A SEVEN YEARS' RIVALRY.
The great players, by giving action to the poet's words, illustrated
the quaintly expressed idea of the sweet singer who says:
"What Thought can think another Thought can mend."
Nevertheless, the theatres had not proved profitable. The public
greeted acrobats with louder acclaim than any poet. King William
cared more to see the feats of Kentish Patagonians than to listen
to Shakspeare; and, for a time, Dogget, by creating laughter,
reaped more glittering reward than Betterton, by drawing tears.
The first season, however, of the eighteenth century was commenced
with great spirit. Drury Lane opened with Cibber's "Love Makes a
Man," an adaptation from Beaumont and Fletcher. Cibber was the
Clodio; Wilks, Carlos; and Mrs. Verbruggen, Louisa. Five other new
pieces were produced in this brief season. This was followed by the
"Humour of the Age," a dull comedy, by Baker, who generally gave
his audience something to laugh at, and showed some originality in
more than one of his five pieces. He was an attorney's son, and an
Oxford University man; but he took to writing for the stage, had an
ephemeral success, and died early, in worse plight than any author,
even in the days when authors occasionally died in evil condition.
The third novelty was Settle's mad operatic tragedy, the "Siege of
Troy,"[72] with a procession in which figured six white elephants!
Griffin returned to the stage from the army, with "Captain" attached
to his name, and played Ulysses. The dulness and grandeur of Settle's
piece were hardly relieved by Farquhar's sequel to his "Constant
Couple," "Sir Harry Wildair." The reputation of the former piece
secured for the latter a _run_ of nine nights, so were successes
calculated in those early days. Wilks laid down Sir Harry to enact
the distresses of Lorraine, in Mrs. Trotter's new play, "The Unhappy
Penitent," which gave way in turn for Durfey's intriguing comedy,
"The Bath, or the Western Lass," in which Mrs. Verbruggen's "Gillian
Homebred," made her the darling of the town. In the same season,
the company at Lincoln's Inn Fields produced a like number of new
pieces. In the first, the "Double Distress," Booth, Verbruggen,
Mrs. Barry, and Mrs. Bracegirdle wasted their talents. Mrs. Pix,
the author, having failed in this mixture of rhyme and blank verse,
failed in a greater degree in her next play in prose, the "Czar of
Muscovy." Booth and Mrs. Barry could do nothing with such materials.
The masters forthwith enacted the "Lady's Visiting Day," by Burnaby.
In this comedy, Betterton played the gallant lover, Courtine, to the
Lady Lovetoy of Mrs. Barry. The lady here would only marry a prince.
Courtine wins her as Prince Alexander of Muscovy; and the audience
laughed as they recognised therein the incident of the merry Lord
Montagu wooing the mad Duchess-Dowager of Albemarle, as the Empress
of China, and marrying her under that very magnificent dignity, to
any inferior to which the Duchess had declared she would not stoop.
The hilarity of the public was next challenged by the production
of Granville (Lord Lansdowne's) "Jew of Venice,"--"improved"
from Shakspeare, who was described as having furnished the rude
sketches which had been amended and adorned by Granville's new
master-strokes![73]
Gildon's dull piece of Druidism, "Love's Victim, or the Queen of
Wales," appeared and failed,[74] notwithstanding its wonderful cast;
but Corye's "Cure for Jealousy" brought the list of novelties merrily
to a close; for though the audience saw no fun in it, they did in the
anger of the author--a little man, with a whistle of a voice, who
abandoned the law for the stage, and was as weak an actor as he was
an author. He attributed his failure to the absurd admiration of the
public for Farquhar. He was absurd enough to say so in print, and
to speak contemptuously of poor George's "Jubilee Farce." In those
wicked days, literary men loved not each other!
In 1702, the Drury Lane Company brought out eight new pieces,
and worked indefatigably. They commenced with Dennis's "Comical
Gallant,"--an "improved" edition of Shakspeare's "Merry Wives," in
which Powell made but a sorry Falstaff. This piece gave way to one
entirely original, and very much duller, the "Generous Conqueror,"
of the ex-fugitive Jacobite, Bevil Higgons. In this poor play, Bevil
illustrated the right divine and impeccability of his late liege
sovereign, King James; denounced the Revolution, by implication; did
in his only play what Dr. Sacheverell did in the pulpit, and made
even his fellow Jacobites laugh by his bouncing line, "The gods and
god-like kings can do no wrong."
Laughter more genuine might have been expected from the next novelty,
Farquhar's "Inconstant;" but that clever adaptation of Fletcher's
"Wild-Goose Chase," with Wilks for Young Mirabel, did not affect
the town so hilariously as I have seen it do when Charles Kemble,
gracefully, but somewhat too demonstratively, enacted the part
of that gay, silly, but lucky gentleman. Still less pleased were
the public with the next play, tossed up for them in a month, and
condemned in a night, Burnaby's "Modish Husband." Of course, this
husband, Lord Promise, is a man who loves his neighbour's wife, and
cares not who loves his own. An honest man in this comedy, Sir Lively
Cringe, does not think ill of married women, and he is made a buffoon
and more, accordingly. When Lady Cringe, in the dark, holds her lover
Lionel with one hand, her husband with the other, and declares that
her fingers are locked with those of the man she loves best in the
world, Sir Lively believes her. In this wise did the stage hold the
mirror up to nature at the beginning of the last century.
