THE OLD DUBLIN THEATRE.
But for a murder in the house of a Mrs. Bungy, Dublin would not have
had its famous old theatre in that locality, which the popular voice
_would_ call by the name of _Smock Alley_ (from the handsome hussies
who lived there), long after Mrs. Bungy's house and those adjacent
to it had been swept away, and the newer and finer edifices were
recorded as standing in "Orange Street." The first theatre in this
questionable locality was erected soon after the Restoration; but
at the period named, this house and theatricals, generally, were
opposed with as much bitterness in Dublin as in Edinburgh.
I learn from Gilbert's "History of Dublin" that, in 1662, the Chapter
of Christchurch expressed its horror at "one of the stipendiaries of
the church having sung among the stage-players in the play-house,
to the dishonour of God's service and disgrace to the members and
ministers of the church." The ultra-religious portion of the Dublin
community hated the theatre, with all their hearts, and to such
persons two little incidents occurred to the play-house in Smock
Alley, which must have been peculiarly pleasant to their humane
yet indignant hearts. One was, that in 1671, the gallery of the
above-mentioned house being over-crowded, fell into the pit. The
consequences, of course, were lamentable, but, you see, those godless
players were acting Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair," and what could be
expected when that satire on the super-righteous was raising a laugh
in the throats of the Philistines? Again, in 1701, a part of the same
house fell in during a representation of Shadwell's "Libertine," and
nothing could seem more natural than this catastrophe, to the logical
bosoms of the upright; for at the devil's jubilee, Satan himself was
present, and carried home with him the lost souls of his children.
Even the play-going public grew a little suspicious of the stability
of the building, but they were re-assured by the easy certificate
of a "Surveyor-general," who asserted that there was no chance of a
failure in the holdfasts and supports of the edifice, _for several
years_! In half-a-dozen years, however, the house was down; and, in
seven months, the new house was open to an eager public. The latter,
however, were not quite so eager to enter as the managers were to
receive them. "So eager were they to open, that they began to play
before the back part of the house was tiled in, which, the town
knowing, they had not half an audience the first night, but mended
leisurely by degrees."[45] It was in the old house that Elrington,
the great support of Drury Lane when Booth was indisposed, ruled
supreme in the hearts and houses of his enthusiastic Irish admirers.
His old patrons never forgot him. "I have known," says one already
quoted, "Tom Elrington in the part of Bajazet to be heard all over
the Blind Quay; and I do not believe you could hear Barry or Mossop
out of the house."
We are here, however, anticipating events. Let us return to
chronological order. In the old houses, heavy classical tragedy seems
to have been most popular; and when Dublin was tired of it, the
company took it to Edinburgh. Rough times of war closed the house;
but when William's authority was firmly established, theatrical
matters looked up again, and in March, 1692, Ashbury, who, with Mr.
and Mrs. Betterton, had instructed the Princess Anne how to speak
and act Semandra, in "Mithridates," when that piece was played at
Whitehall, opened the house with "Othello," playing Iago to the Moor
of Robert Wilks. Among this early company are also to be noted
Booth, Estcourt, Norris, Bowen, and Trefusis, contributions from
England, and the latter so admirable for dancing the rustic clown,
that General Ingoldsby once handed him a £5 note from his box, and
gave him a second when Joe went up to the Castle to thank him,--the
General not recognising him till Trefusis imitated his dialect and
action of the night before.
The ladies were not in force; Mrs. Knightly, Mrs. Ashbury, and Mrs.
Hook, were the principal under Ashbury, who added the names of Quin
and the two Elringtons, and Mrs. Thurmond, to his company, before he
closed a management of about thirty years. In that period, Ashbury
raised the Irish stage to a prosperous and respectable position. His
son-in-law, Thomas Elrington, succeeded him in the management.
Under Ellington's rule, young Stirling first awaked the Irish muse to
tragedy, and Charles Shadwell furnished the house with half-a-dozen
pieces of very inferior merit. Meanwhile, in 1727, Madame Violanti
opened a booth, with her wondrous rope-dancing, and her Lilliputian
company, whose representation of the "Beggar's Opera" excited a
perfect sensation. The Macheath was a Miss Betty Barnes; Polly,
Miss Woffington; Peachum, Master Isaac Sparks; and Filch, Master
Barrington,--all of these were, subsequently, players of more or less
renown.
Up to this time, the best native actor was Wilks, now we have
Peg Woffington; in 1728 appeared the handsome, young Delane, of
Trinity College; his graceful figure, full-toned voice, added to
his zeal and application (both too short-lived), rendered him an
unusual favourite. In the same company were Mr. and Mrs. Ward, whose
daughter, born at Clonmel, was the mother of "the Kembles."
Elrington died in 1732. He was the first actor who played Zanga
in Dublin; much to the admiration of Dr. Young, who thought Mills
mouthed and growled the character overmuch. After Elrington's death,
disorder sprung up. Smock Alley was opposed by a new theatre, erected
in Rainsford Street, in the "Earl of Meath's Liberty," and beyond the
jurisdiction of the mayor. At the former, the company, including,
occasionally, some of the best actors from London, was better than
the house which was so decayed, that a new, a much grander, but
in every other way a less efficient house, was erected in Aungier
Street, at which the tall, cold beauty, the ex-quakeress, Mrs.
Bellamy, mother of George Anne Bellamy, was a principal actress.
