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benefit on the production of a new play; and this too, it VOL. I. feems, he was fometimes forced to mortgage, before the piece PROLECOwas acted %.

Southerne was the firft dramatick writer who obtained the emoluments arifing from two reprefentations; and to Farquhar, in the year 1700, the benefit of a third was granted 1. To the honour of Mr. Addifon, it fhould be remembered, that he first difcontinued the ancient, but humiliating, practice of diftributing tickets, and foliciting company to attend at the theatre, on the poet's nights *.

When an author fold his piece to the fharers or proprietors of a theatre, it remained for feveral years unpublished; but, when that was not the cafe, he printed it for fale, to which many feem to have been induced, from an apprehenfion that an imperfect copy might be iffued from the prefs without their confent. The cuftomary price of the copy of a play, in the time of Shakspeare, appears to have been twenty nobles,

NOTES.

S "But which amongst you is there to be found,
"Will take his third day's pawn for fifty pound?"

Epilogue to Caius Marius, 1680.

"I must make my boaft, though with the moft acknowledging refpect, of the favours of the fair fex-in fo vifibly promoting my intereft on thofe days chiefly, (the third and the fixth) when I had the tendereft relation to the welfare of my play."

Southerne's Dedication of Sir Antony Love, a comedy, 1691.
Hence Pope :

"May Tom, whom heaven fent down to raise

"The price of prologues and of plays, &c."

On the reprefentation of The Confiant Couple, which was performed fifty-three times in the year 1700. Farquhar, on account of the extraordinary fuccefs of that play, is faid by one of his biographers, to have been allowed by the managers, the profits of four reprefentations.

*Southerne, by this practice, is faid to have gained feven hundred pounds by one play.

"One only thing affects me; to think, that scenes invented merely to be spoken, fhould be inforcively published to be read, and that the leaft hurt I can receive, is, to do myself the wrong. But fince others otherwife would do me more, the leaft inconvenience is to be accepted. I have therefore myfelf fet forth this comedie." Marfton's pref. to the Malecontent, 1604.

MENA.

N

or

VOL. I. or fix pounds thirteen fhillings and four-pence". The play PROLEGO- when printed was fold for fixpence"; and the ufual prefent

MENA.

NOTES.

See The Defence of Coneycatching, 1592: "Mafter R. G. [Robert Greene] would it not make you blufhif you fold not Orlando Furiofo to the queen's players for twenty nobles, and when they were in the country, fold the fame play to lord Admiral's men, for as much more? Was not this plain coneycatching, M. G.?"

Oldys, in one of his manufcripts, fays, that Shakspeare received but five pounds for his Hamlet; whether from the players who first acted it, or the printer or bookfeller who first published it, is not diftinguished. It has been obferved, that Hamlet is more accurately printed than any other of the quarto editions of our author's plays.

In the time of Dryden, it should feem, an author did not ufually receive more from his bookfeller for a dramatick performance than 20 . or 25. for, in a letter to his fon, he mentions, that the whole emoluments which he expected from a new play that he was about to produce, would not exceed one hundred pounds. The profits of the third night were probably feventy pounds; the dedication produced either five or ten guineas, according to the munificence of the patron; and the rest arose from the fale of the copy. In 1715, Sir Richard Steele fold Mr. Addifon's comedy, called The Drummer, to J. Tonfon for fifty pounds: and in 1721, Dr. Young received the fame price for his tragedy of The Revenge. In the next year, Southerne, who seems to have understood author-craft better than any of his contemporaries, fold his Spartan Dame for the extraordinary fum of 120. and in 1726, Lintot the bookfeller paid the celebrated plagiary, James Moore Smyth, one hundred guineas for a comedy, entitled The Rival Modes. From that time, this appears to have been the cuftomary price for feveral years; but of late, one hundred and fifty pounds have been given for a new play.

See the preface to the quarto edition of Troilus and Creffida, 1609: "Had I time I would comment upon it, though it needs not, for fo much as will make you think your tefterne well beftowed, but for fo much worth as even poor I know to be stuft in it."

See alfo the preface to Randolph's Jealous Lovers, a comedy, 1632: "Courteous reader, I beg thy pardon, if I put thee to the expence of a fixpence, and the lofs of hair an hour."

from

from a patron, in return for a dedication, was forty fhil- VOL. I. lings. PROLEGO

On the first day of exhibiting a new play, the prices MENA. of admission appear to have been raised P; and this feems to have been occafionally practifed on the benefit-nights of authors, to the end of the last century 9.

Dramatick poets in thofe times, as at prefent, were admitted gratis into the theatre'.

NOTES.

• "I did determine not to have dedicated my play to any body, because forty billings I care not for; and above, few or none will bestow on these matters." Dedication to A Woman's a Weathercock, a comedy, by N. Field, 1612.

See alfo the Author's Epifile popular, prefixed to Cynthia's Revenge, 1613: "Thus do our pie-bald naturalifts depend upon poor wages, gape after the drunken harvest of forty fillings, and fhame the worthy benefactors of Helicon."

After the Revolution, five, and fometimes ten, guineas, seem to have been the customary present on these occafions.

