Chapter IX (6)

[Footnote 332: This tavern seems to have been very near Drury Lane Theatre, and to have been a favourite place of resort after the play. In the Epilogue to the "Constant Couple" the Rose Tavern is mentioned:--

"Now all depart, each his respective way,
To spend an evening's chat upon the play;
Some to Hippolito's; one homeward goes,
And one with loving she, retires to th' Rose."

In the "Comparison between the two Stages" one scene is laid in the Rose Tavern, and from it we gather that the house was of a very bad character:--

_"Ramb._ Defend us! what a hurry of Sin is in this House!

_Sull._ Drunkenness, which is the proper Iniquity of a Tavern, is here the most excusable Sin; so many other Sins over-run it, 'tis hardly seen in the crowd....

_Sull._ This House is the very Camp of Sin; the Devil sets up his black Standard in the Faces of these hungry Harlots, and to enter into their Trenches is going down to the Bottomless Pit according to the letter."--_Comp._, p. 140.

Pepys mentions the Rose more than once. On 18th May, 1668, the first day of Sedley's play, "The Mulberry Garden," the diarist, having secured his place in the pit, and feeling hungry, "did slip out, getting a boy to keep my place; and to the Rose Tavern, and there got half a breast of mutton, off the spit, and dined all alone. And so to the play again."]

[Footnote 333: Cibber's chronology cannot be reconciled with what we believe to be facts. Horden was killed in 1696; Wilks seems to have come to England not earlier than the end of 1698, while it is, I should say, certain that Estcourt did not appear before 1704. I can only suppose that Cibber, who is very reckless in his dates, is here particularly confused.]

[Footnote 334: For Leigh's playing of this character, see _ante_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 335: Curll, in his "Life of Mrs. Oldfield," says that the only part she played, previous to appearing as Alinda, was Candiope in "Secret Love." She played Alinda in 1700.]

[Footnote 336: In 1702, Gildon, in the "Comparison between the two Stages" (p. 200), includes Mrs. Oldfield among the "meer Rubbish that ought to be swept off the Stage with the Filth and Dust."]

[Footnote 337: "Miff," a colloquial expression signifying "a slight degree of resentment."]

[Footnote 338: Cibber is pleasantly candid in allowing that he had no share in Mrs. Oldfield's success. The temptation to assume some credit for teaching her something must have been great.]

[Footnote 339: Mrs. Anne Oldfield, born about 1683, was introduced to Vanbrugh by Farquhar, who accidentally heard her reading aloud, and was struck by her dramatic style. Cibber gives so full an account of her that it is only necessary to add that she made her last appearance on 28th April, 1730, at Drury Lane, and that she died on the 23rd October in the same year. It was of Mrs. Oldfield that Pope wrote the often-quoted lines ("Moral Essays," Epistle I., Part iii.):--

"Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke),
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face:

One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead--
And--Betty--give this cheek a little red."

I may note that, though Cibber enlarges chiefly on her comedy acting, she acted many parts in tragedy with the greatest success.]

[Footnote 340: Produced 7th December, 1704, at Drury Lane.

"The Careless Husband."
LORD MORELOVE .............. Mr. Powel.
LORD FOPPINGTON ............ Mr. Cibber.
SIR CHARLES EASY ........... Mr. Wilks.
LADY BETTY MODISH .......... Mrs. Oldfield.
LADY EASY .................. Mrs. Knight.
LADY GRAVEAIRS ............. Mrs. Moore.
MRS. EDGING ................ Mrs. Lucas.]

[Footnote 341: Mrs. Oldfield played Lady Townly in the "Provoked Husband," 10th January, 1728. I presume that Cibber means that this was her last _important_ original part, for she was the original representative of Sophonisba (by James Thomson) and other characters after January, 1728.]

[Footnote 342:

"The Provoked Husband."
LORD TOWNLY ............... Mr. Wilks.
LADY TOWNLY ............... Mrs. Oldfield.
LADY GRACE ................ Mrs. Porter.
MR. MANLEY ................ Mr. Mills, sen.
SIR FRANCIS WRONGHEAD ..... Mr. Cibber, Sen.
LADY WRONGHEAD ............ Mrs. Thurmond.
SQUIRE RICHARD ............ Young Wetherelt.
MISS JENNY ................ Mrs. Cibber.
JOHN MOODY ................ Mr. Miller.
COUNT BASSET .............. Mr. Bridgewater.
MRS. MOTHERLY ............. Mrs. Moore.
MYRTILLA .................. Mrs. Grace. MRS.
TRUSTY .................... Mrs. Mills.