Not more edifying nor much more successful was Vanbrugh's "False
Friend," a _comedy_ in which there is a murder enacted before
the audience! What the house lost by it was fully made up by the
unequivocal success of the next new piece, the "Funeral, or Grief
à la Mode." The author was then six and twenty years of age; this
was his first piece, and his name was Steele. All that was known of
him then was, that he was a native of Dublin, had been fellow-pupil
at the Charter House with Addison, had left the University without
a degree, and was said to have lost the succession to an estate in
Wexford by enlisting as "a _private gentleman_ in the Horse Guards;"
a phrase significant enough, as the proper designation of that body,
at this day, is "Gentlemen of her Majesty's Royal Horse Guards." He
was the wildest and wittiest young dog about town, when in 1701,
he published, with a dedication to Lord Cutts, to whom he had been
private secretary, and through whom he had been appointed to a
company in Lord Lucas's Fusiliers, his _Christian Hero_, a treatise
in which he showed what he was not, by showing what a man ought to
be. It brought the poor fellow into incessant perplexity, and even
peril. Some thought him a hypocrite, others provoked him as a coward,
all measured his sayings and doings by his maxims in his _Christian
Hero_, and Dick Steele was suffering in the regard of the town, when
he resolved to redeem the character which he could not keep up to the
level of his religious hero, by composing a comedy! He thoroughly
succeeded, and there were troopers enough in the house to have beat
the rest of the audience into shouting approbation, had they not
been well inclined to do so spontaneously. The "Funeral" is the
merriest and the most perfect of Steele's comedies. The characters
are strongly marked, the wit genial, and not indecent. Steele was
among the first who set about reforming the licentiousness of the
old comedy. His satire in the "Funeral" is not against virtue, but
vice and silliness. When the two lively ladies in widow's weeds meet,
Steele's classical memory served him with a good illustration. "I
protest, I wonder," says Lady Brumpton (Mrs. Verbruggen), "how two of
us thus clad can meet with a grave face." The most genuine humour in
the piece was that applied against lawyers; but more especially in
the satire against undertakers, and all their mockery of woe. Take
the scene in which Sable (Johnson) is giving instructions to his
men, and reviewing them the while:--"Ha, you're a little more upon
the dismal. This fellow has a good mortal look--place him near the
corpse. That wainscot-face must be a-top o' the stairs. That fellow's
almost in a fright, that looks as if he were full of some strange
misery, at the end o' the hall! So!--But I'll fix you all myself.
Let's have no laughing now, on any provocation. Look yonder at that
hale, well-looking puppy! You ungrateful scoundrel, didn't I pity
you, take you out of a great man's service, and show you the pleasure
of receiving wages? Didn't I give you ten, then fifteen, then twenty
shillings a-week, to be sorrowful? And _the more I give you the
gladder you are_!" This sort of humour was new, no wonder it made a
sensation. Steele became the spoiled child of the town. "Nothing,"
said he, "ever makes the town so fond of a man as a successful play."
Old Sunderland and younger Halifax patronised Steele for his own and
for Addison's sake; and the author of the new comedy received the
appointment of _Writer of the Gazette_.
After a closing of the houses during Bartholomew Fair, the Drury Lane
Company met again, and again won the town by Cibber's "She Would
and She Would Not." This excellent comedy contrasts well with the
same author's also admirable comedy, the "Careless Husband." In the
latter there is much talk of action; in the former there is much
action during very good talk. There is much fun, little vulgarity,
sharp epigrams on the manners and morals of the times, good-humoured
satire against popery, and a succession of incidents which never
flags from the rise to the fall of the curtain. The plot may be not
altogether original, and there is an occasional incorrectness in the
local colour; but taken as a whole, it is a very amusing comedy, and
it kept the stage even longer than Steele's "Funeral."
Far less successful was Drury with the last and eighth new play of
this season, Farquhar's "Twin Rivals," for the copyright of which the
author received £15, 6s. from Tonson. Farquhar, perhaps, took more
pains with this than with any of his plays, and has received praise
in return; but after Steele and Cibber's comedies, the "Twin Rivals"
had only what the French call a _succès d'estime_.
To the eight pieces of Drury, Lincoln's Inn opposed half a dozen,
only one of which has come down to our times, namely, Rowe's
"Tamerlane," with which the company opened the season:--Tamerlane,
Betterton; Bajazet, Verbruggen; Axalla, Booth; Arpasia, Mrs. Barry.
In this piece, Rowe left sacred for profane history, and made his
tragedy so politically allusive to Louis XIV. in the character of
Bajazet, and to William III. in Tamerlane, that it was for many
years represented at each theatre on every recurring 4th and 5th
of November, the anniversary of the birth and of the landing of
King William. In Dublin, the anniversary of the great delivery from
"Popery and wooden shoes," was marked by a piece of gallantry on
the part of the Lord Lieutenant, or, in his absence, the Lords
Justices--namely, by arrangement with the manager, admission to the
boxes was free to every lady disposed to honour the theatre with her
presence!
Rowe has made a virtuous hero of Tamerlane, without at all causing
him to resemble William of Orange; but, irrespective of this, there
is life in this tragedy, which, with some of the bluster of the
old, had some of the sentiment of a new school. In 1746, when the
Scottish Rebellion had been entirely suppressed, it was acted on the
above anniversaries with much attendant enthusiasm, Mrs. Pritchard
speaking an epilogue written for the occasion by Horace Walpole, and
licensed by the Chamberlain, the Duke of Grafton, notwithstanding a
compliment to his Grace, which Walpole thought might induce the Duke,
out of sheer modesty, to withhold his official sanction. Tamerlane
has been a favourite part with many actors. Lady Morgan's father, Mr.
Owenson, made his first appearance in it, under Garrick's rule; but
a Tamerlane with a strong Irish brogue and comic redundant action
created different sensations from those intended by the author, and
though the audience did not hiss, they laughed abundantly.
To "Tamerlane" succeeded "Antiochus the Great," a tragedy, full
of the old love, bombast, and murder. The author was a Mrs. Jane
Wiseman, who was a servant in the family of Mr. Wright, of Oxford,
where, having filled her mind with plays and romances, she wrote this
hyper-romantic play, and having married a well-to-do Westminster
vintner, named Holt, she succeeded in seeing it fail, as it well
deserved to do.[75]
It seemed as if the king-killing in the plebeian lady's tragedy
required some counter-action, and accordingly, Lord Orrery's
posthumous play of "Altemira" was next brought forward. There is
a true king and also an usurper in this roaring yet sentimental
tragedy, in whom Whigs and Tories might recognise the sovereigns whom
they respectively adored. One monarch himself complacently remarks:--
"Whatever crimes are acted for a crown,
The gods forgive, when once that crown's put on."
To touch the Lord's anointed is an unpardonable sin; but if the Whigs
were rendered uneasy by this sentiment, they probably found comfort
in the speech wherein _Clerimont_[76] (Betterton), while owning
respect for the deprived monarch, confesses the fitness of being
loyal to the one who displaced him.