This may be collected from the following verfes by J. Mayne, to the memory of Ben Jonfon:

"He that writes well, writes quick, fince the rule's true,
"Nothing is flowly done, that's always new ;

"So when thy Fox had ten times acted been,

"Each day was firft, but that 'twas cheaper feen."

Downes the prompter, either fpeaks of, or alludes to, the cuftom of raifing the price of admiffion on an author's benefitnight.

See verfes by J. Stephens, to his worthy friend H. Fitz.
Jeoffery, on his Notes from Black-fryars, 1617:
-I muft

"Though it be a player's vice to be unjust
"To verse not yielding coyne, let players know,
"They cannot recompence your labour, though
"They grace you with a chayre upon the stage,
"And take no money of you, nor your page,"

So, in The Play-boufe to be let, by Sir W. Davenant:
"Poet. Do you fet up for yourselves and profefs wit,
"Without help of your authors? Take heed, Sirs,
"You'll get few customers.

"Houfekeeper. Yes, we fhall have the poets.

"Poet. 'Tis because they pay nothing for their entrance."

The

VOL. I.

PROLEGO

MENA.

The custom of paffing a final cenfure on plays at their first exhibition, is as ancient as the time of our author; for no less than three plays of his rival, Ben Jonfon, appear to have been damned"; and Fletcher's Faithful Shep

t

NOTE S.

The cuftom of expreffing difapprobation of a play, and interrupting the drama, by the noife of catcals, or at least by imitating the tones of a cat, is probably as ancient as Shakspeare's time; for Decker in his Gul's Horn-book, counfels the gallant, if he wishes to difgrace the poet, "to whew at the childrens' action, to whistle at the fongs, and me at the paffionate fpeeches."-See alfo the induction to The Ile of Gulls, a comedy, 1608: "Either fee it all or none; for 'tis grown into a custom at plays, if any one rife, (efpecially of any fashionable fort) about what ferious bufinefs foever, the rest thinking it in diflike of the play (though he never thinks ir) cry-mew-by Jefus vile' and leave the poor heartlefs children to speak their epilogue to the empty feats."

Sejanus, Catiline, and The New Inn. Of the two former Jonfon's Ghost is thus made to speak in an epilogue to Every Man in his Humour, written by Lord Buckhurst, about the middle of

the last century:

"Hold and give way, for I myself will speak:
"Can you encourage fo much infolence,
"And add new faults ftill to the great offence
"Your ancestors fo rafhly did comunit

Against the mighty powers of art and wit,
"When they condemn'd thofe noble works of mine,
"Sejanus, and my best-lov'd Catiline?"

The title-page of The New Inn, is a fufficient proof of its condemnation. Another piece of this writer does not feem to have met a very favourable reception; for, Mr. Drummond of Hawthornden (Jonfon's friend) informs us, that "when the play of The Silent Woman was first acted, there were found verfes, after, on the ftage, against him, [the author] concluding, that the play was well named, The Silent Woman, because there was never one man to say plaudite to it." Drummond's Works, fol. p. 226.

"The term, as well as the practice, is ancient.-See the epilogue to The Unfortunate Lovers, by Sir W. Davenant, 1643: -Our poet

66

66

will never wish to fee us thrive,

"If by an humble epilogue we strive

"To court from you that privilege to-day,

"Which you fo long have had, to damn a play."

herdefs,

berdefs, and The Knight of the Burning Peftle, written by Vol. I. him and Beaumont, underwent the fame fate.

PROLEGO

It is not easy to ascertain what were the emoluments of a MENA. fuccefsful actor in the time of Shakspeare. They had not then annual benefits, as at prefent 2. The performers at each theatre feem to have fhared the profits arifing either from each day's exhibition, or from the whole feafon, among them2. I think it is not unlikely, that the clear emoluments of the theatre, after deducting whatever was appropriated to the proprietors of the house, were divided into one hundred parts, of which the actors had various fhares, according to their rank and merit. From Ben Jonfon's Poetafter,

NOTES.

we

*See ante p. 29 (Note ) Verses addreffed to Fletcher on his Faithful Shepherdess.

See the epiftle prefixed to the first edition of The Knight of the Burning Peftle, in 1613.

"Mrs. Barry was the firft person whose merit was diftinguished by the indulgence of having an annual benefit-play, which was granted to her alone, if I mistake not, first in king James's time; and which became not common to others, till the divifion of this company, after the death of king William's queen Mary." Apol. for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, p. 96.

See The Picture, a tragicomedy, by Maflinger, 1630: Coris. "How do you like the quality?

"You had a foolish itch to be an actor,

"And may now ftrole where you please.

Hil. "Will you buy my fbare?

From the following ftanza in a poem entitled, I would and I would not, by B. N. 1614, five Shares feem to have been thought a confiderable emolument for an actor to gain by his performance:

"I would I were a player, and could act

"As many parts as come upon the stage, "And in my braine could make a full compact "Of all that paffeth betwixt youth and age; "That I might have five fhares in every play, "And let them laugh that bear the bell away." The actors were treated with lefs refpect than at prefent, being fometimes interrupted during their performance, count of fuppofed perfonalities; for the fame author adds"And yet I would not; for then do I feare "If I fhould gall fome goofe-cap with my fpeech,

on ac

"That

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