+highest pitch, and felt the exalted passion which all generous minds
+conceive at the sight of virtue in distress.... But the ludicrous
+epilogue in the close extinguished all my ardour, and made me look
+upon all such achievements as downright silly and romantic." To this
+letter a reply, signed "Philomedes," appeared in "The Spectator" a few
+days later, expressing, in the first place, amazement at the attack
+upon the epilogue, and calling attention to its extraordinary success.
+"The audience would not permit Mrs. Oldfield to go off the stage the
+first night till she had repeated it twice; the second night, the
+noise of the _ancoras_ was as loud as before, and she was obliged
+again to speak it twice; the third night it was still called for a
+second time, and, in short, contrary to all other epilogues, which are
+dropped after the third representation of the play, this has already
+been repeated nine times." "Philomedes" then points out that, although
+the prologue and epilogue were real parts of ancient tragedy, they are
+on the English stage distinct performances, entirely detached from the
+play, and in no way essential to it. "The moment the play ends," he
+argues, "Mrs. Oldfield is no more Andromache, but Mrs. Oldfield; and
+though the poet had left Andromache 'stone dead upon the stage' ...
+Mrs. Oldfield might still have spoken a merry epilogue;" and he refers
+to the well-known instance of Nell Gwynne, in the epilogue to Dryden's
+tragedy of "Tyrannic Love," "where there is not only a death but a
+martyrdom," rising from the stage upon which she was supposed to be
+lying stone dead--an attempt having been made to remove her by those
+gentlemen "whose business it is to carry off the slain in our English
+tragedies"--and breaking out "into that abrupt beginning of what was a
+very ludicrous but at the same time thought a very good epilogue:
+
+    "Hold! are you mad? you damned confounded dog,
+    I am to rise and speak the epilogue!"
+
+"This diverting manner," "Philomedes" proceeds, "was always practised
+by Mr. Dryden, who, if he was not the best writer of tragedies in his
+time, was allowed by everyone to have the happiest turn for a prologue
+or an epilogue." And he further cites the example of a comic epilogue
+known to be written by Prior, to the tragedy of "Phaedra and
+Hippolita," Addison having supplied the work with a prologue
+ridiculing the Italian operas. He refers also to the French stage:
+"Since everyone knows that nation, who are generally esteemed to have
+as polite a taste as any in Europe, always close their tragic
+entertainment with what they call a _petite piece_, which is purposely
+designed to raise mirth and send away the audience well pleased. The
+same person who has supported the chief character in the tragedy very
+often plays the principal part in the _petite piece_; so that I have
+myself seen at Paris Orestes and Lubin acted the same night by the
+same man."
+
+This famous epilogue to "The Distressed Mother" is spoken by
+Andromache, and opens with the following lines, which are certainly
+flippant enough:
+
+    I hope you'll own that with becoming art
+    I've played my game and topped the widow's part!
+    My spouse, poor man, could not live out the play,
+    But died commodiously on his wedding-day;
+    While I, his relict, made, at one bold fling,
+    Myself a princess, and young Sty a king.
+
+Of this address the reputed author was Eustace Budgell, of the Inner
+Temple, whose name is usually found printed in connection with
+it--"the worthless Budgell," as Johnson calls him--"the man who calls
+me cousin," as Addison used contemptuously to describe him. In
+Johnson's Life of Ambrose Philips, however, it is stated that Addison
+was himself the real author of the epilogue, but that "when it had
+been at first printed with his name he came early in the morning,
+before the copies were distributed, and ordered it to be given to
+Budgell, that it might add weight to the solicitation which he was
+then making for a place." It is probable, moreover, that Addison was
+not particularly anxious to own a production which, after all, was but
+a following of an example so questionable as Prior's epilogue to
+"Phaedra," above mentioned. The controversy in "The Spectator" was,
+without doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement between Addison and Steele,
+for the entertainment of the public and the increase of the fame of
+Philips; and the letter of "Philomedes," which with the epilogue in
+question has been often ascribed to Budgell, was probably also the
+work of Addison. For all the rather unaccountable zeal of Addison and
+Steele on behalf of their friend, however, the reputation of Philips
+has not thriven; he is chiefly remembered now by the nickname of
+Namby-Pamby, bestowed on him by Pope, who had always vehemently
+contested his claims to distinction. As Johnson states the case: "Men
+sometimes suffer by injudicious kindness; Philips became ridiculous,
+without his own fault, by the absurd admiration of his friends, who
+decorated him with honorary garlands which the first breath of
+contradiction blasted." Johnson, by-the-way, had at the age of
+nineteen written a new epilogue to "The Distressed Mother," for some
+young ladies who designed an amateur performance of that still-admired
+tragedy. The epilogue was intended to be delivered by "a lady who was
+to personate the ghost of Hermione."
+
+But although protests were now and then, as in the case of "The
+Distressed Mother," raised against the absurdity of the custom, comic
+epilogues to tragic plays long remained in favour with the patrons of
+the stage. Pointed reference to this fact is contained in the epilogue
+spoken by the beautiful Mrs. Hartley to Murphy's tragedy of "Alzuma,"
+produced at Covent Garden in 1773:
+
+    Our play is o'er; now swells each throbbing breast
+    With expectation of the coming jest.
+    By Fashion's law, whene'er the Tragic Muse
+    With sympathetic tears each eye bedews;
+    When some bright Virtue at her call appears.
+    Waked from the dead repose of rolling years;
+    When sacred worthies she bids breathe anew,
+    That men may be what she displays to view;
+    By fashion's law with light fantastic mien
+    The Comic Sister trips it o'er the scene;
+    Armed at all points with wit and wanton wiles,
+    Plays off her airs, and calls forth all her smiles;
+    Till each fine feeling of the heart be o'er,
+    And the gay wonder how they wept before!