To these three tragedies succeeded three now-forgotten comedies, "The
Gentleman Cully," in which Booth fooled it to the top of his bent, in
the only English comedy which ends without a marriage. The "Beaux'
Duel," and the "Stolen Heiress," two of Mrs. Carroll's (she had not
yet become Mrs. Centlivre) bolder plagiarisms from old dramatists,
brought the Lincoln's Inn season to a close.
In the season of 1703, Drury Lane produced seven, and Lincoln's Inn
Fields six, pieces. The first, at Drury, was Baker's "Tunbridge
Walks," the manners of which smack of the old loose times. Then came
Durfey's "Old Mode and the New," a long, dull, satirical comedy, on
the fashions of Elizabeth's days and those of Anne. Durfey was then
at his twenty-eighth comedy, and in the decline of his powers. Little
flourished about him save that terrific beak which served for a nose,
and also for an excuse for his dislike to have his likeness taken.
In other respects, the wit, on whose shoulder Charles had leaned, to
whose songs William had listened, and at them Anne even then laughed,
was in vogue, but not with the theatrical public.
A new author tempted that public, in April, with a comedy, entitled
"Fair Example, or the Modish Citizens," by Estcourt, a strolling
player, but soon afterwards a clever actor in this company, a man
whom Addison praised, and a good fellow, whom Steele admired.
His career had, hitherto, been a strange one. He ran away from a
respectable home at Tewkesbury, when fifteen, to play Roxalana with
some itinerants, and fled from the company, on being pursued thither
by his friends, in the dress lent him by a kind-hearted girl of the
troop. In this dress, Estcourt made his way on foot to Chipping
Norton, at the inn of which place the weary supposed damsel was
invited to share the room of the landlord's daughter. Then ensued
a scene as comic as any ever invented by dramatist, but from which
the parties came off with some perplexity, and no loss of honour.
The young runaway was caught and sent home, and thence he was
despatched to Hatton Garden, and bound by articles to learn there the
apothecary's mystery. It is not known when he broke from these bonds;
but it is certain that he again--some say after he had himself failed
in the practice of the mystery he had painfully learned, took to the
joys and sorrows, trials, triumphs, and temptations of a wandering
player's life till 1698, or about that period, when he appeared in
Dublin, with success. He was between thirty and forty years of age,
when he came to London with the "Fair Example," an adaptation, like
the "Confederacy," of Dancour's "Modish Citizens," but not destined
to an equal success, despite the acting of Cibber and Norris, and
that brilliant triad of ladies, Verbruggen, Oldfield, and Powell.
In June, Mrs. Carroll served up Molière's "Médecin malgré lui," in
the cold dish called "Love's Contrivance;" and, in the same month,
Wilkinson and his sole comedy, "Vice Reclaimed," appeared; and are
now forgotten.
Next, Manning tried the judgment of the town with his "All for the
Better," a comedy, of triple plots--stolen from old writers. Manning
resembled Steele only in leaving the University without a degree. If
Steele obtained a Government appointment after his dramatic success,
Manning acquired a better after his failure. He was, first, Secretary
to our Legation in Switzerland; and, secondly, Envoy to the Cantons;
and was about as respectable in diplomacy as in the drama.
Gildon's play of the "Patriot, or the Italian Conspiracy," the last
produced this year,[77] with Mills as Cosmo de Medici, and Wilks as
his son, Julio, merits notice only as an instance of the mania for
reconstructing accepted stories. Gildon, towards the close of his
wayward and silly career, transmuted Lee's ancient Roman "Lucius
Junius Brutus," into the modern Italian "Patriot." The public
consigned it to oblivion.
During this season, when "Macbeth" was the only one of Shakspeare's
plays performed,[78] the theatre in Dorset Gardens was prepared for
opera; and in the summer the company followed Queen Anne to Bath,
by command; but there went not with them the most brilliant actress
of light comedy that the two centuries had hitherto seen, Mrs.
Verbruggen, that sparkling Mrs. Mountfort whose father, Mr. Perceval,
was condemned to death for treason against King William, on the day
her husband was murdered by Lord Mohun! The Jacobite father was,
however, pardoned. Mrs. Mountfort, or Verbruggen, left a successor
equal, perhaps superior, to herself, in Mrs. Oldfield.
The season of 1703, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, was distinguished by
the success of Rowe's "Fair Penitent,"--the one great triumph of
the year.[79] The other novelties require only to be recorded. That
most virulent and unscrupulous of Whig partizan-writers, Oldmixon,
opened the season with his third and last dramatic essay, "The
Governor of Cyprus," supported by Betterton, Booth, Powell, and
Mrs. Barry. Oldmixon was a poor dramatist, but he made a tolerable
excise officer,--a post which he acquired by his party-writings.
He would not, however, be remembered now, but for the pre-eminence
for dirt and dulness which Pope has awarded him in the _Dunciad_.
The entire strength of the company, Betterton excepted, was wasted
on the comedies,--"Different Widows," by a judicious, anonymous
author; "Love Betrayed," Burnaby's last of a poor four, and that a
marring of Shakspeare's "Twelfth Night;" and "As you find It" (for
Mrs. Porter's benefit, in April). This was the only play written by
Charles Boyle, grandson of the dramatist Earl of Orrery, to which
title he succeeded, four months after his comedy (the dullest in the
English language) had failed. Boyle may have been a worthy antagonist
of Bentley, touching the genuineness of the "Epistles of Phalaris;"
but he could not vie with such writers of comedy as Cibber, Farquhar,
and Steele. The production of the "Fickle Shepherdess,"--a ruthless
handling of Randolph's fine pastoral, "Amyntas,"--pleased but for
a few nights, though every woman of note in the company, and all
beautiful, played in it,--making love to, or prettily sighing at, or
as prettily sulking with, each other. The great event of the season
was, undoubtedly, the "Fair Penitent:" Lothario, Powell; Horatio,
Betterton; Altamont, Verbruggen; Calista, Mrs. Barry; Lavinia, Mrs.
Bracegirdle.
