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

His retirement from the stage may be laid to the importunity of Mr. Theobald, who urged him to act in a play, for a moment attributed to Shakspeare, the "Double Falsehood." Booth struggled through the part of Julio, for a week, in the season of 1727-28, and then withdrew, utterly cast down, and in his forty-sixth year. Broxham, Friend, Colebatch, and Mead came with their canes, perukes, pills, and proposals, and failing to restore him, they sent him away from London. The sick player and his wife wandered from town to Bath, from the unavailing springs there to Ostend, thence to Antwerp, and on to Holland, to consult Boerhaave, who could only tell the invalid that in England a man should never leave off his winter clothing till midsummer-day, and that he should resume it the day after. From Holland the sad couple came home to Hampstead, and ultimately back to London, where fever, jaundice, and other maladies attacked Booth with intermitting severity. Here, in May 1733, a quack doctor persuaded him that if he would take "crude mercury" it would not only prevent the return of his fever but effectually cure him of all his complaints. As we are gravely informed that, within five days the poor victim "took within two ounces of two pounds weight of mercury," we are not surprised to hear that at the end of that time Booth was in extremis, and that Sir Hans Sloane was at his bedside to accelerate, as it would seem, the catastrophe.

To peruse what followed is like reading the details of an assassination. As if the two pounds, minus two ounces, of mercury were not enough, poor Booth was bled profusely at the jugular, his feet were plastered, and his scalp was blistered; he was assailed in various ways by cathartics, and mocked, I may so call it, by emulsions; the Daily Post announced that he lay a-dying at his house in Hart Street, other notices pronounced him moribund in Charles Street; but he was alive on the morning of the 10th of May 1733, when a triad of prescriptions being applied against him, Cato at length happily succumbed. But the surgeons would not let the dead actor rest; they opened his body, and dived into its recesses, and called things by strong names, and avoided technicalities; and, after declaring everything to be very much worse than the state of Denmark, as briefly described by Hamlet, Alexander Small, the especial examiner, signing the report, added a postscript thereto, implying that "There was no fault in any part of his body, but what is here mentioned." Poor fellow! We are told that he recovered from his fever, but that he died of the jaundice, helped, I think, by the treatment.

A few days subsequently the body was privately interred in Cowley Church, near Uxbridge, where he occasionally resided. A few old friends, and some dearer than friends, accompanied him to the grave. His will was as a kiss on either cheek of his beautiful widow, and a slap on both cheeks of sundry of his relations. To the former he left everything he had possessed, and for the very best of reasons. "As I have been," he says, "a man much known and talked of, my not leaving legacies to my relations may give occasion to censorious people to reflect upon my conduct in this latter act of my life; therefore, I think it necessary to declare that I have considered my circumstances, and finding, upon a strict examination, that all I am now possessed of does not amount to two-thirds of the fortune my wife brought me on the day of our marriage, together with the yearly additions and advantages since arising from her laborious employment on the stage during twelve years past, I thought myself bound by honesty, honour, and gratitude, due to her constant affection, not to give away any part of the remainder of her fortune at my death, having already bestowed, in free gifts, upon my sister, Barbara Rogers, upwards of thirteen hundred pounds, out of my wife's substance, and full four hundred pounds of her money on my undeserving brother, George Booth (besides the gifts they received before my marriage), and all those benefits were conferred on my said brother and sister, from time to time, at the earnest solicitation of my wife, who was perpetually entreating me to continue the allowance I gave my relations before my marriage. The inhuman return that has been made my wife for these obligations, by my sister, I forbear to mention." This was justice without vengeance, and worthy of the sage, of whom Booth was the most finished representative. The generosity of Hester Santlow, too, has been fittingly preserved in the will; the whole of which, moreover, is a social illustration of the times.

In Westminster, "Barton Street" keeps up the actor's name; and "Cowley Street" the remembrance of his proprietorship of a country estate near Uxbridge. To pass through the former street is like being transported to the times of Queen Anne. It is a quaint old locality, very little changed since the period in which Barton built it. No great stretch of imagination is required to fancy the original Pyrrhus and Cato gliding along the shady side, with a smile on his lips and a certain fire in his eye. He is thinking of Miss Santlow!

With Booth slowly dying, and Mrs. Oldfield often too ill to act, the prospects of Drury began to wane in 1728-29. Elrington could not supply the place of the former; nor Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Horton combined, that of the latter. Cibber carefully instructed his son Theophilus in the part of Pistol, which became his one great part, and the appearance of Miss Raftor as Dorinda, in Dryden's version of the "Tempest," on the 2nd of January 1729, marks the first step in the bright and unchequered career of one who is better remembered as Kitty Clive, of whom, more hereafter.131 She was not able to save Cibber's pastoral comedy, "Love in a Riddle," from condemnation by an audience who had the ill-manners, as it was considered, to hiss, despite a royal presence in the house. As the new names rose the old ones fell off, and Congreve and Steele – the first rich and a gentleman, the second needy, but a gentleman, too – died in 1729, leaving no one but Cibber fit to compete with them in comedy. Musical pieces, such as the "Village Opera" and the "Lover's Opera," born of Gay's success, brought no such golden results to their authors or the house, which was still happy in retaining Wilks.

