Fielding | Page 6

writing.
It is not necessary to attempt any detailed account of the state of the
stage at this epoch. Nevertheless, if only to avoid confusion in the
future, it will be well to enumerate the several London theatres in 1728,
the more especially as the list is by no means lengthy. First and
foremost there was the old Opera House in the Haymarket, built by
Vanbrugh, as far back as 1705, upon the site now occupied by Her

Majesty's Theatre. This was the home of that popular Italian song
which so excited the anger of thorough-going Britons; and here, at the
beginning of 1728, they were performing Handel's opera of Siroe, and
delighting the cognoscenti by Dite che fa, the echo-air in the same
composer's Tolomeo. Opposite the Opera House, and, in position, only
"a few feet distant" from the existing Haymarket Theatre, was the New,
or Little Theatre in the Haymarket, which, from the fact that it had been
opened eight years before by "the French Comedians," was also
sometimes styled the French House. Next comes the no-longer-existent
theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which Christopher Rich had rebuilt in
1714, and which his son John had made notorious for pantomimes.
Here the Beggar's Opera, precursor of a long line of similar
productions, had just been successfully produced. Finally, most ancient
of them all, there was the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, otherwise the
King's Play House, or Old House. The virtual patentees at this time
were the actors Colley Cibber, Robert Wilks, and Barton Booth. The
two former were just playing the Provok'd Husband, in which the
famous Mrs. Oldfield (Pope's "Narcissa") had created a furore by her
assumption of Lady Townley. These, in February 1728, were the four
principal London theatres. Goodman's Fields, where Garrick made his
debut, was not opened until the following year, and Covent Garden
belongs to a still later date.
Fielding's first dramatic essay--or, to speak more precisely, the first of
his dramatic essays that was produced upon the stage--was a five-act
comedy entitled Love in Several Masques. It was played at Drury Lane
in February 1728, succeeding the Provok'd Husband. In his "Preface"
the young author refers to the disadvantage under which he laboured in
following close upon that comedy, and also in being "contemporary
with an Entertainment which engrosses the whole Talk and Admiration
of the Town,"--i.e. the Beggar's Opera. He also acknowledges the
kindness of Wilks and Cibber "previous to its Representation," and the
fact that he had thus acquired their suffrages makes it doubtful whether
his stay at Leyden was not really briefer than is generally supposed, or
that he left Eton much earlier. In either case he must have been in
London some months before Love in Several Masques appeared, for a
first play by an untried youth of twenty, however promising, is not

easily brought upon the boards in any era; and from his own utterances
in Pasquin, ten years later, it is clear that it was no easier then than now.
The sentiments of the Fustian of that piece in the following protest
probably give an accurate picture of the average dramatic experiences
of Henry Fielding:--
"These little things, Mr. Sneerwell, will sometimes happen. Indeed a
Poet undergoes a great deal before he comes to his Third Night; first
with the Muses, who are humorous Ladies, and must be attended; for if
they take it into their Head at any time to go abroad and leave you, you
will pump your Brain in vain: Then, Sir, with the Master of a
Playhouse to get it acted, whom you generally follow a quarter of a
Year before you know whether he will receive it or no; and then
perhaps he tells you it won't do, and returns it you again, reserving the
Subject, and perhaps the Name, which he brings out in his next
Pantomime; but if he should receive the Play, then you must attend
again to get it writ out into Parts, and Rehears'd. Well, Sir, at last the
Rehearsals begin; then, Sir, begins another Scene of Trouble with the
Actors, some of whom don't like their Parts, and all are continually
plaguing you with Alterations: At length, after having waded thro' all
these Difficulties, his [the?] Play appears on the Stage, where one Man
Hisses out of Resentment to the Author; a Second out of Dislike to the
House; a Third out of Dislike to the Actor; a Fourth out of Dislike to
the Play; a Fifth for the Joke sake; a Sixth to keep all the rest in
Company. Enemies abuse him, Friends give him up, the Play is damn'd,
and the Author goes to the Devil, so ends the Farce."
To which Sneerwell replies, with much promptitude:
"The Tragedy rather, I think, Mr. Fustian." But whatever