'This was a very lusty Fellow, but withal a sort of Beau, who getting into one of the Side boxes on the Stage before the Curtain drew, was disposed to shew the whole Audience his Activity by leaping over the Spikes; he pass'd from thence to one of the Entering Doors, where he took Snuff with a tolerable good Grace, display'd his fine Cloaths, made two or three feint Passes at the Curtain with his Cane, then faced about and appear'd at t'other Door: Here he affected to survey the whole House, bow'd and smil'd at random, and then shew'd his Teeth, which were some of them indeed very white After this he retired behind the Curtain, and obliged us with several Views of his Person from every Opening.' And, again, take this short sketch: 'And our rakely young Fellows live as much by their Wits as ever; and to avoid the clinking Dun of a Boxkeeper, at the End of one Act, they sneak to the opposite Side 'till the End of another; then call the Boxkeeper saucy Rascal, ridicule the Poet, laugh at the Actors, march to the Opera, and spunge away the rest of the Evening. The Women of the Town take their Places in the Pit with their wonted Assurance. The middle Gallery is fill'd with the middle Part of the City : and your high exalted Galleries are grac'd with handsome Footmen, that wear their Master's Linen.'1 Such then was the appearance in front of the stage; and, to thoroughly realise the scene, we must remember, en passant, that necessary individual the Candle Snuffer,' and those bold young women, whose class Nell Gwynne made famous, the 'Orange Wenches.' Four or five hours in such theatres were almost insupportable without some slight refreshment, and this was supplied by these girls, who continually circulated throughout the audience. Their class is sufficiently alluded to in a passage in the Spectator, No. 141: A Poet sacrifices the best Part of his Audience to the Worst; and as one would think neglects the Boxes, to write to the Orange Wenches.' They seem to have fulfilled other duties besides supplying refreshment :— Now turn, and see where loaden with her Freight, Humours of the Army, Chas. Shadwell, 1713. See! how her Charge hangs dangling by the Rim, Bad weather occasionally militated against the poor players. 'Her Majesty's Servants at the Theatre Royal (the weather being chang'd) intend to act on Wednesdays. and Fridays till Bartholomew Fair.'2 This and bad trade made them look out for novelties, such as acting a play the characters in which were sustained entirely by women, or having amateurs on the stage. At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, to morrow being Friday the 7th of July, will be reviv'd a Play call'd, The Orphan, or, the Unhappy Marriage.3 All the Men's parts to be perform'd by young Gentlemen for their Diversion.' Or they would try the effect of a New 'a Prologue by a Child of 4 years of Age,' or 'a New Epilogue by Mrs. Pack in a Riding Habit, upon a Pad-Nagg representing a Town Miss Travelling to Tunbridge.' 4 The properties of a theatre have always been a fair whetstone for men to sharpen their humour on, and the writers of the time of Queen Anne were not behindhand in this respect. When Drury Lane was closed by order, in 1709, the Tatler (No. 42) made very merry over the miscellaneous effects : 'Three Bottles and a half of lightning. One Shower of Snow in the whitest French Paper. 'Two Showers of a browner sort. 'A Sea, consisting of a dozen large waves; the tenth bigger than ordinary, and a little damaged. A dozen and a half of Clouds, trimmed with black, and well conditioned. 'A Mustard bowl to make Thunder with. The Complexion of a Murderer in a Bandbox; consist 1 The Stage, N. Rowe. By Thos. Otway. 2 Daily Courant, July 26, 1704. ing of a large piece of burnt Cork, and a Coal black Peruke,' etc. At the death of Peer, the property man at this theatre, the Guardian extracted much fun from a catalogue of articles under his care. Rowe goes into poetry on the same subject-thus: Hung on the selfsame Peg, in Union rest Young Tarquin's Trowsers, and Lucretia's Vest, Close by Statira's Petticoat her Stays Near these sets up a Dragon drawn Calash, There a Ghost's Doublet delicately slash'd, Bleeds from the mangled Breast, and gapes a frightful Gash. And seem to gutter from the streaming Wound. In one Effulgence, one promiscuous shine. The actors of this reign, with a few exceptions, were not people of much genius. After these few, some were respectable, the rest bad; but, although the play was the proper place of amusement to go to, and there were seldom more than two theatres open at once, yet we find it comparatively languishing, the companies frequently playing