Part 4

This allusion to his critics refers to Cibber and some others who, whilst admitting his great powers as a mimic, declared that he was but an indifferent actor, an opinion in which others who were equally competent to judge did not concur, and which on Cibber’s part was attributed to his desire to play leading parts, to which he could not succeed during Estcourt’s life. Estcourt may by his imitations of their acting or peculiarities have offended actors and others, who, however much they might enjoy such a representation of others, may have looked very differently upon a like representation of themselves, a good illustration of which is found in an anecdote of Estcourt and Sir Godfrey Kneller, the celebrated portrait painter of that period.

Secretary Craggs, when a young man, in company with some of his friends, went with Estcourt to Sir Godfrey Kneller’s, and whispered to him that a gentleman present was able to give such a representation of many among his most principal patrons as would occasion the greatest surprise. Estcourt accordingly, at the artist’s earnest desire, mimicked Lords Somers, Halifax, Godolphin, and others so exactly that Kneller was delighted and laughed heartily at the imitation. Craggs gave a signal as previously concerted, and Estcourt immediately imitated Kneller himself, who cried out in a transport of ungovernable conviction, “Nay, there you are out, man. By G----, that’s not me!”

In the colonial society, or “people of figure,” as they were then called in New York, where so much depended upon manners, well-arranged apparel and a flowing wig, a peruke maker was, at least in his own estimation, a person of consequence, as appears from the manner in which Mr. Heady is referred to in the paragraph that has been quoted, and also from an announcement that appeared in the “New York Weekly Post Boy” of March 5, 1750, about three weeks after the opening of the Nassau Street Theater by Kean & Murray’s company, as mentioned in my former paper, which announcement is as follows:

“This is to acquaint the public that there is lately arrived from London the _Wonder_ of the _World, an honest Barber and Peruke Maker_, who might have worked for the King if his Majesty would have employed him; it was not for the want of money that he came here, for he had enough of that at Home; nor for the want of Business that he advertises himself; but to acquaint the gentlemen and ladies that such a _Person is now in Town_ living near _Rosemary Lane_, where Gentlemen and Ladies may be supplied with Goods as follows, viz.: Tyes, Full Bottoms, Myers, Spencers, Fox-Tails, Ramilies, Tucks, Cut kinds of head coverings and adornments, and bob Perukes; also Ladies’ Talemalongues and Towers, after the Manner that is now wore at Court. By their humble and obedient Servant,

“JOHN STILL.”

The hibernicism that he did not put in the advertisement for the want of business, nor to make money, of which he had plenty, but merely to apprise the ladies and gentlemen that _such a person_ was then in town, was, if genuine, an exhibition of enormous self-importance, or it was what is more probable, a comic effort to attract attention to his calling by one who was something of an adept in that way, who may have been a member of the theatrical company that were then performing, and who followed the three pursuits of a barber, a peruke maker, and an actor.

It would appear that there was a second opening of a theater in New York seven years afterwards. All that I know respecting it is that there is a manuscript volume in the possession of Mr. William Nelson, of Paterson, New Jersey, handsomely engrossed with ornamental lettering, entitled:

POEMS

ON

SEVERAL OCCASIONS

BY

ARCHIBALD HOME, ESQ.,

Late Secretary and One of His Majesties Council for the province of New Jersey North America,

which was purchased by Mr. Nelson from a London dealer in 1890, and that one of these poems is entitled

PROLOGUE,

INTENDED FOR THE SECOND OPENING OF THE THEATRE AT NEW YORK, ANNO 1739,

which is as follows:

Encourag’d by th’ Indulgence you have shown, Again we strive to entertain the Town, This gen’rous Town which nurs’d our infant Stage And cast a Shelter o’er its tender Age, It’s young Attempts beyond their Merits prais’d Fond of the little Bantling she had rais’d Go on to cherish to a Stronger Size This Spur to Virtue, this keen Scourge to Vice! Ye Faultless Fair, lend all your influence here! O Patronize the Child, you cannot Fear.

