Theophilus Cibber's entertainment was quite successful on the London stage, having a good run at the patent theaters and the fairs in 1733 and for a while thereafter.[12] Furthermore, it is related to an important event in Drury Lane history. Cibber seceded with a group of actors in May of 1733 from that theater because of management disputes. After playing at the fairs, the protesting actors performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket until the spring of 1734 when they returned to Drury Lane. In a letter to patentee John Highmore, Cibber wrote of the _Harlot's Progress_: "This entertainment (for which I am indebted to Mr. Hogarth's designs) the Town were pleased to approve of and encourage." But, he adds, it might have been performed "three months sooner than it was, but for the Obstructions I met with from my Partners."[13] This theatrical quarrel created much public discussion in the first decade of the century (_LS_, 3, 1, "Introduction," _passim_). Hogarth included in his print "Southwark Fair" (which came out after August 1733) a showcloth of John Laguerre's engraving "The Stage Mutiny," a print that in turn had been inspired by the actors' secession. Hogarth's additions to the Laguerre print demonstrate his close touch with these events (_HGW_, I, 156-7).[14] _The Harlot's Progress_ provides us with a good example of the genre "Grotesque Pantomime," and throws much light on the London stage entertainment stream of an evening that included Hogarth, harlequin, Venus and Paris, as well as dancing and singing. Hogarth's eight prints of "A Rake's Progress" of 1735[15] provided the subject--the rise and fall of a libertine--for a morality ballad opera more than forty years later. The 15-scene stage piece, entitled _The Rake's Progress_, elaborates visually and musically the formula: follow virtue and avoid vice. The author clearly counted on audience familiarity with the graphic scenes many years after their appearance, and on an increased receptivity to explicit moralizing. This manuscript was submitted by the unknown playwright to Drury Lane sometime between September 1778 and June 1780. The possible date is most clearly focused in the Sheridans' joint management. Richard assumed the management in 1776 and held it to at least 1809, but his father Thomas managed it with his son only for the seasons 1778-1779 and 1779-1780.[16] I think it is therefore possible to suggest a date for the manuscript between September 1778 when Thomas Sheridan came to Drury Lane, and the end of the 1779-1780 theatrical season, when he left at the age of 61.[17] The piece was not performed. Like the Cibber work, the text consists of stage directions and songs. Allusions to Hogarth appear in title, characters, plot, and specific scenes. Moreover, a "transparency" introduces the artist in a literal stage portrait. This device praises Hogarth and reminds the audience of the graphic correspondences in dramatic form to come.