+
+To Murphy's more famous tragedy of "The Grecian Daughter," Garrick
+supplied an epilogue, which commences:
+
+    The Grecian Daughter's compliments to all;
+    Begs that for Epilogue you will not call;
+    For leering, giggling, would be out of season,
+    And hopes by me you'll hear a little reason, &c.
+
+The epilogue to Home's tragedy of "Douglas" is simply a remonstrance
+against the employment of "comic wit" on such an occasion:
+
+    An Epilogue I asked; but not one word
+    Our bard will write. He vows 'tis most absurd
+    With comic wit to contradict the strain
+    Of tragedy, and make your sorrows vain.
+    Sadly he says that pity is the best
+    And noblest passion of the human breast;
+    For when its sacred streams the heart o'erflow
+    In gushes pleasure with the tide of woe;
+    And when its waves retire, like those of Nile,
+    They leave behind them such a golden soil
+    That there the virtues without culture grow,
+    There the sweet blossoms of affection blow.
+    These were his words; void of delusive art
+    I felt them; for he spoke them from his heart.
+    Nor will I now attempt with witty folly
+    To chase away celestial melancholy.
+
+Apart from the epilogues that pertained to particular plays, and could
+hardly be detached from them, were the "occasional epilogues," written
+with no special relevancy to any dramatic work, but rather designed to
+be recitations or monologue entertainments, that could be delivered at
+any time, as managers, players, and public might decide. Garrick, who
+highly esteemed addresses of the class, was wont, in the character of
+"a drunken sailor," to recite a much-admired "occasional epilogue."
+Early comedians, such as Joe Haines and Pinkethman, now and then
+entered upon the scene, "seated upon an ass," to deliver "an
+occasional epilogue," with more mirthful effect. Extravagances of this
+kind have usually been reserved for benefit-nights, however. In Tom
+Brown's works, 1730, there is a print of Haines, mounted on an ass,
+appearing in front of the stage, with a view of the side boxes and
+pit. An "occasional epilogue" was delivered in 1710, by Powell and
+Mrs. Spiller, "on the hardships suffered by lawyers and players in the
+Long Vacation."
+
+For some years before their extinction, epilogues had greatly declined
+in worth, although their loss of public favour was less apparent. They
+were in many cases wretched doggerel, full of slang terms and of
+impertinence that was both coarse and dull. With a once famous
+epilogue-writer--Miles Peter Andrews, who was also a dramatist,
+although, happily, his writings for the stage have now vanished
+completely--Gifford deals severely in his "Baviad." "Such is the
+reputation this gentleman has obtained for epilogue writing, that the
+minor poets of the day, despairing of emulating, are now only
+solicitous of assisting him--happy if they can obtain admission for a
+couplet or two into the body of his immortal works, and thus secure to
+themselves a small portion of that popular applause so lavishly and so
+justly bestowed on everything that bears the signature of Miles
+Andrews!" A few lines make havoc of quite a covey of "bards" of that
+period:
+
+    Too much the applause of fashion I despise;
+    For mark to what 'tis given and then declare,
+    Mean though I am, if it be worth my care.
+    Is it not given to Este's unmeaning dash,
+    To Topham's fustian, Colman's flippant trash,
+    To Andrews' doggerel, when three wits combine,
+    To Morton's catchword, Greathead's idiot line,
+    And Holcroft's Shug Lane cant, and Merry's Moorfields whine, &c.
+
+Criticism was not mealy-mouthed in Gifford's day.
+
+The "tag" appears to be following the epilogue to oblivion; for though
+it is difficult to differentiate them, the tag must not be confused
+with the epilogue, or viewed as merely an abbreviated form of it. As a
+rule, the epilogue was divided from the play by the fall of the
+curtain, although this could hardly have been the case in regard to
+the epilogue mentioned above, delivered by "Mrs. Ellen," as Dryden
+calls her, after the tragedy of "Tyrannic Love." But the tag is
+usually the few parting words addressed by the leading character in a
+play, before the curtain descends upon it, to "our kind friends in
+front," entreating their applause. The final _couplets_ of a French
+vaudeville, it may be noted, usually contained an appeal of this kind;
+otherwise, tags, and epilogues are alike eschewed upon the French
+stage. But this "coming forward" of the player, to deliver his tag, is
+a practice of old date. The concluding speech in Massinger's "New Way
+to Pay Old Debts," addressed to the audience, and commencing--
+
+                  Nothing wants then
+    But your allowance--and in that our all
+    Is comprehended--
+
+is, according to the old stage direction, to be spoken by Wellborn
+"coming forward." So also Cozimo is directed to "come forward," to
+address to the audience the last lines of "The Great Duke of
+Florence."
+
+Epilogues have rarely been employed as supplementary acts, continuing
+and completing the action of a play, as prologues in modern times have
+been converted into introductory chapters, explanatory of events to be
+presently exhibited upon the scene. Yet the interminable drama of
+"Marie Antoinette," by Signor Paolo Giacometti, in which Madame
+Ristori was wont to perform, presents an instance of this kind. "Marie
+Antoinette" is in five acts, with a prologue exhibiting the queen's
+life at Versailles, in 1786, and an epilogue showing her imprisonment
+in the Conciergerie, and her march to the guillotine in the custody of
+Samson the executioner.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The epilogue spoken, the entertainments are indeed terminated. The
+audience move from their seats towards the portals of the playhouse.
+The lights are being extinguished; the boxes are about to be covered
+over with brown-holland draperies; the prompter has closed his book
+and is thinking of moving homewards.
+
+It remains for us only to interchange "Good-byes"--and to separate.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of the Play, by Dutton Cook
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF THE PLAY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 15151.txt or 15151.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/5/15151/
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Riikka Talonpoika and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.