Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/219

 12 S. IV. AUG., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

213

at the doors of the play houses in bad weather, a circumstance heretofore unavoidable."

After this preface the " Time Piece " begins. The tragedies [regarded as stock pieces are :

Othello, Lady Jane Gray, Orphan, Hamlet, Tamerlane, Macbeth, Theodosius, Mourning Bride, Alexander, Lear, Richard III., Distressed Mother, CEdipus, Earl of Essex (Banks's), Oroonoko, Cato, Julius Caesar, George Barnwell, Venice Preserved, Gamester, Pair Penitent, Henry V., Fatal Marriage, King Charles, Fatal Curiosity, Earl of Essex (Jones's), Mariamne, Tancred" and Sigismunda, Romeo and Juliet, Siege of Damascus, Philoclea, Phasdra and Hippolytus, Coriolanus, Alzira, Zara, Cymbeline, Cleone, Douglas ; Royal Convert, Henry IV. (2d Part). Jane Shore, All for Love, Athelstan, Albion Queens, Anthony and Cleo- patra, Boadicea, Brothers, Creusa, Don Sebastian, Eugenia, Edward the Black Prince, Fair Penitent, Henry VIII., King John, Merope, Orphan of China, Revenge, Roman Father, Tempest, Siege of Aquelseia, Earl of Warwick, Dido, Philaster, Mahomet, and the Countess of Salisbury in all 66 [65 ?] tragedies.

The stock comedies are :

Love for Love, Merry Wives of Windsor, Spanish Fryar, Drummer, Stratagem, Henry IV. (1st Part), Bold Stroke, Constant Couple, Inconstant, Committee, Old Bachelor, Fop's Fortune, Pro- voked Husband, Fond Husband, Funeral, Country Lasses, Wonder, Mistake, Recruiting Officer, Busy Body, Conscious Lovers, Double Gallant, Careless Husband, Tender Husband, Relapse, Rule a Wife, Love's Last Shift, Royal Merchant, Woman's a Riddle, Tunbridge Walks, Wife's Belief, JEsop, Love and a Bottle, Winter's Tale, All's Well that Ends Well, Pamela, Way of the World, Rehearsal, Confederacy, Merchant of Venice, Country Wife, Suspicious Husband, She Would and She Would Not, Wit without Money, Twin Rivals, Volpone, Every Man in his Humour, Humorous Lieutenant, As You Like It, Double Mistake, All in the Wrong, Accomplished Fools, Amorous Widow, Alchymist, Amphytrion, Beggar's Bush, Double Dealer, Fair Quaker of Deal, Foundling, Jealous Wife, Kind Impostor, London Cuckolds, Lady's Last Stake, Measure for Measure, Much Ado about Nothing, Minor, Provoked Wife, Rover. Refusal, Squire of Alsatia, School for Lovers, Silent Woman, Way to Keep Him, Gamester, Beggars' Opera, Plain Dealer, English Merchant, Clandestine Marriage, and the Country Girl in all seventy-nine comedies.

The journalist of 1826 records that

" Of these plays one half are no longer acted. But of the twenty-three plays of Shakespeare then before the public, all remain but three Antony and Cleopatra, All's Well that Ends Well, and Measure for Measure ; and there have since been revised [sic] six, which were not acted at that time, viz. : Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of Errors, Bichard the Second, and Timon of Athens. Eight of Shakspeare's plays seem quite excluded from representation, viz. : Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour Lost, Troilus and Cressida, Titus Andronicus, Pericles, and three parts of Henry VI."

CYEIL.

FRENCH DRAMATIC PERFORMANCES IN LONDON, 1817-28. The French stage was apparently first introduced to London audiences in the form of 'subscription per- formances by a stock company, probably brought from Paris, or, we may suppose, recruited in London. | Mr. Bretherton records (' The Lyceum and Henry Irving,' 1903, p. 63) that in March, 1828, at the " Soirees Francaises " (sic) " for which a heavy subscription was exacted from the public " a number of plays by Moliere were acted at the English Opera-House.

A little collection of playbills recently secured identifies a much earlier series of subscription performances of French plays. Under the patronage of six peeresses a season was commenced in 1817 at the Argyle Rooms. The rules provided that admission was by card only, which had to be signed by a Lady Patroness. Gentlemen's cards were not transferable, but ladies could lend their cards sister to sister, mother to daughter, or vice versa. As the season progressed other rules or restraints were introduced ; for example, in 1818 it was necessary to add this note to a pro- gramme :

" Several of the subscribers having with justice complained of the noise and talking on Friday last, the Lady Patronesses request, as the whole suit of rooms are open for the assembly, that the large one may be reserved for those interested in representation."

Each soiree commenced at 10 o'clock. The collection of programmes may not be complete, but from their number and the fact that they have been file copies it is reasonable to suppose that all the per- formances are included. At the Argyle Rooms, 13 representations were given in 1817, 16 in 1818, 16 in 1819, 19 in 1820. The following year, after 21 representations, there was some change in the administration, and M. Cloup of 18 Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square, removed the company to the New Royal West London Theatre, Tottenham Street where on Monday, May 21, 1821, he commenced at 7 o'clock a second series of soirees. The old sys- tem of a subscription for the season gave place to the ordinary charges for each performance : boxes 21. 2s., " aux premieres Loges " 6s., and " au Partere " 3. Qd t ; "on ne reijoit pas d' argent a la porte." Four other performances were provided before, on July 11, 1821, a further removal was made to the Adelphi. The season closed the following week, and for the next season there are two programmes only. The management now reverted to the earlier