Rowe had, in his "Tamerlane," thundered, after the manner of Dryden:
had tried to be as pathetic as Otway, and had employed some of the
bombast of Lee. But he lacked strength to make either of the heroes
of that resonant tragedy vigorous. In devoting himself, henceforth,
to illustrate the woes and weaknesses of heroines, he discovered
where his real powers lay; and Calista is one of the most successful
of his portraitures. There is gross and unavowed plagiarism from
Massinger's "Fatal Dowry," but there is a greater purity of sentiment
in Rowe, who leaves, however, much room for improvement in that
respect, by his successors. Richardson saw this, when he made of his
Lovelace a somewhat purified Lothario. Rowe, however, notwithstanding
the weak point in his Fair Penitent, who is more angry at being
found out, than sorry for what has happened, has been eminently
successful; for all the sympathy of the audience is freely rendered
to Calista. The tragedy may still be called an acting play, though
it has lost something of the popularity it retained during the last
century, when even Edward, Duke of York, and Lady Stanhope, enacted
Lothario and Calista, in the once famous "private theatre" in Downing
Street. Johnson's criticism is all praise, as regards both fable and
treatment. The style is purely English, as might be expected of a
writer who said of Dryden, that--
"Backed by his friends, th' invader brought along
A crew of foreign words into our tongue,
To ruin and enslave our free-born English song.
Still, the prevailing faction propped his throne,
And to four volumes let his plays run on."
Shakspeare, in name, at least, re-appears more frequently on the
stage during the Drury Lane season of 1703-4, when "Hamlet," "King
Lear," "Macbeth," "Timon of Athens," "Richard III.," the "Tempest,"
and "Titus Andronicus," were performed.[80] These, however, were the
"improved" editions of the poets. The novelties were, the "Lying
Lover," by Steele; "Love, the Leveller;" and the "Albion Queens."
It was the season in which great Anne fruitlessly forbade the
presence of vizard-masks in the pit, and of gallants on the stage;
recommended cleanliness of speech, and denounced the shabby people
who occasionally tried to evade the money-takers.[81] Steele, in his
play, attempted to support one of the good objects which the Queen
had in view; but in striving to be pure, after his idea of purity,
and to be moral, after a loose idea of morality, he failed altogether
in wit, humour, and invention. He thought to prove himself a good
churchman, he said, even in so small a matter as a comedy; and in
his character of comic poet, "I have been," he says, "a martyr and
confessor for the church, for this play was damned for its piety."
This is as broad an untruth as anything uttered by the "Lying Lover"
himself, who, when he does express a mawkish sentiment after he has
killed a man in his liquor, can only be held to be "a liar," as
before. Steele was condemned for stupidity in a piece, the only ray
of humour in which pierces through the dirty, noisy, drunken throng
of gallows birds in Newgate. That Steele seriously intended his play
to be the beginning of an era of "new comedy," is, however, certain.
In the prologue, it was said of the author--
"He aims to make the coming action move
On the tried laws of Friendship and of Love.
He offers no gross vices to your sight,--
Those too much horror raise, for just delight."
Steele's comedy was a step in a right direction; and his great fault
was pretending to be half-ashamed of having made it. That it had
a "_clear_ stage and no favour," is literally true. It was one of
the first pieces played without a mingling of the public with the
players;--an evil fashion, which was not entirely suppressed for
threescore years after Queen Anne's decree, when Garrick proved more
absolute than her majesty. It was a practice which so annoyed Baron,
that proudest of French actors, that to suggest to the audience in
the house the absurdity of it, he would turn his back on them for a
whole act, and play to the audience on the stage. Sometimes the noise
was so loud, that an actor's voice could be scarcely heard. "You
speak too low!" cried a pit-critic to Defresne. "And you too high!"
retorted the actor. The offended pit screamed its indignation, and
demanded an abject apology. "Gentlemen," said Defresne, "I never felt
the degradation of my position till now;" ... and the pit interrupted
the bold exordium by rounds of applause, under which he resumed his
part.
Of the other pieces produced this season at Drury Lane, it will
suffice to say, that "Love the Leveller" was by "G. B., gent.,"
who ascribes its failure to his having adopted the counsel of
friends, and who consoles himself by the thought, that "it found so
favourable a reception that the best plays hardly ever met with a
fuller audience." Happy man! his piece was at least damned by a full
house. The "Albion Queens" was an old play, by Banks, which, dealing
with the affairs of England and Scotland, was held to be politically
dangerous; but good Queen Anne now licensed it, on the report of its
inoffensiveness made by "a nobleman;" and its dulness, relieved by
good acting, delighted our easy forefathers for half a century.
Lincoln's Inn failed to distinguish itself this season. Eton had no
reason to be proud of the comedy of its _alumnus_, Walker, "Marry, or
Do Worse;" and in the tragedy of "Abra Mulé," with its similes, which
continually run away with their rider, the young Master of Arts,
Trapp, shows that he was as poor a poet,[82] in his early days, as
that translation of Virgil, which so broke the rest of Mrs. Trapp,
proved him to be in his later years, when he was D.D., and Professor
of Poetry. Dennis's "Liberty Asserted" only demonstrated how heartily
he hated the French; and as there was no dramatist who did so, in the
same degree, when the French and the Pretender were very obnoxious,
some years later, this thunder of Dennis was revived to stimulate
antipathies. Queen Anne's Scottish historiographer did nothing for
the English stage, by his comedy of "Love at First Sight," and
farces like the "Stage Coach," the "Wits of Woman," and "Squire
Trelooby," are only remarkable because Betterton and the leading
actors played in them as readily as in "first pieces."
During May Fair, the theatre was closed, some of the actors playing
there, at Pinkethman's booth. In the same season they played before
the Queen at St. James's, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," with
Betterton as Falstaff, which he subsequently acted for his own
benefit. This piece, and also "Julius Cæsar," "Othello," and "Timon
of Athens," were the plays by or _from_ Shakspeare, which were played
this season.
The season of 1704-5, at Drury Lane, now prospering, to the
considerable vexation of Kit Rich, chief proprietor, who felt himself
unable to avoid paying his company their salaries, is notable for the
production of Cibber's "Careless Husband." He who now reads it for
the first time may be surprised to hear that in this comedy a really
serious and eminently successful attempt to reform the licentiousness
of the drama was made by one who had been himself a great
offender.[83] Nevertheless the fact remains. In Lord Morelove we have
the first lover in English comedy, since licentiousness possessed it,
who is at once a gentleman and an honest man. In Lady Easy, we have,
what was hitherto unknown, or laughed at,--a virtuous, married woman.
