Note 7 — Chapter V · DRAMATIC POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS.
Reading edition
Crowne himself assigns another reason, which may have had weight in some quarters: ‘I presume your ladyship nauseates comedies. They are so ill-bred, and saucy with quality, and always crammed with our odious sex. At tragedies the house is all lined with beauty, and then a gentleman may endure it,’—a confirmation of the statement that modest women avoided the comic theatre, or went masked.