On the other hand, in the Fields, where ballad-opera had been a mine of wealth to astonished managers, classical tragedy took the lead, with Quin leading in everything, and growing in favour with a town whose applause could no longer be claimed by Booth. But classical tragedy reaped no golden harvests. Barford's "Virgin Queen" lives but in a line of Pope to Arbuthnot. The "Themistocles" (Quin) of young Madden, whom Ireland ought to remember as one of her benefactors who was no mere politician, lived but for a few nights.132 Mrs. Heywood succeeded as ill with her romantic tragedy, "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick," which was five acts of flattery to the House of Hanover, some of whose members yawned over it ungratefully. But the "Beggar's Opera" could always fill the house whether Miss Cantrell warbled Polly, with the old cast, or children played all the parts – a foolish novelty, not unattractive. Hawker, an actor, vainly tried to rival Gay, with a serio-comic opera, the "Wedding," and Gay himself was doomed to suffer disappointment; for the authorities suppressed his "Polly," a vapid continuation of the fortunes of Macheath and the lady, and thereby drove almost to the disaffection of which he was accused, not only Gay, but his patrons, the Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, who punished the Court by absenting themselves from its pleasures and duties. The poet, who desired nothing but the joys of a quiet life, a good table, and a suit of blue and silver, all which he enjoyed beneath the ducal roof, happiest of mercer's apprentices, found compensation in publishing his work by subscription, whereby he realised so large a sum as to satisfy his utmost wishes.

Drury Lane was not fortunate in any of its new pieces in the season of 1729-30. It was, perhaps, unfortunate that Mrs. Oldfield, by her recommendation, and by her acting, obtained even partial success for a comedy, by the Rev. James Miller, the "Humours of Oxford." This satirical piece brought the author into trouble with his University, at some of whose members it was aimed, and it did not tend to raise him in the estimation of his congregation in Conduit Street.

The tragedy of "Timoleon" was ruined133 by the zeal of the author's friends, who crowded the house, and as loudly applauded the candle-snuffers and furniture as they did Mills or Mrs. Porter. Martyn, the author, had been a linen-draper, but his epitaph in Lewisham Churchyard describes him as "one of the best bred men in England." He was certainly well connected, but he exhibited more efficiency in colonising Georgia than in writing poetry. His "Timoleon" had neither beauty of style, nor incident.

This season, too, saw the first dramatic attempt of Thomson, in "Sophonisba." Lee's tragedy of that name used to drown the female part of the house in tears; but Thomson's could not stir even his own friends to enthusiasm. They rose from the full-dress rehearsals to which they were invited, dulled in sense rather than touched or elevated. Thomson's play is far less tender than Lee's; his Sophonisba (the last character originally played by Mrs. Oldfield), more stern and patriotic, and less loving. The author himself described her as a "female Cato," and in the Epilogue not too delicately indicated that if the audience would only applaud a native poet,

"Then other Shakspeares yet may rouse the stage,And other Otways melt another age."

"Sophonisba," which Thomson was not afraid to set above the heroine of Corneille, abounds in platitudes, and it was fatal to Cibber, who, never tolerable in tragedy, was fairly hissed out of the character of Scipio, which he surrendered to a promising player, Williams. The latter was violently hissed also on the first night of his acting Scipio, he bore so close a resemblance to his predecessor. Mrs. Oldfield, alone, made a sensation, especially in the delivery of the line,

"Not one base word of Carthage – on thy soul!"

Her grandeur of action, her stern expression, and her powerful tone of voice, elicited the most enthusiastic applause. Exactly two months later, on the 28th of April 1730, she acted Lady Brute, and therewith suddenly terminated her thirty years of service, dying exactly six months after illness compelled her to withdraw.

Before noticing more fully the career of Mrs. Oldfield, let me record here, that on the night she played Lady Brute in the "Provoked Wife," the part of Mademoiselle was acted by Charlotte Charke, the wife of a good singer, but a worthless man, and the youngest child of Colley Cibber.134 There seems to have been a touch of insanity, certainly there was no power of self-control in this poor woman. From her childhood she had been wild, wayward, and rebellious; self-taught as a boy might be, and with nothing feminine in her character or pursuits. With self-assertion, too, she was weak enough to be won by a knave with a sweet voice, whose cruel treatment drove his intractable wife to the stage, where she failed to profit by her fine opportunities.