It is a conversational piece, not one of much action. The dialogue is
admirably sustained, not only in repartee, but in descriptive parts.
There is some refinement manifested in treating and talking of things
unrefined, and incidents are pictured with a master's art. Cibber's
greatest claim to respect seems to me to rest on this elegant and
elaborate, though far from faultless comedy. So carefully did he
construct the character of the beautiful and brilliant coquette, Lady
Betty Modish, whose waywardness and selfishness are finally subdued
by a worthy lover, that he despaired finding an actress with power
enough to realise his conception. It was written for Mrs. Verbruggen
(Mountfort), but she was now dead; Mrs. Bracegirdle _might_ have
played it; but "Bracy" was not a member of the Drury Lane company.
There was, indeed, Mrs. Oldfield, but Colley could scarcely see more
in her than an actress of promise. Reluctantly, however, he entrusted
the part to her, forboding discomfort;[84] but there ensued a triumph
for the actress and the play, for which Colley was admiringly
grateful to the end of his life. To her, he confessed, was chiefly
owing the success, though every character was adequately cast. He
eulogised her excellence of action, and her "personal manner of
conversing." He adds, "There are many sentiments in the character of
Lady Betty Modish that I may almost say, were originally her own, or
only dressed with a little more care than when they negligently fell
from her lively humour; had her birth placed her in a higher rank
of life, she had certainly appeared in reality what in this play she
only excellently acted, an agreeably gay woman of quality, a little
too conscious of her natural attractions."
Neither Cibber's friends nor foes seem to have at all enjoyed
his success. They would not compromise their own reputation by
questioning the merit of this rare piece of dramatic excellence,
but they insinuated or asserted that he was not the author. It
was written by Defoe, by the Duke of Argyll, by Mrs. Oldfield's
particular friend, Maynwaring! Congreve, who had revelled in
impurity, and stoutly asserted his cleanliness, ungenerously
declared, "Cibber has produced a play consisting of fine gentlemen
and fine conversation, all together, which the ridiculous town, for
the most part, likes." Congreve had not then forgiven the ridiculous
world for receiving so coldly his own last comedy, "The Way of the
World." Dr. Armstrong has more honestly analysed the play, and
pointed out its defects, without noticing its merits; but Walpole,
no bad judge of a comedy of such character, has enthusiastically
declared that it "deserves to be immortal." It has failed in that
respect, because its theme, manners, follies, and allusions are
obsolete, to say nothing of a company to follow even decently
the original cast, which included Sir Charles Easy, Wilks; Lord
Foppington, Cibber; and Lady Betty Modish, Mrs. Oldfield.
Steele's "Tender Husband, or the Accomplished Fools," in which he had
Addison for a coadjutor, was produced in April 1704.[85] Addison's
share therein was not avowed till long subsequently; but it was
handsomely acknowledged, at last, by Steele, in the _Spectator_.
In the concluding paper of the seventh volume, Steele alluded to
certain scenes which had been most applauded. These, he said, were
by Addison; and honest Dick added, that he had ever since thought
meanly of himself in not having publicly avowed the fact. This comedy
was chiefly a satire on the evils of romance reading; and was of a
strictly moral, yet decidedly heavy tendency; but with a Biddy Tipkin
(Mrs. Oldfield), to which there has been, as to Lady Betty Modish, no
efficient successor. There was a good end in both these plays. The
other novelties, "Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus," an opera; "Gibraltar, or
the Spanish Adventurer," a failure of Dennis's; "Farewell Folly," by
Motteux; and the "Quacks," by Swiney--oblivion wraps them all.
In this season Dick Estcourt made his first appearance in London as
Dominic, in the "Spanish Friar." Of Shakspeare's plays, "Hamlet,"
"Henry IV.," and "Macbeth," were frequently repeated during the
season.
"Arsinoe," which I have mentioned above, merits a special word in
passing, as being the first attempt to establish opera in England,
after the fashion of that of Italy. "If this attempt," says Clayton,
the composer, who understood English no better than he did music,
"shall be a means of bringing this manner of music to be used in
my native country, I shall think my study and pains very well
employed." The principal singer was Mrs. Tofts, who for two years
had been singing, after the play, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, against
Marguerite de l'Epine, the pupil of Greber, and subsequently the
ill-favoured but happy wife of Dr. Pepusch, who fondly called her
Hecate--she answering good-humouredly to the name. The Earl of
Nottingham (son of Lord Chancellor Finch), and the Duke of Bedford,
who lost by dice more than his father made by the "Bedford Level,"
patronised and went into ecstasy at the song and shake of "the
Italian lady," as Marguerite was called. The proud Duke of Somerset,
who was as mean as he was proud, and, according to Lord Cowper, as
cowardly as he was arrogant, supported native talent, in Mrs. Tofts;
as did also that Duke of Devonshire, whom Evelyn wonderingly saw
lose, with calmness, at Newmarket, £1600, and who was afterwards the
munificent lover, and heart-stricken mourner, of another beautiful
vocalist, Miss Campion. Mrs. Tofts had another supporter in her too
zealous servant, Anne Barwick, who one night went to Drury Lane, and
assailed Marguerite with hisses and oranges, to the great disgust
of her honest mistress. In such discord did opera commence among
us. "Arsinoe," however, had a certain success, towards which the
composer, Clayton, contributed little; and he was destined to do less
subsequently.
The season of the rival company was passed in two houses:--at
Lincoln's Inn Fields, from October till the April of 1705, when the
company with the "four capital B.'s," Betterton, Booth, Mrs. Barry,
and Mrs. Bracegirdle, removed to the house in the Haymarket, built
for them by Vanbrugh, under a subscription filled by thirty persons
of quality, at £100 each, for which they received free admissions for
life. Under his licence at Lincoln's Inn Fields, Betterton produced
nothing of note this season but Rowe's "Biters," a satirical comedy,
which failed. At the end of the season he consigned his licence
to Vanbrugh, under whom he engaged as leading tragedian. Vanbrugh
opened on the 9th of April, with an opera, the "Triumph of Love."