only twice a week, or the theatre closed altogether. Doubtless the tragedy was stilted, and the comedy was akin to buffoonery. As witness to the latter let Addison' testify: 'It would be an Endless Task to consider Comedy in the same Light, and to mention the innumerable Shifts that small Wits put in practice to raise a Laugh. Bullock in a short Coat, and Norris in a long one, seldom fail of this Effect. In ordinary Comedies, a broad and a narrow Brim'd Hat are different Spectator, No. 44. characters. Sometimes the Wit of the Scene lies in a Shoulder belt, and sometimes in a Pair of whiskers.' The Phoenix of the Stage,' as Anthony, or Tony, Aston calls Betterton, stands pre-eminent among the actors. Born in 1635, he was an old man when Queen Anne came to the throne; and he died on April 28, 1710, from the effects of gout, which he aggravated by acting when the fit was on. His last performance was on April 13, 1710, and it is thus described in the Daily Courant of that date: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. For the Benefit of Mr. Betterton. At the Queen's Theatre in the Hay market this present Thursday being the 13th April will be Reviv'd, The Maid's Tragedy.' The part of Melantius by Mr. Betterton, Amintor by Mr. Wilks, Calianax by Mr. Pinkethman, Evadne by Mrs. Barry, and all the other parts to the best Advantage. To which will be added Three Designs, Representing the Three Principal Actions of the Play, in Imitation of so many great Pieces of History Painting, where all the real Persons concern'd in those Actions will be Plac'd at proper distances, in different Postures peculiar to the Passion of each Character.' Totally unfit, from illness, to act, he had resort to violent remedies to enable him to go through his part, which he did, with his gouty foot in a slipper, but the exertion killed him. A great favourite of Charles II., that king not only sent him to Paris, to see and report on the French theatres, but appointed him to teach the nobility for court theatricals, whilst his wife tutored the future queens Mary and Annein fact, the latter settled a pension of 100l. per annum upon her, after her husband's death. Pepys describes him as the best actor in the world,' and so he undoubtedly was-in his age. Aston describes him thus: 'He had little Eyes, and a broad Face, a little Pock fretten, a Corpulent Body, and thick Legs, with large Feet. . . . His Voice was low and grumbling; yet he could Tune it by an artful Climax, which enforc'd universal Attention, even from the Fops and Orange Girls. He was incapable of dancing even in a Country Dance.' 1 By Beaumont and Fletcher. VOL. II. с 2 Supplement to Cibber. Room must be found for one little anecdote which Aston tells of him. Mr. Betterton had a small Farm near Reading, in the County of Berks; and a Countryman came, in the Time of Bartholomew Fair, to pay his Rent. Mr. Betterton took him to the Fair, and going to one Crawley's Puppet Shew, offer'd Two Shillings for himself and Roger, his Tenant.-No, no, Sir, said Crawley; we never take Money of one Another. This affronted Mr. Betterton, who threw down the Money, and they entered.' Among the actors of the time he was looked up to as a king. Downes1 says: 'I must not Omit Praises due to Mr. Betterton. The first and now only remains of the old Stock, of the Company of Sir William Davenant in Lincolns Inn Fields; he like an old Stately Spreading Oak now stands Fixt, Environ'd round with brave Young Growing Flourishing Plants. . . . Mr. Dryden a little before his Death in a Prologue, rendring him this Praise : He like the Setting Sun, still shows a Glimmery Ray Like Antient ROME Majestick in decay.' He was buried in Westminster Abbey on May 2, 1710, and Steele wrote a long panegyric upon him, saying he 'ought to be recorded with the same respect as Roscius among the Romans.' He died, not in want, but in comparatively poor circumstances, and he must have been a man of some culture, as the following advertisement, soon after his death, shows: This Day will be Continued the Sale by Auction of the Prints, and Books of Prints and Drawings, of Mr. Tho Betterton deceased, &c.' Verbruggen, although he died in 1708, played in Queen Anne's reign. But little is known of him, except that he was a tragedian, and was the original Oronooko. A contemporary character of him is 'A fellow with a crackt voice, he clangs his words, as if he spoke out of a broken drum.'4 Downes says, 'his Person being tall, well built and clean, only he was a little In Kneed, which gave him a shambling Gate;' 1 Roscius Anglicanus, 1708. • Harl. MSS. 5996, 100. 2 Tatler, 167. ▲ Comparison between the two Stages. |