Thomas Betterton

Front matter

P|n1

Darnell Uttiueraitg ffiibrarg

Htljata, 5?*m ^ork

Preface

Although the documentary material for the history of the Restoration stage has been pretty thoroughly ransacked by previous inquirers, my researches into the life and times of Betterton have brought to light a considerable number of new facts, and have enabled me to confirm or to contradict several old hypotheses. In no case have I relied upon the mere assertion of previous historians, but have always checked their statements by a reference to the original evidence on which they proceeded. I have at all times been careful to distinguish between ascertained fact and mere conjecture ; so that the reader may accept as undoubted any unqualified assertion contained in the following pages. The course of events during the few months immediately succeeding the reopening of the theatres is here, I believe, set forth with greater accuracy than in any previous work ; for I have been so fortunate as to disentangle a knot which had baffled Genest and other historians. They had understood Pepys's allusions to " the Cockpit " as referring to the theatre of that name

VI PREFACE.

in Drury Lane ; whereas they really referred to the Royal Playhouse at the Cockpit in St. James's Park. This fact, with one or two other minor discoveries, brings comparative clearness into a period which has hitherto seemed very obscure and confusing.

The chapter dealing with the Restoration Playhouse, its structure and arrangements, and the manners and customs which prevailed before and behind the scenes, will, I hope, interest both the general reader and the specialist. No such systematic attempt has hitherto been made, so far as I am aware, to paint an accurate picture of the surroundings amid which Betterton acted — to describe the material conditions of the stage for which Wycherley and Congreve wrote.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Stage before the Restoration ... i

II. A Restoration Theatre ... ... 12

THOMAS BETTERTON.

Chapter I. The Stage Before The Restoration

Until the Puritan Revolution stopped the theatres, and threw the actors out of employment, the stage in England seems to have been in very prosperous condition. Shortly iefore the outbreak of the Civil War, according to the Historia Histrionica, there were at least five companies of players in existence. The chief of these were the King's Servants, " men of grave and sober behaviour," who acted at the Blackfriars Theatre in winter, and at the Globe on the Bankside in summer. Next came the Queen's Servants, whose theatre was the Cockpit, or Phoenix, in Drury Lane; then the Prince's Servants, who played at the Private House in Salisbury Court. Two theatres of lower rank complete the list — the Fortune, near Whitecross Street ; and the Red Bull, at the upper end of St. John Street, Clerkenwell, which were mostly frequented by " citizens and the meaner sort of people." All these companies "got money, and lived in reputation;" for the theatre was at this time held in much higher esteem than in the scandalous times after the

B

Restoration. Plays, if not very refined in language, were at least not immoral in intention; vice was poetically punished ; virtue was not made a scoff. Consequently, very good people thought the play an innocent diversion for an idle hour; and as the prices of admission were small, for there were no expenses of scenery or setting, the town supported five companies handsomely, though, after the Restoration, with a largely increased population, it could not support two.

To us the recital of the names of the actors who saw the stage go down in the turmoil of the Civil War conveys little idea. They were a generation whose history has failed to attract much attention, for they come as it were between the great generation which Shakespeare adorned, and the Restoration period, in which there is so much that is curious and interesting. A few of the actors whose names appear in the First Folio still survived. One of these was John Lowin, famous for playing Falstaff and Henry VIII. When Betterton first acted bluff King Hal, the traditions of the earliest players of the part were handed on to him by Sir William Davenant, who had seen old Lowin act, and Lowin, although not the original representative of the character, had "had his instructions from Mr. Shakespear himself." In the part of Hamlet also Betterton benefited by Davenant's recollection of the acting of Joseph Taylor, who probably was the successor of the original Hamlet, Burbage, and who survived the breaking out of the Civil War some thirteen years. Other contemporaries of these famous players were Richard Robinson, in his youth a noted "boy-actress," who died in 1647; and John Shank, who did not hve to see the actual beginning of the wars. These older actors were all members of the Blackfriars company, where their chief companions were Stephen

Hammerton, " a most noted and beautiful woman Actor ; " Eliard Swanston, the recognized representative of Othello ; and Thomas Pollard, a celebrated comic actor. At the Cockpit, which ranked second in importance to the Blackfriars Theatre, the leading actors were Perkins, Bowyer, Sumner, William Allen (not to be confused with Edward - Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College), Bird, and William^Rpbins (or Robinson). Younger actors who attained to eminence after the Restoration were Hart, Mohun, Burt, Clun, and Shatterel.

