Sometimes there was a theatrical performance in one or other of the
capitals of the various islands. Companies from England or France paid
the principal cities a visit, and occasionally amateurs undertook to
assist the professionals, or to supplement their efforts. The French
theatre at St George's, Grenada, had a great reputation throughout the
islands. It was opened about six times in the year, sometimes by an
English and sometimes by a French troupe. We read in the _Grenada
Gazette_ that "on Saturday, 31st August 1792, 'Douglas' was performed,
Lady Randolph by a lady--her first appearance on any stage--and old
Norval by a gentleman." "No admittance," the announcement goes on to
say, "on any account behind the scenes. The gentility is invited to send
their negroes early (to retain seats), who are to sit in their places
till five minutes before the curtain rises, when they are to give up
their places to the proper owners." The managers also remind the
audience to "bring their own candles." The negroes filled the galleries,
and were renowned for their judicious criticism, the warmth of their
applause, and the vehemence of their disapproval. Ladies of great
quality were accommodated with seats on the stage. We note that on one
occasion, in 1798, the French company gives "Nina Folle par Amour." This
must be either Copolla's or Paesiello's opera, composed about that time.
Cock-fighting, we learn from the same journal, was a fashionable sport
of the gentry. "On Saturday, the 31st September 1792, at 10 o'clock, a
match of twenty cocks will be fought by ten gentlemen. _N.B._--A genteel
dinner will be provided." In the same day's issue is announced the
appearance in England of "a new sect, called the Anti-Chartists," whom
it describes as "another branch of those iniquitous wretches who are
opposed to the slave-trade."
Jamaica, then said to be the "wickedest place on earth," is mentioned
with great detail in _The British Empire in America, or the History of
the Discovery, etc., of the British Colonies_ (published in London,
_1708_). The island probably deserved its name, for, in point of fact,
the inhabitants mainly gained their livelihood at that period by trading
with pirates, an enormous number of whom infested the neighbouring seas,
making raids upon the Spanish islands, and carrying off immense treasure
to Jamaica, where it was spent in debauchery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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