Vanbrugh left behind him nearly four acts of a play entitled "A Journey to London," which Cibber completed, calling the finished work "The Provoked Husband." It was produced at Drury Lane on 10th January, 1728.]

[Footnote 343:
"Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendar maculis."--Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 351.]

[Footnote 344: "The Laureat," p. 57: "But I can see no Occasion you have to mention any Errors. She had fewer as an Actress than any; and neither you, nor I, have any Right to enquire into her Conduct any where else."]

[Footnote 345: The following is the passage referred to:--

"But there is no doing right to Mrs. Oldfield, without putting people in mind of what others, of great merit, have wanted to come near her--'Tis not enough to say, she here outdid her usual excellence. I might therefore justly leave her to the constant admiration of those spectators who have the pleasure of living while she is an actress. But as this is not the only time she has been the life of what I have given the public, so, perhaps, my saying a little more of so memorable an actress, may give this play a chance to be read when the people of this age shall be ancestors--May it therefore give emulation to our successors of the stage, to know, that to the ending of the year 1727, a cotemporary comedian relates, that Mrs. Oldfield was then in her highest excellence of action, happy in all the rarely found requisites that meet in one person to complete them for the stage. She was in stature just rising to that height, where the graceful can only begin to show itself; of a lively aspect, and a command in her mien, that like the principal figure in the finest painting, first seizes, and longest delights, the eye of the spectators. Her voice was sweet, strong, piercing, and melodious; her pronunciation voluble, distinct, and musical; and her emphasis always placed, where the spirit of the sense, in her periods, only demanded it. If she delighted more in the higher comic, than in the tragic strain, 'twas because the last is too often written in a lofty disregard of nature. But in characters of modern practised life, she found occasion to add the particular air and manner which distinguished the different humours she presented; whereas, in tragedy, the manner of speaking varies as little as the blank verse it is written in.--She had one peculiar happiness from nature, she looked and maintained the agreeable, at a time when other fine women only raise admirers by their understanding--The spectator was always as much informed by her eyes as her elocution; for the look is the only proof that an actor rightly conceives what he utters, there being scarce an instance, where the eyes do their part, that the elocution is known to be faulty. The qualities she had acquired, were the genteel and the elegant; the one in her air, and the other in her dress, never had her equal on the stage; and the ornaments she herself provided (particularly in this play) seemed in all respects the _paraphernalia_ of a woman of quality. And of that sort were the characters she chiefly excelled in; but her natural good sense, and lively turn of conversation, made her way so easy to ladies of the highest rank, that it is a less wonder if, on the stage, she sometimes was, what might have become the finest woman in real life to have supported." [Bell's edition.]]

[Footnote 346: Mr. Julian Marshall, in his "Annals of Tennis," p. 34, describes the two different sorts of tennis courts--"that which was called _Le Quarré_, or the Square; and the other with the _dedans_, which is almost the same as that of the present day." Cibber is thus correct in mentioning that the court was one of the lesser sort.]

[Footnote 347: Interesting confirmation of Cibber's statement is furnished by an edict of the Lord Chamberlain, dated 11th November, 1700, by which Betterton is ordered "to take upon him ye sole management" of the Lincoln's Inn Fields company, there having been great disorders, "for want of sufficient authority to keep them to their duty." See David Craufurd's Preface to "Courtship à la Mode" (1700), for an account of the disorganized state of the Lincoln's Inn Fields Company. He says that though Betterton did his best, some of the actors neither learned their parts nor attended rehearsals; and he therefore withdrew his comedy and took it to Drury Lane, where it was promptly produced.]

[Footnote 348: Mons. Castil-Blaze, in his "La Danse et les Ballets," 1832, p. 153, writes: "Ballon danse avec énergie et vivacité; mademoiselle de Subligny se fait généralement admirer pour sa danse noble et gracieuse." Madlle. Subligny was one of the first women who were dancers by profession. "La demoiselle Subligny parut peu de temps après la demoiselle Fontaine [1681], et fut aussi fort applaudie pour sa danse; mais elle quitta le théâtre, en 1705, et mourut après l'année 1736."--"Histoire de l'Opéra." Of Mons. L'Abbé I have been unable to discover any critical notice.]

[Footnote 349: Downes ("Roscius Anglicanus," p. 46) says: "In the space of Ten Years past, Mr. _Betterton_ to gratify the desires and Fancies of the Nobility and Gentry; procur'd from Abroad the best Dances and Singers, as Monsieur _L'Abbe_, Madam _Sublini_, Monsieur _Balon_, _Margarita Delpine_, _Maria Gallia_ and divers others; who being Exhorbitantly Expensive, produc'd small Profit to him and his Company, but vast Gain to themselves."