When the Civil War broke out, the actors, as might be expected, ranged themselves on the side of the king. One only is recorded to have joined the Parliamentarians, Swanston; and he, says Wright, "profest himself a Presbyterian, took up the trade of a jeweller, and liv'd in Aldermanbury, within the territory of Father Calamy." * Lowiri, Taylor, and Pollard were unable to give the king more than their good wishes, for they were too old to %ht. Lowin went to Brentford, where he kept the inn called the Three Pigeons, and died very old and very poor. Taylor died and was buried at Richmond ; while Pollard, who was a bachelor, and had saved some money, ended his days in comfort with relations who lived in the country. William Robins (or Robinson) lost his life at the taking of Basing House, in 1645. Wright tells us that he was killed by " Butcher " Harrison, who refused him quarter, and shot him through the head after he had laid down his arms, saying, as he murdered the defenceless player, " Curspd is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently ! " -

As soon as the actual fighting was over, and the power

• Edmund Calamy was a noted preacher. He was appointed Rector of St. Mary's, Aldermanbury, in 1639, and was ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662.

firmly held in the hands of the Presbyterians and Independents, the actors gravitated towards London, and made some feeble attempts to resume, by stealth, the practice of their calling, which had been declared unlawful by several Edicts of the Parliament.* But their success was small. In the winter of 1648 a company of them, including Lowin, Taylor, Pollard, Burt, and Hart, ventured to play privately at the Cockpit. But, after remaining unmolested for three or four days, they were at last surprised by a party of soldiers in the middle of acting Fletcher's tragedy of The Bloody Brother, and carried off to prison in their stage-clothes. Here they remained some time, until, having plundered them of their valuables, the soldiers released them, f Afterwards they were more careful, and played mostly in gentlemen's houses, where the guests made up a purse to reward their services. Occasionally, too, they succeeded in bribing the officer who commanded the guard at Whitehall, and he winked at their performing for a day or two at the Red Bull; but even then they were never safe from disturbance.

In 1656 we find, strangely enough, that Cromwell permitted a sort of theatrical performance at Rutland House, under the control of Sir William Davenant. This permission seems to have been obtained through the influence of the Lord Keeper, Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, in whose Memorials we find, under date September 3, 1656, an interesting letter from Davenant, in which he says —

* On September 2, 1642, plays were forbidden during " these times of humiliation ; '' they were altogether suppressed by an Ordinance of October 22, 1647 ; and a still stricter decree to the same effect was passed on February 11, 1648.

t Whitelock, in his Memorials, mentions a similar occurrence on December 20, 1649.

" When I consider the nicety of the times, I fear it may draw a curtain between your Lordship and our opera ; therefore I have presumed to send your Lordship, hot from the press, what we mean to represent, making your Lordship my supreme judge, though I despair to have the honour of inviting you to be a spectator."

The work which Davenant sent was no doubt his opera of The Siege of Rhodes, which was published in September, 1656, and has a preface dated August 17, 1656. But this opera was not the first of Davenant's productions. It had been preceded by an entertainment, probably produced on May 21, 1656. The stage-directions of this entertainment will sufficiently explain its nature. The first is, " After a flourish of music, the curtains are drawn and the Prologue enters." He speaks his piece, and retires. Then, " a concert of instrumental music, adapted to the sullen disposition of Diogenes, being heard a while, the curtains are suddenly opened, and in two gilded rostras appear, sitting, Diogenes the Cynic, and Aristophanes the Poet, in habits agreeable to their country and professions, who declaim against, and for, public entertainment, by moral representations." After Diogenes has had his say, " a concert of music, befitting the pleasant disposition of Aristophanes, being heard, he thus answers." When Aristophanes has effectually routed his sour antagonist, " the curtains are suddenly closed, and the company entertained by instrumental and vocal music." After which, " a concert of instrumental music, after the French composition, being heard a while, the curtains are suddenly opened, and in the rostras appear, sitting, a Parisian and a Londo?ier, in the livery robes of both cities, who declaim concerning the pre-eminence of Faris and London.^' The Parisian opens the ball, and, after a concert imitating the Waits of London, his opponent replies. The curtains are then closed, more instrumental and vocal music follows, and the entertainment concludes with an epilogue.

