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diff --git a/15151-8.txt b/15151-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b819f11 --- /dev/null +++ b/15151-8.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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 archæological 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 Æsop and the Fine Gentleman, in his farce of "Lethe." +Æsop 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 £10 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 £9 2s. 6d., and eight players of +interludes were awarded incomes, of £3 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 Abbé 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 Abbé 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 Abbé 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 Abbé 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 Abbé 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 Abbé Le +Blanc, "on account of the irreverence with which he had treated +Shakespeare." There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Abbé, 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 Abbé 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 Abbé +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 employé 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 £400 +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 £200 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 £1000 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--£2 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 £2 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 £8 8s. or £10 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 £6 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 £1 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 £320, 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 £1 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 £2 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 "Mosé 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 Camélias"[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 Camélias" 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 personæ_, 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, £100. Drury Lane advertisements, £64 8s. 6d.; +Covent Garden ditto, £66 11s. The papers paid £200 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 personæ_, 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 à 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 Péché," written about the middle of +the thirteenth century, and ascribed to Robert Grossetête, 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 £1 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 £200. 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 à 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 £500 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 personæ._ + +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 Théâtres" state, regarding the French stage, that +after the disuse of the old chorus in 1630, "à la place du chant qui +distinguoit les actes et qui marquoit les repos nécessaires, on +introduisit des joueurs d'instrumens, qui d'abord furent placés sur +les aîles du théâtre, où ils exécutoient différens airs avant la +commencement de la pièce et entre les actes. Ensuite ils furent mis au +fond des troisième loges, puis aux secondes, enfin entre le théâtre et +la parterre, où ils sont restés." + +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. Planché, 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 Sallé, 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'impératrice 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 fût impossible +aux spectateurs," writes a biographer of the lady, "de voir autre que +le travail de ses jambes dont le temps avait respecté l'agilité et les +formes pures et délicates!" + +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 £3000 to £5000 were +often expended, and on more public occasions £10,000 and even £20,000. +"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, Oceaniæ, 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 £1000! 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 £40 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 Cæsar 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 £600 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 personæ_ 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 £900, 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 grâce_ 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 Cæsar," 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 £20,000, 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 Æsopus 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 Cæsar," +Brutus is visited in his tent by the ghost of the murdered Cæsar. 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 Cæsar, 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 personæ_ 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 Duretête, 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 personæ_. 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 grâce;_ 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 personæ_ 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 £250. + +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 véritable_, his +Excellency Prince Talleyrand, _in propriâ personâ_, 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 Masqué," 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 réserve +et dans une immobilité 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. Véron, +writing of his experiences as manager of the Paris Opera House forty +years ago, affirms: _"Il y a des beautés de jour et des beautés du +soir; une peau brune, jaune, ou noire, devient blanche à éclat de la +lumière; les cheveux noirs réussissent mieux aussi au théâtre 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. Véron 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 Théâtre 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 Prophète" 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 £1 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 £1 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 Cæsar;" 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 personæ_. 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 personæ_ +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 célèbre_, 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 "Ariâne" 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 facetiæ. 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 à 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 personæ_. 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 £8 for a play, but +after that date there was a considerable rise in prices. In 1613 +Daborne received £20 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 £12 and "the overplus of the second day." He had +demanded £20 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 £20 down was regarded as a +higher rate of remuneration than £12 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 £500; 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 £400, +and he received £100 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 £34. +In Garrick's time the charge rose to £64, 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 £4 per week--took a benefit in 1709, when +he received £76 for two-thirds of the receipts upon the ordinary +scale--one-third being deducted by the manager for expenses--and a +further sum of £450 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 £450 at least over and above the £76." +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 £1000. 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 £130. + +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 +£40 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. Véron, 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. Véron rather evades than discusses. + +The chief of the _claqueurs_ in Dr. Véron'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. +Véron. _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. Véron; "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 _dénoûment_ +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 Opéra 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. Véron 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 _débutant_. 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. Véron 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. Véron 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. Véron 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. Véron 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 Athenæum._ + +"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 £18,000, 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 _début_ 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 _coryphée_; +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 _bâton_ 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. Rémy!" 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 Frédéric 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 Cæsar" 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 invités_ 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 défie!'_ 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 métier--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 linguæ_, 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 café 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 _garçon_--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 _farçeurs_. + + + + +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 Liége, 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 personæ_ 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'Abbée, 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 +Académie 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 +vêtements féminins, les formes arrondies par l'art et le coton, +n'excitaient qu'un enthousiasme modéré_." 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 +Abbé 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 Chârenton. + +Mademoiselle de Subligny came to England armed with letters of +introduction from Thiriot and the Abbé 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 Sallé, +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. Sallé, it seems, achieved extraordinary success in the year +1734 at Covent Garden Theatre, which a French journal of that date +describes curiously as the _Théâtre 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. Sallé 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 £10,000. It must be owned, however, that +the story of Mdlle. Sallé'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 première des premières 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 Prévost; the famous +Camargo and her rival Sallé, 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 Grâces_," 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 Académie 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 £4000; 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 +_première 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 à l'Évêque_;" 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-à-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-à-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 personæ_, 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. Planché, 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 archæological 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. Planché may +be regarded as the inventor. Mr. Planché'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. Planché 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. Planché 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 Planché 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 Planché 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. Planché's extravaganzas at the Lyceum +Theatre, when under the management of Madame Vestris. Mr. Planché 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 Véron, the manager, "_Il ne fallait +pas trop chauffer le premier acte; qu'on devait, au contraire, +réserver son courage et ses forces pour enlever le dernier acte et le +dénoûment_." 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 Æsculapius, 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 "Phædra 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 pièce_, 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 pièce_; 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 +"Phædra," 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 15151-8.txt or 15151-8.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. 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