their lashing sarcasms, at once keenly pointed, confounding, and cutting, to the court and courtiers. In 1711 a procession of wax figures, which had been announced for the birthday of Queen Elizabeth, so much annoyed the government that a secretary of state's warrant was issued for the apprehension of the puppets. Even squalling Punch abandoned his domestic brawls for public feuds, and was at the corners of the streets gibbering and gabbling for or against the existing order of things. At the close of our period female politicians abounded. Lady Sunderland, second daughter of Marlborough, and commonly called the "little Whig," had, like her mother, a beautiful head of hair; and with her fair tresses she was wont to angle for the hearts of the Tories, by receiving at her toilette all those votes or interests she wished to secure while they stood by.* At public places the political party to which a lady belonged was known by the arrangement of her patches. In the Spectator, No. 81, is a humorous description of a beautiful Whig, a lady who had a natural mole, like a patch, upon the Tory side of the brow, by which she was sometimes mistaken for an ally by her political opponents, and thus, like a privateer under false colours, she often sunk an unwary enemy by an unexpected broadside. At the theatre the female Whigs and Tories sat upon opposite sides of the house, while those ladies who had not declared themselves, patched their faces on both sides of the brow, making the whole house a mosaical piece of political patch-work. "What phantoms we are, and what phantoms we pursue!" Notwithstanding Walpole's profligate maxim, though he found his corrupt court-plaster a cure for all sores in those places immediately under his control, yet the stage levelled its anathemas still strongly at him and all his works, so that he at last, by act of parliament, (oh! those acts!) prohibited the acting of any plays without a license from the lord chamberlain, which act continues to this day, exhibiting a monument of his tyranny to hide his profligacy, and which will account for the English drama ever since being so insipid and uninteresting, as it now is. Well might Byron say: "But, and I grieve to name it, plays Are drugs, mere drugs, sir, now-a-days." So will they continue, as long as authors are obliged to submit their genuine thoughts to be pruned down by the government reader; for every compromised sentiment is as unsavoury as unripe fruit. * Walpole's Reminiscences. In the year 1692 was born John Mottley, the author of the renowned jest book, "Joe Miller," which he addressed to a comedian of that name, but who contributed nothing but the name toward its compilation. Mottley wrote five plays, and some other works of no high repute. He held a low situation in the custom-house, which he relinquished. The first pantomime performed with grotesque characters was at Drury-lane, in 1702. The following six lines are from "The Curiosities of Literature :" "When Lun appear'd, with matchless art and whim, He gave the power of speech to every limb; They were written on the occasion of Garrick once introducing a speaking harlequin. During the eighteenth century there was a theatrical fracas, which created as much stir, though it did not last so long, as the O. P. row did in the nineteenth. "Oh! what a row, what a rumpus, and a rioting!" The livery servants showed off in most insolent arrogance and rudeness. When they attended their masters or mistresses, they were allowed seats in the gallery gratis; and their numbers, their union, and their confidence gave them unlimited power. "I am he," writes a representative of one of these dramatic censors, "that keeps time by beating with my cudgel against the boards in the gallery at an opera: I am he that am touched so properly at a tragedy, when the people of quality are staring at each other during the most important incidents: when you hear in a crowd a cry in the right place, a hum when the point is touched in a speech, or a buzz or a set up when it is the voice of the people, you may conclude it is began or joined by Thomas Trusty.' Their criticisms were at times of higher character and more troublesome. "When Cleomines or Jane Shore was introduced, dying of hunger, a shower of crusts would be hurled upon the stage." "" This audacious conduct was continued until its provoking insolence was such as to cause them to be excluded, in the month of May, 1737, "when the excluded, to the number of three hundred, armed with offensive weapons of various kinds, assaulted Drury-lane Theatre, broke open the doors in hostile array and defiance, and carried the stage by storm; although the Prince of Wales and several of the royal family were present." * Spectator, No. 96. "After a vain attempt to read the riot act, so as to make it to be heard in the midst of this pandemonium of uproar, the rioters were quelled by force, and thirty ringleaders were captured and sent to prison. Upon this Mr. Fleetwood, the manager, received a threatening letter from one of this tawdry crew, in which he insisted that the footmen should occupy the gallery as a right, and that if it was closed against them, they would come in a body and pull it down. In consequence of this abominable threat a guard of fifty soldiers were placed at the theatre; a custom which is still continued ;"* "Fixed as sentinels-all eye, all ear.” In the beginning of the reign of James I. Ben Jonson was the writer and arranger of the court masques and pageants. Anthony Munday (a citizen and draper) arranged and wrote all the city pageants from 1580 to 1621. He also wrote "A Survey of London," and several dramatic pieces. "Elkanah Settle was the city poet. He was a poor tool: his talent was not vivid enough to permit him to be long seen in this situation; "Some as justly fame extols For lofty lines in Smithfield's drolls;' SWIFT. so he became a player of buffooneries, and acted as a dragon in the fooleries of Bartholomew fair, where monkeys were performers, in appropriate costumes, with Punch; and the edifiers were regaled with the pathetic drama of 'Patient Grizzle,' and some edifying incidents from Scripture. Attended by the higher ranks."