It will be seen that the scenic arrangements of this Entertainment were of the simplest. From them to the ambitious attempts made in The Siege of Rhodes was a great advance. This opera, produced in September, 1656, was described as "The Siege of Rhodes. Made a Representation by the Art of Prospective in Scenes, and the Story sung in Recitative Musick." The scenes, no doubt, demanded a good deal of make-believe ; but, crude as they probably were, they were the most important scenes ever set on an English stage, for they were the first. At Court Masques elaborate scenery had long before appeared, but the stage knew nothing more than coarse hangings or rude tapestry.* Davenant himself gives an amusing description of the difficulties of his scenery, which was designed and painted by John Webb. He says —

" It has been often wisht that our Scenes (we having oblig'd ourselves to the variety of five changes according to the Ancient Dramatic distinctions made for time) had not been confined to eleven foot in height, and about fifteen in depth, including the places of passage reserv'd for the Musick. This is so narrow an allowance for the fleet of Solyman the Magnificent, his army, the Island of Rhodes, and the Varieties attending the Siege of the City, that I fear you will think we invite you to such a contracted trifle as that of the Cassai-s carved upon a nut."

To the literary merits of the opera Dryden has given the highest praise. In his dedication to The Rival Ladies he says that if Waller first showed the proper beauty of

* The question of the introduction of scenery has greatly exercised Shakespearian commentators. Malone enters very fully into the matter.

rhymed verse, " we are acknowledging for the noblest use of it to Sir William D'avenant; who at once brought it upon the stage, and made it perfect, in The Siege of Rhodes." As a specimen of the rhymes, take this —

" Solyman. Away ! range all the camp for an assault ; Tell them they tread in graves who make a halt. Fat slaves, who have been luU'd to a disease, Cramm'd out of breath, and crippled by their ease ! Whose active fathers leapt o'er walls too high For them to climb : Hence from my anger fly ! Which is too worthy for thee, being mine. And must be quench'd by Rhodian blood or thine."

Another specimen, of different style, is a chorus, by soldiers of several nations —

" I. Come, ye termagant Turks,

If your Bassa dares land ye.

Whilst the wine bravely works

Which was brought us from Candy.

" 2. Wealth, the least of our care is.

For the poor ne'er are undone ; Avous, Monsieur of Paris,

To the back-swords of London.

" 5. It is seven to one odds

They had safer sail'd by us :

Whilst our wine lasts in Rhodes

They shall water at Chios."

To Davenant and his opera Dryden again alludes in a passage of interest in his Essay on Heroick Plays, in which he says —

" For Heroick Plays, . . . the first light we had of them on the English Theatre was from the late Sir William D'avenant : It being forbidden him in the rebellious times to act tragedies and comedies, because they contained some matter of scandal to those good people, who could more easily dispossess their lawful Sovereign, than endure a wanton jest ; he was forced to turn his thoughts another way, and to introduce the examples of moral virtue, writ in verse, and perform'd in Recitative Musick. The original of this Musick, and of the scenes which adorn'd this work, he had from the Italian operas."

The performers in The Siege of Rhodes were personages of some note, as the following list shows (naturally they were all musicians) : —

Solyman the Magnificent

Villerius ...

Alphonso

Admiral ...

Pirrhus ...

Mustapha

lanthe

Capt. Henry Cook.

Mr. Gregory Thorndall.

Mr. Edward Coleman.

Mr. Matthew Lock.

Mr. John Harding.

