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Cornell University Library 
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 Short history of the English stage from 
 
 1 
 
 stag' 
 
 III 
 
 3 1924 026 120 349 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026120349 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF 
 THE ENGLISH STAGE 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF 
 THE ENGLISH STAGE 
 
 FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE 
 SUMMER OF THE YEAR 1908 
 
 BY 
 R. FARQUHARSON SHARP 
 
 THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING 
 CO., LTD., London and Felling-on-Tyne. 
 New York: 3 East Fourteenth Street. 1909. 
 
 s 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the following' pages an attempt has been made to 
 give, within a reasonable compass, a connected history 
 of the development of the English theatre from the 
 days of Miracle Plays to the present time. This is, of 
 course, necessarily involved with the history of the 
 English drama; but I have as far as possible dealt 
 with the drama only as incidental to my subject, which 
 is the history of English theatres and English acting. 
 
 The compiler of such a book must of necessity be 
 under heavy obligations to previous workers in the 
 same field. I acknowledge gratefully my large in- 
 debtedness to Genest, Doran, Fleay, Fitzgerald, Barton 
 Baker, and the numerous authors of monographs on 
 individual theatres or actors. For much of the matter 
 contained in my opening chapter I am indebted to 
 A. W. Pollard's valuable introduction to his edition of 
 English Miracle Plays. 
 
 In dealing with so large a subject in a comparatively 
 small space, it is obviously impossible to be exhaustive. 
 I have omitted mention of obscure and extinct theatres 
 whose history has no special bearing on that of the 
 stage, and similar considerations will explain why 
 Grand Opera and the Variety Theatres have seemed 
 to me to be outside the scope of the present volume. 
 
 R. F. S. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND: 
 
 MIRACLE PLAYS AND MORALITIES I 
 
 II. THE TRANSITION IO 
 
 III. THE FIRST THEATRES l6 
 
 IV. THE THEATRE AND THE PURITANS 28 
 
 V. THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION 34 
 
 VI. THE UNION OF THE THEATRES, AND AFTER 44 
 
 VII. FROM THE DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO 
 
 GAKRICK - - 56 
 
 VIII. THE GARRICK PERIOD - 7 1 
 
 IX. FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES - 85 
 
 X. THE KEMBLES AND KEAN 105 
 
 XI. THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA 1 29 
 
 XII. HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY: THE LYCEUM l6l 
 
 XIII. THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS - 1 87 
 
 XIV. THE KENDALS, JOHN HARE, AND THEIR SUC- 
 
 CESSORS 201 
 
 XV. OTHER THEATRES CONCERNED WITH COMEDY 
 
 AND FARCE - - - 213 
 
 XVI. MELODRAMA, ROMANTIC AND DOMESTIC DRAMA 236 
 
 XVII. MODERN BURLESQUE, COMIC OPERA, AND MUSICAL 
 
 COMEDY - - 255 
 
 XVIII. SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES - 277 
 
 XIX. THE SCOTTISH STAGE 293 
 
 XX. THE DUBLIN THEATRES 310 
 
 INDEX - 319 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 
 ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND : MIRACLE 
 PLAYS AND MORALITIES. 
 
 The history of dramatic representations in England 
 begins (so far as we have any record of them) about 
 eight hundred years ago. They were originally entirely 
 religious in character ; crude plays, dealing with 
 biblical events or incidents drawn from the legendary 
 lives of the Saints, and performed by the clergy. 
 Their aim was obviously didactic. An appeal to the 
 imagination through the eyes was the most effective 
 method of instruction for an illiterate common-folk; 
 and these " Miracle Plays " or " Mysteries," with their 
 subsequent developments, afford an early example of 
 the wisdom of tempering instruction with amusement 
 to render it palatable to simple minds. In the eleventh 
 century such plays were already popular in France, 
 whence came the earliest of which we have any record 
 in England. This play, which dealt with the life of 
 Saint Katharine, was given at Dunstable under the 
 direction of a certain Geoffrey, who had come from 
 France to take charge of the Abbey School at St. 
 Albans, where he afterwards became Abbot. Indeed, 
 
 I 
 
2 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 according to tradition, his adoption of the monastic 
 life was a direct result of this performance, to which an 
 untimely end was put by a fire amongst certain of the 
 " properties " which he had borrowed from the St. 
 Albans sacristy. The mishap is said to have so 
 weighed upon him that in consequence he renounced 
 the world and entered the Abbey as a monk. 
 
 The Miracle Plays were at first, and for long, per- 
 formed by the clergy and choristers, — originally within 
 the churches, and then, as their popularity grew, in the 
 churchyards and church precincts, which were in their 
 turn abandoned in favour of open spaces in the towns. 
 As a natural result the performances gradually lost 
 their exclusively ecclesiastical character. Secular 
 scenes were tacked on to the scriptural plots ; the 
 " craftsmen " of the towns, and even strolling jugglers 
 and entertainers, were included among the actors ; and 
 eventually the ecclesiastical authorities recognized the 
 unsuitability of the clergy's any longer taking part in 
 the performances. This was forbidden by a Papal Bull 
 early in the thirteenth century, though the plays long 
 retained a semi-religious character. The acting of 
 them passed by degrees entirely into the hands of the 
 various "crafts" or trade guilds, and there was 
 evolved a regular system for the due provision of 
 their representation. 
 
 Some three hundred years later than Geoffrey's day, 
 Archdeacon Rogers wrote an account, often cited, of 
 such performances at Chester, and it may be taken as 
 a representative description of the Miracle Play at its 
 fullest development. 
 
 "Every company," he says, "had its pagiant [the 
 erection which formed the stage was known as the 
 "pageant"], or parte, which pagiants were a high 
 scafolde with two rowmes [rooms], a higher and a 
 
ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND. 3 
 
 lower, upon four wheeles. In the lower they apparelled 
 themselves, and in the higher rowme they played, beinge 
 all open on the tope, that all beholders mighte heare 
 and see them. The places where they played them was 
 in every streete. They begane first at the Abay gates, 
 and when the firste pagiante was played it was wheeled 
 to the high crosse before the mayor, and so to every 
 streete ; and soe every streete had a pagiant playinge 
 before them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the 
 daye appoynted weare played : and when one pagiante 
 was neare ended, worde was broughte from streete to 
 streete, that soe they mighte come in place thereof 
 excedinge orderlye, and all the streetes have theire 
 pagiantes afore them all at one time playeinge together; 
 to see which players was great resorte, and also 
 scafoldes and stages made in the streetes in those places 
 where they determined to playe theire pagiantes." 
 
 When the direction of the performances passed from 
 the hands of the clergy into those of the guilds, their 
 organization became definite. The members of the 
 guilds contributed a yearly rate, known as the > Pageant 
 Silver, to defray expenses; "foreigners" (non-members 
 of guilds) who took part paying twice as much as 
 members. This rate, it may be observed, continued to 
 be levied for many years after the Miracle Plays ceased 
 to be performed in this manner. The prototype of the 
 modern theatrical manager is to be found in the 
 " Pageant Master," who was elected from among the 
 craftsmen to direct the proceedings. The plays were 
 prepared with the utmost care, and their representation 
 considered an event of great moment. 
 
 From extant accounts of the expenses incurred in 
 performances of this kind at Coventry, many interesting 
 details can be gleaned. The "book of the play" was 
 often a traditional one, which would be revised accord- 
 
4 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 ing to circumstances and enriched with topical allusions 
 of a comic nature, for such passages speedily found a 
 place in the plays as they became secularized in the 
 handling. Sometimes a fresh play was demanded, as 
 was the case on record at Coventry when The Destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem was performed, and the sum of 
 ^13 6s. 8d. was paid "to Mr. Smythe of Oxford for 
 his pains for writing of the tragedy." The actors were 
 carefully chosen, either by the Masters of the Guild or 
 the Town Council, for their " personne, connynge, or 
 voice," and a prompter appointed and instructed. The 
 actors were provided with food and drink during re- 
 hearsals, as appears from the Coventry accounts, where 
 "Brede,""Ale," "Vynegre," "Wyne,"and "Kechyne" 
 (which included such items as "A Rybbe of Befe," or a 
 " Gose ") are provided for. The rib of beef and the 
 goose together cost only sixpence, however, and ale 
 was twopence a gallon. 
 
 The pay of the actors varied with the length and 
 importance of their parts, and possibly with the reputa- 
 tion of the individual actor. Thus at Coventry the 
 impersonator of Pilate received four shillings, that of 
 Herod (always an exhausting part, for he was habitually 
 represented as in a constant rage) three shillings and 
 fourpence, those of God and Pilate's Wife each two 
 shillings ; Caiaphas, three shillings and fourpence ; the 
 Devil and Judas, eighteen pence ; Peter and Malchus, 
 sixteen pence. The last two items probably imply the 
 " doubling" of parts by one actor, and as a rule there 
 was a proviso that no actor should undertake more than 
 two parts. Occasionally the guilds contracted with 
 some one person to provide and direct the whole per- 
 formance for a fixed sum. 
 
 The movable stage (the "pagiant" of Archdeacon 
 Roger's account) was a solid and substantial structure, 
 
ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND. 5 
 
 as indeed was necessary, seeing that it had to be 
 wheeled, with the performers and their accessories, 
 over the ill-paved streets of the day. Usually it con- 
 sisted of two stories ; the upper, which formed the 
 stage, was open on three sides and had its floor strewn 
 with rushes ; the lower, which served as the actor's 
 dressing-room, was closed in with curtains. Occasion- 
 ally, as is inferred from the nature of the scenes 
 represented, there were three stories, the two upper 
 being used in the representation. Trapdoors in the 
 floor served for the appearance of demons and the like, 
 as in the modern stage. 
 
 Care was taken for the due preservation and 
 decoration of the "pageant." In the Coventry accounts 
 such items of expense appear as the " reparacion of 
 the pagiant," " burneysshing and paynting," and "new 
 wheles" for the same; also "sope," "talowe," and 
 " gresse " for the " wheles." 
 
 Five shillings a year, we learn, was paid by the 
 Coventry guilds for the housing of their "pageants" 
 when not in use. The fact of the stage being open to 
 the air on three sides prevented much attempt at 
 theatrical machinery; but there were used such erections 
 as a " practicable " Ark for the flood scenes, a " Stable 
 at Bethlehem," "Herod's Palace," or the "Temple at 
 Jerusalem." Tapestries were hung at the back for the 
 purpose of scenery ; " halfe a yarde of Rede Sea " is one 
 item recorded. 
 
 Primitive " stage effects" were attempted, as we see 
 from mention of a " baryll for the yerthequake" 
 (doubtless to produce an alarming noise by having 
 weights rolled about inside it), " starche to make the 
 storm," and the like. The final destruction of the 
 world by fire was represented by the setting on fire of 
 painted globes ; " making and paynting three worldys " 
 
6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 appears as an item in the expenses, also pay "for 
 setting the world on fire." Hell's Mouth was a 
 favourite theatrical " property," and the possession of a 
 really alarming Hell's Mouth (represented as the gaping 
 jaws of a hideous monster, with fangs and steel eyes, 
 into and out of whose maw devils and their victims 
 leapt and were thrust) was much esteemed. Contem- 
 porary prints show several examples of these. 
 
 In dressing their parts the actors to some extent 
 attained a rude appropriateness. The demons were 
 always attired in suitably repulsive fashion, and wore 
 masks, while the performer who represented God wore 
 a white coat and had his face gilt. Saints wore 
 white coats and gilt hair, Angels in addition wearing 
 gilt wings. Adam and Eve were clothed in fleshings; 
 Christ wore a sheepskin; Herod was dressed as a Turk, 
 and represented as always in a passion, Shakespeare's 
 "to out-Herod Herod" being an echo of this practice; 
 the Devil wore a coat and hose of rough hairy stuff, 
 horns, a tail, and a red beard, and carried (as became 
 the low-comedian of the cast) a leather club stuffed with 
 wool, to assist him in his extravagant buffooneries. 
 
 The open street was sometimes needed as an annexe 
 to the stage itself. Such characters as Balaam or the 
 Magi had to appear riding, and we find such stage 
 directions as that " Saul rydyth forth with hys servants 
 about the place," or " Here Erode rages in the pagond 
 and in the streete also." A curtain could be drawn 
 across half the space of the stage, to provide for such 
 scenes as needed the sudden display of an " interior." 
 
 The distribution of the several scenes among the 
 various guilds was sometimes quaintly appropriate. In 
 the York play the incident of "God warning Noah to 
 make an Ark of floatable wood " was entrusted to the 
 Shipwrights; " Noah in the Ark " with his family "and 
 
ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND. 7 
 
 divers animals," to the Fishmongers and Mariners; the 
 episode of the Star in the East, to the Chandlers ; the 
 offerings of the three Kings, to the Goldsmiths; and the 
 Marriage at Cana, to the Vintners. 
 
 The favourite date for the performances was the 
 Feast of Corpus Christi ; and, as we see from a York 
 proclamation of 1415, precautions were taken before- 
 hand to ensure due order and decorum. Citizens were 
 bidden not to go into the streets armed on these 
 occasions; the pageants were to halt at the places 
 assigned, and nowhere else; officers of the peace were 
 to be stringent in the exercise of their duties. The 
 players, moreover, were to be "good players, well 
 arayed, and openly spekyng," and were to be ready 
 between four and five in the morning, in order that each 
 pageant should start on its rounds punctually and in 
 order. 
 
 The seriousness with which the performances were 
 regarded is shown by a Papal Bull respecting the 
 Chester Plays, which granted 1000 days' indulgence 
 to whoever assisted " with sincere devotion "in these 
 representations, and pronounced excommunication on 
 whoever interfered with them. Till they became too 
 much overlaid with grossness and buffoonery, the 
 Miracle Plays were obviously a useful means of religious 
 instruction in an illiterate age; indeed, much of what 
 would appear to us as grossness was but a reflex of 
 contemporary life, and much that seems misplaced 
 buffoonery was then a harmless means of popularizing 
 what would otherwise be unknown or ill understood. 
 The writers of the later Miracle Plays had a sound 
 sense of the value of "comic relief," and there is no 
 reason to suppose that Joseph's attitude towards the 
 fact of Mary's conception until he is enlightened by the 
 Angel who appears and explains matters to him, the 
 
8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 publicity given to Sarah's child-bearing, or the fact 
 that Noah and his wife habitually indulged in a wrangle 
 before entering the Ark, lessened the sincerity with 
 which the more solemn scenes were represented or 
 listened to. In one play Noah's wife insists in 
 remaining outside gossiping with her neighbours, until 
 the waves of the flood invade her toes; then she jumps 
 in terror into the Ark, and is received by Noah with a 
 sound beating. Sheep-stealing by one of the watching 
 shepherds at the Nativity was another favourite comic 
 episode. 
 
 Owing to the arrangement for moving the pageants 
 so that the whole play should be consecutively per- 
 formed at each appointed spot, a large number of 
 pageants were often required, as many as thirty being 
 used in the Wakefield play. The Creation would be 
 shown on the first, the scene between Cain and Abel in 
 the second, and so forth through the whole biblical 
 story represented ; a typical Miracle Play being roughly 
 cast into three divisions, the first dealing with the 
 Creation, Flood, and subsequent Old Testament 
 episodes, the second with the Nativity of Christ, the 
 third with His Passion and Resurrection and a repre- 
 sentation of Doomsday. 
 
 By the middle of the fifteenth century, what were 
 known as "Moralities" began to displace Miracle 
 Plays in the public favour. In the Moralities, embodi- 
 ments of the Virtues and Vices were substituted for 
 the well-known characters of Holy Writ, a change 
 which marks a certain growth of subtlety in the popular 
 appreciation of this form of entertainment. Such 
 Moralities as have come down to us are, to modern 
 thinking, for the most part tediously didactic effusions, 
 losing their direct appeal as the characters in the plays 
 lose their personality, but they were much in favour for 
 
ORIGIN OF THE THEATRE IN ENGLAND. 9 
 
 some time. It is not surprising, however, that before 
 long new subjects were looked for to provide dramas, 
 and that eventually there came the transition to purely 
 secular subjects. 
 
 y. It is easy to understand that, as its novelty wore off, 
 the strife between abstract virtues and vices palled on 
 acquaintance, and that plays were welcomed which 
 appealed more directly to the interest of their audiences 
 by means of the humanity of their characters. Just in 
 such a way as, in the history of painting, the repre- 
 sentation of sacred subjects prepared the ground for 
 secular arts, so, with the drama, these religious and 
 moral plays prepared the receptivities of the people for 
 what was soon to develop into the glorious outburst of 
 the dramatic spirit in the age of Elizabeth. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE TRANSITION. 
 
 The rise of a new and entirely secular drama during the 
 latter half of the sixteenth century meant the gradual 
 extinction of the Miracle Plays and Moralities, though 
 these continued to be performed till the end of the 
 century. It meant, too, the development of a new 
 school of acting and a new class of actors. 
 
 The germs of both comedy and tragedy were already 
 existent; the former in the comic scenes that had in- 
 truded on the original solemnity of the Miracle Play, 
 the latter in the tales of love and valour that were kept 
 alive by balladry. The external stimulus that was 
 needed to bring both to an organic growth was furnished 
 by the Renaissance, one of whose conspicuous effects in 
 England was the imitation of classical dramatic models. 
 The earliest examples of English comedy and tragedy 
 that have come down to us bear unmistakable traces 
 of this influence. 
 
 Comedy seems to have developed the easier and 
 earlier of the two. The oldest English comedy that has 
 come down to us, Udall's Ralph Roister Doister, was 
 one among many that followed the Plautine model 
 pretty closely; but such plays as those of John 
 Heywood (who was Udall's contemporary), or Bishop 
 Still's Gammer Gurton's Needle, are comedies of simple 
 
 10 
 
THE TRANSITION. II 
 
 humours, with plots that are practically original and a 
 flavour distinctly national. 
 
 The first attempts at formal tragedy in England, 
 such as Sackville and Norton's Gorboduc (which is 
 remarkable as being our earliest blank-verse drama), 
 Preston's Cambises, or Gascoigne's Jocasta> show the 
 classical influence markedly; but English tragedy was 
 saved from becoming merely imitative by the inde- 
 pendent growth of what are known as Chronicle Plays. 
 These plays, which were half dramatic and half epic, 
 were the lineal descendants of the Ballads, and pos- 
 sessed a national character that had hitherto found no 
 such expression. Chronicle Plays such as The Famous 
 Victories of Henry V. and The Historie of King Leir are 
 the link between the Miracle Play and the Elizabethan 
 historical drama; and they and their kind formed a 
 rich mine of subject-matter from which Shakespeare 
 and his contemporaries drew. 
 
 As the drama lost its semi-religious character, and 
 plays became more specialized, the players became 
 a distinct class and their calling a separate one. 
 In these altered conditions dramatic entertainments 
 passed out of the hands of the better class of crafts- 
 men, and the social level of both playwright and 
 playactor became considerably lowered. Patronage 
 was now a necessary condition of the actor's ex- 
 istence, and royal or noble favour was essential 
 to success. The earliest royal patron of the drama 
 was Richard III., and as such he deserves the 
 gratitude of all good playgoers. While still Duke of 
 Gloucester he attached a company of players to his 
 household, granting them permission to travel about 
 his domains and act whenever he did not require 
 their services. This did much to regularize the 
 actor's calling, and an important result of it was that 
 
12 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 acting became the fashion. The pastime of amateur 
 theatricals was taken up, first by the gentlemen of the 
 Inns of Court, and subsequently by those of higher 
 degree, with as great a zest as any displayed to-day; 
 and this in its turn led to the custom of regularly train- 
 ing the boys of the public schools to perform plays for 
 the amusement of the Court. Even the "Children of 
 the Chapel Royal " were instructed in the art, and 
 members of the clergy, again, not only wrote plays, but 
 occasionally acted in them. 
 
 The Universities naturally caught the infection, and 
 the deeds of the "A.D.C." at Cambridge were fore- 
 shadowed by the performance in that city, in Henry 
 VIII. 's time, of a tragedy entitled Pammachus, the 
 nature and tendency of which raised a mighty pother. 
 " I have been informed," wrote the Chancellor of the 
 University to the Vice-Chancellor, in March 1545, " that 
 the youth in Christ's College . . . hath of late played 
 a tragedy called Pammachus, a part of which tragedy is 
 so pestiferous as were intolerable. If it be so, I intend 
 to travail, as my duty is, for the reformation of it. I 
 know mine office there, and mind to do in it as much 
 as I may." The Vice-Chancellor replied that the 
 College authorities had approved the performance, 
 after expunging "all such matter whereby offence 
 might greatly have arisen." A stricter inquiry, how- 
 ever, was ordered, and made; much was asserted on 
 both sides in justification, and eventually the matter 
 was allowed to drop. 
 
 Direct opposition between Church and Stage came in 
 1547, when, at Edward VI. 's accession, Bishop Gardiner 
 proclaimed the holding of a " solemn dirge and mass" 
 in memory of the deceased King, and for the same day 
 the Marquis of Dorset's players advertised a " solempne 
 play" — to try, as Gardiner wrote at the time, "who 
 
THE TRANSITION. 1 3 
 
 shall have most resort, they in game or I in earnest." 
 The result was that these players were forbidden to 
 act anywhere except in their master's presence, a 
 regulation which they and other members of their 
 craft did their best to circumvent by means of forged 
 licences. 
 
 The strife of opinion which accompanied the develop- 
 ment of the Reformation found a convenient weapon in 
 the drama, and stage performances were used as party 
 weapons in the conflict between Protestants and Papists. 
 The Moralities afforded a convenient vehicle for con- 
 troversy and abuse; and though those which have come 
 down to us are mainly anti-Catholic, and such Catholic 
 Moralities as have survived are non-polemical, there is 
 little doubt that many Catholic plays of a highly 
 polemical character were acted secretly in the houses 
 of the great. Early in the seventeenth century a certain 
 Sir John York was imprisoned and fined for having a 
 play thus secretly performed in his house, ridiculing the 
 Protestants and their tenets. And, some seventy years 
 before this, in the Act for the Advancement of True 
 Religion, "plays and interludes" are referred to as 
 allowable "for the rebukyng and reproaching of Vices 
 and the setting forth of Vertue," provided they " medle 
 not with interpretacions of Scriptures contrary to . the 
 doctryne set forth by the Kynges Majistie." 
 
 John Bale, the Protestant Bishop of Ossory, known 
 to his contemporaries as " Bilious Bale," was one of 
 the most prominent figures in these ecclesio-dramatic 
 polemics, and became notorious as the author of a play 
 called Kynge Johan, which was deliberately designed to 
 illustrate the attitude of Rome towards this country, 
 Later, in Queen Mary's time, her adherents supported 
 their attacks upon the Reformation by means of a 
 drama called Respublipa, which pointed out the lament- 
 
14 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 able nature of the new spirit that was growing to such 
 powerful proportions. 
 
 The players, having as yet no " theatres " as we now 
 understand them, were all strolling players, performing 
 (when released from attendance on their patron) in the 
 yards of inns and similar places. It was inevitable 
 that such gatherings should lead to an undesirable 
 amount of freedom. The inn-yard made a convenient 
 stage, the audience gathering in the galleries that ran 
 round its sides ; and one contemporary account tells us 
 how, before the performance began, the gallants would 
 go first into the yard and look round the galleries, 
 "then, like unto ravens when they spie the carrion, 
 thither they fly and press as neare the fairest as they 
 can," frequently to indulge (according to this chronicler) 
 in unseemly dalliance with the fair ones. 
 
 For reasons such as this, and still more for the 
 political reasons already alluded to, the players and 
 their art fell into disrepute, and it was not long before 
 stage plays were only allowed in London under very 
 stringent censorship. As early as 1545 "common 
 players" had been included with " ruffyns, vagabonds, 
 masterless men, and evill disposed persons " in a pro- 
 clamation. In Edward VI. 's time the representation of 
 plays was forbidden altogether for a stated period, to 
 mark the royal displeasure at certain performances 
 which had contained "matter tendyng to sedicion and 
 contempnyng of sundery good orders and lawes. " 
 .Again, in 1551 players were forbidden to act any play 
 in public which had not received the licence of the Privy 
 Council, for the reason that they were too apt to play 
 " whatsoever any light and phantastical head listeth to 
 invent." This regulation was repeated in a proclama- 
 tion of Mary two years later; and in 1556 players 
 were altogether prohibited from strolling through the 
 
THE TRANSITION. 15 
 
 "kingdom, as being- "disseminators of seditions and 
 heresies." 
 
 Obviously the only solution of this tangled condition 
 of affairs, if the drama were to live, was in the regular- 
 izing of the profession and the appointing of suitable 
 places where the performances could be held under 
 prope'r supervision. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FIRST THEATRES. 
 
 The undesirability of the use of the inn-yards as 
 theatres was obvious ; and the removal, by Edward VI. 's 
 orders, of the King's Revels and Masques from the 
 Warwick Inn, Holborn, to the deserted Black Friars' 
 Monastery on Thames-side was at once .1 prudent 
 measure in defence of law and order and a step to- 
 wards the regularizing of the actor's profession. A few 
 years later, in consequence of complaints as to the 
 nature of their performances, these players and all. 
 others in the city were strictly ordered to perform only 
 such plays as had been approved by the authorities, 
 and that only in the period between All Saints' and 
 Shrovetide. Public dramatic entertainments were 
 strictly subordinate to the Court performances, so that 
 a close censorship was possible. It was furthermore 
 subsequently enacted by an oft-quoted statute of 1572 
 that all " common players " (that is to say, players not 
 attached to the household of any nobleman or allowed 
 to use a nobleman's name as patron) should be dealt 
 with as "rogues and vagabonds" if they were not 
 licensed by a justice of the peace. 
 
 It is worthy of note that in the Black Friars' house 
 considerable outlay is stated to have been incurred for 
 scenery and for machinery to assist stage effects. The 
 
 16 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 17 
 
 plays and masques being originally devised as enter- 
 tainments for the actor's royal or noble patrons, money 
 was, no doubt, more readily forthcoming for these 
 purposes than could possibly be the case when the 
 theatre became primarily public places. There is record 
 of a sum equivalent to some ^60 of the money of to- 
 day being expended upon "properties" for a masque 
 presented at Court at the end of the sixteenth century — 
 these being "monsters, mountains, beasts, serpents; 
 weapons for war, as guns, dogs, bows, arrows, bills, 
 halberds, boar-spears, fawchions, daggers, pollaxes, 
 clubs ; heads and head-pieces, armour counterfeit ; 
 moss, holly, ivy, bays, flowers; glue, paste, paper, arid 
 such like; with nails, hooks, horse-tails, dishes- for 
 devil's eyes; Heaven, Hell, and the Devil." 
 
 Although the Black Friars' house was granted to the 
 Court players for their use by Edward VI., it was not 
 formally recognized as a place of public entertainment 
 till Elizabeth was on the throne; when, about the same 
 time, a second theatrical licence was granted author- 
 izing the building of the earliest " theatre," as we now 
 understand the term, in London. This licence was 
 granted in 1574 to the Earl of Leicester's company of 
 players, at the head of whom was James Burbage, 
 father of the famous tragedian Richard Burbage. 
 
 James Burbage acquired a plot of ground in Shore- 
 ditch, on part of the site of a disused priory, and there 
 erected a wooden building which was known as "The 
 Theatre," and was opened for public entertainments in 
 the autumn of 1576. 
 
 On the extensive site of the old priory there also 
 sprang up a number of private dwelling-houses, some 
 occupied by citizens of high degree; and in so favour- 
 able a locality a rival theatre was not long — indeed, 
 barely a year — in making its appearance. This second 
 
1 8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 theatre was called The Curtain, a name of which 
 Curtain Road still preserves an echo. 
 
 The Theatre and The Curtain no doubt shared 
 the important patronage of the day with the Black 
 Friars' house, but it must be noted that for some years 
 the inn-yards continued to be popular competitors in 
 dramatic entertainment. Five, at least, are on record 
 as being frequented by players after the performances 
 at the three recognized houses were in full swing. 
 Of these five, one was in Gracechurch Street, one in 
 Bishopsgate Street, one "nigh Paul's," one (the "Bell 
 Savage," a very popular house) on Ludgate Hill, and 
 one in Whitefriars. There was also the "Boar's 
 Head," outside Aldgate, where the performance of 
 what the Mayor and Corporation considered a "lewd 
 play" raised a considerable commotion in Mary's time. 
 
 The Theatre had a short life, for in 1597, twenty 
 years after its erection, the ground landlord gave 
 Burbage and his company notice to quit. Burbage had, 
 however, by the terms of the lease the right to remove 
 the fabric, and, in spite of the landlord's opposition, 
 succeeded in doing so. The house was pulled down by 
 the actors and some willing friends, and the materials 
 carried off to the south side of the Thames, where two 
 years later they were used in building the Globe Theatre 
 on Bankside, Southwark, — a house destined, together 
 with the Blackfriars house, to be famous from its close 
 connection with Shakespeare. The Globe was burnt 
 down in 1613, rebuilt, and finally demolished in 1644. 
 The Blackfriars house, which was converted into a 
 regular theatre in 1596, survived till 1655, and The 
 Curtain had a life nearly as long. It is probable 
 that either at the latter or at The Theatre, Shake- 
 speare was engaged in some minor capacity as an 
 actor after his coming to London in 1586. He also 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 19 
 
 acted at the Globe Theatre and at the Rose, a house 
 built in 1592 close to the notorious Bear Garden on 
 Bankside. It was at the Globe and the Blackfriars 
 that his plays were produced. 
 
 Other Elizabethan playhouses were the Fortune, 
 built in 1599 by the actor Alleyn, in Golden Lane, 
 St. Luke's ; the Red Bull, in Clerkenwell ; the 
 Cockpit, in Drury Lane; and the Newington Butts 
 theatre, which was built about 1592 on a spot near the 
 present "Elephant and Castle." Of these the chief 
 was the Fortune, which stood till 1656, a memorial 
 of its existence remaining in the Playhouse Yard, which 
 occupies part of what was its site. It has an import- 
 ance in Elizabethan dramatic history only second to 
 that of the Globe and Blackfriars houses. The Black^ 
 friars and the Cockpit were what were known as 
 "private" theatres, established and maintained by the 
 nobility, who directed performances in them instead of, 
 as had formerly been the case, in their own houses. 
 
 When Elizabeth came to the throne the chief 
 professional actors of the day were comprised in three 
 or four companies of men (of which the "Earl of 
 Leicester's men," who had inaugurated The Theatre, 
 were the most esteemed), and companies of boys who 
 were trained as occasion required for special Court 
 performances. These were selected from among the 
 scholars of St. Paul's, the Chapel Royal, Windsor, the 
 Merchant Taylor's School, and Westminster School. 
 As the theatrical profession began to crystallize and the 
 public gave a more serious patronage to the newly 
 established theatres, the boys' companies were less seen 
 by the public and only established for occasional Court 
 performances; though a certain number of boys, but 
 these not from the above-mentioned scholars, were 
 always included in the "men's" companies to play 
 
20 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 female parts. For a time, however, in Shakespeare's 
 day the boys' companies were extremely popular, and 
 their vogue threatened to turn adult actors out of doors, 
 as we learn from the allusion in Hamlet (in the course of 
 Rozencrantz's conversation with the Prince about the 
 ■players) to the "aery of children" that "are now the 
 fashion," and have so gained the ear of the town that 
 they carry all before them, "Hercules and his load too." 
 The allusion here is to the fact that the Blackfriars 
 theatre, one of the houses with which Shakespeare was 
 immediately connected, had been temporarily leased to 
 the Children of the Chapel Royal, whose popularity 
 threatened even to draw the audiences away from the 
 Globe, Shakespeare's other theatre, whose sign was 
 that of Hercules bearing the Globe on his shoulders. 
 
 Besides the houses enumerated above, two others, 
 which had but a brief existence but were popular in the 
 days immediately succeeding Elizabeth's reign, were 
 the Swan on Bankside and the Hope. The latter 
 was a kind of "fit up" theatre in the Bear Garden, and 
 was designed to provide occasional variety from the 
 delights of bear-baiting and cock-fighting. 
 
 Our knowledge of the internal arrangements of the 
 Elizabethan playhouses is to some extent conjectural, 
 and is gleaned from allusions, brief mentionings and one 
 or two drawings. Certain details, however, are fairly 
 well established. The outer shape of the buildings, 
 taking such theatres as the Globe, the Theatre or the 
 Swan as typical, was usually oval or hexagonal, the 
 interior being probably round or oval, approximating in 
 appearance to the original inn-yard model. Roughly 
 speaking, the plan of the interior was that of an open 
 arena, part of which was occupied by the stage, with 
 tiers of galleries, partly divided into boxes, built round 
 it. The structures were mostly of wood on a brick or 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 21 
 
 concrete foundation, though an extant description, of 
 the Swan theatre states it to have been built of a 
 conglomeration of flint. The interior was to some 
 extent decorated, this varying with the means of the 
 constructor, and the pillars supporting the galleries 
 and the stage erection were often painted to imitate 
 marble. Coryate in his Crudities (1611) says that 
 in Venice in 1608 he visited the theatre, and found it 
 "beggarly and base in comparison with us for apparell, 
 shews and musicke." ' 
 
 The main difference from the modern theatre, except 
 in the matter of roofing, was in the stage itself. This 
 was a flat platform extending well out into the arena, 
 with space for spectators to stand around it ; seats were 
 only provided in the galleries, part of which were 
 divided into boxes known as " rooms." This last term 
 is an evidence of the persistence of the inn-yard model 
 adopted by the theatres. The arena represented the 
 yard itself, the boxes taking the place of the gallery 
 which ran round the yard and led to the rooms of the 
 inn. 
 
 In the case of the "public" theatres the arena was 
 open to the sky, the roofing only extending over the 
 galleries and the back part of the stage. The "private" 
 houses, however, were completely roofed in, and seats 
 were provided in the arena. 
 
 We have no record of what happened in the par- 
 tially unroofed theatres when the weather was bad. 
 Probably, however, a wetting was not considered of so 
 much account by the actors as would now be the case, 
 there being no women among them. Moreover, the 
 performances taking place by daylight, there was no 
 occasion for much facial "make-up" upon which the 
 rain would produce ravages. In the roofed private 
 theatres the performances took place by candle-light. 
 
22 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 During the heat of summer the actors belonging to the 
 " public "' theatres usually toured the country, their 
 houses being closed. 
 
 Scenic or pictorial effect, such as was looked for in 
 theatres of a later date, was naturally out of the 
 question when the stage was practically as much a 
 platform in the midst of the spectators as the " pageant" 
 had been in the old days of the Miracle Plays. It 
 was raised from the ground, and cellarage underneath 
 afforded possibilities for trap-doors and such necessary 
 devices as Shakespeare's stage-directions prove to have 
 been used. In The Tempest the banquet is to "vanish 
 with a quaint device"; in Macbeth, "the cauldron 
 sinks and the apparitions rise;" and so forth. It is 
 possible, too, that a trap-door with steps might be 
 used for such scenes as the approach to Juliet's tomb. 
 Some machinery from above must also have been in 
 use in the better-appointed theatres (possibly working 
 from above the balcony at the back of the stage), 
 to make possible such illusions as that directed in 
 Cymbeline, where Jupiter " descends in thunder and 
 lightning, sitting upon an eagle." 
 
 The back of the stage seems usually to have been 
 closed by a wall with two doors in it; in front of this 
 stood pillars between which curtains could be drawn, 
 these pillars also supporting the pent-house roof 
 which descended from the top of the back wall. The 
 curtains formed a simple and necessary accessory for 
 such scenes as tented battlefields or for Desdemona's 
 bed-chamber (when the bed would doubtless be behind 
 the curtains), or to enclose the "play-scene" of 
 Hamlet, to take obvious instances. There would also 
 probably be, above the doors at the back, a balcony or 
 an enclosed portion of the gallery that ran round the 
 whole house. Besides serving as a balcony, this would 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 23 
 
 probably also do duty for "battlements" or "city 
 walls." The stage was strewn with rushes, the usual 
 carpet of the day ; in some cases it was bordered by 
 a low railing. 
 
 By degrees it became the custom to accommodate 
 favoured persons with stools upon the stage, an 
 innovation which led to intolerable abuse. The extent 
 to which this nuisance had grown by the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century is reflected in an entertaining 
 passage in Dekker's "Gull's Hornbook" (1609). In 
 this are given some satirical rules for a "gallant's" 
 behaviour at the theatre. He is recommended to sit 
 on the stage, " on the very rushes where the comedy is 
 to dance." He is to make an effective entry by coming 
 in late : " Present not yourself on the stage, especially 
 at a new play, until the quaking prologue hath by 
 .rubbing got colour into his cheeks. . . . Then it's 
 time ... to creep from behind the arras with your 
 stool in one hand." Again : "It shall crown you with 
 rich commendation to laugh- aloud in the midst of the 
 most serious and saddest scene of the terriblest tragedy, 
 and to let that clapper, your tongue, be tossed so high 
 that all the house may ring of it." Should the gallant 
 disapprove of the piece performed, he is to "rise with 
 a screwed and discontented face " from his stool ; but, 
 if either " the company or indisposition of the weather " 
 compel him to sit it out, he should " take up a rush 
 and tickle the earnest ears of your fellow gallants . . . 
 Mew at passionate speeches, blare at merry, find fault 
 •with the music, whew at the children's action, whistle 
 at the songs," and so forth. In short, he is to do 
 everything to show that he goes to the play "only as 
 a gentleman to spend a foolish hour or two, because 
 you can do nothing else." 
 
 It is obvious that under such conditions as this 
 
24 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 anything - like scenic display, as we now understand it, 
 was impossible ; although the pernicious custom of 
 allowing spectators on the stage persisted to a much 
 later period, when the stage had shrunk to something 
 more like its present dimensions and painted scenery 
 was in full use. Although, as has been already said, 
 more or less elaborate mechanical and scenic effects 
 were attempted in the costly Masques performed in the 
 mansions of the great or in "private" theatres, in the 
 public theatres of Elizabeth's day elaboration of effect 
 was practically confined to the dressing and grouping 
 of the characters. As Professor Raleigh suggests in 
 his stimulating book on Shakespeare, it must have 
 been "a statuesque rather than a pictorial effect" 
 that was aimed at. The credit of the earliest intro- 
 duction of what we should call " scenery" into ordinary 
 plays is usually given to the post-Restoration dramatist, 
 Sir William Davenant. 
 
 Behind the "back wall" of the stage the actors' 
 dressing-rooms were constructed ; above these was 
 usually a sort of turret from which a flag was flown 
 when the house was open. From this, too, a trumpeter 
 used to summon the audiences at the hour for the 
 beginning of the play. 
 
 Elizabethan theatre prices ranged from three or four 
 pence for standing-room to three or four times that 
 sum in the best " rooms " or boxes. (It must, of course, 
 be borne in mind that to approximate these sums to 
 their present value they must be multiplied by four or 
 five.) Prices in the private theatres, where there was 
 more comfort and more display, would naturally range 
 higher. In an advertisement at the end of a printed 
 edition of a masque performed at the Cockpit, it is 
 stated that "notwithstanding the great expense 
 necessary to scenes and other ornaments in this enter- 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 25 
 
 tainment, there is a good provision made of places 
 for a shilling. And it shall begin certainly at 3 after- 
 noon." Descriptions of the pieces to be performed 
 were set upon posts outside the theatres some days in 
 advance. 
 
 References to the price of admission are numerous. 
 To take one or two at haphazard, in The Roaring Girl 
 (161 1) there is allusion to "the twopenny gallery " at 
 the Fortune. In Sir Thomas Overbury's "Characters" 
 (1614) it is said of a spendthrift that "if he have but 
 twelve pence in his purse, he will give it for the best 
 room in the play house." Again, in Henry VIII., 
 Prologue says that spectators "may see away their 
 shilling in two short hours." Stools on the stage, in 
 the houses where this was allowed, were usually priced 
 at six or twelve pence. Smoking was freely indulged 
 in, lackeys attending their masters to attend to the 
 necessary filling of the pipes. Performances were given 
 on Sundays as well as on week days. 
 
 In some of the theatres the stage platform was mov- 
 able, and could be taken away or moved back when 
 other favourite entertainments (such as bear-baiting, or 
 exhibitions of fencing or broadsword play) were prer 
 pared for the public's delectation. 
 
 An orchestra of musicians was provided, stationed 
 probably at the side of the hindermost portion of the 
 stage, and apparently the music was frequently of no 
 mean quality. It was probably not till late in the 
 seventeenth century that the orchestra was placed 
 where we now expect to see it. In an arrangement of 
 The Tempest as acted at the Duke's Theatre in Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields in 1667, it is directed that the "band of 
 violins, harpsicords, and theorbos which accompany 
 the voices" are to be placed " between the pit and the 
 stage " ; and, as Malone remarks, had this not been an 
 
 3 
 
26 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 unusual arrangement, the direction would have been 
 unnecessary. 
 
 The foregoing may perhaps serve to give some idea 
 of the conditions under which the splendid Elizabethan 
 drama saw the light. It is practically impossible for 
 us, familiar as we are with "stage pictures" of a 
 greatly different nature, to realize the effect produced 
 by the materials used, or to estimate how vividly the 
 imagination of the spectators was stirred by the mere 
 effect of language. The pleasure in that, being more 
 direct, was probably keener, the critical faculties of the 
 audience being directed to the drama itself and un- 
 diverted by extraneous attractions. Be that as it may, 
 the Elizabethan public was conspicuously a theatre- 
 loving and a discriminating one. 
 
 That the level of acting in the Elizabethan theatres 
 was high (despite the difficulty, as it seems to us, of 
 beardless boys giving satisfactory renderings of the 
 great female roles in the drama) is indisputable. 
 Hamlet's advice to the players, which is obviously 
 founded on close observation, remains to all time as 
 a manual for professors of the craft, and reveals per 
 contra the certainty that the performances of Shake- 
 speare's time could reach as high a level as the most 
 exacting required. More than this, there is contem- 
 porary evidence to show that the actor's position was, 
 as far as personal conduct was concerned, respectable 
 and respected, and that the majority of actors showed a 
 proper feeling for the dignity of their art. 
 
 Some of the most prominent of the day were James 
 Burbage, of the Blackfriars house, the Theatre, and 
 the Globe; his son, the more famous tragedian, Richard 
 Burbage, who also had some repute as a painter; 
 Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College, who 
 was connected with the Bear Garden, the Hope, and 
 
THE FIRST THEATRES. 27 
 
 the Fortune; Philip Henslowe, who was Alleyn's 
 partner in the latter house; John Hemminge, chief 
 proprietor of the Globe Theatre, fellow-actor of 
 Shakespeare, and part editor of the first folio of the 
 latter's plays, famous also as the original impersonator 
 of Falstaff ; Richard Tarleton, the comedian, a popular 
 favourite of Elizabeth's day; and Shakespeare himself, 
 of whose acting at the Rose, the Curtain, and the 
 Blackfriars Theatres in his early days scanty traditions 
 have been handed down, mentioning him as having 
 taken the part of the Ghost in Hamlet and Adam in 
 As You Like It. 
 
 Of the dramatists of these days, Shakespeare, Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, Webster, Ben Jonson, Ford, 
 Massinger, Middleton, Chapman, Shirley, and Cyril 
 Tourneur were mostly connected with the Globe and 
 Blackfriars Theatres; the others, such as Marlowe, 
 Dekker, Drayton, Greene and Peele, writing mainly 
 for the Fortune. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE THEATRE AND THE PURITANS. 
 
 With the actor's position assured and the popularity of 
 the theatre increasing, it was not surprising- that the 
 drama should be used as a mouthpiece of public opinion. 
 On the other hand, the unmistakable allusions to 
 public affairs that were heard from the stage, and the 
 accompanying' opportunities for ridicule, were naturally 
 little to the taste of the civic authorities. Court 
 influence, moreover, was behind the players, and 
 the latter's shafts were, in return, least seldom aimed 
 at the fountain-heads of the patronage to which the 
 stage owed so much. 
 
 The strongest power of opposition to the theatre lay 
 in the growth of the Puritan spirit; and this was 
 assisted by two external circumstances — the visitations 
 of the Plague and the outbreak of the Civil War. The 
 spreading of the Puritan tendency to regard all amuse- 
 ment (and especially stage entertainments) as iniquitous 
 soon resulted in definite attacks. These began in 
 Elizabeth's time, with a treatise in which John North- 
 brooke, in 1577, inveighed against "dicing, dancing, 
 plays, and interludes " as immoral and corrupting. In 
 the following year, John Stockwood, a schoolmaster and 
 preacher celebrated in his day, attacked The Theatre by 
 name in a sermon, speaking in terms of the gravest 
 reprobation of what went on at " the gorgeous playing- 
 
 28 
 
THE THEATRE AND THE PURITANS. 29 
 
 place erected in the fields." Jn 1579, Stephen Gosson, 
 Rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and himself a 
 writer of " pastoralls, "published his "School of Abuse," 
 in which he included "a pleasant invective against 
 poets, players, jesters, and such like caterpillars of a 
 commonwealth." His invective, however, fails from its 
 over-eagerness, and from the fact that he cannot conceal 
 a certain liking for what he professes to attack. He 
 makes a great deal of the overmuch gallantry amongst 
 the audiences, and assails the playwrights with a 
 bitterness which inevitably suggests that he was a 
 disappointed candidate for their ranks, while at the 
 same time he is fain to admit that certain plays (such 
 as his own) may be "good plays and sweet plays." A 
 year or two later Philip Stubbes, a Puritan pamphleteer, 
 followed up the attack with an " Anatomie of Abuses." . 
 
 Meanwhile the Plague, of which there were constant 
 terrible visitations in England during the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, proved a useful auxiliary to the 
 opponents of the theatre. It enabled them to maintain, 
 not without reason, that the concourse of folk in the 
 theatres meant the creation of centres of infection. 
 "To play in plague time," they said, "was to court 
 infection ;" and to this they added as a rider that "to 
 play out of plague time was to call down plague from 
 heaven." 
 
 The Puritans continued to bombard the players' 
 stronghold during the early years of Charles I.'s reign, 
 and at least their noisiest, if not their most effective, 
 shell fell within the players' lines when Prynne in 1632 
 published his famous Histrio-Mastix. Stage plavs, he 
 affirmed, were the incentive to every kind of immorality, 
 theatres were "the devil's chapels," and the drama 
 and all its works obviously forbidden by Holy Writ. 
 Prynne's zeal, as far as his own fate was concerned, 
 
30 A SHORT HISTORY OP' THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 overshot the mark. A too-outspoken declaration of his 
 opinion concerning female actors (he having in a 
 previous tract stigmatized some French actresses as 
 "impudent, shameful, unwomanish, graceless") was 
 construed as an indirect reproof to the Queen and her 
 ladies for having taken part in a masque ; and certain 
 other passages, comparing the authorities to Nero in 
 consequence of their having encouraged the play-actors, 
 were taken to be an attack upon the King and Court. 
 The result was that Prynne was sentenced by the Star 
 Chamber to a large fine, public degradation, and the 
 cutting off of his ears. 
 
 His action had its effect, however, and was for a 
 tirrje a powerful weapon in the hands of the strong 
 Puritanical party among the citizens. The Plague, as 
 we have seen, strengthened their hands, and the climax 
 came with the outbreak of the Civil War, when, in 
 September 1642, an Order of Parliament definitely 
 forbade all public performances. "Whereas public 
 sports," it ran, "doe not well agree with publike 
 calamities, nor publike stage-playes with the seasons of 
 Humiliation, . . . being spectacles of pleasure too 
 commonly expressing lascivious mirth and levitie, it is 
 therefore thought fit and ordained . . . that while 
 these sad causes and set times of humiliation doe 
 continue, publike stage-plays shall cease and be for- 
 borne." 1 
 
 The fortunes of the stage had already been in sad 
 case, as is graphically set forth in a pamphlet called 
 "The Stage-Player's Complaint," published in 164-1. 
 This is in the form of a "pleasant dialogue" between 
 two favourite actors, "Cane of the Fortune and Read 
 of the Friers." It laments the bad times that have 
 fallen upon actors and deplores their sad condition for 
 want of employment. "Oh, the times," says the one, 
 
THE THEATRE AND THE PURITANS. 3 1 
 
 " when we have vapoured in the streets like courtiers." 
 Everything is "down," he says, and soon they will be 
 "down" too. The other replies, to cheer him, that 
 players and plays "are very necessar)' and commodious 
 to all people ; first for strangers who can'desire no 
 better recreation than to come and see a play ; then for 
 citizens, to feast their wits ; then for gallants, w T ho 
 otherwise would spend their money in drunkenness and 
 lasciviousness, but doe find a great delight and delecta- 
 tion to see a play ; then for the learned it does increase 
 and add wit constructively to wit ; then for gentle- 
 women it teacheth them how to deceive idleness ; then 
 for the ignorant it does augment their knowledge,; 
 Pish, and a thousand more arguments I could adde, 
 but that I should weary your patience too much. Well, 
 in a word, we are so needfull for the common good that 
 in some respect it were almost a sinne to put us downe; 
 therefore let not these frivolous things perplex your 
 vexatious thoughts." 
 
 In spite, however, of these weighty reasons for the 
 opposite, they were " put downe" within the year. 
 
 Another curious pamphlet, "The Actor's Remon- 
 strance," which appeared in 1643, complains with some 
 justice that, while stage-plays were banned, the Bear- 
 Garden, where all sorts of abuses prevailed, was 
 tolerated; while "Puppet Plays, which are not so 
 valuable as the very musicque between each act at ours, 
 are still kept up with uncontrolled allowance, witness 
 the famous motion of Bel and the Dragon, so frequently 
 visited at Holborne Bridge these passed Christmasse 
 holidays." The author draws a sad picture of the 
 probable result to his profession. "Our boyes," he 
 says, "ere we shall have libertie to act againe, will be 
 growne out of use, like crackt organ-pipes, and have 
 faces as old as our flags. . . . Our musike, that was 
 
32 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 held so delectable and precious that they scorned to 
 come to a taverne under twentie shillings salary for 
 two hours," now have to take any alms they can get! 
 " Our ablest ordinarie poets, instead of their annual 
 stipend and beneficiall second days," are, he says, 
 "compelled to get a living by writing contemptible 
 penny pamphlets, feigning miraculous stories and un- 
 heard of battles." The pamphlet is drafted in the form 
 of a petition to the authorities, and ends with a recital 
 of the reforms that shall be made in the theatres if only 
 they may be allowed to continue. No female shall be 
 allowed to enter the playhouse unaccompanied, so that 
 there may be no more of the ladies of light virtue " that 
 sit in the sixpenny seats." It is even undertaken that 
 " the tobacco-men, that used to walk up and down 
 selling for a penny pipe that which was not worth 
 twelve pence an horse-load," shall sell none, "not so 
 much as in threepenny galleries, unlesse of the first 
 Spanish leafe." In short, so this fruitless petition runs, 
 they will so conduct themselves that none shall be able 
 to bring the charge of ungodliness against them. 
 
 Evidently the edict of 1642 was occasionally evaded, 
 for five years later another ordinance enacted that 
 any one found playing " stage-plays, interludes or other 
 common playes " should be imprisoned and punished 
 as rogues; and in the next year this was repeated in a 
 more stringent form. " Whether wanderers or no, and 
 notwithstanding any license whatsoever from the King 
 or any person," they were to be punished. Further, 
 the authorities were required to have all places de- 
 molished where plays should be found to be acted, and 
 any one caught playing in them was to be publicly 
 whipped and to enter into recognizances never to act 
 any more. If they offended again, they were to be 
 proceeded against as incorrigible rogues; any moneys 
 
THE THEATRE AND THE PURITANS. 33 
 
 paid to them were to be forfeited for the good of the 
 poor, and every spectator was to pay a fine nearly 
 equivalent to a pound of our money. 
 
 Thus there fell upon the stage a dark and disastrous 
 cloud which did not lift till the more tolerant days of 
 the Restoration. To the credit of the actors, there 
 ' may be quoted a mention in a newspaper of 1654 of 
 " the poor actors, who have a long time lingered under 
 the heavy yoke of poverty, and fed themselves and 
 families with hunger, sighs and tears; yet not one of 
 these poor men,*during this long winter of many years 
 debarment from the exercise of that quality wherein 
 they were bred, but have continued always civill and 
 honest in life and conversation." So glowing an 
 eulogium may be a trifle over-coloured ; but apparently 
 there was but little fault to be found with the demeanour 
 in adversity of these men who had been the spoilt 
 darlings of fashion. Many of them risked their lives in 
 the ranks for the Royalist cause, a circumstance which 
 was not forgotten when Charles II. came to the throne 
 and the Puritan gloom was dispelled. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 
 
 The love of the drama — or, perhaps, merely the love of 
 amusement of which the drama was one of the most 
 popular expressions — was only dormant during the 
 gloom and distress of the Civil War, and not dead. 
 Once the crisis of affairs was past and the Common- 
 wealth established, dramatic performances began to 
 crop up again. At first this happened in the way of 
 private entertainments at the houses of the great, 
 Holland House being one of the most conspicuous of 
 these ; but public performances were also begun 
 tentatively at such places as the Red Bull, where a 
 company was got together by Rhodes, former prompter 
 at the Blackfriars house. The performances there and 
 at other of the inn-yards, if not openly tolerated, were 
 winked at tajy the authorities. As soon, however, as the 
 Restoration was an accomplished fact, and it was felt 
 that the Puritans' domination was gone, dramatic 
 performances began to be frequented, and the oppressed 
 actors to hold up their heads and take courage. " To 
 the Red Bull," wrote Pepys in March 1661, "where I 
 had not been since plays came up again " ; though he is 
 obliged to record that there was "confusion and 
 disorder " among the performers, and not more than ten 
 besides himself in the pit, and not one hundred in the 
 whole house. 
 
 At the Cockpit in Drury Lane, Davenant had already 
 34 
 
THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 35 
 
 produced some of the entertainments of " declamation 
 and music " with which he had achieved success at 
 noblemen's houses, — one of these entertainments, The 
 Siege of Rhodes, being memorable for the fact that in the 
 records of it we have the earliest mention of English 
 women performing upon the public stage. This was in 
 1656. Four years later, Pepys records his seeing 
 female actors for the first time, the play being The 
 Beggar's Bush, which he describes as " very well done, 
 and here the first time that ever I saw women come 
 upon the stage." In the same year, Davenant opened 
 a theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he is credited 
 with having used the earliest movable scenery that was 
 seen on the English stage. Before his death he built a 
 larger theatre in Dorset Gardens, whither the company 
 migrated in 1652, to play for ten years with growing 
 success. 
 
 Soon after Charles II.'s entry into London, theatrical 
 matters were regularized by the granting of two patents, 
 the one to Davenant's company at Lincoln's' Inn Fields 
 (and subsequently at Dorset Gardens), the other to 
 Thomas Killigrew's company at the Cockpit in Drury 
 Lane. These date from 1662 and 1663 respectively. 
 Davenant's players were known as the " Duke of York's 
 Company," Killigrew's as the "King's Servants." 
 The latter were technically part of the royal household ; 
 they took an oath of loyalty at the Lord Chamberlain's 
 office, were privileged to wear his Majesty's uniform, 
 and ranked as " Gentlemen of the Chamber." In 1682 
 the twp companies were united, and opened in November 
 of that year, under the designation of the " King's 
 Company," at the Drury Lane Theatre built by Sir 
 Christopher Wren. — > 
 
 The arrangement of the house and stage at this 
 period was a modification of what had been familiar in 
 
2,6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the more fortunate days before the turmoil of war. The 
 stage had shrunk, and was no longer, as in Elizabethan 
 days, merely a platform in the midst of the spectators ; 
 but it still projected some way into the body of the 
 theatre, in a fashion long preserved in certain houses. 
 At each side of this projecting portion was a door, 
 through which the characters in the play made their 
 entrances and exits. Boxes were built above these 
 doors, behind the drop-scene, an arrangement which 
 lingers still in some of the older opera-houses. The 
 curtain thus hung behind the projecting portion of the 
 stage, and in front of it were spoken the Prologues and 
 Epilogues which were so prominent a feature in seven- 
 teenth-century plays. So much did this arrangement 
 seem a necessary part of the order of things, that Colley 
 Cibber in his "Apology" complains of the curtailment 
 of the stage that took place when Drury Lane Theatre 
 was remodelled. 
 
 There were usually, besides a cheap "pit," three 
 tiers of seats. Seats in the lowest of these tiers, which 
 was all arranged in boxes, were priced at three or four 
 shillings ; the second tier was mostly occupied by open 
 seats, with a few boxes, the price here being one shilling 
 arid sixpence; the topmost tier was a shilling gallery. 
 It must be borne in mind that these sums equalled twice 
 or thrice their value in the money of to-day. Per- 
 formances were in the afternoon, usually at half-past 
 three; but at the court theatre at Whitehall, the play 
 began about eight and lasted till near midnight. 
 
 The theatre, besides being a much-frequented source 
 of entertainment, became also a sort of lounge and 
 rendes-vous. For a while the custom existed that any 
 one could walk into the pit without payment, so long 
 as he retired before the conclusion of the act that was 
 in progress; so that a gallant could go in, look round 
 
THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. U 
 
 for his friends, join them if he saw them, or, if not, 
 walk out again unchallenged. Pepys records how on 
 one occasion he saw an act of two or three plays 
 successively on one day without payment ! It is 
 obvious that a liberty of this sort was bound to be 
 abused, and it was soon forbidden. It had frequently 
 resulted in disorderly scenes in the pit, and even in 
 disturbances between members of the audience upon 
 the stage. Ultimately it became necessary to issue 
 edicts to prevent spectators forcing themselves into 
 the playhouses without payment. 
 
 Satirical advice to a "young blood" as to his 
 behaviour in the theatre is given in the following 
 passage from Samuel Vincent's " Young Gallant's 
 Academy," published in 1674: — 
 
 "Let our gallant (having paid his half-crown and 
 given the doorkeeper his ticket) presently advance 
 himself into the middle of the pit, where, having made 
 his honor to the rest of the company, but especially 
 to the Vizard-Masks, let him pull out his comb and 
 manage his flaxen wig with all the grace he can. 
 Having done so, the next step is to give a hum to the 
 China-Orange Wench, and give her her own rate for 
 her oranges (for 'tis below a gentleman to stand hag- 
 gling like a citizen's wife), and then to present the 
 fairest to the next Vizard-Mask." 
 
 Pepys frequently records his visits to the pit, when 
 he went alone to the play; on one occasion he com- 
 plains of the growing number of "ordinary 'prentices 
 and mean people " that frequent it. In his less prosper- 
 ous days he favoured the less expensive seats, till an 
 embarrassing occasion occurred when he was "troubled" 
 at being seen in the one-and-sixpenny seats by four ot 
 his office clerks who were in the half-crown places. 
 Ladies usually sat in the first or the second circle; 
 
38 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 never in the pit. Commonly they wore masks, to hide 
 the blushes that the licentiousness of many of the plays 
 would at all events be expected to produce. The pit, 
 however, with the attractions of diversion that it offered 
 from the presence of the impudent orange-girls and 
 other wenches of easy manners, was popular with the 
 men, who apparently were not unwilling even to leave 
 their fair companions sitting in the boxes and slip away 
 downstairs. " I will not go," says Alithea in Wycher- 
 ley's Country Wife, " if you intend to leave me alone in 
 the box, and run into the pit, as you use to do." 
 
 The " booking " of seats being still a thing of the 
 future, gentlemen's servants used to be sent to occupy 
 seats in the better parts of the house and keep them 
 till their masters arrived. "The stinking footman's 
 sent to keep your places," is a line that occurs in a 
 prologue to a play of 1672. On their master's arrival 
 the servants would retire to the gallery, which became 
 practically their perquisite. This invasion of the gallery 
 by the "gentlemen's gentlemen" became in time a 
 nuisance with which managers found it very difficult to 
 cope. The lackeys aped their masters' want of courtesy 
 to the players and to the less sophisticated part of the 
 audience, and their chatter and jesting vied success- 
 fully with that of the dearer parts of the house, while 
 the soberer spectators protested in vain against this 
 ill-bred interference with their pleasure. Dryden con- 
 trasts the different elements in the audience in his 
 " Prologue for the Women, when they acted at the Old 
 Theatre, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields" : — 
 
 " Here's good accommodation in the pit; 
 The grave demurely in the midst may sit, 
 And so the hot Burgundian on the side 
 Ply vizard mask and o'er the benches stride. 
 
THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 39 
 
 Here are convenient upper boxes too, 
 For those that make the most triumphant show ; 
 All that keep coaches must not sit below. 
 There, gallants, you betwixt the acts retire, 
 And at dull plays have something to admire." 
 
 For all this peacocking of the gallants and fair ladies 
 at the theatres, and despite thp fact that the theatre of 
 the seventeenth century was to many merely a fashion- 
 able lounge, there was still a very keen appreciation of 
 the drama. Plays were ruthlessly criticized by the more 
 intelligent part of the audience, and their good and bad 
 points taken with a quick appreciation. New plays in 
 preparation were previously announced from the stage 
 at the close of a performance, and advertised by broad- 
 sheets stuck on posts in the town, as had been the old 
 custom. 
 
 The genial and oft-quoted Pepys is a mine of illustra- 
 tion as to the theatres of his day ; and, though he does 
 not shine as a judge of plays, he had a keen sense of 
 good acting, and was an excellent chronicler of the 
 tattle of the coulisses. From him, too, we know of the 
 King's visits to the play, and, in consequence, of the 
 various changes in the royal favourites. Pepys had a 
 heart very susceptible to the charms of the actresses; 
 "but Lord!" he says, "their confidence! and how 
 many men do hover about them as soon as they come 
 off the stage, and how confident they are in their 
 talk!" 
 
 A revolution in the scenic setting of the plays was 
 gradually taking place. In the "Masques," which 
 were performed mainly in the houses of the nobility, 
 scenery and mechanical effects had reached a consider- 
 able elaboration, particularly under the ingenious 
 hand of Inigo Jones, who designed dresses, movable 
 
40 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 scenery, and mechanical devices for a number of 
 masques by Ben Jonson, Heywood, Davenant, and 
 others. This, as the vogue of the public theatres 
 revived, exercised a great influence upon the staging 
 of plays there. Another indirect result was the com- 
 plete roofing-in of the theatres and the giving of the 
 performances by artificial light, although the hour of 
 performances remained about the same as heretofore; 
 Wren's Drury Lane was at first open to the sky over 
 the pit, as in the old days, but the space was eventually 
 covered in by a glass cupola. 
 
 Before the union of the two " patent" theatres there 
 was of necessity a keen rivalry between the two troops 
 of actors. Both included men of worth and ability — 
 "the best set of English actors yet known," Cibber 
 calls them — though Davenant's company contained on 
 the whole the greater talent. Among the most notable 
 in the " King's" company were Charles Hart, Michael 
 Mohun, John Lacy, Edward Kynaston and William 
 Cartwright. Of these, Hart and Mohun had fought in 
 the Civil War. The former, who was a grandnephew 
 of Shakespeare, was a lieutenant in Prince Rupert's 
 regiment; Mohun was also in the Royalist ranks. 
 Hart has a further claim to remembrance as having 
 coached the famous Nell Gwynne for the stage; she 
 was a later addition to this company, which at the 
 Restoration included amongst its ladies the more faintly 
 remembered Rebecca Marshall and the Mrs. Knipp 
 who figures prominently in portions of Pepys' records. 
 
 Lacy was dramatist as well as comedian, and is 
 memorable as the original Bayes in The Rehearsal when 
 it was produced in 167 1. Kynaston was famous for 
 his impersonation of female characters in his youth, and 
 was one of the last male actors of such parts, for the 
 new fashion of "women actors" was imported from 
 
THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 41 
 
 France in his day; in his maturity, too, he was no mean 
 performer in more serious parts. Cartwright, who 
 during the Civil War had started a bookseller's busi- 
 ness, and resumed acting at the Restoration, died a 
 man of some substance, and bequeathed his books and 
 pictures to Dulwich College, an institution founded 
 some sixty years before by another actor, the famous 
 Edward Alleyn, who had been the original Tamburlaine 
 and Faustus of Marlowe's dramas. 
 
 The mainstay of Davenant's company was Thomas 
 Betterton. He joined the company as a young man of 
 about five-and-twenty, and made an immediate and 
 remarkable success as Hamlet in 1661. In this part 
 Davenant taught him the true Shakespearean "tradi- 
 tion," Davenant having seen it played, as we are told, 
 at the Blackfriars Theatre by Joseph Taylor, who was 
 instructed by Shakespeare himself. As Mercutio, 
 Othello, Brutus, and Macbeth, Betterton afterwards 
 repeated, if he did not eclipse, his first success. Besides 
 his supremacy as an actor, he was also distinguished 
 as a theatrical manager, his ability in this direction 
 being so well recognized that he visited Paris, at the 
 King's command, to become acquainted with various 
 details of stagecraft in which it was thought the 
 English stage could bear improvement. He went to 
 the new Drury Lane at the amalgamation of the two 
 companies in 1682, was a member of the company at 
 the Lincoln's Inn Theatre, which was opened some 
 twelve years later, and opened Sir John Vanbrugh's 
 theatre in the Haymarket in 1705. It was in the last- 
 named theatre (which was on the site of the present 
 His Majesty's) that he made his final appearance, as 
 Melantius in The Maid's Tragedy, only a couple of days 
 before his death, when he was weak and in pain, but 
 still capable of efforts that roused his audience to 
 
 4 
 
42 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 enthusiasm. Testimony to his lovable and admirable - 
 character as a man is as strong as it is to his pre- 
 eminence as an actor; and as an actor this " phcenix of 
 the stage," as Colley Cibber calls him, was as remark- 
 able in comedy as in tragedy. In tragedy he was 
 perhaps at his greatest. "I never heard a line in 
 tragedy come from Betterton," says Cibber, "wherein 
 my judgment, my ear, and my imagination were not 
 fully satisfied ; which, since his time, I cannot equally 
 say of any one actor whatsoever." 
 
 Nell Gwynne appeared as a member of the King's 
 Company at the original Drury Lane Theatre in 1665, 
 when she was fifteen or sixteen. In the serious part in 
 which she made her debut (that of Cydaria in Dryden's 
 Indian Emperor) she made no great impression ; it was 
 not until she undertook comic parts that this most 
 impudent of orange-girls, whose rough wit and ready 
 repartee had made her the darling of the pit, showed 
 any particular histrionic ability. The speaking of pro- 
 logues and epilogues, where natural wit was of obvious 
 service, was her strong point. She had the charm of 
 audacity and irrepressible merriment; and, moreover, 
 she danced remarkably well. What she knew of the 
 technique of acting had been taught her by Hart. She 
 played for five years at Drury Lane; then, after an 
 interval of a year or two, at the Dorset Gardens Theatre 
 with Davenant's company; then again at Drury Lane. 
 After the union of the theatres she retired from the stage. 
 Her amours were many, her lovers including the king 
 and the erratic and brilliant Lord Buckhurst; one of 
 her sons, of whom the king was father, was created 
 Duke of St. Albans. A spasmodic generosity, not 
 uncharacteristic of her type, gained her among the 
 groundlings a popularity that overlooked her frailties ; 
 but it is not too much to say that an undue flavour of 
 
THE THEATRES OF THE RESTORATION. 43 
 
 romance has been allowed to gather round the repute of 
 this "impudent comedian." 
 
 The rivalry between the two companies became 
 intolerable, particularly to the King's Company, many 
 of whose players had deserted to the opposition; in 
 1682 the two were united and the two patents merged 
 into one. The King's Company was decaying rapidly, 
 and would have disappeared under the stress of 
 competition. It was, indeed, virtually extinguished 
 when the union was accomplished, for the other and 
 robuster company contained the bulk of the available 
 talent. The public was the gainer by the change, 
 and the event inaugurated a second short era of 
 successful achievement. 
 
 Of the Restoration dramatists, Dryden and Otway in 
 tragedy, and D'Urfey, Etherege, Sedley, Aphra Behn, 
 and Wycherley in comedy, are the most conspicuous. 
 French influence was very strong in both departments 
 of the drama, and continued so for some time. In 
 comedy it was a particularly good model, and the 
 attempt to imitate it led to a greater effort to depict 
 character and manners, with less reliance upon mere 
 licentiousness and buffoonery. That taint, it is true, 
 lingered for some time, but comedy presently developed 
 on far more individual lines than the artificiality of its 
 conditions allowed to tragedy. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE UNION OF THE THEATRES, AND AFTER. 
 
 The union of the two companies was, as we have seen, 
 for all practical purposes the absorption into Davenant's 
 company of the talent that remained in the King's 
 Company. There had already been serious defections 
 from the latter. Kynaston, amongst others, had joined 
 the rival house; Hart, Mohun, and Nell Gwynneleft the 
 stage after the amalgamation ; and Davenant's players 
 already included Betterton in their ranks. 
 
 The amalgamation only lasted twelve years. It was 
 a period of great initial promise, and of some achieve- 
 ment; but by degrees bad management, seconded by 
 outside influences, produced the inevitable disruption. 
 Our knowledge of the internal politics of the stage 
 during these years and those that immediately succeeded 
 them is fairly full, thanks to the vivid account of 
 contemporary affairs given by Colley Cibber in his 
 "Apology," as he named his vigorous and entertaining 
 account of his dramatic career. He joined the company 
 in 1690, when, besides Betterton and Kynaston, it 
 included Mr. and Mrs. Leigh, Nokes, Mrs. Barry, Mrs. 
 Mountfort, and Mrs. Bracegirdle. Cibber made only a 
 moderate success at first, but eventually became distin- 
 guished for his performance of certain comic parts, and 
 still more by his ability as a playwright. His first play, 
 Love's Last Shift, produced in 1696, was one of the few 
 of its day that escaped condemnation at the hands of 
 
 44 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. 45 
 
 intelligent contemporary criticism. He wrote some 
 thirty plays in all, and was appointed Poet Laureate in 
 1730, soon after which he retired from the stage. 
 
 During the time that the " union " lasted, the Theatre 
 Royal was indebted to the pens of many able writers — 
 Dryden, D'Urfey, Congreve, Wycherley and others — 
 who to a great extent created a " comedy of manners," 
 though licentiousness coloured their work to a degree 
 that now seems amazing. The level of acting was 
 high, and a considerable advance was made in what 
 we should now call character-acting. In the matter of 
 costume some curious conventions grew up, and were 
 in some cases maintained till Garrick's time. Among 
 these were the wearing, by all "heroic" characters, of 
 a headdress of nodding plumes, the " forest of feathers" 
 that Hamlet alludes to in his scene with the players ; 
 coarse black wigs and whitened and disfigured faces 
 for "murderers" and the like; brilliant red wigs 
 for Jews, and so forth. The actors themselves were 
 courted and made much of, and for the most part 
 acquired such an overweening idea of their importance 
 as has not been paralleled till the present day. They 
 enjoyed, it must be remembered, certain very definite 
 privileges as " His Majesty's Servants," one of the 
 most convenient of these being immunity from ordinary 
 arrest for debt. The tastes of the Court and the tem- 
 perament of the monarch were such as to encourage 
 the actors to make very free with their opportunities 
 and to breed an overbearing spirit in those that were 
 popular favourites; while, at the same time, the pro- 
 clivities of both monarch and audiences were such as to 
 lead to the gradual debasement of the drama. Charles's 
 predilections were more for the elaborate display of the 
 masque than for the poetry of the drama, and still more 
 fpr the licentiousness of an Aphra Behn than for honest 
 
46 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 fun or clean wit. The flood of viciousness which over- 
 spread the comedy of the time — a time which could 
 tolerate Dryden's Limberhavi, Wycherley's Country 
 Wife, or the obscenities of Aphra Behn — reflected the 
 manners that were in vogue at Court and among the 
 Court's followers, manners that were an inevitable 
 accompaniment of the reaction from the recent tram- 
 mels of Puritanism. It is instructive to remember that 
 Aphra Behn is buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 The tide of indecency was eventually checked to a 
 considerable degree, and the acceptance of wholesome 
 work made possible, by Jeremy Collier's " Short View 
 of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English 
 Stage," which appeared in 1698. This work, whose 
 earnest purpose was immensely aided by the author's 
 keen and vivacious style ("harmoniously and becom- 
 ingly blending mirth with solemnity," as Macaulay 
 afterwards said of it), nobly swept the ground from 
 under the feet of the licentious writers and their 
 apologists. Collier brought to bear upon his argument 
 not merely prejudice, for that alone would have been 
 ineffectual, but a thorough knowledge of his subject, a 
 searching humour and an uncompromising courage. 
 Vanbrugh, Congreve, and others attempted replies, 
 but to these Collier furnished rejoinders that amply 
 upheld his case ; and the result of his crusade was a 
 stricter restraint and the possibility of a finer and more 
 decent style of writing. It is rarely that a single 
 controversial work has had so complete an effect, nor 
 is it less rare for a book written from so thoroughly 
 unpopular a standpoint to be penned in so vivaciously 
 attractive a style and to prove itself so thoroughly 
 informed with knowledge. 
 
 The management of the Theatre Royal rapidly 
 deteriorated after 1690. At that time an enterprising 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. 47 
 
 and unscrupulous attorney, Christopher Rich, had by 
 purchase become joint owner with Charles Killigrew of 
 the patents which governed theatrical performances. 
 Killigrew took no active share in the management, and 
 so became a negligable quantity ; while Rich, who thus 
 practically had everything in his hands, was from the 
 first continually entangled in quarrels with actors, 
 authors, shareholders, in fact with every one connected 
 with the theatre. His legal training enabled him to 
 take advantage of every quibble and trick to best his 
 opponents, who usually gave up the fight from sheer 
 exhaustion ; consequently he secured his position as a 
 rapacious, dictatorial and not over-honest manager who 
 had little or no qualifications to fit him to direct the 
 theatre over which he had assumed the sole control. 
 The theatrical historian Genest sums him up as "a 
 despicable character, without spirit to bring the power 
 of the Lord Chamberlain to a legal test, without honesty 
 to account to the other proprietors for the receipts of 
 the theatre, without any feeling for his actors, and 
 without the least judgment as to plays and players." 
 
 It was impossible that his company should be loyal 
 to such a manager as this. The pieces presented began 
 to lose their power of attracting audiences, and the 
 receipts to diminish. Thereupon Rich tried the fatal 
 expedient of diminishing the actors' salaries and employ- 
 ing inferior players to play prominent parts. As a 
 result, he soon had the principal members of the company 
 in open revolt; and a seeming way out of the difficulty 
 was found by King William's granting (in 1695) a 
 separate patent to Betterton, Mrs. Barry and Mrs. 
 Bracegirdle, and licensing them and their company to 
 play in a separate theatre which they fitted up in a 
 disused tennis-court in Lincoln's Inn Fields. These 
 actors found a useful auxiliary in Congreve, the most 
 
43 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 prominent dramatist of the day, who cast in his lot 
 with them and took an active share in the management 
 of the new theatre. This opened with Congreve's 
 Love for Love, "which," says Cibber, "ran on with 
 such extraordinary success that they had seldom occasion 
 to act any other play till the end of the season." 
 
 At first the new house had all the best of it. The 
 ablest actors from the old theatre had seceded to it, and 
 its novelty drew the town in spite of Rich's attempts to 
 make Drury Lane attractive. By degrees, however, 
 the novelty wore off, and the management felt the pinch 
 of the heavy expenses incurred in starting the new 
 venture. At Drury Lane, moreover, the younger 
 actors were improving with practice, Vanbrugh had 
 stepped into Congreve's shoes, and, with the help of 
 the few experienced seniors who had remained there, 
 the old house came by degrees to give performances 
 not much inferior to those of the seceders. 
 
 Colley Cibber had become a member of the Drury 
 Lane company before the disruption, and remained 
 faithful to it. Besides his "Apology," another enter- 
 taining source of information as to the theatrical events 
 of these days is a work entitled "A Comparison 
 between the two Stages," which appeared in 1702, 
 when the rivalry was at its keenest. It is attributed 
 to Charles Gildon, a miscellaneous writer who was also 
 a dramatist. In the form of dialogues between friends 
 who meet to discuss the stage and its concerns, it not 
 only contains some searching criticism and much detailed 
 information about the fortunes of individual plays and 
 players, but also sheds some interesting side-lights'on 
 the social life of the day. 
 
 In this work one of the interlocutors confesses him- 
 self to be " in a perplexity" concerning the success of 
 the two play-houses. " I have often wondered," he 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. 49 
 
 says, " how they have so long' subsisted in an age so 
 barren of good plays and in such a dearth of wit." He 
 notes that "the emulation betweem 'em" had (in 1702) 
 already lasted for seven years, in spite of the difficulties 
 that beset both houses. Sixteen of the old company 
 had left Drury Lane, thus robbing it of its best talent ; 
 and yet it held on pertinaciously, though " sunk into 
 a very despicable condition " as the result of Rich's 
 methods of management. The new house, on the other 
 hand, though better equipped with actors and more 
 honestly managed, had with difficulty tided over its 
 initial expenses, and there was much "dunning the 
 noblemen " to finance it. It had the advantage in 
 popularity at first, but the audiences, says Gildon, 
 "being in a little time sated with the novelty of the 
 new house, returned in shoals to the old," where the 
 younger talent was beginning to mature. By degrees 
 it became evident that the town could not furnish two 
 regular audiences, and theatre-goers took to visiting 
 Lincoln's Inn for tragedy and Drury Lane for comedy. 
 
 The necessity of attracting an audience by hook or 
 by crook made the rivalry more desperate, and to this 
 end devices of all kinds were tried. If Rich played 
 what he considered to be a good card at Drury Lane, 
 Betterton was obliged to try and trump it in Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields, and vice-versa. Extraneous attractions of 
 all kinds were introduced — singing, dancing, "foreign 
 postures and pantomimists" — anything, in fact, that 
 would create any sort of sensation. The old house, 
 says Gildon, called in " the Fiddle, the Voice, the 
 Painter, and the Carpenter to help 'em; and what 
 neither the Poet nor the Player could do, the Mechanic 
 must do for him. . . . The Opera now possesses the 
 Stage." So Lincoln's Inn had to follow Drury Lane's 
 lead and take to opera also, but the restricted size of 
 
50 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the stage was so much against this that Betterton gave 
 it up and tried revivals of Shakespeare. Rich, not to 
 be outdone, replied with revivals of Ben Jonson. "They 
 fell to task," says Gildon, " on the Fox, the Alchyinist, 
 and Silent Woman, who had lain twenty years in peace. 
 They drew these up in battalia against Harry the 4th 
 and Harry the 8th, and then the fight began." 
 
 Gildon, who has a very proper sense of the dignity 
 of the drama, draws a sad contrast between this state 
 of things and what was the case in the "palmy days." 
 Then, he says, the Duke of^Monmouth brought a 
 French dancer to London, but no one would go to see 
 him, for "the plays were then so good, and Hart and 
 Mohun acted 'em so well, that the audience would not 
 be- interrupted for so short a time, though 'twas to 
 see the best Master in Europe." Whereas now, he 
 says, a stage that had "kept its purity a hundred 
 years (at least from this debauchery) is prostituted to 
 Vagabonds, to Caperers, Eunuchs, Fiddlers, Tumblers, 
 and Gipsies." 
 
 One piece of criticism of Gildon's, to quote him yet 
 once more, is> of general application. " Sometimes," 
 says he, " a song or a dance may be admitted into a 
 play without offending our reason. I won't say it is 
 at any time necessary, for some of our best tragedies 
 have neither; but perhaps it may be done without 
 offence, sometimes to alleviate the attention of the 
 audience, to give the actors time and respite, but 
 always with regard to the scene, for by no means must 
 it be made a business independent of that. In this 
 particular our operas are highly criminal, the music in 
 them is for the most part an absurd impertinence. For 
 instance, how ridiculous is it in the scene in The 
 Prophetess, where the great action of the drama stops 
 and the chief officers of the army stand still with their 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. 5 I 
 
 swords drawn to hear a fellow sing, ' Let the soldiers 
 rejoice'; faith, in my mind, it is as unreasonable as if 
 a man should call for a pipe of tobacco just when the 
 priest and his bride are waiting for him at the altar. 
 The examples are innumerable, no opera is without 
 them." 
 
 The popularity of opera led to the planning of a 
 special theatre for such performances. The project 
 was favoured by the Court, perhaps because it offered 
 an opportunity of closer control than was possible with 
 the older patents. Capital was advanced by " persons 
 of quality," and by the spring of 1705 the town was 
 possessed of a new and magnificent house built in the 
 Haymarket upon the site now occupied by His Majesty's 
 Theatre. It was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, who, 
 besides being a dramatist, was an architect of no mean 
 powers; but the original building, being faulty in its 
 acoustic qualities, was subsequently a good deal re- 
 modelled. The Queen's Theatre, as the new house 
 was called, was opened in April 1705 with an opera 
 performed by a company of singers from Italy — "the 
 worst," says a contemporary, "that ever came from 
 thence "• — with the result that the players were at once 
 hissed off the stage. Thereupon Betterton, who was 
 finding the strain of his Lincoln's Inn Fields venture too 
 great for him, joined forces with Vanbrugh and trans- 
 ferred his company to the new theatre. Except for a 
 considerable success with Vanbrugh's The Confederacy 
 (in which Doggett, of " Doggett's Badge " fame, made 
 one of his greatest hits) affairs did not prosper under 
 the new conditions. Betterton, now. an old man of 
 failing powers, was compelled to leave the greater part 
 of the management in Vanbrugh's hands, and Vanbrugh 
 was not a good manager. Nor does he seem to have 
 been particularly scrupulous ; for, whereas those who 
 
52 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 had supported the scheme for the new house had done 
 so in the belief that it would constitute an opposition 
 to the old patents, Vanbrugh contrived that his theatre 
 should be leased to Owen Swinny, who was a hanger- 
 on of Rich's, thus paving the way for an admixture of 
 Rich's Drury Lane company with the attenuated 
 remains of the old Duke of York's. Colley Cibber 
 was amongst the Drury Lane players who acted under 
 Swinny, whose first season was successful. According 
 to Cibber, however, the new house was too much out 
 of the way. "The City, the Inns of Court and the 
 middle part of the town," he says, " which were the 
 most constant support of a theatre and chiefly to be 
 relied on, were now too far out of the reach of an easy 
 walk, and coach-hire is often too hard a tax upon the 
 Pit and Gallery." 
 
 By the end of 1707 various causes (among which 
 were a quarrel between Swinny and Rich, and persistent 
 wire-pulling on the part of Rich's backers at Court) 
 resulted in an edict of the Lord Chamberlain to the 
 effect that only operas should be performed at the 
 Queen's Theatre, and only plays without singing or 
 dancing at Drury Lane. The obvious effect of this was 
 to recreate Rich's monopoly at Drury Lane ; and in 
 spite of its protests the older house, whose players 
 petitioned that they had " by their long labours and 
 diligence (notwithstanding many discouragements) im- 
 proved themselves into an able and active company, to 
 the general satisfaction of the town," was obliged to 
 receive the Haymarket actors, the amalgamated com- 
 pany being announced as the " United Company of 
 Comedians." Under this style an opening was made 
 at Drury Lane in January 1708. Rich professed 
 sympathy with the abortive petition of his Drury Lane 
 company, but it is difficult to believe that he can have 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. S3 
 
 been displeased at the disappearance of competition 
 that was bound to result from the order limiting plays 
 to Drury Lane and opera to the Queen's Theatre. 
 
 The "United Company" included the names of 
 Betterton, Wilks, Booth, Cibber, Estcourt, Pinketh- 
 man, Doggett, Mrs. Knight, Mrs. Barry, and Mrs. 
 Oldfield. Betterton acted but seldom, owing to age 
 and physical infirmities ; but the company was a 
 powerful one and the performances reached a high 
 level. All went prosperously for a time and fairly 
 smoothly, the more so as Rich's autocracy had been 
 a good deal impaired by the growing influence of a 
 certain Henry Brett, who had acquired a considerable 
 share in the patent. This share Brett assigned (in 
 1708) to Wilks, Cibber, and Estcourt, and with this 
 transference began the final decline of Rich's power. 
 Wilks was stage-manager ; Cibber, Doggett, and 
 others had the advantage of a popularity that Rich's 
 chicanery had alienated from him ; and circumstances 
 culminated in a revolt against Rich. This meant the 
 end of his reign, for he was peremptorily ordered to 
 close the theatre until he had satisfied the grievances 
 of his company, which he never did. 
 
 The salaries of the chief actors at this time are on 
 record. Betterton received ^4 a week, and £1 for 
 his wife, "although she does not act"; Cibber, £,$; 
 Mrs. Oldfield, £4 ; Estcourt, ^5 ; Wilks, £7, he 
 being stage-manager as well as actor ; each of these, 
 moreover, claiming a considerable sum by the customary 
 " benefit nights" that were their perquisite. 
 
