The Theater (1720)

The Theater (1720)

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Falstaffe
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Title: The Theater (1720)
Author: Sir John Falstaffe
Release Date: June 7, 2005 [eBook #15999]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THEATER (1720)***
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The Augustan Reprint Society, Series Four: No. 1, May, 1948
THE THEATRE
SIR JOHN FALSTAFFE
1720
With an Introduction by John Loftis

GENERAL EDITORS
RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan EDWARD NILES
HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles H.T.
SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
ASSISTANT EDITOR
W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan

ADVISORY EDITORS
EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington BENJAMIN
BOYCE, University of Nebraska LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of
Michigan CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University JAMES L.
CLIFFORD, Columbia University ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University
of Chicago SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota ERNEST
MOSSNER, University of Texas JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen
Mary College, London
Lithoprinted from copy supplied by author
by
Edwards Brothers, Inc.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
1948

INTRODUCTION
The Theatre, by "Sir John Falstaffe", is according to its author a
continuation of Richard Steele's periodical of the same name. Shortly
after Steele brought his paper to a close on April 5, 1720, the
anonymous author who called himself "Falstaffe" appropriated his title;
or if we prefer Falstaffe's own account of the matter, he was
bequeathed the title upon the decease of Steele's "Sir John Edgar". At
any rate, the new series of Theatres was begun on April 9, 1720, and
continued to appear twice a week for eleven numbers until May 14. On
Tuesdays and Saturdays Falstaffe entertained the town with a pleasant
essay in the tradition established by The Tatler.
But the paper of April 9, the first of the new Theatres, was only
nominally the first of a series; Falstaffe, who numbered the paper
"sixteen", had already written fifteen papers called _The Anti-Theatre_
in answer to Steele's Theatre. The demise of Steele's periodical merely
afforded him an opportunity of changing his title; his naturally became
inappropriate when Steele's paper was discontinued and the shorter title
was probably thought to be more attractive to readers. Falstaffe made
no attempt to pass his papers off as the work of his famous rival, to
gain popularity for them through the reputation of Steele. Indeed, the
antagonism which existed between the two men would have made such
an act of deception an unlikely one.

Steele's The Theatre, his last periodical, had been written for a
controversial purpose; by his own admission he wrote it to arouse
support for himself in a dispute in which he was engaged with the Lord
Chamberlain, the Duke of Newcastle. Steele, who by the authority of a
Royal Patent was governor of the Company of Comedians acting in
Drury Lane, insisted that his authority in the theatre was not respected
by the Lord Chamberlain, the officer of the Royal Household
traditionally charged with supervision of theatrical matters. Newcastle
intervened in the internal affairs of Drury Lane and, when Steele
protested, expelled him from the theatre. Steele could do nothing but
submit, though he retaliated with a series of bitter attacks on the Duke
in The Theatre.
Newcastle found defenders, of whom one of the strongest was Falstaffe,
who wrote in direct opposition to Steele's "Sir John Edgar", openly
attempting to provoke that knight to a journalistic contest. But Edgar
gave scant attention to his essays, though they were vigorously written
and presented strong arguments in defense of the Lord Chamberlain's
intervention in Drury Lane affairs. Steele acknowledged the first
number of _The Anti-Theatre_ (it appeared on February 15, 1720) in
the fourteenth number of his own paper, praising Falstaffe for his
promise not to "intrude upon the private concerns of life" in the debate
which was to follow, but thereafter he all but ignored his new rival.
With the exception of a brief allusion in The Theatre, No. 17 (an
allusion which Falstaffe was quick to take up), Steele made no more
references to the other periodical. For a time Falstaffe continued to
answer the arguments Steele advanced in protest against the Lord
Chamberlain's action, but finding that he was unable to provoke a
response, he gave up the debate. After his ninth number of March 14,
he had little more to say about Steele or Drury Lane.
Falstaffe, however, did not stop writing when he ceased defending
Newcastle's action. _The Anti-Theatre_ continued to come out twice