The corresponding season at Lincoln's Inn Fields was the usual one of an unfashionable house; but Quin, Ryan, Walker, and Boheme were actors who made way against Wilks, Cibber, Mills, and Bridgewater. No new piece of any value was produced; the only incidents worth recording being the playing of Macheath by Quin, for his benefit: and the sudden death of Spiller, stricken by apoplexy, as he was playing in the "Rape of Proserpine." He was inimitable in old men, though he himself was young; but whatever he played, he so identified himself with his character that Spiller disappeared from the eyes and the thoughts of an audience, unconsciously deluded by the artist.

As the town grew, so also did theatres increase; that in Goodman's Fields, and the little house in the Haymarket, were open this season. At the former Giffard and his wife led in tragedy and comedy; but the company was generally weak. Not so the authors who wrote for the house. First among them was Fielding, a young fellow of three and twenty; bred to the law, but driven to the drama by the inability of his father, the General, to supply him with funds. His first play, "Love in Several Masques," was acted at Drury Lane in 1728; his second, and a better, the "Temple Beau," was played at Goodman's Fields.

Ralph, who had been a schoolmaster in Philadelphia, and came to England to thrive by political, satirical, or dramatic writings, and to live for ever in the abuse lavished on him by Pope, supplied a ballad-opera, the "Fashionable Lady," which was intended to rival the "Beggar's Opera." To Macheath-Walker is ascribed a tragedy, the "Fate of Villany;" and Mottley, the disappointed candidate for place, and the compiler of Joe Miller's Jests– Miller being a better joker than he was an actor – wrote for this house his "Widow Bewitched," the last and poorest of his contributions to the stage.

For the Haymarket, Fielding wrote the only piece which has come down to our times, his immortal burlesque-tragedy of "Tom Thumb," in which the weakness and bombast of late or contemporary writers are copied with wonderful effect. Young suffered severely by this; – and the "Oh, Huncamunca! Huncamunca, oh!" was a dart at the "Oh, Sophonisba! Sophonisba, oh!" of Jamie Thomson. Of the other pieces I need not disturb the dust. Let me rather, contemplating that of Mrs. Oldfield, glance at the career of that great actress, who living knew no rival, and in her peculiar line has never been excelled.

1

Professor Ward says: "The entrance-money was from the time of Pericles provided out of the public treasury."

2

Geoffrey was made Abbot of St. Albans in 1119. The play, of course, was many years earlier.

3

It would appear that noblemen's players were prohibited from acting, even before their masters, without leave from the Privy Council.

4

The patent was dated 1574, and does not specify any particular building or locality.

5

1579 (2d edition).

6

Should be 1574. It is dated 7th May 1574.

7

These quotations are both from the same sermon.

8

Or, Prince Palatine.

9

The owners seem to have been Cuthbert and William Burbage, uncle and nephew.

10

The year of its destruction seems uncertain.

11

It was standing in 1661; in which year it was advertised for sale, with the ground belonging to it.

12

Should be 1579. Stephen Gosson's Schoole of Abuse was entered at Stationers' Hall, July 22, 1579. Dr. Doran corrects this in the second edition.

13

Gosson was not made rector of St. Botolph till 1600.

14

February 1647-48: that is, February 1648. This act succeeded the one mentioned in the next paragraph.

15

The second and final patents were dated – Killigrew's, 25th April 1662; Davenant's, 15th January 1663.

16

April (2d edition). The exact date is 8th April, as given by Downes.

17

Killigrew died after, not before, the union of the two companies. Chalmers expressly says that he lived to see them united, and gives March 1683 as the time of his death.

18

Davenant performed "The Siege of Rhodes" two years before Cromwell's death, namely, in 1656. [See Mr. Joseph Knight's Preface to his recent edition of the "Roscius Anglicanus."] Cromwell also permitted the entertainment named "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru" to be represented, from political motives.

19

Mr. Knight, in the Preface before mentioned, quotes some lines from the Prologue to this performance, showing that it was a public performance for money. This being so settles the question in the next paragraph as to the identity of the first professional actress.

20

Very questionable. Langbaine (1691) says, "This play is still in vogue on the stage, and always presented with success."

21

Dr. Doran misreads Pepys, who gives the date as 31st January 1669.

22

I doubt whether James Nokes ever played the part. Genest evidently approves of Davies's suggestion that Robert Nokes was the actor of it.

23

This should be grandson.

24

Or Eleanor.

25

She was absent only about six weeks; Pepys chronicles her departure under July 13, 1667, and her return under August 22, 1667.

26

Peter Cunningham says, "1400 guineas, or £5000 at least of our present money."

27

Should be Intrigo, which Lacy really played.

28

Other accounts say that he commenced his theatrical life early, at the "Nursery."

29

Malone gives the date of his baptism as 11th August 1635.