 When Rich was ousted from Drury Lane, his 
 financial interest in the theatre passed (not without 
 considerable wrangling) to William Collier, a member 
 of parliament. He, in his turn, found theatrical 
 management a more formidable task than he had 
 
54 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 anticipated, and the combination of ill-success with 
 frequent defections of prominent members of his com- 
 pany led him to invite Cibber, Wilks, and Doggett to 
 assume the management, he himself remaining merely 
 a "sleeping partner" with a monetary stake in the 
 business. 
 
 The prosperity that the new triple management 
 brought to Drury Lane was happily not endangered 
 by the fact that at first its existence depended solely on 
 licence granted by favour of the authorities ; this was 
 so from the fact that Rich, in whom the old "patent 
 rights" to produce plays were still vested, was pro- 
 jecting a new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He 
 died, however, before it could be opened. 
 
 In contrast to the new prosperity at Drury Lane, 
 opera at the Queen's Theatre ended in ruining Swinny, 
 who eventually bolted in 171 1, leaving only debts behind 
 him. His period of management is chiefly notable as 
 marking the establishment of Italian opera as a form of 
 entertainment in England. At first it was a hybrid 
 entertainment, Italian "principals" singing in their 
 own tongue to the accompaniment of English from the 
 rest of the singers, a condition of affairs which Addison's 
 ridicule helped to kill. Just before Swinny's collapse, 
 however, Handel's Rinaldo, the first opera he produced 
 in England, was performed at the Haymarket house. 
 
 The disturbed years just described, anterior to the 
 famous triple management of Drury Lane, were 
 remarkable for the production of a number of brilliant 
 plays, or, at any rate, of a number of plays from brilliant 
 pens. Dryden, Congreve, Wycherley, Cibber, Farquhar, 
 Vanbrugh, Sedley, Steele — these are names that mean 
 much in the history of the drama. The post-Restora- 
 tion drama had not, indeed, the solid qualities of the 
 Elizabethan, and had but little of its grandeur of aim; 
 
THE UNION OF THE THEATRES. 55 
 
 it was overlaid with licentiousness to an extent that is 
 unforgivable; but it atoned for this in some measure by 
 sheer brilliance and audacity of wit. As was but natural 
 under these conditions, comedy was its best outcome ; 
 the poetic drama had become stilted in form and 
 altogether unreal in sentiment, or, at any rate, must 
 seem so to us to-day. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FROM THE DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO GARRICK. 
 
 Colley Cibber's well-known and much-quoted account 
 of the Drury Lane management in his time is justifiably 
 coloured with pride at the achievement he and his 
 fellow-managers accomplished. The prosperity of the 
 theatre was doubled ; the company worked loyally 
 i together; honesty and decency of behaviour were the 
 >rule instead of the exception. "In the twenty years 
 while we were our own directors," says Cibber, "we 
 never had a creditor that had occasion to come twice for 
 his bill; every Monday morning discharged us of all 
 demands, before we took a shilling for our own use." 
 A welcome contrast this to the bygone Richian methods! 
 Chetwood, who was the prompter at Drury Lane, fully 
 bears out all that Cibber says on this score. 
 
 In their time, Chetwood maintains the stage to have 
 been "in full perfection; their green-rooms were free 
 from indecencies of every kind, and might justly be 
 compared to the most elegant drawing-rooms of the 
 prime quality; no fops or coxcombs ever showed their 
 monkey tricks there, but, if they chanced to thrust in, 
 were awed into respect; even persons of the first rank 
 and taste of both sexes would often mix with the 
 performers without any stain to their honour or 
 understanding." They also achieved the feat of 
 securing a clear stage for the actors, forbidding- the 
 
 56 
 
DRURY LANE " TRIUMVIRATE " TO GARRICK. $7 
 
 spectators to come upon the boards as they had formerly 
 done to the embarrassment of the performers. 
 
 Each of the three managers was a capable actor. ^ 
 Wilks possessed great personal charm, and was seen to 
 best advantage in parts of an easy and natural kind; 
 Cibber had a particular aptitude for parts that cari- 
 catured affectation ; Doggett, for those of broad farce. 
 On the business side of their collaboration, Cibber ' 
 seems to have supplied the critical, as well as the 
 venturesome, element; Wilks, the important element of 
 personal charm and a capacity for smoothing down 
 feathers ruffled by his colleague's manner; Doggett, in 
 his turn, was an admirable business man, and his 
 conscientious care of the theatre's accounts was 
 invaluable. 
 
 How greatly this new tone in theatrical life was ' 
 appreciated in the highest quarters is evident from a 
 Royal Order of November 171 1 forbidding any one to go 
 behind the scenes at a performance. In the preamble to 
 this it is admitted that the orders already given for the 
 reformation of the Stage "have in great measure had 
 the good end we proposed," and satisfaction is expressed 
 that nothing is "acted contrary to religion or good 
 manners." The three managers, besides winning good 
 opinions, had substantial reward in the shape of receipts 
 far greater than any theatre had hitherto reached; 
 Congreve, Gay, Rowe, and Addison are the most 
 famous of the many playwrights who were concerned 
 with the earlier days of this management. Addison's 
 Cato and Rowe's Jane Shore (two plays of widely 
 opposite character), which were produced in 1713 and 
 1714 respectively, were among the most prominent of 
 all their productions. 
 
 Cato, which Doran characterizes as " a compound of 
 transcendent beauties and absurdity," i6 remarkable. 
 
58 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 besides its intrinsic merits, as having established the 
 position of Barton Booth, who as a Westminster boy 
 had attracted attention by the "musical sweetness of 
 his voice and his elegance of deportment " in the 
 Westminster Plays. Betterton befrieiided and ad- 
 vanced Booth when the latter took to the stage as a 
 profession, and Booth's impersonation of Cato in 
 Addison's play now made him a personage to be 
 reckoned with. 
 
 So popular did he become, both with the public and 
 at Court, that before long he used all his efforts to be 
 included in the management. Doggett was obstinately 
 opposed to any such course; and, finding his opposi- 
 tion fruitless, resigned active participation in the 
 management, and had recourse to lawsuits which 
 ended in his discomfiture. He was obliged to acquiesce 
 in being bought out of his share in the patent, and in 
 seeing Booth take his place in the "triumvirate." 
 Being subsequently fortunate in several 'financial 
 ventures, he died a rich man some seven years later. 
 Besides his reputation as an actor, he left behind him 
 an abiding memento in the shape of the "Coat and 
 Badge" annually competed for by Thames watermen 
 on the first of August in commemoration of the 
 accession of the House of Hanover to the English 
 throne. 
 
 Doggett's businesslike qualities must have been 
 missed, but the new management nevertheless' enjoyed 
 a long period of prosperity. This was, no doubt, in 
 great measure due to the fact that all the three 
 managers were able and popular actors, and fortunate 
 in having a strong company under their command. 
 Cibber became inflated with a sense of his importance 
 and played the autocrat; but the deserved popularity 
 that his two colleagues enjoyed among the rest of the 
 
DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO GARRICK. 59 
 
 company, and with the public, helped the management 
 over many difficult places. 
 
 There were, indeed, plenty of troubles to assail them 
 from without. There were squabbles with the Lord 
 Chamberlain and difficulties with Sir Robert Steele, 
 besides the energetic competition of John Rich at 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields, which he had opened under 
 Letters Patent in 1714. There Quin (who made his 
 debut at Drury Lane, but had gone over to Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields in 1717) was becoming a serious rival to 
 Booth in popular favour. Rich, moreover, had given a 
 fillip to the languishing fortunes of his house by the in- 
 troduction of "pantomimes," dumb-show plays dealing 
 with the adventures of Harlequin and Columbine, and 
 presented with considerable elaboration of scenery and 
 machinery. Rich himself was an excellent mimic, and 
 excelled in the part of Harlequin. "New-fangled 
 ■foppery," Cibber called it; nevertheless it proved so 
 much to the taste of the town that Drury Lane was 
 obliged to follow suit. Pantomime after pantomime 
 was brought out at both houses, each trying to outdo 
 the latter's last effort ; and for a long time this form of 
 .entertainment remained a standing dish, to be returned 
 to when other fare did not please the audiences' palate. 
 
 A curious feature of the competition between Drury 
 Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields was a mutual • engage- 
 ment entered into by the rival managers in 1722. By 
 this they bound themselves not to engage each other's 
 actors without consent, under penalty of a forfeit of 
 £20. This high-handed arrangement quietly ignored 
 the wishes of the actors themselves ; no doubt it was 
 designed to prevent such defections as that of Quin 
 from Drury Lane. 
 
 The growing ill-health of Booth was the first portent 
 of the dark days that were looming ahead. The death 
 
60 A' SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of two of the triumvirate and the retirement of the 
 third were not far off; the deaths of Anne Oldfield; 
 Cdngreve, and Steele were, as will ' presently be seen, 
 additional disasters, and the break up of the manage- 
 ment could not long be delayed. 
 
 Meanwhile the centre of interest shifts for a while 
 from Drury Lane to Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the latter 
 house Gay's "Newgate pastoral," The Beggar's Opera, 
 was produced in 1728 with a success that put the older 
 theatre entirely in the shade. This satire against 
 ministers and court favourites was offered to (and most 
 unfortunately declined by) Cibber. Rich accepted it; 
 and was rewarded by one of the most remarkable 1 
 successes in dramatic history. The piece, which was 
 a comedy interspersed with songs, was performed 
 during two seasons with ever-increasing favour. The 
 oft-quoted saying, that it " made Gay rich and Rich 
 gay," was more than justified. Nothing that Cibber 
 could do at Drury Lane made any impression upon its 
 popularity or power of attraction ; according to its 
 foster-father, Swift, it even drove "Gulliver" out of 
 people's heads. It brought money in welcome abund- 
 ance to its producers, and made the fame of its per- 
 formers, — notably of two, Thomas Walker, who played 
 Macheath, and Lavinia Fenton, who drew the town 
 with her impersonation of Polly Peachum. The latter 
 became the craze of the day and captured the affections 
 of the Duke of Bolton, who some twenty-three years 
 afterwards, on the death of his wife, made the sprightly 
 Lavinia his duchess. 
 
 For a long period this attraction, alternating with 
 Quin's performances in tragedy, drew the town to 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields ; while Old Drury was as unlucky 
 in its plays as in the fortunes of its players and its 
 dramatists. Besides this, there was the additional 
 
DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO GARRICK. 6l 
 
 competition of a new theatre opened in the Haymarket 
 in 1720, and of a theatre (for which Fielding 1 was 
 writing 1 ) in Goodman's Fields. The life of the Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields house practically ended in 1732, when John 
 Rich migrated to the newly-built Covent Garden 
 Theatre. Although in a season from 1733 to 1734 an 
 Italian -Opera company performed at Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields under Porpora's direction, as an opposition to 
 Handel at the Queen's Theatre, there is practically 
 nothing else to note in its history. Subsequently 
 it was utilized as a barrack, an auction hall, and a 
 warehouse, and was ultimately pulled down in 1848. 
 
 The series of disasters from personal causes .that 
 befell the Drury Lane triumvirate during the last five 
 years of their reign was overwhelming. To , begin 
 with, Booth retired in 1728. He had been overtaken 
 by seyere illness, after a season of particularly brilliant 
 acting ; and when he reappeared it was obvious that he 
 was a doomed man. His last season was simultaneous 
 with the vogue of the Beggar's Opera at the rival house. 
 For. five years after his retirement he struggled against 
 increasing illness, and wandered from place to place in 
 search of health ; eventually he fell into the relentless 
 hands of a London quack, whose nostrums almost 
 certainly killed him. He died in May 1733, and was 
 -buried at Cowley, near Uxbridge. Barton Street in 
 Westminster perpetuated his memory in its name. 
 
 Booth's acting was the "grand style" at its best. 
 Parts such as Cato in Addison's play of the name, 
 Othello, or Pyrrus in The Distressed Mother, are those 
 with which his name will always be bound up. He was 
 a man of education and imagination, but was apt in his 
 acting. to s.et too much store upon moments of supreme 
 effectiveness., For such moments he would save his 
 energies, .while, as a contemporary critic tells .us, ihe 
 
62 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 would " soften and slide over with an elegant negli- 
 gence" the weak places in his parts. The adulation he 
 received, coupled with his own sense of his powers, led 
 him into occasional contempt of unappreciative audi- 
 ences, for whom he would act indolently; ill-health had 
 probably also something to do with this; but let him 
 only realize that there was one intelligent spectator 
 among his audience, and he would be on his mettle and 
 all alert. While (as Doran tells us) he once so markedly 
 refrained from exerting himself before a cold audience 
 that " a note was addressed to him from the stage box, 
 the purport of which was to know whether he was 
 acting for his own diversion or in the service and for 
 the entertainment of the public," on the other hand, 
 when one night he was acting Othello rather languidly 
 to a poor house, "he suddenly began to exert himself 
 to the utmost in the great scene of the third act. On 
 coming off the stage, he was asked the cause of this 
 sudden effort. ' I saw an Oxford man in, the pit,' he 
 answered, ' for whose judgment I had more respect than 
 for that of the rest of the audience ' ; and he played the 
 Moor to that one but efficient judge." 
 
 The tale of misfortunes at Drury Lane was continued 
 by the deaths of Congreve and Steele in 1729; by the 
 death, in the following year, of Anne Oldfield, whose 
 acting, as Dibdin declares, "embraced every descrip- 
 tion of tragedy and comedy," she possessing "some 
 portion of every requisite that characterized the method 
 of the old school"; the death, in 1732, of Wilks, a 
 generous and kind-hearted man and a fine actor, 
 ipimitable as Macduff and Sir Harry Wildair, equally 
 at home in both comedy and tragedy, described by 
 Steele as unsurpassed in representing "the graces of 
 nature," and yet excellent in such heavier parts as 
 Hamlet, Othello, Jaffier in Venice Preserved, or Edgar 
 
DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO GARRICK. 63 
 
 in King Lear ; and, finally, the retirement (in 1733) of 
 Cibber, who had been appointed Poet Laureate three 
 years previously. A useful and shrewd manager, 
 Cibber was also an excellent actor in a certain range 
 of characters, a good writer of comedy, an industrious 
 poet, and an honest man. His conceit was his weak 
 point;, still, as Dr. Johnson said, " Colley Cibber, sir, 
 was by no means a blockhead; but by arrogating to 
 .himself too much he was in danger of losing that degree 
 of estimation to which he was entitled." He reappeared 
 at intervals on the stage, after his "retirement," until 
 1745, published his entertaining autobiographical 
 "Apology" in 1740, and died in 1757. Doran de- 
 scribes him as a man who to the end excelled in making 
 the best of circumstances. To illustrate this he quotes 
 an anecdote of Horace Walpole's hailing Cibber on his 
 birthday (just two years before his death) "with a 
 ' good-morrow,' and ' I am glad, sir, to see you looking 
 so well.' 'Egad, sir,' replied the old gentleman, all 
 diamonded and powdered and dandified, ' at eighty-four 
 it's well for a man that he can look at all.'" 
 
 From the hands of the triumvirate Drury Lane 
 passed ipto those of a "young man of the town " of the 
 name of Highmore, who speedily ruined himself over 
 it; and from his into those of a similar individual 
 named Charles Fleetwood, an unthrifty and not over- 
 scrupulous manager, whose sole claim to recognition 
 is the fact of his having engaged Macklin to act at 
 Drury Lane. His reign lasted some twelve years, and 
 then the management came into the hands of James 
 Lacy, who had been Rich's assistant manager at the 
 new Covent Garden Theatre. To further anticipate the 
 sequence of events, it will be convenient to state here 
 that in 1746 Lacy took into partnership David Garrick, 
 who had already acquired fame and a considerable 
 
64 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 fortune. Garrick was to be sole manager of the stage, 
 Lacy of business matters ; and from this time there 
 began for Drury Lane, under Garrick's direction, a 
 brilliant epoch of thirty years, which demands separate 
 consideration. 
 
 Meantime, in the period between Colley Cibber's 
 retirement and Garrick's assumption of management 
 there intervened some ten years that in many ways 
 proved important to the fortunes of the various theatres. 
 These, it may be convenient to recall, were Drury Lane, 
 the King's Theatre (as the opera-house in the Hay- 
 market was now called), Goodman's Fields, and the 
 newly-erected Haymarket and Covent Garden Theatres. 
 
 At Drury Lane, as has been already said, the en- 
 gagement of Charles Macklin, with his appearance as 
 Shylock, was the only memorable incident during this 
 period. Intrigues and discord were continually up- 
 setting a management that was feeble and reckless by 
 turns ; and at the bottom of most of the trouble was 
 Theophilus Cibber, the entirely discreditable son of the 
 famous Colley. He seems to have been but an in- 
 different actor, with a love for notoriety that knew no 
 checking by the bounds of good taste or good manners. 
 His life closed in disgrace, and ended by his being 
 drowned in shipwreck in 1758, when he was on his way 
 to Dublin as member of a miscellaneous troupe of 
 players. 
 
 Macklin, who had earned his discharge from the 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre some years previously, 
 owing, as it is said, to his obstinacy in persisting in a 
 more "natural" style of acting in opposition to the 
 traditional stilted method, triumphed over strong 
 opposition when he appeared early in 1741 at Drury 
 Lane in The Merchant of Venice. For many years the 
 play had only been presented in a mutilated and per- 
 
DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE" TO GARRICK. 65 
 
 verted version called The Jew of Venice, in whicfr 
 Shylock was played as a low-comedy part. Macklin's 
 determination to use the original text and to play the 
 character as he conceived it was rewarded with a 
 success that is historical, immortalized in Pope's "This 
 is the Jew that Shakespeare drew." He was a brusque 
 and irascible, but honourable and generous man, and a 
 fine actor within certain limits. 
 
 As we shall see, his stage career. was of unique 
 length, lasting till he was in his ninetieth year. "Not 
 a great tragedian," says Doran, "nor a good light 
 comedian ; but in comedy and farce where rough energy 
 is required, and in parts resembling Shylock in- their 
 earnest malignity, he was paramount." In any case he 
 dealt a blow to the old style of acting, and began a 
 reform in that respect that his greater successor Garrick 
 was to complete. 
 
 Partly by accident, and partly owing to the constant 
 troubles at Drury Lane during Fleetwood's manage- 
 ment and the era of Theophilus Cibber's mischievous 
 ascendancy, the history of Drury Lane is, during the 
 period we are considering, connected with that of the 
 new theatre that had been built in the Haymarket in 
 1720. This was popularly known, in contradistinction 
 to the King's Theatre, as the "little house" in the 
 Haymarket. This house was the ancestor of the 
 Haymarket Theatre of the present day, and stood next 
 door to where the present house stands. There -is 
 extant a drawing, made in 1 821, of the " little house " 
 still standing at the north side of the present theatre, 
 at whose completion it was demolished. It was built • 
 on the site of an old inn, by John Potter, a carpenter 
 who had bought the site. -It had no patent or licence, 
 and existed practically on sufferance. 
 
 A " French comedy, with actors from Paris," with 
 
66 A SHORT HISTORY' OF THE ENGLISH STAGE: 
 
 which it opened, failed entirely; and, for the first ten 
 years of its life it was given over to miscellaneous 
 entertainments, mainly musical or acrobatic when pro T 
 fessional, occasionally dramatic when provided by 
 amateurs. 
 
 Stilt-walking, acrobatic performances, and tight-rope 
 dancing were to be seen there; among.the professors of 
 the latter was Madame Violante, who is chiefly remem- 
 bered ; as having trained Peg Woffington for the stage. 
 The first name of any consequence to be met with 
 in connection with- the Haymarket Theatre is that of 
 Fielding. The great humorist of Tomjoneshad already 
 written several comedies after the Congreve model, and 
 in 1730 produced at the Haymarket his Tom Thumb, 
 a burlesque~which unsparingly ridiculed the "grand 
 manner 1 ' of contemporary tragedy, and at the same 
 time tickled the ears of the groundlings with audacious 
 personal satire. From 1735 to 1737, again, Fielding 
 was manager of the theatre, and produced various of 
 his comedies there until the Licensing Act of 1737 
 (which the nature of one of his productions had no 
 small share in • bringing about) put an end to his 
 managerial career. 
 
 During the intervening years, from 1733 to 1735, the 
 Haymarket was occupied by a group of actors who, in 
 consequence of squabbles with the Drury Lane patentee, 
 had seceded from there with Theophilus Cibber at their 
 head. In spite of attempts on the part of the accredited 
 patentees of the two old houses to dislodge them, 
 they managed to hold the boards for a time. Eventu- 
 ally, as a result of further, legal proceedings, they were 
 ordered to return to Drury Lane. Macklin alone 
 remained at the Haymarket under the brief Fielding 
 management. 
 \ The famous Licensing Act of 1737 was the result of 
 
.DRURY LANE "TRIUMVIRATE "TO GARRICK. 67 
 
 official indignation at the freedom of satire that had 
 been displayed on the stage, notable in Fielding's- 
 comedies and burlesques. It established the Censor- . 
 ship of Plays under the authority of the Lord Chamber- 
 lain's Office, and definitely forbade the licensing of any 
 more theatres in London than the two patent houses, 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden. The King's Theatre 
 was held r to exist for Opera, and the Goodman's Fields 
 house before very long closed its doors for ever; while 
 the Haymarket managed to exist in defiance of the law, 
 or by ingenious evasion of it, until its obtaining a 
 partial patent (many years later) gave it an accredited 
 status. 
 
 The last days of the Goodman's* Fields house were 
 rendered memorable by the appearance there, in October 
 
 1741, of David Garrick as Richard III. The Licensing 
 Act, it may be mentioned, was evaded by plays being- 
 inserted in the programme as a nominally gratis 
 "Interlude" between two parts of a " Vocal and- 
 Instrumental Concert " for which admission was paid. 
 The playbill stated that the name-part in Richard III.- 
 would be played "by a young gentleman who never 
 appeared on 'any stage." This was not exactly true; 
 for Garrick, who was now twenty-four, had played 
 there already as an amateur, and had performed 
 professionally with its company at Ipswich under the 
 nom de guerre of Lyddal. It was, however, 'his 
 " official " debut. He made an extraordinary impression 
 upon the public and his critics, and played -at Good- 
 man's. Fields till the theatre was finally closed in May 
 
 1742. After that he was at Drury Lane from 1742 to 
 1745, acted in Dublin in 1745 and 1746, and also at 
 Covent Garden between 1745 and 1747. In the latter 
 year he became joint manager of Drury Lane with 
 Lacy, : 
 
68 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. , 
 
 To bring the history of. the other theatres up to, the 
 point when the Garrick era at Drury Lane began — .a 
 period when the history of the English Stage centred 
 for many years in the old house — it will be convenient 
 to trace briefly here what was transpiring at the King's 
 Theatre, where the history, of opera in England was in 
 the making, and at the newly-built Covent Garden 
 theatre, for which John Rich had abandoned the old 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields house. 
 
 Since the restriction of the King's Theatre to operatic 
 performances, its fortunes had mainly, depended upon 
 the genius of Handel, who since 1710 had .practically 
 established himself in this country. His first opera, 
 Rinaldo, was performed there in 171 1 with such success 
 that he followed it up with a series of similar works. 
 Royal patronage was bestowed upon him, and. per- 
 mission given to establish at the. King's Theatre 
 a company of Italian opera singers, under the strange 
 title of the Royal Academy of Music, This, enterprise 
 proved a complete failure. It lasted some seven years 
 with gradually waning fortunes, and collapsed in 1728 
 under the combined pressure of exhausted finances and 
 the ridicule of the Beggar's Opera, which killed serious 
 opera for the time being. After a short interval, how- 
 ever, Handel managed to carry on another operatic 
 enterprise at the same house, and .produced, several 
 new operas, as also his Esther and Acts and Galatea in 
 1732. A . couple . of years later this enterprise failed, 
 largely on account of the vigorous opposition .of the 
 Italian composer Porpora, who managed, with another 
 Italian operatic company, to make the , .moribund 
 Lincoln's Inn house for a brief period the .resort -of 
 fashion. Handel then threw in his lot with Rich/ at 
 the new Covent Garden Theatre. (i 
 
 That was opened with great flourish in December 
 
DRURY LAtJE "TRIUMVIRATE". TQ GARRICK 69 
 
 1732 with a revival of Congreve's The Way of the 
 World, with Quin, Ryan, Pinkethman and others in 
 the cast. It was a small house, well decorated and 
 well equipped, but neither Congreve nor subsequent 
 Shakesperean revivals seemed able to attract good 
 fortune to it. Handel brought his operas to it in 1735., 
 and for two years these alternated there with plays 
 under Rich's direction, while Porpora took Handel's 
 place at the King's Theatre with such success that 
 Handel's connection with Covent Garden ended in 1737 
 with his bankruptcy, \ 
 
 Miscellaneous plays old and new, interspersed with 
 Shakespeare, kept Covent Garden going in a modest 
 way of merit for some years after this, without any 
 particularly interesting features until the advent of the 
 fascinating Peg Woffington. After her apprenticeship 
 in a juvenile troupe which Madame Violante had taken 
 from London to Dublin, where Peg had worked her 
 way to popularity, the brilliant girl at the age of 
 twenty-two induced Rich to engage her. She appeared 
 at Covent Garden in 1740 as Sylvia in The Recruiting 
 Officer, and subsequently in Wilks' old part df Sir 
 Harry Wildair in The Constant Couple. During her 
 brief career (for she was stricken down upon the stage 
 in 1757 and died three years later) she oscillated 
 between Covent Garden and Drury Lane. She played 
 a wide range of characters, even undertaking Lady 
 Macbeth, but is chiefly remembered for her impersona- 
 tion of the gay, good-natured rake, Sir Harry Wildair. 
 She was a jovial, witty, charitable woman, to whom 
 for these qualities much may be forgiven, and an actress 
 of remarkable charm and considerable native talent.' ' 
 
 Rich had now a strong company at Covent Garden, 
 including, besides the brilliant Woffington, Mrs. Horton, 
 Ryan and Theophilus Cibber. Garrick was acting with 
 
70 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 ever-increasing popularity at Drury Lane between 1742 
 and 1745, and to , meet this opposition Rich engaged 
 Quin and Mrs. Cibber. The latter, who was a charming 
 singer and actress, was the sister of Thomas Augustine 
 Arne, who had been latterly appointed " composer" to 
 Drury Lane. 
 
 In 1743 Handehwas again, heard at Covent Garden, 
 this time in Oratorio, his Sampson, being first performed 
 there in February and his Messiah in March of- that 
 year. On the triumph of The Messiah it is unnecessary 
 to dilate; but it is curious to observe that an, .extra 
 hundred were enabled to squeeze into the audience for 
 its performance after an advertisement had been issued 
 begging " ladies to come without their hoops and 
 gentlemen without their swords." 
 
 . From 1744 to 1745 Drury Lane had the best of it in 
 the matter of actors. Garrick and Macklin were acting 
 there, and Peg Woffington and Mrs. Cibber had gone 
 over to them ; to which powerful, combination Rich 
 could only offer Quin and Kitty Clive as a counter- 
 attraction. For the succeeding two years better 
 fortune attended Covent Garden, for Garrick joined its 
 company and remained there, as fellow-player with 
 Quin- and Mrs. Cibber, until he joined Lacy in the 
 management of Drury Lane in 1747. Garrick's natural 
 and apparently unstudied method of acting was steadily 
 making • its way in the face of the "traditional" style 
 of which Quin was still a vigorous exponent,- and the 
 contrast was admittedly instructive. 
 
 , One more event of note remains to be recorded in 
 the history of Covent Garden during these few years — 
 namely, the production in 1747 of Handel's Judas 
 Maccabceus. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE GARRICK PERIOD. 
 
 After Fleetwood's collapse, the management of Drury 
 Lane had passed into the hands of James Lacy, who 
 from being an unsuccessful business man at Norwich 
 had developed into a fairly able theatrical manager, 
 owing a good deal to the experience he had gained at 
 the new Covent Garden theatre as assistant to Rich. 
 He was, at all events, honest ; and if his initial manage- 
 ment at Drury Lane was none too successful, it was 
 more from want of knowledge than want of pains. 
 Garrick had acted at Covent Garden when Lacy was 
 there, and had a respect for him, although Lacy had 
 endangered that respect by making proposals to 
 Garrick that the latter did not consider consonant .with 
 his rapidly improving position in public favour. When, 
 however, Lacy now approached him with the offer of 
 an equal share in the management of Drury Lane, 
 Garrick accepted it, and henceforward their mutual 
 relations were harmonious. 
 
 Drury Lane began the autumn season of i74&-under 
 these auspices. Garrick had sole control of the stage, 
 and was successful in enforcing discipline among the 
 actors as well as decorum among the audience. The 
 most significant of his reforms in the latter direction 
 was his resolutely clearing the stage of spectators. It 
 appears almost inconceivable to us that for so long, 
 
 71 
 
72 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 even at an epoch of fine acting and sometimes 
 elaborately staged plays, spectators should have been 
 allowed to sit upon the stage, sometimes so encumber- 
 ing the actors that these were obliged to shoulder their 
 way through the fops to gain a clear space in which to 
 perform. Rich had endeavoured to reform this abuse 
 when he was at Lincoln's Inn Fields; but the only 
 result at that time was a riot which led to the closing 
 of the theatre, and was followed by a royal command 
 that a guard of soldiers should attend during the per- 
 formances at the patent houses. For many years after 
 the presence of soldiers in the house ceased to be 
 necessary the custom of stationing sentries outside the 
 theatres in question was maintained. 
 
 Garrick's reputation was by this time assured. The 
 striking triumph of his natural style of acting over the 
 artificiality of the old school has already been adverted 
 to. There was truth in Quin's saying, " If this young 
 man is right, we are all wrong." A contemporary 
 comment on Garrick's performance in Richard III. 
 shows by implication where the difference lay. After 
 paying a tribute to the easy naturalness of his voice, it 
 goes on to say: " He is not less happy in his mien 
 and gait, in which he is neither strutting nor mincing, 
 neither stiff nor slouching. When three or four are on 
 the stage with him, he is attentive to all that is spoke, 
 and never drops his character when he has finished a 
 speech by either looking contemptuously on an inferior 
 performer, unnecessary spitting, or suffering his eyes 
 to wander through the whole circle of spectators." 
 Besides a number of fine Shakespearian impersonations, 
 Garrick's record includes his appearance in a host of 
 plays which can only appear to the reader of to-day as 
 grandiloquent rubbish. We have, however, the testi- 
 mony of his contemporaries as to the effect his genius 
 
THE GAURICK PERIOD. 73 
 
 produced in such plays, transmuting their poor material 
 into the semblance of something' finer. Great actor as 
 he was, it is quite possible that his superlative fame 
 owed a little to his social success, for which he strove 
 eagerly. Betterton, before him, was probably as fine 
 an actor, if not finer ; and his equals have no doubt 
 been seen in some that followed him ; but, when all is 
 said, Garrick's is by far the most noteworthy figure in 
 eighteenth century acting. In judging the histrionic 
 successes of the period, it must be remembered that 
 the sensibility of eighteenth century audiences was a 
 very different thing from the comparative stolidity to 
 which we are accustomed. For instance, Doran 
 incidentally mentions in his account of a drama, now 
 entirely forgotten, that at one pathetic passage "all 
 the critics in the pit burst into tears, and then shook the 
 house with repeated and unbounded applause," — and 
 all this caused merely by the attitude and touching 
 voice of Spranger Barry in exclaiming the words, " Oh, 
 look there ! " as he pointed to Mrs. Cibber swooning 
 in a pathetic part ! 
 
 At the beginning of Garrick's management at Drury 
 Lane there was no great opposition at the other houses. 
 Quin soon acknowledged his inability, to keep up a 
 rivalry with the new star, and in a year or two left the 
 stage altogether. As soon as he realized that Garrick 
 was to be manager of Drury Lane, he abandoned Rich 
 at Covent Garden and retired in a huff to Bath. 
 Soberer reflection led him to wish that Rich would 
 recall him, and there followed a terse correspondence : 
 " I am at Bath. Yours, James Quin," wrote Quin to 
 Rich; to which Rich replied: "Stay there and be 
 damned. Yours, John Rich." 
 
 Quin returned, however, and played at Covent 
 Garden till 175 1, when he withdrew from the stage. 
 
 6 
 
74 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 He died five years later, after a period of retirement as 
 happy as it was brief. His society, as that of a man of 
 taste and culture, was sought after ; old jealousies were 
 forgotten, even between Garrick and himself, and new 
 friendships were formed; and after his death his 
 personal kindliness was as much in people's mouths 
 as his excellence in some .departments of acting. 
 
 Garrick had now command of a notable company. 
 It included his old rival, Macklin, who after two years 
 seceded to Covent Garden ; Spranger Barry and Mrs. 
 Cibber, both much in favour with the public, their 
 subsequent defection to Covent Garden (in 1750) being 
 a serious blow to Drury Lane ; Mrs. Pritchard, " by 
 nature for the stage designed, in person graceful and in 
 sense refined," as Churchill sang; the brilliant Peg 
 Woffington, now at the zenith of her brief career ; 
 Kitty Clive, matchless in certain kinds of comedy, who 
 remained faithful to Drury Lane for the rest of her 
 stage life, and survived that long enough to see the 
 early triumphs of Mrs. Siddons, whose acting she 
 enthusiastically described as " all truth and daylight"; 
 Delane, Barrington, Yates, Sparks, and other minor 
 favourites. 
 
 Despite the praise that attended Garrick's acting as 
 Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Benedick, Henry V., 
 or in the low-comedy parts in which he showed an equal 
 mastery, the competition of Covent Garden became 
 formidable when the break-up of Garrick's company 
 began and Spranger Barry and Mrs. Cibber enlisted 
 under Rich. Barry appeared at Covent Garden as 
 Othello, Julius Caesar, Tamerlane, and King John ; 
 Quin still held his own there, and appeared with Peg 
 Woffington in Macbeth; the versatile Peg and the 
 charming Mrs. Cibber shone in everything they 
 attempted ; and no sooner did one house mount an 
 
THE GARRICK PERIOD. 75 
 
 attraction than the other followed suit. To Garnck's'. 
 great disgust, even Rich's pantomimes drew the publid ! 
 away from Drury Lane ; so much so, that Garrick j 
 acted Harlequin himself, and proved to be one of thei 
 best the stage had seen, surpassed only by the oldeiH 
 Rich, whose inimitable Harlequin has already been 
 mentioned. " If they won't come to Lear and Hamlet, 
 I must give them this," said little Davy, and entered 
 into the spirit of it as earnestly as into the portrayal 
 of his finest parts. Doran tells us that "Theobald's 
 Harlequin Sorcerer, which had often filled Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields, was even more attractive at Covent 
 Garden above a quarter of a century later. The 
 company assembled at midday, and sometimes broke 
 the doors open, unless they were opened to them, by 
 three o'clock, and so took the house by storm. Those 
 who could not gain admittance went over to Drury 
 Lane, but Garrick found them without heart for 
 tragedy ; " the grown-up masters and misses had been 
 deprived of their puppet show and rattle, and were 
 sulky accordingly." And so it came about that 
 Garrick played Harlequin in self-defence. 
 
 The most famous incident in the rivalry of this 
 period was when, on the same night in September 
 1750, both houses put up Romeo and Juliet. Garrick 
 played Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Bellamy and the 
 Mercutio of Woodward ; at Covent Garden Barry was 
 the Romeo, Mrs. Cibber the Juliet, and Macklin the 
 Mercutio. Garrick, though physically not the ideal 
 Romeo, was the more ardent and impassioned, Barry 
 the more tender and seductive; of the two Juliets, 
 the natural style of the lovely Bellamy found champions 
 as vigorous as those of the maturer beauty and tragic 
 force of Mrs. Cibber. There is on record the remark 
 of a fair critic of the rival Romeos, to the effect that if 
 
76 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 she had been Juliet to Garrick's Romeo she would have 
 expected him to climb up to her on the balcony, but 
 that had Barry been the Romeo she would certainly 
 have gone down to him ! In this day of long " runs " 
 one can hardly appreciate the sensation among the 
 public when the play was performed for twelve con- 
 secutive nights at Covent Garden and thirteen at Drury 
 Lane, where Garrick was not to be beaten ! This 
 constituted a grievance to a play-going public of limited 
 numbers that was always at the theatre and so ex- 
 pected a constant change of bill. Epigrams resulted 
 from the wits' sense of the grievance, one of the best 
 known being — 
 
 "'Well, what's to-night?' says angry Ned, 
 As up from bed he rouses; 
 ' Romeo again !' he shakes his head: 
 'A plague on both your houses ! '" 
 
 Barry's success as Romeo resulted in Garrick dropping 
 it out of his repertory; but in another part in which 
 they were contrasted — that of Lear, which was probably 
 Garrick's finest effort — the tables were turned. In this 
 part Garrick's finer intellectual equipment easily gave 
 him the advantage. Another set of doggerel verses 
 that took the town records this success: — 
 
 " The town has found out different ways 
 To praise its different Lears; 
 To Barry it gives loud huzzas, 
 To Garrick only tears. 
 
 A king, aye, every inch a king, 
 
 Such Barry doth appear; 
 But Garrick's quite another thing — 
 
 He's every inch King Lear." 
 
THE GARRICK PERIOD. 77 
 
 And this despite the fact that Garrick dressed King Lear 
 as an old gentleman of the eighteenth century, and used 
 a crutch ! Astonishment, however, at the illusion that 
 was accomplished in spite of sublime anachronisms and 
 incongruities in the way of dress need not be so great. 
 The dresses worn were conventions, or at all events the 
 distinguishing marks of certain characters were so ; 
 such as, for instance, the monstrous feathered turbans 
 worn by "heroic" characters, a custom Garrick very 
 properly abandoned. It is difficult for us to bear in 
 mind, in these days of historical "accuracy" on the 
 stage, that ever since the drama had emerged from its 
 beginnings the actors had worn every-day dress, in- 
 tensified in certain directions and made fanciful in 
 others, but still without an attempt at synchronism. 
 So that the sense of incongruity was not present; all 
 was a matter of convention, down to such points as that 
 of a comic character being denoted by the wearing of a 
 red wig, and so forth. Garrick played Macbeth in a 
 Hanoverian military uniform to a Lady Macbeth in 
 hoops and feathers, but that fact disturbed no one's 
 appreciation of their performances. This is further 
 shown by the fact that later actors revived the feathered 
 headgear for "heroes," without adverse comment until 
 the day when a more fastidious taste for accuracy 
 began to make itself felt. 
 
 To eighteenth century audiences the acting was every- 
 thing, and was more thought' of than the play, as we 
 may fairly infer from the lamentably distorted and per- 
 verted shape in which the Shakespearean plays were 
 produced even by Garrick. How little the matter of 
 creating scenic illusion was considered, will be realized 
 when we think of the crowd of spectators on the stage, 
 and the edifice (like a "grand stand") that was cus- 
 tomarily erected at the back of the stage to hold highly- 
 
78 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 priced seats for patrons on "benefit" nights; though 
 Garrick, to his credit, managed to do away with both 
 abuses. It was the difficulty of providing compensation 
 for the loss caused to " benefit-takers " by the abolition 
 of the "building" on the stage that led Garrick to 
 enlarge the auditorium of Drury Lane in 1762. 
 ' We need not pity eighteenth-century audiences for 
 what they had to put up with in those respects, for it 
 did not trouble them in the least. Whether they lacked 
 imagination, or had so much that it rose superior to 
 such obstacles, need not be argued. We must also 
 bear in mind the comparatively dim illumination of the 
 stage, lit from above by some dozens of candles on two 
 or three chandeliers ; though Garrick established, later 
 in his career, the custom of footlights, an innovation 
 which he introduced after a visit to Paris. 
 
 Garrick undoubtedly, as far as his " acting versions " 
 went, maltreated Shakespeare's plays sadly, as in his 
 additions to Macbeth, or his retention of Tate's happy 
 ending to King Lear and Howard's similar perversion 
 of the end of Romeo and Juliet. Still, as Mrs. Parsons 
 points out in her "Garrick and his Circle," he at all 
 events acted the plays magnificently, and "nobody in 
 his senses could think that' Cibber and Garrick did 
 Shakespeare as much harm as the poppy of oblivion." 
 Garrick's own conviction that he was a purist in the 
 matter of Shakespeare, and his claim that he " lost no 
 drop of that immortal man," are significant testimony, 
 per contra, of the condition into which appreciation of 
 Shakespeare had fallen. 
 
 Besides the weighty rivalry of Covent Garden, 
 Garrick had to contend with a smaller but very active 
 opposition in the shape of the growing popularity of 
 Foote at the Haymarket. Foote, who was an in- 
 different actor but a superb mimic, was drawing crowds 
 
THE GAR1UCK PERIOD. 79 
 
 to the "little house" by his daring mimicry of public 
 characters of all sorts. The entertainments (which 
 were of a nondescript character, but always devised as a 
 vehicle for showing off Foote's powers) at first existed 
 on sufferance. They were not "stage plays," but Mr. 
 Foote "inviting his friends to tea," or to an "auction 
 of pictures," the pictures being the portraits his mimicry 
 produced. In 1766, however, thanks to the sympathy 
 aroused in certain quarters by an accident which de- 
 prived him of a leg, he was granted a patent, and it 
 was to this accident that the Haymarket house owed 
 the beginning of its life as a properly accredited theatre. 
 Foote continued there till 1777, and died only a few 
 months after his retirement in the latter year. 
 
 During the whole of the Garrick period at Drury 
 Lane this merciless wit offered a powerful opposition to 
 the " legitimate " actors. His success was not only one 
 " of scandal" by reason of his mimicry and caustic wit. 
 He was a dramatist of considerable merit, and wrote a 
 number of plays and comedies that reflected contem- 
 porary manners with great spirit; but it is as a mimic 
 that he will always be remembered. No one escaped 
 his satire; and the town flocked to see him, every one 
 eager to laugh at the reproduction of his friends' 
 peculiarities while dreading an exhibition of his own. 
 He is said to have been dowered with exactly the right 
 physiognomy for a mimic — "a large, inexpressive 
 apology for a face," one writer calls it — but a face 
 which could take on any expression at its owner's will. 
 His native wit was bitter, and knew little or no restraint 
 by the bounds of decency or good feeling; and his 
 recorded bon-mots, authentic and apocryphal, are legion. 
 He bore the loss of his leg, and the tragic-comical 
 result of the necessity for a false one, with considerable 
 pluck. One of his best repartees was in this connec- 
 
80 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 tion. Some one had the ill-taste to make fun of his 
 misfortune, whereupon Foote snapped out, "Make no 
 allusion to my weakest part; did I ever attack your 
 head?" 
 
 Various other circumstances led to a drop in the 
 fortunes of Drury Lane. There were riots in 1755, 
 resulting from the importation of French dancers to 
 grace a spectacular piece by means of which Garrick 
 hoped to cope with the Covent Garden pantomimes, 
 and riots again in 1763 on account of a change in 
 prices. Moreover, Garrick had been deserted a year 
 or two previously by Woodward, an accomplished light 
 comedian, who was almost irreplaceable. Old 
 favourites, such as The Beggar's Opera, were revived 
 and enthusiastically received at Covent Garden, and the 
 prestige of that house was still further increased by the 
 success (in 1757) of the tragedy of Douglas, written by 
 a young Presbyterian minister, John Home. With 
 Barry as the Shepherd Norval (whom he dressed in a 
 white satin suit !), supported by Peg Woffington, this 
 drew the town, and Garrick had the mortification of 
 seeing the triumph of a play which he had refused when 
 it was, first of all, offered to him. 
 
 It was at this time that Garrick, relying on the old 
 adage of the effect of absence on the heart, withdrew 
 for more than a year and travelled with - his wife in 
 France and Italy. His progress abroad was a triumph. 
 He was acclaimed everywhere, praised by men of 
 distinction in all walks of life, and uniformly received 
 with every sign of admiration. The happy result was 
 that, on his return and reappearance at his own theatre 
 in September 1765, the old enthusiasm was revived. 
 He had made a pretence, on his return, of not intending 
 to act any more, but it was probably never more than a 
 pretence; and the rather embarrassing success of his 
 
THE GARRICK PERIOD. 8 1 
 
 understudy in his absence was an additional spur to his 
 desire to regain his ascendency over his public. The 
 latter in their turn realized, on Garrick's reappearance, 
 how much they had missed during his absence (which 
 was exactly what he intended) and welcomed him with 
 exuberant warmth. His acting was pronounced finer 
 than ever before, and until his retirement it was now 
 "roses, roses all the way" so far as his personal 
 reputation was concerned. 
 
 Lapse of years, however, was bringing about the 
 inevitable break-up of his company. Only a few 
 months after his return Mrs. Cibber died. In 1767 
 Powell, a capable young actor whom Garrick had 
 trained till he was fitted to understudy him and to be 
 his deputy while he was abroad, deserted him and went 
 over to Covent Garden to share in the management. 
 A year later Mrs. Pritchard retired, and her example 
 was soon afterwards followed by Kitty Clive. As an 
 offset to these defections, Barry returned to Drury 
 Lane, but his best days were over; he did not carry his 
 age in the wonderful way Garrick did, and his energies 
 were failing. He reverted to Covent Garden two years 
 before Garrick's retirement, played for the last time 
 in the winter of 1776, and died a few months after- 
 wards. 
 
 In spite of all this, and in spite of the fact that 
 Garrick now no longer studied any new parts, the 
 "great little man's" powers and popularity made 
 Drury Lane the more important house; though it must 
 be admitted that one event at Covent Garden, the 
 production of Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer in 
 1773, overshadowed it so far as the history of the drama 
 is concerned. 
 
 Garrick determined to retire in 1776, being then in 
 his sixty-ninth year. He gave a series of farewell 
 
82 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 performances of his most famous parts, and at last in 
 Jime 1776 made his final bow to the public. He 
 survived his retirement but little more than two years, 
 dying in January 1779, and was buried with every mark 
 of respect in Westminster Abbey, not far from where 
 Betterton, his great predecessor, slept. His widow 
 survived him for many years and died a centenarian. 
 
 A notable incident of Garrick's later years, though 
 one that at the time passed almost unnoticed, was the 
 debut of Miss Sarah Kemble, afterwards the renowned 
 Mrs. Siddons, as Portia, in December 1775. She was 
 helpless with nervousness when the critical moment 
 came, completely failed to make any impression, and 
 retired disappointed to the provinces to gain the further 
 experience and confidence that were afterwards to make 
 her the foremost actress of her time. 
 
 Garrick, as an actor, must have occupied a position 
 in the public's regard very similar to that held by Henry 
 Irving in our own day. He was ungrudgingly admitted 
 to be at the head of his profession and accepted both at 
 home and abroad as its representative. There were 
 those who belittled his powers, but that was probably 
 largely on account of the forcible contrast between his 
 methods of acting and the stilted style that had become 
 a beloved convention. Whereas (for instance) Quin, 
 pompously declaiming heroic parts, had all the old 
 stager's love for speeches "to dig his teeth into" (as 
 Pinero has it in Trelawny of the Wells), Garrick was 
 conspicuous for what was at all events a comparatively 
 natural method of speech and acting; and whereas the 
 actors of his day had in many cases come to regard 
 their parts merely as vehicles for the display of declama- 
 tory powers, to the disregard of appropriateness, his 
 great merit lay in his complete identification of himself 
 with the character he represented, a point on which his 
 
THE GARRICK PERIOD. 83 
 
 French critics (who were keen observers) laid great 
 stress. 
 
 His literary taste was far from faultless, as his 
 maltreatment of Shakespeare shows ; but his acting - was 
 for the most part a triumph of realization of the author's 
 intention. He was fond of insisting - that to be a fine 
 tragic actor a man must also be a fine comedian, and 
 that comedy was the harder of the two branches of the 
 art; and the equal excellence of his Abel Drugger and 
 his King Lear proved that he was a practical example 
 of the truth he maintained. His physical qualifications, 
 in spite of some want of stature, were considerable j a 
 well-shaped form, suppleness of limb and energy of 
 gesture, a remarkably mobile face and particularly 
 expressive eyes. Privately, he was a man worthy of 
 esteem. He was accused by some of meanness, and of 
 an over desire to cultivate the favours of the great ; but 
 the latter trait was probably the outcome of sagacity, 
 and, as for the former, he was undoubtedly liberal- 
 hearted, and was enabled to be generous in important 
 matters by being careful in small, as is often the case 
 with men who have had a hard struggle to win affluence. 
 He was at least a gentleman, and as free from pro- 
 fessional jealousy as human nature allowed. 
 
 His disappearance from Drury Lane synchronizes 
 roughly with well-defined epochs in the histories of the 
 other houses. The Haymarket lost Foote in 1777 ; the 
 history of the King's Theatre, which was confined to 
 operatic performances, offers at this time no . very 
 marked features, after Handel's abandonment of opera, 
 save the production of Arne's Artaxerxes in 1762 and 
 Gluck's Orfeo in 1770, and the house was burned down 
 in 1789. 
 
 In 1789 Macklin, who was now over ninety, made 
 his farewell to the stage at Covent Garden in the part 
 
84 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of Shylock. Rich's reign at Covent Garden had ended 
 with his death in 1761, and before many years the want 
 of a firm guiding hand made itself felt. The elder 
 Colman, Powell, Rutherford and Thomas Harris had 
 bought the patent in 1767 from Rich's successor, and 
 this divided authority developed dissensions such as 
 were to be expected. Powell died two years later, and 
 Colman sold his share to Harris, who now became auto- 
 crat. Death was busy in the company. Spranger 
 Barry (once Garrick's rival) and the popular Harry 
 Woodward both died in 1777; and so the beginning of 
 the Harris management at Covent Garden, with these 
 old favourites gone and Macklin soon to disappear, 
 meant the beginning of a new epoch at that house and 
 the end of the epoch closed by Garrick's death. 
 
 A name famous in English literature is bound up 
 with the. history of Covent Garden in these years. 
 Goldsmith's play, The Good-natured Man, which Garrick 
 had rejected, was (through the offices of Goldsmith's 
 friend Colman) produced at Covent Garden in 1768, but 
 without any great success. The dramatic taste of the 
 day had been too plentifully fed on tragedy and the 
 sentimental drama to relish a play which deliberately 
 ridiculed sentimentality. Five years later, however, 
 backed again by Colman's friendly services and the 
 enthusiastic support of Dr. Johnson and his adherents, 
 Goldsmith's immortal She Stoops to Conquer saw the 
 light at Covent Garden, in March 1773. The public 
 now knew better what to expect from the author; the 
 new comedy delighted them, and Goldsmith's triumph 
 was complete. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 
 
 The first season of Thomas Harris's management at 
 Covent Garden is memorable for the production, in 
 January 1775, of Sheridan's comedy The Rivals. At 
 first the play failed, but it was not long before it won its 
 way into favour with the public. The reasons given 
 for the initial failure are various. Sheridan is said to 
 have attributed it at the time to the bad acting of one 
 of the company ; it is more likely, however, that it 
 suffered at first (just as Goldsmith's plays had suffered) 
 from the inability of a public accustomed to a senti- 
 mental pabulum to relish a work which ridiculed affecta- 
 tion and sentimentality. Besides this, the piece, as at 
 first acted, suffered from hurried writing and excessive 
 length. This Sheridan explicitly admits in his apolo- 
 getic preface to the published version of the play. 
 "Hurry in writing," he says, "has long been exploded 
 as an excuse for an author ; however, in the dramatic 
 line, it may happen that both an author and a manager 
 may wish to fill a chasm in the entertainment of the 
 public with a hastiness not altogether culpable. The 
 season was advanced when I first put the play into Mr. 
 Harris's hands ; it was at that time at least double the 
 length of any acting comedy. I profited by his judg- 
 
 85 
 
86 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 ment and experience in the curtailing of it, till, I 
 believe, his feeling for the vanity of a young author 
 got the better of his desire for correctness, and he left 
 many excrescences remaining because he had assisted 
 in pruning so many more." 
 
 Sheridan followed up this success quickly. The 
 Scheming Lieutenant was produced in May and The 
 Duenna in November of the same year. It is more 
 than likely that Covent Garden would also have seen 
 the production of The School for Scandal, had it not 
 been that before the play was ripe for performance 
 (and this time the author was devoting every care to 
 the form and finish of his work) Sheridan became 
 interested in Drury Lane. He had purchased part of 
 Garrick's share of the patent and now assumed the 
 management of the house, his partners in the venture 
 being Thomas Linley (his father-in-law) and a certain 
 Dr. Ford. Two years later Sheridan bought out Lacy 
 from his share in the patent, and so became autocrat. 
 How he ever managed to pay the large sums demanded 
 for these shares (^5000 in Garrick's case and ,£45,000 
 in Lacy's) has puzzled his biographers ; but the question 
 has been illuminated by a quotation from Sir Walter 
 Scott's "Journal," in which, referring to Moore's 
 reference to the fact in his biography of Sheridan, Scott 
 says " all the world knows he never paid it at all, and 
 that Lacy was reduced to want by his breach of 
 faith." 
 
 In his first season Sheridan made a brilliant start 
 with an amended version of The Rivals and an 
 adaptation from Vanbrugh's Relapse under the title of 
 A Trip to Scarborough. He apologized for his treatment 
 of Vanbrugh's comedy — Vanbrugh who, as Pope wrote, 
 "wants grace, who never wanted wit" — in an enter- 
 taining rhymed prologue, in which he says : 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 87 
 
 " What various transformations we remark 
 From east Whitechapel to the west Hyde Park ! 
 Men, women, children, houses, signs and fashions, 
 State, Stage, trade, taste, the humours and the passions ; 
 The Exchange, 'Change Alley, wheresoe'er you're ranging, 
 Court, City, Country, all are changed or changing ; 
 The streets, some time ago, were paved with stones 
 Which, aided by a hackney coach, half broke your bones. 
 
 But now weak nerves in hackney coaches roam, 
 And the cramm'd glutton snores, unjolted, home. 
 
 As change thus circulates throughout the nation, 
 Some plays may justly call for alteration ; 
 At least to draw some slender covering o'er 
 That graceless wit which was too bare before." 
 
 In May 1777 The School for Scandal was produced at 
 Drury Lane, with immediate success. Mrs. Abington 
 was the Lady Teazle; Thomas King, Sir Peter; William 
 Smith, Charles Surface; and John Palmer, Joseph. 
 The idea of the comedy had been germinating in 
 Sheridan's mind for some years, and he had spent much 
 labour on its writing. The two plots which run side 
 by side in the play gave him considerable trouble ; and 
 tradition has it that the finishing of it, after his changing 
 his mind several times as to its design, was a matter of 
 such difficulty and caused so much suspense to his 
 actors, that as an antiphon to the "Finished at last, 
 thank God !" which Sheridan scribbled at the foot of the 
 last sheet of his manuscript, the prompter added a 
 fervent "Amen!" The brilliant wit of the comedy and 
 its wealth of humorous incident more than covered up 
 its structural weakness, and its triumph was complete. 
 
 A further attraction at the old house was now the 
 popular John Henderson, an actor who, having won 
 his spurs at Bath, had increased his reputation by his 
 
83 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Shylock at the Haymarket. He played at Drury Lane 
 till 1779, and then went to Covent Garden. Besides 
 inheriting, by the popular vote, the mantle of Garrick, 
 he was a man of considerable general attainments, 
 being an etcher of no mean skill and the author of some 
 poems. He died, a comparatively young man, in 1785, 
 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Towards the end of 1779 Sheridan produced his 
 "dramatic piece" The Critic, one of the wittiest 
 satirical farces ever penned ; and in 1781 a well- 
 deserved success was won by the veteran Macklin's 
 comedy, The Man of the World, which is not only 
 a wonderful effort from a man of over eighty but a 
 really admirable comedy as well. Things went well 
 1 with the Drury Lane management so far as public 
 favour was concerned, and would have gone better in 
 the matter of internal economy had Sheridan been less 
 careless and unscrupulous in financial matters. The 
 month of October 1782 was rendered memorable by 
 the reappearance of Mrs. Siddons, now with her powers 
 matured and her art established on the firm basis of 
 experience gained by some five years of hard work at 
 Bath and Bristol. The play in which she appeared was 
 Garrick's adaptation of Southerne's Isabella, or the 
 Fatal Marriage, as the heroine of which she melted 
 every heart and aroused such enthusiasm as had not 
 been heard in Drury Lane since Garrick's retirement. 
 She was joined there by her brother, John Philip 
 Kemble, who had gained considerable reputation at 
 the Edinburgh and Dublin theatres. He was accepted 
 with satisfaction by the public as a more than adequate 
 support to his gifted sister, but his personal successes 
 were to come later. 
 
 In 1784 Sarah Siddons essayed Lady Macbeth, the 
 part with which she is chiefly identified, her finely 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 89 
 
 impressive rendering of the character remaining for 
 long the standard by which others who attempted the 
 part were judged. " Power was seated on her brow ; 
 passion radiated from her breast as from a shrine ; she 
 was Tragedy personified," says the enthusiastic Hazlitt. 
 
 We find it noted in a contemporary newspaper that 
 in February 1785 the Drury Lane stage was first lighted 
 with "patent lamps." "The effect of this light . . . 
 was brilliant beyond all expectation," says the journalist; 
 ' ' we doubt not the very sensible advantages which the 
 scenes, dresses and decorations of this theatre must 
 derive from this improvement will instantly induce 
 Covent Garden and the Opera House to follow so 
 commendable an example." 
 
 Another paragraph in the same paper a few months 
 later shows that the " matinde hat" nuisance is no new 
 thing. Noting the fact as if it were a thing almost too 
 good to be true, the paragraphist says: "The box- 
 keepers at Drury Lane actually refuse permission to 
 any lady in a hat to sit in the front boxes. Mr. Harris, 
 it is to be hoped, will do the same at Covent Garden." 
 
 About the same time Dora Jordan, who had served 
 her apprenticeship in Ireland and in Yorkshire, was 
 ..charming her audiences at Drury Lane by her per- 
 formance of Peggy in The Country Girl. She is always 
 spoken of as the ideal "hoyden," an adorable incarna- 
 tion of fun and mischief, but she had qualifications for 
 more serious work as (according to Charles Lamb) 
 her Ophelia, her Viola and her Rosalind showed. 
 
 The ravages of time had produced their effect so 
 markedly on the Drury Lane house that, in considera- 
 tion of its state of decay, it was decided to pull it 
 down ; and so in the summer of 1791 Sir Christopher, 
 Wren's building, which had stood for more than a 
 hundred years and had been the nursery of English 
 
 7 
 
90 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 acting at its best, was given over to the house-breakers. 
 The foundation-stone of the third Drury Lane Theatre 
 was laid in December of the same year; and during the 
 interval between that and the completion of the new 
 building the company played at the King's Theatre, 
 itself a new house which had been opened in March 
 1 791. The old King's Theatre had been burned down 
 in 1789, and its company had found a temporary home 
 at the Pantheon. 
 
 On 1 2th March 1794 the new Drury Lane opened its 
 doors and began its brief and chequered career. In 
 spite of elaborate precautions against fire, it was burned 
 to the ground fifteen years later ; and while it stood, 
 its fortunes were constantly imperilled by the reckless 
 extravagance (and, occasionally, barefaced dishonesty) 
 of Sheridan. It was quite the exception for him to 
 meet his liabilities when he could possibly escape from 
 them, and many were the ludicrous shifts to which he 
 resorted to avoid his creditors. It is related that 
 Holland, the architect of the theatre, could never get 
 Sheridan to pay him for his work ; and finally, tired of 
 being put off with excuses, he resolved to call upon the 
 manager at rehearsal time. Before Holland had time 
 to speak, Sheridan seized his hand and exclaimed : 
 "Dear Holland! — the very man I wished to see — you 
 want a cheque, of course ? Beautiful building ! Every- 
 thing one could desire, save a trifle, but important to 
 me. My shilling-gallery customers can't hear a word 
 that's spoken on the stage." "Impossible!" said 
 Holland. "Is it? You shall judge. Remain at the 
 footlights ! " Running upstairs to the gallery, Sheridan 
 began to gesticulate and apparently to declaim, but in 
 reality without uttering a word. Descending to the 
 stage, he asked, "Well, my boy, did you hear me?" 
 "Not a word," replied the architect in confusion. 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 9 1 
 
 "Are you convinced?" said Sheridan; "no? Well, 
 then, you go up and listen while I speak from here?" 
 Holland climbed to the upper gallery, while Sheridan 
 rushed out at the stage door, leaving the unfortunate 
 architect to make the best of circumstances. 
 
 The new house, which fronted where the colonnaded 
 side of the present theatre stands, held nearly twice as 
 many spectators as its predecessor, and more than the 
 present building. At the inauguration, we are told, 
 " a huge iron curtain was let down and ostentatiously 
 struck with a hammer. When this screen was raised, 
 a lake of real water was discovered, on which a man 
 rowed about in a boat, with a cascade tumbling down 
 behind." This occurred after the delivery of an epilogue 
 in which it was boasted that — • 
 
 "The very ravages of fire we scout, 
 For we have wherewithal to put it out; 
 In ample reservoirs our firm reliance 
 Where streams set conflagrations at defiance.'' 
 
 And yet a few years later the fine building was a prey 
 to the elements these words had so boldly defied. The 
 house was, by its construction, better fitted for scenic 
 display than for the subtler effects of acting; and 
 epigrammatists were not behindhand in declaring that, 
 though fire could not touch the audience, a little of it 
 would do the actors no harm. " You are come tb act 
 in a wilderness of a place," Mrs. Siddons said to a new- 
 comer whom she was welcoming there ; and it was 
 noticeable how of necessity her own methods of acting, 
 as those of her fellows, broadened in consequence and 
 lost in delicacy. 
 
 A year or two after the opening, Kemble began to act 
 as Sheridan's manager; and a thankless and difficult 
 part he found it. Not only was his own salary generally 
 
92 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 in arrears, but he had to act as buffer between Sheridan 
 and his creditors. Thing's went from bad to worse,. 
 Being only stage manager, Kemble could not control 
 the finances of the theatre; he could only suffer under 
 the disastrous effect of Sheridan's mismanagement. 
 The latter seemed to look upon the theatre merely as a 
 milch-cow to be drained for his own convenience. He 
 was eager at pocketing the receipts, but not a penny 
 would he disburse if he could help it. New and 
 promised plays were either insufficiently equipped or 
 not equipped at all and therefore shelved, while the 
 scenery and dresses of the "repertory" plays were 
 neglected. Clap-trap plays were mounted that were a 
 disgrace to a theatre with Drury Lane's traditions, and 
 the house fell more and more into discredit. 
 
 The general dissatisfaction with Sheridan's manage- 
 ment, as well as with inroads of another nature, is 
 reflected in a caustic note culled from a daily paper of 
 January 1802. "Should Mr. Sheridan," it says, "find 
 the future direction of Drury Lane Theatre incompatible 
 with his avocations as a statesman, it is hoped . . . 
 that the town will not be exposed by other management 
 to a surfeit-sickness from what is called first-rate family 
 acting; a little of the Jewish gabardine may be well, 
 enough, but that a National Theatre should be totally 
 converted into a monotonous synagogue must be too 
 great a public sacrifice to any race of actors whatever." 
 
 In 1802 Kemble and Mrs. Siddons severed their con- 
 nection with Sheridan. A portion of the Covent Garden 
 patent was for sale, and Kemble purchased it, with the 
 proviso that he was to be stage-manager. Mrs. 
 Siddons went with him from Drury Lane, and the fate 
 of the old house was sealed. It is true that the order 
 of the entertainments at Covent Garden was not always 
 very high, though Kemble altered matters there when 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 93 
 
 he took up the management; but Drury Lane sank even 
 lower in pandering- to a depreciated taste instead of 
 attempting to lead it. 
 
 In February 1809, Drury Lane was burned down. 
 It was perhaps as well for the repute of the theatre, for 
 it enabled the proprietors to decline the honour of 
 Sheridan's participating in any way in the management 
 of the new house. Sheridan, who had been elected 
 Member for Stafford in 1780, and had held a ministerial 
 post, was in the House of Commons when the fire broke 
 out'. As a mark of sympathy, the unprecedented 
 suggestion was made that the House should adjourn, 
 but this Sheridan had the grace to decline. Rushing to 
 the burning theatre, he was forcing his way through 
 the crowd when one of the soldiers who were keeping 
 order, not recognizing him, endeavoured to keep him 
 back. "Surely, my friend," Sheridan is said to have 
 protested, " a man may warm himself by his own fire !" 
 
 During his nine years at Drury Lane, Kemble had 
 played a very wide range of characters including most 
 of the principal Shakespearean parts — Hamlet, Othello, 
 King Lear, Coriolanus, Henry V., Romeo, Macbeth, 
 Petruchio, Wolsey — supported in most of them by Mrs. 
 Siddons. He was in the cast of Ireland's notorious 
 " Shakespearean " forgery Vortigern in 1796. Of con- 
 temporary plays those that were serious were of little 
 worth,' being mainly of the "fustian drama" type; 
 showy, unreal, declamatory pieces, with but little except 
 a certain effective theatricality to recommend them. 
 In comedy and farce, however, the workmanship was 
 better; the names of Colman, O'Keefe, Mrs. Inchbald, 
 Cumberland and Morton, amongst others, bear witness 
 to good work in this line. 
 
 This pause in the history of Drury Lane affprds a 
 convenient opportunity to turn back to that of Covent 
 
94 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Garden, which, by a curious parrallelism of fate, had 
 also fallen a victim to the flames only a few months 
 earlier than Drury Lane. We have seen how Thomas 
 Harris had begun his management brilliantly with 
 Sheridan's comedies. After that erratic author had 
 gone to Drury Lane, Covent Garden dealt largely in 
 pieces in which incidental music had a large share. 
 Charles Dibdin's operas and musical farces were 
 popular, and his sea-songs were in every one's mouth. 
 Thomas Augustine Arne, immortal as the author of 
 "Rule Britannia," had been "composer and musical- 
 director " at Drury Lane for some sixteen years when he 
 transferred his services to Covent Garden. Dibdin 
 succeeded him in 1778, when Arne died. In the same 
 year (1778) history repeated itself in the shape of a 
 working arrangement between the managers of the two 
 patent theatres, by which they occasionally "loaned" 
 their actors to one another. 
 
 Death was making gaps in the Covent Garden ranks. 
 Henry Woodward (an excellent comedian and a famous 
 follower of Rich in "Harlequin" parts), who had 
 alternated between the two houses for many years, but 
 spent the last fourteen years of his life at Covent 
 Garden, died in 1777. In the same year Spranger 
 Barry, who had been one of Garrick's most serious 
 rivals, died, not long after a farewell performance given 
 at the age of fifty-seven; and in 1785 John Henderson, 
 who had been a great attraction there — "a truly great 
 actor," Samuel Rogers calls him — died at the early age 
 of thirty-eight. On the other hand, there were two 
 notable accessions to the Covent Garden company at 
 this period in the persons of Mrs. Inchbald, who 
 appeared there in 1780, and Mrs. Abington in 1782. 
 Five years later a Jewish boy of the name of Abram, 
 who afterwards became, as Henry Braham, the most 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 95 
 
 noted tenor singer of his day, was first heard there at 
 the age of fifteen ; and in the same year appeared the 
 famous Mrs. Billington, a beautiful woman and accom- 
 plished singer, beloved of Haydn and immortalized as 
 Saint Cecilia by Sir Joshua Reynolds' brush. 
 
 The year 1789 saw the retirement of the veteran 
 Macklin, then nearly ninety. This remarkable man 
 and remarkable actor is entitled to share to a consider- 
 able extent in the credit universally allowed to Garrick 
 for a reform of the style of acting in his day. His 
 technique was not always equal to the carrying out of 
 his conceptions, but within certain limits he was an 
 admirable actor. " Essentially manly," is the descrip- 
 tion Doran gives of his acting. He seems to have set 
 his face against what he considered to be tricks of 
 acting of any kind; even Garrick's wealth of gesture 
 and variety of action displeased him. In him the " old 
 school" of acting was probably at its best. He had 
 what were then revolutionary theories as to the dressing 
 of characters, and endeavoured to some extent to put 
 them into practice. Doran states him to have been " an 
 excellent teacher," and an honourable, generous and 
 humane man. He was, moreover, a dramatist of no 
 mean powers, and had a very proper objection to his 
 actors "gagging," a vice which is as old as the drama 
 itself. O'Keefe relates how at Covent Garden, at a 
 rehearsal of Macklin's Love a la Mode, an actor of the 
 name of Lewes interpolated into his part something 
 that he thought very smart. " Ho! ho !" said Macklin, 
 "what's that?" "Oh," replied Lewes, "'tis only a 
 little of my nonsense." "Ay," replied Macklin, "but I 
 think my nonsense is rather better than yours ; so keep 
 to that if you please, sir." 
 
 From 1780 onwards, O'Keefe's name is a prominent 
 one in the Covent Garden bills; amongst other of his 
 
96 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 plays, his Castle of Andalusia, which was afterwards 
 revived by Buckstone, was produced there in 1782, and 
 his Wild Oats, which has kept the boards to the present 
 day, in 1790. He was one of the most brilliant writers 
 of his time in the domain of broad farce. 
 
 Of other notable names met with in Covent Garden's 
 history before the beginning of Kemble's management, 
 two more must be mentioned, — the famous tenor 
 Charles Incledon, who first appeared there in 1790 and 
 was connected with the house for some thirty years, 
 and George Frederick Cooke, an able actor, who was 
 considered the best Richard III. since Garrick, but was 
 overcome by the fault of intemperance. It must be 
 noted, too, that the spring cf 1799 saw the first per- 
 formance of Haydn's Creation. In 1792 the house had 
 been almost entirely remodelled, at such expense that 
 the management determined upon an advance of prices 
 which was sternly resented and speedily abandoned. 
 Further improvements were made in 1796. 
 
 Kemble's first appearance under his own manage- 
 ment at Covent Garden was as Hamlet, in September 
 1803; a few days later Mrs. Siddons appeared there in 
 her favourite Isabella. Kemble as a manager was as 
 admirable as Sheridan had been the reverse. He was 
 scrupulously honourable, and conducted his affairs in 
 proper order. That he was tactful as well as generous 
 was soon proved by his treatment of the popular actor 
 Cooke, who seems to have anticipated an unpleasant 
 rivalry with the new actor-manager. Kemble, however, 
 showed him every consideration, and endeavoured 
 good-naturedly to overlook and disguise Cooke's fail- 
 ings as'a drunkard, until things became so bad in that 
 respect that concealment was useless. In his first 
 season Kemble produced eleven of Shakespeare's plays, 
 as well as a host pf new wprks, including Kenney's 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 97 
 
 entertaining farce of Raising the Wind, in which many 
 an actor since those days has diverted audiences with 
 the quaint figure of Jeremy Diddler. 
 
 The season that began in the winter of 1804 is 
 remarkable for one of those unaccountable fits of 
 hysterical enthusiasm which at times overtake the play- 
 going public. The occasion was the appearance of 
 William Betty, known as the "Infant Roscius," who as 
 a boy of twelve had played Romeo and Hamlet in the 
 provinces. His performances (which were merely the 
 result of the careful and minute schooling of a clever 
 boy's ability) aroused an insane enthusiasm; and, when 
 he came to London, Drury Lane and Covent Garden 
 eagerly competed to secure him. Drury Lane began 
 by offering him ^20 a night for his services, but 
 Covent Garden offered him ^50; and as the latter's 
 engagement of him was not "exclusive" the lucky boy 
 was able to act alternately at the two theatres. All the 
 "great parts" were given him, and adult actors (even 
 Kemble and Mrs. Siddons) were, for the time being, 
 ignored in favour of this lad. Eventually, however, the 
 town recovered its senses, and in his second season 
 Master Betty fell to his proper level and by degrees was 
 forgotten. When that took place, Fox must have been 
 ashamed of having said, as Rogers records, that 
 Betty's acting of Hamlet was "finer than Garrick's." 
 There were, fortunately, saner contemporary judgments 
 formed of him. Mrs. Inchbald said that he was a 
 clever boy, and that "had she never seen boys act 
 before, she might have thought him extraordinary"; 
 and the poet Campbell pronounced that though he was 
 "painted by Opie and Northcote, and his bust stuck up 
 in marble by the best sculptors," while verses "in a 
 style of idolatrous adulation were poured out upon 
 him," still "the popularity of this baby-faced boy, who 
 
98 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was 
 an hallucination in the public mind and a disgrace to 
 our theatrical history." 
 
 The same year (1805) saw the first appearance at 
 Covent Garden of the comedian Charles Mathews, 
 afterwards designed for a great and deserved fame. 
 
 For the next three years Kemble and Mrs. Siddons 
 appeared in a number of Shakespeare plays, varied with 
 other plays good and bad, oratorio performances, and 
 pantomimes, among the latter being the Mother Goose 
 pantomime that for long was so great a favourite. 
 Among the performers in this was the famous clown 
 Giuseppe or "Joe" Grimaldi, whose name has given the 
 generic title of "Joey" to all the race of clowns since 
 his day. Things went prosperously with the Kemble 
 management, and fairly smoothly, although there were 
 occasional ebullitions of those riots among the audience 
 which were a curious feature of the relations then exist- 
 ing between the public and their dramatic servants. 
 Kemble met these outbreaks with spirited determination 
 and no little tact, and, by so doing, further secured his 
 position in the public's favour. 
 
 On 30th September 1808 Covent Garden was burned 
 to the ground, to the pecuniary disaster of the pro- 
 prietors, for their insurance did not cover more than a 
 third of their loss. In less than a twelvemonth, how- 
 ever, thanks to the generous assistance prompted by the 
 universal regard felt for Kemble, a new Covent Garden 
 rose from the ashes. In the interim the company had 
 performed at the King's Theatre. Before, however, we 
 consider the fortunes of the new Covent Garden, as 
 well as those of the new Drury Lane whose erection 
 was being planned, it will be well to realize that by this 
 time a crop of smaller theatres had sprung up, all 
 existing more or less upon sufferance. 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. 99 
 
 The oldest of these was that at Sadler's Wells, where 
 the theatre which was destined to become historic as a 
 home of the "legitimate drama" was built in 1765, in 
 succession to the "musick house" that had been set up 
 there at the end of the previous century by a surveyor 
 of the name of Sadler, some years after his re-discovering 
 the chalybeate spring there. The "musick house," 
 where a miscellaneous entertainment had been in vogue, 
 had become frankly disreputable. A builder of the 
 name of Roso.man (who has given his name to a street 
 in Clerkenwell) was responsible for the new theatre, 
 whose arrangement and conduct were much the same 
 as was found in the now almost extinct old-fashioned 
 music-hall. At times dramatic performances were 
 given there ; Dibdin wrote for it, and Thomas King the 
 actor (afterwards Sheridan's manager before Kemble 
 undertook that post) managed it for ten years; tight- 
 rope and acrobatic shows alternated with performing 
 dogs ; the young Braham sang there ; and the theatre 
 shared with Drury Lane the services of the great clown 
 Grimaldi, he sometimes performing at both houses on 
 the same day. William Siddons, the great Sarah's 
 husband, managed it for a while, and under him Edmund 
 Kean made his first appearance as a small boy. It was 
 at the opening of the nineteenth century that Sadler's 
 Wells began its wider popularity, with a form of 
 entertainment reproduced of recent years at the Hippo- 
 drome. Its proximity to the New River giving the 
 necessary facility, a huge reservoir was built under the 
 stage; and with the help of this the management was 
 able to produce the "nautical dramas" that gave it a 
 long repute as the "Aquatic Theatre." 
 
 The building which was to become the predecessor 
 of the Lyceum Theatre of our own day was erected in 
 1765. Originally designed for exhibitions of paintings 
 
100 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 by a society of artists from which the Royal Academy 
 sprung, it served this purpose for a few years. 
 Following- upon this, it was the home of a musical 
 entertainment given by Charles Dibdin, and subsequently 
 of a circus. In 1794 the interior was rebuilt as a 
 theatre; but the lessee's efforts to obtain a licence failed, 
 and it was by turns used as a chapel, a concert-room, 
 the home of a "raree-show," and of a waxwork ex- 
 hibition displayed by Madame Tussaud. The first 
 licensed dramatic performances given in it were those 
 of the Drury Lane co'mpany, who, after the burning of 
 their house in 1809, used the Lyceum for three years. 
 
 The same period saw the beginning of three other 
 houses which were afterwards to bear honoured names — 
 the Surrey, the Olympic, and the Adelphi. The Surrey 
 Started its life in 1782, as the "Royal Circus," with 
 equine and canine drama. After sharing the usual fate 
 of theatres in being burned down, it was rebuilt for the 
 same style of entertainment. In 1809 Elliston, who 
 had won some popularity at the patent houses, became 
 manager and rearranged the house suitably to a theatre. 
 He remained there till 1814, when he transferred his 
 energies to the Olympic, where again he had a circus to 
 rearrange. The "Olympic Pavilion" as it was then 
 called, had been built by Philip Astley (of "Amphi- 
 theatre" fame) out of the materials of a captured man- 
 of-war, and opened in 1806 under a licence allowing 
 equestrian performances, pantomimes and the like. This 
 enterprise having failed, Elliston stepped in and acquired 
 the building, and for five years managed it spiritedly 
 and laid the foundation of its subsequent repute. 
 
 Astley, who had built the original " Olympic 
 Pavilion," had begun his managerial career as pro- 
 prietor of a circus tent on a piece of waste ground near 
 Westminster Bridge. A fortunate service rendered to 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. IOI 
 
 the King by quieting- an unmanageable horse that the 
 monarch was riding gained him a licence as a reward ; 
 and in 1780 he built the first Astley's Amphitheatre, 
 which was called (on account of its scheme of interior 
 decoration) the "Royal Grove," and set to work to 
 produce circus entertainments and pantomimes at very 
 humble charges. Twice within a dozen years it was 
 burned down, but each time Astley courageously re- 
 built, and in 1804 opened an Amphitheatre which stood 
 for nearly forty years, and was the predecessor of the 
 building famous from Ducro to Sanger as the home 
 of circus. 
 
 The Adelphi was built in 1806 by a colour-merchant 
 of the name of Scott, who for twelve years industriously 
 produced miscellaneous entertainments and burlettas 
 there. The house was originally christened the Sans 
 Pareil Theatre; but in 1819, when Scott sold it — and 
 sold it well, for he had made it popular — its name was 
 changed, to the Adelphi. 
 
 One other theatre of this period may be mentioned 
 here, the Royalty Theatre in Wellclose Square. Built 
 in 1787, it was managed in defiance of the Patent Act 
 by John Palmer (a well-known Drury Lane actor) until 
 it ruined him ; then for a short time by Macready, the 
 father of the famous actor. It was later re-named the 
 East London Theatre, and burned down in 1826. Two 
 years later it was rebuilt, and was about to be opened 
 as the Brunswick Theatre when, owing to faulty con- 
 struction, the building collapsed during a rehearsal, 
 killing and injuring a number of the company, and this 
 was the .end of it. 
 
 To bring the theatrical history of London up to the 
 point at which the burning of the two great houses 
 marks a period, it only remains to trace the history of 
 the.Haymarket Theatre from the time of Foote's death. 
 
102 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 After that event George Colman the elder, who had 
 disposed of his interest in Covent Garden Theatre, 
 became manager of the Haymarket under an annual 
 licence. At first his management was not a conspicuous 
 success, for he made the mistake of attempting to com- 
 pete with the two older theatres' on their own lines. 
 Ultimately he came to see that his " little house " might 
 be very valuable as a sort of dependence to the others. 
 When they closed their doors (as in the summer months) 
 his opportunity began ; and by using opportunities, by 
 exercising an unmistakable judgment in the matter of 
 his actors, and by making his theatre more comfortable 
 than it had been, he gradually made it popular. The 
 house was small and its staircases and galleries narrow; 
 but at the same time its smallness gave it obvious 
 advantages over the comparatively vast proportions of 
 the other theatres, where the audiences used to com- 
 plain that they could neither see nor hear, and where 
 half Thalia's fire was apt to fizzle out like a damp squib 
 before it got over the footlights. Colman managed the 
 house till 1789, when he handed it over to his son, and 
 died five years later. Amongst a respectable number 
 of actors, afterwards famous, who had made their first 
 appearance under his management, was the popular 
 John Henderson, whose brief career (most of it passed 
 at Drury Lane) was brilliant. 
 
 The younger Colman's management, though it should 
 have been prosperous, considering his own powers as a 
 dramatist and the able company he kept together, ended 
 disastrously. He was reckless in his methods, and 
 became involved in disputes and litigation with his 
 brother-in-law, whom he had taken into partnership 
 with him, till at last his finances became hopelessly 
 involved and he was obliged to give up the manage- 
 ment altogether. Some twelve years later he was 
 
FROM SHERIDAN TO THE KEMBLES. IO3 
 
 appointed Examiner of Plays, and filled the post with 
 more zeal than discretion till his death in 1836; but 
 debt and lawsuits always dogged him, and, except for 
 his fame as a dramatist and a wit, his career was a 
 failure. 
 
 The company at the Haymarket during the younger 
 Colman's fourteen years of management had included 
 many who then were or afterwards became famous. 
 Amongst these were Charles Kemble, brother of the 
 illustrious manager of Covent Garden and father of 
 Fanny Kemble, both of them destined to carry on the 
 Kemble tradition at Covent Garden; John Liston, long 
 remembered as an excellent low comedian ; John Emery 
 (grandfather of Winifred Emery), an actor pre-eminent 
 in "loutish" parts where a mingling of humour and 
 pathos was required; John Bannister, son of a comedian 
 and singer who had been popular in the elder Colman's 
 time, himself a fine comedian and subsequently for 
 many years a valuable member of the Drury Lane 
 company; Elliston, future manager of Drury Lane, one 
 of the finest Falstaffs on record, an accomplished actor 
 who (from all accounts) was as anxious to shine off the 
 stage as on it; and the elder Charles Mathews, an 
 admirable comedian and Foote's only rival as a mimic, 
 who came from York to the Haymarket, quitted it for 
 Drury Lane, and left that house to start as an enter- 
 tainer on his own account. It was during the younger 
 Colman's reign, too, that the egregious Robert Coates 
 — "Romeo" Coates, as he was known — insisted on 
 exhibiting himself upon the stage. He was the son of 
 a wealthy Antigua planter, and was incurably bitten 
 with the desire of acting in public, a task for which he 
 had no qualifications. The ridicule which he incurred 
 seemed to have little effect upon his determination, and 
 it was not until he was actually hissed off the stage that 
 
104 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 he desisted. We are told that he appeared as Romeo 
 dressed in " a sky-blue spangled cloak, red pantaloons, 
 muslin vest, a full-bottomed wig, and an opera-hat!" 
 The public's derision at his efforts was not lessened 
 when the seams of his over-tight pantaloons gave way 
 under the stress of his histrionic endeavours. 
 
 Two other incidents, one tragic and the other 
 tragi-comic, marked the younger Colman's manage- 
 ment. A short time after he succeeded his father a 
 "Royal command" was given for a play at the Hay- 
 market, while Drury Lane was in the builder's hands. 
 The result of this was an enormous crowd at the 
 theatre, resulting in a shocking catastrophe when the 
 doors at the head of a flight of stairs down to the pit 
 were opened. There was a mad rush down the steps ; 
 one or two at the head of the crowd missed their 
 footing and fell, the rest surged down on to them, with 
 the result that fifteen persons were killed and many 
 injured. 
 
 The other incident was the absurd "Tailors'" Riot 
 in 1805, when hundreds of tailors, outraged in their 
 most sensitive feelings, assembled to hiss down a 
 revival of Foote's satire, The Tailors. The rioters 
 became quite unmanageable by the ordinary guardians 
 of law and order, and eventually troops had to be called 
 in to disperse the infuriated " snips." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 
 
 The present Drury Lane Theatre opened its doors, in 
 October 1812, with much ceremony and considerable 
 pretensions. The company was strong, but, as we 
 shall see, not strong enough to hold its own against 
 Covent Garden ; and the management was weak. In 
 an account of the opening performance, a contemporary 
 newspaper mentions that the crowds who waited at the 
 doors from " as early as two o'clock in the afternoon " 
 were rudely visited by a pitiless storm of wind and rain, 
 for the present portico was not added until some years 
 later. The house is said to have been modelled upon 
 the design of the fine theatre at Bordeaux. Some three 
 weeks before the formal opening, there was a "private 
 view " of the new theatre, at which (to quote a news- 
 paper of 17th September 1812) after the company had 
 sufficiently admired the interior of the house, " the 
 curtain drew up, and gave them a charming display of 
 scenery, which they rapturously applauded in succession 
 as a just tribute to the animated pencil of the artist 
 (Mr. Greenwood) which produced them. There were 
 seven or eight exhibited ; of which a perspective Land- 
 scape with water, a Piazza, a Seaport, a Prison scene, 
 and the Market Cross of Glastonbury were the most 
 striking. The Drawing-room scenes were also much 
 admired ; but perhaps an objection may lie against 
 
 105 8 
 
106 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 their being all fitted up with the same rouge-coloured 
 hangings." 
 
