But to fpeak of it in its place, I must go a littleback again.

From 16979 to this Union, both Companies went on without any memorable Change in their Affairs, unless it were, That Betterton's People (however good in their Kind) were moft of them too far advanced in Years to mend; and tho' we in Drury-Lane were too young to be excellent, we were not too old to be better. But what will not Satiety depreciate? For tho' I must own and ayow, that in our higheft Profperity, I always thought we were greatly inferior; yet, by our good Fortune of being feen in quite new Lights, which feveral new written Plays had fhewn us in, we now began to make a confiderable Stand a gainst them. One good new Play to a rifing Company is of inconceivable Value. In Oroonoko, Love's laft Shift, and in the Sequel of it, the Relapfe; feveral of our People fhew'd them. felves in a new Style of acting, in which Nature had not as yet been feen. I cannot here forget a Misfortune that befel our Society about this time, by the Lofs of a young Actor, Hildebrand Horden, who was kill'd at the Bar of the Rofe Tavern, in a frivilous, rafh, accidental Quarrel; for which a late Refident at Venice, Colonel Burgefs, and feveral other Perfons of Diftinction took their Trials, and were acquitted. This young Man had almost every Gift that could promife an excellent Actor; he had befides a good deal of Table-Wit, and Humour, with a handfone Per fon, and was every Day rifing into publick Favour. Before he was buried, it was obfervable, that two or three Days together, feveral of the Fair-Sex, well drefs'd, came in Masks, then frè. quently worn, and fome in their own Coaches, to vifit this Theatrical Heroe in his Shrowd. He

Was

was the eldest Son of Dr. Horden, Minifter of Twickenham, in Middlefex: But this Misfortune was foon repair'd by the Return of Mr. Wilks from Dublin, who upon this young Man's Death was fent for over, and liv'd long enough among us to enjoy that Approbation, from which the other was fo unhappily cut off. The Winter following, Eftcourt the famous Mimick, who has already been spoken of, had the fame Invitation from Ireland, where he had commenc'd Actor: His firft Part here, at the Theatre Royal, was the Spanish Friar, in which, tho' he had remembred every Look and Motion of the late Tony Leigh, fo far as to put the Spectator very much in mind of him, yet it was vifible through the whole, notwithstanding his Exactnefs in the Outlines, the true Spirit that was to fill up the Figure, was not the fame, but unskilfully dawb'd on, like a Child's Painting on the Face of a Metzo-tinto It was too plain to the Judicious, that the Conception was not his own, but imprinted on his Memory by another, of whom he only prefented a dead Likeness. But thefe Defects were not fo obvious to common Spectators;" no wonder therefore, if by his being fo much fought after in private Companies, he met with a fort of Indulgence for what he fometimes did on the Stage.

In the Year 1699 Mrs. Oldfield was taken into the Houfe: With the Addition then of fo accomplish'd an Actress, and one fo much in favour as Wilks, and by the vifible Improvement of our other Actors, as Penkethman, Johnfon, Bullock, and I think I may venture to name myfelf in the Number, but in what Rank, I leave to the Judgment of thofe who have been my Spectators, the Reputation of our Company.began

to

to get ground; Mrs. Oldfield, and Mr. Wilks, by their frequently playing against one another in our beft Comedies, very happily fupported that Humour, and Vivacity, which is fo peculiar to our English Stage. The French, our only modern Competiors, feldom give us their Lovers, in fuch various Lights: In their Comedies, however lively a People they are by nature, their Lovers are generally conftant, fimple Sighers, both of a Mind, and equally distress'd about the Difficulties of their coming together, which naturally makes their Converfation fo ferious, that they are feldom good Company to their Auditors: And tho' I allow them many other Beauties, of which we are too ngeligent; yet our Variety of Humour has Excellencies that all their valuable Obfervance of Rules have never yet attain'd to. By thefe Advantages then, we began to have an equal fhare of the politer fort of Spectators, who, for feveral Years, could not allow our Company to ftand in any comparison with the other. But Theatrical Favour, like publick Commerce, will fometimes deceive the beft Judgments, by an unaccountable change of its Channel; the beft Commodities are not always known to meet with the best Markets. To this decline of the Old Company, many Accidents might contribute; as the too distant fituation of their Theatre; or their want of a better, for it was not, then in the condition it now is, but fmall, and poorly fitted up, within the Walls of a Tennis Quaree Court, which is of the leffer fort.

Booth, who was then a young Actor among them, has often told me of the Difficulties Bec terton labour'd under, and complain'd of: How impracticable he found it to keep their Body to

that

that common Order, which was neceffary for the good of the whole; of their relying too much upon their intrinfick Merit; and though but few of them were young when they first became their own Mafters, yet they were all now ten Years older, and confequently more liable to fall into Negligence, or were only feparately diligent, in the fole Regard of their Benefit-plays; which feveral of their Principals knew, at worst, would raife them Contributions, that would more than tolerably fubfift them, for the current Year. But thefe were too precarious Expedients to be always depended upon, and brought in nothing to the general fupport of the Numbers who were at fallaries under them; they were obliged to have recourfe to foreign. Novelties; L'Abee, Balon, and Mademoiselle Subligny, three of the then moft famous Dancers of the French Opera, were at feveral Times brought over at extraordinary Rates, to revive that fickly Appetite, which plain Senfe and Nature had fatiated. But there was no recovering to a found Conftitution by thefe mere coftly cordials; tho' perhaps their exhibiting thefe Novelties, might be owing to the fuccefs we had met with, in our more barbarous Introducing of French Tumblers the Year before; of which Mr. Rowe thus complains,in his prologue to one of his first plays :

J

Muft Shakespear, Fletcher, and laborious Ben, Be left for Scaramouch and Harlequin ?

While the Crowd therefore, fo fluctuated from one House to another, as their Eyes were more or lefs regaled than their Ears, it could not be a Question much in debate, which had the better Actors; the Merit of either feemed to be of very

little

little Moment; and the Complaint in the foregoing Lines, tho' it might be just for a time, could not be a juft one for ever; because the best Play that ever was writ, may tire by being too often repeated, a Misfortune naturally attending the Obligation to play every Day; not that when ever fuch Satiety commences, it will be any Proof of the Play's being a bad one, or of its being ill acted. To recover them therefore to their due Eftimation, a new Project was form'd, of building them a stately Theatre, in the Hay-Market, by Sir John Vanbrugh, for which he railed a Subfcription of thirty Perfons of Quality, at one hundred Pounds each, in Confideration whereof every Subscriber for his own Life, was to be ad mitted to whatever Entertainments fhould be publickly perform'd there. Of this Theatre I faw the first Stone laid, on which was infcrib'd the LITTLE WIG, in Honour to a Lady of extraordinary Beauty, then the celebrated Toaft and Pride of that party.

In the Year 1706, when this House was finish'd, Betterton, and his Co-partners diffolved their own Agreements, and threw themselves under the Direction of Sir John Vanbrugh, and Mr. Congreve; imagining perhaps, that the Conduct of two fuch eminent Authors might give a more profperous Turn to their Condition; that the Plays, it would now be their Intereft to write for them, would foon recover the Town to a true Tafte, and be an Advantage that no other Company could hope for, that in the Interim, till fuch Plays could be written, the Grandeur of their House, as it was a new Spectacle, might allure the Crowd to fupport them: But if these were their Views, we fhall fee that their Dependence upon them were too fanguine. For Mr. Con

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