Note 101 — HOGARTH ILLUSTRATED.
Reading edition
A booth was built in Smithfield the year this print was published, for the use of T. Cibber, Bullock, and H. Hallam, at which the tragedy of Tamerlane, with the Fall of Bajazet, intermixed with the comedy of the Miser, was actually represented. The bill of fare with which these gentlemen tempted their customers may properly enough be called an olio; and the royal elephant sheet on which the titles of their plays are printed, throws the comparatively diminutive bills of a theatre-royal into the background.
In some of the provinces distant from the capital, their dramatic exhibitions are still given out in the quaint style which marked the productions of our ancestors. This sometimes excites the laughter of a scholar, but it whets the curiosity of the rustic; and whatever helps to fill a theatre or a barn, must be the best of all possible methods. From the recent modes of announcing new plays at the two Royal Theatres, there seems some reason to expect that the admirers of this kind of writing will soon be gratified by having it introduced in the London play-bills, or at least in the London papers, where hints of "the abundant entertainment which is to be expected sometimes make their appearance in the shape of 'a correspondent's opinion.'" But leaving them to their admirers, let us return to humbler scenes, and give one example out of the many which the provinces annually afford.
A play-bill, printed some years ago at Ludlow, in Shropshire, was nearly as large as their principal painted scene, and dignified with letters that were truly CAPITAL, for each of those which composed the name of a principal character were near a foot long. The play was for the benefit of a very eminent female performer, the bill was said to be written by herself, and thus was the evening's amusement announced:
"For the benefit of Mrs. ——. By particular desire of B—— G——, Esquire, and his most amiable lady: This present evening will be performed a deep tragedy, containing the doleful history of King Lear and his three daughters; with the merry conceits of his Majesty's fool, and the valorous exploits of General Edmund, the Duke of Glo'ster's bastard.—All written by one William Shakspeare, a mighty great poet, who was born in Warwickshire, and held horses for gentlemen at the sign of the Red Bull, in Saint John's Street, near West Smithfield; where was just such another playhouse as that to which we humbly invite you, and hope for the good company of all friends round the Wrekin.
"All you who would wish to cry, or to laugh, You had better spend your money here than in the alehouse, by half; And if you likes more about these things for to know, Come at six o'clock to the barn, in the High Street, Ludlow; Where, presented by live actors, the whole may be seen: So vivant Rex, God save the King, not forgetting the Queen."—E.