30

I see no reason to doubt that Hart rather than Harris was the rival in question. Hart was an older actor than Betterton, and he and Mohun were the supports of the old school, which its admirers pronounced infinitely superior to that of Betterton. See, for instance, the Historia Histrionica.

31

Should be Sir Thomas Beaumont in "The Platonic Lady."

32

It is generally implied, if not stated outright, that Mrs. Betterton never recovered her reason after her husband's death; but this seems an error, because she made a Will, which is dated 10th March 1711-12, when she was presumably sane.

33

Anthony Aston, from whom this description is quoted, says that it was not modesty that prevented his understanding why he was admired, but sheer stupidity.

34

He practically retired from the active work of his profession about 1707.

35

I can find no authority for this. The King's Company appear to have played regularly at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Dorset Garden was the new theatre of the Duke's Company.

36

Pepys is no doubt accurate. The higher prices were charged apparently from the opening of the old theatre in 1663.

37

Genest conjectures, I think justly, that this must have happened at a rehearsal. Downes says nothing about the house being ecstatic.

38

Very doubtful. The cause of his retirement was no doubt the quarrel afterwards mentioned. If he was off the stage for eleven years, as Dr. Doran says, he must have retired in 1684, long before William was king.

39

Curll, in his History of the Stage (1741), says it was Lady Davenant, a particular friend of Sir William Davenant.

40

Mountfort seems to have acted as early as 1678.

41

Norris does not appear in the bills till 1699.

42

Dr. Doran spells "Oroonoko" wrong throughout. In this he follows Genest; but the latter corrects his blunder in his "errata."

43

The trial of Mohun and Warwick took place seven years after Mountfort's death – that is, in 1699.

44

It is only fair to Hill to say that Dr. Doran adopts a theory regarding the death of Mountfort which is, at least, doubtful. It is quite as possible that he was killed in a fair fight with Hill.

45

Dr. Doran in his MS. gives the following curious and valuable note regarding Quin's trial and punishment, which states a fact absolutely unknown to any of Quin's biographers: – "1718. The papers of the day say that Quin and Bowen fought on the question which was the honester man. The coroner's inquest found it 'Se Defendendo;' but an Old Bailey jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter, and at the end of the Session I find, among the names of malefactors sent to Tyburn, or otherwise punished, 'Mr. Quin, the comedian, burnt in the hand.'"

46

This is taken from the Guardian, No. 82. Genest calls it a humorous account of him.

47

The elder Mrs. Cibber (second edition).

48

This is a most inaccurate statement. Benjamin Jonson, or Johnson, was a comedian of the highest order. Davies calls him "That chaste copier of nature," and praises him heartily: Victor is enthusiastic in his appreciation of him: and Lloyd, in his "Actor," specially commends him. He was very great in his more famous namesake's comedies.

49

Should be John Mills. William was a much less important actor.

50

1736. He died November or December 1736.

51

"Valentinian" was probably produced in 1684.

52

The Bond was entered into in 1663.

53

Genest says that "Bellamira" is by far the best of Sedley's plays.

54

Should be 1671.

55

This is, of course, satirically said by the author.

56

The Edict of Nantes was not revoked till 1685. Motteux was born in 1660.

57

Biographia Dramatica.

58

Brady was in no sense a professional dramatic author.

59

I doubt if Dilke is correctly included in this category.

60

A grocer. (Johnson's Lives of the Poets.)

61

Southerne is said to have been at Oxford and Dublin Universities.

62

This is a quotation from Rymer's second work, "A Short View of Tragedy," published in 1693.

63

Whether Davenant altered "Julius Cæsar" is somewhat doubtful.

64

Congreve (ed. 1774) merely says that it was regular.

65

"Steal me another such."

66

"Marcelia."

67

Her father never resided at Surinam. He died on the voyage out.

68

The Biographia Dramatica gives 1709 as the year of Mrs. Pix's last play; but this is certainly an error, as Mrs. Bracegirdle, who retired in 1707, is in the cast.

69

Genest states in strong terms his utter disbelief in this story. It is stated in the Biog. Dram. that Wilks used this strong expression regarding "A Bold Stroke for a Wife."

70

Pepys certainly means on account of the dulness of the play.

71

Should be 15th and 22d December 1674.

72

The Virgin Prophetess, or the Fate of Troy.

73

Second edition. In this piece Bassanio (Betterton) is the most prominent character; and though the whole piece was converted into a comedy, Dogget is said to have acted Shylock with much effect, and without buffoonery. Granville gave the profits of the play to one who needed them, Dryden's son.

74

This seems inaccurate. The author says it was well received.

75

The Biographia Dramatica expressly says that it was with the profits of this play that she and her husband set up a tavern in Westminster. Whincop also seems to imply that the piece was a success.