 On the opening night " God save the King " and 
 " Rule Britannia" were sung by the " entire strength " 
 of a company which included Elliston, Pyne, Bannister, 
 Mrs. Jordan and Mrs. Glover. Elliston then recited an 
 address which Byron had been induced to write after 
 open competition had failed to elicit a suitable one. 
 Over a hundred addresses had been sent in by com- 
 petitors, but not one was adjudged to be good enough 
 for use, despite the excited protests of the unsuccessful. 
 The incident was made memorable by the publication, 
 by the brothers James and Horace Smith, of the sup- 
 posititious "Rejected Addresses," which are among the 
 wittiest collections of vers d'occasion in the language. 
 
 Judging by the letters and articles contributed to the 
 press at the time, the new house gave satisfaction on 
 the whole. To see and hear in it, was, in spite of its 
 size, fairly easy, and the auditorium was considered to 
 be well arranged. Faults were found with details, of 
 course. For example, instead of the doors which 
 traditionally flanked the proscenium in all theatres, the 
 new Drury had at either side a Corinthian pillar with 
 gilded capital, and beside each pillar a gilt tripod lamp 
 in place of the usual door. This change was resented 
 (not unreasonably) by those who pointed out how 
 incongruous, for instance, must be the effect of a 
 domestic scene framed by "massy columns at whose 
 pedestals there are two tripods illuminated with gas- 
 lights ! " Another critic, however, highly approves of 
 the innovation, on the ground that "these lamps com- 
 pletely exclude the possibility of having side-doors to 
 knock at on every occasion that a witless actor wishes 
 to excite the noise of the upper galleries." Sub- 
 sequently, two years later, the columns and tripods 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 107 
 
 were removed, "in compliance with the taste and 
 desire of theatrical criticism." 
 
 The management was in the hands of a committee, 
 a notoriously bad form of management for theatrical 
 enterprises, where a single guiding hand is indispensable. 
 The lack of good management was combined with a 
 lack of good plays ; Byron, who was on the committee 
 of managers, has left it on record that he could scarcely 
 find one play that could be tolerated out of some five 
 hundred that were upon the shelves of the theatre. 
 Thus the old house had but little chance against the 
 popularity of the Kemble family and their supporters at 
 Covent Garden, until Edmund Kean's appearance (to 
 which we shall presently revert) in 1814. " It is really 
 very good fun," Byron wrote, "as far as the daily and 
 nightly stir of these strutters and fre.tters go ; and if 
 the concern could be brought to pay a shilling in the 
 pound, would do much credit to the management." 
 
 The opening of the new Covent Garden Theatre, in 
 September 1809, had been marked by the famous "O.P." 
 (Old Price) riots. The expense of some necessary 
 alterations in the arrangement of the seating, added to 
 the enormous outlay incurred by the building of the 
 house, had led to an increase in the prices of admission 
 to the pit and boxes. This fact, together with a real 
 or simulated indignation at the engagement of a foreign 
 actress, had aroused keen resentment amongst the 
 "pittites"; and a disturbance was organized in the most 
 ingenious manner, without any hint of its intention 
 being allowed to leak out. As soon as Kemble appeared 
 to speak the poetical address customary on an opening 
 night, the storm broke. A hubbub was raised which 
 rendered the address inaudible, and, as soon as the play 
 began, it was evident that it would only be conducted 
 in dumb show. The other actors were greeted with 
 
108 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 applause, Dibdin tells us, to show that the resentment 
 was not directed at them personally but at the manage- 
 ment; but " the instant they attempted to speak, ' Off! 
 off!' overpowering hisses, appalling- hoots, and the 
 ' O.P. Dance' commenced, in which the whole audience 
 joined. The ' dance ' was performed with deliberate 
 and ludicrous gravity, each person pronouncing- the 
 letters 'O.P.' as loud as he could, and accompanying 
 the pronunciation of each with a beat or blow on the 
 floor or seat beneath him with his feet, a stick or a 
 bludgeon ; and as the numerous performers kept in 
 strict time and unison with each other, it was one of the 
 most whimsically tantalizing banters or torments that 
 could be conceived." Leaflets and placards, voicing 
 their grievance, were distributed broadcast by the 
 organizers of the riot, and the ringleaders stood in 
 serried ranks with their hats on and their backs 
 ostentatiously turned to the stage. It was a disgraceful 
 scene, repeated night after night to the accompaniment 
 of horns blown and watchmen's rattles sprung. Kemble 
 kept his temper well. He published statements of the 
 reasons which had caused the rise of price, and did all 
 in his power to justify it, but it was of no avail. He 
 took the extreme step of an appeal to the law, and had 
 certain of the ringleaders charged before the magistrate 
 with incitement to riot; but the charge (incredible as it 
 may appear) was dismissed, and the terrorized manage- 
 ment was forced to capitulate, apologize to its cowardly 
 tormentors, and reinstate the old prices. 
 
 In these days of decorum, we can with difficulty 
 realize what a constant danger riots were in the theatres 
 of a century ago. The actors were then indeed 
 "servants of the public"; though some performers 
 were, as now, spoilt favourites, they were never allowed 
 to forget their masters. Indeed, the manners of the 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 109 
 
 audience (and that by no means always in the cheapest 
 parts of the house) were often outrageous and always 
 uncertain. Actual rioting usually began in the " upper 
 galleries." It needed some definite grievance, such as 
 that of the "old prices," to make them pervade the 
 whole audience; but disturbances in the cheaper seats 
 were frequent. 
 
 Not many years before the "O.P." riots, the news- 
 papers tell us of hubbubs occurring, "occasioned by 
 the gentry in the upper gallery calling for a hornpipe, 
 though nothing of the kind was expressed in the bills." 
 These gentry went, on this occasion, to the length of 
 bombarding the unfortunate actors with bottles, and , 
 this because Hamlet or Richard III. was not followed 
 by a hornpipe to divert them ! 
 
 Again, we have read that " on Thursday night, at the 
 acting of The Maid of the Mill, a riot began in the 
 upper gallery, which upon inquiry proved to be owing 
 to a knot of barbers, who had taken it into their heads 
 to be offended at a certain actor's appearing in his own 
 hair!" Interruptions of all kinds occurred: angry 
 colloquies with a performer who had offended, loud 
 protests against some individual whose private life 
 offered some weak spot for attack, the hissing down of 
 one who appeared in place of one expected, and so 
 forth. In fact the audiences, though generous to 
 those who pleased them, had but little compassion or 
 even decency of behaviour towards those they imagined 
 to have offended. 
 
 The Covent Garden company at this time was a x 
 remarkable one, but the plays produced were about as 
 poor as those that Byron complained of at Drury Lane. 
 The public taste had become vitiated, and sensational- 
 ism, sandwiched between opera and oratorio, was more 
 applauded than anything else. Horses and elephants 
 
IIO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 brought upon the stage, scenes with real water flowing, 
 and the like, attracted the public when the "legitimate 
 drama" would not. This was probably in no small 
 measure due to the exigencies of the two great theatres 
 in the matter of size. They were too vast for subtleties 
 of acting; the "grand style," which was rendered 
 imperative by this spaciousness, had become a thor- 
 oughly unreal mannerism; and the public was growing 
 tired of the pompous methods of Kemble and Mrs. 
 Siddons, who now were nearing the end of their career. 
 . Still, Covent Garden was, for the time being, the 
 popular house, and continued so until Kean drew all 
 London to Drury Lane. Mrs. Siddons retired in 1812, 
 her mantle falling upon Eliza O'Neill, one of the most 
 famous of Juliets, who, after a brief career, married 
 and retired in 1819. Charles Mathews was at Covent 
 Garden, where his abilities were not realized, from 1812 
 to 1816; Macready first appeared there, but without 
 creating any great stir, in 1816; and in the following 
 year Kemble retired, in circumstances full of every 
 mark of honour and appreciation. He handed over his 
 interest in the house to his brother Charles, who, with 
 his daughter Fanny, was destined to carry on the great 
 traditions of this remarkable family. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons lived for nearly twenty years in dignified 
 privacy after her retirement, appearing in public on very 
 exceptional occasions, and then usually for a charitable 
 purpose. She is credited with feeling considerable re- 
 sentment at the sensation caused by her brother's retire- 
 ment compared with what took place at her own. It 
 must, however, be remembered that, though her talents 
 were as great as his, or greater, her brother's position 
 as manager of Covent Garden was the more con- 
 spicuous. Kemble, whose health was failing, went 
 abroad when he retired and died at Lausanne six vears 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 1 1 1 
 
 afterwards. This famous pair, brother and sister, will 
 probably always be remembered as embodiments of the 
 "grand style" of acting, — a style that was far removed 
 from reality, but at the same time had (both in de- 
 clamation and gesture) the merit of fine technique; a 
 style, nevertheless, bound to lead, as it did in their 
 case, to undue deliberation and pomposity. 
 
 There is, of course, another side to the picture. Mrs. 
 Siddons, whom imagination identifies with the Tragic 
 Muse, played Rosalind with no small success ; and no 
 less an authority than Charles Lamb is responsible for 
 the surprising statement that no man could better 
 deliver brilliant dialogue than John Kemble, because 
 none understood it half so well. Compared with many 
 actors of his day, Kemble took some pains with the 
 dressing of his parts ; and, though contemporary prints 
 show his Lear appearing to the eye like a Polish noble- 
 man, and his Hamlet like an affected schoolmaster, the 
 good intention is obvious. The outward seeming of 
 Mrs. Siddon's Lady Macbeth appears, to our ideas, 
 like a fashionable portrait by Sir Joshua, save for the 
 crest of feathers which still lingered as the traditional 
 wear for "heroic" parts. It may be mentioned, in 
 passing, that the prices of seats at Covent Garden at 
 this time were : Boxes, seven shillings; Pit, three and 
 sixpence; Gallery, two shillings and one shilling; and 
 the play usually began at 6.30. 
 
 By this time the periodical revolution in theatrical 
 matters had taken place. Just as Garrick's had done 
 in previous years, so at this juncture Edmund Kean's 
 appearance at Drury Lane altered every one's point of 
 view and sounded the knell of many conventions. 
 Kean had played childish parts both at Drury Lane and 
 Covent Garden in his earliest days, had subsequently 
 been a circus acrobat, and, later, had acted in small 
 
112 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 parts at the Haymarket, and then gone through years 
 of struggle in provincial theatres. He knew his 
 powers, and had a worthy ambition, but an unknown 
 strolling player in the provinces could make only a 
 .scanty livelihood. He was acting at Dorchester, after 
 two years of growing popularity at Exeter, when the 
 Drury Lane stage-manager was in the audience and 
 was struck by his performance. The fortunes of Drury 
 Lane were at a very low ebb ; some new blood was 
 absolutely essential ; and the magnate from London 
 ventured to offer this earnest stripling of five and 
 twenty an engagement to play at the great house. 
 The result is a matter of history. Kean was given 
 permission to appear (on 26th January 1814) as 
 Shylock; and at the one rehearsal that was allowed 
 him he, as Doran tells us, "fluttered his fellow-actors, 
 and scared the manager, by his independence and 
 originality. ' Sir, this will never do,' cried the acting 
 manager. ' It is quite an innovation, it cannot be 
 permitted.' ' Sir,' said the poor, proud man, ' I wish 
 it to be so'; and the players- smiled, and Kean went 
 home . . . calm, hopeful, and hungry. ' To-day,' he 
 said, ' I must dine.' " Having enjoyed that rare luxury, 
 he went, confident in his powers, to the theatre. 
 Looked at askance at first by the other actors, he 
 found that, as each scene in which he appeared ended 
 amidst louder and louder applause, their demeanour 
 altered with that of the audience; and when at last his 
 triumph was complete and overwhelming, all barriers 
 were overcome and he was loaded with praises behind 
 the curtain as well as before it. He had saved the 
 fortunes of Drury Lane, and insured his own ; and his 
 certainty of his powers made his happiness complete, 
 for he knew he could keep the position into which he 
 had stepped. 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 113 
 
 That position was secured to him by his next part, 
 that of Richard III., in which he successfully challenged 
 comparison with Kenible and Garrick, just as in The 
 Merchant of Venice he had shaken the allegiance of 
 those who spoke of Macklin as the only Shylock. His 
 acting was a revelation to a generation accustomed to 
 the Kemble manner. " Life, nature, truth, without 
 exaggeration or diminution," wrote Byron in his diary 
 after seeing Kean as Richard III. It was Kean's un- 
 erring instinct in seizing upon the essentials of a 
 character that gave its truth to Coleridge's oft-quoted 
 remark that to see him act was "like reading Shake- 
 speare by flashes of lightning." He would seem 
 suddenly to lay bare to the spectator .the character he 
 was representing, whether by some facial expression, 
 some intonation or gesture, that was instinctively felt 
 to be inevitable to the character. How unsuited the 
 size of Drury Lane was to such delicacy of acting is 
 revealed by a contemporary newspaper critic, who 
 objected to Kean's placing too much reliance "on the 
 expression of the countenance, which is a language 
 intelligible only to a part of the house." Neither his 
 figure nor his voice was heroic, but his genius over- 
 came all disadvantages, and in certain lines of tragedy 
 — particularly as Shylock, Richard, or Iago — he has 
 probably had no equal on our stage. That he was 
 unequal throughout the wide range of parts he was 
 now called upon to assume, is not surprising. The 
 big, broad style, in which Kemble excelled, did not 
 suit Kean so well as parts where a cynical humour, 
 contrasts of passion, or subtleties of method were 
 called for. He was an Iago, a Shylock, or a Sir 
 Giles Overreach more perfectly than a Macbeth or 
 a Romeo; and in saying this there leaps to the 
 mind a comparison of him with Henry Irving, whose 
 
I [4 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 greatness and limitations as an actor had much in 
 common with Kean's. 
 
 For the remaining years of the existence of the Com- 
 mittee of Management at Drury Lane, Kean bore the 
 burden of the day on his shoulders ; but the management 
 had been too bad for even his restorative powers. The 
 Committee gave it up in 1819 and the house passed into 
 the hands of Elliston, who had already tasted the sweets 
 of management at the Surrey Theatre and the Olympic. 
 Four years of it sufficed to bankrupt Elliston. With a 
 fine company at his command, headed by Kean and 
 reinforced in 1823 by Macready and Liston, who seceded 
 from Covent Garden to Drury Lane, Elliston was not 
 content to rely on their powers, but spent money 
 lavishly on spectacular scenic effects and on a complete 
 remodelling of the interior of the house. He had, 
 moreover, taken over the house on ruinous terms ; 
 and as, in addition to this, his personal tastes were 
 extravagant, the result was inevitable disaster. 
 
 After the fortunes of two more managers had rapidly 
 gone the same way, a new lessee was found in Alfred 
 Bunn, who had been Elliston's stage-manager and 
 subsequently manager of the Birmingham theatre. 
 From 1834 to 1839 Drury Lane was under his 
 control. 
 
 Bunn, who was a kind of theatrical Barnum and 
 tempted the public with every sort of miscellaneous 
 show, was by this time also manager of Covent Garden. 
 At that house Charles Kemble, who had succeeded to 
 his brother's share in the patent and from 1823 had 
 exercised sole control of the theatre, had met with the 
 common experience of misfortune in management. He 
 endeavoured to attract the public (which, after the 
 defection of Liston and Macready from his company, 
 was flocking to Drury Lane) by means of Shakespearean 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. US 
 
 productions that were for the first time carefully con- 
 sidered in the matter of appropriate costume and scenic 
 effects. But despite these efforts and his own popu- 
 larity as an actor, his affairs went from bad to worse; 
 and the striking success of his daughter Fanny's brief 
 stage career was not sufficient to rehabilitate him. 
 Among the few incidents of note in the history '6T = 
 Covent Garden at this period were the production of 
 Weber's Oberon (which had been specially written for 
 the theatre) in 1826, Kean's appearance there in 1827 
 and his last performance there six years later. After 
 his first Drury Lane triumphs Kean had twice acted in 
 America; the first time in 1820, when he was in the 
 flush of his new success; the second time five years 
 later, when the violence of public opinion against him, 
 in consequence of his entanglement in a divorce case, 
 drove him for a while from the English stage. 
 
 By this time he was beginning to ruin his powers and 
 his fortunes by drunkenness; he had estranged his wife 
 and quarrelled with his son, the latter having become 
 an actor in the face of his father's strong disapproval. 
 Still, by degrees, in Kean's absence, the rancour against 
 him began to be forgotten; he had been sadly missed 
 as an actor, and when in January 1827 he reappeared 
 at Drury Lane as Shylock the public enthusiasm was 
 unbounded. He rallied all his powers for the occasion, 
 and acted splendidly; but the effort proved a heavy 
 drain on nervous resources that were sapped by 
 intemperance. For some years he managed to act with 
 more or less of his old ability, but the mischief was 
 done; at a little over forty he was a wreck, the splendid 
 powers gave more and more unmistakable evidence of 
 decay, and the great actor was losing his hold on him- 
 self and on his audience. Doran relates his having for 
 the last of many times seen Kean play Richard III. at 
 
Il6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the Haymarket in 1832, when "the sight," says Doran, 
 "was pitiable. Genius was not traceable in that bloated 
 face; intellect was all but quenched in those once 
 matchless eyes ; and the power seemed gone, despite 
 the will that would recall it. I noted in a diary that 
 night the above facts, and, in addition, that by bursts 
 he was as grand as he had ever been." Soon the last 
 scene came, when he was acting Othello at Covent 
 Garden on 25th March 1833. By a pathetic coincid- 
 ence the Iago was his son Charles, to whom he had 
 become reconciled after a painful period when the son 
 was struggling to make his fortunes at one of the rival 
 houses while his father sought vainly to recover his at 
 another. Kean had scarcely strength to dress, and was 
 so pitiably shattered in nerves that even brandy failed to 
 give him confidence. He begged his son to keep near 
 him on the stage lest he should collapse. Once he was 
 on the scene, excitement carried him alcng and he was 
 almost able to struggle through the play; but, as an 
 eye-witness of the scene tells us, when he endeavoured 
 to abandon himself to Othello's overwhelming storm of 
 passion in the final scenes, he stopped and trembled, 
 tottered, and reeled insensible into his son's arms. 
 Moaning, "I am dying — speak to them for me," he was 
 carried from the stage as the curtain fell on him for 
 ever. He died at his cottage at Richmond two months 
 later. 
 
 Bunn's attempt to combine the management of the 
 two great houses (even to the extent of running some 
 of the performers across from one to the other in the 
 course of an evening) had a very short life. He gave 
 up Covent Garden after two years of it, and retired from 
 Drury Lane, heavily in debt, in 1839. He had tried to 
 attract audiences with drama, opera, concerts, even 
 tight-rope dancing and lion-taming shows, a fact that is 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 117 
 
 eloquent of the esteem in which the drama was held at 
 the time; but he failed to make anything but heavy 
 losses. Opera was the vogue, and, as Scott tell us in 
 his Diary, the "young men about town" would affect 
 not to know even the whereabouts of Drury Lane or 
 Covent Garden Theatres, thinking the drama "too low," 
 whereas they "would faint away if it were thought they 
 had not been to the Italian Opera." 
 
 Two names, honourable in the history of the stage, 
 occur more and more prominently in the bills at this 
 period, those of Phelps and Macready, — the former 
 destined to rule long and prosperously at Sadler's 
 Wells; the latter, a man of older experience, to follow 
 the egregious Bunn in the control of Covent Garden 
 and Drury Lane. The fortunes of these two will be 
 best considered in a separate chapter; meanwhile, 
 leaving the two great houses for a while, it will be well 
 to look round at the other theatres now rapidly increas- 
 ing in number. Though till the middle of the nineteenth 
 century the stream of interest in theatrical matters 
 flowed mainly towards Drury Lane and Covent Garden, 
 it was diverted here and there into smaller channels. 
 Such houses as the Haymarket, the^ Olympic, the 
 Adelphi and the Lyceum began to have their part in 
 dramatic history; names that were becoming popular 
 occur in connection with now one and now another of 
 them, and the fortunes of great and small theatres 
 became more interwoven than had been the case before; 
 while beside them and apart stood the brilliant vogue of 
 opera at the King's Theatre. 
 
 The present Haymarket Theatre, built on a site 
 adjoining that of the old one, was built by Morris, who 
 had succeeded Colman in the management in 1820. 
 It was opened in July 1825 ; and, except for the 
 popularity of Liston (an inimitable comedian and the 
 
I 1 8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Toole of his day), William Farren and Madame Vestris, 
 its history offers nothing of any great moment until 
 Benjamin Webster succeeded in 1837 to a management 
 which he retained for sixteen years. Webster, however, 
 belongs to the next chapter. A contemporary account 
 of the new house states it to have been "in point of 
 architectural beauty the most elegant in London," but, 
 at the same time, "for convenience of seeing and 
 hearing, the worst contrived." Remodelling of the 
 interior has long since remedied all that. The company 
 at the beginning of Morris' reign included also Vining, 
 Elliston, Mrs. Glover, and Charles Kemble, the latter 
 " starring " there in 1822. Liston's great triumph was 
 in Paul Pry, in which his follower Toole made a success 
 in our own day, " a part," as Hazlitt wrote, " in which 
 there is really nothing beyond the mere outline of an 
 officious, inquisitive gentleman, which is droll, as it 
 reminds every one of acquaintances, but Liston fills it 
 with a thousand nameless absurdities." It was pro- 
 duced in 1825, with Madame Vestris and Farren also 
 in the cast, and enjoyed the surprising run of 114 
 performances. Liston was blessed with a face that in 
 itself was a fortune to a comedian, and his gravity of 
 demeanour amidst the quaintest drolleries lent them an 
 irresistible piquancy. Farren was superlatively good 
 in old men's parts, one of his greatest successes being 
 Sir Peter Teazle, in which part his son William has 
 delighted so many of our own generation. Of others 
 who played under Morris may be mentioned Vandenhoff, 
 famed for his Coriolanus ; Mrs. Honey, an agreeable 
 "romp"; and Ellen Tree, an Irish girl of considerable 
 talent, who afterwards married Charles Kean. She 
 and Vandenhoff appeared in Talfourd's Ion in 1836. 
 There were few new plays of any note produced during 
 this period at the Haymarket, the audience appearing 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 119 
 
 pleased with variations on a fairly extensive repertory 
 with which they were more or less familiar. 
 
 When Elliston in 18 19 went to Drury Lane as 
 manager, he left the Olympic Theatre started on the 
 road to popularity. It was the first of the smaller 
 houses to offer an entertainment of any merit, and only 
 needed good management to secure good audiences, 
 especially during the summer months when the patent 
 theatres were closed. Unfortunately, after Elliston 
 left it, the Olympic was in very indifferent hands for 
 about ten years. Amongst others Oxberry, Egerton, 
 Vining — actors with the lust of management upon 
 them — successively took command of its fortunes, only 
 to ruin their own. In spite of all this, the house was 
 popular. Melodramas and vaudevilles alternated with 
 pantomime and tight-rope performances ; and a public 
 that appreciated the advantages of a smaller theatre, in 
 the important matters of seeing and hearing, was none 
 too difficult to please. 
 
 Thus it was that when Madame Vestris, full of enter- 
 prise and of determination to win over the public (full, 
 too, of capability for the task), took over the manage- 
 ment of the house in 1831, it was soon apparent that, 
 given the right qualifications in the manager, it need be 
 by no means impossible to manage a smaller theatre 
 profitably in rivalry to the great ones. This "first of 
 all dramatic Joans of Arc," as she called herself in her 
 opening address, was already an established favourite. 
 She was blessed with a beautiful face and figure, a 
 pleasing vivacity of disposition, and a fine contralto 
 voice. With these advantages she appeared first in 
 Italian Opera, and might have gone far in that province 
 had her voice been better cultivated. As it was, her 
 natural ability for the stage, coupled with the charm of 
 her singing, suited her to the " burlettas " and light 
 
120 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 operas in which in her early days she appeared at 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden, and even better to the 
 extravaganzas or burlesques which (thanks to Planch^'s 
 genius) brought fortune to the Olympic. 
 
 She was fortunate in her company. Liston was a 
 tower of strength, and he was well seconded by Keeley, 
 Mrs. Orger (famous in broad farce), Miss Goward (who 
 was to become Mrs Keeley), and, later, the younger 
 Charles Mathews and William Farren. 
 
 The lightest of comedies and farces, pieces often so 
 rubbishing that even the very tolerant criticism of the 
 day could find no good word for them, were carried 
 through by sheer brilliancy on the part of the per- 
 formers. Planchd's long series of burlesques (whose 
 success was as remarkable as, and in many respects 
 similar to, that of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in our 
 own day), began with the Olympic Revels, which was 
 played on Madame Vestris' opening night. Planch^ hit 
 upon the then novel idea of travesties on classical or 
 mythical subjects, in which the characters should be 
 accurately dressed as their serious prototypes and yet 
 be concerned with the most ridiculous dialogue and 
 situations. It having been, as Planch^ himself tells us, 
 "previously the practice to dress a burlesque in the 
 most outre and ridiculous fashion," he found that the 
 effect of " persons picturesquely attired speaking absurd 
 doggerel " took the fancy of the audience at once. 
 " Madame," moreover, paid far more attention than was 
 usual to the matter of dresses and scenery, a fact which 
 brought its own reward. Nor was she less admirable 
 in her management of the internal economy of her 
 theatre, for she insisted on as careful a decorum behind 
 the curtain as before it. The following enconium, taken 
 from a newspaper of 1833, represents the general 
 satisfaction and reflects the Olympic's popularity: — 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 12 1 
 
 "Madame Vestris is as charming as ever; she is an 
 astonishing person, and trips about, with her cordial 
 sweetness of smile and glad breathing tones, as if, like 
 Sidney's piping shepherd-boy, she would never grow old. 
 Liston, it is true, has little marks of mortality about 
 him, but his humour flows forth in a stream as rich, 
 unctuous, and insinuating as ever. Keeley is here, too, 
 with his quaint helplessness, his irresistible comicality 
 of look and manner, his quiet air of humorous 
 vacancy." 
 
 In 1838 Madame Vestris married the younger Charles 
 Mathews, who had made his debut at the Adelphi three 
 years previously, and had even attempted management 
 there, but very soon transferred his services to the 
 Olympic. Beginning with a kindly reception at the 
 audiences' hands for his father's sake, he had, as he 
 acquired confidence, rapidly discovered his exceptional 
 powers as a light comedian, and it was not long before 
 he was as popular as any member of the company. 
 The happy pair went off tq America after their marriage, 
 but their tour there was a failure. In the following 
 year (1839) they undertook the management of Covent 
 Garden and left the Olympic, whose fortunes, robbed of 
 Vestris' guiding hand, soon showed a change. As a 
 contemporary newspaper said: "When the house stood 
 alone for the peculiar perfection it attained in scenic 
 and general effect, it secured a certain audience; but 
 since the Haymarket and others have followed in the 
 same style, there has been an evident falling off." 
 Moreover, there was now serious competition on the 
 part of other of the smaller houses, who, having 
 modelled their management to some extent upon the 
 Olympic's, were reaping the benefit. Indeed, the ten 
 years that succeeded " Madame's " rule at the Olympic 
 were as unfortunate as the ten that had preceded it. One 
 
 9 
 
122 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 manager succeeded another with steady persistence, 
 only to retire bankrupt, and the entertainments de- 
 teriorated proportionately. There is nothing, save the 
 meteoric appearance of Gustavus Brooke, famous for 
 his Othello, to make Astley's Olympic in any way 
 remarkable for the rest of an existence which was 
 terminated by its being burned to the ground in 1849. 
 
 The Olympic's most active rival on its own ground 
 was the Adelphi, which had been opened under that 
 name in October 1819. Melodrama of a lurid descrip- 
 tion was the attraction at first, varied with miscellaneous 
 entertainments presenting an astonishing hotch-potch of 
 delights. For instance, on one evening's programme 
 the audience was promised a Conjuring Entertainment, 
 Dissolving Views, Airs upon the Musical Glasses, a 
 Farce with " curious mechanical and optical effects," 
 and, to cap all, "in the course of the evening Mr. 
 Henry will administer the Nitrous Oxide, or Laughing 
 Gas, the extraordinary effects of which it is impossible 
 to describe." A little later the performance of a 
 "Talented and Stupendous Elephant" was the main 
 attraction of the entertainment offered. 
 
 A lucky chance, in 1821, enabled the Adelphi to leap 
 into sudden notoriety. Pierce Egan's " Life in London" 
 had captured the town, and, as its popularity grew and 
 grew, dramatic versions of this queer farrago of clever- 
 ness and vulgarity were inevitable. The Royal Amphi- 
 theatre had produced one, the Olympic another ; but 
 success waited for the Adelphi version, thanks largely 
 to the cleverness of the actors there. It was advertised 
 as "an entirely new classic, comic, operatic, didactic, 
 moralistic, aristophanic, localic, analytic, terpsichoric, 
 panoramic, Camera-Obscura-ic, Extravaganza Burletta 
 of Fun, Frolic, Fashion and Flash, replete with prime 
 Chaunts, rum Glees and Kiddy catches." Wrench, 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 1 23 
 
 Wilkinson, Reeve and Robert Keeley were voted 
 inimitable in their parts ; and, as Corinthian Tom and 
 Jerry were the rage of the town, the Adelphi became 
 suddenly the fashion. An attempt to follow up this 
 success with others on the same lines failed, but the 
 Adelphi had secured sufficient popular favour for its 
 initial management to last out some six years. Sub- 
 sequently its guiding hand for about sixteen years was 
 that of Frederick Henry Yates (father of Edmund Yates 
 of the World), who had as partners successively Daniel 
 Terry, who came from the Haymarket, and the elder 
 and younger Mathews. 
 
 Melodrama of a straightforward type (in many 
 instances written by the actor Buckstone) well acted 
 by a company that included, besides those mentioned 
 above, such capable performers as Tyrone Power and 
 T. P. Cooke — the latter famous in nautical parts — drew 
 constant audiences to the little house for some years. 
 It was varied, in his time, by the clever single-handed 
 entertainments of the elder Mathews, the "At Homes" 
 with which he had already made a success at the 
 Lyceum. These were sometimes expanded at the 
 Adelphi into a composite entertainment with Yates, 
 who had himself succeeded with sketches of the same 
 kind. By the beginning of Macready's reign at Drury 
 Lane — that is to say, about 1840 — the Adelphi had 
 reached a high position in public favour. The plays 
 produced there were not distinguished, but the acting 
 was on a higher level of general excellence than any- 
 where else in London ; and at this time, with the 
 appearance of the comedians Wright and Bedford on 
 its boards, under a capable management, the Adelphi 
 entered into a phase more nearly allied to the theatrical 
 history of our own day. 
 
 The predecessor of Irving's Lyceum Theatre had been 
 
124 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 opened by Samuel Arnold in 1816, under the inspiring 
 title of the English Opera House, with ballad operas, 
 musical farces, pantomimes, and miscellaneous enter- 
 tainments, including the elder Mathews' "At Homes." 
 Except by special licence for special occasions, the 
 " legitimate " drama was still not allowed except at the 
 patent theatres, or only allowed by the legal fiction of 
 the payment of fines. Musical pieces, however, were 
 feasible. Provided a certain number of songs were 
 included in a piece, it might be played ; thus, from 
 necessity, arose the taste for " burlettas '' and " vaude- 
 villes," many a play which deserved a better fate being 
 mangled by the inclusion of entirely incongruous songs 
 to qualify it for performance. Other devices of various 
 descriptions were resorted to, in order to dodge the 
 " patent " monopoly, until in 1843 free-trade in dramatic 
 entertainments was legalized and all properly accredited 
 theatres were enabled to produce what they pleased. 
 The vogue for opera had spread downwards from the 
 King's Theatre, and this enabled the struggling smaller 
 theatres to tempt the public with all sorts of entertain- 
 ments under the guise of opera and "plays with music." 
 Arnold's Lyceum was burned down in 1830, and the 
 present building opened in 1834 as the Theatre Royal 
 Lyceum and English Opera House. Opera and mis- 
 cellaneous shows again filled the bill until, in 1844, 
 under the new conditions possible owing to the new 
 charter of liberty, the Keeleys began to play "domestic 
 drama" there in the shape of adaptations from 
 Dickens' novels. 
 
 In a Lyceum playbill of June 1835 (evidently a hot 
 summer) a tempting offer is made. " In an endeavour," 
 it says, " to add to the comfort of visitors, the manager 
 proposes during the continuance of the warm weather, 
 .to offer to all ladies and gentlemen on payment of their 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 125 
 
 seats at First Price to the Boxes, Private Boxes, 
 Balcony or Pit, the refreshment of an Excellent Iced 
 Cream, Gratis. ' To reside in thrilling regions Of 
 th ick-ribbed I ce. ' — S hakespeare. " 
 
 When Thomas Dibdin in an ill-fated moment took 
 over the management of the Royal Circus after Elliston 
 had given it up, he re-named it the Surrey Theatre. 
 He was laudably ambitious in his efforts, but was 
 bankrupt in seven years. Buckstone played at the 
 Surrey under him, and he was responsible for the 
 production of the first version of Milman's Fazio, under 
 the title of The Italian Wife. After him a series of 
 managers failed in turn until, in 1827, Elliston tried his 
 fortunes once more as manager. To Elliston's credit 
 is his discovery of Douglas Jerrold as a writer for the 
 stage. Jerrold's Black-eye 'd Susan, with the immensely 
 popular T. P. Cooke as the hero, was an enormous 
 success. The patent theatres competed with the 
 Surrey for the actor and the play ; at one period Cooke 
 played it every evening at Covent Garden as well as at 
 the Surrey, and the piece was revived several years 
 later at Drury Lane. Elliston was still lessee of the 
 Surrey when he died, and with him died the interest of 
 the house as far as dramatic history is concerned. It 
 was burned down in 1865, and rebuilt on a larger plan. 
 Melodrama and pantomime have been its mainstays 
 since then, the only notable management being that of 
 George Conquest, a rousing melodramatic actor and an 
 admirable pantomimist, from 1880 to 1901. 
 
 The Strand Theatre already existed at this time, and 
 offered many kinds of entertainment with the usual 
 shifts to evade the law before it gained a licence. As 
 no money might legally be taken at the doors, it was 
 attempted on one occasion to take it at a window ! At 
 another time the purchase of an ounce of lozenges for 
 
126 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 four shillings at a neighbouring confectioner's shop 
 gave the right of entry. It is not, however, until after 
 the " freedom of the theatres " that its history begins to 
 be of any account. 
 
 Braham the singer had built and opened the St. 
 James's Theatre in 1835 ; but neither opera with his 
 own singing, nor the domestic drama, could save him 
 from ruin. Italian opera being the fashion at the time, 
 theatrical entertainments, save in exceptional cases, 
 were given the cold shoulder. Burlesques, wild-beast 
 shows, operettas, farces, were of no avail against such 
 indifference, and after five years the theatre was tenant- 
 less. At last, under the management of Mr. Mitchell 
 (of Bond Street), a succession of brilliant seasons of 
 French plays brought audiences to the house. Dejazet 
 and Rachel, Lemaitre and Levasseur became the objects 
 of that hysterical admiration to which an English public 
 is prone when it loses its head. The vogue lasted until 
 Rachel's last appearances here in 1853, and then the 
 house again relapsed into its then traditional ill- 
 luck. 
 
 Saddler's Wells Theatre was gradually emerging 
 from the "Aquatic Theatre" stage to melodrama; but 
 it is not until Phelps' reign there that it acquires much 
 interest. 
 
 As has been said, the resort par excellence of fashion 
 during the period dealt with in this chapter was the 
 King's Theatre, Haymarket, by this time known as Her 
 Majesty's, where grand opera and ballet furnished the 
 standing dish. The history of opera is, however, out- 
 side the scope of this book; it must be sufficient merely 
 to indicate the memorable record of this splendid house 
 until its destruction by fire in 1867, a record embellished 
 by such names as those of Catalani, Taglioni, Elssler, 
 Cerito, Tamburini, Grisi, Mario, Sontag, Malibran, 
 
THE KEMBLES AND KEAN. 127 
 
 Lablache, Jenny Lind, Sims Reeves, and Grahn. Its 
 successor, which was completed in 1872, had to face 
 the very serious competition of opera at Covent Garden 
 and occasionally at Drury Lane, and enjoyed a chequered 
 career (which was inaugurated by the Moody and Sankey 
 "revival meetings") until its demolition in 1892. Its 
 site is occupied partly by the Carlton Hotel and partly 
 by the beautiful theatre opened by Beerbohm Tree in 
 1897. 
 
 Other theatres that were popular in the first quarter 
 of the nineteenth century were the Cobourg, the West 
 London, and Astley's. The Cobourg (which eventually 
 was re-named the Victoria Theatre, Westminster) lay 
 close to the Surrey, and was opened in 1818. Melo- 
 drama, adapted to the palate of transpontine audiences, 
 was its staple fare. The plays were well mounted and, 
 in their own way, well acted. Stars such as Edmund 
 Kean occasionally appeared there, and many actors 
 who afterwards gained a wide reputation acted there in 
 their early days — amongst them Buckstone, Wallack, 
 Henry Kemble and "Brayvo" Hicks. The house was 
 considered very fine, and boasted of a wonderful 
 looking-glass curtain. A contemporary critic (in the 
 "British Stage") pays the Cobourg a somewhat doubt- 
 ful compliment. "This is," he says, "the prettiest 
 theatre in the metropolis; the dresses astonish us by 
 their splendour, and the scenes are painted in a masterly 
 style; but having said this much, our stock of com- 
 mendation is exhausted. As literary compositions the 
 pieces produced are utterly contemptible, and the 
 performers for the most part are suited to the pieces." 
 The "Vic," as the house latterly became familiarly 
 known to its frequenters, ceased to exist as an active 
 theatre in the early 'seventies. For some time in the 
 'thirties the City Theatre (afterwards the City Pantheon) 
 
128 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 was run in conjunction with the Cobourg, under the 
 same management and with much the same company. 
 
 Astley's Theatre has been dealt with irl the preceding 
 chapter; and the West London was the little theatre 
 off Tottenham Court Road which, after fifty years of 
 farce and melodrama played to audiences of gradually 
 diminishing quality, and after having been known in 
 the interval as the Queen's Theatre and the Fitzroy 
 Theatre (and irreverently to the "profession" as the 
 "Dust Hole") had a brilliant new birth, under the 
 historic Bancroft management, as the Prince of Wales's 
 Theatre in 1865. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 
 
 After the disappearance of Bunn, the management of 
 Covent Garden Theatre continued to be very indifferent, 
 and the fortunes of the house were sadly in need of the 
 fillip that was given to them in 1836 by the appearance 
 of the gifted Helen Faucit. Personally attractive, she 
 was an actress of uncommon intelligence, and, as she 
 acquired certainty in the technique of her art, went on 
 from one success to another, first as the heroines of 
 Sheridan Knowles' plays, and subsequently in Shake- 
 spearean parts. 
 
 Her early triumphs took place during the last of the 
 "palmy days" of Covent Garden as a home of the 
 drama, — that is to say, during the two years of Mac- 
 ready's management there. Macready had by this time 
 gained his popularity and was at the height of his 
 powers. Some twenty years before this, after a pro- 
 vincial apprenticeship in the course of which he had 
 acted with Mrs. Siddons and Dora Jordan, he had 
 saved the situation at Covent Garden by a brilliant 
 performance as Richard III., followed by another as the 
 hero of Knowles' Virginius, which had raised him to 
 the top of his profession. Subsequently he had played 
 at Drury Lane, in America, and in Paris. He under- 
 took the Covent Garden management in 1837, and, 
 though two years of it crippled him financially, he 
 "made history"" there by a series of fine Shakespearean 
 
 129 
 
130 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 revivals (in which Helen Faucit and Phelps were his 
 coadjutors) and by the production of Lytton's Lady of 
 Lyons in 1838 and Richelieu in 1839. These two plays 
 owed a great deal to their interpreters, Helen Faucit's 
 Pauline in the former and Macready's impersonation of 
 the Cardinal in the latter making their fortunes. They 
 had the faults of most of the verse plays of their time, 
 but the fact remains that they held the stage for half a 
 century. Until quite recently' Pauline was quite a 
 favourite part for aspiring debutantes, and Irving's 
 Richelieu is still fresh in the memory of playgoers. 
 Lytton's earlier verse drama, The Duchess de la Valliere, 
 had been produced at Drury Lane in 1836, but with 
 little success; at that time Lytton had yet to learn what 
 was theatrically effective, and the play was much too 
 long. "Far too tedious," said a newspaper criticism 
 on its first performance, "the longest drama we have 
 sat out for many a night." His last play, Money, a prose 
 comedy, which enjoyed a long life with frequent revivals, 
 was produced at the Haymarket under Webster's man- 
 agement in 1840. 
 
 Macready is to be credited with the laudable though 
 financially dangerous ambition to lead the public taste 
 instead of conforming to it, a fact which to a great 
 extent explains the collapse of his two years' manage- 
 ment at Covent Garden, as it does that of a subsequent 
 two years' management at Drury Lane. When he left 
 Covent Garden in 1839 his duties there were taken over 
 by Madame Vestris and Charles Mathews, who ex- 
 changed an assured success at the Olympic for the 
 doubtful honour of managing the larger house. Their 
 management was excellent, but they were not good 
 financiers. Shakespeare was alternated with modern 
 comedy and the airy trifles of Planche; opera was tried, 
 in an attempt to compete with what was then the over- 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 3 I 
 
 whelmingly popular form of entertainment; but despite 
 the efforts of well-meaning managers and a brilliant 
 company, the theatre could not be made to pay, and 
 after two years (that is to say, by the end of 1842) 
 the attempt was abandoned. , 
 
 This is practically the end of the dramatic history of 
 Covent Garden. Music hereafter took the place of the 
 drama there. The fortunes of the house had fallen 
 lower and lower, when it was burned down in 1856; the 
 present house was opened in 1858, and its subsequent 
 history belongs to that of opera. 
 
 After playing at the Haymarket under Webster from 
 1839 to 1841, Macready in the latter year made his 
 second attempt at managership by taking over the 
 control of Drury Lane. It was a brave attempt, for he 
 had a high purpose and was an admirable stage- 
 manager; but a couple of years of it were again enough 
 to bring disaster to his pocket and his health. He 
 was too anxious to fulfil literally his pledge to give the 
 public variety, and to pose as the leader of public taste. 
 When, for instance, "business" was languishing and he 
 gave in so far to the prevailing fashion as to mount 
 Gay's Act's and Galatea with Handel's music and superb 
 scenery by Stanfield, he held a trump card ; but he 
 deliberately threw it away by refusing to admit it to be 
 performed more than a limited number of times, though 
 he was immensely proud of the production. His stage- 
 manager, Anderson, has left it on record that in his 
 opinion "it ought to have run two hundred nights and 
 brought thousands of pounds to the treasury, had the 
 manager been so inclined." But, contrary to all advice, 
 Macready would not hear of its being given more than 
 three times a week, with the result that its powers of 
 attraction dwindled to nothing. 
 
 Some of the scenic effects in this production would 
 
132 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 challenge comparison with anything seen in later days. 
 Particularly, a scene of the Sicilian coast by moonlight 
 aroused the greatest enthusiasm, presenting as it did 
 (according to the critic of the " Examiner") " the seas 
 swelling towards us, the waves breaking as they come; 
 the last billow actually tumbling over and over with 
 spray and foam upon the shore, and then receding with 
 the noise of water over stones and shells, to show the 
 hard wet sand, and, in its due time, roll and break 
 again." 
 
 Another circumstance which militated against Mac- 
 ready's Drury Lane management was the formidable 
 competition of the other theatres, which were now on 
 the verge of emancipation from the old monopoly 
 fetters. Macready made the mistake of trying to carry 
 matters with too high a hand. He failed to realize 
 that the days of Drury Lane monopoly were over, and 
 that a public enjoying considerable scope for choice in 
 its dramatic fare must be treated with consideration 
 rather than with authority. The Haymarket, the 
 Olympic, the Adelphi, and Sadler's Wells were by this 
 time all popular houses, and he was too indifferent to 
 the fact. Artistically, his management was laudable. 
 He believed in the older traditions and tried to carry 
 them on ; his work was all done conscientiously, though 
 in too unbending a spirit, and he cleared away a good 
 many abuses. But his general lack of amenity was his 
 undoing as a manager, and his obstinate opposition- to 
 long " runs " emptied his purse. 
 
 Of his productions at Drury Lane the most notable 
 were his revivals of King John and As You Like It, the 
 latter with a cast that included what the playbills of the 
 time would have termed " such a galaxy of talent" as 
 Mrs. Nisbett, Mrs. Stirling, Mr. and Mrs. Keeley, 
 Anderson, Phelps, Ryder, and, of course, Macready 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 33 
 
 himself. He did service to the contemporary drama by 
 producing Westland Marston's Patrician's Daughter 
 and Browning's Blot on the 'Scutcheon ; and, yielding 
 unwillingly to the taste for music and spectacle, 
 mounted Dryden's King Arthur and Milton's Comus 
 handsomely. The King Arthur performances are 
 memorable from the fact that in them Sims Reeves, 
 then an unknown member of the chorus, had his first 
 solos to sing and made an immediate impression. 
 
 ■ After his disappointment at Drury Lane, Macready 
 made a successful tour in America, where he had 
 already acted twenty years before; on his return to 
 Europe he acted in Paris with Helen Faucit, to the great 
 admiration of the French critics. Five years later a 
 third American tour was brought to an untimely end by 
 riots which arose from a quarrel between him and 
 the American tragedian Edwin Forrest, ending in 
 Macready's having to be hurriedly smuggled out of the 
 country. The rights of the quarrel are not very clear, 
 but undoubtedly Macready's uncompromising de- 
 meanour (which was sadly lacking in tact) did not 
 tend to pacification. For the rest of his stage life he 
 was principally seen in London at the Haymarket and 
 the Princess's, and made his farewell to the public at 
 Drury Lane in February 185 1 as Macbeth. His retire- 
 ment was made the occasion for much feting and 
 laudation, a great deal of the latter being thoroughly 
 deserved. He lived to enjoy twenty years of private 
 life, dying at Cheltenham in April 1873. 
 
 He appears to have been an ideal actor of highly 
 coloured parts, where abrupt transitions of manner and 
 strongly marked contrasts were called for. Talfourd, 
 who was no mean judge, classifies him as the "most 
 romantic" of actors, just as Kean was the "most 
 human " and Kemble the " most classical." He was an 
 
134 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 extremely upright man and could be very generous ; on 
 the other hand, as his diary shows, he was extremely 
 vain and very quarrelsome. His characteristic pom- 
 posity peeps out in such diary entries as this: " It had 
 always been," he says, "in direct contrariety to my 
 disposition and my taste ... to adopt the ' hail-fellow- 
 well-met' familiarity of the green-rooms, into which 
 (when I entered them, which was not often) I carried 
 the manners and address habitual with me in general 
 society." Whatever his shortcomings, however, he 
 was .always thoroughly in earnest, and, as an artist, 
 conscientious almost to a fault. We may remember 
 the words in Tennyson's sonnet to " Macready, moral, 
 grave, sublime " : 
 
 "Thine is it that the drama did not die, 
 Nor flicker down to brainless pantomime 
 And those gilt gauds men-children swarm to see." 
 
 With the end of the Macready management the lustre 
 departs from the annals of " Old Drury." Hence- 
 forward its chequered career, though offering isolated 
 moments of interest, has not much bearing on dramatic 
 history. Its size was inappropriate to the newer style 
 of histrionics; and, though one or two were foolhardy 
 enough to make the attempt, prudent managers shrank 
 from the difficulty of filling so vast a house in the face 
 of the opposition of half a dozen popular theatres, after 
 the preliminary difficulty of paying so large a rental as 
 was demanded. Buckstone with his fine company at 
 the Haymarket, Robson and Wigan at the Olympic, 
 Webster with Dion Boucicault and Toole at the Adelphi, 
 Phelps at Sadler's Wells, Charles Kean at the Princess's 
 — these formed an opposition that it would have needed 
 a Garrick or an Edmund Kean to withstand. Unde- 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 135 
 
 terred by this, however, Bunn succeeded Macready in 
 the management, and for some seven years tried in vain 
 to tempt the public with opera and the performances of 
 a French circus. Drury Lane ruined him, just as it 
 ruined his successor James Anderson, a capable actor 
 who had been under Macready both at Covent Garden 
 and Drury Lane. Two years of it sufficed for Anderson, 
 who had the added bitterness of seeing 1 an American 
 " equestrian entertainment" subsequently fill the house 
 which his efforts had left half empty. 
 
 Manager succeeded manager with dreary frequency ; 
 opera alternated with circus performances, and melo- 
 drama with the feats of acrobats. The only outstanding 
 feature in the twenty-eight years that elapse between 
 Anderson and the rule of Augustus Harris (who is 
 identified with the present-day Drury Lane), is the 
 Chatterton management, that lasted from 1863 to 1879, 
 at the close of which Chatterton's debts are said to have 
 amounted to more than thirty-five thousand pounds ! 
 His aims, however, had been laudably higher than 
 those of his immediate predecessors. He called 
 together as able a company as circumstances permitted, 
 including Phelps (who had retired from the manage- 
 ment of Sadler's Wells in 1862), Helen Faucit, Barry 
 Sullivan, and Adelaide Neilson; and for five years he 
 struggled manfully against the inevitable, with revivals 
 of Shakespearean and other poetic dramas. To him, 
 also, the public owed the appearance of Salvini as 
 Othello in 1875; but, finding in the words of the trite 
 epigram, that "Shakespeare spelt ruin and Byron 
 bankruptcy," he tried to retrieve his fortunes with 
 spectacular " modern life " plays of the type that was to 
 prove so profitable to his successor. He was beaten, 
 nevertheless, partly by the circumstances of public 
 taste and partly owing to his attempting too much, for 
 
136 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 latterly he had the Adelphi and the Princess's on his 
 hands as well as Drury Lane. 
 
 With Augustus Harris, a new era of prosperity began 
 for the old house. Lavishly staged pantomime (how 
 many of us have delicious recollections of our earliest 
 pantomimes there, and the inimitable Vokes family !) 
 and elaborate spectacular melodramas, teeming with 
 up-to-date incidents and mechanical effects, were his 
 trump cards, as they have proved those of Arthur 
 Collins who has carried on the Harris tradition since the 
 latter's death in 1896. It is only fair to remember that 
 to Harris we owed the visit of the Saxe-Meiningen 
 company in 1881, and of the great Italian actress 
 Adelaide Ristori in 1882. But, to all intents and 
 purposes, the history of Drury Lane for the last forty 
 years has meant spectacular melodrama and pantomime. 
 And so, though its boards have since been the scene of 
 many interesting appearances and are connected in- 
 cidentally with the careers of many distinguished 
 performers, Drury Lane's long and honourable import- 
 ance in dramatic history practically comes to a close 
 with that of Macready. 
 
 With the disappearance of monopoly in stage 
 matters, the centre of interest shifts to newer theatres. 
 Of these, the Haymarket claims first consideration, as 
 the oldest established. The management of Benjamin 
 Webster, which lasted from 1837 to 1853, initiated the 
 prosperity of a house which has enjoyed an almost 
 unbroken tradition for good luck, which means good 
 management. He improved the comfort of the house, 
 lighting it by gas, and interposing "orchestra stalls" 
 between the pit and the orchestra; opinion at the time 
 was divided as to whether the latter innovation were an 
 improvement or no. What was more important, he 
 gathered together a fine company, and gave by his 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 37 
 
 encouragement a considerable lift to the dramatic 
 output of his day. 
 
 Samuel Phelps and Madame Celeste made their first 
 London appearance at the Haymarket during Webster's 
 first season; Macready and Helen Faucit were there 
 from 1839 to 1841; Buckstone, who succeeded Webster 
 as manager of the theatre, was one of its leading 
 comedians from the beginning of Webster's rule; 
 Charles Kean and his wife, the elder Farren, Mathews 
 and Madame Vestris, Mrs. Nisbett, Mrs. Stirling, 
 Tyrone Power, — all these supported Webster, who, 
 besides being an able comedian, was responsible for 
 nearly a hundred comedies and farces which he wrote 
 or adapted from the French. At the same time, always 
 on the alert to encourage native talent, he produced 
 Lytton's Money in 1840, and some of the best work of 
 Sheridan Knowles, Douglas Jerrold, and Westland 
 Marston. His management was generous and honour- 
 able, and he reaped a suitable and well-deserved 
 reward. He is recorded to have paid no less a sum 
 than £2000 annually for the copyright of British 
 plays, and on one occasion offered a prize of jQ$oo in 
 open competition for a comedy. 
 
 An interesting fact that Mr. Maude notes in his book 
 on the Haymarket Theatre is that Webster's was the 
 first London company to go on tour. "Whenever the 
 theatre closed, the members of the company went off 
 in a body and rented a small provincial theatre for five 
 nights at a time (they never played on Saturdays), all 
 sharing equally. Any one who happened to be out of 
 the bill made himself useful in the front of the house, 
 and no one objected to playing small parts or insisted 
 on ' fat ' ones." Finances were arranged on the sharing 
 system, and often each member netted quite a nice little 
 sum. Occasionally they had disconcerting experiences; 
 
 IO 
 
138 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 as when, in a midland town, the magistrate unexpectedly- 
 refused them permission to use the theatre and a relent- 
 less landlady refused to let them have any food or to 
 leave without some payment in advance. Eventually 
 a plan of flight was decided on ; and " in the middle of 
 the night the actors and actresses, with their spare 
 clothing and properties disposed as best could be 
 managed about their persons, silently climbed out of 
 the window, looking like nothing more than a series of 
 fat men and women from a ' penny gaff.' The moment 
 they reached the street, off they ran, never stopping till 
 they reached a cornfield some two miles off." 
 
 In 1844 Webster had become, in partnership with 
 Madame Celeste, part lessee of the Adelphi ; and in 
 1853 he retired from the Haymarket and devoted 
 himself entirely to the Adelphi. Buckstone, who was 
 now at the height of his popularity, took up the manage- 
 ment of the Haymarket and remained there till 1876. 
 He had been on the stage since he was a boy, having 
 deserted an office stool for the boards of the theatre ; 
 and, after the usual strolling apprenticeship and appear- 
 ances at the Surrey Theatre, Sadler's Wells, the Adelphi 
 and Drury Lane, he had joined Webster's Haymarket 
 company in 1837. He was the most irresistible low- 
 comedian of modern days, excelling in parts where 
 broad humour and a sense of the grotesque were called 
 for. His Tony Lumpkin and his Bob Acres have 
 remained unchallenged for excellence, save perhaps by 
 Lionel Brough. He was also author or adapter of a 
 host of comedies and farces. 
 
 He was fond of telling how he came to take up the 
 managerial responsibilities, and that at a reduced rent. 
 Mrs. Morris, the proprietress of the Haymarket (with 
 whom, as with every one, Buckstone was a prime 
 favourite), was anxious that he should become manager 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 39 
 
 when Webster went to the Adelphi. A friend offered 
 to find the necessary capital for him ; and so (to 
 quote again from Mr. Maude's chronicle), "his capital 
 acquired, Buckstone went off to arrange terms with 
 Mrs. Morris. They soon came to an agreement, 
 and, having talked over the question of repairs, etc., 
 Buckstone rose to take his leave. 'Good-bye, 
 Mr. Buckstone,' said Mrs. Morris; 'good-bye. 
 There's nothing more I can do for you, is there?' 
 ' No,' laughed Buckstone, ' except to knock the odd 
 ^500 off the rent !■' ' With pleasure,' replied Mrs. 
 Morris, to Buckstone's intense surprise and delight." 
 
 Amongst the fine company of comedians at Buck- 
 stone's Haymarket was Henry Compton, ablest of 
 Shakespearean "clowns," whose Touchstone was in- 
 comparable. The American actor Edwin Booth (who, 
 many years later, was seen at the Lyceum in Irving's 
 day) appeared under Buckstone in the early 'sixties ; 
 and in 1863 Ellen Terry, then a girl of fifteen but 
 possessed already of six or seven years' experience of 
 the stage, took part (as Britannia) in an extraordinary 
 medley billed as "Buckstone At Home; or, the 
 Manager and his Friends. Designed to introduce a 
 splendid panorama of the tour of the Prince of Wales 
 in the East"; and Miss Terry has confessed that she 
 behaved somewhat mischievously on the occasion, in 
 tossing a professedly immovable "property" rock into 
 the air with her hand ! In 1865 (in a summer season 
 undertaken by Walter Montgomery) Mrs. Kendal, then 
 Madge Robertson, made her first London appearance at 
 the Haymarket ; or rather, to be strictly accurate, this 
 was her second London appearance ; for, as her bio- 
 grapher, Mr. Pemberton, tells us, she had appeared when 
 little more than a baby at the Marylebone Theatre in 
 1854 in children's parts. " A Robertson family story," 
 
140 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 says Mr. Pemberton, "records the fact that when The 
 Stranger was being performed and little Madge, very 
 proud of her new costume, was sent on to the stage to 
 soften the heart of Kotzebue's sorely depressed (and 
 depressing) hero, she caught sight of her nurse in the 
 pit, and, forgetful of the footlight barrier that divided 
 them, gleefully called out, ' Oh ! nursey, look at my 
 new shoes ! ' " 
 
 The Haymarket bill was usually long and varied, 
 including domestic drama, comedies and farces, the 
 curtain rising at seven o'clock and often not falling 
 until well after midnight. At nine o'clock " half-price " 
 began, an opportunity of which many busy people 
 availed themselves; and the audience of the "little 
 theatre " was often reinforced at a late hour by un- 
 sated playgoers from the opera-house opposite, who 
 would wind up the night by a glimpse of " Bucky " in 
 some favourite farce. One or two of the many Buck- 
 stone anecdotes on record are too good not to be 
 quoted. An encounter of his with a very tipsy 
 stranger whom he found affectionately embracing one 
 of the pillars in the portico of the theatre shows how 
 widely familiar his face and manner were. "'How 
 dare you, sir?' said Buckstone ; 'how dare you defile 
 this temple of classic comedy? You ought to be 
 ashamed of yourself ! Go home, sir ; go home at 
 once.' The bibulous stranger turned a lack-lustre eye 
 on his adviser and steadied himself with some difficulty 
 against the pillar. ' Go home yourself,' he hiccoughed, 
 ' you damned bad imitation of Buckstone ! ' " Later in 
 Buckstone's career, when deafness troubled him gravely, 
 and he had great difficulty, when in the "wings," to 
 hear his "cues" from the stage, he used to arrange 
 with the prompter to tap him on the shoulder when the 
 moment arrived for him to go on to the scene. On one 
 
THE MACREABY AND PHELPS ERA. 141 
 
 occasion, when he had to go on at the end of a love 
 scene between the hero and heroine of the piece, a 
 friend, who had failed to find him in his dressing-room, 
 came up behind him and, to attract his attention 
 without being heard, tapped him on the shoulder. 
 Mistaking this for the prompter's signal, Buckstone 
 jumped up and walked on to the stage, to the amaze- 
 ment of the pair of lovers, who stared at him in 
 confusion and embarrassment as to how to proceed. 
 Grasping the situation in a moment, Buckstone winked 
 hard at the lady, and exclaimed with a chuckle, " Aha, 
 I saw you ! " as he made a rapid exit. The unfortunate 
 actors had to finish their love scene as best they might 
 amidst the roar of laughter that followed this unlooked- 
 for interruption. 
 
 In spite, however, of his popularity and the constant 
 patronage of the Court, Buckstone's Haymarket had its 
 ups and downs of fortune, for he was an extravagant 
 man and an unbusinesslike manager. It was during a 
 very serious "down" that the theatre's fortunes were 
 saved by the extraordinary and entirely unexpected hit 
 made by Edward Sothern as Lord Dundreary in Tom 
 Taylor's play Our American Cousin, in 1861. Sothern, 
 who had appeared in the piece in America three years 
 before, had been disgusted with the poorness of the 
 part when he was originally cast for it, and only accepted 
 it on condition he were allowed to "gag" and exag- 
 gerate as much as he pleased. To his amazement as 
 much as any one else's, his portrait of the idiotic fop, 
 with his lisp and the ridiculous little hop in his walk, 
 became the overwhelming attraction of the piece and 
 made his fame and fortune. Buckstone was half afraid 
 of the piece and of the part, as likely to offend the 
 "swells" in the audience; but he produced and pushed 
 it, and had reason to be thankful he had done so. By 
 
142 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 degrees the "Dundreary" fever infected the whole town, 
 and the management was saved. Sothern, who was a 
 first-rate light comedian, made a further success at the 
 Haymarket in Tom Robertson's David Garrick, which 
 first saw the light in 1864 and has in more recent years 
 been kept green by Sir Charles Wyndham's popular 
 rendering of the title-role. 
 
 The only other great success of Buckstone's later 
 days was that enjoyed by Gilbert's "fairy plays," whose 
 novelty of conception and execution (though indebted 
 in some measure to the idea that Planch^ had hit upon 
 for his "classical extravaganzas") caught the popular 
 fancy. In them Madge Robertson (by this time Mrs. 
 Kendal) and her husband did yeoman's service. The 
 Palace of Truth was produced in 1870; Pygmalion and 
 Galatea, in which Mrs. Kendal "came into her own" with 
 a faultless performance as the animated statue, in 1871 ; 
 and The Wicked World in 1873. In the latter, however, 
 this particular vein of humour showed signs of ex- 
 haustion; mistakes were made in the cast, and, saddest 
 of all, Buckstone was getting too old and his hearing 
 and memory were deserting him. Despite the attrac- 
 tions of a clever company, a temporary spell of ill-luck 
 settled upon the house in the late 'seventies. Buckstone 
 retired in 1876, to die three years later, and was 
 succeeded by J. S. Clarke, an amusing actor whose 
 grotesque comedy had made him a favourite; but the 
 company began to break up after Buckstone's dis- 
 appearance, and there is practically nothing more of 
 note to record in the Haymarket's history until the 
 beginning of the Bancroft management in 1880. That, 
 however, belongs to a different era and another chapter. 
 It should be noted that Buckstone, in 1873, instituted 
 "morning performances" at two o'clock, at the Hay- 
 market; though, as Mr. Clement Scott points out, he 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 143 
 
 was not the first to try the experiment, having been 
 anticipated by E. T. Smith, who was one of the various 
 short-lived managers of Drury Lane in the early 'fifties. 
 
 When Webster removed in 1853 from the Haymarket 
 to the Adelphi, it was to take up the sole management 
 of the latter house, in which he had since 1844 had a 
 share in partnership with Madame Celeste. Thanks to 
 the popularity of Wright and Bedford, two excellent 
 comedians, the Adelphi had become a favourite house. 
 Bedford was a good singer as well as actor, and his 
 Blueskin in Jack Sheppard (to Mrs. Keeley's Jack) was 
 a remarkable enough performance to become a tradition. 
 With the advent of Webster the type of "Adelphi 
 drama" improved; but the recipe for it had already 
 become firmly fixed, and, though varying in merit 
 according to the deftness with which it was concocted, 
 continued to consist of much the same ingredients up 
 to the moment when it disappeared with William 
 Terriss's death. It was an honest mixture of sensation, 
 pathos and humour, of love, mystery, villainy, hair- 
 breadth escapes and comic "business"; written, 
 perhaps, with no great sense of style, but with an 
 unerring eye to effect and to the exploiting of the 
 talents of the company. The evening's bill almost 
 always included one or two farces as well, — "Adelphi 
 Screamers," as they came to be called. Mark Lemon, 
 Buckstone and Webster himself provided many a 
 "screamer" to show off Wright, Bedford and the 
 Keeleys, the solider fare coming from the hands of such 
 writers as Charles Reade and Tom Taylor, Watts 
 Phillips and, subsequently, Boucicault. 
 
 In 1858 it was realized that the house had been 
 allowed to fall into incurable disrepair ; it was pulled 
 down, and at the end of the same year a new Adelphi 
 was opened. Watts Phillips' The Dead Heart, with its 
 
144 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 sensational scene of the taking of the Bastille, was one 
 of Webster's first managerial successes in his new 
 house ; but, as can be gathered from contemporary 
 criticism, the success was somewhat forced by lavish 
 stage expenditure and the effect of Webster's person- 
 ality in the leading part. Genuine popular success 
 came later with the Boucicault plays The Colleen Bo/von 
 and The Octoroon, Miss Bateman's famous performance 
 in Leah, and Jefferson's inimitable Rip van Winkle. 
 Toole, though he had only been six or seven years on 
 the stage, was chosen by Webster to succeed Wright 
 as one of the chief comedians in his company, on 
 Wright's retirement in 1858. After at first appearing 
 only in the "screamers," he was soon given parts that 
 enabled him to show his mettle. Thus in a contempor- 
 ary account of The Dead Heart in 1859, we read that 
 "Mr. Toole has a comic part sketched out for him, 
 which as a written part would amuse nobody, but which 
 he knows how to make amusing." Again, in January 
 i860, "at the Adelphi Mr. Dickens's Christmas Carol 
 has introduced Mr. Toole for the first time as an actor 
 capable of more than amusing extravagance." 
 
 Webster wisely paid great attention to the comfort of 
 the audience in the new house, and it is interesting to 
 note, on Adelphi playbills of the early 'sixties (in the 
 height of the Boucicault successes), that not only was 
 there no fee for "booking in advance," but that "no 
 fees to servants or for bills of performance" were per- 
 mitted. The prices of admission were: Gallery, six- 
 pence; Amphitheatre Stalls "with elbows and cushions 
 secured the whole evening," one shilling; Pit, one and 
 sixpence; Pit Stalls, "with elbows and cushions," two 
 shillings; First Circle Stalls, three shillings; Dress 
 Circle Stalls, four shillings; Orchestra Stalls, "two feet 
 wide, and secured the whole evening," five shillings; 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 145 
 
 and Family Boxes and Private Boxes ranging from one 
 guinea to four. The performances began at seven; 
 and "second price," when that was allowed, usually 
 at nine. 
 
 From 1870 to 1872 Chatterton shared in the manage- 
 ment with Webster, and from 1872 until his collapse in 
 1879 had sole control of the house. The Webster 
 traditions were fairly well kept up for a time, but the 
 newer theatres were elbowing the older out of place, 
 and it needed an entirely new management, and one 
 more capable than Chatterton's, to enable the Adelphi 
 ultimately to regain its former prestige. Even in 
 Webster's own day the opposition of Wigan, Robson, 
 and Liston at the Olympic, of Charles Kean at the 
 Princess's and his great rival Phelps at Sadler's Wells, 
 of Marie Wilton and the Byron burlesques at the 
 Strand, had been formidable; the Olympic, in particular, 
 challenging the Adelphi with its own weapons of farce 
 and romantic or sensational drama. 
 
 The new house at the Olympic, after the destruction 
 of the old by fire in March 1849, had been opened at the 
 end of the same year ; but it seemed at first as if the 
 good fortune of the old house had been consumed 
 with its timbers. William Farren, famous for his " old 
 men," migrated to it from the Strand Theatre and took 
 a capital company with him ; but he could present no 
 sufficient attraction to draw good audiences until, in 
 the autumn of 1853, he happened to engage a grotesque 
 little low-comedian whose acting he had observed when 
 on a visit to Dublin. This was Frederick Robson, and 
 before many weeks were over Robson had made himself 
 and the Olympic famous. His farcical acting was of a 
 grotesqueness that was weird and abounded in sur- 
 prising contrasts, a leap being made in a moment from 
 irresponsible buffoonery to tragedy or irresistible pathos. 
 
146 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 " No one can have witnessed his performance," says a 
 critic in the Quarterly Review, "without being struck 
 with the narrowness of the bounds between sport and 
 earnest. His farce has a pathetic depth, a grave 
 earnestness, that touch at one and the same moment 
 the sources of tears and laughter." Another critic, in 
 "Blackwood," says: " It is in the jumble and juxta- 
 position of details that his burlesque consists, in 
 suddenly passing from the extreme of anger or fear to 
 the extreme of humorous ease, in suddenly relapsing 
 into humorous slang in mid-volley of the most passion- 
 ate speech, and all this with the most marvellous 
 flexibility of voice and feature. It was in a burlesque 
 of Macbeth, and subsequently in Shylock, or the Merchant 
 of Venice preserved, that Robson obtained his first 
 chances of exhibiting this tragic-comic power; his per- 
 formance drew the town, and G. H. Lewes could write 
 in the Leader of October 1853 that, "on Monday the 
 Olympic opened its doors with by far the greatest 
 prospect of success since the days when Madame 
 Vestris made it the most novel, the most elegant, and 
 the most attractive theatre in London." 
 
 Alfred Wigan succeeded Farren as manager, and 
 Robson still continued to be the attraction of the 
 theatre. His success in almost every part he under- 
 took, and particularly in burlesque parts, resulted, as 
 Henry Morley aptly points out (in his "Journal of a 
 Playgoer"), from his being so desperately in earnest. 
 "It is odd enough," says Morley, "that at a time 
 when all serious acting is tending to the burlesque and 
 unreal, a burlesque actor should start up with a real 
 and very serious power in him." Any mention of 
 Robson would be incomplete without a reference to the 
 extraordinary vogue enjoyed by the song, " Villikins and 
 his Dinah," which he sang in the course of a worthless 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 147 
 
 farce called The Wandering Minstrel. He appeared for 
 the last time in 1862, his powers by that time failing 
 him terribly, and died two years later. During the last 
 five years of his theatrical life he was joint manager 
 of the Olympic with Emden, who had been acting- 
 manager under Alfred Wigan. 
 
 Apart from the Robson successes, Wigan's manage- 
 ment included the production of Tom Taylor's Still 
 Waters run Deep in 1855, in which Wigan (who was a 
 very capable actor) was much praised as Mr. Mildmay; 
 and, during the Robson and Emden management, the 
 same author's Ticket-of-Leave Man enjoyed a sensational 
 success. Of the names that appear on the Olympic 
 bills during the latter management, those of Lydia 
 Foote and Henry Neville are familiar to a later 
 generation. 
 
 A few years afterwards Kate Terry (who in 1865 
 " doubled " the parts of Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth 
 Night) and Henry Neville were the "stars" in romantic 
 drama at the Olympic. Later again, during a season 
 of Webster's, it is interesting to note the name of 
 "Miss E. Farren" on its bills. Sir W. S. Gilbert's 
 The Princess (in after years adapted into the libretto for 
 the Savoy opera Princess Ida) was produced there in 
 1870, and his Gretchen in 1879; there were moments of 
 popularity for the theatre with adaptations of favourite 
 novels of Dickens and Wilkie Collins; and Wilkie 
 Collins' play The New Magdalen (in 1873) gave import- 
 ance to the brief management of Miss Ada Cavendish, 
 an actress of considerable melodramatic power, who 
 had made her debut at the Royalty some ten years 
 previously. But, though a succession of managers, 
 some of them able and astute men, tried during the 
 remaining five and twenty years of its life to retrieve 
 the fortunes of the house, it never recovered its old 
 
148 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 position. Its prestige disappeared with Robson, and 
 after that it ceases to count seriously in stage history. 
 It was badly situated, in a street that had become 
 disreputable, and it would have needed an irresistible 
 attraction to get the public to go there again. In spite 
 of these facts, when the old house was finally closed in 
 1890, a new Olympic was planned and built on the site, 
 a fine house and one much larger than the former. 
 
 Fortune, however, was not to be tempted and kept 
 sternly aloof. Neither the efforts of the popular Wilson 
 Barrett with melodrama, of Signor Lago with opera, 
 nor the attractions of various strange entertainments 
 that were subsequently offered there, were of any avail ; 
 and in 1899 the Olympic finally ceased to exist. 
 
 The most remarkable manager since Macready, and 
 the one on whom his mantle fell, was to be found (at 
 the period dealt with in this chapter) at Sadler's Wells, 
 a theatre that up to this time had been regarded as 
 utterly "suburban," but was now to take the lead in 
 intelligent dramatic entertainment. Samuel Phelps, 
 a sound and earnest actor, who had graduated at the 
 Haymarket under Webster and at Covent Garden 
 under Macready, as a man of forty acquired a share of 
 the management -of Sadler's Wells in 1844, and 
 controlled its destinies (making both the theatre and 
 himself famous) for eighteen years. He recognized 
 that, despite the deplorable condition of the native 
 drama of his day, there was, nevertheless, even in so 
 unfashionable a quarter, a public to appreciate per- 
 formances of Shakespeare intelligently given and 
 adequately staged, and moreover that it was possible 
 for a manager to present such performances without 
 such extravagant outlay on scenery and accessories as 
 Charles Kean was lavishing at the Princess's. The 
 disappearance of monopoly in theatrical matters gave 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 149 
 
 Phelps his opportunity. He had inherited what was 
 good in the Macready tradition from his old chief, and, 
 having plenty of courage and being very much in 
 earnest, he set about the difficult task of transforming a 
 rather rowdy suburban theatre, where for many years 
 sensationalism had been the constant attraction, into a 
 house that became the resort of those who loved 
 Shakespeare and what was best in the drama. During 
 his eighteen years of management he produced thirty- 
 two of Shakespeare's plays, and, at a rough calculation, 
 played Shakespeare on four nights out of every six. 
 When Shakespeare was not in the bill, the staple piece 
 of the evening was always a play at least worthy of 
 intelligent consideration. Massinger, Webster, Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, Colman, Sheridan, Macklin, Lytton, 
 Knowles, Milman, Byron, Marston, Browning — these 
 are names we find on Phelps' playbills. The managerial 
 announcement issued at the commencement of the 
 enterprise stated that it was undertaken at a time 
 "when the stages which have been exclusively called 
 ' National ' are closed, or devoted to very indifferent 
 objects from- that of presenting the real drama of 
 England," and "in the hope of eventually rendering 
 Sadler's Wells Theatre what a theatre ought to be, a 
 place for justly representing the works of our great 
 dramatic poets." Phelps honestly fulfilled that hope, 
 so far as in him lay, and his career is a very worthy 
 close to the line of managers of the old school. For he 
 belonged to them, and not to the newer school, whose 
 ridicule he lived to incur for his adherence to the 
 methods of acting in which he had been trained. 
 Shakespeare-lovers in the 'fifties were divided into two 
 camps, — the adherents of Phelps and his intelligent and 
 reverent treatment of the plays at Sadler's Wells, and 
 the admirers of Charles Kean's sumptuous "revivals" 
 
ISO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 at the Princess's. Charles Kean was the first of the 
 lengthening line of extravagant producers of Shakes- 
 peare, who, to say the least of it, are in danger of 
 obscuring the jewel by the elaboration of its setting; 
 Phelps was the last upholder of a tradition that is 
 seldom reverted to now, a tradition that had the merit 
 of a juster sense of proportion and of sensitiveness to 
 the intrinsic beauty of the plays. "A main cause of 
 the success of Mr. Phelps in his Shakespearean revivals," 
 says Morley in his "Journal," " is that he shows in his 
 author above all things the poet." Again, " the scenery 
 (at Sadler's Wells) is very beautiful, but wholly free 
 from the meretricious glitter now in favour." But 
 Phelps has his revenge ; for while his spirited and 
 artistic management of Sadler's Wells occupies a 
 prominent and honourable place in the history of the 
 drama, Charles Kean's productions are forgotten save 
 for the appeal they made to the eye. 
 
 It must have been bitter to Phelps, after his retire- 
 ment, to see Sadler's Wells drop gradually into disrepute 
 again ; for so it did. Of its succeeding managers, none 
 had his personal prestige ; theatres were multiplying in 
 the centre of London, and theatrical taste was changing. 
 Phelps died (in 1878) before he could see the one man- 
 agerial effort — that of Mrs. Bateman after she left the 
 Lyceum — that had any chance of reviving his old 
 theatre's fortunes. The Bateman management, how- 
 ever, came to nothing; and with the end of Phelps' day 
 the history of Sadler's Wells practically comes to an 
 end. The house stands still, but put to baser uses ; its 
 interior has been from time to time remodelled, but the 
 shell of the fabric is still that built by Rosoman in 1765. 
 
 Phelps was a sound and conscientious actor, — not 
 particularly distinguished in tragic parts, but rather in 
 comedy, and there chiefly in what a contemporary critic 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 151 
 
 calls his "dry and intellectual" comedy. His Falstaff 
 was good, but his Christopher Sly, his Bottom, and, 
 above all, his Malvolio were excellent. 
 
 The Princess's Theatre, where Phelps' rival, Charles 
 Kean, displayed his conception of Shakespeare, had 
 been opened in 1840 with operatic performances. The 
 first ten years of its life, previous to Kean's becoming 
 manager, offer few points of interest. Opera, melo- 
 drama and farce filled the bill, but not always the 
 theatre ; and not even spasmodic appearances of 
 "stars" such as the American actress Charlotte 
 Cushman (remembered by her Meg Merrilies) and 
 Edwin Forrest in 1845, Mathews and Madame Vestris 
 in 1846, and Macready in 1848, followed by a relapse 
 into opera for a year or two, could make the theatre 
 popular. 
 
 In 1850 Charles Kean became manager, in partnership 
 with Keeley ; in the following year Keeley retired from 
 the management, and Kean reigned alone till 1859. 
 The company was from the first an excellent one for 
 the task Kean had proposed to himself; a company of 
 actors for the most part able and experienced, including 
 Kean and his wife (already fairly advanced in public 
 favour as Ellen Tree), the two Keeleys, Vining, Lacy, 
 Ryder, Alfred Wigan, Meadows, Hermann Vezin, 
 Carlotta Leclerq and, later, her sister Rose, and the 
 members of a family whose names have a peculiar 
 appeal to us at the present day, to wit, Benjamin Terry 
 and his daughters Kate and Ellen. 
 
 Charles Kean's bid for fame was frankly made as 
 "producer of plays" (as we should nowadays say) 
 rather than as actor. He was not a particularly good 
 actor. His friend Albert Smith wrote of him: "Let not 
 Charles Kean deceive himself as to his position as an 
 actor; he has none beyond that which appliances of 
 
152 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 mise-en-sckne assist him to"; but by hard work he 
 had made himself efficient. It must be borne in mind 
 that he took to the stage from no overmastering 
 impulse, as in his father's case, or even from any desire 
 of his own, but as a means of gaining a livelihood for 
 his mother and himself when his father's fortunes 
 began to fail in consequence of his mode of life. He 
 was, however, a Shakespearean enthusiast, mainly from 
 the "commentator's" standpoint; and he was a fervent 
 archaeologist, very proud of his designation as "Charles 
 Kean, F.S.A." 
 
 He mounted fifteen or sixteen of the more prominent 
 of Shakespeare's plays during his time at the Princess's, 
 setting great store by the "historical accuracy" of his 
 productions. The plays were gorgeously staged, and 
 authorities of all kinds were ransacked to ensure a faith- 
 ful reproduction of what were often unessential details 
 in elaborating the pictures of past ages. It was 
 certainly well that he should remove, once and for 
 all, certain obvious incongruities that convention had 
 grafted upon the representation of the plays; but in 
 his tendency to over-estimate archaeological exactitude 
 and to "paint the lily" by improving upon Shakespeare's 
 stage-craft, his influence was not good and has had ill 
 results in our own day. 
 
 His point of view was, as he said in his speech on the 
 last night of his management, that "historical accuracy 
 might be so blended with pictorial effect that instruc- 
 tion and amusement would go hand in hand; ... in 
 fact, to make the theatre a school as well as a recrea- 
 tion," and he is entitled to all the credit he deserves 
 for carrying out his theory enthusiastically. That it 
 may seem wanting in the imagination that marks the 
 true artist, as well as in respect for the imagination of 
 his audience, is another matter. 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 53 
 
 It is interesting to note how closely in some respects 
 Beerbohm Tree, in producing Shakespeare, has followed 
 Kean. The interpolation, for instance, into Richard II. 
 of a scenic representation of Bolingbroke's triumphal 
 entry into London (an event that Shakespeare was con- 
 tent to describe by the mouth of one of his characters) 
 was Kean's idea. Kean interpolated into Henry V. a 
 similar scene of the King's return after the French 
 expedition. He initiated, too, the custom (also 
 followed by Tree) of publishing with his playbill a 
 leaflet descriptive of the play and its history, in his case 
 including exhaustive details of his archaeological re- 
 searches. It is possible to defend his attitude; but it 
 is equally permissible to regret what a critic in "Black- 
 wood" called "this magnifying of historical truth, this 
 drifting from the open trackless sea of fiction to the 
 terra firma and unalterable landmarks of fact," and to 
 regard it as oblivious of the fact that Shakespeare busied 
 himself but little with petty accuracy of detail, choosing 
 a picturesque locale for his drama and then concerning 
 himself only with the development of the dramatic side 
 of his theme and the human nature of his characters. 
 In his "leaflet" respecting Macbeth Kean quotes Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, Pliny, Strabo, Xiphilin, Snorre, Adomnan, 
 and the Eyrbiggia Saga- — a formidable list of authorities! 
 In his production of The Winter's Tale he boggled at 
 Bohemia and transformed it into Bithynia, to get a sea 
 coast, gravely stating in his preliminary leaflet that, 
 amongst other accuracies, the scenes include ' ' vegetation 
 peculiar to Bithynia, from private drawings taken on 
 the spot"! This is surely the very ecstasy of accuracy. 
 
 It is interesting to note the appreciation that greeted 
 the childish performances of the sisters Kate and Ellen 
 Terry under his management. Kate Terry appeared as 
 Arthur in King John in 1852, Fleance in Macbeth in 1853, 
 
1 54 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE 
 
 the Duke of York in Richard III. in 1854, Cordelia in 
 King Lear in 1858; Ellen Terry as Mamilius in A 
 Winter's Tale and Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream 
 in 1856, and as Arthur in King John in 1858; and both 
 in the "Christmas pieces" that almost every theatre 
 presented in their winter seasons. 
 
 Ellen Terry's debut as Mamilius (she was then eight 
 years old) caused her intense gratification and some 
 bitter tears. She was very proud of her dress, her part, 
 and a little toy "go-cart" which it was her duty to drag 
 about the stage ; but, when carrying out her instructions, 
 she tripped over the handle and came down on her 
 back. Hinc illce lachrymcB. A delightful photograph 
 -of Charles Kean with her (including the fateful "go- 
 cart") is reproduced in Clement Scott's "Drama of 
 Yesterday and To-day." 
 
 Kean retired from the Princess's in 1859, the worse 
 in pocket but the richer in a great popular reputation. 
 Whatever one may think of his artistic merits as a 
 stage-manager, there can be no two opinions as to his 
 personal merits in his treatment of his company and the 
 management of his theatre. He and his wife were 
 highly and deservedly esteemed both before and behind 
 the curtain, and public evidences of this esteem were 
 not wanting. He continued, after leaving the Princess's, 
 to act until 1867, visiting Australia, America and 
 Jamaica between 1863 and 1866, and died in 1868. 
 
 By a coincidence the Princess's, besides being the 
 scene of Ellen Terry's theatrical beginnings, also saw 
 the London dibut of Henry Irving, who played there 
 for a season in 1859, under the management of the 
 elder Augustus Harris. Irving was at the time a 
 member of the stock company in Edinburgh, to which 
 he speedily returned on finding himself cast for parts 
 very inferior to those he had played in the North. 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 155 
 
 Except for a season (in 1872) when Phelps appeared 
 there in a round of his best known parts, the Princess's 
 was given over for the remainder of its career to 
 melodrama, with George Vining, Webster, Chatterton 
 and Wilson Barrett as its successive managers. Such 
 sensational pieces as Boucicault's The Streets of London 
 (1864), Arrah-na-Pogue (1865) and After Dark (1868), 
 Reade's Never Too Late to Mend (1865) and Drink (1879), 
 and Watts Phillips' Lost in London (1867), were typical 
 of what pleased its audiences. They were capital plays 
 of their class, and excellently acted. The two Bouci- 
 caults and Patty Oliver in Arrah-na-Pogue, and Charles 
 Warner's forcible acting in Drink and Never Too Late 
 to Mend are vivid memories to those who saw them. 
 At the end of the 'seventies the house was reconstructed, 
 reopening in November 1880. Its subsequent history, 
 notable only for Wilson Barrett's five years of manage- 
 ment, will be dealt with later. 
 
 To complete our survey of the London theatres up 
 to the period which may be taken as the beginning of 
 the "present day," when the interest shifts from the 
 history of theatres to the history of individuals, it only 
 remains to glance at the contemporary fortunes of the 
 Lyceum, the St. James's, the Strand and the Royalty 
 theatres. 
 