Mr. Henry Persill.

Mrs. Coleman, wife of Mr.

Coleman.

The vocal music was the composition of Henry Lawes, Captain Cook, and Matthew Lock, while Dr. Charles Coleman and George Hudson were responsible for the instrumental.

The claims of this opera to consideration can scarcely be overstated. Mr. Joseph Knight, in his preface to his edition of the Roscius Anglicanus, thus summarizes them —

"Coming after an entertainment which cannot by any stretch be called dramatic, it marks the re-establishment of the theatre after Puritan rule ; it is the first opera ever given in this country ; it introduces the first English actress who ever chaunted (not spoke) on the English stage ; it exhibits the first scenery ever employed in the case of a regular dramatic production, not being a miracle-play or a masque ; and it names the first provider of scenery for a work of this class, as distinguished again from the_masque, in which, at a much earlier date, elaborate decorations were employed."

Toleration seems to have made Davenant resolve on the bolder step of taking a regular theatre as the scene of his operations. We accordingly find him two years later at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, his productions being still of the nature of an opera. The first of which we have record was The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru ; " exprest by vocall and instrumentall Musick, and by art of perspective in scenes." To the end of the first edition of this opera was appended a note : " Notwithstanding the great expense necessary to scenes, and other ornaments in this entertainment, there is good provision made of places for a shilling." So that already the question of the expense of scenery was necessitating consideration. The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru is said to have been permitted by the Protector as a means of stirring up popular feeling against the Spanish enemies of England and the Protestant religion. The purpose of the piece was to show first the happy condition of the people of Peru " when their inclinations were govern'd by Nature;" then their history under the Incas; the conquest of the empire by the Spaniards, and their cruel treatment of the natives; the conclusion being a prophetic rescue of the Peruvians from their Spanish oppressors by English soldiers. The opening speech of the Priest of the Sun is well worth quoting. He is pointing to the scene of the primitive happiness of the Peruvians, and says —

" Thus fresh did Nature in our world appear.

When first her roses did their leaves unfold : Ere she did use art's colours, and ere fear

Had made her pale, or she with cares lookt old. When various sports did man's lov'd freedom show,

And still the free were willing to obey ; Youth did to age, and sons to parents bow.

Parents and age first taught the laws of sway.

When yet we no just motive had to fear

Our bolder Incas would by arms be rais'd ; When, temp'rately, they still contented were,

As great examples, to be only prais'd. When none for being strong did seek reward.

Nor any for the space of empire strove : When valour courted peace and never car'd

For any recompence, but public love. We fetter'd none, nor were by any bound ;

None follow'd gold through lab'rynths of the mine : And that which we on strands of rivers found,

Did only on our priests in temple shine."

The Priest is the solitary speaker throughout, introducing and explaining each of the six scenes. Every speech is followed by a song, and every scene ends in a dance, joyous or mournful, as the subject demands.

In this piece the speaker seems to have acted merely as showman, and to have recited in ordinary tone ; but in the other opera which we know that Davenant produced at this time, the dialogue (for there were more speakers than one) was carried on in recitative. This opera was entitled. The History of Sir Francis Drake, and, excepting that it contained many more lines, was of precisely the same nature as its predecessor. It was published in 1659, but at what part of that year we can form no idea.

Before leaving Davenant and his operas, I may quote the following Order from the Puhlick Intelligencer of December 20 to 27, 1658, that is, shortly after Richard Cromwell became Protector : —

" Whitehall, December 23. A courte is ordered for taking into consideration the opera, shewed at the Cockpitt in Drury Lane, and the persons to whom it stands referred are to send for the poet and actors, and to inform themselves of the nature of the work, and to examine by what authority

THE STAGE BEFORE THE RESTORATION. il

the same is exposed to publick view ; and they are also to take the best information they can, concerning the acting of stage-playes, and upon the whole to make report."

It may be concluded that the report was not unfavourable, since The History of Sir Francis Drake was dated 1659.

With this play our glance at the theatre during the Commonwealth concludes, and we pass to the stage on which Thomas Betterton acted — the stage of the Restoration.

