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The theatre was about one hundred feet long, and thirty feet wide, hung
all round with green baize, and crimson festoons. “Ginger beer, apples,
nuts, and a bill of the play,” were cried; the charge for a bill to a
person not provided with one was “a penny.” The seats were rows of
planks, rising gradually from the ground at the end, and facing the
stage, without any distinction of “boxes, pit, or gallery.” The stage
was elevated, and there was a painted proscenium like that in a regular
theatre, with a green curtain, and the king’s arms above, and an
orchestra lined with crimson cloth, and five violin-players in military
dresses. Between the orchestra and the bottom row of seats, was a large
space, which, after the seats were filled, and greatly to the
discomfiture of the lower seat-holders, was nearly occupied by
spectators. There were at least a thousand persons present.
The curtain drew up and presented the “Wandering Outlaw,” with a forest
scene and a cottage; the next scene was a castle; the third was another
scene in the forest. The second act commenced with a scene of an old
church and a market-place. The second scene was a prison, and a ghost
appeared to the tune of the “evening hymn.” The third scene was the
castle that formed the second scene in the first act, and the
performance was here enlivened by a murder. The fourth scene was rocks,
with a cascade, and there was a procession to an unexecuted execution;
for a ghost appeared, and saved the “Wandering Outlaw” from a
fierce-looking headsman, and the piece ended. Then a plump little woman
sung, “He loves and he rides away,” and the curtain drew up to
“Harlequin Faustus,” wherein, after columbine and a clown, the most
flaming character was the devil, with a red face and hands, in a red
Spanish mantle and vest, red “continuations,” stockings and shoes ditto
to follow, a red Spanish hat and plume above, and a red “brass bugle
horn.” As soon as the fate of “Faustus” was concluded, the sound of a
gong announced the happy event, and these performances were, in a
quarter of an hour, repeated to another equally intelligent and
brilliant audience.