Oft when the Serious Admonition Fails O’er the lov’d Fault the Comick Mask prevails; Safe From the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, Vice blushing yields to ridicule alone. This ancient Greece this the Great Romans knew, They held th’ instructive Mirrour Fair to view; That each his own Deformities might trace And smooth his features by the Faithful Glass.

When Arts and Sciences began to Smile, And shed their Lustre on our Parent Isle, Attendant on their Steps the Drama came, Like theirs th’ Improvement of Mankind her Aim; Intent on this with them she journeys West, To our New World, a wish’d, a welcome Guest; Here pleas’d she sees her Stage erect its head, Her Children honour’d, & her Servants Fed; Prophetick views in you her second Rome And swells her Breast with Empire yet to come.[18]

The researches of the writer of an article in “The New-York Times” of December the 15th, 1895, has brought to light some information hitherto unknown of these early American theaters. He has examined the newspaper files of the Library Society in Charleston, South Carolina, from 1732, and finds, on the 24th of January, 1735, that a play was acted in Charles Town, as the name was then written, and he gives this advertisement of it in the “South Carolina Gazette,” dated, as was then customary, from Jan. 18, 1734-35:

On Friday, the 24th inst., in the Court Room, will be attempted a tragedy called “The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage.”

Tickets will be delivered out on Tuesday next, at Mr. Shepheard’s, at 40s. each.

Forty shillings would seem to be a high price at that time to pay for a ticket to a dramatic entertainment. But what the value of a shilling was then in South Carolina compared to the value of a pound sterling, I do not know. The price of a box ticket at Kean & Murray’s theater in Nassau street fifteen years afterwards was five shillings New York currency, which was about the value of two dollars at the present day, and if the value of the South Carolina currency at that day was anything near that of New York, this high price for admission would imply either that the Court House where the performance of Otway’s Orphan took place did not afford room for many spectators or that the number of persons who were expected to patronize the entertainment was small, so that a high price of admission was necessary to meet the expenses and afford some remuneration to the players, who, I infer, were a regular theatrical company, as a charge was made for admission, and the performances were continued once a week, from the 24th of January to March 23, 1735-36, during which tragedies, comedies, farces, and other entertainments were given.

The writer in the “Times” says that the play announced in the advertisement, Otway’s “Orphan,” was performed, though the next “Gazette” took no notice of it, the “local” being of the briefest character; but the number of the “Gazette” of February, 1736, published the Prologue spoken on the opening night, which has at least the merit of easy versification and of being appropriate to such an occasion: He gives it as follows:

PROLOGUE.

When first Columbus touch’d this distant shore, And vainly hoped his Fears and Dangers o’er, One boundless Wilderness in view appear’d No Champain Plains or rising Cities cheer’d His wearied Eye. Monsters unknown travers’d the hideous Waste, And men more savage than the Beasts they chased. But mark! How soon these gloomy Prospects clear, And the new World’s late Horrors disappear. The Soil obedient to the industrious swains, What happy Harvests crown their honest Pains, And Peace and Plenty triumph o’er the Plains. What various products float on every Tide? What numerous Navies in our Harbors ride? Tillage and Trade conjoin their friendly Aid, T’ enrich, the thriving Boy and lovely Maid, Hispania, ’tis true, her precious mines engross’d, And bore her shining Entrails to its Coast. Britannia more humane supplies her wants, The British sense and British beauty plants. The aged Sire beholds with sweet surprise In foreign climes a numerous offspring rise, Sense, Virtue, Worth, and Honour stand confest In each brave male, his prosperous hands have blessed, While the admiring Eye improved may trace, The Mother’s Charms in each chaste Virgin’s Face. Hence we presume to usher in those Arts Which oft have warm’d the best and bravest Hearts. Faint our Endeavours, wide are our Essays, We strive to please, but can’t pretend to Praise; Forgiving Smiles o’er pay the grateful task, Those all we hope and all we humbly ask.

The further information that this interesting article contains it will be more satisfactory to give in the author’s own words:

“The Orphan” was repeated January 28, and again February 4, with the addition of “a new Pantomime Entertainment in Grotesque Characters, called, ‘The Adventures of Harlequin and Scaramouch, with the Burgo-Master Trick’d.’”