It failed, as did old plays inadequately filled, and new pieces, by
Mrs. Pix, Swiney, and one or two other obscure writers, including
Chaves, author of a condemned comedy, the "Cares of Love." Baker
describes Chaves as a person of no consideration, on the ground that
he dedicated his play "to Sir William Read, the Mountebank," who, I
think, could very well afford to pay the usual fee. With these poor
aids, and many mischances, the first season at the Queen's Theatre,
on the site of our present Opera House, came to an unsatisfactory
conclusion.
The season of 1705-6, at Drury Lane, with a few nights at Dorset
Gardens, would have been equally unsatisfactory, but for one great
success to balance the failures of repatching of old pieces,
worthless new comedies, and the fruitless struggle of fashionable
patrons to sustain Cibber's tragedy, "Perolla and Izadora." The great
success was Farquhar's "Recruiting Officer," played on the 8th April
1706, with this cast. Plume, Wilks; Brazen, Cibber; Kite, Estcourt;
Bullock, Bullock; Balance, Keene; Worthy, Williams; Costar Pearmain,
Norris; Appletree, Fairbank; Sylvia, Mrs. Oldfield; Melinda, Mrs.
Rogers; Rose, Mrs. Susan Mountfort; Lucy, Mrs. Sapsford.
This lively comedy was so successful that Tonson, in a fit of
liberality, gave the author fifteen pounds, and a supplementary half
crown for the copyright. The money was welcome; for, between having
married, or rather being married by, a woman who pretended she had a
large fortune, when she really had only a large amount of love for
Farquhar, who was more attracted by the pretence than the reality;
between this, his commission sold, his patrons indifferent, his
family cares increasing, and his health declining, poor George was
in sorry need, yet buoyant spirits. Critics foretold that this play
would live for ever; but unfortunately it has been found impossible
to separate the wit and the lively action from the more objectionable
parts, and we may not expect to see its revival. Farquhar has drawn
on his own experiences in the construction, and all the amiable
people in the piece were transcripts of good Shrewsbury folk, whose
names have been preserved. Farquhar immortalised the virtues of his
hosts, and did not, like Foote, watch them at the tables at which he
was a guest, to subsequently expose them to public ridicule.
"Santlow, famed for dance," first bounded on to the stage during this
season, and the heart of Mr. Secretary Craggs bounded in unison.
Miss Younger, too, first trod the boards, March 1706, when about
seven years old, as the Princess Elizabeth, in "Virtue Betrayed;"
but, perhaps, the most notable circumstance of the year was, that
the chapel in Russell Court was then building;[86] but it was under
difficulties, to extricate it from which the Drury Lane company
played "Hamlet," and handed over the handsome proceeds to the
building committee!
Vanbrugh's two comedies, the "Confederacy" and the "Mistake" (the
latter still acted under the title of "Lovers' Quarrels"), Rowe's
"Ulysses," the "Faithful General," by an anonymous young lady, a
forgotten tragedy, the "Revolution of Sweden," by Mrs. Trotter,
an equally forgotten comedy, "Adventures in Madrid," by fat Mrs.
Pix, tragic, comic, and extravaganza operas, by Lansdown, Durfey,
and others,--all this novelty, a fair company of actors, troops of
dancers, and a company of vocalists with Dick Leveridge and Mrs.
Tofts at the head of them, failed to render the often broken but
prolonged season of 1705-6, which begun in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and
terminated at the house in the Haymarket, profitable.
In many respects it did not deserve to be, for Vanbrugh, with more
wit and humour, and more judgment in adaptation than Ravenscroft,
sought to bring back comedy to the uncleanliness in which the latter
writer had left it. There came a cry, however, from the outer world
against this condition of things. Lord Gardenstone, a lord of seat,
I believe, and not a lord of state, as it is said in the North,
indignantly remarked of the "Confederacy":--"This is one of those
plays which throw infamy on the English stage and general taste,
though it is not destitute of wit and humour. A people must be in
the last degree depraved among whom such public entertainments are
produced and encouraged. In this symptom of degenerate manners we
are, I believe, unmatched by any nation that is, or ever was, in the
world."
In the "Confederacy," Dogget's fame as an actor culminated. He
dressed Moneytrap with the care of a true artist. On an old,
threadbare, black coat, he tacked new cuffs and collar to make
its rustiness more apparent. Genest, quoting Wilks, adds that
the neck of the coat was stuffed so as to make the wearer appear
round-shouldered, and give greater prominency to the head. Wearing
large square-toed shoes with huge buckles over his own ordinary
pair, made his legs appear smaller than they really were. Dogget,
we are told, could paint and mould his face to any age. Kneller
recognised in him a superior artist. Sir Godfrey remarks that "_he_
could only copy nature from the originals before him, but that
Dogget could vary them at pleasure and yet keep a close likeness."
It must be confessed the public were more pleased with this piece
than with Rowe's "Ulysses," in which Penelope gave so bright an
example of conjugal duty and maternal love, in the person of Mrs.
Barry, to the Ulysses of Betterton, and the Telemachus of Booth. That
public would, perhaps, have cared more for the grace and nature of
Addison's "Rosamond," produced at Drury Lane, in March 1707, with
its exquisite flattery cunningly administered to the warrior who
then dwelt near Woodstock, had it been set by a less incompetent
musician than William's old band-master, Clayton, the conceited
person, who undertook to improve on Italian example, and who violated
the accents and prosody of our language, as well as all rules of
musical composition. It is singular, however, that neither Arne
nor Arnold have been much more successful, in resetting Addison's
opera, than Clayton himself. The piece was played but three times,
and the author's witty articles against the absurdities of Italian
opera are supposed, by some writers, to have owed their satire to
the failure of "Rosamond." One great and happy success Addison
achieved through this piece, which compensated for any disappointment
springing from it. Poetical warrant of its excellence was sent to
him from many a quarter; but the brightest wreath, the most elegant,
refined, graceful, and the most welcome of all, emanated from his
own University. Addison, charmed with the lines, inquired after the
writer, and discovered him in an undergraduate of Queen's College,
the son of a poor Cumberland clergyman, and named Thomas Tickell.
It was a happy day when both met, for then was laid the foundation
of a long and tender friendship. To "Rosamond" and his own musical
lines upon it, Tickell owed the felicity of his life, as Addison's
friend at home, his secretary in his study, his associate abroad,
his assistant and substitute in his office of Secretary of State,
and, finally, less happy but not less honourable, the executor of his
patron's will, and the editor of his patron's works.