A committee of noblemen managed this house, with the usual result
of enormous loss. Dublin having more theatres than could prove
profitable, the old theatre in Smock Alley was pulled down; but a
new one was erected, which was opened in December 1735, with "Love
for Love."[46] In which Don Duart was played by Cashel, subsequently
a popular Macheath. He was one of the many actors who have died, or
received their death-stroke, on the stage. While acting Frankly, in
the "Suspicious Husband," at Norwich, in 1748, he was smitten by
apoplexy and died in a few hours.
The Theatre Royal in Aungier Street had its real opponent in this
house, opened by licence of the Lord Mayor, in the more central
position, in Smock Alley. The house in Rainsford Street was soon
closed. London performers, who were sure of profitable benefits,
went over to both houses; but I much prefer to remark that, at
Aungier Street, in February 1737, Margaret Woffington, her childhood
being past, first appeared as an actress, in the part of Ophelia.
Her beauty, grace, her ease, simplicity, her pretty singing, her
coquetry, and the wonderful "finish" of the male characters she
afterwards assumed, gave a fortune to the theatre, which was only
checked by the famine of the severe winter 1739-40, during which the
houses were closed for three months.
This theatre in Aungier Street had a company so powerful, including
Quin, Delane, and Mrs. Cibber, at the close of the London season,
that, on its re-opening, in 1741, Smock Alley, with Elrington, Isaac
Sparks, and Mrs. Furnival,[47] could not successfully compete with
it; but, in June 1742, Duval, the proprietor, by engaging Giffard,
Mrs. Woffington, and Garrick, turned the scale, and during three of
the hottest months of the hottest summer ever known, attracted crowds
to Smock Alley, and spread fever over the city!
After success, and when the great players had disappeared, came
re-action, empty houses, tumblers, rope-dancers, equestrianism,--and
nightly losses. On the 29th of January 1743, however, the town felt
a new sensation, afforded by the acting of a "young gentleman" in
Richard, at Smock Alley. The Mithridates of the debutant was as
successful as Richard, and then the young actor was known to be
the son of Dr. Sheridan, a young man of three-and-twenty, whose
appearance on the stage brought great vexation to all his friends.
But also much reputation to himself in Richard, Brutus, Hamlet,
Othello, Cato, and the highest walks of comedy.
A curious incident carried Sheridan to the rival house in Aungier
Street. One night in July 1743, his robe for Cato was not forthcoming
from the Smock Alley wardrobe, and Sheridan refused to play without
it. Theophilus Cibber was there among the London birds of passage.
He was cast for Syphax, and his offer to read the part of Cato and
play his own was accepted. Cato and Syphax are never on the stage
together; but in the second act, Theophilus must have been put to it,
for there, Syphax enters close upon the heels of the retiring Cato.
How the "numerous and polite audience" enjoyed the piece thus
represented, I cannot say; a paper war ensued, and Sheridan passed
to the other house. But two houses could not exist, and an agreement
was at length made to consolidate the two companies, and to open at
Aungier Street, whereupon the rejected actors, of course, opened
Smock Alley, and thence came confusion worse confounded, till
Sheridan, quarrelling with the proprietors at Aungier Street,
passed back to Smock Alley, and did something towards retrieving its
fortunes. But he was ill seconded, and in March, 1744, flushed by his
new honours, he crossed the Channel and appeared at Covent Garden.
And now, instead of two companies in one house, Dublin saw one
company alternately playing in two houses, with little profit,
till on the night of February 15th, 1744, "Othello" was given at
Smock Alley, the part of Othello by Spranger Barry (Iago, Wright;
Desdemona, Mrs. Bailey). His noble person, his harmonious voice, his
transitions from love to jealousy, from tenderness to rage, enchanted
the audience, though in some respects the performance was unfinished.
His principal characters were Othello, Pierre, Hotspur, Lear, Henry
V., Orestes, and that once favourite comedy-character with young
tragedians, Bevil, jun. Barry filled the house every night he played;
but, I suppose, a feature of Irish management, he played only
occasionally. Foote, in this his first Irish season, drew a few good
houses, but Barry was the chief attraction. He was opposed by the
old ejected comedians, who opened a temporary house in Capel Street,
which, however, was soon closed.
Under mismanaging committees of noblemen, three dozen in number,
with seven wise men for a quorum, affairs went ill, and Sheridan
was, at length, invited from England to take sole government, and
restore order and profit where anarchy and poverty reigned. This
Sheridan effected, by degrees, aided by his judgment, industry,
zeal, perseverance, and unflinching honesty. During his first
season, 1745-46, he produced, first, Miss Bellamy, on November 11th,
at Aungier Street, in the "Orphan," to the Castalio of Barry, and
his own Chamont; and in the following month Garrick appeared as
Hamlet. In the "Fair Penitent" Garrick, Barry, and Sheridan played
together to the Calista of Mrs. Furnival; and "All for Love" was cast
with Antony, Barry; Ventidius, Sheridan; Cleopatra, Miss Bellamy;
Octavia, Mrs. Furnival; Garrick and Sheridan played Richard and
Hamlet alternately, and each in turn played Iago to Barry's Othello.
The following season brought Barry to England, where he laid the
foundations of a great professional glory which endured as long as
Garrick's, though it was somewhat tarnished and enfeebled, yet still
second only to Garrick's towards its close.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] This refers to the new Smock Alley, 1735.
[46] Should be, "Love Makes a Man."
[47] And Thomas Wright, who seems to have been principal actor.
[Illustration: GARRICK AND MRS. ABINGTON IN THE "SUSPICIOUS HUSBAND."]