THE UNITED AND THE DISUNITED COMPANIES.
The names of Betterton, Booth, Wilks, Cibber, Mills, Powell,
Estcourt, Pinkethman, jun., Keen, Norris, Bullock, Pack, Johnson,
Bowen, Thurmond, Bickerstaff--of Mistresses Barry, Bradshaw,
Oldfield, Powell, Rogers, Saunders, Bicknell, Knight, Porter,
Susan Mountfort, and Cross,--indicate the quality of a company,
which commenced acting at Drury Lane, and which, in some respects,
was perhaps never equalled; though it did not at first realise
a corresponding success. Betterton only "played" occasionally,
though he invariably acted well. The new pieces produced failed
to please. The young Kentish attorney, and future editor of
Shakspeare,--Theobald, gave the first of about a score of forgotten
dramas to the stage; but his "Persian Princess" swept it but once
or twice with her train. Taverner, the proctor, who could paint
landscapes almost as ably as Gaspar Poussin, proved but a poor
dramatist; and his "Maid the Mistress," was barely listened to.
Matters did not improve in 1708-9, in which season Brett's share of
the patent was made over to Wilks, Cibber, and Estcourt,--the other
shares amounting to nearly a dozen. The only success of this season
was achieved by Mrs. Centlivre's "Busy Body" (Marplot, by Pack), and
_that_ was a success of slow growth. Baker, who had ridiculed his
own effeminate ways in Maiden ("Tunbridge Walks"), now satirised the
women; but the public hissed his "Fine Lady's Airs," almost as much
as they did Tom Durfey's "Prophets." In the latter piece, rakish,
careless, penniless Tom, laughed at the religious impostors of the
day who dealt with the past dead and with future events; but the
public did not see the fun of it, and damned the play, whose author
survived to write worse. Then there was the "Appius and Virginia,"
of Dennis,--of which nothing survives but the theatrical thunder,
invented by the author for this tragedy,--and the use of which,
after the public had condemned the drama of a man who equally feared
France abroad and bailiffs at home, was always resented by him as a
plagiarism. In this piece, Betterton acted the last of his long list
of the dramatic characters created by him,--Virginius. Shortly after
this took place that famous complimentary benefit for the old player,
when the pit tickets were paid for at a guinea each. The actors could
scarcely get through "Love for Love," in which he played Valentine,
for the cloud of noble patrons clustered on the stage, when guineas
by the score were delicately pressed upon him for acceptance,--and
Mistresses Barry and Bracegirdle supported him at the close; while
the former spoke the epilogue, which was the dramatic apotheosis of
Betterton himself.
On the following June, actors and patentees were at issue; and their
dissensions were not quelled by the Lord Chamberlain closing the
house; from which Rich, of whose oppressions the actors complained,
was driven by Collier, the M.P. for Truro, to whom, for political as
well as other reasons, a licence was granted to open Drury Lane. When
Collier took forcible possession of the house, he found that Rich had
carried off most of the scenery and costumes; but he made the best
of adverse circumstances and a company lacking Betterton and other
able actors; and he opened Drury on November 23rd, 1709, under the
direction of Aaron Hill, with "Aurungzebe," and Booth for his leading
tragedian.
Booth wished to appear in a new tragedy, and Hill wrote in a week
that "Elfrid" which the public damned in a night.[91] Hill was always
ready to write. At Westminster, he had filled his pockets by writing
the exercises of young gentlemen who had not wit for the work; and
by and by he will be writing the "Bastard," for Savage. Meanwhile,
here was "Elfrid," written and condemned. The author allowed that it
was "an unpruned wilderness of fancy, with here and there a flower
among the leaves, but without any fruit of judgment." At this time,
Hill was a young fellow of four and twenty, with great experience and
some reputation. A friendless young "Westminster," he had at fifteen
found his way alone to Constantinople, where he obtained a patron
in the ambassador, the sixth Lord Paget,--a distant relation of the
youthful Aaron. Under the peer's auspices, Hill travelled extensively
in the East; and subsequently, ere he was yet twenty, accompanied Sir
William Wentworth, as travelling tutor, over most of Europe. Later,
his poem of "Camillus," in defence of Lord Peterborough, procured
for him the post of secretary to that brave and eccentric peer, with
whom he remained till his marriage. Then Aaron lived with a divided
allegiance to his wife and the stage, for the improvement of which he
had many an impracticable theory. He would willingly have written a
tragedy for Booth once a week.
Tragedies not being in request, Hill tried farce, and produced his
"Walking Statue," a _screamer_, as improbable as his "Elfrid" was
_unpruned_. The audience would not tolerate it; and Hill came before
them in a few days with a comedy,--"Trick upon Trick," at which the
house howled rather than laughed.[92] Whereupon Hill new-nibbed his
pen, and addressed himself to composition again.