 After its somewhat inchoate beginnings, the Lyceum 
 settled down to what was for some time a successful 
 and popular management, from 1844 to 1847, under the 
 Keeleys, and from 1847 under the control of Madame 
 Vestris and Charles Mathews. The Keeleys, with 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wigan, Sam Emery and Miss Woolgar, 
 made a great hit with adaptations of Dickens's novels, 
 which were then in every one's mouth. As in former 
 days at the Olympic, Mathews and Madame Vestris 
 made extravaganza their trump card. They turned 
 
156 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 again to Planch^, whose burlesques had done so much 
 for them at the Olympic, and alternated his work with 
 other extravaganzas, burlesques and Christmas pieces. 
 But, in spite of the wit of their authors and the fertility 
 and ingenuity of their clever scene-painter, William 
 Beverley, they could not repeat their earlier success. 
 Madame Vestris was no longer young, nor was their 
 company in any way the equal of that at the old 
 Olympic. Buckstone was in it, also Mr. and Mrs. 
 Leigh Murray, and Miss Fairbrother (who was sub- 
 sequently married to the Duke of Cambridge). Still, 
 the entertainment they offered to the public was too 
 slight to be enduring under these conditions; and farce 
 and pantomime, unrelieved by anything more intelli- 
 gent, became wearisome. So in 1855, when Madame 
 Vestris had been for two years out of the bill in 
 consequence of illness, Mathews retired from the 
 management, bankrupt. In the following year Madame 
 Vestris died. 
 
 After harbouring the " Wizard of the North," the 
 burnt-out Italian Opera Company from Covent Garden, 
 and the celebrated Italian actress Adelaide Ristori, the 
 Lyceum enjoyed a short spell of better days under the 
 direction of the actor Charles Dillon, whose manage- 
 ment, though thriftless and therefore disastrous to 
 himself, was alive to what the public wanted, and is 
 at any rate notable for having provided the first London 
 appearance of Lady Bancroft (then Marie Wilton). 
 
 She appeared, billed as "Miss Maria Wilton," at 
 the Lyceum in September 1856 as the boy Henri in 
 Belphegor. The Morning Post in its notice of the 
 performance said of her: " Miss M. Wilton is a young 
 (apparently very young) lady quite new to us, but her 
 natural and pathetic acting . . . showed her to possess 
 powers of no ordinary character." And to complete 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 157 
 
 her success, the vivacious charm of her singing, acting 
 and dancing in the burlesque Perdita which followed, 
 was no less admired. In both pieces she had as a 
 fellow-player Toole, who was then at the beginning 
 of his popularity. He had been at the St. James's, 
 but joined the Lyceum company for the Belphegor 
 production. 
 
 From 1859 to 1871, when Henry Irving's association 
 with it began, the Lyceum had a variety of managers 
 and many vicissitudes. Madame Celeste and Edmund 
 Falconer (remembered by his melodrama Peep o' Day) 
 tried their fortunes ; Italian Opera seasons were sand- 
 wiched between casual seasons of melodrama and 
 comedy; Fechter, whose merits and demerits as an 
 actor were as hotly discussed in his day as were 
 Irving's in his, occupied the house for the best part 
 of four years, chiefly with melodrama; and, it may be 
 noted in passing, Sir W. S. Gilbert made in 1867 an 
 early appearance at the Lyceum as a burlesque-writer 
 with Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren. This was 
 not his first dramatic effort, however, for his Dulcamara 
 had been produced at the St. James's in the previous 
 year. 
 
 The history of the St. James's Theatre, from the days 
 of Mitchell's lesseeship (when French plays occupied its 
 boards for the. best part of twelve years) until the 
 beginning of the Kendal management — that is to say, 
 from 1854 to 1879 — is a tale of almost unrelieved mis- 
 fortune. Toole acted there for a short time and then, 
 as has been mentioned above, joined Dillon's company 
 at the Lyceum. In succession to various short-lived 
 managements, Webster took over the house in 1863; 
 but, though he mustered a, good company, no success 
 attended him, and, as he had the Adelphi also on his 
 hands, he soon gave up the St. James's. Under the 
 
158 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 short and equally unfortunate management of Miss 
 Herbert, Henry Irving appeared in 1866 in The Belle's 
 Stratagem. Mrs. John Wood was manager from 1869 
 to 1873, with a company that included William Farren 
 the younger, Lionel Brough, John Clayton and Lydia 
 Foote, and was more fortunate than most of her pre- 
 decessors. The production of She Stoops to Conquer, with 
 which she began her campaign, was a success ; and later 
 again, when she was manager for a short time in 1876 
 and 1877, she made a hit with The Damscheffs (an 
 adaptation from the French) for which her company was 
 reinforced by Hermann Vezin and Charles Warner. 
 The year 1879 saw the accession of the Kendals to the 
 management, and a new and prosperous era for the St. 
 James's. 
 
 The first management of any account in the history 
 of the Strand Theatre was that of the elder Farren, who 
 made it fairly popular, with comedy and sentimental 
 drama, for two years from 1848 to 1850. Mrs. Stirling, 
 Compton, and the two Leigh Murrays were among his 
 company. After Farren, the Strand fell upon evil days 
 until in 1858 it entered upon a career of merry success 
 with burlesque. Just as Planch^ had been the saviour 
 of the Olympic with his extravaganzas, so H. J. Byron 
 saved the fortunes of the Strand with burlesques of a 
 different nature. These were, as often as not, parodies 
 of the exaggerate'd melodrama that still found favour in 
 some quarters. Marie Wilton was the "bright parti- 
 cular star" of these burlesques, with a style of delicious 
 impudence that charmed every one as much by its finish 
 as its piquancy. "I call her the cleverest girl I have 
 ever seen on the stage in my time, and the most 
 singularly original," Dickens says of her in one of his 
 letters at this date. The vogue of these burlesques 
 lasted on well into the early 'seventies ; and, a few years 
 
THE MACREADY AND PHELPS ERA. 1 59 
 
 later, comic opera, with the brilliant success of Florence 
 St. John in Madame Favart in 1879 and Olivette in 
 1880, held the boards until the remodelling of the little 
 house in 1882. After that, John S. Clarke, a versatile 
 actor who shone as much in farce as in the old 
 comedies he revived, managed the Strand for some 
 time; the Daly company (with Ada Rehan, John Drew, 
 James Lewis and Mrs. Gilbert) made their first London 
 appearance there in 1884, to come there again two 
 years later and finally take their place in the affections 
 of London playgoers. Later again, miscellaneous 
 enterprises found a home at the Strand; Willie Edouin 
 with the amazingly successful farce Our Flat, Harry 
 Paultdn with Niobe, other farces and plays of very 
 varying merit, and finally "musical comedy," until 
 its demolition early in 1906. 
 
 The Royalty has had a career somewhat similar to 
 that of the Strand, but less prosperous. After dismal 
 beginnings it was reconstructed in 1861 and opened 
 with burlesque of the kind that was filling the Strand. 
 Ada Cavendish appeared in 1863 in Burnand's excellent 
 burlesque Ixion, and a year or two later several suc- 
 cessful pieces of the same kind and from the same pen 
 were produced by Pattie Oliver, who had graduated in 
 burlesque at the Strand. Except for such items of 
 interest as the fact that Sir Charles Wyndham made his 
 first London appearance at the Royalty in 1866, and that 
 Arthur Bourchier made an early essay of managership 
 there in 1895, followed by George Alexander, the subse- 
 quent history of the house is not of much importance. 
 Kate Santley has been lessee since 1883 (when the in- 
 terior was again remodelled), and, after tempting fortune 
 there with comic opera for a short time, has for many 
 years let it to a varied succession of managers. The 
 phenomenally successful farce Charley's Aunt was first 
 
160 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 produced at the Royalty in 1892, though it was soon 
 transferred to the Globe, where its long run took place. 
 French plays, German plays, Ibsen, English serious and 
 frivolous plays, have held its boards at various times; 
 but it has been the home of temporary enterprises, 
 rather than a house with a coherent history of its own. 
 Mention may be made, in passing, of the brief ten 
 years' life of the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre, which 
 was opened in 1867. Phelps, Wyndham, Lionel 
 Brough, Toole, Hermann Vezin, Sam Emery, Henri- 
 etta Hodson, Nellie Farren, Clayton, the Wigans and 
 the beautiful Mrs. Rousby acted on its boards; and it 
 was here that (in 1867) Henry Irving and Ellen Terry 
 first acted tog-ether. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY: THE LYCEUM. 
 
 Irving's earliest appearances in London, at the 
 Princess's in 1859 and the St. James's in 1866, have 
 already been mentioned. During the ten years that 
 followed his first engagement at a Sunderland theatre 
 (which, curiously enough, bore the name of the Lyceum) 
 he had been through the mill in stock companies in 
 Edinburgh, Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool and Man- 
 chester; so that by the time he reached his St. James's 
 engagement he had acquired a useful stock of experi- 
 ence and a considerable provincial reputation. Only 
 five years more were to elapse before the beginning of 
 his connection with the theatre whose fame will always 
 be bound up with his own ; and in those five years we 
 find him acting a variety of parts, usually in comedy, at 
 various theatres. 
 
 From 1867 to 1869 he was stage-manager as well as 
 actor at the Queen's Theatre, Long Acre; and it was 
 during his engagement there that he first acted with 
 Ellen Terry, playing Petruchio to her Catharine in 
 Garrick's abridgment of The Taming of the Shrew in 
 December 1867. The two never acted together again 
 until Irving engaged Ellen Terry as his " leading lady" 
 at the Lyceum when he became manager there eleven 
 years later. Ellen Terry has left it on record, in allusion 
 to the event, that she noticed that Irving worked with 
 more concentration than all the other actors put 
 
 161 
 
162 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 together. "There is an old stQry," she says, "of 
 Irving being struck with my talent at this time, and 
 promising that if he ever had a theatre of his own he'd 
 give me an engagement ! But that is all moonshine. 
 As a matter of fact I'm sure he never thought of me at 
 all at that time. I was just then acting very badly, and 
 feeling ill, caring scarcely at all for my work or a 
 theatre or anybody belonging to a theatre." The critics 
 were divided as to the merits of her Catharine and of 
 Irving's Petruchio, but the performance was considered 
 of sufficient interest to be noticed at some length. 
 
 During the next two years Irving acted at the Hay- 
 market, at the Gaiety (where he made something of a 
 hit as Mr. Chevenix in U?tcle DicKs Darling, a piece in 
 which his friend Toole, to whom he was in great 
 measure indebted for the engagement, also appeared), 
 and at the Vaudeville, where he made a still more dis- 
 tinct impression as Digby Grant in The Two Roses. In 
 1871 his connection with the Lyceum began. That 
 house — unlucky, unpopular, and in bad repair — had 
 been taken over by "Colonel" Bateman, a shrewd 
 American manager, who, having heard Irving recite 
 "The Dream of Eugene Aram," was impressed with 
 the actor's obvious capability for work of a more 
 ambitious kind than he had hitherto been allowed to 
 attempt. He rushed home to tell his family that he 
 had found the greatest English actor of the age, and 
 that he intended to take the Lyceum and "run" him 
 there. Irving's friends were amazed at his leaving the 
 prosperity of the Vaudeville for the disaster they pro- 
 phesied at the unlucky Lyceum ; but he knew his powers 
 and had faith in himself, and welcomed the opportunity 
 which Bateman had promised him of appearing in r61es 
 of a more romantic nature than those in which he had 
 so far made his London reputation. 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 163 
 
 The beginning of Bateman's management was not 
 promising. His first production, a romantic adaptation 
 from the French, was a failure; and he was obliged to 
 turn to his " star's " -talents in comedy in an endeavour 
 to avert misfortune by putting on an adaptation from 
 "Pickwick," with Irving as Jingle. This, however, 
 was not enough to attract the public to an unpopular 
 theatre. That feat was reserved for Irving's memor- 
 able performance in The Bells, which was first given in 
 November 1871. Irving had acquired the play some 
 little while before, had seen its possibilities, and had 
 steeped himself in a realization of the character of 
 the conscience-stricken burgomaster. Bateman saw 
 nothing in the play, but, with an impulse to try any- 
 thing to get a success, allowed Irving a free hand to 
 make his attempt. The result is a matter of history. 
 The tragic force with which the actor imbued his part, 
 the weirdness of the whole thing, the spell which his 
 acting seemed to cast on the audience, while he passed 
 unhesitatingly over the most difficult passages and pre- 
 cluded the ever-present danger of a momentary lapse 
 that might entail ridicule — all this combined to produce 
 an extraordinary effect. The Bells ran for months, the 
 Lyceum was saved and Irving was a made man. 
 
 Still further to give the lie to those critics who had 
 denied the possibility of tragic power in the ideal 
 impersonator of a Digby Grant, and now denied his 
 possession of the simple dignity and distinction of 
 manner necessary to portray the "Royal Martyr," 
 Irving next appeared (in 1872) as Charles I. in a 
 drama of that name by W. G. Wills. The play may 
 falsify history, but it is theatrically effective ; the 
 central figure is well conceived and was portrayed 
 by Irving with nobility and pathos. In Charles I., as 
 in all the chief plays in which he appeared at the 
 
1 64 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Lyceum under the Bateman management, he was 
 supported by Isabel Bateman, the manager's daughter, 
 an actress of respectable gifts. 
 
 Charles I. was followed, after a run of more than six 
 months, by a drama founded on the poem of " Eugene 
 Aram," and that, in September 1873, by a revival of 
 Lytton's Richelieu, in which Irving had to contend with 
 memories of Macready. It may be noted, in passing, 
 that it was in Richelieu (in the small part of the Duke 
 of Orleans) that Irving had, seventeen years previously, 
 spoken his first words on the stage at the Sunderland 
 Lyceum. 
 
 It was in October 1874 that he set the seal on his 
 reputation by his performance of Hamlet, a performance 
 that subsequently ripened with each revival till it 
 became one of the most remarkable of our day and one 
 to which subsequent Hamlets have owed much. His 
 astute manager had done all he could to arouse anti- 
 cipation of the event, and it justified his efforts. Dis- 
 cussion raged furiously around the merits and demerits 
 of the new Hamlet ; but, whatever else was thought, 
 it was agreed that it was a scholarly effort and the 
 result of intelligent study coupled with great technical 
 gifts. Bateman died during the two hundred nights' 
 run that the play enjoyed, and the management of the 
 Lyceum was carried on for three years more by his 
 widow. She eventually resigned the control of the 
 theatre to Irving in 1878. 
 
 During those three years Irving was seen as Macbeth 
 in 1875 and Othello in 1876, neither of them parts well 
 suited to his physique or methods ; as Philip of Spain 
 in Tennyson's Queen Mary in 1876, a part which gave 
 his powers little scope and is now chiefly remembered 
 as having inspired Whistler's remarkable portrait ; as 
 Richard III. in 1877, thereby re-establishing, by a very 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 165 
 
 subtle and finished performance, his position as a 
 Shakespearean actor ; in the dual parts of Lesurques 
 and Dubosc in The Lyons Mail in the same year ; and 
 in Louis XL in the early part of 1878. 
 
 When Mrs. Bateman withdrew from the manage- 
 ment, Irving was left, at the age of forty, in sole 
 control of the theatre with which his name was to be 
 associated for another five-and-twenty years. His first 
 act as manager was to engage Ellen Terry for his 
 theatre, and so begin an artistic partnership that gave 
 a long period of delight to playgoers. 
 
 Ellen Terry was then thirty, and had trod the boards 
 since she was eight. Mention has already been made 
 of her debut at that age at the Princess's in 1856, the 
 same year in which Irving, as a boy of eighteen, was 
 first trying his fortunes as an actor at Sunderland. 
 She has handsomely acknowledged the value of her 
 early training at the Princess's, a training gained 
 largely at the hands of Mrs. Charles Kean, who, 
 though something of a "dragon," took unselfish 
 pains in helping and advising the youthful aspirant. 
 After the Princess's, there came a tour with a kind of 
 drawing-room entertainment with her sister Kate, under - 
 their father's management ; and then, after a short 
 engagement in London at the Royalty in "juvenile" 
 parts, two years' serious schooling in the stock- 
 companies at the Bristol and Bath theatres, which 
 were among the best nurseries of dramatic art. In 
 these years she played all kinds of parts, from fairies 
 of burlesque (with "song and dance") to such 
 ambitious efforts as Nerissa and Hero to her sister 
 Kate's Portia and Beatrice. Among her comrades was 
 Madge Robertson (Mrs. Kendal) who possessed a 
 beautiful singing voice. We find her in the bill at 
 Bath in 1863 as one of the "singing fairies" in A 
 
166 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream. Ellen Terry was the 
 Titania, and is described as being in those days as 
 " of tall figure, with a round, dimpled, laughing, 
 mischievous face, a pair of merry saucy grey eyes, 
 and an aureole of golden hair, — a gay, mercurial 
 child." She was always billed then as "Miss Nelly 
 Terry"; and Titania was a promotion (as she increased 
 in stature) from Puck, in which elfish part she had 
 excelled as a small child. There is extant a delight- 
 fully roguish photograph of her as Puck, seated cross- 
 legged on a mushroom, and clad in a quaint little 
 frock with her arms and legs bare. 
 
 In 1863, well equipped with experience for one of her 
 years, she achieved the goal of an actress's ambition in 
 the shape of a serious London engagement, and this at 
 the popular Haymarket theatre. Appearing at first in 
 inginue parts, in which the critics praised her "joyous 
 spirit and deep feeling," she afterwards played such 
 parts as Julia in The Rivals, Beatrice in Much Ado 
 about Nothing (in which she anticipated a triumph of 
 her later days), and Lady Touchwood in The Belle's 
 Stratagem. 
 
 After a retirement of a year or two, broken only by 
 an appearance at the Olympic in 1866 when she played 
 Helen in The Hunchback to her sister Kate's Julia at the 
 latter's benefit, she came back to the stage in 1867 at 
 the opening of the Queen's Theatre, Longacre. In the 
 course of a brief engagement there, besides acting in 
 Catharine and Petruchio with Irving, she played with 
 Charles Wyndham, Alfred Wigan, Lionel Brough 
 and John Clayton. In 1874, after a second retirement 
 of some years, she returned to the Queen's Theatre, 
 to play there (and subsequently at Astley's) in The 
 Wandering Heir and Never Too Late to Mend of 
 Charles Reade. 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 167 
 
 In the following year came the turning-point of her 
 artistic life. The Bancrofts were at the height of the 
 success of their spirited management at the old Prince 
 of Wales's Theatre in Tottenham Street, and, ambitious 
 beyond the Robertsonian comedy that had brought 
 them fortune, determined to attempt a Shakespearean 
 production. This was to be The Merchant of Venice. 
 Failing to obtain the services of Mrs. Kendal (then 
 acting with Hare at the Court Theatre) whom they had 
 first thought of as the Portia for their production, they 
 offered the part to Ellen Terry. She accepted it 
 enthusiastically, and played it with such insight and 
 grace as to win unstinted praise from the critics. The 
 production, in spite of its many beauties, did not attract 
 the public. Killed by an entirely inadequate Shylock, 
 it was withdrawn after thirty-six performances ; but the 
 new Portia's triumph was incontestable. She was with 
 the Bancrofts till the spring of 1876, appearing with 
 them in revivals of Money and Ours, and as Mabel Vane 
 in their memorable production of Masks and Faces. She 
 must have been keenly disappointed at the Much Ado 
 fiasco; but with characteristic loyalty she remained 
 with the Bancrofts as long as they required her, good- 
 naturedly ready to play any part that would be of 
 service to them. From their management she passed 
 to that of John Hare at the Court Theatre, going there 
 in the autumn of 1876 to replace Mrs. Kendal who had 
 gone to the Bancrofts. 
 
 At the Court she appeared in a variety of parts, but 
 in nothing that was a very marked success (except, 
 perhaps, a revival of Nemo Men and Old Acres), until 
 W. G. Wills' Olivia was produced in March 1878. Her 
 Olivia was from the first what it always remained, her 
 most beautiful impersonation outside of Shakespeare. 
 The homely charm and tender sentiment of the character 
 
168 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 were realized with rare skill, and her acting raised 
 what was not a great play to a very high level in per- 
 formance. She was admirably seconded by William 
 Terriss as Thornhill and Hermann Vezin as Dr. Primrose. 
 It was while Olivia was at the height of its popularity 
 that she received Irving's invitation to the Lyceum. 
 
 His selection of her as his "leading lady" was as 
 creditable to his perspicacity as it was agreeable to 
 her. She was devoted to her art and took her work 
 seriously, as he did; she had as strong a leaning 
 towards the romantic as he, and an inextinguishable 
 enthusiasm for Shakespeare; she had youth, beauty, 
 intelligence and experience to help her; but, above all, 
 she was as an actress of exactly the temperament to 
 match with his. His own triumphs had been (as, indeed, 
 had hers) largely triumphs of personality and tempera- 
 ment; and here was the indispensable thing, an artistic 
 temperament that matched his so well that each would 
 stimulate and react upon the other. Her unselfishness 
 and loyalty, too, throughout their joint career, were 
 invaluable, and none acknowledged it more generously 
 than he. 
 
 The Lyceum, rearranged and redecorated, opened 
 under Irving's management on December 1878, with 
 Hamlet. Irving's acting of the Prince of Denmark had 
 a popularity recent enough to make its welcome sure, 
 and there was eager anticipation of the new Ophelia. 
 The girlish beauty and unforced pathos of Ellen Terry's 
 acting met with the highest praise at every hand; and 
 it was thought by many that the tenderness of the new 
 Ophelia had its effect on Irving's conception of Hamlet, 
 to the greater beautifying of the scenes where the 
 Prince and Ophelia are together. Otherwise his 
 Hamlet remained what it had been before, save that 
 the conception was riper and more thoughtful. 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 169 
 
 The next year (1879) was marked by the production 
 of The Merchant of Venice. Here anticipation was 
 again eager, but with a difference. This time it was 
 Ellen Terry's portrayal of her part that was already 
 known, by her Portia at the Prince of Wales's, while 
 Irving's Shylock was the unknown quantity. It was 
 rumoured that his conception of the part was to break 
 away from tradition, and rumour was right. The new 
 Shylock, instead of appearing merely a vindictive usurer, 
 was an almost dignified figure who dominated the stage 
 and extorted sympathy for his eventual humiliation. 
 
 Shylock always remained one of Irving's most 
 remarkable performances, especially at some of its 
 revivals in later years, when the actor's conception 
 seemed to come nearer to what one imagines was 
 Shakespeare's and was not lifted on to so high a plane 
 of dignity, almost of refinement, as at first. When it 
 was first seen, the " old school " was up in arms against 
 such an interpretation of the part, and the new Shylock 
 was everywhere a fruitful theme of discussion, obviously 
 not without advantage to the coffers of the Lyceum. 
 Apart, too, from this particular piece of acting, the 
 Irvingites and the anti-Irvingites were already ranged 
 in hostile camps. The latter, forgetful or ignorant of 
 the extent to which his greatest predecessors had been 
 marked by individual peculiarities, could see little in the 
 actor beyond his obvious mannerisms of speech and 
 gait; the former would hear of nothing against their 
 idol. Both, however, agreed as to what was un- 
 deniable, that he was an admirable manager. The 
 play was beautifully mounted, and at this period Irving 
 kept in check his tendency, which afterwards grew out 
 of due bounds, to over-elaborate the frame and so 
 obscure the picture, fillen Terry's Portia was one of 
 her three matchless performances, her Beatrice and her 
 
 12 
 
170 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Olivia being the other two. Nowhere was the beauty 
 of her elocution better enjoyed than in the Trial scene, 
 nor her roguish witchery more conspicuous than in the 
 scenes at Belmont. Towards the end of the first run 
 of The Merchant of Venice she appeared also in Sir 
 Theodore Martin's King Renews Daughter, giving a very 
 touching performance as the blind girl Iolanthe. 
 
 The season of 1 880-81 included two plays of a very 
 different nature, The Corsican Brothers in which Irving 
 "doubled" the parts of the Dei Franchi brothers, and 
 Tennyson's verse play The Cup in which Ellen Terry 
 and Irving both appeared. The lurid melodrama of the 
 former of these was well contrasted with the poetic 
 glamour of the latter. Ellen Terry's beautiful acting 
 and Hawes Craven's wonderful scene of the Temple of 
 Artemis are what linger in one's memory of The Cup. 
 In The Corsican Brothers Irving (who always had a 
 weakness for superior melodrama and often seemed at 
 his best when his material was poorest) revelled in the 
 weirdness of the play and its spectacular possibilities. 
 
 Following on these there came the production of 
 Othello in 1881, when Irving, with generous kindness, 
 proposed to the American actor Edwin Booth, who had 
 met with ill-fortune in a venture at the Princess's, 
 that he should act with him in the tragedy. The two 
 appeared alternately in the parts of Othello and Iago. 
 Irving's Othello was not a success; the part of Iago, 
 with its intellectual subtlety, suited him much better. 
 Ellen Terry's Desdemona was a touching performance, 
 though the part presented more difficulties to her than its 
 straightforward character usually does to its exponent, 
 from the fact of her having to adapt her methods to 
 those of the different Othellos on alternate nights. 
 
 Early in 1882, Irving revived Albery's The Two Roses. 
 In this he repeated a former success; and the revival 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 171 
 
 was the means of introducing George Alexander (who 
 played the part of the blind Caleb Deecie) to London 
 audiences. After this came a gorgeous production of 
 Romeo and Juliet. This was one of Irving's mistakes. 
 He was not meant by nature to play Romeo, and Ellen 
 Terry's Juliet was not one of her triumphs. "The fact 
 remains," as Mr. Pemberton tells us she wrote in a letter 
 to a friend at the time, "that Juliet was a horrid failure. 
 And I meant so well!" The wonderful scene in the 
 ball-room, the management of the crowds and Mrs. 
 Stirling's sound performances of the part of the nurse, 
 are what stand out memorably amongst the features of 
 the production. 
 
 Happily, the same year saw all memories of failure 
 wiped out by the triumphant production of Much Ado 
 about Nothing, in which both Irving and Ellen Terry 
 reached their highest point of excellence in poetical 
 comedy. Both played their parts" in the happiest vein ; 
 the piece was magnificently staged, and the accessories 
 were then still secondary to the acting; the cast was 
 admirable throughout; and, while Irving surpassed the 
 expectation of his most fervent admirers as Benedick, 
 Ellen Terry's Beatrice was one of the most flawless 
 impersonations that the modern stage has seen. 
 Temperamentally, she seemed to have been born to 
 play the part, and her keen intelligence was whetted on 
 Irving's with such a result as to make their joint 
 performance a complete triumph. It may be noted 
 that she had first played Beatrice two years previously 
 at Leeds, when on a tour with her husband Charles 
 Kelly, who played Benedick. 
 
 A visit of the Lyceum company to America from the 
 autumn of 1863 to the summer of 1884, preceded by a 
 remarkable "send-off" banquet at which the Lord Chief 
 Justice presided, was followed on their return by 
 
172 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Twelfth Night at the Lyceum in July 1884. This has 
 not been counted one of Irving's successes, and yet it 
 is difficult to say why. His Malvolio was perhaps too 
 seriously conceived, yet it was not sullied by the low- 
 comedy devices that have marred some subsequent 
 Malvolios; and the play was not mangled, nor was the 
 significance of its shorter scenes weakened by their 
 being placed in impossible surroundings to gratify the 
 desire for elaborately built-up scenes, as has been done 
 in some recent revivals. Ellen Terry's Viola, too, was 
 a charming performance, and its effect was heightened 
 by the fact that the Sebastian was her brother Fred 
 Terry, whose facial resemblance to her was then very 
 striking. Thus the imbroglio supposed to arise from 
 the likeness between them was much more credible 
 than is usually the case. Unfortunately, after the first 
 few nights of the revival, Ellen Terry fell ill, and her 
 place was taken by her sister Marion. The comedy 
 element provided by Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria and 
 the Clown was rather inadequately presented; this no 
 doubt had something to do with the comparatively 
 small favour with which the whole was received. 
 
 Again, fortunately, another triumph was to wipe out 
 memories of failure, when, after a second successful 
 American tour, Olivia was revived at the Lyceum, in 
 1885. Ellen Terry's Olivia remained the beautiful per- 
 formance that it had been seven years before at the 
 Court Theatre, with an added surety of touch. Irving, 
 as Dr. Primrose, gave the lie to those who had 
 prophesied that simple pathos was beyond his powers. 
 His Vicar was a very real and very lovable person- 
 ality; even those critics who habitually threw "man- 
 nerisms" in his teeth were forced to admit that here 
 they had no cause for complaint, for it was a piece of 
 excellent straightforward acting. 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 173 
 
 The theatre was in this year largely reconstructed; 
 and Irving made the experiment of booking the seats 
 in the pit, but was obliged to restore the old order of 
 things in deference to unmistakable public opinion. 
 
 Wills' Faust followed in 1886. This was one of 
 Irving's most conspicuous and most legitimate triumphs 
 as a stage-manager. As dramatic literature the piece 
 was not of much account; but it provided good acting 
 parts for those chiefly concerned, and the scenic setting 
 was beyond all praise. Irving was duly saturnine and 
 ironical as Mephistopheles, an easy and effective part 
 of which he made the most, rising at moments to a 
 considerable height of weird power; and Ellen Terry's 
 Margaret was a very tender realization of the character. 
 The production was an enormous popular success. 
 H. B. Conway was the original Faust, but was soon 
 succeeded by George Alexander; Ellen Terry fell ill 
 during the run, and was replaced by Winifred Emery, 
 who for some time " understudied" her at the Lyceum. 
 
 After various revivals of former successes and the 
 production of a pretty little verse play, The Amber 
 Heart, by A. C. Calmour, in which Ellen Terry was 
 provided with a graceful part, Macbeth was produced in 
 December 1888. This, as was to be expected, was not 
 altogether a success. Before the production, Ellen 
 Terry as Lady Macbeth was a thing unthinkable, in the 
 face of memories of the Siddons tradition. She, how- 
 ever, worked boldly on the only lines that were possible 
 to her, conceiving Lady Macbeth as a fascinating 
 woman whose feminine charm (rather than masculine 
 power) persuaded Macbeth against his will; and on 
 these lines she achieved more success than could ever 
 have been expected. Irving summed up the situation 
 adequately when he said in the speech that was extorted 
 from him at the fall of the curtain that ' ' our dear friend 
 
174 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Ellen Terry, in appearing as Lady Macbeth for the first 
 time, has undertaken, as you may suppose, a desperate 
 task, but I think no true lover of art could have wit- 
 nessed it without being deeply interested." His 
 Macbeth was scarcely a success, though he presented 
 a fairly consistent figure of a Macbeth who was swayed 
 as much by his sense of subjection to the supernatural 
 as by his wife's ambition. The staging of the opening 
 scene on the "blasted heath" was one of Irving's 
 happiest inspirations ; absolute blackness at first, when 
 the curtain went up amid the turmoil of a thunder- 
 storm, broken by fitful flashes of lightning that 
 gradually revealed the weird figures of the three 
 witches at their grisly work. 
 
 Neither Watts Phillips' The Dead Heart, which 
 followed in 1889, nor Hermann Merivale's Ravenswood 
 in 1890 were of any account except scenically. The 
 next prominent production, that of Henry VIII. in 
 January 1892, gave Irving a fine opportunity as 
 Wolsey, his natural distinction of manner investing 
 the part with great dignity, while Ellen Terry's Queen 
 Katharine was an astonishing effort considering her 
 limitations. Forbes Robertson's Buckingham was in 
 many ways one of the most conspicuous features of a 
 production that was marked by lavish gorgeousness. 
 In November of the same year King Lear -was produced. 
 Here for once Irving's execution of his part did not 
 seem equal to his undoubtedly fine conception of it, 
 though his final scene with Cordelia (acted with rare 
 pathos by Ellen Terry) almost made amends. 
 
 A conspicuous success as far as Irving was con- 
 cerned (for in this Ellen Terry's part was small and 
 colourless) was Tennyson's Becket, which was pro- 
 duced in February 1893. Irving's powers were now 
 at their maturest, and his quiet dignity made a finely 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 175 
 
 impressive figure of the martyred prelate. To the end 
 of his career this remained one of his most effective 
 parts, and its closing words were the last he ever 
 spoke on any stage. Comyns Carr's King Arthur, 
 also in 1893, was not of much account ; but the close 
 of that year saw the production of a little play of 
 Conan Doyle's, A Story of Waterloo., which gave 
 Irving one of his most telling parts in that of the 
 veteran Corporal Brewster. 
 
 In 1895 Irving received the honour of knighthood ; 
 and the honour was rightly hailed as one paid to the 
 profession of which he was the acknowledged head, as 
 much as to the man who had so steadily enforced its 
 claims by the earnestness of his efforts and the dignity 
 and generosity of his public life. It was an open 
 secret, as Mr. Brereton tells us in his Life of Irving, 
 that some ten or twelve years previously Irving had 
 been offered, but had then declined, a knighthood. 
 
 This was the climax of his career, as subsequent 
 events showed. The next two productions at the 
 Lyceum — Cymbeline in September 1896, and an English 
 version of Sardou's Madame Sans-Gine in April 1897— 
 gave opportunity rather to Ellen Terry than to Irving. 
 Her Imogen in Cymbeline was a beautiful performance 
 which inevitably suggested regret that circumstances 
 had never allowed her to be seen as Rosalind. But 
 the "star" system was too firmly established at the 
 Lyceum for that, and there is only one "star" part in 
 As you Like It. 
 
 Ellen Terry's Madame Sans-Gene was a praiseworthy 
 attempt, but her comedy was not broad enough to 
 comprehend the part satisfactorily. Irving's Napoleon 
 was a veritable tour-de-force in the way of " make-up." 
 His dress was specially designed to disguise his height ; 
 to the same end the furniture and accessories of the 
 
176 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 scene were exaggerated in size, and he was purposely 
 surrounded by actors of tall stature. 
 
 A revival of Richard III. in the same year once more 
 offered suitable opportunity for the exercise of his 
 intellectual powers. His acting here, in its subtlety 
 and ironic humour, was admirable ; unfortunately an 
 untoward accident obliged him to throw up the part 
 after the first night. 
 
 In the following January (1898) Irving produced a 
 play by his son Laurence, entitled Peter the Great. It 
 proved ambitious rather than satisfactory, and was 
 withdrawn before long. Irving was now rather 
 "gravelled" for want of new material. He had fully 
 exploited the familiar Shakespeare plays which provided 
 a part suitable for him, and the reception of Cymbeline 
 had shown that unfamiliar Shakespeare would not draw 
 sufficient audiences. It was impossible to go on for 
 long with nothing but revivals from the Lyceum 
 repertory, and Irving made a vain effort to combat the 
 reproach that he had done nothing for the contemporary 
 drama. Unfortunately his choice fell upon a play, by 
 Messrs. Traill and Hichens, which proved a complete 
 disappointment. The Medicine Man, as it was called, 
 was not a good play, nor had a long career in the 
 romantic drama fitted either of the talented Lyceum 
 "stars" to undertake a play of modern days. 
 
 Ill fortune now seemed to have laid hold on Irvine. 
 On the top of a long and weakening illness came a 
 disaster in the shape of the destruction by fire of the 
 scenery and properties for forty-four of his stock plays, 
 of which twenty-two were big productions. Elaborate 
 revivals were thus put out of the question. He had 
 always been recklessly lavish in expenditure upon his 
 plays; and this, coupled with a magnificent generosity 
 in money matters, resulted in an accumulation of 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 1/7 
 
 financial embarrassments. It was evident that he could 
 no longer conduct the Lyceum on the old lines. In 
 1899 the management passed into the hands of a 
 company, in whose interests Irving held a large share, 
 with the arrangement that he was to act in the Lyceum 
 for a season every year, while for the rest of the year 
 the theatre should be let to whoever would take it. 
 The disastrous result of this is recent history, and after 
 four years the Lyceum Theatre practically ceased to 
 exist. Within that time Irving had been responsible 
 for two big productions. Robespierre (in 1899) was an 
 adaptation by Laurence Irving from the French of 
 Sardou, and proved to be an uninspired play bolstered 
 up by vivid scenic display ; while a finely staged revival 
 of Coriolanus in 1901 was histrionically a disappoint- 
 ment, as might have been expected. The part of 
 Coriolanus did not suit Irving, whose subtler methods 
 did not make him apt for the big style, and Ellen 
 Terry's Volumnia was rather a courageous effort than 
 a success. Their last appearance at the Lyceum was 
 in The Merchant of Venice in July 1902, and in that 
 year their artistic partnership was dissolved. It had 
 lasted for four and twenty years, and its dissolution 
 was due alone to the inevitable march of time and the 
 stern necessity of facts. 
 
 Mr. Bram Stoker, in his book on Irving, has given a 
 reasonable explanation of the necessity of this. He 
 points out that in nineteen out of the twenty-seven 
 important productions in which she and Irving had 
 acted together, Ellen Terry had played youthful parts. 
 For these she was now obviously unsuited. Of the 
 remaining eight, the entire scenery and properties of 
 Macbeth and Henry VIII. had been burned, and were 
 too costly to replace; Peter the Great and Coriolanus 
 were neither of them popular; Robespierre and Madame 
 
178 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Sans-G&ne had had as long runs as could be expected 
 of them; Charles I. was too sad a piece to be suited 
 for more than occasional performances ; and only The 
 Merchant of Venice remained. Ellen Terry could still 
 have played Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing, but 
 Irving was too old for Benedick. Naturally enough, 
 Ellen Terry did not care for the prospect of programmes 
 consisting of "one-part" plays for each (she to play 
 such trivialities as Nance Oldfield while he played in 
 The Bells or A Story of Waterloo), while there was other 
 suitable work, in which Irving could not take part, to 
 be done by her. Thus it was inevitable that, unless he 
 were to undertake a series of new productions, which 
 was physically impossible for him, Irving should have 
 a younger "leading lady" for his repertory of plays. 
 The necessity of severing their artistic partnership had 
 no effect on their loyal friendship, which was terminated 
 only by Irving's death. 
 
 The history of the old Lyceum ends with 1902. The 
 interior was pulled down and reconstructed, and the 
 house was used for a time as a "variety theatre," but 
 with small success. Latterly it has become the home of 
 the "popular" drama, and, at wisely reduced prices, 
 has found an enthusiastic audience of its own. 
 
 Between 1883 and 1901 various other actors occupied 
 the Lyceum boards for short seasons while Irving and 
 his company were on tour or vacation. America sent 
 Mary Anderson, the Daly Company, Richard Mansfield 
 and William Gillette; France, Sarah Bernhardt and 
 Coquelin ; Italy, Eleanor Duse and Verdi's Otello. 
 
 Of English actors, Forbes Robertson's was the most 
 important tenancy. His first season lasted from 
 September 1895 to June 1896, beginning with Romeo 
 and Juliet. His somewhat ascetic Romeo was played to 
 the Juliet of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a talented actress 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 179 
 
 better suited to the modernity of a Mrs. Tanqueray than 
 to the classical simplicity of Shakespeare's heroine. 
 This was followed by Michael and his Lost Angel, an 
 ambitious but unsuccessful play by Henry Arthur Jones, 
 in which Marion Terry acted a difficult part admirably ; 
 an adaptation by John Davidson from the French of 
 Coppee, under the title of For the Crown, a poetical 
 drama with one fine scene in it; a translation of 
 Sudermann's Magda, in which Mrs. Patrick Campbell 
 made a great impression, and a revival of The School 
 for Scandal, in which she did not. The climax of 
 Forbes Robertson's career came with his revival of 
 Hamlet in 1897. The whole production was good, but 
 his Hamlet stands out as one of the very few first- 
 rate Hamlets of modern days — if, indeed, it be not the 
 best. Owing a great deal, as far as its conception 
 went, to the new traditions that Irving had created in 
 the part, Forbes Robertson's Hamlet surpassed his in 
 grace and courtliness of execution, if occasionally 
 falling short of it in forcibleness. It was a scholarly, 
 sensitive, and in every way markedly interesting render- 
 ing of the part. He was not so happy in Macbeth, 
 but both productions were excellent object lessons in 
 what can be done in the way of scenic effect without 
 exaggerating the importance of the scenery and 
 properties. It was all adequate and all appropriate; 
 but it was never allowed to divert the audiences' 
 attention from the figures of the drama itself. 
 
 The same excellence belonged to a season of the 
 Benson Company, early in 1900; and still more 
 markedly to Lewis VValler's production of Henry V. 
 later in the same year. This last may unhesitatingly be 
 pronounced the most satisfactory Shakespearean per- 
 formance, both to eye and ear, that has been seen on the 
 English Stage in recent years. The play (whose fine 
 
l8o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 acting qualities were a revelation to those who knew it 
 only as readers) was admirably interpreted from the top 
 to the bottom of the long- cast; dresses and scenery 
 were alike beautiful and suitable ; and we were allowed 
 the enormous advantage of painted " cloths " instead of 
 built-up scenes, thereby gaining afar better illusion and 
 the possibility of that frequent change of scene by which 
 Shakespeare knew so well how to give the right feeling 
 of movement. Moreover, though everything was duly 
 "in the period," the stage was never allowed to be 
 encumbered by the painstaking but futile archaeology 
 which had accompanied many of the sumptuous revivals 
 on the same boards. Charles Kean's tradition of an 
 "accuracy" that is regardless of whether it miss its 
 mark or no, dies very hard, as we still see every day. 
 The truth is that, though audiences do not care a rap 
 about it, it ministers agreeably to the vanity of 
 managers, who look upon it as evidence of culture on 
 their part and are prone to overlook the important 
 question of whether it have any dramatic significance 
 or no. 
 
 Martin Harvey, who had graduated at the Lyceum 
 under Irving, played a season there, producing The 
 Only Way, in the spring of 1899, to be followed later in 
 the year by Wilson Barrett. 
 
 The last three years of Irving's life, after his 
 severance from the Lyceum, were given up to the toil of 
 constant touring, with growing ill-health and weakening 
 powers. The courageous old man went on unflinch- 
 ingly, hiding from the world his sickness of body and 
 heart, and setting a brave face against his difficulties. 
 He even undertook, in the last year of his life, a 
 new production — that of Sardou's entirely unworthy 
 Dante at Drury Lane — but it was only too obvious that 
 he was no more than a wreck of his former self. The 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. l8l 
 
 end came at Bradford on 13th October 1905, when he 
 died barely an hour after having spoken, as his last 
 words on the stage, the dying Becket's prayer, " Into 
 thy hands, O Lord — into thy hands." 
 
 However divided opinion may be as to his greatness 
 as an actor — and there are" those who hold that the 
 magnetism of his personality hypnotized his audiences 
 into thinking him a finer actor than he really was — it 
 may safely be asserted that he was at his worst as an 
 emotional actor and at his best in parts where his keen 
 intellect had most to do. It was for this reason that he 
 was excellent in the interpretation of characters that 
 required subtlety rather than directness of style or 
 simplicity of emotion, as well as in comedy, which we 
 have Garrick's authority for believing to be far harder 
 to act than tragedy. 
 
 The Lyceum productions were frankly conducted on 
 "star" lines — that is to say, Irving's and Ellen Terry's 
 parts must unquestionably dominate the rest, and 
 to that end individuality was practically suppressed 
 among the rest of the company. Within these limita- 
 tions, Irving was an admirable manager. He was 
 autocratic in his stage-management, because he knew 
 that an artistic production must be pitched in one key 
 throughout and be controlled by one mind. He had an 
 "unerring instinct for stage effect, and went to rehearsals 
 knowing exactly what he wanted and determined to get 
 it, whether it were in details of acting, scenery, costume, 
 or music. 
 
 The theatre has for the last thirty years occupied in 
 the estimation of intelligent persons a position so 
 different from what it did in the years immediately 
 preceding Irving's day, that it is necessary to remind 
 ourselves of the considerable nature of his achievement 
 in attracting cultured audiences to the Lyceum to 
 
1 82 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 witness romantic and tragic drama. Thanks to the 
 Bancrofts and the Kendals, comedy had come into its 
 own, but it needed an Irving to restore the other side 
 of the drama to its proper place. The aim of his life as 
 an actor was well summed up by him in one of his 
 many speeches during his farewell tour, when he 
 claimed (with justifiable pride) to have won and kept 
 the regard of the public "by the faithful, if imperfect, 
 practice of a rare and difficult art. There has been," 
 he continued, "a purpose steadfastly pursued, what- 
 ever the shortcomings of achievement — a purpose 
 which has always aimed at the highest standard of 
 the theatre." 
 
 Of Irving's personal relations with them, his col^- 
 leagues and his staff have always spoken most warmly ; 
 of his unvarying kindness and forbearance, and his 
 great generosity. The adulation he received, the 
 social attentions that poured in upon him, the public 
 distinction conferred upon him (for, besides his knight- 
 hood, he was the recipient of honorary degrees from 
 Cambridge, Dublin, and Glasgow), all this might well 
 have turned the head of a smaller man. Irving, how- 
 ever, managed to retain his simplicity of disposition; 
 and, though he lived somewhat en prince and accepted 
 without question his position as head of his profession, 
 he never lost his sweetness of character or his com- 
 passion for less fortunate comrades. 
 
 Since her severance from the Lyceum company, Ellen 
 Terry has occupied herself mainly with touring at home 
 and in America, except for a brief period of manage- 
 ment at the Imperial Theatre in 1903, when she 
 produced an adaptation of an early play of Ibsen's 
 under the title of The Vikings, but with little success. 
 Her most conspicuous appearances in London have 
 been at His Majesty's Theatre under Beerbohm Tree's 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 183 
 
 management. There, in June 1902 and at subsequent 
 revivals, she played Mrs. Page to the Mrs. Ford of 
 Mrs. Kendal and Tree's Falstaff in The Merry Wives of 
 Windsor; and it may safely be said that succeeding 
 generations will be fortunate if they ever see the parts 
 of the two "wives" played as they were played then. 
 It was the perfection of comedy. In the autumn of 
 1906, again, Ellen Terry appeared at His Majesty's as 
 Hermione in A Winter's Tale, the play in which, as the 
 child Mamilius, she had made her first appearance on 
 the stage just fifty years before. Her Hermione was 
 a touching and dignified performance, and it was a 
 pleasure to hear her once more speaking Shakespeare's 
 lines. The actual "jubilee" anniversary of her first 
 appearance was celebrated with the greatest enthusiasm 
 at a monster performance at Drury Lane to the accom- 
 paniment of the utmost enthusiasm both among the 
 audience and on the stage. Her other noteworthy 
 London appearances since 1902 have been in Barrie's 
 Alice Sit-by-the-Fire at the Duke of York's in 1905, and 
 as Lady Cicely Waynflete in Bernard Shaw's Captain 
 Brassbound's Conversion at the Court Theatre in the 
 spring of 1906. 
 
 Of the other three sisters of the Terry family — Kate, 
 Florence, and Marion — Kate, the eldest of them, gained 
 her earliest stage experience with Charles Kean at the 
 Princess's, as Ellen did. At the age of eight she was 
 playing Arthur in King John, and at the age of fourteen 
 played Cordelia to Kean's Lear. Her first London 
 engagement was at the St. James's in 1862, when 
 the lucky chance of her having understudied her 
 manageress, and that lady having fallen suddenly ill, 
 brought her to the front at one stride. Her popularity 
 during her brief theatrical career was fully as great as 
 that afterwards won by her sister Ellen. Youth and 
 
184 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 beauty coupled with so marked a talent were irre- 
 sistible, and she went from success to success until her 
 early retirement. She was with Fechter at the Lyceum, 
 where her Ophelia was unreservedly praised ; after that, 
 at the Olympic with Henry Neville she distinguished 
 herself as the heroines of Tom Taylor's dramas, and, in 
 Shakespeare, incidentally achieved the feat of doubling 
 the parts of Viola and Sebastian in Twelfth Night. In 
 1866 she acted at the St. James's in the production of 
 Boucicault's Hunted Down that gave Irving his first 
 London chance. In the following year, at the Adelphi, 
 she delighted the town with an exquisite performance in 
 Charles Reade's Dora. This is to name but very few of 
 the triumphs of her brief career, which came to a close 
 by her retirement (on her marriage) in August 1867. 
 Her farewell performance at the Adelphi ended in a 
 scene of extraordinary popular enthusiasm, perhaps the 
 more remarkable as her acting had always been con- 
 spicuously restrained and delicate in its method and 
 far removed from the less artistic style that in those 
 days so often proved more popular. She has made 
 one brief reappearance, with John Hare at the 
 Garrick in 1898, acting in a play that also served 
 to introduce her daughter, Mabel Terry-Lewis, to the 
 public. 
 
 Florence Terry's stage career was still briefer ; and, 
 though she was a very capable actress, especially in 
 parts requiring tender and pathetic handling, she never 
 achieved any great fame. She appeared first in 1870, 
 and retired on her marriage in 1882, having acted more 
 in the provinces than in London. The programme at 
 her last performance concluded with the trial scene 
 from The Merchant of Venice, in which, to Irving's 
 Shylock, she played Nerissa, Marion Terry the Clerk, 
 and Ellen Terry Portia. She died in 1896. 
 
HENRY IRVING AND ELLEN TERRY. 185 
 
 Marion Terry has enjoyed, at the hands of playgoers 
 of the last thirty years, a renown only second to that of 
 her sister Ellen. After a successful debut in 1873, she 
 acted in melodrama and Shakespeare with Neville at 
 the Olympic, and then went to the Strand Theatre, 
 where she brought success to the author and to herself 
 in Gilbert's Dan'l Druce. In that play she had Forbes 
 Robertson and Hermann Vezin as fellow-actors. Her 
 association with Gilbert at this point was of great value 
 to both. She had a demure sense of fun that ran side 
 by side with a command of delicate pathos ; and while 
 she owed much to the possibilities of some of Gilbert's 
 characters, he in his turn owed much to the perfection 
 with which she caught and interpreted his meaning — 
 conspicuously so in two parts of so widely different a 
 nature as Belinda Treherne in Engaged and Gretchen in 
 Gilbert's play of that name. After supporting Sothern 
 at the Haymarket she joined the Bancrofts' company at 
 the Prince of Wales's, and there took up several of her 
 sister Ellen's parts, including Olivia. At the Lyceum, 
 during Ellen's temporary illness, Marion Terry took 
 her place as Viola in 1884 and as Margaret in 1888. 
 Of recent years she has been seen in a variety of parts 
 at a variety of theatres, and never to disadvantage. 
 In a certain line of acting, where tender pathos and 
 deep feeling are required, and especially when these 
 characteristics are salted by an admixture of quiet 
 humour, she is unrivalled ; she has great natural 
 advantages of feature and voice, and is a complete 
 mistress of the technique of her art. When so much 
 of her work has been so charming, it is almost invidious 
 to select ; but probably most playgoers would be agreed 
 that she reached the highest point in her artistic 
 career at the time when, between 1890 and 1892, she 
 was playing at the St. James's in Lady Windermere's 
 
 13 
 
186 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Fan, Liberty Hall, Sunlight and Shadow and The Idler. 
 Among the most striking of her more recent per- 
 formances are those in Captain Drew on Leave and 
 Peter's Mother. 
 
 There are Terrys of a still younger generation upon 
 the stage, and it seems as though the hereditary talent 
 of this brilliant family were inexhaustible. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS AT THE OLD 
 PRINCE OF WALES'S AND THE HAYMARKET. 
 
 The old Prince of Wales's Theatre, which came under 
 the Bancroft management in 1865, had been built as 
 the King's Concert Rooms in 1790, and had been 
 known subsequently as the Queen's Theatre, the 
 Regency Theatre, the West London Theatre, the 
 Fitzroy Theatre, and again as the Queen's Theatre. 
 When the courageous Marie Wilton (afterwards Mrs. 
 and now Lady Bancroft) undertook its management in 
 partnership with H. J. Byron, it had been the favourite 
 haunt of an audience very different from those the new 
 managers hoped to attract. Lady Bancroft has de- 
 scribed how, when she went with Mr. and Mrs. Byron 
 to look on at a performance shortly before their 
 tenancy began, the occupants of the shilling stalls 
 " were engaged between the acts in devouring oranges 
 (their faces being buried in them), and drinking ginger- 
 beer. Babies were being rocked to sleep, or smacked 
 to be quiet, which proceeding in many cases had an 
 opposite effect ! A woman looked up to our box, and 
 seeing us staring aghast with, I suppose, an expression 
 of horror upon my face, first of all 'took a sight' at 
 us, and then shouted, ' Now then, you three stuck-up 
 ones, come out o' that, or I'll send this 'ere orange at 
 your 'eds.' ... I think, if I could, I would have at 
 
 187 
 
1 88 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 that moment retired from my bargain, but the deed 
 was done, and there was no going back from it." By 
 permission of the Prince of Wales the house was re- 
 christened after him, and, renovated and well appointed, 
 was opened in April 1865 with a burlesque extravaganza 
 of Byron's, preceded by a comedy and followed by a 
 farce. Bancroft played in the opening comedietta 
 (this being his first London appearance) and Marie 
 Wilton in the burlesque. 
 
 The success of the bold venture is a matter of 
 history. Marie Wilton was already a great favourite 
 with the public, who gladly travelled to Tottenham 
 Street to see her in burlesque ; and later, when she 
 gave up appearing in burlesque, returned in increased 
 numbers to watch the development of her powers and 
 those of her clever company in the new style of comedy 
 they were inaugurating at the Prince of Wales's. It 
 is difficult for us to realize what an innovation it was, 
 to playgoers of the day, that the characters in a 
 comedy should give an impression of actuality and 
 not of caricature, that they should move and behave 
 as such folk might in real life ; that actors in modern 
 dress plays should be carefully dressed, instead of 
 appearing "like waiters at a penny-ice shop," as 
 Clement Scott says, with ill-fitting wigs and impossible 
 clothes ; that attention should be paid to such details 
 as, for instance, that rooms should have ceilings and 
 doors have locks and handles to them. It was, in fact, 
 a revolution in the staging of comedy that was brought 
 about by these clever pioneers. 
 
 Marie Wilton only continued to play in burlesque for 
 a short time, for very soon she and her company 
 "found themselves" in the presentation of Tom Robert- 
 son's comedies. Robertson, who was a brother of 
 Mrs. Kendal's, was a struggling dramatist whose 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 189 
 
 David Garrick, as played by Sothern at the Haymarket, 
 had attracted attention to his work. His first success 
 was due to Marie Wilton's belief in his comedy Society, 
 which she produced, with Bancroft, Hare and herself in 
 the cast, in November 1865. This was followed up by 
 the success of Ours in the autumn of the next year, 
 both plays running on for a hundred and fifty nights; 
 and the climax of success was reached with the produc- 
 tion of Caste, in April 1867, with Bancroft as Captain 
 Hawtree, Hare as Sam Gerridge, George Honey as 
 Eccles, and the clever manageress as Polly. The little 
 theatre had by this time become not only popular but 
 fashionable, and its company had deservedly acquired a 
 unique reputation. So much was this the case that, 
 with the triumph of Caste, the hitherto inevitable 
 "burlesque" (in which latterly Lydia Thompson had 
 taken Marie Wilton's place) disappeared from the bills 
 for good and all, and Byron's connection with the 
 Prince of Wales's ceased. In the same year (1867) 
 Marie Wilton became Mrs. Bancroft. 
 
 Robertson's Play was produced in February 1868, and 
 was succeeded by revivals of Society and Caste till his 
 new comedy, School, should be ready. School, which 
 proved only second to Caste in popularity, was played 
 for a long run in 1869. The vogue of these plays was 
 now such that, as Mrs. Bancroft recalls with pardon- 
 able pride, the "Times" could say that "the production 
 of a new comedy by Mr. T. W. Robertson at the theatre 
 which, once obscure, has become, under the direction 
 of Miss Marie Wilton, the most fashionable in London, 
 is now to be regarded as one of the most important 
 events of the dramatic year." School marked the 
 high-water mark of Robertson's powers. M.P., which 
 followed in 1870, showed a distinct falling off and was 
 withdrawn in favour of a revival of Ours; and early in 
 
190 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the following year Robertson died. After this, revivals 
 of Caste and School and a number of successful perform- 
 ances of Lytton's Money contrasted with solider fare in 
 the shape of Wilkie Collins' Man and Wife (1873) and 
 such delicate comedy as Gilbert's Sweethearts (1874). 
 After that, encouraged by the success of an elaborate 
 revival of The School for Scandal, in which Hare, who 
 played Sir Peter, was seen for the last time at the 
 Prince of Wales's, the Bancrofts' ambitions unfor- 
 tunately turned towards Shakespeare. The result of 
 this was the ill-starred production of The Merchant of 
 Venice that has been recorded in the preceding chapter. 
 Better fortune attended Masks and Faces (1875), which 
 enabled both the Bancrofts to exhibit their powers in a 
 new light. Of the productions during the remaining 
 four years of this management, which came to an end 
 on the Bancrofts taking the Haymarket Theatre in 
 1879, two stand out conspicuously: Peril in 1876, and 
 Diplomacy in 1878. Both were adaptations from the 
 French of Sardou. For Peril the Kendals and Arthur 
 Cecil joined the company ; for Diplomacy (which, with 
 its masterly "three-men scene," proved one of the best 
 trump cards of the Bancrofts' twenty years' manage- 
 ment) John Clayton and Miss Le Thiere were added to 
 an already powerful cast. 
 
 The subsequent history of the "little house in Totten- 
 ham Street" is brief, for in 1882 it ceased to exist as a 
 theatre. Between 1879 an< ^ 1882 various plays were 
 produced by the new manager, Mr. Edgar Bruce ; but 
 his tenancy is only remembered by Burnand's The 
 Colonel. In this amusing satire on the aesthetic craze 
 Beerbolm Tree made his first London appearance, in 
 1881. The building, after serving various uses, was 
 pulled down, and in its place arose the handsome 
 Scala Theatre which was opened by Lady Bancroft in 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 1 91 
 
 December 1904. So far, however, it has proved a 
 difficult task to induce the stream of playgoers to flow 
 once more in the unaccustomed channel leading to 
 Tottenham Street. 
 
 The Bancroft management at the Haymarket lasted 
 from January 1880 to July 1885. On its first night it 
 seemed as if fate would be anything but propitious. 
 Outside the theatre there was a dense fog, and inside 
 there was a small riot (which delayed the raising of the 
 curtain for nearly half an hour) owing to the new 
 managers having abolished the Pit, which had been 
 one of the best in London. Anticipating the unpopu- 
 larity of such a step, they had issued a preliminary 
 statement explaining what seemed, in their judgment, 
 unanswerable reasons for making the change ; but the 
 public did not agree, at any rate at first, and made its 
 opinion heard with no uncertain voice. And whereas 
 Cyril Maude (in his "Reminiscences" of the Hay- 
 market published in 1903), applauds the Bancrofts' 
 courage in taking such a step, and points out that, 
 considering the expenses of running such a house in 
 the way the Bancrofts wished, it was impossible to 
 retain a Pit that occupied so much floor space in a 
 theatre that enjoyed a good "Stalls" audience, it is 
 interesting on the other hand to note that the Pit was 
 restored to the Haymarket early in 1905, while Cyril 
 Maude was still part-manager. 
 
 The Bancrofts' six years at the Haymarket were 
 productive of much material success to them ; the 
 theatre was as popular with fashionable audiences as 
 was the clever couple that managed it ; nevertheless in 
 the matter of artistic interest this management never 
 equalled that at the old Prince of Wales's. There the 
 Bancrofts had broken new ground and done a definite 
 work; at the Haymarket they did little more than 
 
192 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 repeat previous successes, and that on a more lavish 
 (and consequently sometimes less artistic) scale than 
 before. The Robertson comedies which they revived did 
 not gain by performance on a larger stage ; and this 
 same access of space, and its consequent possibilities, 
 induced a tendency to over-elaboration which did 
 no good to the other plays produced. The desire for 
 "sumptuous production " seems to lie in wait for all 
 successful directors of theatres; the Bancrofts were 
 infected with it, and their most conspicuous successes 
 at the Haymarket were made in elaborately staged 
 adaptations from Sardou. 
 
 They retired from management in July 1885, to the 
 accompaniment of every mark of public appreciation 
 and regret. Their Haymarket management had been 
 notable and in certain respects brilliantly successful; 
 but their great and deserved claim to honour is the feat 
 they achieved at the old Prince of Wales's, where they 
 inaugurated a new school of comedy-acting, and ad- 
 vanced that department of their art in a degree that is 
 difficult of appreciation except by those who are old 
 enough to have lived through the change. The 
 knighthood subsequently conferred on Bancroft was 
 a tangible recognition of this memorable achieve- 
 ment. After giving up the cares of management, 
 Bancroft appeared with Irving at the Lyceum in The 
 Dead Heart in 1889, and, with his wife, in a revival of 
 Diplomacy in 1893 and Money in 1894, under Hare's 
 management at the Garrick. 
 
 Two years after their retirement Beerbohm Tree 
 succeeded the Bancrofts in the management of the 
 Haymarket. Coming from The Private Secretary (in 
 which he was the original exponent of the part after- 
 wards so popular in W. S. Penley's hands) Tree had 
 made an unmistakable hit, in a part of a very different 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 193 
 
 nature, as the villain Macari in a dramatization of 
 Hugh Conway's book " Called Back." This was at 
 the Prince's Theatre in 1884. He had also acted at the 
 Haymarket, during- the two years' management (1885- 
 87) of Messrs. Russell and Bashford, in Nadjezda and 
 in Jim the Penman. Early in 1887 his finished imper- 
 sonation of the wily old diplomat Demetrius in The Red 
 Lamp was first seen at the Comedy Theatre ; and in the 
 autumn of the same year he became manager of the 
 Haymarket. His spirited management there was very 
 interesting. He encouraged home talent — Henry Arthur 
 Jones, Sydney Grundy, Oscar Wilde, Haddon Chambers, 
 Stuart Ogilvie are names on the Haymarket bills at 
 this time — he gathered a fine company of actors round 
 him, produced his plays with great care and without 
 disproportionate opulence, and himself "created" a 
 remarkable series of well contrasted characters. Except 
 for such excursions into pure comedy as Wilde's A 
 Woman of no Importance and Ibsen's The Enemy of the 
 People (both in 1893), his most conspicuous successes 
 at the Haymarket were in romantic dramas such as 
 The Ballad Monger (1887), Captain Swift (1888), A 
 Man's Shadow (1889), A Village Priest (1890), The 
 Dancing Girl (1891), Hypatia (1893), and Trilby (1895). 
 His Shakespearean productions at the Haymarket were 
 The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry VI. (in which he 
 first of all played Hotspur, and subsequently Falstaff to 
 the Hotspur of Lewis Waller), and Hamlet. During a 
 temporary tenancy of Lewis Waller's, Wilde's An Ideal 
 Husband was produced at the Haymarket in 1895. 
 
 Being by instinct a lover of elaborate spectacle in his 
 productions, and thirsting to distinguish himself (as he 
 has done) in Shakespeare, Tree's ambition took him 
 across the road from the Haymarket to the beautiful 
 His Majesty's Theatre that was built on part of the site 
 
194 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of the old opera house; and in the autumn of 1896 the 
 Haymarket passed into the joint hands of Frederick 
 Harrison and Cyril Maude. This was an ideal com- 
 bination for managerial purposes, Harrison being an 
 admirable business manager and a good judge of plays, 
 and Cyril Maude a versatile, accomplished and very 
 popular actor. The combination was at first reinforced 
 by the charm and popularity of the acting of Mrs. 
 Cyril Maude (Winifred Emery), whom unfortunately 
 illness was destined to keep for a long time out of the 
 bills. 
 
 Cyril Maude had only been about a dozen years upon 
 the stage when he attained to managerial dignity, but 
 had by that time established a well-deserved popularity. 
 He had been especially successful in "old men" parts, 
 which he played with a finish that proved him to be a 
 worthy follower of John Hare. His methods have 
 much in common with the old actor's, and he is a 
 master of the art of "make-up." Among the most 
 notable of his previous performances had been his Lord 
 Fellamar in Joseph's Sweetheart at the Vaudeville in 
 1888, Colonel Cazenove in The New Woman at the 
 Comedy in 1894, and Sir Fletcher Portwood in Pinero's 
 The Benefit of the Doubt at the Comedy in 1895, when 
 his wife played the heroine's part. She had made early 
 appearances in London — at the Princess's in panto- 
 mime in 1875, with Miss Litton at the Imperial in 1879, 
 subsequently with Wilson Barrett at the Court for a 
 couple of years, and then for a considerable time in the 
 'eighties under Irving at the Lyceum, where she 
 " understudied" Ellen Terry and played several of her 
 parts on occasion, notably those of Marguerite and 
 Olivia. In the early 'nineties she had been seen at 
 various theatres. 
 
 The new management chose their plays well, acted 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 195 
 
 them well, and varied them judiciously, with the well- 
 deserved result of good-fortune. Opening in October 
 1896, in accordance with a temporary craze for "cloak 
 and rapier" plays, with a romantic drama Under the 
 Red Robe, they soon settled to a series of delightful 
 comedies better suited to the house and the actors. A 
 Marriage of Convenience, The Little Minister (mainly 
 remembered by its charming "Babbie"), The Manoeuvres 
 of Jane, The Black Tulip, She Stoops to Conquer, The 
 Rivals, these were among the plays to which Winifred 
 Emery lent the assistance of her art until illness obliged 
 her to desist for a time. Her clever husband, however, 
 continued to be a pillar of strength to the Haymarket, 
 and was the central figure of a number of successes 
 before he severed his partnership with Harrison in July 
 1905. Among the chief of these may be mentioned 
 The Second in Command, Cousin Kate, The Beauty and 
 the Barge (who that saw it will ever forget Cyril 
 Maude's inimitable Captain Barley?), Everybody's Secret, 
 and a revival of Pinero's The Cabinet Minister, in which 
 Winifred Emery reappeared. 
 
 When Cyril Maude left the Haymarket in 1905, still 
 determined to be a manager, his choice fell upon the 
 Avenue Theatre, an ill-built house close under Charing 
 Cross Station. This he proceeded to rebuild and re- 
 model almost entirely. By an untoward stroke of fate, 
 the disastrous fall of the roof at Charing Cross Station 
 in 1905 brought with it the destruction of the newly 
 rebuilt theatre, a mass of wall falling down from the 
 station on to it and practically wrecking it. This of 
 course delayed or upset all previous plans ; but after a 
 time affairs were righted, and The Playhouse (as the 
 Avenue was now to be called) was opened early in 1907 
 with a farce called Toddles, in which Cyril Maude played 
 with admirable verve a part quite unworthy of him. 
 
196 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 After Toddles had run its course, Eva Anstruther's Fido 
 was seen at The Playhouse in 1907; and in 1908 
 Esmond's The O'Grindles, Mason's Margery Strode, 
 Cosmo Hamilton's Pro Tern., and Drury and Trevor's 
 The Flag Lieutenant. During the interval that elapsed 
 before The Playhouse was ready for occupation, Maude 
 was seen at the newly-built Waldorf Theatre, which 
 was opened in 1903. 
 
 At The Playhouse there has been adopted the plan of 
 allowing- every seat in the house to be booked in 
 advance if desired. Irving had tried this at the Lyceum 
 a good many years previously. At that time the inno- 
 vation was not approved of; but now it seems to be 
 meeting with success, for the example thus set has been 
 followed at the Kingsway Theatre. 
 
 Frederick Harrison now continues manager of the 
 Haymarket, and evidently intends (and that wisely) to 
 carry on its tradition of high-class comedy. His most 
 conspicuous success so far has been the revival of 
 Anstey's entertaining satire The Man from Blankley's, 
 with the assistance of a brilliant cast that included 
 Charles Hawtrey, Weedon Grossmith, Henry Kemble 
 and Fanny Brough. Other of his recent productions 
 have been The Palace of Puck, His Wife, and Sweet 
 Kitty Bellairs, all in 1907; Her Father, and Bernard 
 Shaw's Getting Married, in 1908. 
 
 It should be mentioned that there is a ghost at the 
 Haymarket; at least, the fact is vouched for by Cyril 
 Maude in his history of that house. 
 
 Beerbohm Tree opened his magnificent new theatre 
 in the spring of 1897. Known then as Her Majesty's, 
 it was renamed His Majesty's in 1902. The opening 
 play was one adapted from Sir Gilbert Parker's novel 
 "The Seats of the Mighty," but the dramatized version 
 was not a success. Almost immediately, however, Tree 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 197 
 
 started upon his rapidly lengthening series of elaborate 
 Shakespearean revivals. Almost every year since then 
 has had its fresh Shakespearean attraction: Julius 
 Ccesar in 1898, King John in 1899, A Midsummer 
 Nights Dream in 1900, Twelfth Night in 1901, The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor in 1902, Richard II. in 1903, 
 The Tempest in 1904, Much Ado About Nothing in 1905, 
 The Winter's Tale and Antony and Cleopatra in 1906, 
 The Merchant of Venice in 1908; and, thus furnished 
 with a repertory, His Majesty's has of late years held 
 an annual "Shakespeare Festival" during the week 
 that centres in the poet's anniversary. 
 
 Tree is, as is natural, an enthusiastic and eloquent 
 defender of the " sumptuous revival " theory of Shake- 
 spearean production; but, while allowing him all credit 
 for artistic earnestness of purpose and all praise for the 
 thoroughness with which he carries out his ideas, it is 
 permissible for Shakespeareans equally as ardent as he 
 to differ from him as to the advisability of his treatment 
 of some of the plays. Such difference of opinion will 
 refer especially to the manner of his re-arrangement of 
 certain scenes and the introduction of others not con- 
 templated by the author; again, to the likelihood of 
 distracting attention from the drama itself by reason of 
 the wealth of its accessories. In this Tree is essentially 
 the disciple of Charles Kean. As has been mentioned 
 in an earlier chapter, he has followed Kean in the 
 interpolation in Richard II. of a concrete representation 
 of an event Shakespeare was content to describe by the 
 mouth of one of his characters; the same thing is 
 done in Antony and Cleopatra at His Majesty's. The 
 introduction, too, of a "transparency" in the final 
 scene of Richard II. , showing (through the walls of the 
 dungeon at Pomfret Castle) the coronation of the new 
 king, savours of the same fault of leaving nothing to 
 
198 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the spectators' imagination. Such devices are open, 
 moreover, to the accusation of calling attention to the 
 ingenuity of the manager rather than assisting the 
 poetical effect of the drama. A certain rearrangement 
 of scenes, it is true, is often necessary in the presenta- 
 tion of Shakespeare's plays, so as to produce acting 
 versions suitable to the conditions of the modern stage ; 
 but what are we to say of such a " rearrangement" as 
 that in Tree's Twelfth Night, where, to more fully dis- 
 play the elaborate (and, be it freely admitted, very 
 beautiful) scene constructed to represent Olivia's 
 garden, episodes which should take place in a public 
 street are represented as happening in this private 
 garden between personages who could have no right 
 of indiscriminate entry thither ? 
 
 However, it is perhaps ungracious to cavil at such 
 things when our opportunities of seeing Shakespeare 
 adequately performed are none too many. It is a 
 pleasanter task to lay stress upon the many merits 
 and delights of Tree's revivals. His presentation of 
 Julius Ccesar, for instance, is remarkably fine in every 
 way, and the manipulation of the crowd in the Forum 
 scenes is undoubtedly abler than that of the much 
 vaunted Saxe-Meiningen company whose excellence 
 in this particular play was thrust down our throats 
 some years ago. If Tree himself be not quite the ideal 
 Mark Antony (for he is not altogether at his best in 
 the "big style"), in King John he is admirably suited; 
 and, in his production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, 
 not only is his Bottom a richly humorous piece of 
 acting, but the atmosphere of delicate poesy is through- 
 out preserved in a manner deserving the highest 
 praise. 
 
 As Malvolio in Twelfth Night Tree has a part after 
 his own heart. Made up with even more than his 
 
THE BANCROFTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. 199 
 
 usual skill, he revels in the niceties of expression and 
 manner that have made this one of his most successful 
 pieces of comedy. The part of Viola, when Tree first 
 produced the play, was undertaken by Lily Brayton ; 
 at a later revival the manager's daughter, Viola Tree, 
 appropriately made her debut in the part. Her girlish 
 freshness and evident enjoyment of her art went far to 
 make up for lack of experience ; time, however, is a 
 remedy for that, and her obviously strong natural 
 capacity for acting should carry her far. Her Perdita 
 in A Winter's Tale was a delightful performance, and 
 as Trilby she has given evidence of considerable power 
 and depth of feeling. 
 
 One of Tree's happiest managerial feats was to 
 persuade Ellen Terry and Mrs. Kendal to appear with 
 him in The Merry Wives of Windsor. His Falstaff is 
 a triumphant tour-de-force, and his two talented col- 
 leagues and he romped through the play with a glee 
 that was infectious. Ellen Terry appeared again under 
 his management as Hermione in A Winter's Tale, 
 giving an extremely dignified and moving rendering of 
 the part. If neither his Caliban, his Benedick nor his 
 Antony are among the greatest of his successes, Tree 
 is certainly admirably suited as Richard II., that part 
 calling for the subtlety of method that shows him at 
 his best. 
 
 In the spring of 1907 he and his company gave 
 a series of performances of Shakespeare in Berlin. 
 During the rest of that year, except for a short season 
 of revivals, he was not much seen at his own theatre, 
 which was tenanted during his absence by a company 
 headed by Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton. Their 
 productions included Laurence Binyon's Attila, and 
 revivals of As You Like, It and Othello. Besides his 
 notable amount of Shakespearean work and the 
 
200 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 mounting of a number of other plays of varying 
 nature and merit, Tree's record at His Majesty's is 
 remarkable for his successful production of three 
 ambitious poetical dramas, Herod (1900), Ulysses 
 (1902), and Nero (1906), from the pen of Stephen 
 Phillips. Among the miscellaneous plays Tree has 
 produced at His Majesty's may be mentioned a spirited 
 version of The Three Musketeers in 1898, Resurrection 
 in 1903, The Last of the Dandies and The Darling of the 
 Gods in 1904, Oliver Twist in 1905, Colonel Newcome in 
 1906, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Beloved 
 Vagabond in 1908. Tree's tastes are catholic, and 
 his versatility and restless energy astonishing. His 
 management, moreover, whether at the Haymarket or 
 His Majesty's, has been marked by a laudably high 
 aim and a desire to produce work above the ordinary 
 level. At one time at the Haymarket he instituted a 
 series of special performances, designed to introduce 
 plays not suited for, or not likely to achieve, long 
 " runs," but appealing by their literary merit to tastes 
 somewhat different from those that sway the average 
 audience. Henley and Stevenson's Beau Austin and 
 Macaire saw the light in this manner, but the experi- 
 ment (which was begun in the autumn of 1890) was 
 not long-lived. 
 
 Furthermore, Tree instituted at His Majesty's (in 
 1904) a Dramatic School for the training of aspirants 
 for the stage, in order to enable these to gain that 
 knowledge of the technique of their art which their 
 predecessors acquired painfully by experience in the 
 old "stock companies"; for under modern conditions 
 those older schools of training have disappeared, save 
 for such as we are afforded by the excellent Benson and 
 Greet touring companies and their disciples. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE KENDALS ; JOHN HARE ; AND THEIR SUCCESSORS AT 
 THE ST. JAMES'S AND THE GARRICK. 
 
 It was under Buckstone's management at the Hay- 
 market, in the late 'sixties and early 'seventies, that the 
 Kendals first made their names known to Londoners 
 after a good deal of hard preparatory work in the 
 provinces. Kendal joined the Haymarket company in 
 1866, Madge Robertson in 1867 ; and in 1869 they were 
 married. The provincial experience of both had been 
 as varied as was usual ; consequently both were well 
 equipped with a knowledge of acting, as is shown by 
 the critical encomiums on the " neatness and finish " of 
 Mrs. Kendal's acting of her first important part at the 
 Haymarket, that of Lilian Vavasour in New Men and 
 old Acres in 1869. It was during the three following 
 years, however, that she and her husband had their 
 chance and used it so happily as to establish their 
 reputations with playgoers. The opportunity came to 
 them with Gilbert's series of plays, The Palace of 
 Truth, Pygmalion and Galatea, and The Wicked World, 
 whose success has already been alluded to. And so it 
 was that when John Hare undertook the management 
 of the Court Theatre in 1875 he obtained the support 
 of two very able as well as popular actors when he 
 engaged the Kendals for his company. 
 
 201 14 
 
202 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Hare had made his first success at the old Prince ot 
 Wales's in the part of Lord Ptarmigan in Society, and 
 had followed it up with a series of successes among 
 which his Sam Gerridge in Caste and Beau Farintosh in 
 School were conspicuous. He remained with the Ban- 
 crofts till 1874, the last part he played with them being 
 that of Sir Peter Teazle. Bancroft has left on record 
 his sense of the loss their company suffered "in the 
 departure of its oldest and most valued member, John 
 Hare. Wisely enough, for there was ample room for 
 two such theatres as the then Prince of Wales's in 
 friendly rivalry, he had for some time entertained ideas 
 of commencing management on his own account; how 
 wisely, has been proved by the splendid record of his 
 work in that direction." Hare took the old Court 
 Theatre, which till 1887 stood on a site nearly opposite 
 the present house. Built in 1870, and originally styled 
 the New Chelsea Theatre (and subsequently the Bel- 
 gravia), it was re-christened the Royal Court Theatre, 
 and enjoyed four years of popularity with Marie Litton 
 as manager. Gilbert, with The Wedding- March, The 
 Happy Land, and other pieces, was her mainstay as 
 dramatic author. Hare opened the theatre in March 
 1875, his company including, besides the Kendals, 
 Mrs. Gaston Murray, Mary Rorke, Henry Kemble and 
 John Clayton. 
 
 Hare's four years of management there were full of 
 success. Gilbert again proved a "trump card" with 
 the last of his fantastic plays, Broken Hearts (1875), in 
 which the Kendals especially distinguished themselves ; 
 while Hare shared the honours more prominently in A 
 Quiet Rubber and A Scrap of Paper, both in 1876. In 
 that year the Kendals left him and joined the Bancrofts 
 at the Prince of Wales's, and he, as has been already 
 recorded, engaged Ellen Terry. She, after undertaking 
 
THE KENDALS AND JOHN HARE. 203 
 
 Mrs. Kendal's old part in New Men and Old Acres, 
 appeared in 1873 in Olivia, the manager effacing 
 himself in the latter play and handing over the Vicar's 
 part to Hermann Vezin. 
 
 After brilliant performances at the Prince of Wales's 
 in Peril (1876), London Assurance (1877), and Diplomacy 
 (1878), the Kendals returned to Hare at the Court in 
 1879 when Ellen Terry went from there to the Lyceum. 
 The summer season of 1879, Hare's last at the Court, 
 included a revival of A Scrap of Paper, and the success- 
 ful production of Robertson's The Ladies' Battle and 
 G. W. Godfrey's The Queen's Shilling. At the close 
 of the season Hare announced that he was about to 
 undertake, in partnership with the Kendals, the man- 
 agement of the St. James's Theatre, confident that such 
 a partnership could conduct successfully a theatre that 
 hitherto had laboured under the stigma of being un- 
 fortunate. Their plan of campaign was, as he then 
 announced, to produce comedy and comedy-drama, 
 and " to give that which is always, I take it, the most 
 satisfactory thing to an audience — an even, allrround 
 performance." How well he and his partners justified 
 their hopes, the subsequent history of the St. James's 
 shows. 
 
 The Hare and Kendal management there lasted for 
 nine years, from October 1879 to July 1888; and at the 
 close of it they had reason to congratulate themselves 
 on having enjoyed, as the result of loyal partnership 
 and earnest and intelligent work, " more successes and 
 fewer failures than fall to the lot of average managers." 
 They started by redecorating the house, and initiated 
 the tradition of its being one of the best appointed and 
 best equipped in London. After a revival of The 
 Queen's Shilling, which had been in the height of its 
 success when they left the Court, they took the bold 
 
204 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 step of producing (in December 1879) Tennyson's 
 poetic play The Falcon. The play had no strong 
 dramatic qualities, but gave the opportunity for a 
 beautiful mise-en-scene ; and it had all the success it 
 deserved. "The trouble of the cast," says the Kendals' 
 biographer, Mr. Pemberton, "was the noble looking, 
 great-eyed and soft-plumaged peregrine falcon. Mr. 
 Kendal had taken great pains in procuring and taming 
 the bird, and at home he was docile enough; but he 
 was not ' stage-struck,' and resented the footlights in a 
 way that was painful to the wrist that bore him." The 
 bird died during the run of the play, and to-day exists, 
 under a glass case, "as a sad (but very handsome) 
 example of those who are forced to follow a profession 
 for which they have no aptitude." 
 
 Other revivals were followed by a new version, by 
 W. G. Wills, of Jerrold's picturesque and pathetic 
 nautical drama Black-Eyed Susan; and that, a little 
 later, by the first important play by A. W. Pinero, who 
 was a member of Irving's Lyceum company and had 
 tried his 'prentice hand in the writing of smaller comedi- 
 ettas. This play, The Money Spinner, which gave 
 Hare a fine chance in the eccentric part of the rascally 
 Baron Croodle, was produced in 1881, and was followed 
 in the same year by The Squire from the same pen. 
 These, with B. C. Stephenson's Impulse (1882) and 
 Pinero's The Ironmaster (1884), proved as popular as 
 any plays in the Kendal repertory. Neither an elabor- 
 ate production of As You Like It in 1885, nor Pinero's 
 Mayfair in the same year, achieved much success ; but 
 considerable amends was made with .Pinero's The Hobby 
 Horse in 1886, in which Hare was able to make a 
 personal triumph in one of the minutely drawn and 
 closely characterized parts with which Pinero excels in 
 fitting him. In 1887 the Kendals received the distinc- 
 
THE KENDALS AND JOHN HARE. 205 
 
 tion of a command to perform before Queen Victoria at 
 Osborne, the programme consisting of Uncle's Will and 
 Gilbert's Broken Hearts. 
 
 Lady Clancarty (in 1887), an "historical" play of 
 considerable effectiveness that did not succeed as much 
 as it deserved, and a revival of Lovell's The Wife's 
 Secret (1888), practically concludes the tale of the chief 
 Kendal and Hare productions at the St. James's. Their 
 tenancy came to an end in July 1888, and the brilliant 
 partnership was dissolved. In the following year the 
 Kendals went to tour in America, and Hare became 
 manager of the newly-built Garrick Theatre. 
 
 Since 1888 the Kendals have had no permanent 
 theatrical home. They have made a number of success- 
 ful tours in America, where their popularity has 
 been only second to that of the Irving company. The 
 delicate tenderness and humour of Mrs. Kendal's 
 acting captured the hearts of American audiences at 
 once ; and Mr. Kendal's powers were more fully recog- 
 nized than perhaps they were here, where he was apt to 
 be overshadowed by the enormous popularity of his 
 wife and Hare. In this country the Kendals are 
 constantly touring in the provinces, and their too 
 infrequent visits to London are looked for with plea- 
 surable anticipation. The most conspicuous of their 
 London appearances have been at the Court in 1889, 
 when they played Pinero's The Weaker Sex and Sydney 
 Grundy's A White Lie ; at the Garrick, in Grundy's 
 The Greatest of These, in 1895 ; and at their old house, 
 the St. James's, in The Elder Miss Blossom (1898 
 and 1 901), The Likeness of The Night (1901), Dick Hope 
 (1905), and The Housekeeper (1905). In 1893 they 
 produced Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanquerary at 
 Leicester, Mrs. Kendal giving a rendering of the 
 unhappy Paula's character that was interesting in its 
 
206 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 divergences from that of its "creator" Mrs. Patrick 
 Campbell. 
 
 The Kendals were followed in the St. James's man- 
 agement by Rutland Barrington, who produced in 1888 
 (but with small success) Grundy and Phillips' The 
 Dean's Daughter and Gilbert's Brantinghame Hall, the 
 latter an attempt on the veteran Savoy librettist's part 
 to return to serious drama. After Barrington, Mrs. 
 Langtry was manager for a short time, her reign being 
 marked by a capable performance of As You Like It in 
 1889, she playing the part of Rosalind and Arthur 
 Bourchier that of Jacques. 
 
 The fortunes of the house seemed to be waning again, 
 when they were happily revived by the advent of George 
 Alexander as manager. He had made his first London 
 appearance as Caleb Deecie in The Two Roses at the 
 Lyceum just ten years previously, and from 1881 till 
 1888 had acted pretty continuously under Irving, playing 
 such parts as Macduff, Bassanio, Laertes, Claudio, and 
 Faust. He had acquired ease and skill in acting, had 
 served under the prince of managers, and had youth 
 and ambition to assist him in undertaking the difficult 
 task of managing a theatre. In the important respect 
 of the production of work by living English dramatists, 
 Alexander's management has been the most remarkable 
 of our own time. Under him Pinero sealed his reputa- 
 tion, and under him the names of Haddon Chambers, 
 R. C. Carton, Oscar Wilde, H. V. Esmond, Anthony 
 Hope, Stephen Phillips, Mrs. Craigie and John Oliver 
 Hobbes have become familiar to playgoers. 
 
