This play-house was originally intended for use during the summer, and in consequence of there being a more important theatre then in existence (on the site of His Majesty’s), it was known as “The Little Theatre in the Haymarket.” Built at the not extravagant cost of £1,500, by one John Potter, it was opened on December 29th, 1721, by a French Company, who styled themselves “The Duke of Montagu’s French Comedians.” Their initial piece does not seem to have been a success; and later “The Female Fop” (which Sandford says he wrote in a few weeks, when but fifteen years of age), died a natural death after only a few nights’ performance, although it served its purpose in helping to inaugurate the new venture. Some years later--to be precise, in 1735--the play-house was taken by a company bearing the strange title of “The Great Mogul’s Company,” and here Fielding’s “Pasquin” and “Historical Register” were given. These plays never pretended to be anything but satires, and it is interesting to know that their performance occasioned the passing of “The Licensing Act,” which first gave the Lord Chamberlain that power of veto over plays, the exercise of which has been the cause of so much heart-burning ever since; and which, at the time, was the cause of many amusing attempts at evasion, particularly by Theophilus Cibber, one of the earlier managers, and Foote, whose invitation to the public “to drink a dish of chocolate with him” could hardly have misled even the most unsophisticated of country cousins. For three years from 1744, Macklin managed the theatre, and was then succeeded by Foote, who continued to run the house, off and on, for no less than thirty successful years. With his “Devil on Two Sticks” he is said to have cleared between three and four thousand pounds, of which, by the bye, little or nothing was left at the end of the year. Foote, indeed, had a remarkable aptitude for squandering money, and the motto which he had placed in his carriage: “Iterum, iterum, iterumque,” had a new significance given it by his perpetually renewed attempts to replace the money that had taken unto itself wings! In 1766, a patent was passed for the establishment of a new theatre here, for Foote; and in the following year it was made a “Royal Theatre.” Just ten years later Foote sold his interest in the house to the elder Colman, on the apparently splendid terms of an annuity of £1,600, and permission to play as often and when he liked to the extent of a further £400 a year. But although one can understand Dr. Johnson’s wonder as to what Colman was going to make out of it, the arrangement turned out well for him, as Foote died within a year, and played only three times.