Considering the critical condition of the country, in 1715 and 1716, the drama was remarkably backward in outspokenness to support the new order of things, as well as in suggestiveness through plays or portions of their dialogue to allude, with friendly intention, to the Jacobite side. Royal commands were so frequent that actors may have recognized patrons in the king and his family, and have honoured them accordingly. As in Charles I.’s time, they were independent as individuals, taking sides in agreement with their opinions. One poor, obscure player, named Carnaby, was arrested on a charge of seditious action for the benefit of the ‘Pretender.’ We lose sight of him under the parting kick of the Whig papers, that he was a wretch of an actor who unluckily died in Newgate before he could be taken to Tyburn! On the other hand, when the prospects of the kingdom were at least gloomily uncertain, there was a class of individuals who lost no opportunity of being gay. Twice, within three weeks, the performances at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, were ‘by desire of several Ladies of Quality.’ On one occasion, the ladies ordered the highly spiced ‘Recruiting Officer;’ on the second occasion, that comedy of still higher gusto, ‘The Old Bachelor.’ When most men were, or should have been, bracing themselves to share in, or to meet, the serious issues that as yet were hidden from them, we find among the entertainments at Mrs. Thurmond’s benefit――‘A Scaramouch dance by a Gentleman, for his diversion.’ [Sidenote: _LOYAL PLAYERS._] It was when the struggle was over that the Stage began to ridicule the losing side, and Mrs. Oldfield, at Drury Lane, on her benefit night, spoke a new epilogue to the ‘Man of Mode’ in which the cause of liberty was recommended to the beauties of Great Britain. It was not till August, 1716, that in honour of the accession of the House of Hanover, Doggett, the Drury Lane comedian, gave ‘an Orange-coloured Livery with a Badge representing Liberty, to be rowed for by Six Watermen that are out of their time within the year past――they are to row from London Bridge to Chelsea――it will be continued annually on the same day for ever.’ This incident gave rise to the still popular operetta of ‘The Waterman;’ and, with some modifications, the match is still rowed on the annual first of August. Christmas cheer gave many Jacobites a courage to which they would not have given expression at another time, considering how death, fines, transportation, imprisonment or whipping had been inflicted on outspoken and more active Jacobites during the year. One John Humphreys, a lawyer’s clerk, displayed no ordinary audacity in Mr. Read’s Mug-house, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, by proposing the health of James III. For such a Christmas toast, however, he was carried before a magistrate, who sent him to Newgate, to answer for his boldness――the last Jacobite victim of the year. [Sidenote: _AN ANTI-JACOBITE PAMPHLET._]