 After a trial trip as manager at the Avenue Theatre 
 in 1890 with an entertaining farce Dr. Bill and a typical 
 Carton comedy Sunlight and Shadow, Alexander opened 
 the St. James's early in 1891 with a resumed run of the 
 latter play. Thanks to good judgment allied with. 
 
THE KENDALS AND JOHN HARE. 207 
 
 enterprise, as well as a wisely expended liberality in 
 securing the best performers available for his pur- 
 poses (thanks, too, to his recognition of the limitations 
 of his own very considerable powers as actor, and his 
 avoidance of the pitfalls that beset the path of the 
 actor-manager in the shape of temptations to subdue 
 everything else to the prominence of a "star part") 
 Alexander has been able to follow success with success. 
 To recall the more important of his productions will 
 be certificate of this. The series includes: Haddon 
 Chambers' The Idler (1891), with Hubert Waring, Maude 
 Millett, Marion Terry and Lady Monckton in the cast; 
 Wilde's Lady Windermere 's Fan (1892), which was the 
 dramatic ddbut of that witty writer and gave Marion 
 Terry one of her best parts; Carton's Liberty Hall 
 (1892), which was like a page from Dickens, and again 
 gave Marion Terry, together with Edward Righton, 
 opportunity for a particularly touching performance ; 
 The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), which made Mrs. 
 Patrick Campbell's reputation, and established that of 
 Pinero, who now crowned his popularity as a writer of 
 entertaining comedy with this triumphant assertion of 
 his claims as a serious dramatist; The Masqueraders 
 (1894) and The Triumph of the Philistines (1895), by 
 Henry Arthur Jones, both plays characteristic of their 
 author; The Importance of being Earnest (1895), a 
 delicious piece of witty nonsense from Oscar Wilde's 
 pen, acted in exactly the right vein by George Alex- 
 ander, Allan Aynesworth, Irene Vanbrugh, Evelyn 
 Millard and Rose Leclercq; The Prisoner of Zenda 
 (1896), for which H. B. Irving joined the company, and 
 its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau (1900); a revival of As 
 You Like It (1896), chiefly remarkable for Alexander's 
 Orlando and H. V. Esmond's Touchstone; Pinero's 
 fantastic comedy The Princess and the Butterfly (1897); 
 
208 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 a revival of Much Ado about Nothing (1898), with 
 Alexander as Benedick and Julia Neilson as Beatrice; 
 John Oliver Hobbes' The Ambassador (1898), in which 
 Alexander and Fay Davis distinguished themselves, as 
 they did in The Man of Forty (1900) and The Wisdom of 
 the Wise (1900); The Wilderness (1901), in which 
 Alexander was brilliantly assisted by Eva Moore ; 
 Stephen Phillips' verse drama Paolo and Francesca 
 (1902), in which Alexander was associated with Evelyn 
 Millard and Henry Ainley ; If I were King (1902), a 
 romantic drama with an effectually picturesque part for 
 Alexander as the poet Villon; Old Heidelberg (1903); 
 The Garden of Lies (1904); fohn Chilcote, M.P- (1905); 
 Pinero's comedy His House in Order (1906); Sutro's 
 fohn Glayde's Honour (1907); an adaptation of Bern- 
 stein's The Thief (1907) ; and Pinero's The Thunderbolt 
 (1908). In 1900 the interior of the St. James's was 
 remodelled and its comfort and convenience increased. 
 
 When Hare dissolved his partnership with the 
 Kendals, he found a new and suitable sphere for his 
 managerial activities in the newly erected Garrick 
 Theatre. There had existed from 1830, for about 
 fifteen years, a Garrick Theatre in Leman Street, 
 Whitechapel; but its position never rose above a very 
 low level, and it was quite forgotten long ere Hare's 
 Garrick arose. Hare opened his new house in April 
 1889 with Pinero's The Profligate, a play which was a 
 tentative effort in the style that reached its fruition in 
 The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, and was remarkable for at 
 least one scene as deftly constructed as anything in 
 modern drama. Taking his subject seriously, Pinero 
 had ended the play, as he considered legitimate and 
 logical, with the suicide of the "profligate" at the 
 moment when the irony of fate was bringing his wife to 
 him with pity and forgiveness. Hare, however, was 
 
THE KENDALS AND JOHN HARE. 209 
 
 afraid of an unhappy ending (this was in pre- Ibsen 
 days), and induced the dramatist to make a concession 
 to popular prejudice and let his hero live to effect a 
 reconciliation with his wife. In the printed version of 
 the play it ends as the author originally intended. 
 Hare contented himself with a small but telling part, 
 and was brilliantly supported by Forbes Robertson, 
 Lewis Waller and Kate Rorke. It is interesting to 
 compare the " Profligate's" last soliloquy in the printed 
 version of the play with poor Paula's pitiless analysis of 
 the hopeless situation at the close of The Second Mrs. 
 Tanqueray. 
 
 Hare's next production was Sydney Grundy's A Pair 
 of Spectacles in 1890. This, though nominally an 
 adaptation from the French, was in all essentials an 
 original comedy and one so delightful as to prove 
 permanently one of the most popular features of Hare's 
 repertory. Pinero's touching comedy Lady Bountiful, 
 which did not have by any means the success it 
 deserved, followed in 1891. Hare had a capital part in 
 this, as also did Forbes Robertson, Kate Rorke and 
 Marie Linden, and the whole was acted with a delicacy 
 that exactly suited it. In this Hare's son Gilbert made 
 his first London appearance ; and in a revival of School, 
 in the same year, H. B. Irving made his, as Lord Beaufoy. 
 
 Grundy's A Fool's Paradise (with H. B. Irving in a 
 more prominent part) followed in 1892, and Carton's 
 Robin Goodfellow in 1893. In the latter year the 
 Bancrofts reappeared with Hare in a revival of 
 Diplomacy, and again in a revival of Money in 1894. 
 The year 1895 was distinguished by the production of 
 Pinero's The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, a return to the 
 Profligate style of comedy, in which Forbes Robertson 
 and Mrs. Patrick Campbell (and afterwards Olga 
 Nethersole) undertook the chief parts. 
 
2IO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Hare then gave up the management of the Garrick, 
 and three years later started on a brief tenancy of the 
 Globe. Except for revivals of School, Ours and Caste 
 (in which Hare played the part of Eccles, and his son 
 Gilbert that of Sam Gerridge), this management was 
 only remarkable for the production of Pinero's comedy 
 The Gay Lord Quex (1899), in which Irene Vanbrugh 
 made a great impression by her realistic performance as 
 the heroine, Sophy Fullgarney. It is difficult to recall 
 anything better in its way than her acting and Hare's in 
 the finely written verbal duel that constitutes the third 
 act of this play. 
 
 Since then Hare's appearances in London have been 
 infrequent, the chief being in a revival of The Gay Lord 
 Quex at the Duke of York's in 1902, in Barrie's Little 
 Mary at Wyndham's Theatre in 1903, in a season 
 (which included Captain Marshall's The Alabaster Stair- 
 case) at the Comedy in 1906, and in The Great Conspiracy 
 at the Duke of York's in 1907. In the latter year he 
 began a series of farewell performances in the provinces 
 anticipatory of his retirement, and also received the 
 honour of knighthood. 
 
 After Hare's departure from the Garrick there is little 
 that is noteworthy in that theatre's history until Arthur 
 Bourchier became its manager in 1900, save for seasons 
 undertaken in 1895 and 1896 by E. S. Willard (who 
 produced Alabama and Jones' The Rogue's Comedy) and 
 by the Kendals with TJie Greatest of These in 1896. 
 After an enthusiastic amateur career at Oxford, 
 Bourchier had adopted the stage as a profession in 
 1889, and had played at the St. James's, with 
 Wyndham at the Criterion, and with Daly's company, 
 before making his first bid for fortune as a manager at 
 the Royalty in 1895. There, with the co-operation of 
 his wife (Violet Vanbrugh), he made a conspicuous 
 
THE KENDALS AND JOHN HARE. 211 
 
 success with The Chili Widow, a farce adapted from 
 the French. Subsequently he acted at the Garrick, the 
 Strand and the Court theatres, his Jim Blagden in 
 Carton's Wheels -within Wheels at the Court in 1899 
 being- memorable. Previous to his taking over the 
 Garrick Theatre he had acquired additional experience 
 by joining Charles Wyndham in partnership to manage 
 the Criterion when Wyndham went to act at the new 
 theatre that bears his name. 
 
 At the Criterion, in the early part of 1900, Bourchier 
 was concerned in the production of R. Marshall's His 
 Excellency the Governor, and Carton's Lady Huntworth's 
 Experiment. Later in the same year he opened his 
 management at the Garrick with Barrie's The Wedding 
 Guest, a touching but unsatisfactory play. In 1901 
 Pinero's Iris, a drama of almost unrelieved gloom, was 
 produced. In this Fay Davis and Oscar Asche played 
 the principal parts, the Bourchiers temporarily "stand- 
 ing out." It was followed in the next year by Anthony 
 Hope's refreshingly humorous Pilkerton's Peerage. In 
 the latter both Bourchier and his wife appeared, as they 
 have done in nearly every subsequent production at the 
 Garrick. Henry Arthur Jones has been represented 
 there by Whitewashing Julia in 1903, and The Chevaleer, 
 a comedy which deserved better fortune than it enjoyed, 
 in 1904. In the same year (1904) Gilbert's comedy The 
 Fairy's Dilemma was mounted. This was an attempt, 
 not wholly successful, to return to an earlier manner; 
 and, though many of the ideas were rich in humorous 
 possibilities, some of the fun appeared laboured. 
 
 At the close of 1904 Bourchier brought forward a new 
 dramatist in the person of Alfred Sutro, whose clever 
 play The Walls of Jericho, with its effective part for 
 Bourchier, made an impression which was to a great 
 extent maintained by The Fascinating Mr. Vanderveldtj 
 
212 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 from the same pen, in 1906. Sutro had, as a matter of fact, 
 been knocking- at the gates for many years before fortune 
 brought him the chance which he has been quick to seize. 
 Meanwhile, fired with Shakespearean ambition, 
 Bourchier mounted The Merchant of Venice in 1905, 
 and followed this in the next year with Macbeth. One 
 of the recent productions at the Garrick in which 
 Bourchier did not appear was that of W. J. Locke's 
 The Morals of Marcus in 1906. This was the occasion 
 of a little friction between the manager and the critics, 
 he having announced that, as a protest against the 
 haste with which the conditions of modern journalism 
 made it necessary for first-night criticism to be written, 
 he did not propose to invite the critics to the first per- 
 formance, but left it to their discretion to come when 
 they pleased and write about the play at their leisure. 
 Representations were made, however, as to the danger 
 of injustice to the author and actors if such a course 
 were pursued in, for it might happen that the critics 
 would stay away altogether! — and eventually a further 
 letter from the manager calmed the ruffled waters and 
 peace was restored. Bourchier's chief new productions 
 in 1907 were Gladys Unger's Mr. Sheridan, Valentine 
 and Francis' Fiander's Widow, and Murray Carson 
 and Norah Keith's Simple Simon. In the first half of 
 1908 the Garrick was occupied for a considerable time 
 by Maugham's clever comedy Lady Frederick, which, 
 originally produced at the Court in 1907, successfully 
 survived four or five migrations in the course of its 
 career. Bourchier's advance as a manager has been 
 rapid and decisive. He has shown enterprise and 
 judgment in his choice of plays, and a due liberality in 
 mounting them ; and the result, taken together with his 
 popularity as an actor and that of his gifted wife, is a 
 deserved success. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OTHER THEATRES CONCERNED WITH COMEDY AND FARCE. 
 
 When Toole died, in the summer of 1906, he had been 
 in retirement for more than ten years, and, except to 
 the older generation, he is little more than a name to 
 the playgoers of to-day. Yet fifteen or twenty years 
 ago he still enjoyed an enormous popularity, after 
 having been the idol of the public for thirty years. No 
 actor's popularity has ever been more warmly tinged 
 with personal affection, and the kindly heart of the man 
 deserved it no less than his honest and clean work in 
 promoting mirth. 
 
 He was only two and twenty when, after some 
 provincial experience, he had his first chance in London 
 at the St. James's. Two years later he was engaged 
 by Dillon for the Lyceum, where he remained for three 
 years, playing in company with Marie Wilton who was 
 making her London dibut. So good an impression did 
 he make that, when the favourite comedian Wright 
 retired from the Adelphi in 1858, Toole was chosen to 
 succeed him. The Adelphi saw the creation of two 
 parts that always remained favourites of his, Spriggins 
 in let on parte Frangais (1859) and Caleb Plummer in 
 Boucicault's Dot (1862), the former broadly farcical and 
 the latter a mixture of comedy and pathos. Then 
 followed six years as one of the principal comedians of 
 
 213 
 
214 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the Queen's Theatre in Longacre, where his fellow- 
 actors included Irving, Wigan, Ryder, Wyndham, 
 Clayton, Lionel Brough and Henrietta Hodson. 
 Toole's most ambitious effort there was the part of 
 Richard Eames in H. J. Byron's Dearer than Life in 
 
 1868. After that he migrated to the Gaiety, where, 
 except for the interruption of a tour in America from 
 1874 to 1875, he remained for the best part of ten years. 
 One of his earliest appearances there was in Byron's 
 Uncle Dick's Darling, in which Irving also acted, in 
 
 1869. Nellie Farren was already a member of the 
 Gaiety company, and played in a number of farces and 
 burlesques with Toole. 
 
 In 1879 Toole became manager of the Folly Theatre. 
 Built on the site of a Roman Catholic oratory, this 
 little house had arisen ten years previously as the 
 Polygraphic Hall. It was converted into a theatre, 
 and enjoyed a chequered career as the Charing Cross 
 Theatre until it was re-named the Folly Theatre in 1876 
 by Alexander Henderson, who managed it for three 
 years. Henderson's one great success was with the 
 comic opera Les Cloches de Corneville (1878), in which 
 Violet Cameron and Shiel Barry gave performances 
 that became famous. 
 
 Toole opened the Folly in 1879 with the ever-popular 
 Ici on parle Frangais and Byron's A Fool and his Money, 
 and for fifteen years made the little house a centre of 
 wholesome laughter. One of his earliest successes 
 there was with Byron's The Upper Crust in 1880. 
 He ran the theatre on " stock-company" lines, keeping 
 the same actors together with him as far as possible., 
 Billington, Shelton, and Sarah Thorne were among 
 those who served under him for many years. 
 
 In 1882 he re-christened the theatre Toole's Theatre ; 
 and with such farces as The Butler (1886), The Don 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 21 5 
 
 (1888), and burlesques of popular successes such as 
 Stage Dora in 1883 (parodying Fddora) and Paw 
 Clawdian in 1884 (parodying Wilson Barrett's pro- 
 duction of Claudian), kept the ball merrily rolling. 
 
 The Daly Company made their first London appear- 
 ance at Toole's Theatre in 1884, and other companies 
 were seen there in the manager's absence, particularly 
 during a tour he undertook in Australia in 1890. 
 During the last years of his management he produced 
 few new pieces, relying mainly on his repertory ; but in 
 1892 Barrie's first play, Walker, London, and in 1895 
 R. Lumley's farce Thoroughbred, were seen at Toole's. 
 
 Toole's last appearance on the stage was made in 
 1895, and his enforced retirement was clouded by 
 distressing illness which ended in his death in July 
 1906. His powers of drollery were accompanied by 
 a considerable command of homely pathos, and his 
 aptitude for travesty made his burlesque-acting 
 delightful. As a man he was the soul of kindliness. 
 His boyish sense of fun made him an inveterate 
 practical joker, but always without malice or intent 
 to harm ; and abundant testimony could be quoted as 
 to his capacity for staunch friendship, his affectionate 
 comradeship with Irving (to instance but one case) 
 having become proverbial. 
 
 Toole's Theatre was pulled down in 1896, and its 
 site is now occupied by an extension of the Charing 
 Cross Hospital buildings. 
 
 Sir Charles Wyndham, who is by many years our 
 senior theatrical manager, was originally intended for 
 the medical profession. Born in 1837, he served as a 
 surgeon in the Civil War in America. While in triat 
 country he made an abortive appearance on the stage 
 in New York. The story goes that he had a longish 
 speech to deliver on his entrance, beginning with the 
 
2l6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 words "I am drunk with enthusiasm"; but, being 
 absolutely overcome with stage-fright, he could only 
 manage to stammer out the words " I am drunk " and 
 rush from the stage, from which he was promptly 
 dismissed. ! 
 
 He clung to his fondness for acting, however, and 
 before he was thirty had made some fairly successful 
 appearances in the provinces, and in London at the 
 Royalty, where, according to Burnand, his agile 
 dancing made him conspicuous among the clever per- 
 formers of Burnand's burlesque of Black Eye'd Susan 
 in 1866. In 1867 he was at the St. James's, acting 
 heroes while Irving acted villains, and subsequently 
 supported Kate Terry in her farewell performances at 
 Manchester, playing such parts as Claudio and Laertes. 
 In October of the same year he was engaged as a 
 member of the company that opened the Queen's theatre 
 in Longacre, where he remained for two years and 
 established his reputation as an actor. At the 
 Queen's (famous as the dramatic nursery of several 
 future actor-managers) he had amongst his colleagues 
 Irving, Ellen Terry, Toole, Clayton, the Wigans and 
 Lionel Brough. 
 
 In 1869 he retrieved his former histrionic disaster in 
 New York by appearing successfully there as Charles 
 Surface ; after which he toured in America with a 
 company of his own for three years. In a production 
 of Caste during this tour, Wyndham played Hawtree 
 to the Sam Gerridge of George Giddens, who was 
 afterwards for so many years a member of Wyndham's 
 company at the Criterion. 
 
 One of the most popular plays in the "Wyndham 
 Comedy Company's " repertory in America had been 
 a play of Branson Howard's called Saratoga; and, on 
 his return to England, Wyndham made a great success 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 217 
 
 at the Court Theatre (in 1874) with an anglicised 
 version of this under the name of Brighton. It was 
 when he was at the height of this success that he was 
 offered a part share (with Alexander Henderson) of 
 the management of the Criterion Theatre, which had 
 enjoyed but little good fortune since its opening in 
 1874. Henderson, however, had faith in Wyndham's 
 powers of attraction ; the partnership was arranged ; 
 and it was in his popular part of Bob Sackett in 
 Brighton that Wyndham appeared for the first time, 
 in December 1875, at the house that was to be his 
 theatrical headquarters for three-and-twenty years. 
 
 The Criterion became rapidly popular, and famed for 
 its brilliant representations of farcical comedy. It is 
 only necessary to mention the most prominent of 
 Wyndham's early productions there. These include 
 Albery's Pink Dominoes, about whose "propriety" 
 certain critics raised a pother and thereby adver- 
 tised the play so well that it ran for nearly two 
 years; Burnand's Betsy (1879), in which Wyndham did 
 not act, employing himself with a season of Brighton at 
 the Olympic; Albery's Where's the Cat? (1880), in 
 which Wyndham was supported by Beerbohm Tree, 
 Giddens and Mrs. John Wood; Gilbert's Foggerty's 
 Fairy (1881), a whimsical comedy whose wit proved 
 too subtle for Criterion audiences in spite of the clever- 
 ness of a cast that included, besides Wyndham, 
 Giddens, Alfred Maltby, William Blakeley, Mrs. John 
 Wood and Mary Rorke; and Byron's Fourteen Days 
 (1882), for which Kate Rorke joined the company. 
 
 In 1883 Wyndham toured again in America, while 
 extensive structural alterations were made at the 
 Criterion, which he opened again in 1884 with a re- 
 vival of Brighton. This was soon followed by The 
 Candidate, which, somewhat unexpectedly, proved one 
 
 IS 
 
2l8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of the greatest Criterion successes, and ran from 
 November 1884 till January 1886. 
 
 A revival of Wild Oats in 1886 brought a new actress 
 before the public in the part of Lady Amaranth. This 
 was Mary Moore, whose professional partnership with 
 Wyndham has lasted ever since. David James, Edward 
 Righton, William Blakeley, Alfred Maltby, George 
 Gidderis and Annie Hughes were also with Wyndham 
 in this revival. In the same year Wyndham appeared, 
 with Mary Moore, in the piece which has proved the 
 most perennially popular of all his repertory, T. W. 
 Robertson's David Garrick. Wyndham has gained for 
 this play a popularity that far exceeds any that its 
 original exponent Sothern could achieve. He has, 
 moreover, translated the play into German; and as 
 both he and Mary Moore speak the language well, they 
 took the bold step of giving performances of the 
 German version at Liegnitz and in Berlin in 1887. 
 Their success was complete, news of it even reaching 
 the august ears of the Czar of Russia, at whose desire 
 the clever pair gave a series of performances of the play 
 in St. Petersburg and in Moscow. In the same year 
 they gave a " command performance " of it at Sandring- 
 ham, and again in 1903 at Windsor. 
 
 After playing John Mildmay in a capital revival-of 
 Still Waters Run Deep early in 1889, Wyndham pro- 
 duced Burnand's The Headless Man in the summer, an 
 occasion rendered memorable by the manager's colloquy 
 with a discontented man in the gallery, who was duly 
 brought to book. In the autumn of the same year 
 Wyndham started off on another successful American 
 tour. Three revivals followed on his return: She Stoops 
 to Conquer (1890), the chief feature of which was 
 Giddens' admirable Tony Lumpkin, London Assurance 
 (1890), and The School for Scandal (1891). In the last- 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 219 
 
 named, Wyndham played Charles Surface to the Joseph 
 of Arthur Bourchier. William Farren was the Sir 
 Peter, and the cast included Mrs. Bernard Beere, Mary 
 Moore, Giddens, Cyril Maude and Ellaline Terriss. 
 
 After a brilliant record with light comedy, the 
 Criterion now began to acquire a reputation for work 
 of a more solid nature. Henry Arthur Jones' comedy 
 The Bauble Shop was produced in 1893, to be followed 
 by a less serious work from the same pen in The Case 
 of Rebellious Susan (1894). Carton's The Home Secretary 
 (1895) brought Charles Brookfield, Lewis Waller, 
 Sydney Brough, and Julia Neilson to join the Criterion 
 company, and in the same writer's The Squire of Dames 
 (1895) Fay Davis was seen with Wyndham and Mary 
 Moore. Messrs. Parker and Carson's pretty comedy 
 Rosemary proved very much to the taste of the public in 
 1896; and in the following year Wyndham mounted 
 two more plays by Henry Arthur Jones, The Physician, 
 which was only moderately successful, and The Liars, 
 which made its mark at once and has borne the test 
 of revival. Messrs. Parker and Carson's romantic 
 "costume" play The f est was the chief production of 
 1898, and the spring of 1899 saw the too brief run of 
 Haddon Chambers' clever comedy The Tyranny of 
 Tears. 
 
 In November 1899 Wyndham opened the new theatre 
 (in Charing Cross Road) which bears his name. There 
 is very little to be said in favour of this growing 
 practice of christening theatres with the names of 
 living actors. Toole began the practice, but his theatre 
 disappeared with him. The practice, moreover, leads 
 to such anomalies as a Wyndham's Theatre in which 
 Wyndham is rarely seen, a Terry's Theatre in which 
 Terry is now almost never seen, and one of the most 
 popular theatres in the town (Daly's) named after an 
 
220 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 American manager who is dead. The Hicks Theatre 
 (opened in 1907) is the latest example of this mistake. 
 
 Wyndham's Theatre was opened with various 
 revivals, the first new production being an English 
 version of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac in the summer 
 of 1900. This ambitious effort not meeting with the 
 success Wyndham had hoped for, he turned again to 
 Henry Arthur Jones, who had on many occasions fitted 
 him admirably with a part. The play that resulted, 
 Mrs. Dane's Defence, advanced Lena Ashwell's reputa- 
 tion and presented Wyndham in a character of the type 
 in which his maturer powers excel, — that of a tender- 
 hearted, keen-witted man of the world, who is the 
 deus ex machina of the plot. The Mummy and the 
 Humming Bird by Isaac Henderson (1901) and Davies' 
 Mrs. Gorringe's Necklace (1903) were other new plays 
 produced at this house by Wyndham. 
 
 In 1902 Wyndham received the honour of knight- 
 hood; and in the following year became proprietor of 
 yet another theatre, the New Theatre (in St. Martin's 
 Lane), where his most successful new production has 
 been Davies' Captain Drew on Leave (1905) which 
 contained excellent parts for himself, Mary Moore and 
 Marion Terry. In the last few years Wyndham has 
 been seen now at one and now at another of his 
 theatres, often in revivals of former successes, the 
 theatres being tenanted by various companies during 
 his absences. 
 
 At Wyndham's, for example, Lena Ashwell and 
 H. V. Esmond were seen to some advantage in Henry 
 Arthur Jones' Chance, the Idol, in 1902 ; and Barrie's 
 Little Mary, which proved to be a practical joke in the 
 form of a play that was excellently interpreted by Hare, 
 Nina Boucicault and other clever folk, was produced in 
 1903. Other miscellaneous plays produced at this 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 221 
 
 theatre include Pinero's comedy A Wife "without a 
 Smile in 1904, Carton's Public Opinion in 1905, and 
 an adaptation of Mrs. De la Pasture's Peter's Mother 
 in 1906. In 1907 James Welch caught the public's 
 fancy at Wyndham's with a fantastic comedy When 
 Knights "were Bold, which had a long run. 
 
 At the New Theatre, Cyril Maude and the Haymarket 
 company (during the reconstruction of their theatre) 
 produced Beauty and the Barge in 1904, Lena Ashwell 
 made a considerable impression in Leah Kleschna in 
 1905, and Julia Neilson and Fred Terry were seen in 
 "romantic" drama in The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1905, 
 Dorothy o' the Hall in 1906, and Matt 0' Merrymount in 
 1907. In 1907, also, Vachell's Her Son was played 
 there. 
 
 After his departure from the Criterion, Wyndham 
 retained an interest in the house and for a time 
 managed it in partnership with Arthur Bourchier, the 
 latter actor appearing there in Carton's Wheels within 
 Wheels (a revival), and Lady Hunlworth's Experiment, in 
 1900. Among the various pieces that have since been 
 seen there may be mentioned Esmond's Billy's Little 
 Love Affair, in 1903, with a cast that included Eva 
 Moore and Florence St. John; Capt. Marshall's The 
 Duke of Killicrankie, in 1904 ; The Freedom of Suzanne, 
 which exhibited Marie Tempest as a comedian of the 
 first rank, in 1904; and in 1905 Bowkett's Lucky Miss 
 Dean, in which Ethel Irving gave the first conspicuous 
 evidence of powers of comedy that have since been 
 triumphantly asserted in Lady Frederick. In 1907 
 Wyndham and Mary "Moore were once more seen at 
 the Criterion, in a revival of The Liars and the 
 production of H. H. Davies' comedy The Mollusc. 
 
 Hare's successor in the management of the Court 
 Theatre was Wilson Barrett, who had already made a 
 
222 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 considerable provincial reputation and had managed 
 theatres at Leeds and Hull. He was at the Court, but 
 without much success, from the autumn of 1879 to the 
 summer of 1881, the most memorable feature of his 
 management being his introduction of the Polish 
 actress Mme. Modjeska to English audiences. His 
 company at this time included Coghlan, Arthur Dacre, 
 Mrs. Leigh Murray and Amy Roselle. 
 
 In 1881, when Barrett went to the Princess's Theatre, 
 the Court was taken over by John Clayton, a sound 
 actor who started with a company comprising fellow- 
 comedians of such calibre as Mrs. John Wood, Marion 
 Terry, Mrs. Tree and Arthur Cecil. The last-named 
 joined Clayton in the managership in 1884. A fair 
 amount of success attended the venture for the first 
 three or four years, the chief productions being 
 Godfrey's The Parvenu in 1882, Pinero's The Rector in 
 1883, Godfrey's The Millionaire in 1883 and My 
 Milliner's Bill in 1884, and Bronson Howard's Young 
 Mrs. Winthrop in 1884. For the last-named play, 
 Lydia Foote and Rose Norreys joined the company at 
 the Court. 
 
 It was in the final three years of its life, however, 
 that the old Court enjoyed its greatest popularity. This 
 was due to Pinero's inimitable series of farces, The 
 Magistrate (1885), The Schoolmistress (1886) and Dandy 
 Dick (1887). Pinero struck a new vein of purely English 
 humour at a moment when the public was wearying of 
 adaptations of doubtful French farces, and he worked it 
 with consummate skill. Observing the proper canon of 
 farce — namely, that one should place possible personages 
 in possible but improbable circumstances — he brought to 
 bear on this an ingenuity in construction, a skill in 
 dialogue and a capacity for eccentric characterization 
 that made these plays irresistible, acted as they were 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 223 
 
 with all possible point and spirit by the Court company. 
 None that saw them are likely to forget Arthur Cecil's 
 "Mi. Posket" in The Magistrate, Clayton's "Dean of 
 St. Marvell's" in Dandy Dick, and his "Admiral 
 Rankling" and Rose Norreys' "Peggy Hesselrigg" in 
 The Schoolmistress, or Mrs. John Wood's matchless 
 acting in all three farces, culminating in her triumph as 
 " Georgina Tidman " in Dandy Dick. 
 
 The old Court was pulled down in 1887, and in 
 September 1888 the present house was opened under the 
 management of Mrs. John Wood and Arthur Chudleigh. 
 Arthur Cecil remained a member of the company until 
 1891 ; Clayton had died in the early part of 1888. 
 
 The new house opened with Grundy's Mamma, in 
 which Hare, Annie Hughes and Rosina Filippi appeared 
 with Mrs. Wood and Arthur Cecil. Save for a season 
 played by the Kendals in 1889, and the production of 
 Pinero's The Cabinet Minister in 1890, the history of the 
 first years of the new Court offers few points of interest. 
 The Cabinet Minister was very strongly cast; besides 
 the usual Court " principals," Weedon Grossmith, Allan 
 Aynesworth, Eric Lewis, , Herbert Waring and Eva 
 Moore were seen in it. It was revived by Cyril Maude 
 at Wyndham's Theatre in 1906. 
 
 Such farces as The Late Lamented (1891), Aunt Jack 
 (1889), and The Volcano (1891), were carried to success 
 mainly on the tide of Mrs. Wood's personal popularity 
 and the vigour and vitality of her acting. She appeared 
 at the Criterion in 1892 in Haddon Chambers' The Old 
 Lady, and was not seen again at the Court until 1895. 
 Meantime various entertainments were tried at the 
 Court with varying fortunes, and in 1893 Pinero made ;i 
 return, with The Amazons, to the manner of his successes 
 of the old Court days. The play was a delightfully 
 humorous fantasy, and was acted in just the right spirit 
 
224 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 by Rose Leclercq, Lily Hanbury, Pattie Browne, Ellaline 
 Terriss, Kerr, Elliott and Weedon Grossmith. 
 
 In 1894 Olga Nethersole was seen at the Court in 
 A. W. Gattie's The Transgressor ; and, later on, Charles 
 Hawtrey, Lottie Venne and Eva Moore in Burnand's A 
 Gay Widow. In 1895 Mrs. Wood returned with God- 
 frey's Vanity Fair, in which her old colleague Arthur 
 Cecil reappeared with her; and in the same year she 
 gave a characteristic and irresistibly funny performance 
 of Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, to William Farren's 
 Sir Anthony. In the spring of 1896 she joined Hawtrey 
 and Lottie Venne in a revival of Mrs. Ponderbury 's Past, 
 this being the close of her long connection with the 
 Court, which was at once invaded by the already 
 ubiquitous "musical comedy." In the autumn of the 
 same year Mrs. Wood was seen at Drury Lane as 
 Lady Janet Macintosh in the spectacular drama The 
 White Heather. 
 
 Hare played a season at the Court in 1897, with 
 revivals of previous successes ; this was followed by a 
 charming fairy tale, The Children of the King, which 
 was beautifully played by Martin Harvey, Dion Bouci- 
 cault, Cissie Loftus and a clever company, but failed 
 to make the success its qualities merited. 
 
 The next year saw the production of a very character- 
 istic Pinero comedy, Trelawny of the Wells, in which 
 Irene Vanbrugh played the chief female part; and in 
 1899 the Court was the scene of the production of 
 Carton's Wheels within Wheels and Marshall's A 
 Royal Family. 
 
 Subsequently a long spell of ill fortune seemed to 
 fasten upon the house, only to be removed when 
 attention began to be directed to it once more by the 
 activities of the Stage Society, several of whose 
 performances took place there in 1903 and 1904. This 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 225 
 
 body was the historical, if not the actual, outcome of 
 an earlier body, the Independent Theatre, that had 
 been founded in 1891 for the purpose of the production 
 of meritorious plays which, for whatever reason, were 
 unlikely to be produced by the ordinary manager. 
 
 The Independent Theatre existed as a corporate body 
 from 1891 to 1897, its performances taking place either 
 at the Opera Comique or the Royalty Theatres. The 
 production of a translation of Ibsen's Ghosts was one 
 of its first efforts, and George Moore's The Strike at 
 Arlingford (1892), Bernard Shaw's Widowers' Houses 
 (1893) and The Philanderer (1894), Michael Field's A 
 Question of Memory (1893) and Todhunter's The Black 
 Cat (1894) were among the native plays that it produced. 
 Its mantle fell upon the Stage Society, which came into 
 existence in 1899 and has since then been instrumental 
 in a number of interesting productions. Apart from 
 translation of foreign plays by such dramatists as Ibsen, 
 Maeterlinck, Hauptmann, Gorki, and Brieux some of 
 its main productions have been as follows : — in its season 
 of 1899 to 1900, Shaw's You Never Can Tell, Olivier's 
 Mrs. Maxwell's Marriage, Fiona Macleod's The House 
 of Usna and Shaw's Candida; in 1900, Shaw's Captain 
 Brassbound's Conversion; in 1901, Murray's Andro- 
 mache; in 1902, Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession and 
 Granville Barker's The Marrying of Ann Leete ; in 1903 
 Maugham's A Man of Honour and Shaw's The Admirable 
 Bashville; in 1904, Browning's A Soul's Tragedy, 
 Fenn and Pryce's 'Op '0 me Thumb, and Yeats' Where 
 there is Nothing; in 1905, Street's Great Friends and 
 Shaw's Man and Superman; in 1906, Benson's Dodo 
 and Hankin's The Cassilis Engagement. 
 
 These plays were performed at various theatres, as 
 opportunity offered. In 1903 and 1904 certain of them 
 were produced at the Court; from 1901 onwards, the 
 
226 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 presence of the Press was invited, and the attention 
 thus directed to the theatre helped to create there an 
 audience which made possible the spirited independent 
 management that was begun in 1904 by Messrs. Barker 
 and Vedrenne. Shaw's John Bull's Other Island (1904) 
 was one of their earliest productions, and this writer's 
 trenchant pen provided them with a large proportion of 
 the entertainment they offered their audiences. 
 
 The Barker and Vedrenne management was a notable 
 effort, in respect of being undertaken primarily with an 
 artistic aim; it ''discovered" a great amount of new 
 talent in the way of acting, and not a little in the way of 
 play-writing; its stage-management was masterly; it 
 steadily set its face against long runs, and so acquired 
 a repertory ; and the result was a gratifying response on 
 the part of the intelligent public and a considerable 
 measure of financial success, so much so that in 1907 
 the management felt justified in removing the sphere of 
 their operations from the Court to the roomier Savoy 
 Theatre. Their place at the Court was taken by Otho 
 Stuart, who started management there in 1907 with 
 Mackay and Ord's Barry Doyle's Rest Cure, and 
 Maugham's Lady Frederick. 
 
 Among the new plays produced by Barker and 
 Vedrenne at the Court may be mentioned: Murray's 
 Hippolytus and Granville Barker's Prunella in 1904; 
 Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband, Mrs. De la 
 Pasture's The Lonely Millionaires, Murray's Trojan 
 Women, Mrs. Ward's Eleanor, Hankin's The Return of 
 the Prodigal, Barker's The Voysey Inheritance and 
 Shaw's Major Barbara, all in 1905; and, in 1906, 
 Galsworthy's The Silver Box, Hankin's The Charity that 
 began at Home, Murray's Electra and Shaw's The 
 Doctor's Dilemma. 
 
 The Barker-Vedrenne management at the Savoy, 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 227 
 
 which only lasted for a few months, began in the 
 autumn of 1907 with a revival of Shaw's You Never Can 
 Tell and a production of the same author's The DeviTs 
 Disciple. Later in the same year Shaw's Ccesar and 
 Cleopatra was produced, and a revival of his Arms and 
 the Man. The prohibition, by the Censor, of the per- 
 formance of Granville Barker's Waste gave a fresh 
 impulse to the agitation for the abolition of the Censor- 
 ship. The play was privately produced by the Stage 
 Society in December 1907. 
 
 Other independent bodies, somewhat similar in con- 
 stitution to the Independent Theatre and the Stage 
 Society, are the Elizabethan Stage Society and the 
 Mermaid Society (afterwards called the English Drama 
 Society), both existing for the revival of old plays ; the 
 New Century Theatre, which performed Murray's 
 Hippolytus in 1904; and the Literary Theatre Society, 
 which produced Sturge Moore's Aphrodite against 
 Artemis in 1906. 
 
 The Comedy Theatre, which for a score of years has 
 justified its name, was opened in 1881 with comic opera, 
 which held the boards there till 1884. Since then, 
 under a variety of managers, comedy has been pretty 
 consistently its programme, and a fair number of plays 
 whose memory lingers in the playgoer's memory have 
 seen the light there. To name the chief of these: 
 Grundy v s The Silver Shield, with Kate Rorke, Dacre 
 and Amy Roselle in the cast, in 1885 ; Outram Tristram's 
 The Red Lamp, in 1887, in which Beerbohm Tree was 
 assisted by Charles Brookfield, Marion Terry, Lady 
 Monckton and Rosina Filippi ; Von Moser's The Arabian 
 Nights, with Hawtrey, Lottie Venne and Penley in the 
 cast, in 1887; Sunset and Woodbarrow Farm, two 
 delicate little pieces by Jerome K. Jerome, in 1888; 
 Grundy's Sowing the Wind in 1893 and The Neno Woman 
 
228 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 in 1894, in both of which Winifred Emery added to her 
 laurels, supported in the former by Cyril Maude, Sydney 
 Brough, Annie Hughes, Rose Leclercq and Alma 
 Murray; Barrie's The Professor's Love Story, with E. S. 
 Willard in the chief part, in 1894; Pinero's The Benefit 
 of the Doubt (1895), a tragi-comedy in which Winifred 
 Emery and Cyril Maude each gave as finished a piece of 
 acting as any in their careers ; Grundy's The Late Mr. 
 Castello, in which Winifred Emery again scored, in 
 1896; a tenancy of the theatre by Charles Hawtrey from 
 1896 to 1898, during which he was seen to advantage in 
 Esmond's One Summer's Day (1897), and in Carton's 
 A White Elephant (1896) and Lord and Lady Algy (1898) ; 
 Esmond's When we were Twenty-one (1901), played by 
 the American actors Natt Goodwin and Maxine Elliott; 
 Welch's entertaining farce The New Clown in 1902, and 
 in the same year Lewis Waller with Monsieur Beaucaire, 
 a play which has ever since proved the trump card in his 
 managerial hand; Hare's season in 1906, with revivals 
 and with Capt. Marshall's The Alabaster Staircase; 
 Barrie's Punch and fosephine in 1906; and, in 1907, 
 Peter's Mother, memorable for Marion Terry's acting, 
 Raffles, in which Gerald Du Maurier distinguished 
 himself, and Clyde Fitch's The Truth, in which Marie 
 Tempest added to her reputation. In the late autumn 
 of 1907 Marie Tempest appeared at the Comedy in 
 Sutro's The Barrier, and subsequently in Duval and 
 Lennox's Angela; in 1908, in Carton's Lady Barbarity 
 and Maugham's Mrs. Dot. 
 
 Like the Comedy, the Avenue Theatre (which was 
 opened in 1882) began its career with comic opera, and 
 comedy was not seen there till George Alexander chose 
 it as the sphere of his first essay in management with 
 Dr. Bill in 1890. It was a house that never enjoyed the 
 success its location would seem to ensure, but it has 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 229 
 
 taken a certain share in the history of contemporary 
 comedy. After Dr. Bill, Alexander produced Carton's 
 pleasant Sunlight and Shadow there in 1890, taking the 
 latter play with him when he went to the St. James's 
 early in 1891. In the late months of 1891 Henry Arthur 
 Jones took the unusual course of undertaking manage- 
 ment at the Avenue for the production of one of his 
 plays. The experiment was not a success, despite the 
 fact that the play, The Crusaders, was decidedly inter- 
 esting and was acted by a strong company of players 
 that included Winifred Emery, Arthur Cecil, Lewis 
 Waller, Weedon Grossmith, Henry Kemble, Yorke 
 Stephens, Allan Aynesworth, Lady Monckton and Olga 
 Brandon. 
 
 The Kendals played a season at the Avenue in 1893, 
 and Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man was produced 
 there in 1894 under the management of Florence Farr, 
 who had begun her venture with Ibsen's Rosmersholm. 
 The unconventional manner in which Shavian realism 
 dealt with the personality of a gallant soldier gave rise 
 to acrimonious discussion, and was of no little service 
 in drawing wider attention to a dramatist whose work 
 had so far been seen only under the auspices of the 
 Independent Theatre. 
 
 In 1895-96 Hawtrey was at the Avenue with Mrs. 
 Ponderbury's Past and other farces ; in 1897 Forbes 
 Robertson and Mrs. Patrick Campbell were seen there 
 in Nelson's Enchantress ; and in 1898-99 Hawtrey was 
 back with Carton's Lord and Lady Algy (transferred 
 from the Comedy), Brookfield's The Cuckoo, and 
 Ganthony's A Message from Mars, the last proving 
 a great success. 
 
 The theatre's subsequent history, up to its demolish- 
 ment by the Charing Cross Station catastrophe in 
 1905, offers little of note, except for the production of 
 
230 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Weedon Grossmith's farce The Night of the Party in 
 1901, Maugham's thoughtful comedy A Man of Honour 
 in 1904, and Carton's Mr. Hopkinson (with James 
 Welch in the chief part) in 1905. Rebuilt as The 
 Playhouse, the theatre was re-opened in 1907 by Cyril 
 Maude, as has already been recorded. 
 
 The Novelty Theatre in Great Queen Street, which 
 dates from 1882, followed the then prevailing fashion 
 by opening with comic opera. Its career till lately has 
 not been fortunate, owing partly no doubt to its 
 location, and it has been four times re-christened in 
 the hope of breaking a seemingly persistent bad luck. 
 After having been successively known as the Folies 
 Dramatiques, the Jodrell (after the name of a temporary 
 manageress), and the Great Queen Street Theatre, it 
 was opened by Lena Ashwell in the autumn of 1907 as 
 the Kingsway Theatre, with A. P. Wharton's striking 
 drama Irene Wycherley, which was followed in 1908, 
 with an equal success, by Cicely Hamilton's Diana of 
 Dobson's. In the Novelty's earlier days a farce by 
 T. G. Warren, called Nita's First (1884), had been 
 among its few successful ventures. Various comedians 
 at different times tried their fortunes at the Novelty, 
 and a Russian Opera company and German Comedy 
 companies have been seen there, but all with small 
 success. Now, however, Miss Ashwell's spirited and 
 intelligent management bids far to make the house one 
 of the most popular in London. 
 
 The Prince of Wales's Theatre in Coventry Street 
 was, at its opening in 1884 and for two years later, 
 known as the Prince's Theatre, to avoid confusion with 
 the old Prince of Wales's in Tottenham Street. Its 
 first manager was Edgar Bruce (who had been the last 
 manager of the old Prince of Wales's), and from the 
 opening of the theatre Beerbohm Tree, who had made 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 23 1 
 
 his first success at the old house, was a member of his 
 company. A revival of Gilbert's The Palace of Truth 
 was the opening piece ; and it is curious to recall that 
 shortly afterwards, although the Ibsen "boom" did 
 not begin till fully five years later, an adaptation (by 
 Messrs. Jones and Hermann) of what was known in 
 later translations as The Doll's House was produced, 
 under the title of Breaking a Butterfly, at the Prince's 
 in 1884. 
 
 In 1884 were also seen The Private Secretary (which, 
 though but a partial success at the Prince's, had so 
 prosperous a career subsequently at the Globe with 
 Penley in the part originally played by Tree), and 
 Called Back, in which Tree made his mark as Macari. 
 During the next ten or twelve years there is nothing of 
 much note in the history of the house, save for the 
 success of the comic opera Dorothy (which was trans- 
 ferred there from the Gaiety in 1886), a dramatization 
 of Alice in Wonderland in 1887, and Little Lord 
 Fauntleroy, with Annie Hughes in the name-part, in 
 1888. In the 'nineties, comic opera and the then 
 novel form of entertainment known as "musical 
 comedy " for the most part held the boards, until 
 Forbes Robertson and Mrs. Patrick Campbell (in 
 1898-99) came there to produce Maeterlinck's Pdlle'as 
 and Melisande, C. B. Fernald's The Moonlight Blossom, 
 George Fleming's entertaining satire The Canary. In 
 1900 Martin Harvey occupied the house with an 
 elaborate romantic play called Don Juan's Last Wager, 
 and Marie Tempest with English Nell. The latter play 
 had a rival in Sweet Nell, of Old Drury (another Nell 
 Gwynne play) which Julia Neilson and Fred Terry pro- 
 duced at the Haymarket in the same year. In 1901 
 Hawtrey produced, at the Prince of Wales's, Anstey's 
 The Man from Blankley's (which was revived at the 
 
232 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Haymarket in 1906) ; in the same year Marie Tempest 
 was seen in Peg Woffington and Annie Hughes in A 
 Country Mouse; and in 1902 Marie Tempest again 
 in Becky Sharp. Of late years the Prince of Wales's 
 has again been the home of "musical comedy," which 
 will be dealt with in another chapter. 
 
 In 1887 Terry's Theatre was opened by Edward 
 Terry, a comedian whose previous work had been 
 chiefly concerned with burlesque. After a six or seven 
 years' apprenticeship at the Surrey and Strand Theatres, 
 he went to the Gaiety in 1875 and remained there till 
 1884, sharing with Royce, Nellie Farren, and Kate 
 Vaughan the honour of making " Gaiety burlesque" 
 an institution in the town. Five months after the 
 opening of his theatre, Terry scored a remarkable 
 success with Pinero's pretty play Sweet Lavender, 
 which ran from March 1888 to January 1890 and has 
 since been more than once revived. Terry has never 
 been better suited than in the part of the good-hearted 
 ne'er-do-weel Dick Phenyl; Fred Kerr, Maud Millett, 
 and other clever people were also well suited, and, in 
 spite of its tendency to sentimentality, the play is so 
 full of humour and the milk of human kindness that its 
 popularity is not surprising. Pinero's In Chancery 
 (1891), which had been originally seen at the Gaiety 
 seven years earlier, was fairly fortunate at Terry's ; and 
 later in the year Terry produced the same writer's The 
 Times, an excellent comedy that did not have all the 
 success it merited. In it Terry was furnished with a 
 part after his own heart, and was admirably seconded 
 by Fanny Brough ; in the cast were also Esmond, 
 Elliot, Fred Thorne, Helena Dacre and Annie Hill. 
 Since then Terry has been but rarely seen at his 
 own theatre, being mostly occupied in touring the 
 provinces. 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 233 
 
 Of the miscellaneous pieces produced at Terry's of 
 late years may be mentioned: Thornton Clark and 
 L. N. Parker's well-written comedy Gudgeons (1893), with 
 Waring, Murray Carson and Janette Steer in the cast ; 
 Law's farce, The New Boy (1894), which was afterwards 
 transferred to the Vaudeville; Stephens and Yardley's 
 The Passport (1895), in which Gertrude Kingston gave 
 a delightful portraiture of absent-minded femininity, 
 with Giddens, Maltby, Yorke Stephens and Fanny 
 Coleman as her associates ; Madeline Ryley's Jedbury 
 Junior (1896), a play of mingled humour and sentiment 
 that gave Fred Kerr and Maud Millett opportunity to 
 repeat a very successful partnership at this theatre; and 
 (after a long interval, sometimes filled by spasmodic 
 productions of comic opera, such as The French Maid 
 in 1898 and Lady Molly in 1904) H. A. Jones' comedy 
 The Heroic Stubbs in 1906. 
 
 The theatre now known as the Duke of York's was 
 opened with comic opera under Frank Wyatt's manage- 
 ment, in September 1892, as the Trafalgar Square 
 Theatre. Its three years of life under its original name 
 were not prosperous, despite such temporary attractions 
 as Charles Hawtrey's appearance in a farce, Tom, Dick, 
 and Harry, in 1893, and the comparative success of 
 H. Graham's comedy The County Councillor, in the 
 same year, with Cyril Maude, Fanny Brough and the 
 author in the cast. 
 
 In 1895 the house was re-named the Duke of York's, 
 and soon passed under the enterprising control of 
 Charles Frohman, a justly esteemed American manager 
 who has acquired extensive theatrical interests in this 
 country. For two or three years Lewis Waller and 
 Evelyn Millard were his " stars." They were associated 
 in Anthony Hope's The Adventure of Lady Ursula, a 
 slight but pleasing piece whose effect was largely 
 
 16 
 
234 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 dependent on the author's skill in dialogue, in 1898; 
 Hall Caine's The Christian (of which a revised edition 
 was presented at the Lyceum under a "popular" 
 management eight years later) in 1899; and H. A. 
 Jones' The Lackey's Carnival and Parker's The Swash- 
 buckler in 1900. In 1901 Marie Tempest advanced her 
 reputation as a comedy actress in The Marriage of 
 Kitty. Neither a translation of Fulda's The Twin 
 Sister (with the chief characters played by H. B. Irving 
 and Lily Brayton) nor H. A. Jones' The Princess's Nose 
 achieved much success in 1902; but amends were 
 fully made in the same year by Barrie's extremely 
 clever play The Admirable Crichton, interpreted by a 
 cast that included H. B. Irving, Irene Vanbrugh, 
 Gerald Du Maurier and Henry Kemble. This was 
 revived in 1908. Pinero's Letty, in 1903, was a great 
 personal success for Irene Vanbrugh, and Hope's 
 Captain Dieppe (in 1904) for H. B. Irving, while both 
 scored in a revival of His Excellency the Governor in 
 1904. Barrie's Alice Sit-by-the-Fire (1905) had the merit 
 of exhibiting Ellen Terry in a congenial and suitable 
 part; and in the same year, with Peter Pan, a delight- 
 ful "nursery tale" written for children of all growths 
 by a man who understands them, Barrie made one of 
 the best deserved and most remarkable successes of 
 recent years. Peter Pan was triumphantly revived in 
 1906 and 1907, and at the present time there seems to 
 be every expectation that it may recur regularly as a 
 Christmas piece. Its hero and his companions have 
 become familiar figures in children's imaginations, and 
 the play itself a nursery classic. 
 
 In 1906 Barrie's Pantaloon was seen at the Duke of 
 York's, as well as the farce, Toddles, with which Cyril 
 Maude afterwards inaugurated his new theatre ; and, in 
 1907, The Great Conspiracy (which not even the powers 
 
COMEDY AND FARCE. 235 
 
 of Irene Vanbrugh and Hare could make a success) 
 and Brewster's Millions, with Gerald Du Maurier in the 
 name-part. The latter play was transferred to the 
 Hicks Theatre, a house opened in 1907 in Shaftesbury 
 Avenue, where later in the same year H. A. Jones' The 
 Hypocrites was produced. 
 
 Yet another new theatre, the Queen's, was opened in 
 1907 (on a site adjoining that of the Hicks Theatre) 
 with a comedy by Mrs. Ryley entitled The Sugar Bowl, 
 the chief part in which was played by Ellis Jeffreys. 
 
 An outstanding feature of the dramatic history of the 
 past fifteen or twenty years is the great diminution in 
 the number of adaptations from foreign farcical sources 
 (mainly French) that had for so long provided the 
 programmes at most of our comedy theatres. Indeed 
 the wheel has turned to such effect that nowadays 
 adaptations of English comedies, from Pinero and 
 Shaw downwards, are constantly seen upon foreign 
 stages; and, when our theatres produce adaptations of 
 foreign pieces, the proceeding is usually warranted by 
 the merits of the originals. Another fact of good 
 augury is the number of "new men" that have recently 
 come to the front as dramatists. The work we have 
 had from such writers as Barrie, Shaw, Sutro, Locke, 
 Maugham, Davies and Horniman, may well be taken 
 to inspire hope for the future. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MELODRAMA, ROMANTIC AND "DOMESTIC" DRAMA. 
 
 If the playgoer of to-day — or rather, of yesterday — 
 were asked what actors represented melodrama to his 
 memory, he would unhesitatingly say "Wilson Barrett 
 and William Terriss." Each of the two was over- 
 whelmingly popular in this branch of their art ; but 
 melodrama as they knew it has, since their death, 
 disappeared from the first-class theatres, save for the 
 wonderful spectacular pieces that each autumn brings 
 forth at Drury Lane. Its popularity with less sophis- 
 ticated audiences, however, is perennial. A striking 
 instance of this has been furnished recently by the 
 Lyceum, which, having failed as a music-hall, is en- 
 joying success with emotional melodrama at popular 
 prices. It may be that from this another Wilson 
 Barrett or another Terriss may emerge ; but for the 
 present these two are without successors to their special 
 gifts and irresistible personalities. 
 
 Wilson Barrett, after his brief management at the 
 Court (which was dealt with in the preceding chapter) 
 became manager of the Princess's Theatre early in 1881 
 and was connected with it till 1889. He found his 
 "line" as a melodramatic actor in G. R. Sims' play 
 The Lights of London (1881), which was followed in the 
 next year by the same writer's Romany Eye. Barrett's 
 
 236 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 237 
 
 most memorable success at the Princess's, however, 
 came later (in 1882), with Henry Arthur Jones and Henry 
 Hermann's The Silver King, which ran for more than a 
 year, has been often revived, and is one of the best melo- 
 dramas our stage has seen. Barrett's full-blooded style 
 was exactly suited to the direct appeal of manliness and 
 pathos demanded from the melodramatic heroes he im- 
 personated ; and in the case of The Silver King he was 
 provided with an admirable foil in the person of E. S. 
 Willard, who decisively laid the foundation of his 
 future popularity by his acting in the part of a villain 
 of a type then new to melodrama, — the polished and 
 "gentlemanly," as opposed to the usual lurid and 
 truculent, villain. Claudian (by Wills and Hermann) 
 which followed in 1883 is chiefly remembered by its 
 realistic representation of an earthquake. In these two 
 plays, as in others for many years subsequently, 
 Barrett was supported in the heroine's part by Mary 
 Eastlake, an actress of genuine power and much 
 charm, who had graduated at the Criterion under 
 Wyndham. 
 
 In 1884 Barrett's ambition led him to play Hamlet. 
 It was a straightforward, rather hysterical, performance 
 that aroused considerable discussion by its occasional 
 violation of tradition, and was signalized by a curious 
 little bit of self-revelation on the actor's part when he 
 made his speech before the curtain at the close of the 
 play on the first night. "Twenty-five years ago," 
 said Barrett, "a poor and almost friendless lad stood 
 outside the walls of the Princess's and determined to 
 devote his last sixpence to the enjoyment in the gallery 
 of one of the celebrated revivals of Charles Kean. 
 Coming out of the theatre he swore to himself that not 
 only would he become manager of that theatre, but 
 that in the distant future he would play Hamlet on that 
 
238 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 very spot. Ambition is in this instance satisfied; for 
 the little boy was myself, and I have played Hamlet 
 before you this evening'." 
 
 After an elaborate revival of Lytton's Junius in 1885, 
 Barrett essayed dramatic authorship in collaboration 
 with H. A. Jones. Neither Hoodman Blind (1885) nor 
 The Lord Harry (1886), which resulted from this 
 collaboration, was an unqualified success; more atten- 
 tion was aroused by Sidney Grundy's Clito (1886), in 
 which Mary Eastlake was able to display unsuspected 
 powers of emotional acting in the part of the courtesan 
 Helle. 
 
 While Barrett undertook an American tour, the 
 Princess's was occupied in 1887 by H. Hamilton's 
 Harvest, in which Amy Roselle appeared, and Gillette's 
 Held by the Enemy; and in 1888 by Grace Hawthorne 
 with Pettitt's melodrama Hands Across the Sea. While 
 the latter play was in progress Barrett played a short 
 season at the Globe, and returned later in the year to 
 the Princess's with The B 'en-ma- Chree, founded by him- 
 self and Hall Caine on that novelist's book "The 
 Deemster." This was followed in 1889 by two plays, 
 neither of which was successful, The Good Old Times, 
 by Caine and Barrett, and Nowadays, by Barrett alone. 
 This was the end of Barrett's connection with the 
 Princess's, and in 1890 he undertook another American 
 tour. He had been, perhaps laudably, anxious to 
 emerge from melodrama to a higher type of play; but 
 the fact remained that it was to the less subtle forms of 
 drama that his methods and powers were best suited, 
 and his chief successes were obtained subsequently, 
 as they had been previously, in melodrama. 
 
 There is little to record in the later history of the 
 Princess's, save for a sumptuous revival of Antony and 
 Cleopatra by Mrs. Langtry in 1890. Melodrama after- 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 239 
 
 vards held its boards at various times, but with little 
 advantage to those who adventured on its management. 
 G. R. Sims and A. W. Shirley's Two Little Vagabonds 
 (1896) was practically the only new production that was 
 received with favour ; and at the time of writing the 
 theitre has been closed for some years. 
 
 On his return from America, Wilson Barrett opened 
 the New Olympic in 1891 with a play, called The 
 People's Idol, written by himself and Victor Widnell. 
 It cid not attract, and was followed by revivals of 
 forrr.er successes. After this Barrett attempted no 
 more permanent London managership, but toured the 
 provinces, with occasional visits to the metropolis. He 
 was to some extent rewarded for previous failures by 
 the favour extended to his acting and that of Maud 
 Jefferies in an adaptation from Hall Caine's The Manx- 
 matt at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1895 ; and still more 
 by the great popular success of his "religious" melo- 
 drama, The Sign of the Cross, at the Lyric in 1896. An 
 attempt to follow up the same vein with the Daughters 
 of Babylon at the same theatre in the following year 
 was not successful, neither was his production of 
 Makers of Men (by himself and L. N. Parker) at the 
 Lyceum in 1899. In 1898, and again in 1902, he 
 toured in Australia, working pluckily (and not without 
 reward) to retrieve his fortunes. An effective actor of 
 the "robustious'' type, but without much real skill in 
 the differentiation of character, he enjoyed a great 
 personal popularity, and was esteemed as a good 
 manager and a good man. The decline of his popu- 
 larity as an actor, at all events with the more sophisti- 
 cated London audiences, was due to the fact that his 
 ambitions outran his powers. He died, at the age of 
 fifty-eight, in 1904. 
 
 William Terriss, the darling of Adelphi audiences, 
 
240 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 made his first London appearance in 1868, under the 
 Bancrofts. His engagement with them was obtained 
 by sheer persistence on his part, as is amusingly told in 
 the Bancrofts' "On and Off the Stage." It was sorae 
 time, however, before his restless disposition allovyed 
 him to settle down finally to what became his pro- 
 fession. Before trying an actor's life, he had been in 
 turn sailor, tea-planter and engineer, and his earliest 
 appearances in London were sandwiched between 
 attempts at sheep-farming in the Falkland Islands 
 and horse-breeding in Kentucky. From 1873, how- 
 ever, he stuck steadily to the stage and was able, by 
 working cheerfully at whatever part came in his yay, 
 to develop his very considerable powers of acting. JHis 
 handsome and manly personality was, all his life') an 
 asset of the greatest value to him. . \ 
 
 The impression he made as Squire Thornhill in Olivia 
 at the Court Theatre in 1878, and his subsequent wfcirk 
 at the St. James's, earned him his engagement by 
 Irving for the Lyceum, where he first appeared as 
 Chateau Renaud in The Corsican Brothers in 1880. 
 Between 1880 and 1885 he played, with Irving, sixh 
 parts as Sinnatus in The Cup, Cassio, Laertes, 
 Bassanio, Mercutio, and Don Pedro. A noteworthy 
 result of his going with the Lyceum company to 
 America in 1883 - 84 Was his enterprise in inducing 
 the Daly company to visit London for the first time. 
 In 1885, after he had repeated at the Lyceum his 
 former success in Olivia, he was induced to go to 
 the Adelphi, to play in melodrama. 
 
 At the Adelphi, which since 1879 had been managed 
 by the brothers Gatti, Terriss succeeded Charles 
 Warner, who had been the mainstay of a succession 
 of melodramas. These had been mainly from the pens 
 of Henry Pettitt and G. R. Sims, and had exactly 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 24 1 
 
 gauged the expectations and likings of Adelphi 
 audiences. In the Ranks, produced in 1883, was one 
 of their most typical successes. The chief successes 
 of Terriss's first engagement at the Adelphi were in 
 The Harbour Lights (1885), The Bells of Haslemere 
 (1887) and The Union Jack (1888). In the last two 
 plays Pettitt had Sydney Grundy for his collaborator. 
 
 After a tour in America in 1889, Terriss rejoined his 
 old chief at the Lyceum, to appear in Ravenswood in 
 1890, Claudio in Much Ado about Nothing in 1891, the 
 King in Henry VIII. in 1892, and Henry II. in Becket 
 in 1893 ; and to go again to America with Irving in the 
 tour of 1893-94. On his return to England, he left 
 Irving and went back to the Adelphi, where, except 
 for an appearance at the Haymarket in Grundy's A 
 Marriage of Convenience in 1897, he spent the rest of 
 his life. Though this may have been regrettable, with 
 regard to the fact that his powers were equal to more 
 than the demands made on them by the somewhat 
 elementary characterization of the average Adelphi 
 melodrama, it is easy to understand the compelling 
 attraction of the opportunity to "star" instead of 
 supporting a " star." Be that as it may, the fact 
 remains that there was never an "Adelphi hero" like 
 Terriss. He revelled in his work and in the astonishing 
 manner in which he retained his physical qualifications 
 for the task, and to the end of his life (which was so 
 cruelly cut short) he enjoyed an unclouded popularity. 
 His principal appearance at the Adelphi during these 
 years were in an ultra-sensational play The Fatal Card, 
 by Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson, in 1894, 
 Fyles and Belasco's The Girl I left Behind Me, Brandon 
 Thomas and Clement Scott's The Swordsman's Daughter 
 (in which Terriss • played his only elderly part), and 
 Seymour Hicks and George Edwards' One of the Best 
 
242 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 (suggested by the Dreyfus episode), all in 1895 ; 
 Haddon Chambers and Comyns Carr's Boys Together 
 in 1896 and the same authors' In the Days of the Duke 
 and Gillette's Secret Service in 1897. It was during 
 the run of Secret Service that he was assassinated on 
 leaving the theatre, in December 1897. 
 
 With Terriss the glories of " Adelphi drama" dis- 
 appeared, and small success repaid the attempt that 
 was made to keep it alive subsequently. Since then 
 the theatre has had a variety of tenants, but no 
 coherent history. In 1901 it was for a brief and 
 unfortunate space known, after extensive reconstruc- 
 tion, as the Century Theatre ; in the following year a 
 wise return was made to the old name. Olga Nether- 
 sole and Wilson Barrett were among those who 
 tempted fortune at the Adelphi in the early 'nineties. 
 Of late years its most interesting and ambitious 
 management has been that of Oscar Asche, who, 
 with his clever wife Lily Brayton, has been instru- 
 mental in producing several romantic and poetical 
 dramas. At the Adelphi they produced Fagan's The 
 Prayer of the Sword (1904) and Besier's The Virgin 
 Goddess (1905), both of them plays that deserved a 
 longer life than the public accorded them, as well as a 
 spirited revival of The Taming of the Shrew. With the 
 same laudable enthusiasm for the poetic drama, they 
 produced Laurence Binyon's Attila in the course of a 
 season at His Majesty's in 1907, when they also revived 
 As You Like It with Lily Brayton as Rosalind and 
 Asche as Jaques. 
 
 Of other actors who distinguished themselves in 
 melodrama, two prominent names are those of Charles 
 Warner and Henry Neville. Warner, though more 
 recently remembered for his prowess in melodrama 
 at the Adelphi in- the days immediately preceding 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 243 
 
 Terriss's advent there, previously went through a 
 miscellaneous histrionic training that turned him out 
 a very finished and capable actor. His first appear- 
 ance on the stage was made as far back as 1861, and 
 his first marked success in Byron's Daisy Farm at the 
 Olympic ten years later. From January 1875 he was 
 one of the cast in the triumphant domestic comedy Our 
 Boys at the Vaudeville, after which his acting was on 
 more strenuous lines. He was conspicuously successful 
 in The Danischeffs at the St. James's in 1877 and in 
 Clement Scott's Odette at the Haymarket in 1882 ; 
 and subsequently with Marie Litton at the Imperial. 
 In 1879 he first gave, at the Princess's, the performance 
 with which his name is most bound up, that of Coupeau 
 in Drink, a piece of realistic acting worthy to rank 
 with Irving's Duboscq in The Lyons Mail. After a 
 fine performance of Othello (considered by many to 
 be the finest given by any contemporary English actor) 
 at Sadler's Wells, he went to the Adelphi, where he 
 played melodramatic heroes for five years till Terriss 
 succeeded him. 
 
 Henry Neville is remembered more consistently as a 
 melodramatic actor, having laid the foundation of his 
 fame in that line by a striking performance in Tom 
 Taylor's The Ticket of Leave Man in 1863 at the 
 Olympic, which theatre Neville subsequently managed 
 from 1873 to 1879. He was seen also at the Princess's, 
 the Opera Comique, and various other houses, always 
 compelling popularity by his virile and straightforward 
 acting; and in later years, from the days of Human 
 Nature in 1885, was the mainstay of several successive 
 "autumn melodramas" at Drury Lane. 
 
 E. S. Willard is a conspicuous instance of a fine 
 actor whose powers ripened in a course of melodrama. 
 After initial experience in the provinces, he attracted 
 
244 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 attention in The Lights of London at the Princess's in 
 1881, and for five years afterwards remained with 
 Wilson Barrett as leading- villain in his productions. 
 His "Spider" in The Silver King, a finished piece of 
 highly-coloured character acting, was the performance 
 that first showed him to be possessed of powers above 
 the average; but it was not until he was emancipated 
 from Princess's melodrama that he realized his full 
 powers in Jim the Penman at the Haymarket in 
 1886. 
 
 Following on this came his two years at the 
 Shaftesbury, from 1889 to 1890. That theatre had 
 been opened in the previous year by Miss Lancaster 
 Wallis, an actress of some distinction in romantic 
 drama, with a production of As You Like It, Miss 
 Wallis playing Rosalind, Forbes Robertson Orlando, 
 and Mackintosh Touchstone. It was not a successful 
 venture, however; and the new house enjoyed but little 
 popularity till Willard came there. He obtained a 
 great personal triumph in Henry Arthur Jones' The 
 Middleman, in the part of the old potter Cyrus 
 Blenkarn. Arthur Law's Dick Venables succeeded The 
 Middleman in 1890, but was not so successful ; and the 
 same year saw the production of two more plays by 
 Henry Arthur Jones, Judah and The Deacon. The 
 latter of these attracted very little attention ; while 
 Judah, though it aroused plentiful discussion as to its 
 ethics, had not as long a life as it deserved. In it 
 Willard was well seconded by Olga Brandon, an 
 intelligent and promising emotional actress (now dead) 
 who is also remembered by her share in the perform- 
 ance of Hypatia at the Haymarket in 1893. 
 
 America now began to hold out inviting hands, and 
 Willard made in 1890 his first tour in the country that 
 was subsequently his home for many years. His 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 245 
 
 appearances in London since then have been all too 
 few. An actor of ripe experience, well equipped with 
 mental and physical advantages and with a thorough 
 knowledge of his craft, he appeared at one time 
 destined to inherit Irving's mantle ; but America was 
 insistent. Thus London has seen little of Willard of 
 late years. In 1894 he produced Barrie's sentimental 
 idyll The Professors Love Story at the Comedy, and 
 in 1895 Alabama and Henry Arthur Jones' The Rogue's 
 Comedy at the Garrick. 
 
 The history of the Shaftesbury Theatre after Willard's 
 tenancy is that of restless change. In 1890 Miss Wallis 
 tried, with The Pharisee, to retain the popularity that 
 Willard had brought to the house; and since then 
 almost every kind of entertainment has found a home 
 there, — -Italian opera, musical comedy, comic opera, 
 melodrama, farce, romantic comedy, negro comic 
 opera, and French and Sicilian "shockers." Hall 
 Caine's The Manxman was seen there in 1895; 
 Ogilvie's poetic play The Sin of St. Hulda, with Kate 
 Rorke as its heroine, in 1896; and in 1898 the strepitous 
 but undeniable success of The Belle of New York caused 
 English musical comedy to "hustle" in emulation. 
 
 The romantic "domestic" drama, as distinct from 
 melodrama, found a home for a long time at the 
 Vaudeville Theatre under David James and Thomas 
 Thome's management. The Vaudeville's earliest days 
 (it was opened in 1870) are identified with Albery's The 
 Two Roses, in which Irving made his first "hit" as 
 Digby Grant. After that came a succession of comedies 
 and farces, of which Our Boys (with its four years' run 
 from 1875 to 1879) and The Guv' nor (1880) were the 
 most prominent, before the house settled down to a 
 series of plays of the nature just indicated. In the 
 early 'eighties there were some capital revivals there, 
 
246 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the names of Warner, Farren, Neville, David James, 
 Thorne, Mrs. Stirling, Mrs. John Wood and Winifred 
 Emery being among those on their bills; and a serious 
 drama, Henry Arthur Jones' Saints and Sinners (pro- 
 duced in 1884), was responsible for some animated 
 controversy and fluttered the dovecotes of the phari- 
 saically inclined. After that came five prosperous years 
 of pleasingly romantic and mildly humorous plays, 
 such as Henry Arthur Jones' Heart of Hearts in 1887, 
 and Robert Buchanan's series of plays, Sophia (1886), 
 Joseph! s Sweetheart (1888), Dr. Cupid (1889), Clarissa 
 Harlowe and Miss Tomboy (1890). A good revival of 
 She stoops to Conquer in 1890 was followed in 1891 by 
 Jerome K. Jerome's Woodbarrow Farm, and a series 
 of matinees at which several of the Ibsen plays were 
 produced. 
 
 Lighter fare followed, such as Buchanan's The Strange 
 Adventures of Miss Brown (1895), with Fred Kerr, 
 Lionel Brough, M. A. Victor and May Palfrey in the 
 cast; The Romance of the Shopwalker (1896), with 
 Weedon Grossmith, David James and Nina Boucicault; 
 and A Night Out (1896), which was a jovial adaptation 
 from the French vigorously interpreted by Giddens, 
 Sugden, Wyes, Fanny Ward and others. The last- 
 named play was revived by Giddens at the Criterion in 
 1907. 
 
 The house had been remodelled in 1891, and in 
 1892 its management was undertaken by the Brothers 
 Gatti, who began with a revival of Our Boys. An 
 interim of musical-comedy succeeded the plays detailed 
 above, Her Royal Highness being produced in 1898; 
 and in 1900 a musical version of Alice in Wonderland 
 was given. In 1901 the attraction was again " domestic 
 comedy " as interpreted by Seymour Hicks and Ellaline 
 Terriss in Sweet and Twenty, followed by Barrie's 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 247 
 
 charming Quality Street (1902), for which Marion Terry 
 joined the company. The same year saw a very pretty 
 Christmas piece in Seymour Hicks' Bluebell in Fairy- 
 land, which he followed up, in 1903, with an equally 
 attractive fanciful play, The Cherry Girl. 
 
 More recently the Vaudeville has been occupied by 
 musical comedy — The Catch of the Season (1904) and 
 The Belle of May/air (1906) — and, after the success of 
 these, by comedy with Charles Hawtrey as its principal 
 exponent. He revived Brookfield's The Cuckoo there 
 in 1907, and in 1908 produced Brookfield's Dear Old 
 Charlie and Maugham's Jack Straw. In the latter 
 Lottie Venne shared the honours of the acting with 
 Hawtrey. 
 
 The Globe Theatre, which existed from 1868 to 1902, 
 was a good deal concerned with the romantic drama, 
 though in its chequered career almost every kind of 
 dramatic entertainment was presented on its stage. Its 
 change of management was frequent, and its fortunes 
 usually precarious. Miss Jennie Lee was first seen 
 there in Jo (a sentimental adaptation from "Bleak 
 House") in 1876; Tennyson's The Promise of May made 
 its memorable failure there in 1882, under the manage- 
 ment of Mrs. Bernard Beere, who followed it up in the 
 same year with a lurid dramatic.version of Jane Eyre; 
 and in 1883 Ada Cavendish produced Buchanan's Lady 
 Clare, an adaptation of Ohnet's Le Maitre de Forges. 
 Then came a spell of comedy and farce which has been 
 alluded to elsewhere, followed by a short season of 
 Wilson Barrett's in 1888. Shakespeare produced by an 
 American actor, Richard Mansfield, in 1889 was 
 succeeded in the following year by Shakespeare as 
 presented by F. R. Benson's company, the latter's 
 performance of A Midsummer NigMs Dream being one 
 of their happiest efforts. 
 
248 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 They were succeeded by comic opera, and that by 
 farce again, with Penley in the irresistible Charley's 
 Aunt, which was brought to the Globe from the Royalty 
 in 1893. There is little more to note in the records of 
 the house till its latest years. In 1898, when the public, 
 aweary of problem-plays, was turning for relief to the 
 "cloak and rapier" drama, there were two rival pro- 
 ductions of dramatic versions of Dumas' most famous 
 romance. At the Globe, Henry Hamilton's The Three 
 Musketeers was produced with Waller as D'Artagnan 
 and Mrs. Waller as Miladi ; while at His Majesty's, in 
 Grundy's The Musketeers, Tree and Mrs. Brown Potter 
 were playing the corresponding parts. 
 
 Hare's season at the Globe in 1899 was notable for 
 the production of Pinero's The Gay Lord Quex which has 
 been alluded to in a previous chapter; and in 1901 Julia 
 Neilson and Fred Terry, who specialize in romantic 
 comedy, were seen there in the already popular Sweet 
 Nell of Old Drury which they had produced in the 
 previous year at the Haymarket. In 1902 the Globe 
 Theatre ceased to exist. 
 
 Of the popular successes of Julia Neilson and Fred 
 Terry, the most prominent, besides Sweet Nell of Old 
 Drury, have been Sunday at the Comedy Theatre in 
 1904, The Scarlet Pimpernel, which was first seen at 
 the New Theatre in 1905, and Dorothy 0' the Hall, also 
 produced at the New Theatre, in 1906. 
 
 The Lyric Theatre, which was opened with the already 
 famous comic opera, Dorothy, in 1889, adhered (except 
 for the production of Buchanan's Sweet Nancy in 1890) 
 appropriately to that form of entertainment for some six 
 or seven years. For the last ten years, however, 
 romantic drama has been frequently seen there since 
 Wilson Barrett's melodramatic success with The Sign oj 
 the Cross in 1896. There have also been several musical 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 249 
 
 productions, as will be recorded in the next chapter. 
 Forbes Robertson's season in 1902 to 1903 was respons- 
 ible for two successes with Mrs. Ryley's Mice and Men 
 (1902) and a dramatic version, by George Fleming, of 
 Kipling's The Light that Failed (1903). Martin Harvey, 
 a talented romantic actor who was trained at the Lyceum 
 in Irving's day, has been more than once seen at the 
 Lyric; and more recently Lewis Waller has been a 
 frequent tenant with, amongst other productions, his 
 perennial success Monsieur Beaucaire, a Robin Hood 
 play in 1906, and a revival of Othello in which he played 
 the Moor's part to the Iago of H. B. Irving. In 1907 
 Waller produced The Little Admiral and revived Tom 
 Taylor's LadyClancarty, his "leading lady'' being Evelyn 
 Millard. In 1907, also, was produced a romantic comedy 
 by H. V. Esmond, Under the Greenwood Tree, with the 
 American actress Maxine Elliott in the chief part. 
 
 Waller was the most successful manager of the New 
 Imperial Theatre, which was the lineal descendant of 
 the old Aquarium Theatre that was originally an integral 
 part of the now demolished Westminster Aquarium. In 
 the early 'thirties there had existed a Westminster 
 Theatre on the same site. The Aquarium Theatre was 
 opened in 1876 under the management of Edgar Bruce, 
 and in 1879 passed into Marie Litton's hands and was 
 by her re-named the Imperial. Her management (which 
 lasted till 1880) was excellent from the artistic point of 
 view, and was marked by one of the best revivals of 
 As You Like It that has been given of recent years. 
 Kyrle Bellew, Lionel Brough, Farren and Mrs. Stirling 
 were among her company. Mrs. Langtry played at the 
 Imperial for a season in 1881-82; and in 1883 Edgar 
 Bruce again became its manager. Soon afterwards, 
 however, it lost all favour with playgoers, and for 
 some years ceased to exist as a theatre- 
 
 17 
 
250 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 In 1901, after an almost entire reconstruction had 
 converted it into a convenient and handsome house, it 
 was reopened by Mrs. Lang-try as the New Imperial 
 Theatre, with a play entitled A Royal Necklace. In 
 spite of courageous efforts, the management was hardly 
 a success; and in 1903 Waller (who had been a member 
 of Mrs. Langtry's company), took over the house and 
 controlled its fortunes for three years. His trump 
 card, Monsieur Beaucaire, was played there for some 
 time, and he also revived (among other things) 
 his fine production of Henry V. His chief new 
 productions were The Harlequin King and Brigadier 
 Gerard, 
 
 Previously Ellen Terry had been seen at the Imperial 
 for a short season in 1903. She started with The 
 Vikings, a translation of an early Ibsen play ; but, as 
 this met with small success, she followed it with a 
 revival of Much Ado about Nothing. For both these 
 productions the dresses, scenery and effects of lighting 
 were designed and devised by her son, Gordon Craig, 
 who has unconventional theories on such matters. 
 Whether, in the result, their effectiveness is as remark- 
 able as their unconventionality, is a matter that may be 
 questioned. He had previously put his ideas to the test 
 in the staging of R. G. Legge's poetical play, For Sword 
 or Song, that was produced by Julia Neilson and Fred 
 Terry at the Shaftesbury in 1903. 
 
 In 1906 the Imperial was tenanted for a while by 
 Martin Harvey, who produced a play called Boy 
 O'Carrol. Martin Harvey has never yet attempted a 
 lengthy management, but has had two prominent 
 successes, which have been often revived, The Only Way 
 (which he produced originally at the Lyceum in 1899), 
 and A Cigarette- Maker 's Romance, founded on Marion 
 Crawford's story, which he first gave at the Apollo 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 251 
 
 Theatre in 1901. In 1907 some Stage Society per- 
 formances were given at the Imperial. 
 
 The beautiful Scala Theatre, built by Dr. Maddick 
 on the site of the Bancrofts' Prince of Wales's, was 
 opened in 1905 by Forbes Robertson with R. E. Fyffe's 
 The Conquerors. It did not succeed, and Forbes 
 Robertson fell back on revivals; but it would have 
 needed an emphatic initial success to draw playgoers so 
 far northwards. The Scala is too far from the centre of 
 things to compete successfully with the older theatres, 
 and not far enough away (or so, apparently, it has been 
 thought at present) to rank as a suburban theatre and 
 be managed on the lines of those. It is a pity, for it is 
 a well-planned and unusually handsome house. Except 
 for performances of Wills' A Royal Divorce in 1906, and 
 Calmour's The Judgment of Pharoah, a spectacular 
 melodrama, in 1907, the Scala has only been the 
 scene of ephemeral dramatic experiments. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that there were in the last 
 century a number of other theatres, besides those of 
 the first rank, that played (and, some of them, still 
 play) melodrajna and domestic drama to audiences 
 vociferous of their approval. Some of them maintained 
 stock companies up to quite recent times, and stood 
 on a footing different from the suburban theatres of 
 to-day, which rely on touring companies to occupy their 
 boards. 
 
 Of those whose life proved longest, the Grand 
 Theatre at Islington, the Britannia at Hoxton, the 
 Elephant and Castle, the Standard at Shoreditch, and 
 the Pavilion at, Whitechapel are the chief. The 
 Islington "Grand" was transformed from a music- 
 hall into a theatre in 1870 and devoted itself largely 
 to comic opera. It was burned in 1882; a second house 
 was opened in 1883 and burned in 1887; a tbird was 
 
252 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 built in 1888 and burned in 1900. A very popular house 
 in every way, it latterly used to attract audiences from 
 other regions than its own by the excellence of its 
 pantomimes. The Britannia at Hoxton is remarkable 
 as having been under one management for nearly fifty 
 years ; that is to say, though its original manager died 
 after conducting it from 1841 to 1849, his widow, Mrs. 
 Sarah Lane, managed it from 1849 to 1899, keeping up 
 a competent stock-company for melodrama and panto- 
 mime, and regulating its affairs in such a manner as to 
 win general esteem. The Elephant and Castle, in the 
 New Kent Road, built in 1872 and reconstructed thirty 
 years later, has ,been another popular house of melo- 
 drama and pantomime. The Shoreditch Standard 
 Theatre was also notorious for a good stock-company; 
 it dates from 1835, was burned in 1867 and rebuilt in 
 1868. The Pavilion in Whitechapel was opened in 
 1829, and suffered the common fate by burning in 
 . 1856. Of late years, in a reconstructed form, it has 
 been the home of melodrama written in Yiddish. 
 
 Of extinct or forgotten theatres of the same class 
 may be mentioned the Royalty in Wellclose Square, 
 which was opened in 1787, known as the London 
 Theatre from 1810, burned in 1826, and rebuilt, but 
 destroyed by the fall of the roof before it could be 
 re-opened; the Albion, in Windmill Street, Haymarket, 
 which existed from 1832 to 1836; the Westminster 
 Theatre, which existed for about the same period on 
 the site now occupied by the Imperial; the Royal Kent 
 Theatre, in High Street, Kensington, which lived from 
 1834 to 1840; the Grecian Theatre, in Shepherdess 
 Walk, which was opened in 1832, was the scene of 
 Robson's earlier efforts before he went to the Olympic, 
 was managed (with melodrama and pantomime) by 
 George Conquest for many years, and had in its stock 
 
MELODRAMA AND ROMANTIC DRAMA. 253 
 
 company such actors as Harry Nicholls, Herbert Camp- 
 bell, Arthur Williams and Kate Vaughan ; the Clarence 
 Theatre, King's Cross, which had not a very reputable 
 record; and the Park Theatre, Camden Town, which 
 was opened in 1871, re-christened the Alexandra in 1873 
 and burned in 1881. 
 
 It will be convenient here, before passing on to 
 lighter topics in the next chapter, to make brief 
 mention of the Ibsen performances which aroused such 
 noisy discussion in London in the late 'eighties and 
 early 'nineties. "Ibsenism" was as much a cult with 
 some as an irritant to others ; and the fact that the 
 "Ibsenite" persisted in obscuring Ibsen's merits as a 
 dramatist by dilating overmuch on his philosophy of 
 life was probably largely to blame for the antagonism 
 aroused. The ethical value of these plays, even their 
 importance in the history of contemporary drama, are 
 matters open to discussion ; but as to Ibsen's great 
 ability as a playwright there can be no dispute. His 
 knowledge of theatrical effect was complete and his 
 characterization clear-sighted and uncompromising ; 
 while the compelling power (even in translation) of his 
 rigidly terse dialogue was, when heard on the stage, a 
 revelation to those who had only known his plays in the 
 study. His methods have undoubtedly influenced the 
 dramatic writing of to-day, and in the main the 
 influence has been salutary. It has been, for instance, 
 largely responsible for the disappearance of the "solilo- 
 quy" and the "aside" in serious drama, as well as for 
 a far stricter regard for verisimilitude in dialogue 
 and action. He had no respect for mere theatricality, 
 and his plays taught audiences to be impatient of it. 
 That in itself was an advance ; and in many respects 
 Ibsen's craftsmanship has formed a model for succeed- 
 ing dramatists. The earliest of his plays to be 
 
254 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 adequately translated and performed were The Pillars 
 of Society, first played at a matinee at the Gaiety in 
 1880, and The Doll's House, which was given at the 
 Novelty in 1889. Ghosts was given (in private perform- 
 ances) at the Royalty in 1891, and in the same year 
 Hedda Gabler and Rosmersholm at the Vaudeville and 
 The Lady from the Sea at Terry's; The Master Builder 
 at the Duke of York's, and The Enemy of the People at 
 the Haymarket, in 1893; The Wild Duck at the 
 Royalty in 1894; Little Eyolf at the Avenue in 1896; 
 John Gabriel Borkman at the Strand in 1 897 ; and 
 When We Dead Awaken at the Imperial in 1903. 
 