Gildon, in the "Comparison between the two Stages," alludes to some of these dancers:--

"_Sull._ The Town ran mad to see him [Balon], and the prizes were rais'd to an extravagant degree to bear the extravagant rate they allow'd him" (p. 49).

"_Crit._ There's another Toy now [Madame Subligny]--Gad, there's not a Year but some surprizing Monster lands: I wonder they don't first show her at _Fleet-bridge_ with an old Drum and a crackt Trumpet" (p. 67). ]

[Footnote 350: In the Prologue to "The Ambitious Stepmother," produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1701 (probably), Rowe writes:--

"The Stage would need no Farce, nor Song nor Dance,
Nor Capering Monsieur brought from Active France."

And in the Epilogue (not Prologue, as Cibber says):--

"Show but a Mimick Ape, or French Buffoon,
You to the other House in Shoals are gone,
And leave us here to Tune our Crowds alone.
Must Shakespear, Fletcher, and laborious Ben,
Be left for Scaramouch and Harlaquin?"]

[Footnote 351: In "The Constant Couple," and its sequel, "Sir Harry Wildair."]

[Footnote 352: This theatre, opened 9th April, 1705, was burnt down 17th June, 1788; rebuilt 1791; again burnt in 1867. During its existence it has borne the name of Queen's Theatre, Opera House, King's Theatre, and its present title of Her Majesty's Theatre.]

[Footnote 353: The beautiful Lady Sunderland. Mr. Percy Fitzgerald ("New History," i. 238) states that it was said that workmen, on 19th March, 1825, found a stone with the inscription: "April 18th, 1704. This corner-stone of the Queen's Theatre was laid by his Grace Charles Duke of Somerset."]

[Footnote 354: Should be 1705. Downes (p. 47) says: "About the end of 1704, Mr. _Betterton_ Assign'd his License, and his whole Company over to Captain _Vantbrugg_ to _Act_ under HIS, at the Theatre in the _Hay Market_." Vanbrugh opened his theatre on 9th April, 1705.]

[Footnote 355: In Dryden's Prologue at the opening of Drury Lane in 1674, in comparing the situation of Drury Lane with that of Dorset Garden, which was at the east end of Fleet Street, he talks of

"... a cold bleak road,
Where bears in furs dare scarcely look abroad."

This is now the Strand and Fleet Street! No doubt the road westward to the Haymarket was equally wild.]

[Footnote 356: This experiment was never tried. From the time Cibber wrote, the house was used as an Opera House.]

[Footnote 357:

"to Court,
Her seat imperial Dulness shall transport.
Already Opera prepares the way,
The sure fore-runner of her gentle sway."
"Dunciad," iii. verses 301-303.

"When lo! a harlot form soft sliding by,
With mincing step, small voice, and languid eye;
Foreign her air, her robe's discordant pride
In patchwork fluttering, and her head aside;
By singing peers upheld on either hand,
She tripp'd and laugh'd, too pretty much to stand."
"Dunciad," iv. verses 45-50.]

[Footnote 358: Salvini, the great Italian actor, played in America with an English company, he speaking in Italian, they answering in English: I have myself seen a similar polyglot performance at the Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre, where the manager, Mr. J. B. Howard, acted Iago (in English), while Signor Salvini and his company played in Italian. I confess the effect was not so startling as I expected.]

[Footnote 359: "The Confederacy" was not produced till the following season--30th October, 1705.]

[Footnote 360: It was acted ten times.]

[Footnote 361: Genest (ii. 333) says that Congreve resigned his share at the close of the season 1704-5.]

[Footnote 362: Cibber should have said "The Confederacy." "The Cuckold in Conceit" has never been printed, and Genest doubts if it is by Vanbrugh. Besides, it was not produced till 22nd March, 1707.]

[Footnote 363: "The Mistake" was produced 27th December, 1705. "Squire Trelooby," which was first played in 1704, was revived 28th January, 1706, with a new second act.]

[Footnote 364: A junction of the companies seems to have been talked of as early as 1701. In the Prologue to "The Unhappy Penitent" (1701), the lines occur:--

"But now the peaceful tattle of the town,
Is how to join both houses into one."]

[Footnote 365: In "The Post-Boy Rob'd of his Mail," p. 342, some curious particulars of the negotiations for a Union are given. One of Rich's objections to it is that he has to consider the interests of his Partners, with some of whom he has already been compelled to go to law on monetary questions.]