THOMAS BETTERTON.

Chapter II. A Restoration Theatre

Fashion changes so quickly in things theatrical that the usages and methods of fifty years ago appear almost antediluvian to the playgoer of to-day. The plays that are acted, the technique of the actors, the style of the elocution, the arrangements and appearance of the theatre, all have changed ; so that if Edmund Kean could be summoned by some magician to see a play acted in our Lyceum Theatre to-day, alike on the stage and in the auditorium he would see enormous changes. And if this is true of Kean, how much more is it true of Betterton ! To that great actor our theatre would be a veritable terra incog?iita. And, as we are about to consider the life and work of Betterton, let us in the first instance try to convey ourselves back to his stage, to realize the conditions under which he played his part, to reconstruct in our mind's eye the theatre in which he shone so bright a star.

Placing ourselves, then, in the position of a theatre-goer of two centuries ago, we first ask how we are to know what play we shall choose to see. And this brings us to our first question — advertising. At a time when, practically, a different play was acted each day, and when newspaper advertisements were as yet undreamt of, how did the actors communicate with the public ? In two ways : by giving out the next day's play at the end of each performance (a method which survived almost to our own time) ; and by displaying bills on posts in the street, as had been the practice before the Civil Wars. Of both methods our most valuable authority on Restoration customs, Samuel Pepys, gives examples. On September 15, 1668, Pepys went to the King's Playhouse to see a new play by Dryden, called. The Ladies a la Mode, of which, by the way, this is the only record ; and when the actor, Beeston, came forward to give the new play out for repetition on the following day, Pepys records that both Beeston and the audience "fell a-laughing," because the house was not a quarter full at that performance, and would naturally be still emptier the next day. To the advertising on the posts Pepys alludes twice. Once (March 24, 1662) he goes out to see what play is to be acted, and finds none upon the post, it being Passion Week; and another time (July 28, 1664), being abroad, he observes on the posts that The Bondman is to be acted at the Duke's House, and goes to see it.

That these bills sometimes contained something more than a mere announcement of the play * is probable. In the Key to " The Rehearsal" published in 1704, the publisher states that his author declaimed against the practice of the English stage, saying that he believed that the regular theatres were in a confederacy to ruin the Fair of Smithfield, "by outdoing them in their bombastick bills, and ridiculous representing their plays." The only one of these bills which I have been able to see is, how-

* We learn from a letter from Dryden to Mrs. Steward, that the first occasion on which an author's name appeared on the bill of the play, "at least in England," was the revival of The Double Dealer, in March, 1699, when the play was announced as "written by Mr. Congreve."

ever, a model of plainness and brevity. It occurred in the famous Mansfield-Mackenzie sale, and, though somewhat mutilated, was sufficiently preserved to be quite intelligible. It ran thus —

At the Desire of several Persons of Quality at the NEW THEATRE In Little Lincolns-Inn Fields, this present Tuesday being the 27th of February, will be presented, a Tragedy call'd, THE MOURNING BRIDE.

h Entry perform'd by

. e Boy.

Vivat Rex."

This bill, which must have been that for February 27, 1700, the only year of William's reign in which that date fell on a Tuesday, is the earliest bill of which, so far as I know, a copy has been published. The commonly quoted programme for the opening of the Drury Lane Theatre on April 8, 1663, is, as I shall show in a subsequent chapter, a forgery.

The use of different coloured announcements, now so common that nearly every London theatre has its distinctive colour of bill, dates back at least as far as 1672. In that year a troop of French players, which seems to have comprised both comic and tragic performers, visited London, and attracted great audiences, to the serious detriment of the native theatre. Dryden wrote a prologue against them, and from it we learn that these exotic performers used red bills to attract public attention. Dryden writes —

" A brisk French troop is grown your dear delight ; Who with broad bloody bills call you each day, To laugh and break your buttons at their play."

Having settled, then, which playhouse we will patronize, we must next discover the hour at which the play begins, and also make up our minds how long before the appointed time we must go to get places; for such a thing as booking or reserving seats was not dreamt of for many years after this time.