 Even so brief a survey of the romantic drama as has 
 been possible in this chapter would be incomplete with- 
 out mention of the excellent touring companies main- 
 tained by F. R. Benson and Ben Greet. The former of 
 these is particularly deserving of praise for good 
 all-round performances of Shakespeare, and for con- 
 stituting a training-school whose excellence has been 
 proved by the many good actors who have emerged 
 well equipped from its ranks. Greet's company is 
 equally praiseworthy in its degree, and was one of the 
 first to recognize the possibilities of "pastoral plays" 
 given in the open air. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MODERN BURLESQUE, COMIC OPERA AND MUSICAL COMEDY. 
 
 The earlier days of burlesque as written by Planch^, 
 Gilbert, Byron, Burnand and Reece, have been incident- 
 ally dealt with in preceding chapters. The Olympic, 
 the Royalty and the Strand were then the houses identi- 
 fied with this form of entertainment, though till the 
 early 'seventies there were few theatres whose evening's 
 entertainment did not include a one-act burlesque, 
 either as a curtain-raiser or to play the audience out. 
 From the 'eighties onward the house chiefly associated 
 with burlesque in playgoers' memories is the Gaiety, 
 where it was expanded to a three-act entertainment, 
 and occupied the bill by itself. Planch^'s " classical " 
 burlesques and Gilbert's extravaganzas were a thing 
 apart, in respect of invention and originality of idea. 
 Byron's, Burnand's and Reece's burlesques depended, 
 for their fun, largely on verbal fireworks and the 
 excruciating possibilities of the pun, a form of humour 
 that had lived (and possibly out-lived) its day by the 
 time "Gaiety burlesque" disappeared with Fred Leslie's 
 death and Nellie Farren's withdrawal from the stage. 
 William Brough, another burlesque writer of the Byron 
 and Reece school, deserves to be remembered for one of 
 the best puns on record, which occurs in his Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold. Henry VIII. ha,s crossed from Dover to 
 Calais in very bad weather and has suffered accordingly, 
 
 255 
 
256 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 whereupon, to his courtiers endeavouring to cheer him 
 from his despondency, he says : 
 
 "Yesterday all was fair — a glorious Sunday, 
 But this sick transit spoils the glory d Monday.'' 
 
 The original Gaiety Theatre was built on the site of 
 a defunct music-hall, and was opened under John 
 Hollingshead's management in December 1868. The 
 opening programme comprised (as was then customary) 
 three items: a one-act operetta, a three-act comedy- 
 drama called On the Cards, and Gilbert's "operatic 
 extravaganza" Robert the Devil. Hollingshead was 
 shrewd and careful in choosing his company. Alfred 
 Wigan and Madge Robertson headed the list; Nellie 
 Farren was engaged with an eye to burlesque, and her 
 husband, Robert Soutar, as stage-manager. Of those 
 engaged for singing parts, Constance Loseby, who 
 came from the music-hall stage, and Charles Lyall, who 
 came from Covent Garden Opera, were the principal. 
 John Dauban was the principal dancer, and the scenery 
 was painted by one of the best scenic artists of the day. 
 From the first there were "no fees" at the Gaiety in 
 Hollingshead's time, a welcome reform afterwards 
 copied by several theatres but unfortunately in danger 
 of becoming entirely abandoned in the present day. 
 As Hollingshead points out, however, in his "Gaiety 
 Chronicles," the abolition of fees was not his own 
 invention ; it had been begun at Covent Garden and at 
 Webster's Adelphi, but only carried out in a half- 
 hearted manner at both houses. 
 
 In the twelve years that preceded the institution of 
 "three-act burlesque" at the Gaiety, Hollingshead had 
 produced there a bewildering variety of comedies, 
 operettas and burlesques, whose number had been 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 257 
 
 augmented by the frequent performance of new plays at 
 "trial matinees," an institution which he inaugurated. 
 Besides his strong comedy and burlesque combination 
 (which by this time had been joined by Royce, Edward 
 Terry and Kate Vaughan), such names as those of 
 Toole, Irving, Clayton, Phelps, Mathews, Vezin, Lionel 
 Brough, Arthur Cecil, Forbes Robertson, Adelaide 
 Neilson, Marie Litton, Mrs. John Wood and Rose 
 Leclercq appear on the bills of plays given at the Gaiety 
 in its early days. Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated for 
 the first time in Thespis, which was seen at the Gaiety 
 in 1871 ; it had become the recognized home of French 
 companies when they came to play in London, Sarah 
 Bernhardt making her first London appearance there in 
 1879; in short, as Hollingshead said in a notice to the 
 public in December 1880, "long runs had been the 
 exception and infinite variety the rule, the variety 
 covering the whole area of dramatic entertainments." 
 It was in this notice that Hollingshead used the phrase 
 "the sacred lamp of burlesque" that became classic in 
 connection with the Gaiety. 
 
 The first of the series of three-act burlesques was 
 Reece's The Forty Thieves, in 1880. Its success was 
 immediate, thanks to the ability and popularity of the 
 quartette of performers — Royce, Terry, Nellie Farren 
 and Kate Vaughan — who carried it through. In 1881 
 came Aladdin, Hollingshead's newspaper advertisement 
 of which was a characteristic composition : "Aladdin — 
 a favourable specimen of the New School of Burlesque, 
 in which artistic dancing is substituted for the cellar- 
 flap breakdown, in which the music is carefully selected 
 and executed in a way worthy of comic opera, and in 
 which gracefully designed costumes take the place of 
 the old red, green and blue abominations." 
 
 The boasts were justified, particularly in the matter 
 
258 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of the dancing. Kate Vaughan's inimitably graceful 
 style was a revelation of the possibilities of skirt 
 dancing, an artistic and tasteful performance that is 
 almost forgotten in the modern predilection for the 
 high-kick or the undraped. Two very popular additions 
 to the company about this time were Connie Gilchrist 
 (who became Countess of Orkney) and Phyllis Brough- 
 ton, the latter of whom was a worthy disciple of Kate 
 Vaughan and carried on the traditions of her dancing. 
 Of the other Gaiety burlesques, mainly from the pens 
 of Reece and Burnand, that were produced in Hollings- 
 head's time, Bluebeard (1883) was one of the most 
 popular. Harry Monkhouse and Arthur Williams were 
 among the additional comedians engaged for this. 
 Very Little Hamlet, in 1884, was occasioned by Wilson 
 Barrett's Hamlet at the Princess's, and gave Nellie 
 Farren opportunity for one of her most famous songs 
 as a " street arab." 
 
 During his last few months at the Gaiety, Hollings- 
 head took into partnership George Edwardes, who 
 succeeded him in the sole control of the theatre in the 
 summer of 1886. Hollingshead was an astute manager, 
 and, moreover, his courage and enterprise at the Gaiety 
 did a great deal more for the drama and its interpreters 
 than was credited by those who looked upon him merely 
 as a purveyor of burlesque. 
 
 The last of the burlesques in his time was Little Jack 
 Sheppard (1885). A good deal of new blood was 
 brought into the company for this! Terry had left the 
 Gaiety, and Royce was incapacitated by illness ; Connie 
 Gilchrist and Kate Vaughan were also gone from the 
 company. To fill the blanks, Hollingshead engaged 
 Marion Hood, a singer already popular in comic opera, 
 Sylvia Grey, who was a very accomplished dancer, 
 David James and Fred Leslie. The latter, who had 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 259 
 
 enjoyed a great personal success as the hero of 
 Planquette's Rip van Winkle at the Comedy two years 
 previously, developed into an entertaining and re- 
 sourceful burlesque actor, and, working loyally with 
 Nellie Farren, was with her the mainstay of the Gaiety 
 until his death (and her retirement through illness) in 
 1892. 
 
 The sequence of burlesques subsequent to Little 
 Jack Sheppard included Monte Cristo, Miss Esmeralda 
 and Frankenstein in 1887, Faust up to Date (in which 
 Florence St. John appeared) in 1888, Ruy Bias in 1889, 
 Carmen Up to Data in 1890, and Cinder Ellen in 1891. 
 After that, without a Fred Leslie and a Nellie Farren, 
 Gaiety burlesque of the old type became impossible. 
 It speedily gave place to the newer type of "musical 
 comedy," which for a time drove comic opera from the 
 theatres besides routing the older-fashioned burlesque. 
 But gradually the wheel has turned, and musical 
 comedy, to preserve its vitality, has of late had to 
 approximate more closely to comic opera. 
 
 The death of the old type of Gaiety burlesque was 
 due to the disappearance of the popular personalities 
 who had made it a tradition, to the decline in public 
 favour of merely verbal humour, to the demand for 
 more originality of idea, and probably also to the 
 advance in general musical taste. An attempt was 
 made to revive Little Jack Sheppard at the Gaiety in 
 1894 ; but, clever performers as they were, Jessie 
 Preston was not a Nellie Farren, nor was Seymour 
 Hicks a Fred Leslie, and the attempt to resuscitate 
 dead bones was not repeated. 
 
 The illness which necessitated Nellie Farren's with- 
 drawal from the stage in 1892 having practically crippled 
 her, and she having in the meantime been unsuccessful 
 in an attempt at theatrical management at the Opera 
 
260 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Comique, a "monster benefit" was given to her at Drury 
 Lane in March 1898, resulting in a striking display of 
 enthusiasm and personal affection. Every prominent 
 actor and actress in London took part in the entertain- 
 ment; the house was crammed to suffocation with an 
 audience that had willingly paid fabulous prices for 
 seats ; and the gratifying result was the handing over 
 of a handsome sum to one who had ever been a loyal 
 worker, till circumstances made work impossible, and 
 had given pleasure to countless audiences. She died, 
 after some years of quiet retirement, in 1904, at the 
 age of fifty-six. 
 
 The first of the "musical comedies" at the Gaiety 
 was In Town (1892), with Arthur Roberts as leading 
 comedian. The piece had already been successfully 
 produced at the Prince of Wales's and was transferred 
 from there. This new type of musical play was not 
 burlesque, nor was it comic opera. It had, indeed, 
 grown up largely as a result of the temporary ex- 
 haustion of the vein of popularity that comic opera had 
 worked during the 'eighties. The " musical comedies" 
 were plays of real life — stage " real life," that is to say 
 — as opposed to the entirely fanciful atmosphere of 
 comic opera or burlesque ; their plots, rudimentary as 
 they were, marked an advance on the futilities of 
 comic-opera plot ; they depended a little more on 
 characterization and a little less on conventional 
 "song and dance." After a mistaken excursion into 
 the romantic with Don Juan (with Arthur Roberts, 
 Sylvia Grey and Cissie Loftus in the cast) in 1893, and 
 the equally ill-advised attempt to revive Jack Sheppard 
 in 1894, the Gaiety settled down to a run of such 
 musical comedies as The Shop Girl (i8g^), The Circus 
 Girl (1897) and The Runaway Girl (1898). By this 
 time Ellaline Terriss and Seymour Hicks were prime 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 26 1 
 
 favourites at the Gaiety. When this clever pair had 
 
 left the Gaiety, The Messenger Boy (in 1900)' firmly 
 
 established Edmund Payne as leading comedian there, 
 
 to be seconded before long by the growing popularity 
 
 of the younger George Grossmith, who has made the 
 
 role of the inane modern youth peculiarly his own, and 
 
 has made it very entertaining. The Toreador followed 
 
 The Messenger Boy in 1901 ; and shortly before the 
 
 demolition of the old Gaiety in 1903 an appropriate 
 
 entertainment was staged in the shape of a piece called 
 
 The Linkman, which was a potpourri of reminiscences 
 
 and imitations of scenes from bygone Gaiety successes. 
 
 In July 1903 the old house was closed and shortly 
 
 afterwards demolished ; but the builders had been busy 
 
 with a new theatre on a site hard by that of the old, 
 
 and in October 1903 the new Gaiety was opened with 
 
 every prospect of success. The Orchid was the first 
 
 production there, followed by The Spring Chicken in 
 
 1905. These were of the regulation musical-comedy 
 
 type ; but in 1906 an attempt was made at a kind ot 
 
 modernized old-Gaiety burlesque with The New Aladdin, 
 
 which, in spite of some humorous ideas, did not quite 
 
 succeed in hitting its mark. The Girls of Gottenburg, 
 
 in 1907, came nearer to comic opera than to burlesque; 
 
 this was succeeded in 1908 by a similarly picturesque 
 
 piece, Havana. 
 
 For a long series of these pieces Ivan Caryll has 
 proved himself as apt in providing exactly the right kind 
 of music as Meyer Lutzdid for the burlesques of old days. 
 Whatever may be urged against musical-comedy as a 
 form of art, it is at least less inane than a large amount 
 of the old burlesque would undoubtedly appear to 
 modern ears ; it demands very considerable powers 
 from its interpreters, who are continually called upon 
 to " hold the stage" in an isolation as complete as that 
 
262 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 of music-hall performers ; it is conveniently elastic, 
 allowing' of the interpolation of anything' under the sun 
 that may be likely to please or amuse (for the plot 
 usually disappears after the first act) ; and at its best 
 it forms a very acceptable form of relaxation for the 
 playgoer who does not wish for more than the pleasing 
 of his senses of sight and sound without being called 
 upon to fix his attention too closely. To take a few 
 names at random, those of Letty Lind and Katie 
 Seymour, two accomplished dancers in different styles, 
 Cissie Loftus, a very capable mimic, Connie Ediss, who 
 is that rare thing a genuine comidienne, and Gertie 
 Millar, an actress and singer of much daintiness and 
 considerable sense of character, occur to the mind 
 among those who (in addition to those already men- 
 tioned) have enjoyed popularity at the hands of Gaiety 
 audiences. 
 
 There is little to record in the history of the Opera 
 Comique Theatre (which was opened in 1870) until the 
 beginning there in 1877 of the famous Gilbert and 
 Sullivan series of operas. Though they had previously 
 collaborated in Thespis at the Gaiety in 1871 and Trial 
 by Jury at the Royalty in 1875, Gilbert and Sullivan 
 practically became famous with the production of The 
 Sorcerer at the Opera Comique in November 1877. 
 For the permanence of the partnership thus begun, and 
 for the enormous amount of pleasure it has derived 
 from it, the public is directly indebted to the late 
 Richard D'Oyly Carte, who was manager at the 
 Royalty at the time of the production of Trial by Jury. 
 He perceived the great possibilities that underlay this 
 new combination, and secured their services on behalf 
 of the Comedy Opera Company, a body which he 
 brought into existence for the purpose of this venture. 
 George Grossmith, Richard Temple and Rutland Bar- 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 263 
 
 rington, who subsequently appeared in all the best of 
 the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, were in the cast of 
 The Sorcerer, the female parts being- played by Mrs. 
 Howard Paul, Alice May and Giulia Warwick. The 
 success of The Sorcerer led to the production, in 1878, 
 of H.M.S. Pinafore, for which Jessie Bond joined the 
 company. After Pinafore the Comedy-Opera Company 
 ceased to exist and the management was vested in 
 D'Oyly Carte alone. 
 
 The Gilbert and Sullivan operas are so widely familiar, 
 and their success so well-known a matter of theatrical 
 history, that it will suffice here to enumerate their first 
 appearances. For thirty years the work of this ideal 
 collaboration has delighted the public, and time seems 
 to have no dulling power on the effect of the wit and 
 lyrical ability of the librettist or the deathless charm 
 of the melodic invention of the composer. H.M.S. 
 Pinafore was succeeded in 1880 by The Pirates of 
 Penzance, in which Marion Hood played the part 
 of the heroine, and in the following year by Patience, 
 which was a skit on the "aesthetic" craze. Later in 
 1881 Patience was transferred to D'Oyly Carte's newly 
 built Savoy Theatre, which was the first theatre in 
 London to be lit by incandescent electric light. For 
 Patience, Leonora Braham joined the company as 
 leading soprano and Durward Lely as leading tenor. 
 
 The Opera Comique theatre existed for eight years 
 after Carte's removal from it, but its good fortune 
 departed with him. Isolated productions now and 
 then achieved a success there, but there was no stable 
 management. Of subsequent musical pieces one of 
 the most successful there was a Joan of Arc burlesque 
 in 1891, with Arthur Roberts and Charles Danby as 
 leading comedians. Its chief claim to remembrance 
 lies in the deftness of the writing of the " lyrics," 
 
264 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 which were the work of a librettist who assumed the 
 nom de guerre of "Adrian Ross" and subsequently 
 followed up his success in this line in various other 
 musical comedies. Villiers Stanford's Irish opera 
 Shamus O'Brien was produced at the Opera Comique 
 in 1896 ; an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 
 1896 ; and in the following year the theatre was 
 demolished. 
 
 To continue the series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, 
 the "fairy opera " Iolanthe was produced at the Savoy 
 in 1882, and Princess Ida in 1884, the latter being one 
 of Gilbert's happiest efforts in verbal, parody. In 1885 
 The Mikado, probably the most popular of the series, 
 was produced, and ran for nearly two years. For this 
 Rosina Brandram, an actress with unusual sense of 
 humour and a contralto singer of great ability, joined 
 the band of "Savoyards," and Leonora Braham was 
 the chief soprano. In Ruddigore (1887) Leonora 
 Braham was again the heroine; while in The Yeomen 
 of the Guard (1888), in which both author and composer 
 struck a more serious note, the soprano part was sung 
 by Geraldine Ulmar. In The Yeomen of the Guard 
 W. H. Denny (who had risen into popularity by a 
 richly humorous performance in Pinero's Dandy Dick 
 at the Court) first appeared in comic opera, playing the 
 part of Wilfred Shadbolt, "head gaoler and assistant 
 tormentor." A return to the lighter manner was made 
 with The Gondoliers in 1889. Frank Wyatt, Courtice 
 Pounds and Decima Moore were the chief new recruits 
 for this. 
 
 With The Gondoliers the Gilbert and Sullivan partner- 
 ship came temporarily to an end. The Nautch Girl, 
 with music by Edward Solomon, was produced at the 
 Savoy in 1891, and later there was a revival of T/ie 
 Vicar of Bray, an earlier opera of the same composer's 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 265 
 
 that had been originally seen at the Globe in 1882. In 
 1892 Sullivan was again heard at the Savoy in Haddon 
 Hall, in which he collaborated with Sydney Grundy; 
 and in the same year a work of Gilbert's, with a fresh 
 partner in the person of Alfred Cellier (the composer ot 
 Dorothy), was seen at the Lyric, under the title of The 
 Mountebanks. Gilbert's His Excellency, with music by 
 Osmond Carr, was subsequently seen at the Lyric in 1894. 
 
 Jane Annie, with a libretto by J. M. Barrie and 
 Conan Doyle and music by Ernest Ford, was given at 
 the Savoy in 1893, and the disappointment it occasioned 
 was more than atoned for by the announcement of 
 another opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, to be produced 
 in the autumn of the same year. 
 
 The new opera was Utopia, which introduced Nancy 
 Macintosh to Savoy audiences, and brought Emmie 
 Owen and Florence Perry, two clever young singers, to 
 the front. Its success, however, was not to be com- 
 pared with that of the earlier operas ; nor was that of 
 The Grand Duke (in 1896), which was the last occasion 
 of Gilbert and Sullivan's working together. In 1894 
 Messager's Mirette had a short run; in 1897 Burnand 
 and Lehmann collaborated with Mackenzie in His 
 Majesty, and in the same year Offenbach's Grand 
 Duchess was revived, with Florence St. John in the 
 name part. After this Sullivan was heard in three 
 more operas at the Savoy. These were The Beauty 
 Stone (1898), whose libretto was from the combined 
 pens of A. W. Pinero and Comyns Carr, The Rose of 
 Persia (1900), in which Sullivan had a more congenial 
 librettist in Captain Basil Hood, and The Emerald Isle 
 (1901), of which Basil Hood also wrote the libretto. 
 Sullivan's death prevented his completing the music to 
 The Emerald Isle, which was finished by Edward 
 German. 
 
 18 
 
266 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 During these last four years there were also revivals 
 at the Savoy of H.M.S. Pinafore in 1899 and The 
 Pirates of Penzance and Patience in 1900, and a new 
 comic opera (with music by Ivan Caryll) entitled The 
 Lucky Star (1899), which established Walter Passmore 
 in his position as leading Savoy comedian in Grossmith's 
 place. 
 
 In 1891 Sullivan's sole attempt at " grand opera," his 
 Ivanhoe (written to the libretto of Julian Sturgis) had 
 been heard at the beautiful new English Opera House, 
 now the Palace Theatre, erected by D'Oyly Carte in 
 Shaftesbury Avenue. Only one other opera, Messager's 
 The Basoche, was heard at this house before it was 
 turned into a "theatre of varieties." 
 
 A revival of lolanthe at the Savoy in 1901 was 
 succeeded by two charming operas by Basil Hood and 
 Edward German, Merrie England (1902) and The 
 Princess of Kensington (1903). The mutable taste of 
 the public had been drifting away for some time from 
 comic opera to " musical comedy " ; the last productions 
 at the Savoy failed in consequence to attract as they 
 deserved, and the Savoy company was broken up. 
 The majority of them appeared together in the same 
 year (1903) at the Adelphi, in The Earl and the Girl, a 
 musical comedy no worse and no better than many 
 others, but scarcely worthy the efforts of Passmore, 
 Henry Lytton, Agnes Fraser, Louie Pounds, and others 
 of their calibre. Miscellaneous ventures, including a 
 season of romantic drama undertaken by Mrs. Brown 
 Potter in 1904-05, occupied the Savoy at odd times; 
 until in a season from 1906 to 1907, and again in 1908, 
 Mrs. Carte (her husband being now dead) agreeably 
 and successfully revived old memories with a series of 
 revivals of The Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers, 
 Patience, lolanthe, The Mikado, and H.M.S. Pinafore. 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 267 
 
 In these C. H. Workman distinguished himself in the 
 " Grossmith " parts. In the autumn of 1907 (as has 
 been already recorded) the theatre was occupied for 
 a short time by Messrs. Barker and Vedrenne, 
 who transferred their Court Theatre management 
 thither. 
 
 In the late 'seventies and early 'eighties comic opera 
 adapted from the French, with the music of Planquette 
 or of Audran, was in great popular favour. The pro- 
 duction of the evergreen Les Cloches de Corneville at the 
 Folly Theatre in 1878 has already been recorded. The 
 Comedy Theatre, in Panton Street, was opened in 1881 
 with Audran's La Mascotte, which was followed by 
 Planquette's Rip van Winkle (1882) memorable for 
 Fred Leslie's performance as Rip, and this in its turn 
 was followed by Chassaigne's Falka (1883). The 
 Comedy's "bright particular star" in the female line 
 was Violet Cameron, and in Falka W. S. Penley played 
 a comic part. 
 
 The Avenue Theatre, also, was occupied by comic 
 opera for the first few years of its existence. Opened 
 in 1882 with a revival of Offenbach's Madame Favart, 
 with Fred Leslie, Florence St. John and Marius in the 
 chief parts, a succession of similar operas followed, 
 one of the most pleasing being Planquette's Nell 
 Gisynne in 1884. Subsequently Arthur Roberts was 
 the "star" there in comic opera, one of his happiest 
 efforts being in the part of the Old Campaigner in Plan- 
 quette's The Old Guard in 1887. 
 
 Of later theatres which still fostered comic opera, 
 until that form of entertainment was temporarily 
 shouldered out of the field, the Prince of Wales's and 
 the Lyric were the chief. The Prince of Wales's, which 
 was opened in 1884, enjoyed, after two years of comedy, 
 its first comicopera success with Cellier's Dorothy, 
 
268 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 which, originally produced at the Gaiety in 1886 and 
 received there with but little favour, was transferred to 
 4;he newer theatre in the same year and enjoyed a 
 remarkable career with Marie Tempest, Hayden Coffin, 
 Ben Davies and Arthur Williams in the cast. The 
 same composer's Doris, subsequently produced, did not 
 repeat this success. After a period of comedy, the 
 Prince of Wales's reverted to comic opera in 1889 with 
 Walter Slaughter's Marjorie and Planquette's Paul 
 Jones, in which Frank Wyatt, Harry Monkhouse, Agnes 
 Huntington, Kate Cutler and Phyllis Broughton were 
 seen. Then the entertainment by degrees merged into 
 the newer form of "musical comedy." In 1891 Jane 
 May had been first seen at the Prince of Wales's in 
 her inimitable dumb-show performance in Carre" and 
 Wormser's L' Enfant Prodigue. In Town (with Arthur 
 Roberts) was the first of the "musical comedies," in 
 1891, and was followed by Blue-Eyed Susan in 1892, A 
 Gaiety Girl in 1893, and Gentleman Joe (in which Arthur 
 Roberts gave one of his cleverest "cockney" impersona- 
 tions) in 1895. A return to comic opera was made in 
 1896 with Audran's charming opera La Poupee, with 
 Willie Edouin, Courtice Pounds, Alice Favier, and 
 afterwards Jessie Huddleston in the chief parts, in 
 1897, and The Royal Star, with Edouin and Lottie 
 Venne, in 1898. 
 
 After another spell of comedy, the series of musical 
 comedies was resumed at the Prince of Wales's with 
 Leslie Stuart's The School Girl in 1903. Its chief 
 successors have been Sergeant Brue (transferred from 
 the Strand Theatre) and Lady Madcap in 1904, The 
 Little Cherub (afterwards called A Girl on the Stage) 
 and See See in 1906, Miss Hook of Holland in 1907, and 
 My Mimosa Maid in 1908. 
 
 The Lyric Theatre, in Shaftesbury Avenue, was 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 269 
 
 opened in December 1888 with Dorothy, which was 
 transferred from the Prince of Wales's to continue its 
 lengthy run. In 1889 The Red Hussar, with music by 
 Edward Solomon, was given with Marie Tempest, Ben 
 Davies and Arthur Williams in the cast. After this 
 Marie Tempest played for some time in America. In 
 1890 La Cigale added to Geraldine Ulmar's reputation, 
 and in 1892 Lecocq's Incognita brought Aida Jenoure to 
 the front. The latter singer was also prominent in 
 Albeniz' The Magic Opal (1893), m which the American 
 singer May Yohe made her earliest London appearance. 
 Caryll's Little Christopher Columbus (1893) and Dandy 
 Dick Whittington (1894), pieces more of "the "Gaiety 
 burlesque " type, further exploited May Yohe, who had 
 Lonnen and Eva Moore as companions in the cast of 
 the earlier of the two. 
 
 In 1892 Gilbert's work, in collaboration with Alfred 
 Cellier, had been heard at the Lyric in The Mountebanks, 
 in which Monkhouse, Lionel Brough and Aida Jenoure 
 distinguished themselves ; and in 1894 His Excellency, 
 by Gilbert and Osmond Carr, with Barrington, Gros- 
 smith, Jessie Bond, Nancy Macintosh and Ellaline 
 Terriss in the cast, was produced there. In the 
 following year Humperdinck's charming fairy tale, 
 Hansel and Gretel, was given. Little Miss Nobody, a 
 musical comedy, was produced in 1898, and in 1899 
 Evie Greene made her London ddbut in Louis Varney's 
 L 1 Amour Mouille. Florodora in 1899, and The Silver 
 Slipper in 1901, were popular successes that called 
 attention to the music of Leslie Stuart; and 1903 saw 
 the production of The Medal and the Maid, by Sidney 
 Jones, a composer who was doing better work at 
 Daly's Theatre. 
 
 Ivan Caryll's The Duchess of Dantzig, a musical 
 adaptation of Sardou's Madame Sans-Gene, which gave 
 
270 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Evie Greene opportunity for some forcible acting 
 and was rather a play with music than a comic opera, 
 was produced in 1905. The same year brought 
 Howard Talbot's The Blue Moon. Since then the 
 Lyric has been more uniformly devoted to the 
 romantic drama, as has been detailed in the preceding- 
 chapter. 
 
 Daly's Theatre, in Leicester Square, which has been 
 the home of the best musical pieces of more recent 
 days, was opened by Daly's American company in 1893 
 with The Taming of the Shrew, memorable for Ada 
 Rehan's performance as Katharine. This was followed 
 in the same year by Tennyson's play The Foresters. 
 Since 1884, when they first appeared in London at 
 Toole's Theatre, Daly's company had been seen at 
 various theatres — the Strand, the Opera Comique, the 
 Gaiety and the Lyceum. They now enjoyed the 
 advantage (till Augustus Daly's death in 1899) of a 
 permanent London home in which to perform whenever 
 they came over for a season. The management of the 
 theatre when they vacated it was taken over by George 
 Edwardes, who eventually, on Daly's death, became 
 the lessee of the theatre he had done so much to 
 popularize. 
 
 He had attracted the public to it by a kind of 
 entertainment that sufficiently resembled the prevailing 
 "musical comedy" in many respects, but differed suffi- 
 ciently from it to appeal to a more exacting audience and 
 to tastes slightly more discriminating and more musical. 
 The series of musical plays he produced between 1889 
 and 1901 approximated more closely to comic opera, 
 which of late years has held up its head again, and the 
 astute manager is entitled to all credit for foreseeing 
 the inevitable swing-back of the pendulum. He was 
 fortunate in his composer, Sidney Jones, whose melodic 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 27 1 
 
 invention and technical skill are of a high order. The 
 fact that in many instances, both in these and subsequent 
 productions, some of the best numbers (from the musical 
 point of view) were speedily excised to make way for 
 what was more popular, and that the plot of the piece 
 was considered a negligible quantity when it became 
 the question of giving a popular favourite another 
 individual "turn," is only a symptom of the public 
 taste of the time. 
 
 The first of the series, An Artist's Model, which was 
 produced in 1895, was frankly of the musical-comedy 
 type. In it Marie Tempest made her reappearance 
 after five or six years' sojourn in America. Among her 
 associates in the cast were Hayden Coffin, Lottie 
 Venne, Eric Lewis, Letty Lind and Leonora Braham. 
 The Geisha (1896), whose scene was laid in Japan, was 
 a more ambitious effort and was enormously popular. 
 In addition to the performers just mentioned, Rutland 
 Barrington, Huntly Wright, Monkhouse and Juliette 
 Nesville were seen in this, and it ran for two years. 
 The Greek Slave, which contained some of Sidney Jones' 
 best music, followed in 1898, but was not so popular. 
 After a revival of A Gaiety Girl in 1899, San Toy (with 
 China as its imaginary locale) was produced in the same 
 year, and held the boards till 1901. In this Marie 
 Tempest made her last appearance in musical pieces. 
 She subsequently abandoned comic opera in favour of 
 drama, and has developed into one of the foremost 
 comedy actresses of her day. 
 
 The Country Girl, with music by Lionel Monckton, 
 followed in 1901, and The Cingalee, by the same com- 
 poser, in 1904. In the former of these the heroine's 
 part was played by Evie Greene, in the latter by Sybil 
 Arundale. In all of the series Hayden Coffin had been 
 seen as the tenor hero, and Huntly Wright was, with 
 
272 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Rutland Barring-ton, the mainstay of the comic 
 element. 
 
 A frank return to comic opera was made, with 
 delightful results, in 1905 with Messager's The Little 
 Michus, in which George Graves came to the front as a 
 resourceful comedian. This was followed by Hugo 
 Felix's The Merveilleuses in 1906 and Lehar's The 
 Merry Widow in 1907. 
 
 The Duke of York's opened (as the Trafalgar Square 
 Theatre) with a comic opera, The Wedding Eve, in 
 1892; and the first years of its life saw the production 
 on its stage of several musical pieces of no striking 
 merit, the most successful being Ivan Caryll's TJie Gay 
 Parisienne (1896), in which Ada Reeve and Louie 
 Freear were largely responsible for the satisfactory 
 result. Since the turn of the century the house has 
 been, under Frohman's management, devoted to 
 comedy. 
 
 The occasional seasons of musical pieces at the 
 Vaudeville have been noted in the preceding chapter; 
 and at Terry's (another comedy house) a considerable 
 measure of success was attained with the musical 
 comedy The French Maid in 1898, and a comic opera, 
 My Lady Molly, in 1903. The Pantomime Rehearsal, an 
 artless piece of burlesque which became very popular 
 and enjoyed a lengthy life at this and other theatres, 
 was first seen at Terry's in 1891. 
 
 Of excursions into comic opera at other houses 
 mainly connected with comedy, may be mentioned 
 Miss Decima (1891), All Abroad (1895), The White 
 Chrysanthemum (1905), and Amasis (1906), at the 
 Criterion; and The Girl Behind the Counter (1906), at 
 Wyndham's. 
 
 The Strand, the old house of musical burlesque, had 
 enjoyed a new period of activity in comic opera in the 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 273 
 
 late 'seventies and the early 'eighties with Madame 
 Favart (1879) and Olivette (1880). In its last years its 
 most conspicuous success was a musical comedy called 
 A Chinese Honeymoon, which, thanks largely to a 
 quaintly humorous performance by Louie Freear, ran 
 from 1 90 1 to 1904. 
 
 The Shaftesbury Theatre was the scene of the pro- 
 duction (in 1893) of one of the earliest of the musical 
 comedies, Osmund Carr's Morocco Bound, in which 
 Violet Cameron, Letty Lind, Shine, Danby and the 
 younger Grossmith appeared. Since 1898 the Shaftes- 
 bury has been (as far as musical pieces are concerned) 
 almost exclusively the scene of American productions 
 which it is hardly necessary to detail here, dating 
 from the triumphant production of The Belle of 
 New York in 1898. The series has even included 
 a piece written, composed and entirely played by 
 " darkies." 
 
 The Apollo Theatre, which was opened in 1901, has 
 been almost consistently devoted to musical plays, the 
 main exceptions being Martin Harvey's season with 
 A Cigarette- Maker 's Romance and The Only Way in 
 1901 and Valentine's The Stronger Sex in 1907. The 
 house opened with The Belle of Bohemia, an American 
 musical comedy; and the series which has succeeded 
 that piece includes Kitty Grey in 1901, Three Little 
 Maids and The Girl from Kay's in 1902, Madame Sherry 
 in 1903, Veronique, a welcome return to comic opera, 
 in 1904, Mr. Popple of Ippleton in 1905, The Dairymaids 
 in 1906, and Tom Jones and The Three Kisses in 1907. 
 Later in 1907 Roy Horniman's comedy The Education of 
 Elizabeth was produced at the Apollo. In this play 
 Miriam Clements, Florence Lloyd, H. V. Esmond and 
 Maud Millett acted. 
 Among those who have added to their reputation at 
 
274 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 the Apollo the most conspicuous have been Ruth 
 Vincent, whose finished singing did much for the 
 popularity of Veronique; Ethel Irving, who subsequently 
 has proved her possession of brilliant powers of comedy 
 acting; and two excellent comedians, very different in 
 their styles, the veteran Willie Edouin (who is since 
 dead) and the newer recruit G. P. Huntley. 
 
 Of the newest London theatres, the Aldwych, whose 
 "stars" are Ellaline Terriss and Seymour Hicks, was 
 opened in 1905 with a revival of Blue-Bell in Fairyland 
 (formerly seen at the Vaudeville in 1902). Subsequent 
 musical comedies seen there have been The Beauty of 
 Bath (1906), Nelly Neil (1907) and The Gay Gordons 
 (1907). 
 
 "At the Waldorf, which was opened in 1905, a comic 
 opera called The Gipsy Girl was produced in 1907; and, 
 at the Hicks Theatre, My Darling (which was the 
 opening production), in 1907. 
 
 Among musical dramatic entertainments in the latter 
 part of the last century, a unique position was occupied 
 for many years by the German Reeds' Entertainment. 
 The beginning of this was a musical entertainment given 
 by Thomas German Reed (who had been musical- 
 director at the Haymarket) and his wife, who, as 
 Priscilla Horton, had become popular as an actress. 
 Their first performances were given in St. Martin's Hall 
 in 1855, the Reeds contributing the whole programme. 
 In the course of the next year they removed to what 
 they called the "Gallery of Illustration" in Waterloo 
 Place, and there until 1873 they provided a mixed 
 musical and dramatic entertainment calculated to attract 
 persons who would not go to a theatre. The venture 
 was very successful, thanks partly to the new audience 
 they tapped and still more to the care with which the 
 entertainments were designed and the ability of the 
 
BURLESQUE AND COMIC OPERA. 275 
 
 performers. John Parry, the famous "entertainer at 
 the piano," joined the Reeds in i860 and remained with 
 them till 1869. His place in the company was then 
 taken by Corney Grain, who was a mainstay of the 
 entertainment till his death in 1895. Farces and 
 musical farces by such writers as William Brough, 
 Shirley Brooks, and Burnand were given from the first 
 in Waterloo Place, Burnand and Sullivan's Cox and 
 Box (1869) being one of the great successes. In 1867 
 Reed had taken a lease of St. George's Hall in Langham 
 Place, and there produced Burnand and Sullivan's 
 operetta Contrabandista. He continued to act at the 
 " Gallery of Illustration " till 1871, when he retired and 
 his place was taken by his son Alfred German Reed. 
 Thomas Reed died in 1888. 
 
 Arthur Cecil made his first appearance as an actor at 
 the "Gallery of Illustration" in 1869, and remained 
 with the company till 1874. In that year the Entertain- 
 ment was transferred to St. George's Hall. A large 
 proportion of the musical pieces given there were from 
 the joint pens of Arthur Law and Alfred Caldicott. 
 Their blameless character was scrupulously maintained, 
 as also was the skill with which they were performed ; 
 and certainly half the popularity of St. George's Hall was 
 due to Corney Grain's inimitable "musical sketches" 
 which always occupied part of the programme. Fanny 
 Holland, Dora Thorne and Avalon Collard were for a 
 long time popular members of the little company, and 
 several other singers and actors made their first 
 successes there. 
 
 The elder Reeds retired from the management in 
 1877, and after that it was carried on by Alfred Reed 
 and Corney Grain in partnership. The popular Enter- 
 tainment came to a sad and sudden close by the death 
 of those most immediately concerned. Within ten days 
 
276 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 (in March 1895) Alfred Reed, his mother, and Corney 
 Grain all died, and St. George's Hall was closed. In 
 more recent years it has resumed its popularity with a 
 different form of entertainment, the famous "Maskelyne 
 and Cooke " conjuring entertainment having migrated 
 thither when the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly was pulled 
 down. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 
 
 As will have been gathered from the preceding chapters, 
 the provincial theatres (while they maintained their 
 " stock companies " and had not yet become merely tem- 
 porary homes for touring companies) were extremely 
 valuable as training-schools of acting and as recruiting 
 grounds for the London theatres. The stock company 
 was a necessity in days when travelling was tedious and 
 difficult and the dwellers in towns at any distance from 
 London had to be content with home-grown amuse- 
 ments, except perhaps for the occasional visit of a 
 London "star." The advent of the railway made the 
 "star's" visit more frequently possible, and by degrees 
 the stock companies were given up and the provincial 
 theatres ended in relying upon whatever came their 
 way. 
 
 While the stock companies existed, the country 
 theatres were largely managed on the " circuit " system. 
 By this system a certain number of theatres, in towns 
 suitably near to each other, would be combined under 
 one management and supplied in rotation with per- 
 formances by practically the same company. .Thus, to 
 mention the most prominent, there were the Bath and 
 Bristol, Exeter, Salisbury, Kent, Manchester, Birming- 
 ham, Norwich, York and Newcastle circuits. The 
 
 277 
 
278 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 system was a boon to the actor, quite apart from the 
 valuable training it afforded ; for, as Macready tells us 
 in his " Reminiscences," a circuit would occupy a 
 company during the whole year, " so that a respectable 
 player could calculate upon his weekly salary, without 
 default, from year's end to year's end." 
 
 Pride of place among the provincial theatres must be 
 given to the Bath theatre, which has a distinguished 
 record, and is notable as the first "patent" house after 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden and so the earliest 
 Theatre Royal out of London. 
 
 The first theatre in Bath was built soon after the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century, but had only a 
 short life. Another was erected about 1725, but this 
 in its turn had only a short existence, hampered as it 
 was by the opposition of theatrical performances given 
 in rooms attached to the inns in the town. The Orchard 
 Street Theatre, which was opened in 1750, was the first 
 to obtain a monopoly in theatrical entertainments, and 
 that only after a struggle with the competition of a 
 body of actors that styled themselves the "Bath Com- 
 pany of Comedians" and gave their performances in the 
 Assembly Rooms. It was not, indeed, until after the 
 death of the proprietor of the Assembly Rooms that the 
 Orchard Street Theatre became the undisputed centre 
 of the drama in the town. It had an enterprising 
 manager in the person of a certain John Palmer, who 
 conducted it so satisfactorily that Chetwynd (in his 
 "History of the Stage") speaks of the company "at 
 Bath, where there is a regular theatre and an audience 
 as difficult to be pleased as that in London." Palmer 
 reconstructed the house in 1767, and his son, who 
 succeeded him, managed to get a grant of Letters 
 Patent from George III., and so was entitled to style his 
 house the Theatre Royal, Bath. It is worthy of note 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 279 
 
 that a Theatrical Fund was started at Bath in 1801. 
 Except at Norwich, where a similar fund had been 
 started ten years previously, there was no such thing 
 known out of London at this time. 
 
 The Bristol theatre was licensed for acting towards 
 the close of the eighteenth century, and till 1817 was 
 consistently worked in combination with the Bath 
 theatre, the same company supplying the entertain- 
 ments at both. 
 
 During Palmer's management the Bath company 
 included Henderson, who became a great favourite 
 there and subsequently went to the Haymarket ; Foote, 
 who went the same way ; and Sarah Siddons, who 
 played at Bath from 1777 to 1781, a period of hard 
 work and much experience. When she left Bath for 
 London she, on her last appearance at Bath, delivered 
 a "poetic address" (written by herself) in which she 
 alleged "three reasons" for her decision, the said 
 reasons being her three children, for whom she could 
 make more money by taking the London engagement. 
 After Palmer's time the house was managed on the 
 same lines and with continuing success, and an en- 
 gagement there was looked upon as a stepping-stone 
 to an appearance in London. Of other actors, after- 
 wards famous, who began at Bath, may be mentioned 
 Charles Incledon, who appeared there as a singer both 
 at the Assembly Rooms and the Theatre, with such 
 success that he was engaged for Vauxhall Gardens and 
 subsequently for Covent Garden; and Elliston, who 
 made his first appearance at Bath in 1791. He remained 
 a member of the company till 1804. Occasionally during 
 his later years there he appeared, by permission of his 
 manager, in London at the Haymarket and Covent 
 Garden. At one time he appeared one night at Bristol, 
 the next at Windsor, the next at Bath, and the next at 
 
280 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAG 
 
 Windsor again, sleeping- in the coach on his nightly 
 journeys between these towns ! 
 
 By degrees, as various actors who had been in their 
 earlier days associated with the Bath house returned 
 there to play as "stars" on occasional visits, the 
 audience showed a tendency to be discontented with the 
 stock company and to desire repeated visits of this 
 nature. The Orchard Street house, which had become 
 too small, was closed in 1805, and in the same year 
 the Beaufort Square Theatre (on the site of the present 
 house) was opened. It was warmly praised for its 
 beauty and comfort, and was visited in its early years 
 by such prominent performers as Incledon, Cooke, 
 Master Betty, Mrs. Siddons, Dora Jordan, Munden, the 
 Charles Kembles, Braham, Elliston, Charles Mathews, 
 Macready and Edmund Kean. 
 
 In 1817 the connection between the Bath and Bristol 
 theatres was severed. Visits from London favourites 
 continued to be frequent at Bath for another ten or 
 fifteen years, after which came a spell of ill-luck, both 
 the Bath and Bristol theatres being "to let" in 1833. 
 Macready revived the fortunes of the Bath house by 
 undertaking its management in 1834, and the visits of 
 London "stars" were resumed. In 1838 the house 
 was remodelled. 
 
 Another run of ill-luck was stemmed by a pulpit 
 attack on the theatre in 1844, which caused a vigorous 
 reaction in the theatre's favour. Mrs. Macready 
 managed the house for five years from 1845 to 1850. 
 After her the management was continued by Chute, 
 who maintained an excellent stock company and once 
 more combined its management with that of the Bristol 
 theatre. After 1868 he confined himself to Bristol. 
 Marie Wilton (Lady Bancroft), Madge Robertson (Mrs. 
 Kendal) and Henrietta Hodson were among his com- 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 28 1 
 
 pany at the start of his management. The Bath 
 theatre was burned down in 1862; and in the following 
 year the present house was opened with a production of 
 A Midsummer Nighfs Dream, in which Ellen Terry 
 appeared as Titania and Madge Robertson as one of 
 the "singing fairies." Irving appeared there in 1867, 
 and the house recovered its reputation as a place of 
 visit from London. The last stock company maintained 
 there dates as late as 1884, since when the theatre has 
 relied on touring companies. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth century the stern- 
 minded inhabitants of Bristol were busy protesting 
 against the attempts of companies of players to instal 
 themselves in or about the city. Plays were forbidden 
 by the Corporation in 1702, but apparently to little 
 effect; for in 1704 and 1705 we again find strong 
 protests being made against the players, who in the 
 latter year had built a theatre just outside the town. In 
 1706 they built one inside, and were turned out again 
 in 1709. Macklin is mentioned as acting at Bristol in 
 1717, and two playhouses are referred to in local 
 periodicals some ten years later. 
 
 The first Bristol theatre worthy of the name, the 
 Jacob's Well Theatre, was opened in 1729 by John 
 Hippesley, an actor who had been in the original cast 
 of Gay's Beggar's Opera. It stood a short distance 
 outside the town, a circumstance which made moon- 
 light nights very welcome to the management, as the 
 audience could make their way easier and more safely 
 to its doors. Nights during full moon were conse- 
 quently much in request for "benefit" nights; on one 
 such occasion, we are told, the playbill included the 
 announcement "It is presumed Madame Cynthia will 
 appear in her utmost splendour,"- — an ill-advised hyper- 
 bole that nearly caused a riot from the Gallery's 
 
 19 
 
282 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 clamouring to see the " foreign lady" perform ! Mrs. 
 Pritchard and Macklin were among those who played 
 at this theatre, which was a wretchedly incommodious 
 little place, so small that it was averred that, if an 
 actor had to leave the stage on one side and re-enter on 
 the other, he was obliged to walk round the outside of 
 the house. Its inconvenience led to the erection of a 
 new theatre in King Street, which was opened in 1766. 
 
 Owing to the strong opposition to theatres in Bristol, 
 particularly on the part of the Quakers, a licence was 
 refused to the new theatre, which for some twelve years 
 was obliged to struggle along by means of a subterfuge 
 which just evaded the law. The performance was 
 advertised as " a Concert of Music, between the parts 
 of which will be exhibited, gratis, a Specimen of 
 Rhetoric diversified in the several characters of a 
 Comedy. . . . To which will be added a farce." In 
 1778, however, a Royal Licence was obtained, and the 
 house became prosperous, being worked in combination 
 with the Bath theatre from 1779, in which year Palmer 
 (the Bath manager) took it over. Theatrical perform- 
 ances were given once a month in winter and thrice 
 a week during most of the summer, with oratorios in 
 Lent. Mrs. Siddons acted there while she was in 
 Palmer's company from 1777 to 1781, before the days 
 of her London triumphs, and it shared with the Bath 
 house in the visits of various full-fledged "stars." 
 After Palmer gave up its management in 1817, it had a 
 long spell of ill-luck, which was eventually dispelled in 
 1850, when Chute assumed its control, together with 
 that of the Bath house. After 1868 he devoted himself 
 entirely to the Bristol theatre, and his stock company 
 was the last of any importance there. 
 
 The first theatre at Exeter, which town was eventu- 
 ally worked together with Plymouth and Weymouth 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 283 
 
 as a circuit, was opened in 1749. The first Plymouth 
 theatre was opened in 1758, and rebuilt in 1804. The 
 Exeter theatre was evidently a very incommodious 
 house; for, on the opening of a new theatre in 1787, a 
 prologue was spoken which included the following 
 lines: — 
 
 " From a small stage for scenery most unfit, 
 From shapeless boxes and an awkward pit, 
 Long dark approaches, passages confined, 
 And walls whose crannies wooed the passing wind, 
 With joy sincere our generous friends we greet 
 On boards where we have room to move our feet." 
 
 The managers, Messrs. Trewman and Hughes, were 
 enterprising, and were greatly praised for the staging 
 of their plays, these being mounted in a style that was 
 pronounced as fine as anything seen in London ; but 
 the expense this entailed brought financial loss with it. 
 They maintained a good stock company, and soon 
 after the opening of the theatre were honoured by a 
 professional visit from Mrs Siddons. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century perform- 
 ances at the Exeter theatre were fitful, and, as was but 
 natural in the capital of a county so disturbed by fears 
 and rumours of invasion, "patriotic" dramas met with 
 most favour. In 1805 Master Betty, fresh from his 
 London triumphs, appeared at Exeter. He ended his 
 career as a youthful prodigy at Bath three years later, 
 and in 1812 he reappeared at Exeter as "Mr." Betty, but 
 the glamour was gone and he was coldly received. 
 
 From December 181 1 to April 1813 Edmund Kean 
 (then an unknown and struggling actor) appeared with 
 his wife at Exeter, playing parts so widely diversified as 
 Shylock, Sir Edward Mortimer in The Iron Chest, and 
 Harlequin in the pantomimes. Three years later he 
 
284 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 reappeared there as a famous tragedian, after his 
 triumphant performances in London, and repeated his 
 visits several times in later years. Among other 
 famous names on the bills of the Exeter Theatre in 
 the early years of the century are those of Dora Jordan, 
 Maria Foote (an Exonian, who afterwards became 
 Countess of Harrington), and Eliza O'Neill, famous for 
 her Juliet. 
 
 In 1817 the newly-invented gas was tried as an 
 illuminant, but, an explosion unfortunately happening, 
 the theatre returned for a time to candles. Two years 
 later, however, gas was again adopted. The house was 
 burned down in 1820, and a new one opened in 1821. 
 Another slight explosion occurred in 1823, so a return 
 was once more made to lamps for the lobbies and 
 candles for the interior of the theatre. The house was 
 again burned down in 1885, and in October 1886 a new 
 one was opened on a better and more convenient site. 
 Eleven months later the new theatre was a heap of 
 ashes, the fire (which occurred on September 1887) 
 being memorable as one of the most disastrous, in the 
 matter of loss of life, of modern days. The house was 
 rebuilt in 1889. 
 
 In Birmingham there were three theatres, of a kind, 
 in existence as early as 1740, the chief being one in 
 Moon Street. Of this it is recorded that its per- 
 formances were announced by a man who perambulated 
 the streets beating a drum and distributing bills. These 
 three succumbed at the appearance of a slightly better 
 theatre that was built in King Street in 1752 and 
 enlarged twelve years later. It was not, however, till 
 1775, when a theatre was erected in New Street (on the 
 site of the present Theatre Royal) that dramatic per- 
 formances in Birmingham were of any particular 
 account. A better class of performers was attracted 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 285 
 
 to the new house, which tried to get a formal licence in 
 1777 but failed. The King Street house was shut up in 
 1780. Its rival in New Street was burned in 1792, 
 rebuilt, and re-opened in 1795. From 1800 to 1806, 
 and again from 1810 to 1813 the elder Macready was 
 its manager. 
 
 A patent was at last obtained in 1807, and the 
 Theatre Royal held up its head among its provincial 
 contemporaries. Edmund Kean and his wife appeared 
 there (at a salary of a guinea a week each) in 1808; 
 and six years later Kean, by that time a famous actor, 
 paid the first of several triumphant visits there. In 
 1810, under his father's management, William Charles 
 Macready made his first appearance there as Romeo. 
 From 1813 to 1819 Elliston was manager, and Alfred 
 Bunn from 1819 to 1824. In 1820 the house suffered 
 the usual fate by burning, and was rebuilt and opened 
 within the same year. In 1824 we find Stanfield 
 painting its scenery; and Kemble, Charles Kean, 
 Helen Faucit and Phelps are among those whose names 
 appear on its programmes in the first half of the 
 century. In 1862 Bancroft was a member of the stock 
 company there, while at the same time Kendal was 
 making one of his earliest appearances at an obscure 
 theatre in the same town in the melodrama of Sweeney 
 Tod, the Demon Barber. Edward Sothern acted at the 
 Theatre Royal, and afterwards, on appearing at the 
 Haymarket, announced himself as "of the Theatre 
 Royal, Birmingham." His first performance of David 
 Garrick in England was also given at the Birmingham 
 theatre in 1864. London favourites visited the Theatre 
 Royal freely. Toole was there, with Irving in his 
 company, in 1869 ; in the 'seventies Royce was in the 
 stock company and Nellie Farren and Constance Loseby 
 were seen there. Ellen Terry appeared there in The 
 
286 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 Wandering- Heir in 1874, and acted there again with 
 Charles Kelly in 1879. 
 
 The Prince of Wales's Theatre, Birmingham, grew 
 out of a music-hall which was built in Broad Street in 
 1856. It obtained a licence as an "operetta hall " in 
 1862, and later (on the occasion of the Prince of Wales's 
 marriage) was opened by W. H. Swanborough as the 
 Prince of Wales's Operetta House. It was soon 
 devoted mainly to drama, and maintained a good stock 
 company; visits of "stars," too, became frequent. 
 Buckstone played therewith his Haymarket company; 
 and in 1865 Fechter was seen there in Hamlet, with 
 Henry Irving as his Laertes. Swanborough was suc- 
 ceeded by James Rodgers as manager in 1866, and 
 shortly afterwards Sothern played there with Madge 
 Robertson in his company. From 1869 to 1870 H. J. 
 Byron acted there, as well as providing plays; and in 
 the 'seventies the elder Farren, Toole, Irving, Mrs. 
 John Wood, Lionel Brough and Wilson Barrett were 
 among those who appeared there under the old order 
 of things. 
 
 In the 'eighties two other theatres, both devoted to 
 melodrama, were opened in Birmingham — the Grand 
 Theatre (in Old Square) in 1883, and the Queen's 
 Theatre (in Snow Hill) in 1886. 
 
 The first Manchester Theatre Royal, which dates 
 from the same era as that of Birmingham and succeeded 
 an unpatented one built some forty-five years earlier, 
 was opened in 1775 and occupied a site in Spring Street. 
 Tate Wilkinson was for a time manager of it, and under 
 him Mrs. Siddons appeared there in 1776-77. It was 
 burned down in 1789, and rebuilt within a year. The 
 performances there, however, gave rise to numerous 
 complaints and a good deal of controversial letter- 
 writing and pamphleteering in the first years of the 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 287 
 
 nineteenth century. Eventually a new and more com- 
 modious Theatre Royal was built in Fountain Street 
 and opened in 1807, with the elder Macready as 
 manager during the first two years of its existence. 
 It enjoyed a life of thirty-seven years, and then met the 
 common fate by fire. In 1845 the third (and present) 
 Theatre Royal was built in Peter Street, in which 
 thoroughfare the existing theatres of Manchester now 
 stand. Between 1823 and 1849 William Charles 
 Macready was frequently seen at the second and 
 third of the Theatres Royal. The Manchester circuit 
 included also Shrewsbury, Chester, Lichfield and 
 Buxton. 
 
 The most conspicuous feature in Manchester's more 
 recent theatrical history is the management of Charles 
 Calvert at the Prince's Theatre, which he opened in 1864 
 with a revival of The Tempest, himself playing Prospero, 
 Mrs. Calvert Miranda, and Julia St. George Ariel. 
 Calvert (who had previously been stage-manager at the 
 Theatre Royal) produced a number of Shakespeare's 
 plays, with a good stock company, between 1864 and 
 1874, mounting them on the lines adopted by Charles 
 Kean at the Princess's in London. One of his greatest 
 successes was made with Henry V., which he subse- 
 quently reproduced in New York in 1875 after giving up 
 his Manchester management. 
 
 Of later years honourable exceptions to the almost 
 universal giving up of provincial theatres to touring 
 companies have been made at Manchester by Richard 
 Flanagan at the Queen's Theatre and Robert Court- 
 neidge at the Prince's, both setting before their public 
 Shakespearean productions of considerable merit. The 
 other Manchester theatres are the Comedy and the 
 St. James's, both opened in 1884. 
 
 Brighton, which has an honourable theatrical record, 
 
288 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 had no permanent theatre before 1774, when one was 
 built in North Street. Subsequently its licence was 
 transferred to a new theatre which was built in Duke 
 Street in 1790 and existed until 1806. Among the more 
 or less famous names connected with this house may be 
 mentioned those of Incledon, Bannister, Emery, the 
 notorious Chevalier d'Eon (who gave exhibitions of 
 swordsmanship there), Mrs. Siddons, Elliston, and 
 Charles Kemble, the last-named making one of his 
 earliest appearances on the stage at Brighton in 1799. 
 
 The North Street theatre was superseded by one 
 built in the New Road. This was opened in 1807 with 
 Charles Kemble in Hamlet. As was natural from 
 Brighton's proximity to London and its growing 
 popularity as a fashionable resort, its own company's 
 performances were constantly supplemented by the 
 appearance of London favourites. Thus we find Mrs. 
 Siddons acting there in 1809, Master Betty in 1812-13, 
 Dora Jordan in 1813, Elizabeth O'Neill in 1813 and 
 afterwards, Edmund Kean on several occasions from the 
 year 1814, and, at various times after this, Liston, 
 Madame Vestris and Charles Mathews, Macready, 
 Helen Faucit, and Boucicault. 
 
 In 1866, when the theatre had been for twelve years 
 under the managership of Henry Nye Chart, it was 
 rebuilt in its present form. It continued its prosperous 
 career, and among the actors there in the 'sixties 
 were Emery, Cathcart, Farren, Chippendale and 
 Buckstone. 
 
 In the early 'seventies we find Phelps and the Kendals 
 there, Lottie Venne and Fanny Coleman playing in 
 pantomime and burlesque, and Mrs. John Wood (billed 
 as "the Philadelphia comedienne") and Lionel Brough 
 acting together. Mrs. Nye Chart succeeded her 
 husband in the managership in 1876, and at about that 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 289 
 
 time the stock company system was given up and the 
 Brighton theatre relied on touring companies. Of late 
 years it has been specially favoured in the matter of 
 "flying matin6es," at which performances of London 
 successes, at the height of their popularity, have been 
 given by the London companies concerned. 
 
 The York theatre and the York circuit were especi- 
 ally conspicuous in the last quarter of the eighteenth 
 century, when Tate Wilkinson was their manager. 
 The patent for the York theatre was obtained in 1759, 
 and it was worked by Wilkinson on the circuit system 
 in conjunction with the Hull theatre which had been 
 opened in 1768, the Leeds theatre which was opened in 
 
 177 1, the Wakefield theatre, and the Doncaster theatre 
 which was built in 1776. Among actors, afterwards 
 famous, who made their initial successes in the York 
 circuit were John Fawcett, the elder Charles Mathews 
 and John Philip Kemble. 
 
 At Leicester a theatre was built in 1750; and in this 
 Mrs. Siddons appeared with her husband in 1778. A 
 new theatre, which the elder Macready managed for 
 some years, took its place in 1800; Edmund Kean, 
 William Charles Macready, Dora Jordan, the elder 
 Mathews and Listen were among those seen on its 
 boards, and it existed till 1836. In that year the 
 present theatre was opened, and among the names 
 connected with it in its early days are those of William 
 Farren, Macready, Charles Kean and Barry Sullivan. 
 Of later years (in 1883) an Opera House was opened in 
 Silver Street. 
 
 Liverpool's first duly patented theatre was opened in 
 
 1772. It stood in Williamson Square, and had been 
 preceded by an earlier house which, after a chequered 
 career, was transformed into a dissenting chapel. The 
 oldest existing theatre in Liverpool is the Royal Court, 
 
290 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 which was opened under the name of the Royal Amphi- 
 theatre in 182 1, and remodelled in 185 1. At the Prince 
 of Wales's, opened later, Bancroft and Hare were both 
 in the stock company; and it was there that T. W. 
 Robertson's Society (which afterwards was one of the 
 successes at the London Prince of Wales's in Tottenham 
 Street) was first produced in May 1865. Other Liver- 
 pool theatres are the New Empire Theatre, which, under 
 the name of the Alexandra Theatre, was built in 1866 
 and has recently been remodelled, and the Shakespeare 
 Theatre. 
 
 Newcastle's first Theatre Royal, which was opened in 
 1789, was in its early years controlled by Stephen 
 Kemble, who was then in command of the Edinburgh 
 theatre. The Newcastle circuit, which occupied him 
 during; the winter months, included Newcastle, Scar- 
 borough, Durham, Sunderland, North and South 
 Shields, Stockton, Darlington and Coventry. In the 
 early years of the nineteenth century, Macready, the 
 Charles Kembles, Emery and Charles Young were seen 
 at Newcastle, where a second Theatre Royal took the 
 place of the first in 1837. 
 
 Norwich is noteworthy in theatrical annals as the 
 earliest provincial town to establish a Theatrical Fund 
 on the model of that existing in the metropolis. The 
 Norwich fund was started in 1791, and the example was 
 followed by the city of Bath ten years later. The first 
 patented theatre in Norwich opened in 1759, the circuit 
 which it headed comprising also Yarmouth, Ipswich, 
 Bury, Colchester and Lynn. A new Theatre Royal was 
 erected on the site of the first in 1826. 
 
 Sheffield, after a period of unlicensed theatrical per- 
 formances in the yard of the Angel Inn, obtained its 
 first regular theatre in 1762. The ubiquitous Tate 
 Wilkinson was one of its earliest managers, and under 
 
SOME PROVINCIAL ENGLISH THEATRES. 29 1 
 
 him John Kemble, Dora Jordan arid Mrs. Siddons were 
 introduced to Sheffield audiences. 
 
 The Tunbridge Wells theatre belonged to the West 
 Kent circuit, of which the component parts are given 
 below. Its first theatre, opened about 1770, was a 
 makeshift building in the Mount Sion district. Its 
 manageress (a Mrs. Baker) ultimately pulled it down, 
 and, partly with its materials, built a theatre on the 
 historic Pantiles. This in its turn was replaced by 
 another opened on the same site in 1802. A charming 
 coloured plate, depicting the outside of the house, is 
 given in a book entitled The Theatric Tourist, published 
 in 1802. The same work comprises views of most of 
 the provincial theatres of the time. A contemporary 
 account describes the Tunbridge Wells theatre as "a 
 neat building which, if properly painted and decorated, 
 would be superior to most theatres of a similar size." 
 It was remarkable as standing in two counties, the 
 stage being in Sussex and the auditorium in Kent. A 
 respectable stock-company was maintained, and the 
 theatre was duly visited by the "stars" from London. 
 Just a century after the opening of that house, the 
 present handsome theatre was inaugurated, in 1902. 
 
 To mention briefly the beginnings of theatrical history 
 in other provincial towns of any repute in that respect : 
 the Margate theatre was patented in 1787, and headed 
 the West Kent circuit, which included Tunbridge 
 Wells, Canterbury, Dover, Maidstone, Faversham and 
 Rochester; Reading succeeded in building a theatre in 
 1788; Richmond had a theatre as early as 1730, and a 
 new one in 1765, but it was for long considered an 
 unprofitable theatrical centre, as being too near London ; 
 Southampton's first theatre was an old silk-mill meta- 
 morphosed, and was followed by a house built (in French 
 Street) for the purpose and opened in 1803 ; Winchester, 
 
292 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 which had enjoyed a theatre of sorts since 1760 and 
 had subsequently tolerated theatrical entertainments in 
 its Town Hall, opened its earliest regular theatre in 
 1785 ; and Windsor, after putting up with performances 
 in a mere barn about a mile from the town, opened a 
 Theatre Royal in 1793. 
 
 The excellent suburban theatres that have sprung up 
 in greater London during the last ten or fifteen years 
 are run on the lines of present-day provincial theatres, 
 relying for the most part on touring companies and a 
 constant change of programme. Some are managed 
 more spiritedly than others, inviting occasional "first 
 performances" or special seasons of some kind; but 
 in the main they proceed on similar lines. Among 
 the more prominent may be mentioned the Grand 
 Theatre at Fulham, and the King's at Hammersmith, 
 both built in 1897; the Kennington theatre and the 
 Coronet at Notting Hill Gate, both built in 1898, and 
 the Camden Theatre, built in 1900. Clapham, Ealing, 
 Holloway, and other outlying districts have also been 
 well provided in this way of recent years; and in many 
 instances the suburban house has, from its convenience 
 and excellence of entertainment, proved a serious rival 
 to those nearer the centre of London. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 
 
 Before 1736 there was no regular theatre in Edinburgh. 
 In the earlier years of the century "companies of 
 comedians'' had given performances at various times in 
 the city, a favourite scene of their labours being Taylor's 
 Hall; but the first theatre erected for the purpose was 
 that which Allan Ramsay, with unfortunate enterprise, 
 opened in Carrubber's Close in 1736. This was a 
 reconstruction of a booth fitted up in 1727 by Signora 
 Violante for dancing and acrobatic performances. 
 Ramsay's theatre only existed for about six months, 
 and was killed by the Licensing Act of 1737, to its 
 promoter's great financial loss. 
 
 About ten years later the germ of the first Edinburgh 
 Theatre Royal came into being with the building of a 
 new Concert Hall in the Canongate. Local opposition 
 being too strong to permit of a theatrical licence being 
 obtained, the usual device of advertising a concert, 
 "with plays gratis between the parts of the concert," 
 was resorted to, and with these conditions the drama 
 in Edinburgh had perforce to be contented for some 
 twenty years more. The performances there, however, 
 became of sufficient importance for Mrs. Ward, who 
 was for many years a mainstay of the Canongate house, 
 to describe herself subsequently (on her appearance at 
 Covent Garden) as "from Edinburgh." 
 
 The dramatic performances offered were of the same 
 293 
 
294 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 character as those prevailing in the south, but the 
 management of the house left much to be desired. An 
 improvement in the state of affairs came about in 1752, 
 when John Lee (who came from Drury Lane) undertook 
 the management. Actors from the south would not 
 risk the expense and danger of the long journey to 
 Edinburgh for the sake of the few months' season 
 during which that city maintained an open theatre ; 
 consequently Lee was obliged to offer them an engage- 
 ment for the whole year, and utilized their services, 
 when the Edinburgh theatre was closed, at Glasgow, 
 Newcastle and Scarborough. Amongst his other re- 
 forms at Edinburgh, Lee is recorded to have succeeded 
 in banishing spectators from the stage, and his general 
 conduct of the theatre appears to have been good. 
 The enterprise ruined him, however, and in 1756 he 
 gave over the management to West Digges, an actor 
 who came from the Smock Alley Theatre at Dublin. 
 
 The same year saw the production in Edinburgh (to 
 the scandalizing of the ministry of the Kirk) of John 
 Home's Douglas, a tragedy which its revered author 
 had previously offered to Garrick, who returned it to 
 him as "totally unfit for the stage." In Edinburgh, 
 however, thanks partly to the reclame obtained by 
 ecclesiastical controversy and partly to its suiting the 
 prevalent taste for rhodomontade in verse tragedies, it 
 achieved a remarkable success ; and it was during its 
 first performance that an enthusiastic spectator is 
 recorded to have burst out with the historic apostrophe 
 " Whaur's yer Wully Shakespeare noo ?" 
 
 In his valuable "Annals of the Edinburgh Stage" (to 
 which any inquirer into Scottish dramatic history must 
 be indebted) Mr. J. C. Dibdin records a little incident 
 during Digges' managership that serves to remind us 
 of the primitive lighting conditions of the theatre of his 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 295 
 
 day. In an ambitious revival of The Tempest elaborate 
 preparations had been made for the storm scene, and in 
 connection wilh this the managerial announcement was 
 made that "the stage will be entirely darkened for the 
 representation of the storm ; the candles therefore 
 cannot be lighted until after the commencement of the 
 first act." 
 
 In 1759 Foote (of the Haymarket) made a very success- 
 ful appearance in Edinburgh, "his strange disposition 
 to adventure from the metropolis of England a journey 
 of 400 miles to Edinburgh " being wondered at and 
 admired. From 1762 to 1764 Mrs. Bellamy appeared 
 in Edinburgh. 
 
 At last, in 1767, a patent was secured for the Canon- 
 gate house, which was now able to describe itself as the 
 Theatre Royal, the patent being subsequently made 
 over by the proprietor to David Ross, who had acted 
 with Garrick at Drury Lane and made some reputation 
 there and at Covent Garden. He temporarily patched 
 up the rather decrepit theatre, and then cast about for 
 a site in the New Town on which to erect a new 
 Theatre Royal. His theatre was eventually built on 
 the spot now occupied by the Post Office, at the end of 
 Prince's Street, and was opened in December 1769. 
 
 His management was bad, and met with its deserts, 
 and his failure resulted in a remarkable piece of enter- 
 prise on the part of Foote, who was already popular in 
 Edinburgh. He took a three years' lease of the theatre, 
 and brought his whole Haymarket company thither to 
 act during the winter months, — for the Haymarket was 
 only licensed for the summer months, when Drury Lane 
 and Covent Garden were closed. One season in Edin- 
 burgh, however, proved enough for him, and he made 
 over his lease to Digges and returned to London, 
 eventually appearing once more in Edinburgh early in 
 
296 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 1774. Digges secured a partner; and under their 
 managership Mary Ann Yates, who was by this time 
 reputed in London as a tragic actress, appeared with 
 her husband at the Theatre Royal, as did also Mrs. 
 Inchbald and her husband, Elizabeth Younge from 
 Drury Lane, and Spranger Barry and his wife. Digges 
 retired in 1777, hopelessly indebted, and his partner 
 followed -him a year later. For the next three years 
 the theatre's fortunes languished, despite the promises 
 (mainly unfulfilled) of Tate Wilkinson, manager of the 
 York theatre, who was lessee for a short time. Digges 
 managed to escape from his creditors and made one 
 more venture in Edinburgh, in 1781. In the summer 
 of the same year John Kemble .made his first appear- 
 ance there. 
 
 John Jackson, who founded on his Edinburgh experi- 
 ences a gossipy chronicle which he published as a 
 "History of the Scottish Stage," became manager of 
 the Theatre Royal in the winter of 1781. When he 
 "commenced manager" there, he says, the condition of 
 the house was lamentable. The roof was "like a sieve, 
 which let the rain through in a million of places," and 
 there were "neither scenes, wardrobe, or any other 
 appendage suitable to a Theatre Royal." Jackson was 
 manager for two periods, first from 1781 to 1791, and 
 again for a year or two from 1801. His first spell of 
 managership was combined with the direction of a new 
 theatre he built in Glasgow in 1782. Mrs. Baddeley 
 appeared under him in Edinburgh from 1783 to 1785, 
 Mrs. Siddons at various times from 1784, John Hender- 
 son (the "Bath Roscius") in 1784, Mrs. Yates in 1785, 
 and Mrs. Jordan in 1786. In 1790 an "Amphitheatre, 
 or Edinburgh Equestrian Circus," which subsequently 
 as a theatre offered a strong opposition to the Theatre 
 Royal, was opened in Leith Walk. 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 2gf 
 
 The excitement caused by Mrs. Siddons' appearance 
 in Scotland was unprecedented. Mr. Dibdin records 
 that, besides an overwhelming rush of local spectators, 
 numbers even journeyed from Newcastle to see her act 
 in Edinburgh, and "London thieves actually found it 
 to their profit to come all the way from town ; such a 
 harvest of wigs, hats, canes, snuff-boxes, purses and 
 watches never was gathered with greater ease." 
 
 The patent of the Theatre Royal had been, in 1788, 
 renewed for another twenty years, and Jackson con- 
 tinued in sole managership till 1791, when financial 
 difficulties drove him into partnership with Stephen 
 Kemble. Eventually Jackson retired temporarily from 
 the scene in 1793, and in the following year Stephen 
 Kemble announced the opening of the Theatre Royal 
 with himself as sole patentee. His management was 
 more remarkable for promise than for achievement. It 
 is true that he was instrumental in introducing Incledon, 
 Elliston, and Henry Erskine Johnston (afterwards a 
 great favourite also in Glasgow) to Edinburgh audi- 
 ences; but his stock company as a rule was one of 
 little merit, and his conduct of the theatre was not such 
 as to attract prominent "stars." In consequence of 
 this, and of his inability to prevent frequent rioting in 
 the theatre, his audiences fell away; and his retirement, 
 which took place in 1800, was viewed with no regret. 
 Indeed he was soundly hissed on making an amazingly 
 ill-judged speech when he took farewell of his public. 
 
 In 1801 the irrepressible Jackson, having secured a 
 partner, again obtained command of the Theatre Royal. 
 Master Betty appeared under him in 1804 and Mrs. 
 Siddons in 1805; and in 1808 the latter's daughter-in- 
 law, Mrs. Henry Siddons, began a long and honourable 
 connection with the Edinburgh Stage. In spite of such 
 occasional attractions, however, Jackson did little to 
 
 20 
 
298 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 relieve his growing unpopularity. Contemporary news- 
 paper criticism speaks of his "gross mismanagement" 
 of the theatre, and of his irretrievable loss of public 
 favour. In 1809 he disappeared from the scene. 
 
 Then, for nearly three years, the Theatre Royal was 
 closed. Henry Siddons secured the patent, and used it 
 to open, not .the old Theatre Royal, but the "New 
 Theatre Royal" in Leith Walk in 1809. This was the 
 Circus already alluded to, which, originally opened in 
 1790, had been known in the interim (chiefly with 
 equestrian performances) as the "Edinburgh Circus," 
 the "New Sadler's Wells," the "New Theatre Circus," 
 the "Royal Circus," and "Corri's Rooms." The great 
 Ducrow had been seen there, and burlettas, concerts, and 
 various miscellaneous entertainments had occupied it. 
 
 Henry Siddons and his wife, on opening it as the New 
 Theatre Royal, were received with the favour that a new 
 and spirited management deserved ; Sarah Siddons 
 appeared there in 1810, and John Kemble a little 
 later. Strenuous efforts had been made for some time 
 by the proprietors of the old Theatre Royal to force 
 Henry Siddons to use his patent there, and in 181 1 he 
 returned to the old house. He managed to maintain a 
 fairly high level of excellence in his productions there. 
 Besides Sarah Siddons, the comedian Munden came to 
 assist the popularity of the theatre, and the elder Charles 
 Mathews met with a very warm reception in it. Henry 
 Siddons, however, was in very poor health, and growing 
 financial difficulties further harassed him. He died in 
 1815, and the management was taken over by his widow, 
 in partnership with W. H. Murray, whose name was 
 long and creditably connected with the Edinburgh Stage. 
 Mrs. Henry Siddons retired in 1830. 
 
 The new management made a frank and, as it proved, 
 acceptable appeal to the public for better support, and 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 399 
 
 the fortunes of the Theatre Royal were now for a long 
 period brighter than they had been for many years. 
 Before Mrs. Siddons' retirement, such famous actors as 
 John Kemble, Elizabeth O'Neill, Edmund Kean, Charles 
 Kemble, Braham, Madame Vestris and Fanny Kemble 
 had assisted in reviving the popularity of the house, and 
 Mrs. Henry Siddons herself had achieved a reputation 
 thoroughly deserved by her considerable powers and 
 estimable personality. 
 
 The trump card of the Murray and Siddons manage- 
 ment was (as it has been of many subsequent 
 managements in Scotland) Isaac Pocock's adaptation 
 of Rob Roy, which was produced in February 18 19. 
 This perennially popular play (which had been seen in 
 March 1818 at Covent Garden, with Macready as Rob 
 Roy and Liston as the Bailie Nicol Jarvie, and later in 
 the same year at the Queen Street theatre in Glasgow) 
 met with enormous success in the Scottish capital. 
 The great hit was the performance of Charles Mackay, 
 already a favourite with Edinburgh audiences, as the 
 Bailie. Scott has left it on record that he was "actually 
 electrified by the truth, spirit and humour which he 
 threw into the part. It was the living Nicol Jarvie. 
 ... I do assure you I never saw a thing better 
 played." The management was reported to have netted 
 upwards of ^3000 on Rob Roy, and ever since then the 
 piece has been a safe "draw" for Scottish theatrical 
 audiences. 
 
 After Mrs. Henry Siddons' retirement, Murray 
 obtained a monopoly of theatrical affairs by taking 
 over the Leith Walk House as well as the Theatre 
 Royal. The Leith Walk theatre, since Murray had 
 abandoned it in 181 1, had been known successively as 
 Corri's Pantheon and the Caledonian Theatre. A 
 version of Rob Roy had been produced there early in 
 
300 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 1818, before Pocock's play was seen at Covent Garden; 
 but it was withdrawn after a failure that must have been 
 rendered the more galling by the subsequent Rob Roy 
 triumph at the older theatre. Successive managements 
 failed to make a success of the unlicensed house, and it 
 was thus the easier for Murray to acquire it in 1830, and, 
 as the only person legally permitted by the patent to 
 perform plays in Edinburgh, to get the theatrical 
 interests of the city entirely into his own hands. 
 
 Murray was an astute manager, with a useful insight 
 to what his audiences wanted, and the result was that 
 for twenty years he was able to preserve the reputation 
 of the Edinburgh Stage at a high level. He ran his two 
 houses on different lines, as became the nature of the 
 audiences that patronized them ; for the Theatre Royal 
 was only open in winter, which was the Edinburgh 
 " season," and the Adelphi (as the Leith Walk house 
 was now called) in summer. Shakespeare and the 
 "legitimate" romantic drama, varied with opera, were 
 the staple fare at the Theatre Royal; melodrama and 
 farce at the Adelphi. Among the famous actors seen at 
 various times in Edinburgh under Murray's auspices 
 may be mentioned Madame Celeste, Ellen Tree, Charles 
 Kean, Buckstone, Mathews and Madame Vestris, G. V. 
 Brooke, and Helen Faucit. For many years Alexander 
 Mackenzie (father of Sir A. C. Mackenzie), who was 
 an excellent musician, was leader of the Edinburgh 
 orchestra. 
 
 Murray, whom all concerned with him agree in 
 characterizing as a manager of the highest ability and 
 an honourable and courteous man, was also a capable 
 actor and a fairly successful dramatist. He retired, to 
 the general regret, in 1851, and died in the following 
 year. 
 
 With his death the monopoly for a time disappeared. 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 30 1 
 
 The management of the Theatre Royal was undertaken 
 by the comedian H. F. Lloyd, and that of the Adelphi 
 by R. H. Wyndham. Lloyd was but an indifferent 
 manager, and his rule only lasted for a year. In 1853 
 the Adelphi was burned down, and Wyndham took over 
 the Theatre Royal, where he remained for the rest of 
 that theatre's existence. Under his management Toole 
 (who came from the Queen's Theatre, Dublin) made his 
 first Scottish appearance in 1853 an( * speedily became a 
 great favourite, and four years later Henry Irving made 
 his first bow to Edinburgh audiences. From 1857 
 Wyndham also controlled the new Queen's Theatre 
 which had been built on the site of the defunct Adelphi. 
 The Queen's had been opened in 1855, and had so far 
 enjoyed no great measure of prosperity under the 
 management of James Black, a Leith merchant. 
 
 May 1859 saw the final closing of the old Theatre 
 Royal, its site having been acquired by the Government 
 for the purpose of erecting the General Post Office. 
 The chief item in the bill of the farewell performance 
 was a revival of Masks and Faces, in which Irving, Mrs. 
 Wyndham and Edmund Glover (now a prosperous 
 Glasgow manager) appeared. Wyndham spoke a 
 valedictory address, and the curtain fell for the last 
 time. 
 
 Wyndham now transferred his patent to the Queen's, 
 which thus became the Theatre Royal. Irving remained 
 with him till September 1859, when he went, to the 
 Princess's in London. Under Wyndham's manager- 
 ship at this period there were seen, amongst others, 
 Lydia Thompson, Wilson Barrett and Miss Heath, 
 Emma Nicol (a versatile actress who had acted in 
 Edinburgh for nearly fifty years), Louisa Pyne, E. A. 
 Sothern, and Dion Boucicault and his wife. In 1865 
 the theatre was again burned down, and was speedily 
 
302 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 rebuilt. The life of the new house was short, for in 
 
 1875 it was in its turn burned down, and after that 
 Wyndham retired from management. 
 
 A new house was opened on the same site in January 
 
 1876 by J. B. Howard, an actor already popular in the 
 city. Joseph Jefferson appeared there later in the year, 
 as did also Henry Irving, who now returned as a "star" 
 to the scene of his early efforts. The days of the stock 
 company were passing away, and with, them disappears 
 the historical interest of the Edinburgh theatres. In 
 1883 Howard migrated to the newly built Lyceum 
 Theatre, which he managed in conjunction with a son 
 of R. H. Wyndham's; and in the following summer the 
 Theatre Royal once more fell a prey to the flames. It 
 was re-constructed and re-opened within the year, and 
 exists as the present-day Theatre Royal. 
 
 Besides the Lyceum, other latter-day Edinburgh 
 theatres worthy of note are the Princess's, which 
 existed from 1868 to 1886, and the Edinburgh Theatre, 
 which had a shorter life from 1875 to 1877. The first 
 manager of the Princess's was A. P. McNeill, who 
 became a popular actor and dramatist in Edinburgh, 
 after having previously acted in London, Birmingham 
 and Glasgow and having managed the Aberdeen 
 theatre. Wilson Barrett appeared at the Princess's in 
 1869; and subsequently Lydia Thompson, Lionel 
 Brough, Willie Edouin, Charles Collette, Marie Litton, 
 (in whose company was Charles Wyndham), Compton, 
 Chippendale, and Florence St. John were among those 
 who played there. McNeill endeavoured to maintain a 
 stock company there for some years after the system 
 had been more generally given up. 
 
 The Edinburgh Theatre started with an efficient stock 
 company, and great hopes, in 1875, but two years 
 later its doors were finally closed. 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 303 
 
 Glasgow was without a permanent theatre of any 
 account until the enterprising John Jackson (who 
 between 1781 and 1790 managed theatres in Edinv 
 burgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen) built one, in 
 what is now Dunlop Street, in 1782, he having a few 
 months previously become manager of the Edinburgh 
 Theatre Royal. Thirty years previously a wooden 
 booth had been built, outside the city boundaries, for 
 the performances of plays, but was wrecked by fanatics 
 during a religious "revival." In 1764 another make- 
 shift theatre was set up (still outside the city walls) by 
 some admirers of the beautiful Anne Bellamy, who was 
 to act there. The forces of fanaticism made a deter- 
 mined attempt to destroy this, by setting fire to it 
 before it was opened. The building was not destroyed, 
 however, and Anne Bellamy saved the situation. She 
 insisted on giving her performance, as announced, in 
 the theatre whatever its condition ; her courage turned 
 the scale of popular opinion in her favour, and she' was 
 not only welcomed by the Glaswegians when she 
 appeared but was assisted in doing so by generous 
 gifts of dresses and other necessaries that had been lost 
 in the partial fire. In 1780 the building was completely 
 burned down, this time by accident, just as Jackson had 
 arranged to undertake its management. 
 
 These events resulted in the opening of the Dunlop 
 Street Theatre (the first to be built within the city) in 
 1782. The astute Jackson worked upon the generous 
 instincts of the Glasgow folk by giving, soon after 
 he opened the theatre, a performance for the benefit 
 of the poor sufferers from an inundation of the Clyde, 
 and so disarmed the opposition of the "unco' guid" 
 and made his theatre popular. He maintained a 
 good stock company, which included Stephen Kemble 
 and Henry Siddons, and introduced such eminent 
 
304 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 performers as John Kemble, Dora Jordan and John 
 Henderson to Glasgow audiences. But the attempt 
 to manage the Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and 
 Dundee theatres together was too much for him, 
 and ended in bankrupting him in 1790. Stephen 
 Kemble, one of his creditors, succeeded him in 
 the management in Glasgow, as he did in Edin- 
 burgh, and controlled the theatre for eight or nine 
 years. At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 Jackson reappeared as manager in both cities; but his 
 management was equally unsatisfactory in both and did 
 not last long. It must be remembered, however, that 
 he (with his Edinburgh partner, Francis Aikin) did 
 Glasgow a service by opening a handsome new theatre 
 in Queen Street in 1805. Jackson died about a year 
 later, and the Queen Street house was directed by a 
 frequently changing succession of managers during its 
 quarter of a century of existence. Many of the "stars" 
 that were appearing in Edinburgh, such as Bannister, 
 Elliston, Cooke, Edmund Kean, Elizabeth O'Neill and 
 Liston appeared there also ; Pocock's Rob Roy was seen 
 there a few months before it took Edinburgh by storm; 
 and a little earlier an adaptation of Guy Mannering 
 had brought good audiences within its walls ; but its 
 fortunes gradually waned, and in 1829 it was burned 
 down. 
 
