"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 3 of 3)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 3 of 3)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Actors -- Great Britain; Theater -- Great Britain -- History
The house re-opened on the 4th of October, with the "Beggar's Opera,"
and "Is he a Prince?" The war was resumed with increase of bitterness
in feeling, and of fury in action. Jewish pugilists, under the
conduct of Dutch Sam, were hired to awe and attack the dissentients.
The boxer, Mendoza, distributed orders, by dozens, to people who
would support the pugilists. The speech-makers were dragged away in
custody, and Bow Street magistrates sat, during the performances,
ready to commit them to prison-companionship with the worst class of
thieves; and they lent Bow Street runners to the managers, and these
runners, armed with bludgeons, charged and overwhelmed the dauntless
rioters in the pit. Dauntless, I say; for, on a succeeding night,
they fell upon the Jews in great number, and celebrated their triumph
in a bloody fray, by hoisting a placard with the words, "And it came
to pass that John Bull smote the Israelites sore!"
The incidents present themselves in such crowds, that it is hardly
possible to marshal them. Among them I hear the audience called a
"mob," from the stage; and I see Lord Yarmouth and Berkley Craven
fighting in the pit, on the part of the managers; and there are
"middies" and "gallant tars," or people so attired, addressing the
house, in nautical and nonsensical, and rather blackguard style, from
upper boxes and galleries; and Brandon is rushing in to point out
rioters, and rushing out to escape them; and gentlemen, with "O. P.,"
in gold, on their waistcoats, laugh at him; and there is up above an
encounter between two boxes, the beaten party in which slide down the
pillars to the tier below; and, suddenly, there is a roar of laughter
at an accident on the stage. Charles Kemble, in Richmond, has
stumbled in the fight, with Mr. Cooke as Richard, and fallen on his
nose, and the house is as delighted as if he had been their personal
enemy!
Then the ear is gratefully sensible of a sudden _hush!_ and the
voices of the actors, for once, are heard; but it is not to listen to
them the house is silent. A gentleman in the boxes has begun playing
"_Colleen_" on the flute; the piece goes on the while, but it is only
the instrumentalist who is listened to and cheered. Then, there is an
especially noisy night, when rows of standing pittites are impelled
one row over the other, in dire confusion. Anon, we have a night
or two of empty houses; the rioters seem weary, and the managers'
friends do not care to attend to see a Jubilee procession in honour
of George III., in which the cars of the individualised four
quarters of the globe are drawn by scene-shifters and lamplighters,
in their own clothes!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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