Immediately after the Restoration, plays seem to have commenced at half-past three o'clock. The prologue to Dryden's Wild Gallant, produced on February 5, 1663, gives us this information. Two Astrologers are introduced, who cast the nativity of the new play in order to ascertain its success or failure. To these the prologue is presented.

" And from this scheme, drawn for the hour and day. Bid me enquire the fortune of his play."

The I St Astrologer then reads, "A figure of the heavenly bodies in their several apartments, February 5, half an hour after three, afternoon, from whence you are to judge the success of a new play called The Wild Gallant." How long this early hour saw the rising or opening of the curtain I do not know, but before the end of the century five o'clock was the fashionable hour; and it seems probable that by 1706 the play began so late as six o'clock. For the five-o'clock hour we have many authorities. Let us quote, for example, the facetious Tom Brown's Dialogues of the Dead. In the " Trial of Cuckolds," Lord Flippant's Ghost, in describing his day's occupation on earth, says, "Whilst I was at WiWs coffee house, fastened in controversy or poetick rhapsodies, though I had neither religion nor learning, she was sure of me till play-time, and then too ; for at five, ' Come, Dick,' says I (to a brother of the orange and cravat string), 'd — me, let us to the play.'"

From the epilogue to Farquhar's Recruiting Officer, produced April 8, 1706, we learn that the hour of performance was then six o'clock. It begins, " All ladies and gentlemen that are willing to see the Comedy called The Recruiting Officer, let them repair to-morrow night, by six o'clock, to the sign of the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane, and they shall be kindly entertain'd."

This rapid progress in the direction of later hours is, of course, only one consequence of the gradual change of habits, which has now landed us in the extremity of frequently beginning our chief piece at a fashionable theatre at nine o'clock at night. The progress towards late hours at the time under review becomes still more noticeable when we remember that immediately before the Restoration the hour for beginning the play was three o'clock. This we learn from a piece which has already come under our notice, Davenant's Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, which was " Represented daily at the Cockpit in Drury-Lane, At Three afternoone punctually." At the end of the piece the time is specially intimated : " And it shall begin certainly at 3 after noon."

Having thus settled the hour of the play, we must make up our minds how long we are prepared to sit in the theatre unemployed, in order to ensure good places. If we mean to get advantageous seats at a new play regarding which there is much public curiosity, we must go appallingly early. Up to at least 1669, the doors of the theatre were thrown open about twelve o'clock. On the first day of Sir Charles Sedley's comedy of The Mulberry Garden (May 18, 1668), of which, the author "being so reputed a wit, all the world do expect great matters,"

Pepys went to the King's Playhouse about noon, shortly after which time the doors opened. A fortnight earlier he went to the Duke's House at a little past twelve to get a good place in the pit, the play being Shadwell's Sullen Lovers. The same indefatigable playgoer records (February 25, 1669) that before one o'clock the Duke's House was "infinite full," the attraction being again a play by Shadwell — his tragi-comedy of The Royal Shepherdess. It must have been an idle age, for all sorts and conditions of men seem to have submitted to the inconvenience of passing the whole afternoon in the playhouse. I know only one allusion to the waste of time involved in playgoing. It is in "A Satyr," published in Poems on Affairs of State, vol. iii. (1704), with the motto, " Quem Natura negat dabit Indignatio Versum." The writer, abusing Otway, says —

" Was't not enough, that at his tedious Play, I lavish'd half a Crown, and half a Day ? "

Of course, measures were taken by some to obviate this inconvenience to a certain extent, but we have every reason to think that most people simply accepted the situation. The only method of avoiding the penitential wait was to hire some one to keep your place. This Pepys did twice. On the first day of The Mulberry Garden the pangs of hunger were not to be withstood, so he got a boy to keep his place in the pit, while he himself slipped out to the Rose Tavern, " got half a breast of mutton, off of the spit, and dined all alone. And so to the play again." On another occasion he set a poor man to keep his place, Pepys going to Martin's, his bookseller's, and there spending an hour.