"Rosamond" was produced during one of the most unlucky seasons at
Drury Lane, 1706-7; during which Swiney parted from Rich, took
the Haymarket, from Vanbrugh, at a rent of £51[87] per night, and
carried with him some of the best actors from Drury. "The deserted
company," as they called themselves, advertised the "Recruiting
Officer," for their benefit, "in which they pray there may be
singing by Mrs. Tofts, in English and Italian; and some dancing."
The main stay of the season was the "Recruiting Officer." Estcourt
was advertised as "the true Serjeant Kite," against Pack, who played
it at the Haymarket. At Drury, where Rich depended chiefly on opera,
it was said that "sound had got the better of sense;" and the old
motto, "_vivitur ingenio_," was no longer applicable. It is at the
Haymarket, says the dedication of "Wit without Money," to Newman, the
prompter, that "wit is encouraged, and the player reaps the fruit
of his labours, without toiling for those who have always been the
oppressors of the stage."
[Illustration: (Mrs. Bracegirdle.)]
In the season of 1706-7, at the Haymarket, Mrs. Oldfield and Mrs.
Bracegirdle first played together,--the younger actress ultimately
winning or vanquishing the town. Cibber, too, joined the company, at
the head of whom remained Betterton and Mrs. Barry. Every effort was
made to beat opera, by a production of pieces of a romantic or
classical cast; and Addison's pen, in prologue on the stage, or in
praise in the _Spectator_, was wielded in the cause of the players,
his neighbours.
Mrs. Centlivre, and Mrs. Manley, contributed now-forgotten plays.
The former,--the "Platonic Lady," in which there is the unpleasant
incident of a couple of lovers, who ultimately prove to be brother
and sister. Mrs. Manley, in "Almyna," recommended what she had little
practised,--unlimited exercise of heroic virtue. Some vamped-up old
pieces, with new names, were added, and subscription lists were
opened, to enable the company, whose interests were espoused by Lord
Halifax, to make head against opera. The greatest attempt to overcome
the latter was made, by producing a truly and drily-classical
tragedy, by Edmund Smith, called "Phædra and Hippolytus," which the
public would not endure above three nights,[88] to the disgust and
astonishment of Addison, as recorded in the _Spectator_. Smith, or
Neale rather--the former being a name he adopted from a benevolent
uncle--was not the man to give new lustre to the stage. Scarcely a
year had elapsed since he had been expelled from Oxford University;
the brilliancy of his career there could not save him from that
disgrace. His success on the stage, when he made this his sole
attempt, was perhaps impeded by the exactions of actors and actresses
at rehearsal, to suit whose caprices he had to write fresh verses,
and furnish them with "tags," whereby to secure applause, as they
made their _exit_. The play fell, and the author with it. The once
brilliant scholar descended to become a sot. The once best-dressed
fop of his day, became known by the nickname of "Captain Rag;" and
as neither his wild life nor his careless style of costume seriously
affected his great personal beauty, the women, tempering justice with
clemency, called him the Handsome Sloven! This scholar, poet, critic,
and drunkard, attempted to recover his reputation by writing a
tragedy on the subject of Lady Jane Grey; but he died in the attempt.
A greater dramatist than he died this season in a blaze of triumph
from the stage, under the dull cloud of poverty at home--George
Farquhar. His joyous "Beaux' Stratagem," first played on the 8th of
March 1707, was written in six painful weeks. Tonson gave him £30
for the right of printing, and this, with what he received from the
managers, solaced the last weeks of the life of the ex-captain, who
had sold his commission, and had been deluded by a patron who had
promised to obtain preferment for him. Farquhar had lost everything,
but sense of pain and flow of spirits. He died in April 1707, while
the public were being enchanted by his comedy, so rich in delineation
of character and in variety of incident. It was thus cast: Aimwell,
Mills; Archer, Wilks; Scrub, Norris; Foigard, Bowen (then newly come
from Ireland);[89] Boniface, Bullock; Sullen, Verbruggen (his last
original character; the stage was thoughtful of his orphan children
as it was of those of Farquhar); Gibbet, Cibber; Count Bellair,
Bowman; Sir Charles Freeman, Keen; Lady Bountiful, Mrs. Powell; Mrs.
Sullen, Mrs. Oldfield; Cherry, Mrs. Bicknell; Dorinda, Mrs. Bradshaw.
This piece was the great glory of the Haymarket season, 1706-7.
The season of 1707-8 was the last for a time of the two opposing
houses, and it requires but a brief notice. Powell at Drury Lane was
weak as leading tragedian against Betterton at the Haymarket, and
Rich, the manager, produced no new piece. At the rival house the
only novelties were Cibber's adaptations of two or three forgotten
plays, the bricks with which he built up his, at first "hounded," but
ultimately successful, "Double Gallant," in which he played Atall;
the same author's "Lady's Last Stake," a heavy comedy; and Rowe's
"Royal Convert," a heavier tragedy of the times of Hengist and Horsa.
In this play, the courtly author bade for the bays (which were not to
encircle his brows till the accession of George I.), by introducing
a complimentary prophecy alluding to Queen Anne and the then
much-canvassed Union of England and Scotland. This was, perhaps, not
worse than the references made by the savage Saxon Rodogune to Venus,
and to the Eagle that bore Jove's thunder! There are, nevertheless,
some stately scenes in this play. Of its failure, Rowe did not
complain, he simply, on printing it, quoted the words, "Laudatur et
alget," on the title-page. Critics have thought that the story was
of too religious a texture to please. It was too obscure to excite
interest.
At the end of this season the two companies were _ordered_, by the
Lord Chamberlain, to unite; and they were not indisposed to obey.
