The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 3, March 1810
History
The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 3, March 1810
Drama -- Periodicals; Theater -- Periodicals
On Monday the 19th inst. a large audience assembled at the theatre
with the expectation of seeing the Foundling of the Forest performed
for the benefit of Mr. Cone. Unfortunately, Mr. Wood, whose
performance of De Valmont constitutes the principal attraction in
the representation of that play, was suddenly seized with an
indisposition so very severe as to demand medical assistance, and
confine him to his room. It was then too late to issue new bills or
advertisements, and nothing was left to Mr. Cone but to throw
himself on the good nature of his audience, and to request their
acceptance of another play: with some opposition on the part of a
discontented few, “the Way to get Married” was accepted as a
substitute for that which was promised.
Influenced by a laudable zeal for the discharge of his duty, Mr.
Wood, though still very feeble, ventured to promise himself to the
public for the character of De Valmont on Friday. As soon as his
name appeared in the bills, a report was circulated through the city
that he was to be assaulted: that is to say that he had so highly
offended that _high and mighty body of gentlemen_ apprentices and
else who swagger in good broadcloth clothes and brass buttons in the
theatre, by not leaving his bed of sickness for the amusement of
their high mightinesses, that they had resolved to hiss and drive
him off the stage. Those who were most prompt to condemn the
insolence and indecency of the band alluded to, thought that such a
design would be an outrage too unjust, too stupid even for such
persons as their high mightinesses; and, therefore, refused to give
it credit. In this, however, they very much underrated the _modesty_
and _good nature_ of their “high mightinesses,” since half the
barbers in the city were amused with the threats uttered by those
doughty champions of what they would do to Mr. Wood. The consequence
was that that gentleman felt it necessary to humiliate himself with
an apology, in order to escape the wrath of a set of obscure chaps,
not one of whom perhaps could reasonably aspire to sit in his
company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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