 Until J. H. Alexander undertook its management in 
 1822, the fortunes of the Dunlop Street theatre were at 
 a low ebb, and for a time the house was occupied by a 
 circus. The elder Macready. combined its control with 
 that of the Dumfries theatre in 181 2, and under his 
 management William Charles Macready made an early 
 appearance at Glasgow, whither he frequently returned 
 to act in subsequent years. 
 
 Alexander, who had previously been a London actor, 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 305 
 
 was a capable man, and his enterprise by degrees 
 renewed the popularity of the old house. Enterprise 
 was needed, for opposition was by no means lacking 
 during his thirty years of managership. In Dunlop 
 Street itself, a new theatre was opened by Frank 
 Seymour in 1825 under the name of the Caledonian 
 Theatre; in 1829 Seymour, who was by this time the 
 burned-out manager of the Queen Street house, opened 
 a new theatre in York Street and made an unsuccessful 
 effort to obtain the patent, his energies only resulting 
 in the closing of his new house within two years ; in 
 1842 the Adelphi Theatre was opened, and by degrees 
 attracted good audiences ; and in 1845 a brief opposi- 
 tion was offered by the City Theatre, which was built 
 on the Green by J. H. Anderson and burned down after 
 a life of six months. 
 
 Alexander and Seymour carried on a ludicrous feud 
 over the Caledonian Theatre, the former (when he 
 found Seymour had forestalled him in obtaining the 
 lease of the theatre) hiring a large cellar which ran 
 beneath it, and giving rival performances therein. 
 Those below spared no pains in using as much stage- 
 fire as possible, in order that the acrid fumes should 
 ooze up through the chinks in the floor of the stage 
 above; while those above retorted by pouring water 
 down the chinks. Each endeavoured to drown the 
 other by clamour and noise of every description, and 
 the result was an almost inconceivable pandemonium. 
 So much did a section of the public enjoy the sport, that 
 the Queen Street theatre was deserted and its manager 
 forced to abandon it; whereupon Seymour obtained its 
 lease and the Caledonian conflict was abandoned by 
 both himself and Alexander. Seymour's possession of 
 the Queen Street theatre only lasted for four years, for, 
 as we have seen, it was burned in 1829. 
 
306 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 The Adelphi Theatre, a wooden building on the 
 Green, was opened in 1842 by a certain D. P. Miller, 
 who had been an enterprising showman. He engaged 
 a fairly good company, and contrived to obtain the 
 appearance of such "stars" as Phelps and Fanny 
 Kemble ; but it was not long before the financial ruin 
 which in so large a proportion of cases awaited 
 theatrical managers, overtook him. The house was 
 burned down in 1848; and in the following year 
 Charles Calvert opened a new theatre, built this time 
 of brick, on the same site. It was christened the 
 Queen's Theatre and existed till 1863, when it in its 
 turn was burned. 
 
 Yet another minor theatre sprang into existence in 
 Alexander's time. This was the Prince's, which 
 Edmund Glover (who eventually succeeded Alexander 
 in Dunlop Street) had converted from a hall into a 
 theatre in 1849. During Glover's management the 
 Prince's was well conducted, and gave opportunity for 
 the rise into popularity of Thomas Powrie, an actor who 
 eventually became a prime favourite with Glasgow 
 audiences. 
 
 To resume the history of the Dunlop Street house, 
 while Alexander was still manager there occurred a 
 panic in the theatre from an alarm of fire, resulting in 
 the deaths of a large number of the audience in a mad 
 rush for the doors. This was in February 1849. G. V. 
 Brooke appeared as "star" in 1850; and in 1851 
 Alexander retired, to die a few months later in the 
 same year. From October 1851 the house was for a 
 year under the control of Mercer Simpson, who came 
 from Birmingham; but not even the presence of such 
 notabilities as Buckstone and Wright could conceal 
 the poverty of the performances; and it was well 
 for Glasgow when Edmund Glover transferred his 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 307 
 
 energies from the Prince's Theatre to Dunlop Street 
 in 1852. 
 
 Glover's management at Dunlop Street, which lasted 
 until his death in i860, was liberal and intelligent, and 
 he was rewarded by substantial success as well as by 
 the esteem of all who came into contact with him. 
 Under him Toole made his first appearance in Glasgow 
 in 1855, Irving in i860, and Kendal in 1862. Shake- 
 speare, the "legitimate" in tragedy and comedy, and 
 occasional opera, were what Glover put before his 
 patrons at the old house, the Prince's being at this time 
 mainly devoted to burlesque. 
 
 After varying fortunes under various managers in the 
 few intervening years, the historic Dunlop Street 
 theatre was burned to the ground in January 1863, and 
 with it practically ends the history of the Glasgow 
 stage. Times were rapidly changing, and the older 
 methods soon gave place to the touring system. 
 
 After the destruction of the Dunlop Street house, a 
 remodelled music-hall in the Cowcaddens was known 
 as the Theatre Royal until it in its turn was burned in 
 1879. Subsequently the present Theatre Royal, in Hope 
 Street, was built. 
 
 At the close of 1879 the Royalty Theatre, in 
 Sauchiehall Street, was opened with a production of 
 Offenbach's Madame Favart, which was then at the 
 height of its first popularity in England. The leading 
 members of the company engaged for this were Miss 
 St. Quentin, Fred Leslie and Beerbohm Tree. Other 
 existing Glasgow theatres are the King's Theatre, 
 which was opened in 1904, and the Grand (originally 
 the Prince of Wales's) and the Princess's, the two last 
 being mainly devoted to melodrama. 
 
 Another Scottish theatre with an honourable record 
 is the old Marischal Street Theatre Royal in Aberdeen, 
 
308 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 which was opened in 1795 and existed for seventy years. 
 One or two theatres had preceded it in the city, but 
 none had enjoyed more than a short life. As early as 
 1745, and again in 1751, we hear of Edinburgh players 
 giving performances in Aberdeen, but meeting with 
 very little encouragement and much opposition. In 
 1768, however, opposition was so far overcome that the 
 proprietor of the New Inn ventured upon fitting up, as 
 a public theatre, a hall in his house; and in 1773 West 
 Digges is said to have built a theatre in Shoe Lane, 
 where Edinburgh companies of actors appeared. From 
 1780 to 1789 a small theatre existed in Queen Street, 
 and about the same time another in what is now called 
 Chronicle Lane. 
 
 Still, the drama had no recognized position in 
 Aberdeen until the opening of the Marischal Street 
 Theatre. John Jackson, the Edinburgh manager, 
 had begun to build the house in 1788; but his 
 bankruptcy put an end to the scheme and the 
 building was temporarily put to other uses. In 
 1795 it was re-modelled and devoted to its original 
 purpose, its first manager being Stephen Kemble, 
 who also controlled the Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 theatres. His management did not last long, and 
 was followed by a succession of others, the first of 
 any length being that of Corbet Ryder, which lasted 
 from 1817 to 1842. After Ryder's death, his widow 
 carried it on until 1862, and was succeeded by two 
 sons-in-law. 
 
 It is unnecessary to particularize the performances 
 and performers at the Marischal Street house. A 
 sufficient stock company was usually maintained and 
 the more conspicuous actors from outside were, in the 
 main, the same peripatetic "stars" that made the 
 round of the northern theatres. In the 'sixties, Wilson 
 
THE SCOTTISH STAGE. 309 
 
 Barrett was for some time a member of the stock 
 company. 
 
 With the lapse of time and the inevitable change of 
 conditions the old house lost its repute, and closed its 
 doors for ever as a theatre in 1873. It was converted 
 into a church. The present His Majesty's Theatre was 
 opened in 1872. 
 
 Perth, Montrose and Dundee were for many years, 
 for theatrical purposes, worked with Aberdeen as a 
 "circuit." 
 
 The original theatre in Dundee was pulled down to 
 make room for the Caledonian Railway Station; a 
 theatre which for many years stood in Castle Street 
 was burned down about 1890; the present Her 
 Majesty's Theatre having been built a few years 
 previously. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE DUBLIN THEATRES. 
 
 The earliest recorded theatre in Dublin was one opened 
 in 1634 in Werburgh Street. It enjoyed a chequered 
 career that was closed by the outbreak of the rebellion 
 of 1641, when the house was closed by the authorities. 
 The Smock Alley Theatre, which subsequently played a 
 prominent part in Dublin's theatrical history, was 
 opened in 1662; and for half a century its position was 
 unchallenged by any rival. It had its vicissitudes, for 
 in 1617 part of it fell in, and again in 1701 the galleries 
 very properly (as all good moralists admitted) gave way 
 after a performance of Shadwell's licentious play The 
 Libertine. At various periods, too, after Charles II. 's 
 death the disturbed state of affairs in Ireland made 
 theatrical performances out of the question. Barton 
 Booth appeared at Smock Alley as Oronooko in 1698, 
 and Wilks and Quin were among those who made their 
 first essay at acting there. 
 
 Its first serious rival sprung from the enterprise of 
 the French dancer Madame Violante, who had settled 
 in Dublin in 1727 and proceeded to amuse the town (in 
 a house in Fownes Court) with dancing and acrobatic 
 entertainments. In 1731 she removed to another make- 
 shift theatre in George's Lane, where she continued for 
 a brief period with miscellaneous performances by a 
 
 3IO 
 
THE DUBLIN THEATRES. 31 1 
 
 troup of children whom she trained to ape the efforts 
 of their elders in such pieces as The Beggars' Opera. 
 It was not long- before her establishment was closed 
 by the authorities, but it has earned record by the 
 fact that Peg- Woffington was among her early pupils 
 and was much admired as Dolly in The Beggars' 
 Opera. 
 
 The Smock Alley theatre, however, survived this 
 opposition, as it did that of a music-hall opened in 173 1 
 in Crow Street (on the site of the afterwards popular 
 Crow Street theatre), as well as that of a theatre which 
 was opened in Rainsford Street in 1732 but soon closed 
 its doors. 
 
 More serious opposition was offered by the opening 
 (in 1734) of another new theatre in Aungier Street, 
 under the title of the Theatre Royal. This led to the 
 re-building of the Smock Alley theatre, which had fallen 
 into very bad repair; and in the renovated house Quin 
 (by this time a famous actor) appeared in 1739, Peg 
 Woffington in 1741 and Garrick in 1742. The lively 
 Peg had previously appeared, in 1737, as Ophelia at the 
 Aungier Street house, where Quin, Ryan, Kitty Clive 
 and Mrs. Cibber were also seen in 1741. 
 
 The competition between the two theatres was keen, 
 each striving to outdo the other in securing popular 
 favourites. Ultimately in 1743 a policy of union between 
 the rival managements was decided upon, and the sea- 
 son opened at Aungier Street with a company recruited 
 from the forces of both houses. The actors who were 
 left unemployed by this arrangement obtained possession 
 of the Smock Alley theatre, where they were fortunate 
 enough to secure the services of Thomas Sheridan, 
 whom the Aungier Street proprietors had failed to 
 attract by the salary they had offered him. Fortune 
 was, however, against the forlorn hope of Smock Alley, 
 
312 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 for Sheridan was so disgusted with the company that 
 he deserted it after a year and accepted an invitation to 
 act at Covent Garden. The result of this defection was 
 the abandonment of the enterprise, and the Smock 
 Alley house was prudently acquired by the Aungier 
 Street management. The disappointed actors from the 
 older house made one more bid for fortune at a theatre 
 built in Capel Street. They opened it in 1745, but want 
 of capital led to their discomfiture and the closing of 
 their theatre after a few years. 
 
 Things meanwhile had been going none too well in 
 Aungier Street, despite such occasional attractions as the 
 appearances of Spranger Barry and Foote. The upshot 
 was that Sheridan was invited to return there as 
 undisputed head of affairs, and thus there began a 
 management which was of the utmost service to the 
 drama in Dublin. 
 
 In 1745 Sheridan brought the fair Anne Bellamy to 
 Dublin, and in the same year and the following Garrick 
 also played at Aungier Street. In 1747 Henry Wood- 
 ward, a good comedian and pantomimist appeared 
 there'; Macklin, Henry Mossop, and West Digges 
 between 1748 and 1750; and in 1751 Peg Woffington, 
 who now returned to Dublin in the height of her powers 
 and remained there till 1754. Sheridan's lot was by no 
 means enviable; for, besides constant financial diffi- 
 culties, he had to contend with recurrent friction 
 springing from professional jealousy, as well as with 
 riots arising both from that cause and from others 
 connected with the attitude of the " young bloods " of 
 the day towards the theatre and its management. He 
 succeeded, however, in the difficult task of bringing 
 order and decency into a theatre which, when he under- 
 took its management, he described as "one part a 
 bear-garden and the other part a brothel." 
 
THE DUBLIN THEATRES. 313 
 
 In March 1754 there occurred a more than usually 
 serious riot, sprung-, as usual, from a trivial cause. 
 Sheridan's attitude with regard to it incensed the 
 audience, who forgot all the obligations under which 
 he had laid them and in a foolish fury wrecked his 
 theatre. He accordingly retired from the management 
 and went to London, but two years later (in October 
 1756) was induced to return to Dublin and once more 
 undertake the conduct of affairs which had languished 
 without him. To the eternal discredit of the Irish 
 audiences, he was forced on his reappearance to make 
 a public apology to the audience which had treated him 
 so badly. His only fault had been a perhaps too 
 obstinate regard for his dignity; in any case, he was 
 an excellent manager, and a man whom it was a cruelty 
 to humiliate in this fashion. 
 
 To add to Sheridan's troubles, it became known that 
 Spranger Barry intended to build a new theatre on the 
 site of the Crow Street music-hall. Every effort was 
 made by the Smock Alley management to get the new 
 scheme interdicted, but without success, and in October 
 . 1758 the Crow Street theatre opened its doors. Its 
 initial success was not -great, nor was the older theatre 
 in very good case ; still the opposition of the other was 
 enough to spoil the prospects of each of the rivals. 
 The Smock Alley house was further handicapped by two 
 disasters. Sheridan, who had gone to London to 
 recruit for his company, leaving his partner Benjamin 
 Victor to manage the theatre in his absence, had 
 engaged two "stars" in the shape of Theophilus Cibber 
 and a celebrated Harlequin of the name of Maddox, 
 both of whom were drowned by the foundering of the 
 vessel in which they were crossing to Ireland. On the 
 top of this came a crowning blow in the shape of 
 Sheridan's decision not to return to Dublin. Victor 
 
 21 
 
314 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 tried a final coup by engaging Macklin and his 
 daughter, but, when it came to the point, Macklin 
 cried off his bargain, putting forward his daughter's 
 health as an excuse for not fulfilling the engage- 
 ment. Eventually in the summer of 1759 both the 
 Smock Alley and Crow Street theatres closed their 
 doors. 
 
 Both shortly reopened under new management, the 
 Crow Street theatre now surpassing the older house in 
 enterprise. Henry Mossop and Foote were two great 
 attractions offered by it, and its management diplo- 
 matically prevented Tate Wilkinson from appearing at 
 the rival house. Smock Alley's only successful venture 
 at this period was the engagement of Mrs. Abington, 
 who made there her first Dublin appearance late in 
 
 1759- 
 
 In 1760 Mossop, who had declined to renew his 
 engagement at Crow Street, took and reconstructed 
 the Smock Alley theatre, and got together an efficient 
 company. Crow Street retaliated in kind, and a keen 
 competition began again. Mossop, Digges and Anne 
 Bellamy at Smock Alley were opposed to Barry, 
 Woodward and Fleetwood at Crow Street; and each 
 house strove to outdo the other while neither managed 
 to make their enterprise pay. The Barry and Mossop 
 rivalry continued till 1767, when Barry disappeared and 
 Mossop took both houses for a short time. The chief 
 point of dramatic interest during these years was the 
 presence in Dublin of Macklin, who appeared at Smock 
 Alley in 1761 and again at various times between 1763 
 and 1770. Mossop was soon obliged to give up Crow 
 Street to a new manager, and in 1772 retired ruined 
 from Smock Alley, which was taken by Thomas Ryder, 
 who was already a popular actor in Dublin. 
 
 Crow Street ruined its new manager by 1776, in 
 
THE DUBLIN THEATRES. 315 
 
 which year Ryder acquired its lease and acted there, 
 retaining Smock Alley only so as to prevent competition. 
 He eventually had to surrender Smock Alley, owing to 
 his inability to pay its rent; the old competition re- 
 vived; and in 1782 Ryder disappeared from the 
 managerial scene, bankrupt, and became a member of 
 the company controlled by his rival Richard Daly, who 
 had been in control of Smock Alley since 1781. Daly's 
 first important engagement was that of John Kemble in 
 1781, and in 1783 he brought Sarah Siddons to Dublin. 
 A year later, owing to the failure of the manager who 
 had followed Ryder at Crow Street, that theatre fell 
 into Daly's hands, who now could prevent opposition. 
 He confined himself almost entirely to Crow Street, 
 and the Smock Alley house practically ceased to exist 
 as a thqatre. In 1790 it was turned into a storehouse, 
 and later a church was built on its site. 
 
 Daly, whose means were diminishing, abandoned 
 theatrical management in 1798,, and his place at Crow 
 Street was taken by Frederick Jones, who had success- 
 fully tried his hand in the control of a private theatre 
 opened in Fishamble Street in 1793. Jones' reign 
 was short, riots and want of patronage producing 
 the usual result ; and the patent passed into the 
 hands of Henry Harris, who was manager of Covent 
 Garden. 
 
 Harris decided to abandon Crow Street theatre and 
 to build a new Theatre Royal. Accordingly a site was 
 obtained in Hawkins Street, and the new house was 
 opened in January 1821, In the matter of comfort and 
 convenience it was a great improvement on its pre- 
 decessors; and Harris (who controlled it till 1828, 
 though he frequently sub-let it during that time) started 
 it with a good stock company, which included Paul 
 Bedford, Montague Talbot and the fair Mrs. Humby. 
 
316 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 A brother of William Farren acted as deputy-managef 
 when Harris was in London. 
 
 In its early seasons such favourites as Charles 
 Kemble, Liston, Braham and Edmund Kean appeared 
 at the Theatre Royal ; and among those who subse- 
 quently visited it in Harris' time were Macready, who 
 acted there in 1824, T. P. Cooke in 1827, Charles Kean 
 in 1828, and in the same year the great Ducrow with 
 his circus. 
 
 In November 1828 the theatre and its "properties" 
 were offered for sale by auction. 
 
 Undaunted by the experience of their predecessors, 
 fresh managers were found, and the theatre was re- 
 opened early in 1829. In May of that year Edmund 
 Kean and his son Charles acted together on its stage, 
 Charles and Fanny Kemble appeared there in- 1830, as 
 also did some Siamese Dancers and a Performing 
 Elephant. 
 
 The history of the remaining fifty years of the life of 
 the old Theatre Royal is divided into two long and 
 meritorious managements, that of John William Calcraft 
 from 1830 to 185 1, and that of John Harris from 185 1 
 onwards. 
 
 Calcraft maintained a good stock company, and, to 
 protect his patent rights, took up also the lease of the 
 Adelphi Theatre, known later as the Queen's. He 
 suffered, however, from a new (though perhaps never 
 very formidable) opposition by the opening iq 1883 of a 
 theatre in Lower Abbey Street, which John and James 
 Calvert managed to keep open till 1844. 
 
 During his management Calcraft, impelled by 
 financial reasons, fell into the snare of playing down 
 to the vitiated taste of the public. Thus, in his time, 
 while we find Compton, Helen Faucit, Mathews and 
 Madame Vestris, the Charles Keans, Webster and 
 
THE DUBLIN THEATRES. 317 
 
 Sims Reeves at the Theatre Royal, we also find there 
 Van Amburgh's Lions, a Belgian Giant and Performing 
 Monkeys. 
 
 John Harris, who succeeded Calcraft in 185 1, was a 
 manager of higher ideals and stronger determination. 
 He had been for three years in control of the Queen's 
 Theatre, as the Adelphi was now called; and on his 
 assuming the management at the Theatre Royal it soon 
 became evident that he intended to spare no pains to 
 restore the theatre's prestige. That aim he accom- 
 plished to a remarkable extent. The great feature of 
 the early years of his rule was a series of excellent 
 Shakespearean revivals, in the course of which he pro- 
 duced, between 1851 and 1855 no fewer than fourteen 
 of the plays, all adequately mounted and capitally acted. 
 The London "stars" were glad to visit Dublin under 
 such auspices, and altogether Harris may be given the 
 credit for a remarkable revival of dramatic activity in 
 Dublin. In the 'seventies, too, he gave his audiences a 
 succession of seasons of Italian opera. The Theatre 
 Royal was burned down in 1880, and there was no 
 Theatre Royal in Dublin till 1897, when the present one 
 was opened. 
 
 The old Queen's Theatre has for long been devoted to 
 melodrama. Other present-day theatres in Dublin are 
 the Gaiety (in King Street) and the Abbey Theatre, the 
 latter being opened in 1904 for the performance of Irish 
 dramas under the auspices of the National Theatre 
 Society. That body (or rather its earliest ancestor) was 
 founded in 1899, as the Irish Literary Theatre, by W. 
 B. Yeats, Edward Martyn and Lady Gregory. It was 
 known by that designation till 1901 ; as the Irish 
 National Dramatic Company in 1902; as the Irish 
 National Theatre Society from 1903 to 1905 ; and as the 
 National Theatre Society since 1905. Its performances 
 
318 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE. 
 
 in Dublin have been successively given at the Gaiety 
 Theatre, St. Teresa's Hall, the Molesworth Hall, and 
 finally at the Abbey Theatre, the plays produced being 
 mainly from the pens of W. B. Yeats, Edward Martyn, 
 George Moore, Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge and William 
 Boyle. 
 
 A body calling itself the Gaelic Theatre gave per- 
 formances in the Dublin Rotunda in 1903. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 35, line 16. For " 1652" read " 1662." 
 
 Page 133, line 3. For "on" read " in." 
 
 Page 224, line 2. For " Elliott " read " Elliot." 
 Page 286, line 18. For "elder" read "younger.' 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, earliest theatres in, 
 308; Marischal Street Theatre, 
 308,309; His Majesty's Theatre, 
 309 
 
 Aberdeen Circuit, 309 
 
 Abington, Frances, at Dublin, 314; 
 in London, 87, 94 
 
 Acts and Galatea, 68 
 
 Actor's Remonstrance, The, 31, 
 32 
 
 Actors, the ciergy the earliest, 
 1-2 ; members of guilds as, 2-7; 
 become a separate class, 11 ; 
 earliest amateur, 12 ; boys as, 
 12, 19, 20, 26; conflict with 
 clergy, 12 ; declining status of, 
 14-15 ; acts and proclamations 
 respecting, 13, 14, 16, 30, 32 ; 
 position re-established, 26 ; 
 conflict with Puritans, 28-33 ! 
 demeanour during Civil War, 
 33; Charles II. grants patents 
 to two companies, 35 ; rivalry 
 between them, 40; they are 
 amalgamated, 43-47 ; as public 
 
 ' favourites, 45 ; second patent 
 again granted, 47 ; as servants 
 of the public, 108 ; opposition 
 to, in Bristol, 282 ; in Glasgow, 
 
 303 
 Actresses, earliest on English 
 
 stage, 3S> 39, 4° 
 
 Addison, Joseph, 57 
 
 Adelphi Theatre, earliest days of, 
 101, 122, 123 ; managed by 
 Yates, 123; by Madame Celeste 
 and Webster, 143 ; by Webster 
 alone, 143-145; the bouse re- 
 built, 145 ; managed by Chat- 
 terton, 145 ; by the brothers 
 
 Gatti, 240-242 ; known for a 
 short time as Century Theatre, 
 242 ; interior remodelled, 242 
 
 Admirable Bashville, The, 225 
 
 Admirable Crichton, The, 234 
 
 After Dark, 155 
 
 Aikin, Francis, 304 
 
 Ainley, Henry, 208 
 
 Alabama, 210, 245 
 
 Alabaster Staircase, The, 2 IO, 228 
 
 Aladdin, 257 
 
 Albeniz, Isaac, 269 
 
 Albery, James, 217, 245 
 
 Albion Theatre, 252 
 
 Aldwych Theatre, 274 
 
 Alexander, George, at Lyceum, 
 l 7 l > 173, 206; manager of 
 Avenue, 159, 228, 229; of St. 
 James's, 206-208 
 
 Alexander, J. H., manager of 
 Glasgow Dunlop Street theatre, 
 304-306 ; his feud with Seymour, 
 manager of Caledonian Theatre, 
 
 3°5 
 
 Alexandra Theatre, 253 
 
 Alice in Wonderland, 231, 246, 
 264 
 
 Alice Sil-by-the-Fire, 183, 234 
 
 All Abroad, 272 
 
 Alleyn, Edward, 19, 26, 41 
 
 Amasis, 272 
 
 Amazons, The, 223, 224 
 
 Ambassador, The, 208 
 
 Amber Heart, The, 173 
 
 America, Vestris and Mathews in, 
 121 ; Macreadyin, 133; Charles 
 Keanin, 154; Irving and Ellen 
 Terry with Lyceum company 
 in, 171, 172; Ellen Terry in, 
 182; Kendals in, 205; Wynd- 
 
 3 l 9 
 
320 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ham in, 216, 217, 218; Wilson 
 Barrett in, 238 ; Terriss in, 240, 
 241 ; Willard in, 244, 245 ; 
 Marie Tempest in, 269; Charles 
 Calvert in, 287 
 
 Amour Mouille, L', 269 
 
 Anderson, James R., at Drury 
 Lane, 132; manager, 135 
 
 Anderson, John H., 305 
 
 Anderson, Mary, 178 
 
 Andromache, 225 
 
 Angela, 228 
 
 Anstey, F., 196, 231 
 
 Anstruther, Eva, 196 
 
 Aphrodite against Artemis, 227 
 
 Apollo Theatre, 273, 274 
 
 Aquarium Theatre, 249 
 
 Aquatic Theatre, 99 
 
 Arabian Nights, The, 227 
 
 Arms and the Man, 227, 229 
 
 Arne, Thomas Augustine, 70, 83, 
 
 94 
 
 Arnold, Samuel, 124 
 
 Arrah-na-Pogue, 155 
 
 Artaxerxes, .83 
 
 Artist's Model, An, 271 
 
 Arundale, Sybil, 271 
 
 Asche, Oscar, 199, 211, 242 
 
 Ashwell, Lena, at Wyndham's, 
 220; at New Theatre, 221; 
 manager of Great Queen Street 
 Theatre, 230 
 
 Astley, Philip, 100-101 
 
 Astley's Amphitheatre, 101, 127 
 
 Attila, 199 
 
 Audran, Edmond, 267 
 
 Aunt Jack, 223 
 
 Australia, Charles Kean in, 154; 
 Toole in, 215 ; Wilson Barrett 
 in, 239 
 
 Avenue Theatre (afterwards The 
 Playhouse), comic opera at, 
 267 ; managed by Alexander, 
 228-229; by Jones, 229; by Ken- 
 dais, 229 ; by F. Farr, 229 ; by 
 Hawtrey, 229 ; other plays at, 
 230 ; partially destroyed, 195 ; 
 rebuilt and managed (as The 
 Playhouse) by Maude, 195, 196 
 
 Aynesworth, Allan, 223, 229 
 
 Baddeley, Sophia, 296 
 
 Baker, Mrs., manager of Tun- 
 bridge Wells theatre, 291 
 
 Bale, J. (Bishop of Ossory), 13 
 
 Ballad Monger, The, 193 
 
 Bancroft, Lady, at Bath, 280; 
 first London appearance, 156, 
 157 ; at Strand, 158 ; part 
 manager of Prince of Wales's, 
 187-190; marriage, 189; part 
 manager of Haymarket, 190- 
 192 ; retirement from manage- 
 ment, 192 ; subsequent appear- 
 ances, 192 ; her " Remini- 
 scences" quoted, 187-189, 202 
 
 Bancroft, Sir S., at Birmingham, 
 285 ; at Liverpool, 290 ; first 
 London appearance, 188; mar- 
 riage, 189 ; part manager of 
 Haymarket, 190-192; retire- 
 ment from management, 192; 
 subsequent appearances, 192 ; 
 knighted, 192; his "Remini- 
 scences" quoted, 187-189, 202 
 
 Bannister, John, at Haymarket, 
 103; at Drury Lane, 106; at 
 Brighton, 288 ; at Glasgow, 
 
 3°4 
 
 Barker, Granville, part manager 
 of Court, 226; of Savoy, 226, 
 227 ; The Marrying of Ann 
 Leete, 225 ; Prunella, 226 ; 
 The Voysey Inheritance, 226; 
 Waste, 227 
 
 Barrett, Wilson, in provinces, 221, 
 222, 286 ; at Edinburgh, 301, 
 302 ; at Aberdeen, 309 ; man- 
 ager of Court, 222 ; manager of 
 Princess's, 236-238 ; season at 
 Globe, 238 ; American tours, 
 238 ; manager of New Olympic, 
 239 ; season at Adelphi, 242 ; 
 at Shaftesbury and Lyric, 239 ; 
 at Lyceum, 180, 239 ; Aus- 
 tralian tours, 239 ; death, 239 ; 
 plays written by him, 238, 239 
 
 Barrie, J. M., The Admirable 
 Crichton, 234 ; Alice Sit-bythe- 
 Fire, 183, 234; Jane Annie, 
 265 ; Josephine, 228 ; Little 
 
INDEX. 
 
 321 
 
 Mary, 220 ; The Little Minis- 
 ter, 195 ; Pantaloon, 234; Peter 
 Pan, 234; The Professor's Love 
 Story, 228, 245 ; Punch, 228 ; 
 Quality Street, 247 ; Walker, 
 London, 215; The Wedding 
 Guest, 211 
 
 Barrier, The, 228 
 
 fiarrington, Rutland, at Savoy, 
 262 ; manager of St. James's, 
 206 ; at Lyric, 269 ; at Daly's, 
 271, 271 
 
 Barry, Elizabeth, at Drury Lane, 
 44 ; at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 
 47. S3 . 
 
 Barry, Shiel, 214 
 
 Barry, Spranger, at Drury Lane, 
 74, ; at Covent Garden, 74-76, 
 80, 96; at Aungier Street 
 theatre, Dublin, 312 ; manager 
 of Crow Street theatre, Dublin, 
 313, 314; at Edinburgh, 296 
 
 Barry Doyle's Best Cure, 226 
 
 Bashford and Russell manage- 
 ment at Haymarket, 193 
 
 Basoche, The, 266 
 
 Bateman, " Col." H. L., manager 
 of Lyceum, 162-164 
 
 Bateman, Isabel, 164 
 
 Bateman, Kate, 144 
 
 Bateman, Mrs. S. F., manager of 
 Lyceum, 164-167 ; of Saddler's 
 Wells, 150 
 
 Bath, earliest theatres in, 278 ; 
 Orchard Street theatre opened, 
 278 ; managed by Palmer, 278, 
 279 ; granted Patent as Theatre 
 Royal, 278; worked in con- 
 junction with Bristol, 279, 280; 
 house closed and new one 
 opened in Beaufort Square, 
 280; managed by elder Mac- 
 ready, 280 ; by Mrs. Macready, 
 280; by Chute, 280, 281; 
 burned down, 281 ; present 
 house opened, 281 
 
 Bath and Bristol Circuit, 280, 
 282 
 
 Bauble Shop, The, 219 
 
 Bear-Garden, The, 20, 31 
 
 Beau Austin, 200 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 27 
 Beauty and the Barge, The, 195, 
 
 221 
 Beauty of Bath, The, 274 
 Beauty Stone, The, 265 
 Becky Sharp, 232 
 Bedford, Paul, at Dublin Theatre 
 
 Royal, 315 ; at Adelphi, 123, 
 
 143 - . , 
 
 Beere, Mrs. Bernard, at Globe, 
 247 ; at Criterion, 219 
 
 Beggar's Bush, The, 35 
 
 Beggar's Opera, The, 60, 61, 68, 80 
 
 Behn, Aphra, 43, 46 
 
 Belasco, David, 241 
 
 Belgravia Theatre, 202 
 
 Bellamy, Anne, at Dublin, 312; 
 at Drury Lane, 75 ; at Edin- 
 burgh, 295 ; at Glasgow, 303 
 
 Belle of Bohemia, The, 273 
 
 Belle of May fair, The, 247 
 
 Belle of New York, The, 245, 273 
 
 Bellew, Kyrle, 249 
 
 Bells, The, 163 
 
 Bells of Haslenfere, The, 241 
 
 Beloved Vagabond, The, 200 
 
 Belphegor, 156, 157 
 
 Benefit of the Doubt, The, 194, 228 
 
 Ben-ma-Chree, The, 238 
 
 Benson, E. F., 225 
 
 Benson, F. R., at Globe, 247 ; at 
 Lyceum, 179; other mention of 
 his touring company, 200, 254 
 
 Bernhardt, Sarah, at Gaiety, 257;; 
 at Lyceum, 178 
 
 Besier, Rudolf, 242 
 
 Betsy, 217 
 
 Betterton, Thomas, in Davenant's 
 company at Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields and Dorset Gardens, 41, 
 42 ; at Drury Lane, 44 ; at 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields, 47 ; at 
 Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, 
 51 ; at Drury Lane, 53, 58 
 
 Betty, William, at Drury Lane 
 and Covent Garden, 97, 98 ; 
 at Edinburgh, 297 ; at Bath, 
 280 ; at Exeter, 283 
 
 Billington, Elizabeth, 95 
 
322 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Billington, John, 214 
 
 Billy's Little Love Affair ; 221 
 
 Binyon, R. L., 199 
 
 Birmington, earliest theatres at, 
 284 ; theatre built in King 
 Street, 284 j closed, 285 ; 
 another built in New Street, 
 285 ; twice burned and rebuilt, 
 285 ; obtains Patent as Theatre 
 Royal, 285 ; managed by elder 
 Macready, 285 ; by Elliston, 
 285; by Bunn, 285; Prince of 
 Wales's Theatre, 286; Grand 
 Theatre, 286; Queen's Theatre, 
 286 
 
 Birmingham Circuit, 277 
 
 Black, James, 301 
 
 Black Cat, The, 225 
 
 Black Eye*d Susan, 1 25, 204, 216 
 
 Black Friars' Monastery, used as 
 theatre, 16-17; converted into 
 regular theatre, 18-20, 27 
 
 Black Tulip, The, 195 
 
 Blakeley, William, at Criterion, 
 217, 218 
 
 Blot in the 'Scutcheon, A, 133 
 
 Bluebeard, 258 
 
 Bluebell in Fairyland, 247, 274 
 
 Blue-Eyed Susan, 268 
 
 Blue Moon, 7*he, 270 
 
 Bolton, Duchess of. See Fenton, 
 L. 
 
 Bond, Jessie, at Opera Comique 
 and Savoy, 263 ; at Lyric, 269 
 
 Booth, Barton, at Dublin, 310; 
 at Drury Lane, 53, 59, 61 ; 
 part manager of Drury Lane, 
 58-61 ; retirement and death, 
 61 ; his acting, 61, 62 
 
 Booth, Edwin, at Haymarket, 
 139; at Lyceum, 170 
 
 Boucicault, Dion, the elder, acts 
 at Brighton, 288; at Edinburgh, 
 301 ; at Princess's, 155 ; After 
 Dark, 155 ; Arrah-na-Pogue, 
 155; The Colleen Bawn, 144; 
 Dot, 213 ; Hunted Down, 184 ; 
 The Octoroon, 144 ; The Streets 
 of London, 155 
 
 Boucicault, Dion, the younger, 224 
 
 Boucicault, Nina, at Vaudeville, 
 246 ; at Wyndham's, 220 
 
 Bourchier, Arthur, at St. James's, 
 206, 210; at Criterion, 210, 
 219 ; manager of Royalty, 210, 
 211 ; at Garrick, Strand and 
 Court, 211; part manager of 
 Criterion, 211, 221 ; manager 
 of Garrick, 211, 212 
 
 Bourchier, Mrs. Arthur. See 
 Vanbrugh, V. 
 
 Bowkett, Sydney, 221 
 
 Boy actors, in sixteenth century, 
 12, 19, 20, 26; at Drury Lane, 
 97.98 
 
 Boy Q' Carrol, 250 
 
 Boyle, William, 318 
 
 Boys Together, 242 
 
 Bracegirdle, Anne, 44 
 
 Braham, John, sings in London, 
 94> 95> 99 ; at Bath, 280 ; at 
 Dublin, 316; at Edinburgh, 
 299; opens St. James's Theatre, 
 126 
 
 Braham, Leonora, at Opera 
 Comique and Savoy, 263, 264 ; 
 at Daly's, 271 
 
 Brandon, Olga, at Shaftesbury, 
 244 ; at Avenue, 229 
 
 Brantinghame Hall, 206 
 
 Brayton, Lily, at Duke of York's, 
 234 ; at Adelphi, 242 ; at His 
 Majesty's, 234 
 
 Breaking a Butterfly, 231 
 
 Brett, H., S3 
 
 Brewster's Millions, 235 
 
 Brieux, Eugene, 225 
 
 Brigadier Gerard, 250 
 
 Brighton, 217 
 
 Brighton, theatre opened in North 
 Street, 288 ; another in Duke 
 Street, 288 ; another in New 
 
 • Road, 288 ; rebuilt and man- 
 aged by Nye Chart, 288 ; man- 
 aged by Mrs. Chart, 288, 289 
 
 Bristol, earliest theatrical per- 
 formances at, 281 ; Jacob's 
 Well Theatre opened by Hip- 
 pesley, 281 ; new house built 
 in King Street, 282 ; licence 
 
INDEX. 
 
 323 
 
 obtained, 282 ; managed, to- 
 gether with Bath theatre, by 
 Palmer, 282 ; by Chute, 282 
 
 Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, 251, 
 252 
 
 Broken Hearts, 202, 204 
 
 Brooke, Gustavus, at Olympic, 
 122; at Edinburgh, 300; at 
 Glasgow, 306 
 
 Brookfield, Charles, at Comedy, 
 227; at Criterion, 219; The 
 Cuckoo, 229, 247; Dear Old 
 Charlie, 247 
 
 Brooks, Shirley, 275 
 
 Brough, Fanny, at Duke of York's, 
 233 ; at Prince of Wales's, 232 ; 
 at Hay market, 196 
 
 Brough, Sydney, at Comedy, 228 ; 
 at Criterion, 219 
 
 Brough, William, The Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold, 255 ; writes for 
 German Reeds, 275 
 
 Broughton, Phyllis, at Gaiety, 
 258 ; at Prince of Wales's, 268 
 
 Brown Potter, Mrs., at His 
 Majesty's, 248 ; at Savoy, 266 
 
 Browne, Pattie, 224 
 
 Browning, Robert, A Blot in 
 the 'Scutcheon, 133 ; A Soul's 
 Tragedy, 225 
 
 Bruce, Edgar, manager of Aqua- 
 rium Theatre, 249; of Prince 
 of Wales's, 190 ; of Prince's, 
 230, 231 
 
 Brunswick Theatre, 101 
 
 Buchanan, Robert, Clarissa Har- 
 lowe, 246 ; Dr. Cupid, 246 ; 
 Joseph' s Sweetheart, 246; Lady 
 Clare, 247 ; Miss Tomboy, 246 ; 
 Sophia, 246 ; ■ The Strange Ad- 
 ventures of Miss Brown, 246 ; 
 Sweet Nancy, 248 
 
 Buckstone, J. B., his plays per- 
 formed at Adelphi, 123, 143 ; 
 acts at Surrey Theatre, 125; 
 at Coburg, 127 ; at Haymarket, 
 137 ; manager of Haymarket, 
 138-142;' acts at Lyceum, 
 156; at Birmingham, 286; at 
 Brighton, 288; at Edinburgh, 
 
 300 ; at Glasgow, 306 ; his 
 acting, 138 ; anecdotes of, 138, 
 139 
 
 Bunn, Alfred, manager of Bir- 
 mingham theatre, 285 ; man- 
 ager of Drury Lane and Covent 
 Garden, 114-117; of Drury 
 Lane for second time, 135 
 
 Burbage, James, at Blackfriars' 
 theatre, 17, 26; builds The 
 Theatre, 17, 18 
 
 Burbage, Richard, 26 
 
 Burlesque, at Gaiety, 255-259, 
 261; at Lyceum, 155-157; at 
 Olympic, 120, 255 ; at Opera 
 Comique, 263* ; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 188, 189; at Royalty, 
 159, 255; at Strand, 158, 255; 
 at Toole's, 214, 215 
 
 Burnand, Sir F. C, Betsy, 217; 
 Black Eye' d Susan, 216; Blue- 
 beard, 258; The Colonel, 190; 
 Contrdbandista, 275; Cox and 
 Box, 275 ; A Gay Widow, 224 ; 
 The Headless Man, 218; His 
 Majesty, 265; Ixion, 159 
 
 Bury, theatre at, 290 
 
 Butler, The, 214 
 
 Buxton, theatre at, 287 
 
 Byron, H. J., at Birmingham, 
 286; his burlesques at Strand, 
 158, 255; at Prince of Wales's, 
 187-189 ; Daisy Farm, 243 ; 
 Dearer Than Life, 214; Four- 
 teen Days, 217 
 
 Byron, Lord, writes address for 
 opening of Drury Lane, 106 ; 
 on Committee of Management, 
 107 
 
 Caine, T. H. Hall, The Ben-ma- 
 Chree, 238; The Christian, 
 234; The Good Old Times, 238; 
 The Manxman, 239, 245 
 
 Calcraft, J. W. , manager of Dublin 
 Theatre Royal, 316, 317 
 
 Caldicott, Alfred, 275 
 
 Cabinet Minister, The, 195, 223 
 
 Casar and Cleopatra, 227 
 
 Called Back, 231 
 
324 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Calmour, A. C, The Amber 
 Heart 173; The Judgment of 
 Pharaoh, 251 
 
 Calvert, Charles, manager of 
 Glasgow Queen's Theatre, 306; 
 his Shakespearean productions 
 at Manchester Prince's Theatre, 
 287 
 
 Calvert, Mrs. Charles, 287 
 
 Calvert, James, 316 
 
 Calvert, John, 316 
 
 Cambises, II 
 
 Cambridge University, plays acted 
 at, 12 
 
 Camden Theatre, 292 
 
 Cameron, Violet, 214, 267, 273 
 
 Campbell, Herbert, 253 
 
 Campbell, Mrs. Patrick, at St. 
 James's, 206, 207 ; at Garrick, 
 209; at Lyceum, 178, 179; at 
 Avenue, 229 ; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231 
 
 Canary, The, 231 
 
 Candida, 225 
 
 Candidate, The, 217, 218 
 
 Canterbury, theatre at, 291 
 
 Captain BrassbouncTs Conversion, 
 183, 225 
 
 Captain Drew on Leave, 220 
 
 Captain Swift, 193 
 
 Carmen Up to Data, 259 
 
 Carr, J. Comyns, Boys Together, 
 242; King Arthur, 175; The 
 Rose of Persia, 265 
 
 Carr, Osmond, His Excellency, 
 265; Morocco Bound, 273 
 
 Carre, Michel, 268 
 
 Carson, Murray, at Terry's 
 Theatre, 233; Rosemary, 219; 
 Simple Simon, 212 
 
 Carte, R. D'Oyly, manager of 
 Opera Comique, 262, 263 ; of 
 Savoy, 263-266 ; of English 
 Opera House, 266 
 
 Carte, Mrs. D'Oyly, 266 
 
 Carton, R. C. , The Home Secre- 
 tary, 219 ; Lady Barbarity, 
 228; Lady Huntworth's Experi- 
 ment, zi I, 221; Liberty Hall, 
 207; Lord and Lady Algy, 228, 
 
 229 ; Mr. Hopkinson, 230 ; 
 Public Opinion, 221 ; Robin 
 Coodfellow, 209; The Squire 
 of Dames, 219; Sunlight and 
 Shadow, 206, 229 ; Wheels 
 within Wheels, 211, 221; A 
 White Elephant, 228 
 
 Cartwright, William, 40 
 
 Caryll, Ivan, his music for Gaiety 
 pieces, 261 ; Dandy Dick Whit- 
 tinglon, 269 ; The Gay Parisi- 
 enne, 272 ; Little Christopher 
 Columbus, 269 ; The Lucky 
 Star, 266 
 
 Case of Rebellious Susan, The, 219 
 
 Cassilis Engagement, The, 225 
 
 Caste, 189, 210, 216 
 
 Castle of Andalusia, 96 
 
 Catch of the Season, The, 247 
 
 Cathcart Rowley, 288 
 
 Cato, 57, 58, 61 
 
 Cavendish, Ada, at Strand, 159; 
 at Olympic, 147; at Globe, 247 
 
 Cecil, Arthur, with German Reeds, 
 275; at Prince of Wales's, 190'; 
 at Court, 222-224; part manager 
 of Court, 222-223; at Avenue, 
 229 
 
 Celeste, Madame, at Haymarket, 
 137; part manager of Adelphi, 
 138, 143; of Lyceum, 157; at 
 Edinburgh,, 300 
 
 Cellier, Alfred, Doris, 268 ; 
 Dorothy, 231, 248, 267, 268, 
 269 ; The Mountebanks, 265, 
 269 
 
 Censorship of Plays* first estab- 
 lished, 67; Coleman as Ex- 
 aminer of Plays, 103 ; agitation 
 for abolition of, 227 
 
 Century Theatre, 242 
 
 Chambers, Haddon, ,Boys To- 
 gether, 242 ; Captain Swift, 
 193 ; The Fatal Card, 241 ; The 
 Idler, 207 ; , The Old Lady, 223 ; 
 The Tyranny of Tears, 219 
 
 Chance, the Idol, 226 
 
 Chapman, George, 27 - 
 
 Charing Cross Theatre-, see Folly 
 Theatre 
 
INDEX. 
 
 325 
 
 Charity that began at Home, The, 
 226 
 
 Charles I., 163 
 
 Charley's Aunt, 159, 160, 248 
 
 Chart, H. Nye, 288 
 
 Chart, Mrs. Nye, 288 
 
 Chassaigne, Francis, 267 
 
 Chatterton, F. B., manager of 
 Drury Lane, 135, 136 ; of 
 Adelphi, 145; of Princess's, 
 
 155 
 
 Cherry Girl, The, 247 
 
 Chester Miracle Play, 2, 3, 7 
 
 Chester Theatre, 287 
 
 Chetwood, W. R., 56 
 
 Chevaleer, The, 211 
 
 Children of the King, The, 224 
 
 Chili Widow, The, 211 
 
 Chinese Honeymoon, A, 273 
 
 Chippendale, W. H., at Brighton, 
 • 288; at Edinburgh, 302 
 
 Christian, The, 234 
 
 Christmas Carol, A, 144 
 
 Chronicle Plays, n 
 
 Chudleigh, Arthur, part manager 
 of Court, 223, 224 
 
 Chute, J. H., manager of Bath 
 and Bristol theatres, 280, 282 
 
 Cibber, Colley, at Drury Lane, 
 44, 45, 48, 52-63; part manager, 
 54-63 ; retirement and death, 
 63; his Apology quoted, 36, 44, 
 48, 52, 56 ; Love's Last Shift, 
 
 44 
 
 Cibber, Mrs. S. M., at Dublin, 
 31 1; at Drury Lane and Covent 
 Garden, 70, 74, 75, 81 
 
 Cibber, Theophilus, at Drury 
 Lane, 64-66; at Haymarket, 66; 
 at Covent Garden, 69 ; drowned 
 on his way to Dublin, 313 
 
 Cigale, La, 269 
 
 Cigarette- Maker' s Romance, A, 
 250, 273 
 
 Cinder Ellen, 259 
 
 Cingalee, The, 271 
 
 Circuits, theatrical : the Bath and 
 Bristol, 277, 280, 282; Birming- 
 ham, 277; Exeter, 277, 282; 
 Kent, 277, 291 ; Manchester, 
 
 277> 287; Newcastle, 277, 290; 
 Norwich, 277, 290; Salisbury, 
 277; York, 277, 289; Aberdeen, 
 
 3°9 
 Circus Girl, The, 260 
 City Theatre, 127 
 Clapham Theatre, 292 
 Clarence Theatre, 253 
 Clarissa Harlowe, 246 
 Clark, Thornton, 233 
 Clarke, J. S., manager of Hay- 
 market, 142; of Strand, 159 
 Claudian, 215, 237 
 Clayton, John, at St. James's, 
 
 158; at Queen's Theatre, 160 ; 
 
 at Gaiety, 257 ; at Prince of 
 
 Wales's, 190 ; at Court, 202 ; 
 
 manager of Court, 222, 223 ; 
 
 death, 223 
 Clements, Miriam, 273 
 Clito, 238 
 
 Clive, Kitty, at Dublin, 31 1; at 
 ■ Covent Garden, 70; at Drury 
 
 Lane, 74, 81 
 Cloches de Corneville, Les, 214 
 Coates, Robert, at Haymarket, 
 
 103, 104 
 Cobourg Theatre (afterwards 
 
 Victoria), 127, 128 
 Cockpit, Drury Lane, 19, 34 
 Coffin, Hayden, at Prince of 
 
 Wales's, 268; at Daly's, 271 
 Coghlan, C. F., 222 
 Colchester, theatre at, 290 
 Coleman, Fanny, at Brighton, 
 
 233; at Terry's, 288 
 Collard, Avalon, 275 
 Colleen Bawn, The, 144 
 Collette, Charles, 302 
 Collier, Jeremy, 46 
 Collier, W., 53 
 Collins, Arthur, 136 
 Collins, Wilkie, Man and Wife, 
 
 190; The New Magdalen, 147 
 Colman, George, the elder, part 
 
 manager of Covent Garden, 
 
 84 ; manager of Haymarket, 
 
 102 
 Colman, George, the younger, 
 
 manager of Haymarket, 102-104 
 
326 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Colonel, The, 190 
 
 Colonel Newcome, 200 
 
 Comedy Opera Company, 262, 
 263 
 
 Comedy Theatre, opened with 
 comic opera, 227, 267; plays 
 subsequently produced at, 227, 
 228 
 
 Comic Opera, 262-274 
 
 Comparison between the two 
 Stages, A, 48 
 
 Compton, Henry, at Dublin, 316; 
 at Haymarket, 139; at Strand, 
 158; at Edinburgh, 302 
 
 Confederacy, The, 51 
 
 Congreve, William, his plays at 
 Drury Lane, 45, 46, 54, 57, 
 62 ; at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 47, 
 48 ; Love for Love, 48 ; The 
 Way of the World, 69 
 
 Conquest, George, 252 
 
 Conway, H.B., 173 
 
 Cooke, G. F., at Covent Garden, 
 96; at Bath, 280; at Glasgow, 
 
 3°4 
 Cooke, T. P., at Surrey, 125; at 
 
 Adelphi, 123; at Dublin, 316 
 Coppee, Francois, 179 
 Coquelin, B. C, 178 
 Coronet Theatre, 292 
 Corsican Brothers, The, 1 70 
 Coryate, Thomas, Crudities, 21 
 Costume, in Miracle Plays, 6; 
 later conventions in, 45, 77, 
 m; closer accuracy attempted 
 by Macklin,95; by J. P.Kemble, 
 in; by C. Kemble, 115; at 
 Prince of Wales's by the Ban- 
 crofts, 188 
 Country Girl, The, 271 
 Country Mouse, A, 232 
 County Councillor, The, 233 
 Cousin Kate, 195 
 Court Theatre, early days, 202; 
 managed by Marie Litton, 202; 
 by Hare, 202, 203; by Barrett, 
 221, 222; by Clayton, 222, 223; 
 demolished, 223; new house 
 built, 223 ; managed by Chud- 
 leigh and Mrs. Wood, 223, 224; 
 
 Stage Society performances at, 
 224 ; Independent Theatre per- 
 formances at, 225,226; managed 
 by Barker and Vedrenne, 226 ; 
 by Otho Stuart, 226 
 
 Courtneidge, Robert, 287 
 
 Covent Garden, first theatre 
 opened, 68; managed by J. 
 Rich, 68-70, 73-76; Handel's 
 operas at, 68-69; his oratorios, 
 70; managed by Harris, 84-86, 
 89 ; by J. P. Kemble, 92-98, 
 107-110; interior remodelled, 
 96; burned down, 98; new 
 house opened, 107; "O.P." 
 riots at, 107-109; managed by 
 C. Kemble, 114; by Bunn, 114- 
 117; by Macready, 129, 130; 
 by Vestris and Mathews, 130, 
 131; burned down, 131; present 
 house opened and devoted to 
 opera, 131 
 
 Coventry Miracle Play, 3-6 
 
 Cox and Box, 275 
 
 Craig, Gordon, 250 
 
 Craigie, Mrs., 206 
 
 Crawford, Marion, 250 
 
 Criterion Theatre, opened, 217; 
 managed by Henderson and 
 Wyndham, 217; by Wyndham, 
 217-219; by Wyndham and 
 Bourchier, 22 1 ; musical pieces 
 at, 272 
 
 Critic, The, 88 
 
 Crusaders, The, 229 
 
 Cuckoo, The, 229, 247 
 
 Cumberland, Richard, 93 
 
 Cup, The, 170 
 
 Curtain Theatre, 18 
 
 Cushman, Charlotte, 151 
 
 Cutler, Kate, 268 
 
 Cyrano de Bergerac, 220 
 
 Dacre, Arthur, at Court, 222; at 
 
 Comedy, 227 
 Dacre, Helena, 232 
 Dairymaids, The, 273 
 Daly, Augustin, 220 
 Daly, Richard, 315 
 
INDEX. 
 
 327 
 
 Daly Company at Toole's, 215; 
 
 at Strand, 159; at Opera Co- 
 
 mique, 270; at Gaiety, 270; at 
 
 Lyceum, 178; at Daly's, 270 
 Daly's Theatre, opened, 220; 
 
 managed by Daly, 270; his 
 
 American company at, 270; 
 
 managed by George Edwards, 
 
 with comic opera, 270-272. 
 Danby, Charles, at Opera Co- 
 
 mique, 263; at Shaftesbury, 273 
 Dancing Girl, The, 193 
 Dandy Dick, 222, 223, 264 
 Dandy Dick Whitlington, 269 
 Danisckeffs, The, 158 
 Dan'IDruce, 185 
 Dante, 180 
 
 Darling of the Gods, The, 200 
 Dauban, John, 256 
 Daughters of Babylon, The, 239 
 Davenant, Sir William, 34, 35 
 David Garrick, 142, 218, 285 
 Davidson, John, 179 
 Davies, Ben, at Prince of Wales's, 
 
 268; at Lyric, 269 
 Davies, H. H. , Captain Drew on 
 
 Leave, 220; The Mollusc, 221 ; 
 
 Mrs. Gorringe's Necklace, 220 
 Davis, Fay, at Criterion, 219; at 
 
 St. James's, 208; at Garrick, 
 
 211 
 Deacon, The, 244 
 Dead Heart, The, 143, 144, 174, 
 
 192 
 Dean's Daughter, The, 206 
 Dear Old Charlie, 247 
 Dearer than Life, 214 
 Dekker, Thomas, Gull's Horn- 
 book 23, 27 
 Delane, Dennis, 74 
 De la Pasture, Mrs., Peter's 
 
 Mother, 221, 228; The Lonely 
 
 Millionaires, 226 
 Denny, W. H., 264 
 Destruction of Jerusalem, The, 4 
 Devil's Disciple, The, 227 
 Diana of Dobson's, 230 
 Dibdin, Charles, the elder, at 
 
 Covent Garden, 94 ; at Lyceum, 
 
 100 
 
 Dibdin, Charles, the younger, at 
 Sadler's Wells, 99 
 
 Dibdin, J. C, his Annals of the 
 Edinburgh Stage, quoted, 294, 
 297 
 
 Dibdin, Thomas J., 125 
 
 Dick Hope, 205 
 
 Dick Venables, 244 
 
 Dickens, Charles, adaptations 
 from his novels, 124, 144, 147, 
 .155. 163. 2 °°> 2 47, 250 
 
 Digges, West, at Dublin Aungier 
 Street theatre, 312; at Smock 
 Alley theatre, 314; manager of 
 Edinburgh theatre, 294, 295, 
 296; builds a theatre in Aber- 
 deen, 308 
 
 Dillon, Charles, manager of Ly- 
 ceum, 156, 157 
 
 Diplomacy, 190, 192, 203, 209 
 
 Doctor's Dilemma, The, 226 
 
 Dodo, 2,25 
 
 Doggett, Thomas, at Queen's 
 Theatre, Haymarket, 51 ; at 
 Drury Lane, 53-58 ; part man- 
 ager, 54-58 
 
 Doll's Bouse, The, 231, 254 
 
 Don, The, 214 
 
 Don Juan, 260 
 
 Don Juan's Last Wager, 231 
 
 Doncaster, theatre at, 289 
 
 Dora, 184 
 
 Doris, 268 
 
 Dorothy, 231, 248, 267, 268, 269 
 
 Dorothy 0' the Hall, 221, 248 
 
 Dorset Gardens Theatre, 35, 42 
 
 Dot, 213 
 
 Douglas, 80, 294 
 
 Dover, theatre at, 291 
 
 Doyle, Sir A. Conan,yo«e Annie, 
 265 ; A Story of Waterloo, 175 
 
 Dr. Bill, 206, 228 
 
 Dr. Cupid, 246 
 
 Drayton, Michael, 27 
 
 Drew, John, 159 
 
 Drink, 155, 243 
 
 Drury, W. P., 196 
 
 Drury Lane, performances at 
 Cockpit in, 35 ; Wren's theatre 
 opened, 35, 41 ; early years, 
 
328 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 44-45 ; managed by C. Rich, 
 47-53; by Collier, 53-54; by 
 Cibber, Wilks and Doggett, 54- 
 58; by Cibber, Wilks and 
 Booth, 58-63; by Highinore, 
 63 ; by Fleetwood, 63 ; by 
 Lacy and Garrick, 63, 71-82 ; 
 by Sheridan, 86-89; pulled 
 down, 89, 90 ; new theatre 
 opened, 90, 91; managed by 
 Sheridan, 90-93 ; burned down, 
 93 ; present house opened, 
 under a Committee of Manage- 
 ment, 105-107, 114; managed 
 by Elliston, 114; interior re- 
 modelled, 114; managed by 
 Bunn, 114-117; by Macready, 
 131-134; by Bunn again, 135; 
 by Anderson, 135 ; by E. T. 
 Smith, 143 ; by Chatterton, 
 135-136; by Harris, 136; by 
 Collins, 136 
 Dryden, John, 38, 42, 43, 45, 54 
 Dublin, theatres at :— 
 Abbey Theatre, 317, 318 
 Adelphi Theatre (afterwards 
 
 Queen's), 316, 317 
 Aungier Street theatre, opened, 
 311; rivalry with Smock 
 Alley, 311; their companies 
 united, 311; Aungier Street 
 managed by T. Sheridan, 
 
 3 I2 > 313 
 Capel Street Theatre, 312 
 Crow Street Theatre, opened 
 by Spranger Barry, 313, 314; 
 rivalry with Smock Alley, 
 314; both houses managed 
 by Mossop, 314; by Ryder, 
 315; by Daly, 315; Crow 
 Street managed by Jones, 
 315 ; by Henry Harris, 315 
 Fishamble Street Theatre, 315] 
 Gaelic Theatre performances, 
 
 3i8 
 
 Gaiety Theatre, 317 
 
 Irish Literary Theatre (after- 
 wards National Theatre 
 Society) performances, 317, 
 3i8 
 
 Queen's Theatre, 316, 317 
 Rainsford Street Theatre, 311 
 Smock Alley Theatre, opened, 
 310; rebuilt, 311 ; rivalry 
 with Aungier Street, 311 ; 
 their companies united, 311 ; 
 Smock Alley managed by T. 
 Sheridan, 311, 312; taken 
 over by Aungier Street 
 management, 312; managed 
 by Sheridan and Victor, 313, 
 314 ; by Mossop, 314; rivalry 
 with Crow Street, 314 ; both 
 houses managed by Mossop, 
 314; by Ryder, 315; by 
 Daly, 315; Smock Alley 
 closed, 315 
 Theatre Royal, in Hawkins 
 Street, opened, 315; managed 
 by Henry Harris, 315, 316; 
 by Calcraft, 316, 317 ; by 
 John Harris, 317; burned 
 down, 317; present Theatre 
 Royal opened, 317 
 Duchess de la Valliere, The, 130 
 Duchess of Dantzig, The, 269 
 Ducrow, Andrew, at Edinburgh, 
 
 298 ; at Dublin, 316 
 Duenna, The, 86 
 Duke of Killicrankie, The, 221 
 Duke of York's Theatre, opened 
 (as Trafalgar Square Theatre) 
 by Wyatt, 233, 272 ; renamed 
 Duke of York's, 233 ; managed 
 by Frohman, 233-235 
 Dulcamara, 157 
 
 Du Maurier, Gerald, at Comedy, 
 228; at Duke of York's, 234, 
 235 ; at Hicks', 235 
 Dumfries, theatre at, 304 
 Dundee, theatres at, 309 
 "Dundreary, Lord," 141, 142 
 D'Qrfey, Thomas, 43, 45 
 Duse, Eleonora, 178 
 Duval, George, 128 
 
 Ealing Theatre, 292 
 Earl and the Girl, The, 266 
 East London Theatre, 10 1 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3^9 
 
 Eastlake, Mary, at Princess's, 237, 
 382 
 
 Edinburgh, theatre opened by- 
 Ramsay in Carubber's Close, 
 293 ; plays given in Canongate 
 Concert Hall, 293 ; Concert 
 Hall managed by Lee, 294 ; by 
 West Digges, 294; becomes 
 Theatre Royal by Patent, 295 ; 
 new Theatre Royal built, 295 ; 
 managed by Ross, 295 ; by 
 Foote, 295; by Digges, 295, 
 296 ; by Wilkinson, 296 ; by 
 Jackson, 296, 297 ; by Stephen 
 Kemble, 297 ; by Jackson 
 again, 297, 298 ; closed for 
 three years, 298 ; Circus in 
 Leith Walk opened, 296 ; 
 managed by Henry Siddons as 
 New Theatre Royal, 298; 
 Siddons returns to old Theatre 
 Royal, 298; that house managed 
 by his widow and W. H. 
 Murray, 298, 299 ; by Murray 
 alone, 299, 300; Murray also 
 manages Leith Walk house, re- 
 named Adelphi, 300 ; Theatre 
 Royal managed by Lloyd, 301 ; 
 by Wyndham, who also man- 
 
 ' ages Adelphi, 301 ; Adelphi 
 burned down, and Queen's 
 Theatre built on its site, 301 ; 
 managed by Black, 301 ; 
 
 , Theatre Royal demolished, and 
 title of Theatre Royal trans- 
 ferred by Wyndham to Queen's, 
 
 301 ; that house twice burned 
 down, 301, 302; retirement of 
 Wyndham, 3025 new Theatre 
 Royal built by Howard, 302 ; 
 burned down, 302 ; present 
 Theatre Royal built, 302; 
 Lyceum Theatre, 302 ; Prin- 
 cess's Theatre, 302 ; Edinburgh 
 Theatre, 302 
 
 Ediss, Connie, 262 
 
 Edouin, Willie, at Edinburgh, 
 
 302 ; at Strand, 159; at Prince 
 ' of Wales's, 268; at Apollo, 274 
 
 Education of Elizabeth, The, 273 
 
 Edwardes, George, manager of 
 Gaiety, 258; of Daly's, 270; 
 One of the Best, 241 . 
 
 Egan, Pierce, 122 
 
 Egerton, Daniel, 119 
 
 Elder Miss Blossom, The, 205 
 
 Eleanor, 226 
 
 Electra, 226 
 
 Elephant and Castle Theatre, 251, 
 252 
 
 Elizabethan Stage Society, 227 
 
 Elliot, W. G., at Court, 224 ; at 
 Terry's, 232 
 
 Elliott, Maxine, at Comedy, 228; 
 at Lyric, 249 
 
 Elliston, R. W., at Bath, 279, 
 280 ; at Brighton, 288 ; man- 
 ager of Birmingham theatre, 
 285 ; at Haymarket, 103 ; at 
 Drury Lane, 106 ; manager of 
 Surrey Theatre, ioo, 125 ; of 
 Olympic, 100 ; of Drury Lane, 
 114; at Haymarket, 118 
 
 Emden, W. S., 147 
 
 Emerald Isle, The, 265 
 
 Emery, John, at Haymarket, 103 ; 
 at Newcastle, 290 
 
 Emery,Samuel, at Lyceum, 155; at 
 Queen's, 160; at Brighton, 288 
 
 Emery, Winifred (Mrs. C. Maude), 
 at Princess's, Imperial, and 
 Court, 194 ; at Lyceum, 173, 
 194 ; at Avenue, 229 ; at 
 Comedy, 228 ; at Haymarket, 
 
 194. 195 
 Enemy of the People, The, 193, 
 . 254 
 
 Enfant Prodigue, V, 268 
 English Dratna Society, 227 
 English Nell, 231 
 English Opera House (afterwards 
 
 Lyceum), 123 
 English Opera House {afterwards 
 
 Palace Theatre), 266 
 Eon, Chevalier d', 288 
 Esmond, H. V., at Terry's, 232 ; 
 
 at St. James's, 207 ; at Wynd- 
 
 ham's, 220 ; at Apollo, 273 ; 
 
 Billy's Little Love Affair, 221; 
 
 The CGrindles, 196; One 
 
 22 
 
330 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Summit's Day, 228 ; Under 
 the Greenwood Tree, 249 
 
 Estcourt, Richard, 53 
 
 Esther, 68 
 
 Etherege, Sir George, 43 
 
 Eugene Aram, 164 
 
 Every body's Secret, 195 
 
 Exeter, earliest theatre in, 282, 
 283 ; new house opened, 283 ; 
 lit by gas, 284 ; burned down 
 three times, 284 ; present house 
 built, 284 
 
 Exeter Circuit, 2S2 
 
 Fagan, J. B. , 242 
 
 Fairbrother, Louisa, 156 
 
 Fairy's Dilemma, The, 211 
 
 Falcon, The, 204 
 
 Falconer, Edmund, 157 
 
 Falka, 267 
 
 Famous Victories of Henry V., 
 The, 11 
 
 Farquhar, George, 54 
 
 Farr, Florence, 229 
 
 Farren, E. ("Nellie"), at Olym- 
 pic, 147 ; at Queen's Theatre, 
 160 ; at Birmingham, 285 ; at 
 Gaiety, 256-259 ; benefit at 
 Drury Lane to, 259, 260 ; 
 death, 260 
 
 Farren, William, the elder, at 
 Leicester, 289 ; at Haymarket, 
 118, 137; at Olympic, 120; 
 manager of Strand, 158; of 
 Olympic, 145, 146 
 
 Farren, William, the younger, at 
 Brighton, 288 ; at Birmingham, 
 286; at St. James's, 158; at 
 Imperial, 249; at Vaudeville, 
 246 ; at Criterion, 219 ; at 
 Court,, 224 
 
 Fascinating Mr. Vanderveldt, 
 The, 211, 212 
 
 Fatal Card, The, 241 
 
 Faucit, Helen, at Covent Garden, 
 129, 130; at Haymarket, 137 ; 
 In Paris, 133 ; at Drury Lane, 
 135; at Birmingham, 285; at 
 Brighton, 288; at Edinburgh, 
 300 ; at Dublin, 316 
 
 Faust, 173 
 
 Faust Up to Dale, 259 
 
 Faversham, theatre at, 291 
 
 Favier, Alice, 268 
 
 Fawcett, John, 289 
 
 Fazio, 125 
 
 Fechter, Charles, 286 
 
 Fidora, 215 
 
 Fees, in theatres, 144, 256 
 
 Felix, Hugo, 272 
 
 Fenn, Frederick, 225 
 
 Fenton, Lavinia, 60 
 
 Fernald, C. B., 231 
 
 Fiander's Widow, 212 
 
 Fido, 196 
 
 Field, Michael, 225 
 
 Field of the Cloth of Cold, The, 
 
 2S5 
 Fielding, Henry, his plays at 
 
 Haymarket, 66, 67 
 Filippi, Rosina, at Comedy, 227 ; 
 
 at Court, 223 
 Fitch, Clyde, 228 
 Fitzrby Theatre, 187 
 Flag Lieutenant, The, 196 
 Flanagan, Richard, 287 
 Fleetwood, Charles, manager of 
 
 Drury Lane, 63, 65 ; at Dublin, 
 
 314 
 Fleming, George, The Canary, 
 
 231; The Light that Failed, 249 
 Florodora, 269 
 Foggerly's Fairy, 217 
 Folies Drama tiques, 230 
 Folly Theatre (afterwards Toole's 
 
 Theatre), early days, 214; 
 
 managed by Henderson, 214; 
 
 managed by Toole, 214, 215 
 Fool and his Money, A, 214 
 FooVs Paradise, A, 209 
 Foole, Lydia, at Olympic, 147; at 
 
 St. James's, 158; at Court, 222 
 Foote, Maria, 284 
 Foote, Samuel, at Bath, 279 ; at 
 
 Dublin, 312 ; at Haymarket, 
 
 78-80 ; acts in Edinburgh, 295 ; 
 
 takes Haymarket company 
 
 there for a season, 295 
 Footlights, introduced by Garrick 
 
 at Drury Lane, 78 
 
INDEX. 
 
 331 
 
 For Sword or Song, 250 
 
 For the Crown, 179 
 
 Forbes Robertson, J., at Olympic, 
 185; at Lyceum, 174; at Gar- 
 rick, 209; temporary manage- 
 ment at Lyceum, 178, 179; at 
 Avenue, 229; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231; at Lyric, 249; at 
 Scala, 251 
 
 Ford, Ernest, 265 
 
 Ford, John, 27 
 
 Foresters, The, 270 
 
 Forrest, Edwin, quarrels with 
 Macready, 133; at Princess's 
 
 Fortune Theatre, 19, 27 
 
 Forty Thieves, The, 257 , 
 
 Fourteen Days, 217 
 
 Francis,"^ M. E., 212 
 
 Frankenstein, 259 
 
 Fraser, Agnes, 266 
 
 Freear, Louie, 273 
 
 Freedom of Suzanne, The, 221 
 
 French Maid, The, 233, 272 
 
 Frohman, Charles, 233 
 
 Fulham, Grand Theatre at, 292 
 
 Fulda, Ludwig, 234 
 
 Fyffe, R. E., 251 
 
 Fyles, Franklin, 241 
 
 Gaelic Theatre, the, 317 
 
 Gaiety Girl, A, 268, 271 
 
 Gaiety Theatre, opened, 256 ; 
 ■ managed by Hollingshead, 256- 
 258 ; by Edwardes, 258-261 ; 
 demolished, 261 ; new Gaiety 
 opened, 261 ; managed by 
 Edwardes, 261, 262 
 
 Gallery of Illustration, 274, 275 
 
 Galsworthy, John, 226 
 
 Gammer Gurton's Needle, 10 
 
 Ganthony, Richard, 229 
 
 Garden of Lies, The, 208 
 
 Garrick, David, early appear- 
 ances at Goodman's Fields, 
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden, 
 67; at Dublin, 67, 311, 312; at 
 Drury Lane, 69, 70 ; at Covent 
 Garden, 70 ; manager of Drury 
 Lane, 71-82; travels abroad, ( 
 
 80; retirement and death, 81, 
 82; his acting, 72, 73-78, 81- 
 83 ; his treatment of Shakes- 
 peare's plays, 77, 78, 83 
 
 Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross 
 Road, opened, 208 ; managed 
 by Hare, 208-210; by Willard, 
 210; by the Kendals, 210 ; by 
 Bourchier, 211, 212 
 
 Garrick Theatre, Leman Street, 
 208 
 
 Gascoigne, George,, focasta, 1 1 
 
 Gatti, A. and S., managers of 
 Adelphi, 240-242; of Vaude- 
 ville, 246, 247 
 
 Gattie, A. W., 224 
 
 Gay, John, his plays at Drury 
 Lane, 57 ; The Beggar's Opei a 
 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 60 
 
 Gay Lord Quex, The, 210 
 
 Gay Parisienne, The, 272 
 
 Gay Widow, A, 224 
 
 Geisha, The, 271 
 
 Gentleman Joe, 268 
 
 Geoffrey, Abbot of St. Albans, 1 
 
 German, Edward, The Emerald 
 Isle, 265 ; Merrie England, 
 266 ; The Princess of Kensing- 
 ton, 266 
 
 German Reeds' Entertainment, 
 274-276 
 
 Getting Married, 196 
 
 Ghosts, 225, 254 
 
 Giddens, George, with Wyndham 
 in America, 216; at Criterion, 
 217-219; at Terry's, 233; at 
 Vaudeville, 246 
 
 Gilbert, Mrs., 159- 
 
 Gilbert, Sir W. S. , Brantinghame 
 Hall, 206 ; Broken Hearts, 202, 
 204 ; Dan'l Druce, 185 ; Dul- 
 camara, 157 ; Engaged, 185 ; 
 The Fairy's Dilemma, 211; 
 Foggerly's Fairy, 217; The Gon- 
 doliers, 26^, 266 ; The Grand 
 Duke, 265; Gretchen, 147, 185; 
 The Happy Land, 202 ; His 
 Excellency, 265; H.M.S. Pina- 
 fore, 263, 266 ; Iolanthe, 264, 
 266; The Mikado, 264, 266; 
 
332 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 The Mountebanks, 265; The 
 Palace of Truth, 142, 231 ; 
 Patience, 263, 266 ; The Pirates 
 of Penzance, 263, 266 ; The 
 Princess, 147 ; Princess Ida, 
 264 ; Pygmalion and Galatea, 
 142; Robert the Devil, 256; 
 Ruddigore, 264; 7%« Sorcerer, 
 262; Sweethearts, 190; 7^«J- 
 ^»j, 257, 262 ; 7Wa/ by fury, 
 262; Utopia, 265; 7%e JJW- 
 <# «£• March, 202 ; 7%« Wicked 
 World, 142 ; 7%e Yeomen of the 
 Guard, 264, 266 
 Gilchrist, Connie, 258 
 Gildon, Charles, 48 
 Gillette, William, at Lyceum, 
 178 ; Held by the Enemy, 238 ; 
 Secret Service, 242 
 Girl Behind the Counter, The, 
 
 272 
 Girl from Kay's, The, 273 
 Girl J Left Behind Me, The, 241 
 Girl on the Stage, A, 268 
 Girls of Gottenburg, The, 261 
 Glasgow, theatres in : — 
 Earliest theatres, 303 
 Adelphi Theatre, 305, 306 
 Caledonian Theatre, 305 
 City Theatre, 305 
 Dunlop Street theatre, opened, 
 303 ; managed by Jackson, 
 3°3. 3°4; by Stephen 
 Kemble, 304 ; by Jackson 
 again, 304; by elder Mac- 
 ready, 304; by Alexander, 
 304-306 ; by Simpson, 306 ; 
 by Glover, 306, 307 ; burned 
 down, 307 
 Grand Theatre, 307 
 King's Theatre, 307 
 Prince's Theatre, 306 
 Princess's Theatre, 307 
 Queen Street theatre, opened, 
 304; managed by Seymour, 
 305 ; burned down, 304, 305 
 Queen's Theatre, opened by 
 Calvert, 306 ; burned down, 
 306 
 Royalty Theatre, 307 
 
 Theatre Royal, in Hope Street, 
 
 3°7 
 York Street theatre, 305 
 
 Globe Theatre, on Bankside, 18- 
 20, 26, 27 
 
 Globe Theatre, Newcastle Street, 
 Jennie Lee at, 247 ; Mrs. Ber- 
 nard Beere at, 247; Ada Caven- 
 dish at, 247; Penley at, 231, 
 248; Wilson Barrett at, 238; 
 Mansfield at, 247; Benson com- 
 pany at, 247 ; Hare at, 210, 
 248 ; demolished, 248 
 
 Glover, Edmund, manager of 
 Glasgow Prince's Theatre, 306; 
 of Dunlop Street theatre, 306, 
 307 ; acts at Edinburgh, 301 
 
 Glover, Julia, at Drury Lane, 106 ; 
 at Haymarket, 118 
 
 Godfrey, G. W., The Queen's 
 Shilling, 203; The Millionaire, 
 222 ; Vanity Fair, 224 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 84 
 
 Gondoliers, The, 264, 266 
 
 Good Old Times, The, 238 
 
 Goodman's Fields theatre, opened, 
 61; Garrick's dibit at, 65 '; last 
 days of, 67 
 
 Good-natured Man, The, 84 
 
 Goodwin, Nat, 228 
 
 Gorboduc, 11 
 
 Gorki, Maxim, 225 
 
 Gosson, Stephen, 29 
 
 Graham, H., 233 
 
 Grain, Corney, 275, 276 
 
 Grand Duchess, The, 265 
 
 Grand Duke, The, 265 
 
 Grand Theatre, Fulham, 292 
 
 Grand Theatre, Islington, 25 1, 252 
 
 Graves, George, 272 
 
 Great Conspiracy, The, 210, 234 
 
 Great Friends, 225 
 
 Great Queen Street theatre. See 
 Novelty Theatre 
 
 Greatest of These, The, 205, 210 
 
 Grecian Theatre, 252, 253 
 
 Greek Slave, The, 271 
 
 Greene, Evie, at Lyric, 269, 270; 
 at Daly's, 271 
 
 Greene, Robert, 27 
 
INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Greet, Ben, his touring companies, 
 200, 254 
 
 Gregory, Lady, 317, 318 
 
 Gretchen, 147 
 
 Grey, Sylvia, at Gaiety, 258, 260 
 
 Grimaldi, Giuseppe, at Covent 
 Garden, 98 ; at Drury Lane 
 and Sadler's Wells, 99 
 
 Grossmith, George, the elder, at 
 Opera Comique, 262 ; at Savoy, 
 263-264; at Lyric, 269 
 
 Grossmith, George, the younger, 
 at Shaftesbury, 273 ; at Gaiety, 
 261 
 
 Grossmith, Weedon, at Court, 223, 
 224; at Avenue, 229, 230; at 
 Vaudeville, 246; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231 ; at Haymarket, 
 196; The Night oj 'the Parly, 230 
 
 Grundy, Sydney, The Bells of 
 Haslemere, 241 ; Clito, 238 ; 
 The Dean's Daughter, 206; 
 The Greatest of These, 205 ; 
 Haddon Hall, 265; The Late 
 Mr. Castello, 228 ; Mamma, 
 223 ; A Marriage of Conveni- 
 ence, 195, 241 ; The Musket- 
 eers, 248; The New Woman, 
 227, 228 ; The Silver Shield, 
 227 ; Sowing the Wind, 227, 
 228 ; The Union fack, 241 ; 
 A Village Priest, 193; A 
 White Lie, 205 
 
 Gudgeons, 233 
 
 Guiinor, The, 245 
 
 Guy Mannering, 304 
 
 Gwynne, Nell, 42, 44 
 
 Haddon Hall, 265 
 
 " Half-Price," at Haymarket, 
 
 140 ; at Adelphi, 145 
 Hamilton, Cicely, 230 
 Hamilton, Cosmo, 196 
 Hamilton, Henry, Harvest, 238 ; 
 
 The Three. Musketeers, 248 
 Hammersmith, King's Theatre at, 
 
 292 
 Hanbury, Lily, 224 
 Handel, G. F., his operas at 
 
 King's Theatre, 68 ; at Covent 
 
 Garden, 68-69; oratorios at 
 Covent Garden, 70 
 
 Hands Across the Sea, 238 
 
 Hankin, St. John, The Cassilis 
 Engagement, 225 ; The Charity 
 that began at Home, 226 
 
 Hansel and Gretel, 269 
 
 Happy Land, The, 202 
 
 Harbour Lights, The, 241 
 
 Hare, Gilbert, at Garrick, 209; 
 at Globe, 210 
 
 Hare, Sir John, at Liverpool, 290; 
 at Prince of Wales's, 202 ; 
 manager of Court, 202-203 ! 
 part manager of St. James's, 
 203-205 ; acts at Court, 223 ; 
 manager of Garrick, 208-210; 
 of Globe, 210; subsequent 
 appearances at Duke of York's, 
 210, 235 ; at Wyndham's, 210; 
 at Comedy, 210 ; knighted, 210 
 
 Harlequin King, The, 250 
 
 Harris, Sir Augustus, 136 
 
 Harris, Henry, manager of Dublin 
 Crow Street theatre, 315; of 
 Theatre Royal, 315, 316 
 
 Harris, John, manager of Dublin 
 Theatre Royal, 316, 317 
 
 Harris, Thomas, manager of 
 Covent Garden, 84-86, 89 
 
 Harrison, Fred., part manager of 
 Haymarket, 194, 195 ; sole 
 manager, 196 
 
 Hart, Charles, 40, 44, 50 
 
 Harvest, 238 
 
 Harvey, Martin, at Court, 224; 
 at Lyceum, 180; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231; at Lyric, 249; 
 at Apollo, 273 ; at Imperial, 
 250 
 
 Hauptmann, Gerhart, 225 
 
 Havana, 261 
 
 Hawthorne, Grace, 238 
 
 Hawtrey, Charles, at Comedy, 
 227 ; at Trafalgar Square 
 Theatre, 233 ; at Court, 224 ; 
 at Comedy, 228 ; at Avenue, 
 229; at Prince of Wales's, 231; 
 at Haymarket, 196; at Vaude- 
 ville, 247 
 
334 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haydn, F. J., 96 
 
 Haymarket Theatre, the "little 
 house" opened, 61, 65; Ma- 
 dame Violante at, 66 ; Fielding 
 at, 66 ; Drury Lane actors at, 
 66 ; unlicensed, 67 ; Patent 
 granted, 79; managed by Foote, 
 78-80, 295 ; by the elder Col- 
 man, 102 ; by the younger 
 Colman, 102-104; present 
 theatre opened under Morris' 
 management, 117; managed 
 by Webster, 136-138; by Buck- 
 stone, 138-142; by J. S. 
 Clarke, 142 ; by the Bancrofts, 
 191, 192 ; by Russell and 
 Bashford, 193 ; by Tree, 193 ; 
 by Harrison and Maude, 194, 
 '95; n y Harrison, 196; its com- 
 pany plays at New Theatre 
 during reconstruction, 221 
 
 Headless Man, The, 218 
 
 Heart of Hearts, 246 
 
 Heath, Caroline, 301 
 
 Hedda Gabler, 254 
 
 Held by the Enemy, 238 
 
 Hemminge, John, 27 
 
 Henderson, Alexander, manager 
 of Folly, 214; of Criterion, 217 
 
 Henderson, Isaac, 220 ' 
 
 Henderson, John, at Bath, 279; at 
 Edinburgh, 296; at Drury 
 Lane, 87, 88, 94; at Hay- 
 market, 102 ; at Glasgow, 304 
 
 Henley, W. E., 200 
 
 Henslowe, Philip, 27 
 
 Her Father, 196 
 
 HerMajesty'sTheatre. 5>eKing's 
 Theatre, Haymarket 
 
 Her Royal Highness, 246 
 
 Her Son, 221 
 
 Hermann, Henry, 237 
 
 Herod, 200 
 
 Heroic Stubbs, The, 233 
 
 Heywood, John, 10 
 
 Hichens, Robert, 176 
 
 Hicks, "Brayvo," 127 
 
 Hicks, Seymour, at Gaiety, 259- 
 261; at "Vaudeville, 246, 247; 
 at Aldwych, 274; Bluebell in 
 
 Fairyland, 247; The Cherry 
 Girl, 247; One of the Best, 241 
 
 Hicks' Theatre, 220, 235, 274 
 
 Highmore, — , manager of Drury 
 Lane, 63 
 
 Hill, Annie, 232 
 
 Hippesley, John, 281 
 
 Hippolytus, 226 
 
 His Excellency, 265, 269 
 
 His Excellency the Governor, 211, 
 
 234 
 
 His House in Order, 208 
 
 His Majesty, 265 
 
 His Majesty's Theatre, opened on 
 part of site of Her Majesty's, 
 127, 196; managed by Tree, 
 196-200 
 
 His Wife, 196 
 
 Historie of King Leir, The, 1 1 
 
 H.M.S. Pinafore, 263, 266 
 
 Hobbes, John Oliver, 208 
 
 Hobby Horse, The, 204 
 
 Hodson, Henrietta, at Bath and 
 Bristol, 280; at Queen's, 160 
 
 Holland, Fanny, 275 
 
 Holland House, played at, 34 
 
 Hollingshead, John, manager of 
 Gaiety, 256-258 
 
 Holloway Theatre, 292 
 
 Home, John, Douglas, 80, 294 
 
 Home Secretary, The, 219 
 
 Honey, George, 189 
 
 Honey, Laura, 118 
 
 Hood, Basil, 265, 266, The Emer- 
 ald Isle, 265 ; Merrie England, 
 266 ; The Princess of Kensing- 
 ton, 266; The Rose of Persia, 
 265 
 
 Hood, Marion, at Opera Comique, 
 263; at Gaiety, 258 
 
 Hoodman Blind, 238 
 
 Hope, Anthony, The Adventure 
 of Lady Ursula, 233 ; Captain 
 Dieppe, 234; Pilkerlon's Peer- 
 age, 211; The Prisoner ofZenda, 
 207; Rupert of Hentzau, 207 
 
 Hope Theatre, 20 
 
 Horniman, Roy, 273 
 
 Horton, Christiana, 69 
 
 Horton, Priscilla, 274 
 
INDEX. 
 