The patent for Drury Lane was then held by Rich, and Sir Thomas
Skipwith, who had formerly held a larger share. _The Monthly Mirror_,
for March 1798, says that Rich's father was an attorney, to one of
whose clients Sir Thomas owed a large sum of money. Being unable to
pay it, he put up a part of his theatrical patent to auction, and
Rich bought the share for £80! In Christopher Rich's time a _quarter_
share was sold to Colman for £20,000. Sir Thomas now consigned what
share he held to Colonel Brett--a man more famous, as the husband of
the divorced wife of Charles Gerard, second Earl of Macclesfield,
of whom fiction still makes the mother of Savage, the poet,--and as
the father of Anne Brett, George I.'s _English_ mistress, than for
aught else, except it be that he was the friend of Colley Cibber. It
was by Colonel Brett's influence that the union of the companies was
effected, under the patent held by him and Rich; and henceforward
the great house in the Haymarket was given up to Swiney and Italian
opera, at the following prices for admission, which will be found
to form a strong contrast with those at present extracted from the
British pocket:--Stage-boxes, 10s. 6d.; Boxes, 8s.;[90] Pit, 5s.;
Lower Gallery, 2s. 6d.; Upper Gallery, 1s. 6d.
I have stated above that the union of the companies was the result
of an order from the Lord Chamberlain. How absolute was the
authority of this official may be gathered from various incidents
on record. Cibber cites one to this effect. Powell, the actor,
holding controversy on theatrical matters, at Will's Coffee House,
was so excited as to strike one of the speakers on the opposite side.
Unluckily, this speaker was a kinsman of the master or manager of
the house where Powell played, and he rushed to the Chamberlain's
office to obtain redress, that is vengeance. In the absence of
the supreme officer, the Vice-Chamberlain took up the quarrel. He
_probably_ ordered the actor to offer an apology; and he _certainly_
shut up Drury Lane Theatre, because the manager, who had received
no communication from him, had permitted Powell to appear before
such reparation was made. The embarrassed company of comedians were
not allowed to resume their calling for two or three days, and thus
serious injury was inflicted on such actors as were paid only on
the days of performance. This was in King William's reign, but the
power was not less, nor less absolutely exercised in the reign of
Queen Anne; and on this very occasion which led to the Chamberlain's
order for the union of the companies. Great dissension had arisen at
Drury Lane by a new arrangement with respect to benefits, whereby the
patentees took a third of the receipts. The more discontented went
over to the Haymarket; others remained, protested, and sought for
redress at the legal tribunal. Cibber will best tell what followed:--
"Several little disgraces were put upon them, particularly in the
disposal of parts in plays to be revived; and as visible a partiality
was shown in the promotion of those in their interest, though their
endeavours to serve them could be of no extraordinary use. All this
while the other party were passively silent, till one day, the actor
who particularly solicited their cause at the Lord Chamberlain's
office, being shown there the order signed for absolutely silencing
the patentees, and ready to be served, flew back with the news to
his companions, then at a rehearsal, at which he had been wanted;
when being called to his part, and something hastily questioned by
the patentee for his neglect of business, this actor, I say, with an
erected look and a theatrical spirit, at once threw off the mask,
and roundly told him: 'Sir, I have now no more business here than
you have. In half an hour you will neither have actors to command,
nor authority to employ them.' The patentee who, though he could
not readily comprehend his mysterious manner of speaking, had just
glimpse of terror enough from the words to soften his reproof into
a cold formal declaration, that 'if he would not do his work he
should not be paid.' But now, to complete the catastrophe of these
theatrical commotions, enters the messenger, with the order of
silence in his hands, whom the same actor officiously introduced,
telling the patentee that the gentleman wanted to speak with him,
from the Lord Chamberlain. When the messenger had delivered the
order, the actor, throwing his head over his shoulder, towards the
patentee, in the manner of Shakspeare's Harry VIII. to Cardinal
Wolsey, cried: 'Read o'er that! and then to breakfast, with what
appetite you may!' Though these words might be spoken in too
vindictive and insulting a manner to be commended, yet, from the
fulness of a heart injuriously treated, and now relieved on that
instant occasion, why might they not be pardoned? The authority of
the patent, now no longer subsisting, all the confederated actors
immediately walked out of the house, to which they never returned,
till they became themselves the tenants and masters of it."
Let me note here that in May 1708, Vanbrugh wrote to Lord
Manchester:--"I have parted with my whole concern (the Queen's
Theatre, Haymarket) to Mr. Swiney, only reserving my rent, so he is
entire possessor of the Opera, and most people think will manage it
better than anybody. He has a good deal of money in his pocket, that
he got before by the acting company, and is willing to venture it
upon the singers." This proves that the lack of prosperity, which
marked the end of the last century, did not distinguish the beginning
of the new.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] The Virgin Prophetess, or the Fate of Troy.
[73] Second edition. In this piece Bassanio (Betterton) is the most
prominent character; and though the whole piece was converted into a
comedy, Dogget is said to have acted Shylock with much effect, and
without buffoonery. Granville gave the profits of the play to one who
needed them, Dryden's son.
[74] This seems inaccurate. The author says it was well received.
[75] The _Biographia Dramatica_ expressly says that it was with the
profits of this play that she and her husband set up a tavern in
Westminster. Whincop also seems to imply that the piece was a success.
[76] Clorimon.
[77] This is an assumption not justified by the facts. All of this
chapter is a mere copying from Genest; and though Genest puts "All
for the Better," and "The Patriot" last in his list, it is only
because there is no record when they were produced.
[78] "Timon of Athens" was performed at Drury Lane, 5th July 1703.
[79] Scarcely accurate. Downes says that it was "a very good play
for three acts; but failing in the two last, answer'd not their
expectation," p. 46.
[80] "The Taming of the Shrew" also--5th July 1704.
[81] See Genest ii. 296, for copy of this edict.
[82] "Abra Mulé" is pronounced by Genest to be a fairly good tragedy.
It was certainly very successful, for it was played fourteen times.
[83] This is most unfair to Cibber, whose comedies are particularly
inoffensive.
[84] Incorrect. Cibber's doubts were dispelled by Mrs. Oldfield's
playing of Leonora in "Sir Courtly Nice" at Bath two seasons
previously. He wrote Lady Betty Modish expressly for her.
[85] 23d April 1705.
[86] The bill says, "Repairing and fitting up."
[87] Should be £5 for every acting day, and not to exceed £700 a year.
[88] It was played four times. Genest, ii. 370.
[89] Bowen came from Ireland about 1689, nearly twenty years before.
[90] In this season the prices for Boxes seem to have been 15s., 10s.
6d., and 8s.
[Illustration: THOMAS DOGGET.]