After this run of three nights it was necessary to change the programme, and so the “Gazette” for February 18, 1734-35, announces “‘The Opera of Flora; or, Hob in the Well,’ with the Dance of the two Pierrots and a new Pantomime Entertainment, etc., to begin at 6 o’clock precisely.”

On Tuesday, March 25, they played the comedy called “The Spanish Fryar; or, The Double Discovery,” and on Thursday of the same week the play was repeated “for the benefit of Monimia.” Who was Monimia?

This benefit seems to have closed the season, but the people must have been pleased, for on May 3 the following advertisement appears:

Any gentlemen that are disposed to encourage the exhibition of plays next Winter, may have the sight of the proposals for a subscription at Mr. Shepheard’s in Broad Street. And any persons that are desirous of having a share in the performance thereof, upon application to Mr. Shepheard shall receive a satisfactory answer. N. B.--The subscription will be closed the last day of this month.

There is not another word in “The Gazette” concerning theatrical affairs until January 24, 1735-36, when the proposals appear to have borne fruit, for it is announced that--

On Thursday, the 12th of February, will be opened the new theatre in Dock Street, in which will be performed the comedy called “The Recruiting Officer.”

Tickets for the pitt and boxes will be delivered at Mr. Charles Shepheard’s, on Thursday, the 5th of February. Boxes, 30s; pitt, 20s; and tickets for the gallery, 15s, which will be delivered at the theatre the day of playing.

N. B.--The doors will be opened all the afternoon. The subscribers are desired to send to the stage door in the forenoon to bespeak places, otherwise it will be too late.

Dunlap evidently had never heard of the “new theatre in Dock Street,” for he says that “in 1773 the first theater was built in Charleston, S. C., David Douglass having gained permission from the magistrates, and being invited by the inhabitants. In September he went thither and the company followed him. They played fifty-one nights in that city, closing the campaign in June, 1774. On October 24, 1774, the first Congress agreed to discountenance gaming, cock fighting, exhibition of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments.”

The Charles Town “Gazette” does not notice so important an event as the opening of the first theater in the South, and probably on this continent, in its news columns, but the advertisements announce that on February 23 Otway’s “Orphan” was played, and the next “Gazette” announces:

By desire of the officers of the Troop and Foot Companies, at the new theatre, Queen street, will be acted on Tuesday next, a comedy called the “Recruiting Officer,” with several entertainments as will be expressed in the great bills.

Tickets to be had at Mr. Charles Shepheard’s and at the theatre.

Charles Town was at that time a rapidly growing town, and plebeian “Dock” street, as shown by the advertisements, had been changed to “Queen” street, as it is still known.

Once a week seems to have been the rule for the plays, but the next piece, George Lillo’s famous “The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell,” was not put upon the boards until March 9. Seven days later it was repeated “for the last time,” with the addition of a farce, “The Devil to Pay, or the Wives Metamorphosed.” This was Coffey’s celebrated work, whose “female character Nell * * * made the fortunes of several actresses.”

The season seems to have closed with the perennial “Orphan” and the above-named farce, which were played March 23, 1735-36. This is all that can be gleaned from the “Gazette” as to the plays and theater, but the new venture seems to have very soon come to grief. The “Gazette” for May 22-29 contains this epigram:

ON THE SALE OF THE THEATRE.

How cruel Fortune, and how fickle, too, To crop the Method made for making you! Changes tho’ common, yet when great they prove, Make men distrust the care of Mighty Jove; Half made in thought (though not in fact) we find You bought and sold, but left poor H. behind. P. S.--Since so it is ne’er mind the silly trick, The pair will please, when Pierrot makes you sick.

Who sold and who bought is a mystery, but the transaction did not change the theater to other uses, for the “Gazette” announces: “A ball at the play-house in Queen street on February 3 next. To begin at 6 o’clock.” In the paper for January 8-15, 1737, and in May of the same year: “At the request of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, at the theatre in Queen Street, on Thursday next, the 26th instant, will be performed a comedy, called ‘The Recruiting Officer,’ with a prologue, epilogue and song suitable to the occasion, to which will be added a new dance called ‘Harlequin,’ and the clown and the song, ‘Mad Tom’ in proper habiliments, by a person that has never yet appeared upon the stage.”

