Their Majesties' Servants. Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3)

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 £5187 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."

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.

CHAPTER XIV

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.