In the month of October 1727, a lady, seated in the pit of Drury-lane Theatre, thought she perceived smoke issuing through the apertures of the stage, and, fancying she smelt it, declared her apprehensions aloud, and at the same time endeavoured to leave the Theatre. The audience were immediately excessively alarmed, and numbers rushing to the different doors impeded each other's progress; confusion prevailed for half an hour before her error was perceived, during which time a pregnant woman was pressed to death, and several persons severely injured. The Play was that of King Henry VIII. and the house very much crowded. The _new_ Theatre, as it was called in 1728, now the _little_ Theatre in the Haymarket, was opened in that year for the season with the Beggar's Opera: it was handsomely decorated, and the actors were described as very respectable. One of the follies of 1728 was the performance of the Beggar's Opera at the Theatre in Lincoln's inn-fields by _children_; and that the childish exhibition might be supported in all its branches, the Managers contrived to send a book of the songs across the Stage by a flying Cupid to Prince Frederick of Wales. The Village Opera was acted, in March 1729, at the Theatre Drury-lane. The absurd custom of placing seats upon the stage had been much condemned previous to that period; but the Managers ventured to introduce one for the Dutchess of Queensberry on the first representation of the piece; and thus incurring the resentment of the audience, they hissed incessantly till it was removed, and the wits wrote epigrams upon the subject: "Bent on dire work, and kindly rude, the Town Impatient hiss'd thy seat, dear Dutchess, down; Conscious that there had thy soft form appear'd, Lost all in gaze, no vacant ear had heard: Thy lambent eyes had look'd their rage away, And the relenting hiss, and sav'd the play. Thus not in clouds (as father Homer sung) Such as fair Venus round Æneas flung, Had our dull Bard escap'd the dreadful fright, But sunk conceal'd in an excess of light." Mr. Handel visited Italy in 1729, for the express purpose of collecting performers for the Opera-house in the Haymarket. Those persons are thus described in the Evening Post: "Signior Bernachi, who is esteemed the best singer in Italy; Signiora Merighi, a woman of a very fine presence, an excellent actress, and a very good singer--a contre-tenor; Signiora Strada, who hath a very fine treble voice, a person of singular merit; Signior Annibal Pio Fabri, a most excellent tenor and a fine voice; his wife, _who performs a man's part exceeding well_; Signiora Bartoldi, who has a very fine treble voice--she is also a very genteel actress both in men and women's parts."