This performance seems to have been a great success, for the next “Gazette” accords it this most extended notice:

CHARLESTOWN, May 28.

On Thursday night last “The Recruiting Officer” was acted for the entertainment of the ancient and honorable society of Free and Accepted Masons, who came to the Play House about 7 o’clock, in the usual manner, and made a very decent and solemn appearance; there was a fuller house on this occasion than ever had been known in this place, and the entered apprentice and masters songs, sung upon the stage, which were joined in chorus by the Masons in the pitt to the satisfaction and entertainment of the whole audience.

After the play the Masons returned to the lodge at Mr. Shepheard’s, in the same order observed in coming to the Play House.

Mad Tom’s song must have been taken from “King Lear,” and, if so, is the first recorded instance of the production of any of Shakespeare’s works on this continent.

The most careful search has failed to find any mention of plays for some years, but a map of Charlestown dated 1738 marks the site of the theater on the south side of Queen, a little west of Church street, on the lot of land now occupied by the rear portion of the old Planters’ Hotel, within less than a hundred yards of the Huguenot and St. Philip’s Churches, and in October, 1743, a ball is advertised to take place at the theater in Queen street.

A similar notice appears in the paper for November 19, 1774, and the next link is an advertisement in the “Gazette,” October 3, 1748, of a school “over against the Play House,” and the following extract from “an exhortation to the inhabitants of South Carolina,” written by a Quakeress, Sophia Hume, in 1748, and published in London in 1752.

The good lady, after setting forth the sins of the people of the province, says: “You have no masquerades nor music gardens to entertain you, neither are theatrical entertainments frequent among you,” which implies that they took place sometimes.

May her shade grant pardon for the use of her book in an article on the play-house.

But Sophia Hume exhorted in vain, for the “Gazette,” in its issue for October 3, 1754, contains this rather contradictory advertisement:

“At the New Theatre on Monday next, (by a company of comedians from London,) a tragedy called the ‘Fair Penitent.’ Tickets to be had of Mr. John Remington and at the printer’s. Price, stage box 50s.; front and side boxes, 40s.; pitt, 30s., and gallery, 20s.”

The “Gazette” dramatic reporter says of the play: “Last Monday evening the New Theatre in this town was opened, when a company of comedians performed the tragedy called the ‘Fair Penitent,’ much to the satisfaction of the audience.”

The theatrical history of Charleston from this time on, however, is familiar.[19]

In the paucity of information about the drama in America at this early period, it may be admissible to refer to what fiction has attempted respecting it in a novel by John Esten Cooke, entitled “The Virginia Comedians,” in which he describes the Williamsburg theater, and the representation in it of a play of Shakespeare’s. As Shakespeare expressed it, “imagination bodies forth the form of things unknown,” and men of genius, like Sir Walter Scott and the elder Dumas, could, in the exercise of this faculty, represent scenes and incidents of the past more vividly and apparently as truthfully as can be derived from the scant material usually left for the historian--an illustration of which will be found in Dumas’s account of the trial and execution of Charles I., in his sequel to “The Three Musketeers,” “Twenty Years After”; and in Scott’s novels there are many like illustrations. “This history,” says Fielding, in the preface to his celebrated novel which he calls “The History of Tom Jones,” “differs from other histories in this, that in other histories nothing is true but the names, whilst in this everything is true but the names”; and the author of “The Virginia Comedians,” though not ranking with the great masters of fiction that have been referred to, appears to have been well informed respecting Colonial Virginia, and may be accepted as having given what is probably a fair picture of a night in the Williamsburg theater during the Colonial period.[20]

One of the principal characters in the novel is a young Virginian, Mr. Effingham, who, after a visit and some stay at Oxford and in London, has returned to the paternal home, Effingham Hall, in Virginia, and whilst riding on horseback to visit a manorial estate on a plantation known as Riverhead, of a gentleman called Lee, the father of two very attractive daughters, draws up suddenly in the road, seeing a young lady on horseback in the center of it apparently awaiting his approach, who is thus described:

The lady was mounted on a tall white horse, which stood perfectly quiet in the middle of the road, and seemed to be docility itself, though the fiery eyes contradicted the first impression. Rather would one acquainted with the singular character of horses have said that this animal was subdued by the gentle hand of the rider, and so laid aside, from pure affection, all his waywardness.

