[3] _Notitia Dramatica_, MSS. Dept. British Museum, speaks of _Pasquin_ as performed for the fortieth time on April 21, 1736: and quotes an advertisement of the play for March 5. There seems to be no record of the actual first night. [4] Rich appears to have been the manager at Covent Garden from 1733 to 1761. [5] _Autobiography of Mrs Delany._ 1861. Vol I. p. 554. [6] See Fielding's ironic reference to such "iniquitous surmises" in the Dedication to the _Historical Register_. [7] The earliest newspaper reference, so far available, is that of the _Daily Journal_ for April 6 1737, which speaks of April 11 as the ninth day of the _Register_. [8] In the succeeding Epilogue of _Eurydice Hiss'd_ it must be admitted that Sir Robert's love of the bottle is broadly satirised. [9] _Daily Advertiser_, April 29. 1737. [10] _Life of Garrick_, T. Davies, vol. ii. p. 206. CHAPTER V HOMESPUN DRAMA "Virtue distrest in humble state support." Prologue to _Fatal Curiosity_. The Licensing Act of June 1737 thus brought Henry Fielding's career as political dramatist to a hasty conclusion; a conclusion quite unforeseen by the luckless author, as appears from his _Dedication_ to the _Historical Register_, published almost at the moment when the Act became law: "The very great indulgence you have shown my performances at the little theatre these two last years," he says, addressing his public, "have encouraged me to the proposal of a subscription for carrying on that theatre, for beautifying and enlarging it, and procuring a better company of actors." Before finally losing sight of the stage on which _Pasquin_ and the _Register_ had scored such signal success, we may notice some minor incidents of these two years of Fielding's administration. His company does not seem to have included either Macklin, Quin, or Kitty Clive; but that distinguished actress Mrs Pritchard, the central figure of Hogarth's charming group called "The Green Room, Drury Lane," is said to have made her first appearance on his boards, [1] and his players also included that man of many parts Tom Davies. Davies was a student of Edinburgh University; an actor at Drury Lane and elsewhere; a bookseller of whom the elder D'Israeli said 'all his publications were of the best kind'; the writer of various works including a _Life of Garrick_; and a particular friend of Dr Johnson. In the first year of Fielding's management in the Haymarket, Davies was cast for a principal part in George Lillo's tragedy _Fatal Curiosity_; and it is to his pen that we owe the only known contemporary reference to the active part taken by Fielding himself in the affairs of his theatre.