[Footnote 366: In July, 1705, Rich was approached on behalf of Vanbrugh regarding a Union, and the Lord Chamberlain supported the latter's proposal. Rich, in declining, wrote: "I am concern'd with above forty Persons in number, either as Adventurers under the two Patents granted to Sir _William Davenant,_ and _Tho. Killigrew_, Esq.; or as Renters of _Covent-Garden_ and _Dorset-Garden_ Theatres.... I am a purchaser under the Patents, to above the value of two Thousand Pounds (a great part of which was under the Marriage-Settlements of Dr. _Davenant_)."--"The Post-Boy Rob'd of his Mail," p. 344.]

[Footnote 367: Owen Swiney, or Mac Swiney, was an Irishman. As is related by Cibber in this and following chapters, he leased the Haymarket from Vanbrugh from the beginning of the season 1706-7. At the Union, 1707-8, the Haymarket was made over to him for the production of operas; and when, at the end of 1708-9, Rich was ordered to silence his company at Drury Lane, Swiney was allowed to engage the chief of Rich's actors to play at the Haymarket, where they opened September, 1709. At the beginning of season 1710-11, Swiney and his partners became managers of Drury Lane, but Swiney was forced at the end of that season to resume the management of the operas. After a year of the Opera-house (end of 1711-12), Swiney was ruined and had to go abroad. He remained abroad some twenty years. On 26th February, 1735, he had a benefit at Drury Lane, at which Cibber played for his old friend. The "Biographia Dramatica" says that he received a place in the Custom House, and was made Keeper of the King's Mews. He died 2nd October, 1754, leaving his property to Mrs. Woffington. Davies, in his "Dramatic Miscellanies" (i. 232), tells an idle tale of a scuffle between Swiney and Mrs. Clive's brother, which Bellchambers quotes at length, though it has no special reference to anything.]

[Footnote 368: At Drury Lane this season (1706-7) very few plays were acted, Rich relying chiefly on operas.]

[Footnote 369: Cibber seems to be wrong in including Estcourt in this list. His name appears in the Drury Lane bills for 1706-7, and his great part of Sergeant Kite ("Recruiting Officer") was played at the Haymarket by Pack. On 30th November, 1706, it was advertised that "the true Sergeant Kite is performed at Drury Lane."]

[Footnote 370: See memoir of Theophilus Keen at end of second volume.]

[Footnote 371: Downes (p. 50) gives the following account of the transaction:--

"In this Interval Captain _Vantbrugg_ by Agreement with Mr. _Swinny_, and by the Concurrence of my Lord Chamberlain, Transferr'd and Invested his License and Government of the Theatre to Mr. _Swinny_; who brought with him from Mr. _Rich_, Mr. _Wilks_, Mr. _Cyber_, Mr. _Mills_, Mr. _Johnson_, Mr. _Keene_, Mr. _Norris_, Mr. _Fairbank_, Mrs. _Oldfield_ and others; United them to the Old Company; Mr. _Betterton_ and Mr. _Underhill_, being the only remains of the Duke of _York's_ Servants, from 1662, till the Union in _October_ 1706."]

[Footnote 372: The chief actors left at Drury Lane were Estcourt, Pinkethman, Powell, Capt. Griffin, Mrs. Tofts, Mrs. Mountfort (that is, the great Mrs. Mountfort's daughter), and Mrs. Cross: a miserably weak company.]

[Footnote 373: Swiney's company began to act at the Haymarket on 15th October, 1706. Cibber's first appearance seems to have been on 7th November, when he played Lord Foppington in "The Careless Husband."]

* * * * * *

Transcription note:

The Index, originally printed in Volume II and covering both volumes, has been copied to the end of this volume for the convenience of the reader.

The original spelling and grammar have been retained. Footnotes have been moved to the end of this work. Minor adjustments to hyphenation and other punctuation have been made without annotation.

Typographical changes to this volume:

pg lvi (Sidenote) in London or Westmister[Westminster]
pg liii Added heading [Letters Patent for Erecting a New Theatre]
pg 84 had military Commissions; Carlisle [Carlile]
pg 105 in a full rowd[Crowd] of Courtiers
pg 105 nd[And] therefore they shall know
pg 105 falls into this Rhapsody of Vain-lory[Vain-glory]
pg 138 that would have been the [extra the] least Part
pg 157 Likeness of these Theatrical Portraicts[Portraits]
pg 331 he had this wholsom[wholesome]
fn 91 played at Dorset Garden; "Pysche"["Psyche"] followed