 335 
 
 Hours of performance, of Miracle 
 Plays, 7; in Elizabethan thea- 
 tres, 21, 25; in Restoration 
 theatres, 36; in early part of 
 eighteenth century, 11 1; at 
 Haymarket under Buckstone, 
 140 
 
 House of Usna, The, 225 
 
 Housekeeper, The, 205 
 
 How he Lied to Her Husband, 226 
 
 Howard, Bronson, Brighton, 217; 
 Saratoga, 216; Young Mrs. 
 Winthrop, 222 
 
 Howard, J. B., manager of Edin- 
 burgh Theatre Royal, 302; of 
 Lyceum, 302 
 
 Hoxton, Britannia Theatre at, 
 251, 252 
 
 Huddleston, Jessie, 268 
 
 Hughes, Annie, at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231,232; at Criterion, 
 218; at Comedy, 228 
 
 Hughes and Trewman manage- 
 ment at Exeter Theatre, 283 
 
 Human Nature, 243 
 
 Hull, theatre at, 289 
 
 Humby, Mrs. Anne, 315 
 
 Humperdinck, E., 269 
 
 Hunted Down, 184 
 
 Huntington, Agnes, 268 
 
 Huntley, G. P., 274 
 
 Hypatia, 193, 244 
 
 Hypocrites, The, 235 
 
 Ibsbn, Henrik, comments on, 253; 
 The Dolts House, 231, 254; 
 Tht Enemy of the People, 193, 
 254; Ghosts, 225, 254; Hedda 
 Gabler, 254; John Gabriel Bork- 
 man, 254; The Lady from the 
 Sea, 254; Little Eyolf, 254; 
 The Master Builder, 254; 
 The Pillars of Society, 254; 
 Rosmersholm, 229, 254; The 
 Vikings, 182; When IVe Dead 
 Awaken, 254; The Wild Duck, 
 
 254 
 hi on parle Francais, 213 
 Ideal Husband, An, 193 
 Idler, The, 207 
 
 If I were King, 208 
 
 Imperial Theatre, opened (as 
 Aquarium Theatre) by Bruce, 
 249 ; managed by Miss Litton, 
 as Imperial, 249; reconstructed 
 250; managed by Mrs. Langtry, 
 250; by Ellen Terry, 250; by 
 Waller, 250 ; by Harvey, 250 
 
 Iviportanceof being Earnest, The, 
 207 
 
 Impulse, 204 
 
 In Chancery, 232 
 
 In the Days of the Duke, 242 
 
 In the Ranks, 241 
 
 In Town, 260, 268 
 
 Inchbald, Elizabeth, her plays, 
 93; acts at Covent Garden, 94; 
 at Edinburgh, 296 
 
 Incledon, Charles, at Vauxhall, 
 279 ; at Covent Garden, 96, 
 279; at Brighton, 288; at Edin- 
 burgh, 297 
 
 Incognita, 269 
 
 Independent Theatre, 225 
 
 Indian Emperor, The, 42 
 
 Inn-yards, used as theatres, 14, 
 
 18.34 
 
 lolanthe, 264, 266 
 
 Ion, 118 
 
 Ipswich, theatre at, 290 
 
 Ireland, W. H., 93 
 
 Irene Wycherley, 230 
 
 Iris, 211 
 
 Irish Literary Theatre, 317 
 
 Irish National Dramatic Com- 
 pany, 317 
 
 Irish National Theatre Society, 
 
 317 
 
 Iron Chest, The, 283 
 
 Ironmaster, The, 204 
 
 Irving, Ethel, at Apollo, 274 ; at 
 Criterion, 221 
 
 Irving, H. B., at Garrick, 209; 
 at St. James's, 207; at Duke of 
 York's, 234 ; at Lyric, 249 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, early appear- 
 ances in provinces and Scotland, 
 161, 301, 307; at Princess's, 
 154; at St. James's, 158; at 
 Bath, 281; at Queen's Theatre, 
 
336 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 160-162; at Birmingham, 285, 
 286 ; at Haymarket, 162 ; at 
 Gaiety, 162; at Vaudeville, 162; 
 acts at Edinburgh, 302 ; at 
 Lyceum under Bateman, 162- 
 165; in The Bells, 163; Charles 
 I., 163, 164; Richelieu, 164; 
 Hamlet, 164, 168; Macbeth, 
 164, 173, 174; Othello, 164, 170; 
 Queen Mary, 164; Richard III., 
 164, 176; The Lyons Mail, 165; 
 manager of Lyceum, 165-177; 
 in Merchant of Venice, 169, 
 177; Corsican Brothers, 170; 
 The Cup, 170; Romeo and 
 Juliet, 171 ; Much Ado about 
 Nothing, 171; tour in America, 
 171 ; in Twelfth Night, 172; 
 Olivia, 172; Macbeth, 173, 174; 
 The Dead Heart, 174, 192; 
 Ravenswood, 174; Henry VIII., 
 174; King Lear, 174; Becket, 
 I74> I75i 181 ; King Aithur, 
 
 175 ; Story of Waterloo, 175 ; 
 knighted, 175 ; in Cymbelne, 
 175; Madame Sans-Gene, 175; 
 Peter the Great, 176; The 
 Medicine Man, 176 ; illness, 
 
 1 76 ; scenery destroyed by fire, 
 176; losses, 177; at Lyceum 
 under management of a com- 
 pany, 177, 178 ; in Robespierre, 
 177; Coriotanus, 177; last ap- 
 pearance with Ellen Terry, 177; 
 reasons for severance of pro- 
 fessional partnership with her, 
 177, 178; Dante, 180; last 
 years, 180, 181 ; death, 181 ; 
 criticism of, as actor, 181 ; as 
 manager, 181, 182 
 
 Irving, Laurence, Peter the Great, 
 
 176; Robespierre, 177 
 Islington, Grand Theatre, 251, 
 
 252 
 Italian Wife, The, 125 
 Ivanhoe, 266 
 Ixion, 159 
 
 Jack Sheppard, 143 
 Jack Straw, 247 
 
 Jackson, John, manager of Edin- 
 burgh Theatre Royal, 296-298, 
 304; of Glasgow Dunlop Street 
 theatre, 303-304 ; of Glasgow 
 Queen Street theatre, 304 ; 
 builds a theatre in Aberdeen, 
 308 
 
 James, David, at Criterion, 218; 
 part manager of Vaudeville, 
 245, 246 ; at Gaiety, 258 
 
 Jane Annie, 265 
 
 Jane Eyre, 247 
 
 fane Shore, 57 
 
 Jedbury, Junior, 233 
 
 Jefferies, Maud, 239 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph, 144 
 
 Jeffreys, Ellis, 235 
 
 Jenoure, A'ida, 269 
 
 Jerome, J. K., Sunset, 227; 
 Woodbarrow Farm, 227, 246 
 
 Jerrold, Douglas, Black-Eye'd 
 Susan, 125, 204; his plays at 
 Haymarket, 137 
 
 fest, The, 2 19 
 
 fim the Penman, 244 
 
 Jo, 247 
 
 Joan of Arc, 263 
 
 focasta, II 
 
 Jodrell Theatre, 230 
 
 John Bull's Other Island, 226 
 
 John Chilcote, M.P., 208 
 
 fohn Gabriel Borkman, 254 
 
 John Glayde's Honour, 208 
 
 Johnston, H. E., 297 
 
 Jones, Frederick, 315 
 
 Jones, Henry Arthur, The Bauble 
 Shop, 219; The Case of Re- 
 bellious Susan, 219 ; Chance, 
 the Idol, 220 ; The Chevaleer, 
 211 ; The Crusaders, 229; The 
 Dancing Girl, 193 ; The 
 Deacon, 244 ; Heart of Hearts, 
 246 ; The Heroic Stubbs, 233 ; 
 Hoodman Blind, 238; 1 he 
 Hypocrites, 235 ; Judah, 244 ; 
 The Lackey's Carnival, 234 ; 
 The Liars, 219, 221 ; The 
 Lord Harry, 238 ; The Man- 
 oeuvres of Jane, 195 ; The 
 Masqueraders, 207 ; Michael 
 
INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 and his Lost Angel, 179 ; The 
 Middleman, 244 ; Mrs. Dane's 
 Defence, 220; The Physician, 
 219 ; The Princess's Nose, 234 ; 
 The Pogue's Comedy, 210, 245 ; 
 Saints and Sinners, 246 ; The 
 Silver King, 237 ; The Tri- 
 umph of the Philistines, 207 ; 
 Whitewashing Julia, 211 
 
 Jones, Sidney, An Artist's Model, 
 271 ; A Gaiety Girl, 271 ; The 
 Geisha, 271 ; The Greek Slave, 
 271 ; The Medal and the Maid, 
 269; San Toy, 271 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 27 
 
 Jordan, Dora, at Drury Lane, 89, 
 106 ; at Edinburgh, 296 ; at 
 Glasgow, 304 ; at Bath, 380 ; 
 at Exeter, 284; at Brighton, 
 288; at Leicester, 289; at 
 Sheffield, 291 
 
 Josephine, 228 
 
 Joseph's Sweetheart, 194, 246 
 
 Judah, 244 
 
 Judas Maccabczus, 70 
 
 Judgment of Pharaoh, The, 251 
 
 Junius, 238 
 
 Kean, Charles, becomes an actor 
 against his father's wish, 115; 
 acts with him on latter's last 
 appearance, 116; at Haymarket, 
 137 ; at Birmingham, 285 ; at 
 Dublin, 316 ; manager of Prin- 
 cess's, 148-154 ; rivalry with 
 Phelps, 149, 150; at Leicester, 
 289 ; at Edinburgh, 300 ; last 
 years, 154; his acting, 151, 152 
 
 Kean, Mrs. Charles, at Hay- 
 market, 118, 137; at Dublin, 
 316; at Princess's, 151, 154, 
 165 ; at Edinburgh, 300 
 
 Kean, Edmund, earliest appear- 
 ances as a boy, 99, 1 1 1 ; at Birm- 
 ingham, 285 ; at Exeter, 112, 
 283, 284; at Dorchester, 112; 
 at Haymarket, 112; at Drury 
 Lane, 112-115; at Brighton, 
 288; at Leicester, 289; at Edin- 
 burgh, 299; at Glasgow, 304; 
 
 at Dublin, 316; at Covent 
 Garden, 115, 116; in America, 
 115; at Haymarket, 116; death, 
 116; his acting, 113, 133 
 Keeley, Mrs. M. A. , at Olympic, 
 120 ; at Lyceum, 124, 155; at 
 Drury Lane, 132 ; at Adelphi, 
 143; at Princess's, 151 
 Keeley, Robert, at Olympic, 120, 
 121 ; at Adelphi, 123 ; at 
 Lyceum, 124; at Drury Lane, 
 132; part manager of Princess's, 
 151 ; manager of Lyceum, 155 
 Keith, No rah, 212 
 Kelly, Charles, 171, 286 
 Kemble, Charles, at Haymarket, 
 103, 118; manager of Covent 
 Garden, 114, 115; at Bath, 
 280; at Newcastle, 290; at 
 Edinburgh, 299 ; at Dublin, 
 3i6 
 Kemble, Fanny, at Haymarket, 
 103; at Covent Garden, 115; at 
 Dublin, 316; at Edinburgh, 
 299 ; at Glasgow, 306 
 Kemble, Henry, at Court, 202; at 
 Avenue, 229 ; at Prince of 
 Wales's, 231 ; at Haymarket, 
 196 
 Kemble, Henry Stephen, 127 
 Kemble, John Philip, at Edin- 
 burgh, 296, 298, 299 ; at Glas- 
 gow, 304; at Dublin, 315, 316; 
 at Brighton, 288; at York, 289; 
 at Drury Lane, 88-92 ; stage- 
 manager there, 91-92 ; manager 
 of Covent Garden, 92, 96-98, 
 107-110 ; at Birmingham, 285 ; 
 his acting, 93, m, 133 
 Kemble, Stephen, at Glasgow, 303; 
 manager of Edinburgh Theatre 
 Royal, 297 ; manager of New- 
 castle theatre, 290 ; of Glasgow 
 Dunlop Street theatre, 304 ; of 
 Aberdeen Marischal Street 
 theatre, 308 
 Kendal, Mrs. M., at Bath, 280, 
 281 ; earliest London appear- 
 ances, 139, 140; at Birming- 
 ham, 286; at Gaiety, 256; at 
 
338 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haymarket, 142, 201, 202 ; at 
 Brighton, 288 ; at Court, 201, 
 202 ; at Prince of Wales's, 190, 
 202, 203 ; back to Court, 203 ; 
 part manager of St. James's, 
 203-205 ; touring in America 
 and provinces, 205 ; subsequent 
 appearances at Court, Garrick, 
 and St. James's, 205, 210 ; at 
 Avenue, 229 ; at His Majesty's, 
 183, 199 
 
 Kendal, W. H., at Birmingham, 
 285; at Glasgow, 307 ; at Hay- 
 market, 142, 201, 202; at 
 Brighton, 288 ; at Court, 201, 
 202 ; at Prince of Wales's, 190. 
 202, 203 ; back to Court, 203 ; 
 part manager of St. James's, 
 203-205 ; touring in America 
 and provinces, 205 ; subsequent 
 appearances at Court, Garrick, 
 and St. James's, 205, 210; at 
 Avenue, 229 
 
 Kenney, James, 96 
 
 Kennington Theatre, 292 
 
 Kent Circuit, 291 
 
 Kerr, Fred, at Terry's, 232, 233 ; 
 at Court, 224; at Vaudeville, 246 
 
 Killigrew, Charles, 47 
 
 Killigrew, Thomas, 35 
 
 King, Thomas, 87, 99 
 
 King Arthur, 175 
 
 King- Rent's Daughter, 1 70 
 
 King's Theatre, Hammersmith, 
 292 
 
 King's Theatre, Haymarket 
 (afterwards Her Majesty's), 
 opened as Queen's Theatre, 
 51 ; managed by Vanbrugh and 
 Betterton, 51; by Swinny, 52- 
 54; Handel's operas at, 68 ; 
 Porpora at, 69; burned down, 
 83 ; new house opened, 90 f 
 Covent Garden company at, 
 98; Italian opera at, 126; 
 burned down, 126 ; new house 
 opened, 127; demolished, 127 
 
 Kingston, Gertrude, 233 
 
 Kingsway Theatre, 230 
 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 249 
 
 Kitty Grey, 273 
 
 Knowles, James Sheridan, Vir- 
 ginius, 129; his plays at May- 
 market, 137 
 
 Kynaston, Edward, 40, 44 
 
 Kyngejohan, 13 
 
 Lackey's Carnival, The, 234 
 
 Lacy, James, part manager of 
 Drury Lane, 63, 71-86 
 
 Lacy, John, 40 
 
 Lacy, T. H., 151 
 
 Ladies' Battle, The, 203 
 
 Lady Barbarity, 228 
 
 Lady Bountiful, 209 
 
 Lady Clancarty, 205, 249 
 
 Lady Clare, 247 
 
 Lady Friderick, 212, 221, 226 
 
 Lady from the Sea, The, 254 
 
 Lady Huntworth's Experiment, 
 211, 221 
 
 Lady Madcap, 268 
 
 Lady Molly, 233 
 
 Lady Windermere 's Fan, 207 
 
 Lane, Mrs. S., 252 
 
 Langtry, Mrs., manager of St. 
 James's, 206 ; of Princess's, 
 238 ; of Imperial, 249, 250 
 
 Last of the Dandies, The, 200 
 
 Late Lamented, The, 223 
 
 Late Mr. Castello, The, 228 
 
 Law, Arthur, his plays for German 
 Reeds, 275 ; Dick Venables, 
 244 ; The New Boy, 233 
 
 Leah, 144 
 
 Leah Kleschna, 221 
 
 Leclercq, Carlotta, at Princess's, 
 
 IS' 
 
 Leclercq, Rose, at Princesss, 
 151 ; at St. James's; 207; at 
 Court, 224; at Comedy, 228 
 
 Lecocq, A. C., 269 
 
 Lee, Jennie, 247 
 
 Lee, John, 294 
 
 Leeds, theatre at, 289 
 
 Legge, R. G., 250 
 
 Lehar, Franz, 272 
 
 Lehmann, R., 265 
 
 Leicester, theatres at, 289 
 
 Leigh, Anthony, 44 
 
INDEX. 
 
 339 
 
 Lely, Durward, 263 
 
 Lemon, Mark, 143 
 
 Lennox, C. Gordon, 228 
 
 Leslie, Fred, at Glasgow, 307 ; 
 at Comedy, 267 ; at Gaiety, 
 258, 259 
 
 Le Thiere, Miss, 190 
 
 Letty, 234 
 
 Lewes, C. L., 95 
 
 Lewis, Eric, at Court, 223 ; at 
 Daly's, 271 
 
 Lewis, James, 159 
 
 Liars, The, 219, 221 
 
 Libertine, The, 310 
 
 Liberty Hall, 207 
 
 Licensing Act of 1737, 66-67 
 
 Lichfield, theatre at, 287 
 
 Life in London, 122, 123 
 
 Light that Failed, The, 249 
 
 Lighting of theatres, in Eliza- 
 bethan theatres, 21 ; in Restora- 
 tion theatres, 40 ; in Garrick's 
 time, 78, 295 ; " patent lamps" 
 at Drury Lane, 89 ; gas at 
 Exeter theatre, 284 ; at Hay- 
 market, 136 ; electric light in 
 theatres, 263 
 
 Lights of London, The, 236, 244 
 
 Likeness of the Night, The, 205 
 
 Lincoln l s Inn Fields, Davenant's 
 theatre in, 35, 41 ; Betterton's 
 theatre in, 47, 49, 51 ; C. Rich 
 manager of, 59-61, 72 ; opera 
 at, under Porpora, 61 ; last 
 days of, 61, 68 
 
 Lind, Letty, at Gaiety, 262 ; at 
 Shaftesbury, 273 ; at Daly's, 
 271 
 
 Linden, Marie, 209 
 
 Linkman, The, 261 
 
 Liston, John, at Haymarket, 103, 
 117; at Covent Garden, 299; 
 at Glasgow, 304; at Dublin, 
 316; at Drury Lane, 114; at 
 Olympic, 120, 121, 145 ; at 
 Brighton, 288 ; at Leicester, 
 289 
 
 Literary Theatre Society, 227 
 Little Admiral, The, 249 
 Little Cherub, The, 268 
 
 Little Christopher Columbus, 269 
 
 Little E-yolf, 254 
 
 Little Jack Sheppard, 258 
 
 Little Lord Fauntleroy, 23 1 
 
 Little Mary, 220 
 
 Little Michus, The, 272 
 
 Little Minister, The, 195 
 
 Little Miss Nobody, 269 
 
 Litton, Marie, at Edinburgh, 302 ; 
 manager of Court, 202 ; of 
 Imperial, 249 
 
 Liverpool, theatres in, 2S9, 290 
 
 Lloyd, Florence, 273 
 
 Lloyd, H. F., 301 
 
 Locke, W. J., 212 
 
 Loftus, Cissie, at Gaiety, 260, 
 262 ; at Court, 224 
 
 London Assurance, 203 
 
 London Theatre, 252 
 ■ Lonely Millionaires, The, 226 
 
 Lonnen, E, J., 269 
 
 Lord and Lady Algy, 228, 229 
 
 Lord Harry, The, 238 
 
 Loseby, Constance, at Birming- 
 ham, 285 ; at Gaiety, 256 
 
 Lost in London, 155 
 
 Love for Love, 48 
 
 Lovell, G. W., 205 
 
 Lewis Last Shift, 44 
 
 Lucky Miss Dean, 221 
 
 Lucky Star, The, 266 
 
 Lumley, Ralph, 215 
 
 Lutz, Meyer, 261 
 
 Lyall, Charles, 256 
 
 Lyceum Theatre, earliest days of, 
 99-100; Drury Lane company 
 at, 100 ; new house opened, 
 123; burned down, 124; new 
 house opened, 124, 125 ; man- 
 aged by the Keeleys, 155 ; by 
 Vestris and Mathews, 155, 156; 
 the " Wizard of the North " at, 
 156 ; the Italian opera at, 156, 
 157; managed by Dillon, 156, 
 157; by Madame Celeste, 157; 
 by Falconer, 157 ; by Bateman, 
 162-164; by Mrs. Bateman, 
 164, 165 ; by Irving, 165-177 ; 
 by a Company, 177, 178, 180; 
 occupants during Lyceum com- 
 
340 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 pany's absences, 178-180; re- 
 constructed and used as a music- 
 hall, 178; as a "popular" 
 theatre, 178 
 
 Lynn, theatre at, 290 
 
 Lyric Theatre, opened, 248 ; comic 
 opera at, 268-270 ; Wilson 
 Barrett at, 239 ; Forbes Robert- 
 son at, 249 ; Martin Harvey at, 
 249 ; Waller at, 249 
 
 Lytton, Henry, 266 
 
 Lytton, Lord, his plays at Drury 
 Lane, Covent Garden, and 
 Hay market, 130 
 
 Macaire, 200 
 
 Macintosh, Nancy, 265, 269 
 Mackay, Charles, 299 
 Mackay, W. G., 226 
 Mackenzie, Alexander, 300 
 Mackenzie, Sir A. C, 265, 300 
 Mackintosh, William, 244 
 Macklin, Charles, at Bristol, 282 ; 
 at Drury Lane, 63-65, 70, 74 ; 
 at Haymarket, 66 ; at Dublin, 
 312, 314 ; at Covent Garden, 
 75, 83, 88, 95 ; The Man of the 
 World, 88 ; retirement, 95 
 Macleod, Fiona, 225 
 MacNeil, A. D., 302 
 Macready, William, manager of 
 Royalty, Wellclose Square, 101; 
 of Bath theatre, 280 ; of Birm- 
 ingham theatre, 285; of Man- 
 chester theatre, 287 ; of Leices- 
 ter theatre, 289 ; of Glasgow 
 and Dumfries theatres, 304 
 Macready, William Charles, at 
 Birmingham, 285; at Glasgow, 
 304; at Dublin, 316 ; at Man- 
 chester, 287 ; at Covent Garden, 
 no, 129; at Drury Lane, 114; 
 in America, 129 ; manager of 
 Covent Garden, 129, 130, 299 ; 
 acts at Haymarket, 131, 137 ; 
 manager of Drury Lane, 131- 
 133 ; in America, 133 ; in 
 Paris, 133 ; at Haymarket and 
 Drury Lane, 133 ; at Princess's, 
 133, 151 ; at Brighton, 288; at 
 
 Leicester, 289 ; death, 133 ; his 
 acting and character, 133, 134 
 
 Madame Favart, 159, 267, 273, 307 
 
 Madame Sans-Ge'ne, 175, 269 
 
 Madame Sherry, 273 * 
 
 Maddick, Dr. D., 251 
 
 Maddox, — ,313 
 
 Maeterlinck, M., 225, 231 
 
 Magda, 179 
 ; Magic Opal, The, 269 
 , Magistrate, The, 222, 223 
 
 Maidstone, theatre at, 291 
 
 Major Barbara, 226 
 
 Makers of Men, 239 ' 
 
 Maltby, Alfred, at Criterion, 217, 
 218; at Terry's, 233 
 : Mamma, 223 
 . Man and Superman, 225 
 ' Man and Wife, 190 
 
 Man from Blankley's, The, 196, 
 231 
 
 Man of Forty, The, 208 
 
 Man of Honour, A, 225, 229 
 
 Man of the World, The, 88 
 
 Manchester, earliest Theatre 
 Royal in, built in Spring Street, 
 286 ; burned and re-built, 286 ; 
 second Theatre Royal built in 
 Fountain Street, 287 ; managed 
 by elder Macready, 287 ; 
 burned, 287 ; present Theatre 
 Royal opened in Peter Street, 
 287 ; Prince's Theatre, 287 ; 
 Queen's Theatre, 287 ; Comedy 
 Theatre, 287 ; St. James's 
 Theatre, 287 
 
 Manchester Circuit, 287 
 
 Manauwes of fane, The, 195 
 
 Man's Shadow, A, 193 
 
 Mansfield, Richard, at Globe, 
 247; at Lyceum, 178 
 
 Manxman, The, 239, 245 
 
 Margate, theatre at, 291 
 
 Margery Strode, 1 96 
 
 Marius, C. D., 267 
 
 Marjorie, 268 
 
 Marlowe, Christopher, 27, 41 
 
 Marriage of Convenience, A, 195, 
 241 
 
 Marriage of Kitty, The, 234 
 
INDEX. 
 
 341 
 
 Marrying of Ann Leete, The, 225 
 
 Marshall, Rebecca, 40 
 
 Marshall, Robert, The Alabaster 
 Staircase, 210, 228; The Duke 
 of Killikrankie, 221 ; His Ex- 
 cellency the Governor, 211; A 
 Royal Family, 224 
 
 Marston, J. Westland, 133, 137 
 
 Martin, Lady. See Faucit, H. S. 
 
 Martin, Sir Theodore, 170 
 
 Martyn, Edward, 317, 318 
 
 Mascotte, La, 267 
 
 Masks and Faces, 190, 301 
 
 Mason, A. E. W., 196 
 
 Masqueraders, The, 207 
 
 Massinger, Philip, 27 
 
 Master Builder, The, 254 
 
 Mathews, Charles, the elder, at 
 Bath, 280 ; at Edinburgh, 298 ; 
 at York, 288; at Leicester, 
 289 ; at Covent Garden, 98, 
 no; at Haymarket, 103; part 
 manager of Adelphi, 123 ; his 
 " At Homes," 123, 124 
 
 Mathews, Charles, the younger, 
 at Olympic, 120; marriage, 121; 
 in America, 121 ; part manager 
 of Adelphi, 123; manager of 
 Covent Garden, 130, 131 ; at 
 Brighton, 2S8 ; at Edinburgh, 
 300 ; at Dublin, 316 ; at Hay- 
 market, 137 ; at Princess's, 151; 
 manager of Lyceum, 155, 156 
 
 Mathews, Mrs. Charles. See 
 Vestris, L. E. 
 
 Matinees. See Morning Per- 
 formances 
 
 Matt 0' Merry Mount, 221 
 
 Maude, Cyril, at Vaudeville and 
 Comedy, 194; at Criterion, 
 219; at Trafalgar Square 
 Theatre, 233; part manager 
 of Haymarket, 194, 195 5 with 
 Haymarket company at New 
 Theatre, 221 ; acts at Wal- 
 dorf, 196 ; at Duke of York's, 
 234; manager of The Play- 
 house, 195, 196 ; his History of 
 the Haymarket quoted, 137- 
 141, 191, 196 
 
 Maude, Mrsi C. See Emery, W. 
 Maughan, W. Somerset, Jack 
 
 Straw, 247 ; Lady Frederick, 
 
 212, 226; A Man of Honour, 
 
 225, 230; Mrs. Dot, 228 
 May, Alice, 263 
 May, Jane, 268 
 Mayfair, 204 
 
 Meadows, Drink water, 151 
 Medal and the Maid, The, 269 
 Medicine Man, The, 176 
 Melodrama, modern, 236-245 
 Merivale, Herman, 174 
 Mermaid Society, 227 
 Merrie England, 266 
 Merry Widow, The, 272 
 Merveilleuses, The, 272 
 Message from Mars, A, 229 
 Messager, Andre, The Basoche, 
 
 266 ; The Little Michus, 272 ; 
 
 Miretle, 265 ; Veronique, 273, 
 
 274 
 Messenger Boy, The, 261 
 Mice and Men, 249 
 Michael and his Lost Angel, 179 
 Middleman, The, 244 
 Middleton, Thomas, 27 
 Mikado, The, 264, 266 
 Millar, Gertie, 262 
 Millard, Evelyn, ' at St. James s, 
 
 207, 208 ; at Duke of York's, 
 
 233 ; at Lyric, 249 
 Miller, D. P., 306 
 Millett, Maud, at Terry's, 232, 
 
 233 ; at St. James's, 207 ; at 
 
 Apollo, 273 
 Millionaire The, 222 
 Milman, H. H., 125 
 Miracle Plays, 1-8 
 Mirette, 265 
 Miss Decima, 272 
 Miss Esmeralda, 259 
 Miss Hook, of Holland, 268 
 Miss Tomboy, 246 
 Modjeska, Helena, 222 
 Mohun, Michael, 40, 44, 50 
 Mollusc, The, 221 
 Monckton, Lady, at Comedy, 
 
 227 ; at St. James's, 207 ; at 
 
 Avenue, 229 
 
34 2 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Monckton, Lionel; 271 
 Money, 130, 190, 192, 209 
 Moneyspinner, The, 204 
 Monkhouse, Harry, at Gaiety, 
 
 258 ; at Prince ofWales's, 268; 
 
 at Daly's, 271 
 Monsieur Beaucaire, 228, 249, 250 
 Monte Crista, 259 
 Montgomery, Walter, 139 
 Montrose, theatre at, 309 
 Moonlight Blossom, The, 231 
 Moore, Decima, 264 
 Moore, Eva, at Court, 223, 224; 
 
 at Lyric, 269 ; at St. James's, 
 
 208; at Criterion, 221 
 Moore, J. Sturge, 227 
 Moore, George, The Strike at 
 
 Arlingford, 225; writes for 
 
 Irish Literary Theatre, 318 
 Moore, Mary, at Criterion, Wynd- 
 
 ham's, and New Theatre, 218- 
 
 221 
 Moralities, 8, 9, 13 
 Morals of Marcus, The, 212 
 Morning Performances, 142, 143 
 Morocco Bound, 273 
 Morris, Mrs., proprietress of 
 
 Haymarket, 138, 1 39 
 Morton, Thomas, 93 
 Moser, G. von., 227 
 Mossop, Henry, at Dublin 
 
 Aungier Street theatre, 312 ; 
 
 at Crow Street theatre, 314; 
 
 manager of Smock Alley and 
 
 Crow Street theatres, 314 
 Mother Goose, 98 
 Mountebanks, The, 265, 269 
 Mountfort, Susanna, 44 
 M.P., 189 
 Mr. Hopkinson, 230 
 Mr. Popple of Ippleton, 273 
 Mr. Sheridan, 212 
 Mrs. Dane's Defence, 220 
 Mrs. Dot, 228 
 
 Mrs. Gorringe's Necklace, 220 
 Mrs. Maxwell's Marriage, 225 
 Mrs. Ponderbury's Past, 224, 229 
 Mrs. Warren's Profession, 225 
 Mummy and the Humming Bird, 
 
 The, 220 
 
 Munden, J. S., at Bath, 280; at 
 Edinburgh, 298 
 
 Murray, Alma, 228 
 
 Murray, Gilbert, Andromache, 
 225 ; Electra, 226 ; Hippolytus, 
 226 ; The Trojan Women, 226 
 
 Murray, H. Leigh, at Strand, 
 158; at Lyceum, 156 
 
 Murray, Mrs. Leigh, at Strand, 
 158; at Lyceum, 156; at Court, 
 222 
 
 Murray, Mrs. Gaston, 202 
 
 Murray, W. H., manager of Edin- 
 burgh theatres, 298-300 
 
 Musical Comedy, 260-262, 266, 
 268, 270-274 
 
 Musicians, in Elizabethan the- 
 atres, 25 ; position of orchestra 
 altered in later theatres, 25-26 
 
 My Darling, 2J4 
 
 My Lady Molly, 272 
 
 My Milliner's Bill, 222 
 
 My Mimosa Maid, 268 
 
 Mysteries. See Miracle Plays 
 
 Mystery of Edwin Drood, The, 200 
 
 Najezda, 193 
 
 Nance Oldfeld, 178 
 
 National Theatre Society, 317 
 
 Nautch Girl, The, 264 
 
 Neilson, Julia, at Criterion, 219 ; 
 at St. James's, 208 ; at Hay- 
 market, 231 ; at Shaftesbury, 
 250 ; at Comedy, 248 ; at New 
 Theatre, 221, 248 
 
 Neilson, L. Adelaide, 135 
 
 Nell Gwynne, 267 
 
 Nelly Neil, 274 
 
 Nelson's Enchantress, 229 
 
 Nero, 200 
 
 Nesville, Juliette, 271 
 
 Nethersole, Olga, at Garrick, 
 209 ; at Court, 224 ; at Adelphi, 
 242 
 
 Never Too Late to Mend, 155, 166 
 
 Neville, Henry, at Olympia, 142, 
 243 ; at Princess's, 243 ; at 
 Drury Lane, 243 ; at Vaude* 
 ville, 246 
 
 New Aladdin, The, 261 
 
INDEX. 
 
 343 
 
 New Boy, The, 233 
 
 New Century Theatre, 227 
 
 New Chelsea Theatre, 202 
 
 New Clown, The, 22S 
 
 New Magdalen, The, 147 
 
 New Men and Old Acres, 201 
 
 New Theatre, 220, 221 
 
 New Woman, Ihe, 194, 227, 
 228 
 
 Newcastle, theatres at, 290 
 
 Newcastle Circuit, 290 
 
 Newington Butts Theatre, 19 
 
 Nicholls, Harry, 253 
 
 Nicol, Emma, 301 
 
 Night of the Party, The, 230 
 
 Night Out, A, 246 
 
 Niobe, 159 
 
 Nisbett, Louisa, at Drury Lane, 
 132 ; at Haymarket, 137 
 
 Nila's First, 230 
 
 Nokes, James, 44 
 
 Norreys, Rose, at Court, 222, 
 223 
 
 Northbrooke, John, 28 
 
 Norton, Thomas, 11 
 
 Norwich, theatres at, 290 
 
 Norwich Circuit, 290 
 
 Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith, 209 
 
 Novelty (afterwards Kingsway) 
 Theatre, opened with comic 
 opera and farce, 230 ; known 
 as Folies Dramatiques, 230 ; as 
 Jodrell Theatre, 230 ; as Great 
 Queen Street Theatre, 230; 
 managed by Lena Ashwell, as 
 Kingsway Theatre, 230 
 
 Nowadays, 238 
 
 Oberon, 115 
 
 Octoroon, The, 144 
 
 Odette, 243 
 
 Offenbach, Jacques, The Grand 
 Duchess, 265 ; Madame Favart, 
 159, 267, 273, 307 
 
 Ogilvie, Stuart, Hypaha, 193; 
 The Sin of St. Hulda, 245 
 
 O'Grindles, The, 196 
 
 O'Keefe, John, writes for Drury 
 Lane, 93 ; The Castle of Anda- 
 lusia, 96 ; Wild Oats, 96 
 
 Old Guards The, 267 
 
 Old Heidelberg, 208 
 
 Old Lady, The, 223 
 
 Oldfield, Anne, 62 
 
 Oliver, M. C. ("Pattie"), at 
 Princess's, 155 ; manager of 
 Royalty, 159 
 
 Oliver Twist, 200 
 
 Olivette, 159, 273 
 
 Olivier, Sidney, 225 
 
 Olympic Revels, 120 
 
 Olympic Theatre, earliest days 
 of, 100; managed by Elliston, 
 100 ; by Oxberry, Egerton and 
 Vining, 119; by Madame 
 Vestris, 119-121 ; burned down, 
 122, new house opened, 145; 
 managed by Farren, 145, 146 ; 
 by Wigan, 146 ; by Robson 
 and Emden, 147 ; by Miss 
 Cavendish, 147 ; by Neville 
 243 ; pulled down, 148 ; New 
 Olympic built, 148 ; its short 
 career, 148, 239 
 
 On the Cards, 256 
 
 One of the Best, 241 
 
 One Summers Day, 228 
 
 O'Neil,, Eliza, at Covent Garden, 
 1 10; at Exeter, 284; at 
 Brighton, 288; at Edinburgh, 
 299 ; at Glasgow, 304 
 
 Only Way, The, 180, 250, 273 
 
 " O.P." (Old Price) Riots, 107- 
 109 
 
 'Op 0' me Thumb, 225 
 
 Opera, at Covent Garden, 68- 
 70, ns, 127, 131; at Her 
 Majesty's, 12.6, 127; at Lyceum, 
 124, 157 ; at Queen's (after- 
 wards King's) Theatre, 51-54, 
 68, 69, 83, 90,- 117, 126; at 
 St. James's, 126 ; at Olympic, 
 147; at Princess's, 151 
 
 Opera Comique theatre, opened, 
 262; Gilbert and Sullivan 
 operas at, 262-263 > subse- 
 quent productions at, 263, 
 264 ; Independent Theatre, 
 performances at, 225 ; de- 
 molished, 264 
 
344 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Oratorio, at Covent Garden, 70, 96 
 
 Orchestra. See Musicians 
 
 Orchid, The, 261 
 
 Ord, Robert, 226 
 
 Orger, Mary Ann, 120 
 
 Otway, Thomas, 43 
 
 Our American Cousin, 141 
 
 Our Boys, 243, 245, 246 
 
 Our Flat, 159 
 
 Ours, 189, 210 
 
 Owen, Emmie, 265 
 
 Oxberry, William, 119 
 
 Pair of Spectacles, A, 209 
 
 Palace of Puck, The, 196 
 
 Palace of Truth, The, 142, 231 
 
 Palace Theatre, 266 
 
 Palfrey, May, 246 
 
 Palmer, John, manager of Bath 
 Theatre, 278; of Bristol Theatre, 
 282 
 
 Palmer, John, of Drury Lane, 87, 
 101 
 
 Pammachus, 12 
 
 Pantaloon, 234 
 
 Pantheon, 90 
 
 Pantomime, popularity of in eigh- 
 teenth century, at Drury Lane 
 and Lincoln's Inn Fields, 59; 
 at Covent Garden and Drury 
 Lane, 75, 98 
 
 Pantomime Rehearsal, The, 272 
 
 Paolo and Francesca, 208 
 
 Park Theatre, Camden Town, 253 
 
 Parker, Sir Gilbert, 196 
 
 Parker, L. N., Gudgeons, 233; The 
 /est, 219; Makers of Men, 239; 
 Rosemary, 219; The Swash- 
 buckler, 234 
 
 Parry, John, 275 
 
 Parvenu, The, 222 
 
 Passmore, Walter, 266 
 
 Passport, The, 233 
 
 Patents for theatrical perform- 
 ances, granted to Davenant and 
 Killigrew, 35 ; these merged 
 into one, 43 ; second Patent 
 again granted, 47; Patents con- 
 fined to Drury Lane and Covent 
 Garden, 67; Patent granted to 
 
 Haymarket, 79; to Bath theatre, 
 278 ; to Birmingham theatre, 
 235 ; to Edinburgh theatre, 
 295 
 
 Patience, 263, 266 
 
 Patrician's Daughter, The, 133 
 
 Paul, Mrs. Howard, 263 
 
 Paul f ones, 268 
 
 Paulton, Harry, 159 
 
 Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel, 
 251, 252 
 
 Paw Clawdian, 215 
 
 Payne, Edward, 261 
 
 Peele, George, 27 
 
 Peep 0' Day, 157 
 
 Peg Woffington, 232 
 
 Ptllias and MUisande, 231 
 
 Penley, W. S., at Comedy, 227, 
 267; at Globe, 231; at Globe 
 and Royalty, 248 
 
 People's Idol, The, 239 
 
 Pepys, Samuel, his " Diary " 
 quoted, 34, 35, 37, 39 
 
 Perdita, 157 
 
 Peril, 190, 203 
 
 Perry, Florence, 265 
 
 Perth, theatre at, 309. 
 
 Peter Pan, 234 
 
 Peter the Great, 1 76 
 
 Peter's Mother, 221, 228 
 
 Pettitt, Henry, The Bells of Hash- 
 mere, 241 ; Hands across the 
 Sea, 238; The Harbour Lights, 
 241; In the Ranks, 241; The 
 Union fack, 241 
 
 Pharisee, The, 245 
 
 Phelps, Samuel, early appear- 
 ances, 117; at Birmingham, 
 285; at Covent Garden, 130; 
 at Drury Lane, 132; at Hay- 
 market, 137; manager of Sad- 
 ler's Wells, 148-150; his rivalry 
 with C. Kean, 149, 150; acts 
 at Drury Lane, 135; at Queen's 
 Theatre, 160 ; at Princess's, 
 155; at Brighton, 288; at Glas- 
 gow, 306 ; criticism of his 
 acting, 150, 151 
 Philanderer, The, 225 
 Phillips, F. C, 206 
 
INDEX. 
 
 345 
 
 Phillips, Stephen, Herod, 200; 
 Nero, 200 ; Paolo and Francesco., 
 208; Ulysses, 200 
 Phillips, Watts, The Dead Heart, 
 143, 174; Lost in London, 155 
 Physician, The, 219 
 Pillars of Society, 'J he, 254 
 Pinero, A. W., The Amazons, 
 223; The Beauty Stone, 265; 
 The Benefit of the Doubt, 194, 
 228; The Cabinet Minister, 195, 
 223 ; Dandy Dick, 222 ; The 
 Gay Lord Quex, 210; His 
 House in Order, 208 ; The 
 Hobby Horse, 204; In Chancery, 
 232; Iris, 211; 1 he Ironmaster, 
 204 ; Zaaji' Bountiful, 209 ; 
 ZeWy, 234 ; 7%e Magistrate, 
 222; May fair, 204; The Money- 
 spinner, 204; 7%e Notorious 
 Mrs. Ebbsmith, 209; The Prin- 
 cess and the Butterfly, 207 ; 
 7%e Profligate, 208, 209; 7I4« 
 Rector, 222; 7%« Schoolmistress, 
 2.12.; The Second Mrs. Tan- 
 queray, 205, 207, 209; 7%e 
 Squire, 204; Sweet Lavender, 
 232; 7%« Thunderbolt, 208; 
 7X« Times, 232; Trelawny of 
 the Wells, 224; 7%« Wea&r?- 
 •Se.*, 205 ; ^4 W'y'e -without a 
 Smile, 221 
 A'»>i Dominoes, 217 
 Pinkethman, William, 53, 69 
 Pirates of Penzance, The, 263, 266 
 Pit, abolished and restored at 
 Haymarket, 191; "booking" 
 of, at Lyceum, 173; at The 
 Playhouse and Kingsway, 196 
 Plague, used by Puritans as argu- 
 ment against theatres, 28-30 
 Planche, J. R., writes for Vestris 
 and Mathews at Olympic, 120, 
 255; at Covent Garden, 130; 
 at Lyceum, 156 
 Planquette, Robert, The Cloches 
 de Corneville, 214 ; The Old 
 Guard, 267; Nell Gwynne, 267; 
 Paul /ones, 268 ; Rip van 
 Winkle, 259, 267 
 
 Play, 189 
 
 Playhouse, The, 195, 196- 
 
 Plymouth, theatre at, 282, 283 
 
 Polygraphic Hall, 214 
 
 Porpora, N. A., at Lincoln's Inn, 
 
 61, 68; at King's Theatre, 69 
 Pounds, Courtice, at Savoy, 264; 
 
 at Prince of Wales's,, 268 
 Pounds, Louie, 266 
 Powell, William, 84 
 Power, Tyrone, at Adelphi, 123; 
 
 at Haymarket, 137 
 Pocock, Isaac, Rob Roy, 299, 
 
 304 
 
 Poupee, La, 268 
 
 Powrie, Thomas, 306 
 
 Prayer of the Sword, The, 242 
 
 Preston, Jessie, 259 
 
 Preston, Thomas, 11 
 
 Prices of admission, in Elizabe- 
 than theatres, 24-25; in Restor- 
 ation theatres, 36, 37; at Covent 
 Garden in early nineteenth 
 century, ill; at Buckstone's 
 Haymarket, 140; at Webster's 
 Adelphi, 144, 145 
 
 Prince of Wales's Theatre, Coven- 
 try Street, opened (as Prince's 
 Theatre), 230 ; managed by 
 Bruce, 230, 231; various plays 
 and comic operas at, 231, 232, 
 267, 268 ; musical comedy at, 
 268 
 
 Prince of Wales's, Tottenham 
 Street (formerly West London 
 Theatre), early days of, 127, 
 128, 187; managed by Marie 
 Wilton and H. J. Byron, 187- 
 189 ; by Mr. and Mrs. Ban- 
 croft, 189, 190; by Bruce, igo; 
 demolished, 190 
 
 Prince's Theatre. See Prince of 
 Wales's Theatre, Coventry 
 Street 
 
 Princess, The, 147 
 
 Princess and the Butterfly, The, 
 207 
 
 Princess Ida, 264 
 
 Princess of Kensington, The, 269 
 
 Princess's Nose, The, 234 
 
 23 
 
346 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Princess's Theatre, early days of, 
 151 ; managed by C. Kean, 
 151-154; by A. Harris, 154; 
 by Vining, Webster, and Chat- 
 terton, 155; reconstructed, 155; 
 managed by Wilson Barrett, 
 236-238 ; subsequent produc- 
 tions at, 238, 239 
 
 Prisoner of Zenda, The, 207 
 
 Pritchard, Hannah, at Drury 
 Lane, 74, 81; at Bristol, 282 
 
 Private Secretary, The, 231 
 
 Pro Tern., 196 
 
 Professor's Love Story, The, 228, 
 245 
 
 Profligate, The, 208, 209 
 
 Promise of May, The, 247 
 
 Prunella, 226 
 
 Pryce, Richard, 225 
 
 Prynne, W., Histrio-Mastix, 29, 
 30 
 
 Public Opinion, 221 
 
 Punch, 228 
 
 Puritans, their opposition to 
 theatres, 28-33 
 
 Pygmalion and Galatea, 142 
 
 Pyne, Louisa, 301 
 
 Quality Street, 247 
 Queen's Shilling, The, 203 
 Queen's Theatre, Haymarket. 
 
 See King's Theatre 
 Queen's Theatre, Longacre, 160 
 Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury 
 
 Avenue, 235 
 Queen's Theatre, Tottenham 
 
 Street. See Prince of Wales's 
 
 Theatre 
 Question of Memory, A, 225 
 Quiet Rubber, A, 202 
 Quin, James, at Drury Lane, 59 ; 
 
 at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 59; 
 
 at Covent Garden, 67, 70, 73, 
 
 74, 82; at Dublin, 310, 311 
 
 Raffles, 228 
 Raising the Wind, 97 
 Ralph Roister Doister, 10 
 Ramsay, Allan, 293 
 Ravenswood, 174 
 
 Reade, Charles, writes for Adelphi, 
 143; Dora, 184; Drink, 1 55; 
 Never Too Late to Mend, 155, 
 166 
 
 Reading, theatre at, 291 
 
 Rector, The, 222 
 
 Red Bull Theatre, 19, 34 
 
 Red Hussar, The, 269 
 
 Red Lamp, The, 193, 227 
 
 Reece, Robert, his Gaiety bur- 
 lesques, 255, 257 
 
 Reed, Alfred, 275, 276 
 
 Reed, T. German, 274, 275 
 
 Reed, Mrs. German, 274-276 
 
 Reeve, J., 123 
 
 Reeves, Sims, at Drury Lane, 133; 
 at Dublin, 317 
 
 Regency Theatre, 187 
 
 Rehan, Ada, at Strand, 159; 
 at Daly's, 270 
 
 Rehearsal, The, 40 
 
 Rejected Addresses, 106 
 
 Respublica, 13 
 
 Resurrection, 200 
 
 Return of the Prodigal, The, 226 
 
 Rich, Christopher, manager of 
 Drury Lane, 47-54 
 
 Rich, John, manager of Lincoln's 
 Inn Fields, 59-61,72; of Covent 
 Garden, 61, 68-70, 73-76, 84; 
 his death, 84 
 
 Richard III., as patron of drama, 
 II 
 
 Richelieu, 130, 164 
 
 Richmond, theatre at, 291 
 
 Righton, E., 207 
 
 Rinaldo, 68 
 
 Riots, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 72; at Drury Lane, 80; at 
 Covent Garden, 98, 107-109; 
 at Haymarket, 104, 191 ; at 
 Edinburgh Theatre Royal, 297 ; 
 at Dublin Aungier Streettheatre, 
 
 3«2, 313 
 Rip van Winkle, play, 144 ; 
 
 comic opera, 259, 267 
 Ristori, Adelaide, 136 
 Rivals, The, 85, 86, 195, 224 
 Rob Roy, 299, 300, 304 
 Robert the Devil, 256 
 
INDEX. 
 
 347 
 
 Roberts, Arthur, at Avenue, 267 ; 
 at Opera Comique, 91 ; at 
 Gaiety, 92; at Prince of Wales's, 
 268 
 
 Robertson, J. Forbes. See Forbes 
 Robertson, J. 
 
 Robertson, Madge. See Kendal, 
 Mrs. M. 
 
 Robertson, T. W., Caste, 189, 210; 
 David Garrick, 142, 218 ; The 
 Ladies' Battle, 203 ; M.P.,iSg; 
 Ours, 189, 210; Play, 189; 
 School, 189, 209, 210 ; Society, 
 189, 290; his death, 190; re- 
 vivals of his plays at Haymarket, 
 192 
 
 Robespierre, 177 
 
 Robin Goodfellow, 209 
 
 Robin Hood, 249 
 
 Robson, T. F. , at Grecian Theatre, 
 252; at Olympic, 145-147 
 
 Rochester, theatre at, 291 
 
 Rodgers, James, 286 
 
 Rogue's Comedy, The, 210, 245 
 
 Romance of a Shopwalker, The, 246 
 
 Romany Rye, The, 236 
 
 Rorke, Kate, at Criterion, 217; 
 at Comedy, 227 ; at Garrick, 
 209 ; at Shaftesbury, 245 
 
 Rorke, Mary, at Court, 202 ; at 
 Criterion, 217 
 
 Roselle, Amy, at Court, 222 ; at 
 Comedy, 227; at Princess's, 238 
 
 Rosemary, 219 
 
 Rosmersholm, 229, 254 
 
 Ross, Adrian, 264 
 
 Ross, David, 295 
 
 Rostand, Edmond, 220 
 
 Rousby, Mrs., 160 
 
 Rowe, Nicholas, 57 
 
 Royal Academy of Music, 68 
 
 Royal Circus, 100, 125 
 
 ' ' Royal Command " performances, 
 104, 205, 218 
 
 Royal Divorce, A, 251 
 
 Royal Family, A, 224 
 
 Royal Grove, 101 
 
 Royal Kent Theatre, 252 
 
 Royal Necklace, A, 250 
 
 Royal Star, The, 268 
 
 Royalty Theatre, Dean Street, 
 early days of, 159 ; managed by 
 Miss Cavendish, 159; by Miss 
 Oliver, 159; by Miss Santley, 
 159 ; Independent Theatre 
 at, 225 ; managed by Bour- 
 chier, 159; by Alexander, 159 
 
 Royalty Theatre, Well Close 
 Square, 101, 252 
 
 Royce, E. W., at Birmingham, 
 285 ; at Gaiety, 257, 258 
 
 Ruddigore, 264 
 
 Runaway Girl, The, 260 
 
 Rupert of Hentzau, 207 
 
 Russell and Bashford management 
 at Haymarket, 193 
 
 Ruy Bias, 259 
 
 Ryan, Lacy, at Covent Garden, 
 69; at Dublin, 311 
 
 Ryder, Corbet, 308 
 
 Ryder, John, 132, 151 
 
 Ryder, Thomas, manager of Smock 
 Alley and Crow Street theatres, 
 Dublin, 314, 315 
 
 Ryley, Madeline, Jedbury, Junior, 
 233 ; Mice and Men, 249 ; The 
 Sugar Bowl, 235 
 
 Sackville, Thomas, Earl of 
 Dorset, 11 
 
 Sadler's Wells Theatre, early 
 days of, 99, 126; managed by 
 Phelps, 148-150; by Mrs. Bate- 
 man, 150 
 
 St. George, Julia, 287 
 
 St. George's Hall, 275, 276 
 
 St. James's Theatre, opened by 
 Braham, 126 ; French plays at, 
 126, 157; managed by Webster, 
 157 ; by Miss Herbert, 158 ; by 
 Mrs. John Wood, 158 ; by the 
 Kendals, 203-205 ; by Barring- 
 ton, 206 ; by Alexander, 206- 
 208 ; interior remodelled, 208 
 
 St. John, Florence, at Edinburgh, 
 302; at Strand, 159; at Avenue, 
 267 ; at Gaiety, 259 ; at Savoy, 
 265 ; at Criterion, 221 
 
 St. Martin's Hall, 274 
 
 St. Quentin, Miss, 307 
 
348 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Saints and Sinners, 246 
 
 Salaries of Actors, 4, 53, 97 
 
 Salisbury Circuit, 277 
 
 Salvini, Tommaso, 135 
 
 Sampson, 70 
 
 San Toy, 271 
 
 Sans Pareil Theatre, 101 
 
 Santley, Kate, 159 
 
 Saratoga, 216 
 
 Sardou, Victorien, Dante, 180 
 Diplomacy, 190; Madame Sans 
 Gene, 175, 269 ; Peril, 190 
 Robespierre, 177 
 
 Savoy Theatre, opened, 263 
 comic opera at, 263-267 ; man 
 aged by Barker and Vedrenne 
 226. 227 
 
 Saxe-Meiningen company, at 
 Drury Lane, 136 
 
 Scala Theatre, 190, 191, 251 
 
 Scarlet Pimpernel, The, 221, 248 
 
 Scenery, in Miracle Plays, 5-6 ; 
 in earliest theatres, 16-17; in 
 Elizabethan theatres, 22, 24 ; 
 in Restoration theatres, 35, 39, 
 40; early in nineteenth century, 
 105, 106, IIS; at Drury Lane 
 in Macready's day, 131, 132; 
 in Phelps' and C. Kean's Shake- 
 spearean productions, 148-153; 
 in Irving's, 169, 171, 173, 174 ; 
 in Forbes Robertson's and 
 Waller's, 179, 180; in Tree's, 
 197-199 ; at Prince of Wales's 
 under Bancrofts, 188 
 
 Scheming Lieutenant, The, 86 
 
 School, 189, 209, 210 
 
 School for Scandal, The, 87, 190, 
 216, 218 
 
 School Girl, The, 268 
 
 Schoolmistress, The, 222, 223 
 
 Scott, Clement, Odette, 243; The 
 Swordsman's Daughter, 241 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, on Rob Roy, 
 299 
 
 Scrap of Paper, A, 202, 203 
 
 Second in Command, The, 195 
 
 Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The, 
 205, 207, 209 
 
 Secret Sei~vice, 242 
 
 Seats in theatres, prices of in 
 Elizabethan days, 24, 25 ; in 
 Restoration theatres, 36, 37; in 
 early nineteenth century, ill, 
 144,145; orchestra-stalls intro- 
 duced at Hay market, 136; pit 
 abolished there, 191 ; restored, 
 191; "booking" of seats hither- 
 to unreserved, at Lyceum, 173; 
 at The Playhouse and Kings- 
 way, 196 
 
 Seats if the Mighty, The, 196 
 
 Sedley, Sir Charles, 43, 54 
 
 See See, 268 
 
 Sentries, outside Patent theatres, 
 72 
 
 Sergeant Brue, 268 
 
 Seymour, Frank, manager of Glas- 
 gow Queen Street, York Street, 
 and Caledonian theatres, 305 
 
 Seymour, Katie, 262 
 
 Shadwell, Thomas, 310 
 
 Shaftesbury Theatre, opened by 
 Miss Wallis, 244 ; Willard at, 
 244 ; Wilson Barrett at, 239 ; 
 subsequent performances at, 
 
 24S» 2 73 
 
 Shakespeare, William, his con- 
 nection with The Theatre, 18; 
 with the Globe and Blackfriars 
 theatres, 19, 20, 27; his plays 
 as produced by Garrick, 77> 7S1 
 83 ; by J. P. Kemble, 96, 98 ; 
 by E. Kean, 113; by C. 
 Kemble, 115; by Macready, 
 129, 132 ; by Chatterton, 135 ; 
 by Phelps, 148-150; by C. 
 Kean, 151-154; by John Harris 
 at Dublin, 317; by Irving, 168- 
 177; by Forbes Robertson, 179; 
 by Waller, 179, 180, 250 ; by 
 Tree, 193, 197-199; by Benson 
 Company, 247; by Calvert, 
 Flanagan and Courtneidge at 
 Manchester, 287 
 
 Shamus O'Brien, 264 
 
 Shaw, G. Bernard, The Admir- 
 able Bashville, 225 ; Arms and 
 the Man, 227, 229 ; Casar and 
 Cleopatra, 227; Candida, 225 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 349. 
 
 Captain Brassbound 's Conver- 
 sion, 183, 225; The Devil's 
 Disciple, 227; 7 he Doctor's 
 Dilemma, 226 ; Getting Mar- 
 ried, 196; How He Lied to Her 
 Husband, 226 ; fohn Bull's 
 Other Island, 226 ; Man and 
 Superman, 225; Mrs. Warren's 
 Profession, 225 ; The Philan- 
 derer, 225 ; Widowers' Houses, 
 225 ; You Never Can. Tell, 225, 
 227 
 She Stoops to Conquer, 81, 84, 
 
 158, 195, 218, 246 
 Sheffield, theatre at, 290 
 Shelton, George, 214 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, pro- 
 duction of The Rivals, 85; The 
 Scheming Lieutenant, The 
 Duenna, and A Trip to Scar- 
 borough, 86 ; The School for 
 Scandal, 87 ; The Critic, 88 ; 
 manager of Drury Lane, 86 93 
 Sheridan, Thomas, manager of 
 Dublin Smock Alley theatre, 
 311-314; acts at Covent Gar- 
 den, 312; manager of Dublin 
 Aungier Street theatre, 312-313 
 Shine, J. L., 273 
 Shirley, A. W., 239 
 Shirley, James, 27 
 Shop Girl, The, 260 
 Shoreditch, Standard Theatre, 
 
 251, 252 : 
 Short View of the English Stage, 46 
 Shrewsbury, theatre at, 287 
 Siddons, Henry x at Glasgow, 303; 
 manager of Edinburgh Theatre 
 ',< Raya*, 298 
 
 Siddons, Mrs. Henry, tat Edin- 
 burgh Theatre Royal,; 297-299 
 Siddons, Sarah,, first &ppfearance, 
 at Drury Lane^ 82; at Bath, 
 279, 28o f ;-.-at".firi«triI* 282; at 
 Manchester, 286 ; sit Leicester, 
 289 ; at Sheffield, 291 ; at 
 Edinburgh, 296, 297-299; at 
 Drury Lane,.88, 89, 91, 93 ; at 
 Dublin, 315 ; at Exeter, 283 ; 
 at . Brighton, 288 ; at Covent 
 
 Garden, 92; 96-98, no, in; 
 her acting, III 
 
 Siddons, William, manager of 
 Sadler's Wells, 99; at Leicester, 
 289 
 
 Siege of Rhodes, 35 
 
 Sign of the Cross, The, 239 " 
 
 Silver Box, The, 226 
 
 Silver Kins;, The,. 237, 244 
 
 Si/yer Shield, The, 227 
 
 Silver Slipper^ The, 269 
 
 Simple Simon, 212 
 
 Simpson, Mejrcer., 306 
 
 Sims, G. R. , The Harbour Lights, 
 241; Tri. the Ranks, 241; The 
 Lights of London, 236 ; Two 
 Little Vagabonds, 239 
 
 Sin of St. Hulda f The, 245 
 
 Slaughter, Walter, 268 
 
 Smith, J. and H., Rejected 
 Addresses, 106 
 
 Smith, William, 87 
 
 Smoking, in theatres, 25, 32 
 
 Society, 290, 189 
 
 Soldiers, as guard at Patent 
 theatres, 72 ; quell riot at Hay- 
 market, 104 
 
 Solomon, Edward, The Little 
 Nautch Girl, 264; The Red 
 hussar, 269 ; The Vicar of 
 
 . Bray, 264 
 
 Sophia, 246 
 
 Sothern, Edward, at Birmingham, 
 285, 286; at Haymarket, 141, 
 142 
 
 Soul's Tragedy, A, 225 
 
 Soutar, Robert, 256 
 
 Southampton, theatres at, 291 
 
 Sowing the Wind, 227, 228 
 
 Spring Chicken, The, 261 
 
 Squire, The. 204 
 
 Squire of Dames, The, 219 
 
 Stage, form of, for Miradle Plays, 
 2-5 ; in Elizabethan theatres, 
 20-25 '• i" 1 Restoration theatres, 
 35-37 ; presence of spectators 
 on, 23, 25, 27, 71, 72, 77, 78, 
 294 ; arrangement of, at Dfury 
 Lane in Kean's day, io6» 1S7 
 
 Stage Dora, 215 
 
 23* 
 
3SO 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Stage- Player's Complaint, The 
 
 3°-3i 
 'Stage Society, 224-226 
 Stalls, introduced at Haymarket, 
 
 «36 
 Standard Theatre, Shoreditch, 
 
 251, 252 
 Stanfield, Clarkson, 131, 285 
 Stanford, Sir C. Villiers, 264 
 Steele, Sir Robert, writes for 
 
 Drury Lane, 54, 59, 62 
 Steer, Janette, 233 
 Stephens, Yorke, at Avenue, 229; 
 
 at Terry's, 233 
 Stephenson, B. C, The Fatal 
 
 Card, 241 ; Impulse, 204 
 Stevenson, R. L., 200 
 Still, J., Bishop of Bath and 
 
 Wells, 10 
 Still Waters Run Deep, 147, 218 
 Stirling, Mrs. M. A., at Drury 
 
 Lane, 132; at Haymarket, 137; 
 
 at Strand, 158; at Imperial, 
 
 249 ; at Vaudeville, 246 
 Stockwood, John, 28 
 Story of Waterloo, A, 175 
 Strand Theatre, earliest days of, 
 
 125; managed by Farren, 158; 
 
 Byron's burlesques at, 158; 
 
 comic opera at, 273 ; managed 
 
 by Clarke, 159 ; last days of, 
 
 159. 273 
 Strange Adventures of Miss 
 
 Brawn, 246 
 Street, G. S., 225 
 Streets of London, The, 155 
 Strike at Arlingford, The, 225 
 Stronger Sex, The, 273 
 Stuart, Leslie, Florodora, 269; 
 
 The School Girl, 268; The 
 
 Silver Slipper, 269 
 Stubbes, Philip, 29 
 Sturgis, Julian, 266 
 Suburban theatres, 292 
 Sudermann, H., 179 
 Sugar Bowl, The, 235 
 Sudgen, Charles, 246 
 Sullivan, Sir Arthur, The Beauty 
 
 Stone, 265 ; Contrabandista, 
 
 275 ; Cox and Box, 275 ; The 
 
 Emerald Isle, 265 ; The Gon- 
 doliers, 264, 266 ; The Grand 
 Duke, 265 ; Haddon Hall, 265; 
 H.M.S. Pinafore, 263, 266; 
 Iolanthe, 264, 266 ; lvanhoe, 
 266 ; The Mikado, 264, 266 ; 
 Patience, 26$, 266; The Pirates 
 of Penzance, 263, 266; Princess 
 Ida, 264 ; The Pose of Persia, 
 265 ; Iiuddigore, 264 ; The 
 Sorcerer, 262; Thespis, 257, 
 262 ; Trial by fury, 262 ; 
 Utopia, 265 ; The Yeomen of 
 the Guard, 264, 266 
 
 Sullivan, Barry, at Leicester, 289; 
 at Drury Lane, 135 
 
 Sunday, 248 
 
 Sunlight and Shadow, 206, 229 
 
 Sunset, 227 
 
 Surrey Theatre, earliest days of, 
 100 ; managed by Elliston, iooj 
 by Dibdin, 100; by Elliston 
 again, 125 ; burned down and 
 new house built, 125 
 
 Sutro, Alfred, The Barrier, 228 ; 
 The Fascinating Mr. Vander- 
 veldt, 211; fohn Glayde's 
 Honour, 208 ; The Walls of 
 fericho, 211 
 
 Swan Theatre, 20, 21 
 
 Swanborough, W. H., 286 
 
 Swashbuckler, The, 234 
 
 Sweeney Tod, 285 
 
 Sweet Lavender, 232 
 
 Sweet Nancy, 248 
 
 Sweet Nell of Old Drury, 231 
 
 Sweet and Twenty, 246 
 
 Sweethearts, 190 
 
 Swinny, Owen, manager of 
 QueeYi's Theatre, 52-54 
 
 Swordsman's Daughter, The, 241 
 
 Synge, J, W., 318 
 
 " Tailors' Riot," 104 
 Talbot, Howard, 270 
 Talbot, Montague, 315 
 Talfourd, Sir T. N., 118 
 Tarleton, Richard, 27 
 Taylor, Tom, writes for Adelphi, 
 143 ; for Olympic, 184 ; Lady 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3Si 
 
 Clancarty, 249; Our American 
 Cousin, 141 ; ittill Waters Run 
 Deep, 147, 21S 
 
 Tempest, Marie, in comic opera, 
 at Prince of Wales's, 268 ; at 
 Lyric, 269; at Daly's, 271 ; in 
 drama, at Criterion, 221 ; at 
 Prince of Wales's, 231, 232 ; at 
 Duke of York's, 234 ; at 
 Comedy, 22S 
 
 Temple, Richard, 262 
 
 Tennyson, Lord, Becket, 174, I75> 
 181; The Cup, 170; The 
 Falcon, 204 ; The Foresters, 
 270 ; The Promise of May, 2.^1 ; 
 Queen Mary, 1 64 
 
 Terriss, Ellaline, at Criterion, 
 219; at Court, 224 ; at Lyric, 
 269; at Gaiety, 260, 261 ; at 
 Vaudeville, 246, 247 ; at Ald- 
 wych, 274 
 
 Terriss, William, first London ap- 
 "pearance, 240; at Court, 168, 
 240 ; at Lyceum, 240 ; with 
 Lyceum company in America, 
 240 ; introduces Daly Company 
 to London, 240 ; at Adelphi, 
 240, 241 ; in America, 241 ; at 
 Lyceum again, 241 ; returns to 
 Adelphi, 241-242; assassina- 
 tion, 242 
 
 Terry, Benjamin, at Princess's, 
 151 ; touring with his daughters, 
 
 Terry, Daniel, part manager of 
 Adelphi, 123 
 
 Terry, Edward, at Surrey and 
 Strand Theatres, 232 ; at 
 Gaiety, 232, 257, 258 ; opens 
 Terry's • Theatre, 232 ; subse- 
 quent appearances, 232 
 
 Terry, Ellen, early appearances at 
 Princess's, 153, 154, 165 ; at 
 Royalty, 165 ; at Bath and 
 Bristol, 165, 281 ; at Hay- 
 market, 139, 166 ; at Olympic, 
 166 ; at Queen's Theatre, 160- 
 162, 166 ; at Birmingham, 285, 
 2S6 ; at Prince of Wales's, as 
 Portia, 167 ; at Court, in Olivia, 
 
 167; at Lyceum, 168-178; as 
 Ophelia, 168 ; Portia, 169 ; in 
 The Cup, 170; as Desdemona, 
 170 ; Juliet, 171 ; Beatrice, 171 ; 
 Viola, 172 ; Olivia, 172 ; in 
 Faust, 173 ; Amber Heart, 1 73; 
 as Lady Macbeth, 173, 174; 
 in The Dead Heart, 174 ; 
 Ravenswood, 174; Henry VIII., 
 174 ; as Cordelia, 174 ; Imogen, 
 175 ; Madame Sans-Gene, 175 > 
 in \ Robespierre, 177 ; Coriolanus, 
 177 ; last appearance with 
 Irving, 177 ; reasons of sever- 
 ance of professional partnership 
 with him, 177, 178 ; in manage- 
 ment on her own account, 182, 
 183, 250 ; in The Vikings, 182, 
 250 ; at His Majesty's, in The 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, 182, 
 
 183 ; in A Winter's Tale, 183 ; 
 "jubilee" celebration at Drury 
 Lane, 183 ; at Duke of York's, 
 in Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, 183 ; 
 at Court, in Captain Brass- 
 bouna's Conversion, 183 
 
 Terry, Florence, 184 
 
 Terry, Fred, at Lyceum, 172 ; at 
 Hay market, 231 ; at Shaftes- 
 bury, 250 ; at Comedy, 248 ; 
 at New Theatre, 221, 248 
 
 Terry, Mrs. Fred. See Neilson, 
 Julia 
 
 Terry, Kate, at Princess's, 153, 
 154, 183 ; at St. James's, 184 ; 
 at Lyceum, 184; at Adelphi, 
 184 ; at Olympic, 147, 184 ; at 
 Manchester, 216 ; retirement, 
 
 184 ; re-appearance at Garrick, 
 184 
 
 Terry, Marion, at Olympic, 185 ; 
 at Strand, 185 ; at Haymarket, 
 
 185 ; at Prince of Wales's, 185 ; 
 at Court, 222 ; at Comedy, 
 
 .227, 228; at Lyceum, 179, 
 185 ; at St. James's, 185, 186, 
 207 ; at Vaudeville, 247 ; at 
 New Theatre, 220 
 Terry-Lewis, Mabel, 184 
 Terry's Theatre, 232, 233, 272 
 
352. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Theatres, inn-yards used as, 14, 
 18, 34; earliest buildings for, 
 17-27; arrangement in Eliza- 
 bethan days, 20-26 ; early 
 attacks on, 28-30 ; closed during 
 Civil War, 30-32 ; arrangement 
 of Restoration theatres, 35-40; 
 orchestra stalls introduced at 
 Haymarket, 136 ; Pit abolished 
 there, and restored, 191 ; Pit 
 booked at Lyceum, 173 ; all 
 
 ■ seats booked at Playhouse and 
 
 1 Kingsway, 196. [See also 
 Actors, Costume, Lighting, 
 Patents, Prices of Admission, 
 Scenery, Stage.] 
 
 Theatric Tourist, The, 291 
 
 Theatrical Fund, instituted at 
 Norwich, 290; at Bath, 279 
 
 The Theatre, in Shoreditch, 17, 
 16, 26, 28 
 
 Thief, The, 208 
 
 Thomas, Brandon, 24I 
 
 Thompson, Lydia, at Edinburgh, 
 301, 302 ; at Prince of Wales's, 
 189 
 
 Thorne, Dora, 275 
 
 Thome, Fred, 232 
 
 Thorne, Sarah, 214 
 
 Thorne, Thomas, part manager of 
 Vaudeville, 245, 246 
 
 Thoroughbred, 215 
 
 Three Kisses, The, 273 
 
 Three Little Maids, 273 
 
 Three Musketeers, The, 200, 248 
 
 Thunderbolt, The, 208 
 
 Ticket-of- Leave Man, The, 147, 
 243 
 
 Times, The, 232 
 
 Toddles, 195, 234 
 
 Todhunter, John, 225 
 
 Tom, Dick and Harry, 233 
 
 Tom Jones, 273 
 
 Tom Thumb, 66 
 
 Took; J. L., at Edinburgh, 361 ; 
 at Glasgow, 367 ; at St. James's 
 and Lyceum, 157, 213; at 
 Adelphi, 213; at Queen's The- 
 atre, 160, 214 ; at Birmingham, 
 285, 286; at Gaiety, 162, 2I4 ; 
 
 manager of Folly (afterwards 
 Toole's) Theatre, 214-215 ; re- 
 tirement and death, 215 
 
 Toole's Theatre. See Folly The- 
 atre 
 
 Toreador, The, 261 
 
 Touring, first undertaken by Hay- 
 market company, 137, 286, 
 295 
 
 Tourneur, Cyril, 27 
 
 Trafalgar Square Theatre. See 
 Duke of York's Theatre 
 
 Traill, H. D , 176 
 
 Transgressor, The, 224 
 
 Tree, Ellen, See Kean, Mrs. C. 
 
 Tree, H. Beerbohm, at Glasgow, 
 307 ; first London appearance 
 at old Prince of Wales's, 190; 
 at Criterion, 217; at Prince's, 
 192, 193, 231 ; at Haymarket, 
 193 ; at Comedy, 193 ; manager 
 of Haymarket, 193, 200; 
 Shakespearean productions 
 there, 193; manager of His 
 Majesty's, 196-200 ; Shake- 
 spearean productions there, 
 197-199; acts in Berlin, 199; 
 his treatment of Shakespeare's 
 plays, 153, 197, 198; his acting, 
 198, 199; as manager, 199, 
 200; institutes a dramatic 
 school, 200 
 
 Tree, Mrs. H. Beerbohm, 222 
 
 Tree, Viola, 199 
 
 Trevor, Leo,- 196 
 
 Trewman and Hughes manage- 
 ment at Exeter, 283 
 
 Trelawny of the Wells, 224 
 
 Trilby, 193, 199 
 
 Trip to Scarborough, A, 86 
 
 Tristram, Outram, 227 
 
 Triumph of the Philistines, The, 
 207 
 
 Trojan Women, The, 226 
 
 Tunbridge Wells, theatres at, 
 291 
 
 Ttoin Sister, The, 234 
 
 Two Little Vagabonds, 239 
 
 Two /loses, The, 162, 206, 245 
 
 Tyranny of Tears, Tkej 219 
 
INDEX. 
 
 353 
 
 Udall, Nicholas, 10 
 
 Ulmar, Geraldine, at Savoy, 264 ; 
 
 at Lyric, 269 
 Ulysses, 200 
 
 Unlce DicKs Darling, 162, 214 
 Uncle's Will, 204 
 Under the Greenwood Tree, 249 
 Under the Red Robe, 195 
 Unger, Gladys, 212 
 Union Jack, The, 241 
 Upper Crust, The, 214 
 Utopia, 265 
 
 Vachell, H. A., 221 
 Valentine, Sidney, Fiander's 
 
 Widow, 212 ; The Stronger 
 
 Sex, 273 
 Vanbrugh, Irene, at St. James's, 
 
 207 ; at Court, 224 ; at Globe, 
 
 210; at Duke of York's, 234, 
 
 235 
 
 Vanbrugh, Sir John, writes for 
 Drury Lane, 46, 48, 54 ; man- 
 ager of Queen's Theatre, Hay- 
 market, 51, 52 ; The Relapse, 
 as amended by Sheridan, 86 
 
 Vanbrugh, Violet, at Garrick, 
 210, 211 
 
 Vandenhoff, J. M., 118 
 
 Vanity Fair, 224 
 
 Varney, Louis, 269 
 
 Vaudeville Theatre, opened, 245 ; 
 managed by James and Thorne, 
 245,246; interior reconstructed, 
 246 ; managed by Gattis, 246, 
 247 
 
 Vaughan, Kate, at Grecian 
 Theatre, 253 ; at Gaiety, 257, 
 258 
 
 Vedrenne, J. E., part manager of 
 Court, 226, 227 
 
 Venne, Lottie, at Brighton, 288 ; 
 at Comedy, 227 ; at Court, 224; 
 at Prince of Wales's, 268 ; at 
 Daly's, 271; at Vaudeville, 247 
 
 Verdi, Giuseppe, 178 
 
 Veronique, 273, 274 
 
 Very Little Hamlet, 258 
 
 Vestris, L. E., at Drury Lane and 
 Covent Garden, 120; manager 
 
 of Olympic, 119-121; marriage, 
 121; in America, 121 ; manager 
 of Covent Garden, 130, 131; at 
 Brighton, 288; at Dublin, 316; 
 at Edinburgh, 299, 300; at 
 Haymarket, 137; at Princess's, 
 151; manager of Lyceum, 155, 
 156; retirement and death, 156 
 
 Vezin, Herman, at Princess's, 
 151; at Queen's, 160; at Gaiety, 
 257; at Strand, 185; at St. 
 James's, 158; at Court, 168 
 
 Vicar of Bray, The, 264, 265 
 
 Victor, Benjamin, 313 
 
 Victor, Miss M. A., 246 
 
 Victoria Theatre, Westminster. 
 See Cobourg Theatre 
 
 Vikings, The, 182, 250 
 
 Village Priest, A, 193 
 
 Vincent, Ruth, 274 
 
 Vincent, Samuel, Young Gallant's 
 Academy, 37 
 
 Vining, George, at Princess's, 
 151; manager, 155 
 
 Vining, James, at Haymarket, 118; 
 manager of Olympic, 119 
 
 Violante, Madame, at Haymarket, 
 66, 69; at Edinburgh, 293; at 
 Dublin, 310, 311 
 
 Virgin Goddess, The, 242 
 
 Virginius, 129 
 
 Volcano, The, 223 
 
 Vortigern, 93 
 
 Voysey Inheritance, The, 226 
 
 Wakefield, theatre at, 289 
 
 Waldorf Theatre, 274 
 
 Walker, Thomas,. 60 
 
 Walker, London, 215 
 
 Wallack, H. J., 127 
 
 Waller, Lewis, at Garrick, 209; 
 at Avenue, 229; at Haymarket, 
 193; at Duke of York's, 233, 
 234; at Criterion, 219; at Globe, 
 248; at Lyceum, 179, 180; at 
 Comedy, 220; at Imperial, 250; 
 at Lyric, 249 
 
 Waller, Mrs. Lewis, 248 
 
 Walls of Jericho, The, 211 
 
 Wandering Heir, The, 166, 286 
 
354 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wandering Minstrel, The, 147 
 
 Ward, Fanny, 246 
 
 Ward, Mrs., of the Edinburgh 
 
 Theatre, 293 
 Ward, Mrs. Humphrey, 226 
 Waring, Herbert, at Court, 22 3; 
 
 at St. James's, 207; at Terry's, 
 
 233 
 
 Warner, Charles, at Princess's, 
 155. 2 435 at Olympic, 243; at 
 Vaudeville, 243, 246; at St. 
 James's, 158, 243; at Hay- 
 market, 243; at Imperial, 243; 
 at Princess's, 243; at Sadler's 
 Wells, 243; at Adelphi, 243 
 
 Warren, T. G., 230 
 
 Warwick, Giulia, 263 
 
 Waste, 227 
 
 Way of the World, The, 69 
 
 Weaker Sex, The, 205 
 
 Weber, C. M., 115 
 
 Webster, B. N., manager of Hay- 
 market, 136-138; acts at Dublin, 
 316; manager of Adelphi, 138, 
 143-145; of Princess's, 155; of 
 St. James's, 157 
 
 Webster, John, 27 
 
 Wedding Eve, The, 272 
 
 Wedding Guest, The, 211 
 
 Wedding March, The, 202 
 
 Welch, James, at Comedy, 228 ; 
 at Wyndham's, 221 
 
 West Kent Circuit, 291 
 
 West London theatre. See Prince 
 of Wales's Theatre 
 
 Westminster Theatre, 249 
 
 Weymouth, theatre at, 282 
 
 Wharton, A. P., 230 
 
 Wheels within Wheels, 211, 221 
 
 When Knights were Bold, 221 
 
 When We Dead Awaken, 254 
 
 When We were Twenty-one, 228 
 
 Where there is Nothing, 225 
 
 Where's the Cat? 217 
 
 White Chrysanthemum, The, 272 
 
 White Elephant, A, 228 
 
 White Heather, The, 224 
 
 White Lie, A, 205 
 
 Whitechapel, Pavilion Theatre, 
 251, 252 
 
 Whitewashing Julia, 211 
 
 Wicked World, The, 142 
 
 Widnell, Victor, 239 
 
 Widowers' Houses, 225 
 
 Wife Without a Smile, A, 221 
 
 Wife's Secret, The, 205 
 
 Wigan, Alfred S., manager of 
 Olympic, 145-147; acts at 
 Princess's, 151 ; at Lyceum, 
 155 ; at Queen's Theatre, 160 
 
 Wigan, Mrs., 155 
 
 Wild Duck, The, 254 
 
 Wild Oats, 96 
 
 Wilde, Oscar, An Ideal Husband, 
 193 ; The Importance of being 
 Earnest, 207 ; Lady Winder- 
 mere's Fan, 207 ; A Woman of 
 No Importance, 193 
 
 Wilderness, The, 208 
 
 Wilkinson, — , at Adelphi, 123 
 
 Wilkinson, Tate, manager of Shef- 
 field theatre, 290; of Manchester 
 theatre, 286 ; of York theatre, 
 281 ; of Edinburgh Theatre 
 Royal, 296 ; at Dublin, 314 
 
 Wilks, Robert, at Drury Lane, 
 53 ; part manager, 54, 57, 62 ; 
 at Dublin, 310 
 
 Willard, E. S., at Princess's, 237, 
 
 243, 244 ; at Haymarket, 244 : 
 at Shaftesbury, 244 ; in America, 
 
 244, 245 ; at Comedy, 228, 
 245 ; at Garrick, 210, 245 
 
 Williams, Arthur, at Grecian, 
 253 ; at Gaiety, 258 ; at Prince 
 of Wales's, 268 ; at Lyric, 
 269 
 Wills, W. G., Black Eye'd Susan, 
 204; Charles I., 163 ; Claud- 
 ian, 237 ; Faust, 173 ; A Royal 
 Divorce, 251 
 Wilton,Marie. See Bancroft, Lady 
 Winchester, theatre at, 291, 292 
 Windsor, theatre at, 292 
 Wisdom of the Wise, The, 208 
 Woffington, Peg, at Dublin, 311 ; 
 at Drury Lane, 69, 74 ; at 
 Covent Garden, 70, 80 ; at 
 Dublin again, 312 
 Woman of No Importance, A, 193 
 
INDEX. 
 
 355 
 
 Wood, Mrs. John, manager of 
 St. James's, 158; at Birming- 
 ham, 286; at Brighton, 288; at 
 Criterion, 217; at Vaudeville, 
 246; at Court, 222, 223; man- 
 ager of Court, 223, 224; at 
 Criterion, 223; at Drury Lane, 
 224 
 
 Woodbarrow Farm, 227, 246 
 
 Woodward, Henry, at Dublin, 
 312, 314; at Drury Lane, 75; 
 at Covent Garden, 80, 94 
 
 Woolgar, Miss S. J., 155 
 
 Workman, C. H., 267 
 
 Wormser, Andre, 268 
 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, 35 
 
 Wrench, Benjamin, 122 
 
 Wright, Edward R, at Adelphi, 
 123, 143; at Glasgow, 306 
 
 Wright, Huntley, 271 
 
 Wyatt, Frank, at Prince of 
 Wales's, 268; at Savoy, 264; 
 manager of Trafalgar Square 
 Theatre, 233 
 
 Wycherley, William, writes for 
 Drury Lane, 43, 45, 54 
 
 Wyes, William, 246 
 
 Wyndham, Sir Charles, surgeon 
 in American Civil War, 215; 
 first appearance in New York, 
 215, 216; first London appear- 
 ance, at Royalty, 159, 216; at 
 St. James's, 216; at Queen's 
 Theatre, 160, 216; at Edin- 
 burgh, 302; in New York, 216; 
 toured in America with his own 
 
 company, 216; at Court, 217; 
 part manager of Criterion, 217; 
 at Olympic, 217; in America, 
 217; sole manager of Criterion, 
 217-219; in America, 218; part 
 manager of Criterion with Bour- 
 chier, 221; subsequent appear- 
 ances at, 221; builds Wynd- 
 ham's Theatre, 219, 220; 
 knighted, 220; builds New 
 Theatre, 220 
 
 Wyndham, R. H., manager of 
 Edinburgh Adelphi, 301 ; of 
 Queen's and Theatre Royal, 
 3°i. 3°2 
 
 Wyndham, Mrs. R. H., 301. 
 
 Wyndham's Theatre, 219-221, 
 272 
 
 Yardley, William, 233 
 Yarmouth, theatre at, 290 
 Yates, Mary Ann, 296 
 Yates, Richard, 74 
 Yeats, W. B., Where there is 
 Nothing, 225; writes for Irish 
 Literary Theatre, 317, 318 
 Yeomen of the Guard, The, 264, 
 
 266 
 Yiddish theatre, 252 
 Yohe, May, 269 
 York, theatre at, 289 
 . York Circuit, 289 
 You Never Can Tell, 225, 227 
 Young, Charles, 290 
 Young Mrs. Winthrop, 222 
 Younge, Elizabeth, 296 
 
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