The treasury gained more by the appearance of Elrington, in
"Oroonoko," than by Hill's novelties. Then, the trial of putting the
fairy dancer, Santlow, into boy's clothes, and giving her the small
part of the Eunuch in "Valentinian" to play, and an epilogue to be
spoken in male attire, succeeded so well, that she was cast for
Dorcas Zeal in Charles Shadwell's "Fair Quaker of Deal," wherein she
took the town, and won the heart of Booth. In this character-piece
Flip, the sea-brute, is contrasted with Beau Mizen, the sea-fop;
but the latter is, in some degree, a copy of Baker's Maiden, the
progenitor of the family of Dundreary.
From Collier, there went over to the Haymarket, under Swiney,
Betterton, Wilks, Cibber, Dogget, Mills, Mrs. Barry, Oldfield, and
other actors of mark. Drury had opened with Dryden. The Queen's
Theatre, Haymarket, commenced its season on the 15th of September
1709, with Shakspeare. The play was "Othello," with Betterton in the
Moor; but oh! shade of the bard of Avon, there was between the acts
a performance by "a Mr. Higgins, a posture-master from Holland," and
the critics, silently admiring "old Thomas," loudly pronounced the
feats of the pseudo-Hollander to be "marvellous." The only great
event of the season was the death of Betterton, soon after his
benefit, on the 13th of April 1710, of which I have already spoken at
length.
About this period, the word _encore_ was introduced at the operatic
performances in the Haymarket, and very much objected to by
plain-going Englishmen. It was also the custom of some who desired
the repetition of a song to cry _altra volta! altra volta!_ The
Italian phrase was denounced as vigorously as the French exclamation;
and a writer in the _Spectator_ asks when it may be proper for him to
say it in English, and would it be vulgar to shout _again! again!_
The season of 1710-11 was a languishing one. Players and playgoers
seemed to feel that the great glory of the stage was extinguished
in the death of Betterton and the departure of Mrs. Barry. Collier,
restless and capricious, gave up Drury Lane for opera at the
Haymarket, Swiney exchanging with him. The united company of actors
assembling at the former, contributed £200 a year as a sort of
compensation to Collier, as well as refraining from playing on a
Wednesday, when an opera was given on that night. The Thursday
audiences were all the larger for this; but the inferior actors, who
were paid by the day, felt the hardship of this arrangement, and
noblemen, who espoused the part of the English players against the
foreign singers, expressed an opinion, as they walked about behind
the scenes, that "it was shameful to take part of the actors' bread
from them to support the silly diversions of people of quality."
Booth and Powell shared the inheritance of Betterton, and Mrs.
Bradshaw succeeded to that of Mrs. Barry; but Mrs. Porter was
soon to dispute it with her. The old stock pieces were well cast,
but no new play obtained toleration for above a night or two. Mrs.
Centlivre's "Marplot,"[93] a poor sequel to the "Busy Body," brought
her nothing more substantial than a dedication fee of £40 from the
Earl of Portland, the son of William III.'s "Bentinck." This was
more than Johnson obtained for dedicating his condemned comedy, the
"Generous Husband," to the last of the three Lords Ashburnham, who
were alive in 1710. Poor Elkanah Settle, too, pensioned poet of the
city, and a brother of the Charterhouse, was employed by Booth to
adapt Beaumont and Fletcher's "Knight of the Burning Pestle," which
Elkanah transformed to the "City Ramble," Booth playing Rinaldo.
Settle was so unpopular at this time, that he brought out his play in
the summer season when the town was scantily peopled. The only result
was that it was damned by a thin house instead of a crowded one.
At the close of the season Swiney returned to the Opera; Collier
to Drury Lane, under a new licence to himself, Wilks, Cibber, and
Dogget. Collier withdrew, however, from the management, and the three
actors named paid him £700 a year for doing nothing. From this time
may be dated the real prosperity of the sole and united company of
actors, for whom a halcyon score of years was now beginning. On the
other hand, the opera only brought ruin, and drove into exile its
able but unlucky manager, Swiney. FOOTNOTES:
[91] This is a specimen of one of the greatest difficulties in the
revision of Dr. Doran. He frequently writes of a play as being
damned, which really was played for a few nights with no great
success. In the present case, "Elfrid" was played five times.
[92] The comedy was entitled "Squire Brainless, or, Trick upon
Trick." Neither of these pieces was the ghastly failure Dr. Doran
implies.
[93] Acted six times.
[Illustration: POPE AND DR. GARTH.]