The rider was a young girl about eighteen, and of rare and extraordinary beauty. Her hair--so much of it as was visible beneath her hood--seemed to be dark chestnut, and her complexion was dazzling. The eyes were large, full, and dark--instinct with fire and softness, feminine modesty and collected firmness, the firmness, however, predominating. But the lips were different. They were the lips of a child--soft, guileless, tender, and confiding; they were purity and innocence itself, and seemed to say that however much the brain might become hard and worldly, the heart of this young woman never could be other than the tender and delicately sensitive heart of a child.

She was clad in a riding-dress of pearl color, and from the uniformity of this tint, it seemed to be a favorite with her. The hood was of silk, and the delicately gloved hand held a little ivory-handled riding-whip, which now dangled at her side. The other gloved hand supported her cheek; and in this position the unknown lady calmly awaited Mr. Effingham’s approach still nearer, though he was already near touching her.

Mr. Effingham took off his hat and bowed with elegant courtesy. The lady returned the inclination by a graceful movement of the head.

“Would you be kind enough to point out the road to the town of Williamsburg, sir?” she said, in a calm and clear voice.

“With great pleasure, madam,” replied Mr. Effingham. “You have lost your way?”

“Yes, sir, and very strangely; and as evening drew on I was afraid of being benighted.”

“You have but to follow the road until you reach Effingham Hall, madam,” he said,--“the house in the distance yonder; then turn to the left, and you are in the highway to town.”

“Thanks, sir,” the young girl said, with another calm inclination of her head, and she touched her horse with the whip.

“But cannot I accompany you?” asked Mr. Effingham, whose curiosity was greatly aroused, and found his eyes, he knew not why, riveted to the rare beauty of his companion’s face; “do you not need me as a guide?”

“Indeed, I think not, sir,” she said, with the same calmness. “Your direction is very plain, and I am accustomed to ride by myself.”

“But, really,” began Mr. Effingham, somewhat piqued, “I know it is intrusive--I know I have not the honor--”

She interrupted him with her immovable calmness.

“You would say you do not know me, and that your offer is intrusive. I believe, sir, I do not consider it so--it is very kind; but I am not a fearful girl, and need not trouble you at all.”

And so bowed.

“One moment, madam,” said Mr. Effingham; “I am really dying with curiosity to know you. ’Tis very rude to say so, of course--but I am acquainted with every lady in the neighborhood, and I do not recall any former occasion upon which I had the pleasure--”

“It is very easily explained, sir,” the young girl said.

“Madam!”

“I do not live in the neighborhood.”

“Ah! no?”

“And I am not a lady, sir. Does not that explain it?”

Mr. Effingham scarcely believed his ears. These astounding words were uttered with such perfect calmness that there was no possible room to suppose that they were meant for a jest.

“You are surprised, sir,” the young girl said quite simply and gravely.

“Upon my word, madam,--never have I,--really--”

“Your surprise will not last long, sir.”

“How, madam?”

“Do you ever visit the town of Williamsburg?”

“Frequently.”

“Well, sir, I think you will see me again. Now I must continue my way, having returned my sincere thanks for your kindness.”

With which words, uttered in that wondrous voice of immovable calmness, the young girl again inclined her head, touched her white horse with the whip, and slowly rode out of sight.

The young man continued his journey to Riverhead; arrived there, and after an animated conversation with the two attractive young ladies, he encountered the father, a fine, portly old gentleman, who met him.

“Good morning, glad to see you.”

Effingham bowed and said:

“The morning was so fine that I thought I could not spend it more agreeably than in a ride to Riverhead, sir.”

“Delightful! These August days are excellent for the corn; what news?”

“Nothing, sir. I have not seen the ‘Gazette.’”