† "Why should we not these pageantries despise, Whose worth but in our want of reason lies." DRYDEN. Besides the theatre and opera, some other exhibitions of the dramatic class came into great favour: of these the most powerful was the puppet-show of Mr. Powell. In his little theatre interludes upon all subjects, sacred or profane, were acted by puppets; but whether the play was Scriptural or historical, Punch was always the principal figure, and his jests formed the main amusement. Thus, in a sacred interlude representing the deluge, Punch and his blowsy wife were introduced dancing merrily in the ark. The following advertisement will give an idea of this exhibition : "At Punch's Theatre, in the little piaza, Covent Garden, will be presented an opera called the State of Innocence or Fall of Man,' with a variety of scenes and machines, particularly the scene of paradise in its primitive state, with birds, beasts, * Gentleman's Magazine. + Pepys. and all its ancient inhabitants; the subtlety of the serpent in betraying Adam and Eve, &c., with a variety of diverting interludes, too many to be inserted here. No person to be admitted with masks or riding-hoods,* nor any money to be returned after the curtain is up. Boxes, 2s. ; pit, 1s. : beginning exactly at seven o'clock." Wynstanley's Water Theatre was another of the minor theatres. It stood at the lower end of Piccadilly, and was distinguished by a wind-mill at the top. The exhibitions here varied according to the season and the humour of the public, and consisted chiefly of the representation of sea-deities, nymphs, mermaids, tritons, and other aquatic personages, playing and spouting out water, or sometimes mingled with fire. The price of admission to the boxes varied from 4s. to 2s. 6d. ; the pit, from 3s. to 2s.: there was also a sixpenny gallery. The quantity of water used on extraordinary occasions amounted to eight hundred tuns. In 1703 Mrs. Tofts was the first English woman-singer on the stage. Cibber extols her "as a handsome woman, with a sweet, silver-toned voice." In the year 1741 Garrick was a wine merchant. His first performance was on the 19th of October, same year, taking the part of King Richard. An original hand-bill has been preserved. To show the difference in the habits and religious feelings between that period and this, he performed on the stage on Christmas day, 1742, at the Theatre, Goodman's-fields, London. I shall now give a few miscellaneous remarks upon the theatre from various authors, and then close the chapter. Rhyncer states that there were "twenty-three play-houses in London, six open at a time." Tobacco was taken in them, (smoked.) In some of them there were seats on benches for a penny. They were well attended. Edward Allen, a player, got rich, and founded Dulwich College out of the proceeds. They played on all days, Sundays not excepted: the performance was by daylight. Prynne says, in 1629 Frenchwomen performed in Black Friar's play-house. The Globe Theatre, in which Shakspeare's plays were all principally performed, was covered with thatch till burnt down in 1613. Puttenham says (6 they used visors in his time to save a number of actors: it was not thought meet to trouble princes' chambers with too many folk.” Tom Coryate, the "leg stretcher," says, speaking of the theatre at Venice: "The * Masks and riding-hoods were still used in the galleries of the royal theatres, for the purpose of licentious intrigue, in the eighteenth century. Powell, who regarded himself as a teacher of religion and morals, was anxious to guard against such profanations. house is very beggarly and base in comparison of our stately play-house in England; neyther can their actors compare with ours for apparell, showes, and musicke. Here I observed certaine things that I never saw before, for I saw women act, though I have heard that it hath been sometimes used in London; and they performed with as good a grace, action, gesture, and whatsoever convenient for a player, as ever I saw any masculine actor."* In the time of Shakspeare twenty pounds was considered a good receipt. In 1747 Mrs. Rich was satisfied if her receipt per night reached three figures to enumerate the amount; but in Kean's time the nightly expense, when he performed, was £484. According to Green, a modern diarist, there were seats for special persons on the stage in the early part of the eighteenth century. It does not appear that the taste in costume was always well arranged, for in Addison's time he has witnessed his own play, with the Roman Cato acted in a bag-wig, like a London alderman. No wonder he committed suicide! Such is a brief review of the English stage. How useful might the theatre be made, at once a school of virtue, manners, history, and sentiment; for it combines within itself poetry, prose, music, painting, scenery, and decorations. These, in the hands of genius and talent, would tend to the formation of good citizens, and excite a feeling of good taste upon all subjects. To conclude, "The play should let you see Not only what you are, but ought to be." CIBBER. COURT AMUSEMENTS. "The learning of antiquity is always venerable." BOILEAU. QUEEN ELIZABETH was much attached to dramatic representations. About 1569 she formed the singing children of her royal chapel into a company of theatrical performers. Soon after this she formed a second society of players, under the title of "Children of the Revels." By these two companies all Lilly's plays, many of Shakspeare's, and some of Jonson's were first performed. One of those boys, Salathiel Pavy, died 1601, aged thirteen * Crudities. |