Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/117

Rh ſhould be publickly performed there, without farther payment for entrance.

On the firſt ſtone that was laid in this theatre, were inſcribed the words, as a compliment to a lady of extraordinary beauty, then the celebrated toaſt, and pride of that party. In the year 1706 when this houſe was finiſhed, Mr. Betterton and his copartners put themſelves under the direction of Sir John Vanbrugh and Mr. Congreve; imagining that the conduct of two ſuch eminent authors would reſtore their ruined affairs; but they found their expectations were too ſanguine, for though Sir John was an expeditious writer, yet Mr. Congreve was too judicious to let any thing come unfiniſhed out of his hands; beſides, every proper convenience of a good theatre had been ſacrificed to ſhew the audience a vaſt triumphal piece of architecture, in which plays, by means of the ſpaciouſneſs of the dome, could not be ſucceſsfully repreſented, becauſe the actors could not be diſtinctly heard.

Not long before this time the Italian Opera began to ſteal into England, but in as rude a diſguiſe, and as unlike itſelf as poſſible; notwithſtanding which the new monſter pleaſed, though it had neither grace, melody, nor action to recommend it. To ſtrike in therefore with the prevailing faſhion, Vanbrugh and Congreve opened their New Theatre in the Hay-market, with a tranſlated Opera, ſet to Italian muſic, called The Triumph of Love, but it met with a cold reception, being performed only three days, to thin houſes.

Immediately upon the failure of the Opera, Vanbrugh produced his comedy called The Confederacy, greatly improved from the Bourgois à la mode of Dancour. The ſucceſs of this play was not equal to its merit; for it is written in an uncommon vein of humour, and abounds with the moſt