CHAPTER I.

THE STAGE IN QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN.

I. THE DRAMATISTS.

Theatres in London-Their interior-Stage absurdities-Realism in Queen Anne's reign-Colley Cibber-Actor and manager-His quarrel with Pope-His plays-'She Would and She Would Not '-'The Careless Husband'- The Nonjuror '-'The Provoked Husband'-Scene between Lord and Lady Townly-The Restoration Drama-George Farquhar— His qualities as a dramatist-'The Inconstant-The Recruiting Officer'-The opening scene-The plot described-The finale-Last days of Farquhar -Sir John Vanbrugh-The Relapse-The Provoked Wife'-Daily life of a woman of fashion-'The Confederacy '— Sir Richard Steele as a dramatist-The Tender Husband'-Steele as a Moralist-The Funeral'-Scene between Lady Harriet and Lady Charlotte The Conscious Lovers'-Dennis's attack-Plot of Steele's Comedy Scene between Tom and Phillis-Scene between Bevil and Myrtle Mrs Centlivre-Her life-story-Her dramatic compositions— 'The Busybody'—'The Perplexed Lovers''The Cruel Gift'-'The Wonder'-A comedy of intrigue-Scene between Don Felix, Violante, Flora, and Don Pedro-'A Bold Stroke for a Wife'-The virtuosoAaron Hill-A life of activity-Hill's tragedies-Opera of 'Rinaldo'Scenic effects-Hill as a speculator and projector-His tragedy of 'Zara' -Scene between Osman and Zara-Hill as a poet.

IN

N the London of. Queen Anne's time, and among the higher classes and the well-to-do citizens, the Stage was a sufficiently popular institution. Yet the public to which it appealed was limited in numbers; and of the four theatres which the metropolis then possessed, only two were really successful-Drury Lane, and the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket. The Dorset Gardens Theatre, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, erected from Sir Christopher Wren's designs, was open at intervals down to the close of 1706, but nothing flourished there, and in

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1709 it was pulled down. Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, associated with so many successes in the reign of Charles II., was rebuilt by Christopher Rich about 1707, but closed during the remainder of Queen Anne's reign.

A fairer fortune attended Drury Lane, where 'Her Majesty's Servants,' as they had the right to call themselves, presented a great variety of entertainments, in order to retain their hold upon the public. Tragedy, comedy, farce, concert, ballet, and pantomime-each in its turn appeared on the boards of Old Drury,' under the management of the energetic Rich, and afterwards of Wilks, and Cibber. Its interior is thus described by Misson :-The pit is an amphitheatre, filled with benches without backboards, and adorned and covered with green cloth. Men of quality, particularly the younger sort, some ladies of reputation and virtue, and abundance of damsels that hunt for prey, sit all together in their place, higgledy-piggledy, chatter, toy, play, hear, hear not. Further up, against the wall, under the first gallery, and just opposite to the stage, rises another amphitheatre, which is taken up by persons of the best quality, among whom are generally very few men. The galleries, whereof there are only two rows, are filled with none but ordinary people, particularly the upper one.' The upper gallery was free to the footmen whose masters or mistresses were seated in other parts of the theatre. Frequently their noisy and irregular behaviour gave great offence. Mr Ashton quotes a satirical notice from The Female Tatler, December 9, 1719, which bears upon this subject :- Dropped, near the Playhouse, a bundle of horsewhips, designed to belabour the footmen in the Upper Gallery, who almost every night this winter have made such an intolerable disturbance that the players could not be heard, and their masters were obliged to hiss them into silence. Whoever has taken up the said whips, is desired to leave 'em with my Lord Rake's porter, several

noblemen resolving to exercise 'em on their backs, the next frosty morning.'

The inimitable pen of Addison has furnished us with some touches illustrative of things as they were in the theatres of his time. He quotes the observation of Aristotle, that ordinary writers of tragedy endeavour to raise terror and pity in their audience, not by the force and dignity of their language, but by the dresses and decorations of the stage. There is something of this kind,' he says, ' very ridiculous in the English theatre. When the author has a mind to terrify us, it thunders; when he would make us melancholy, the stage is darkened. But among all our tragic artifices, I am the most offended at those which are made use of to inspire us with magnificent ideas of the persons that speak. The ordinary method of making an hero, is to clap a large plume of feathers upon his head, which rises so very high, that there is often a greater length from his chin to the top of his head, than to the sole of his foot. One would believe that we thought a great man and a tall man the same thing. This very much embarrasses the actor, who is forced to hold his neck extremely stiff and steady all the while he speaks; and, notwithstanding any anxieties which he pretends for his mistress, his country, or his friends, one may see by his action that his greatest care and concern is to keep the plume of feathers from falling off his head. . . . As these. superfluous ornaments upon the head make a great man, a princess generally receives her grand eur from those additional encumbrances that fall into her tail: I mean the broad sweeping train that follows her in all her motions, and finds constant employment for a boy who stands behind her to open and spread it to advantage. I do not know how others are affected at this sight, but I must confess, my eyes are wholly taken up with the page's part; and as for the queen, I am not so attentive

to anything she speaks, as to the right adjusting of her train, lest it should chance to trip up her heels, or incommode her, as she walks to and fro upon the stage.'

The following paragraph might be studied with advantage by living creators of the realistic drama. Another mechanical method of making great men,' continues our humorist,' and adding dignity to kings and queens, is to accompany them with halberts and battle-axes. Two or three shifters of scenes, with the two candle-snuffers, make up a complete body of guards upon the English stage; and, by the addition of a few porters dressed in red coats, can represent above a dozen legions. I have sometimes seen a couple of armies drawn up together upon the stage, when the first has been disposed to do honour to his generals. It is impossible for the reader's imagination to multiply twenty men into such prodigious multitudes, or to fancy that two or three hundred thousand soldiers are fighting in a room of forty or fifty yards in compass. Incidentsof such nature should be told, not represented.' But if this maxim of Addison's were generally accepted, what would become of the modern melodrama, which loves to put upon the stage a London mob or an Anglo-Egyptian army?

The behaviour of the audience, even in the better parts of the house, was not such as would now-a-days find toleration. 'I was at the tragedy of Macbeth,' says Addison, and unfortunately placed myself under a woman of quality, that is since dead, who, as I found: by the noise she made, was newly returned from France.. A little before the rising of the curtain, she broke out into a loud soliloquy, "When will the dear witches enter? " and immediately upon their first appearance, asked a lady that sat three boxes from her, on her right hand, if those witches were not charming creatures. A little after, as Betterton was in one of the finest speeches of the play, she shook her fan at another lady, who sat as far on the