The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-13 00:00:00

COBURG THEATRE,

On Saturday night this Theatre closed for the season.
At the conclusion of the first piece, Mr. Davidge came
forward and delivered the following address, and was
warmly received by the audience :
L 'dies and Gentlemen,—Established custom, no less
than those feelings of gratitude which your continued
kindness cannot fail to keep alive, brings me before you
on the last evening of the season, to express my thanks
for the liberal patronage with which you have honored
the theatre since the same pleasing duty last called me to
your presence. The interval, Ladies and Gentlemen, has
been one of vicissitude; the storm of persecuti..n has as-
sailed me, from which I have found welter and consolation
in the sunshine of your smiles. I have been visited by a
legal prosecution—l have been compelled to disburse
heavy penalties--I have been thus punished, Ladies and
Gentlemen, for having endeavoured to render the amuse-
ments of this theatre more deserving your approbation,
for the attempt to make them keep pace with that march
of intellect of which we hear so much, but which it
would seem the law of the land would arrest on the
threshold of the Coburg Theatre. These penalties have
indeed been inflicted by the law; but it is by a law which
I have reason to hope will not long be suffered to dis-
grace our statute book, to oppress me, or to limit your
entertainment. This law was enforced, with what degree
of decency it would not become me to point out, by the
foreign director of an English national theatre, enforced
against me, whilst a neighbouring establishment has in its
daily announcements, and its nightly performances,
breathed on it defiance, and treated it with contempt.—
God forbid that I should invoke its vengeance on any man ;
but I may, perhaps, be permitted to express some sense of
hardship, when it allows to another that course of action
from which it would restrain, for which it would crush
me. But from this I have to turn to a more pleasing side
of the picture, and advert to circumstances which excite
a thrill of grateful triumph that chases far every feeling of
indignant oppression or despondent gloom. From the mo-
ment that prosecution was levelled at me, the fortunes of
this theatre have risen to an unexampled pitch of pros-
perity, and I can with perfect confidence assert, that for
many months succeeding that transaction the receipts of
these doors were more than double any amount they had
ever before attained. This is indeed a proud source of
exultation, which enables me to laugh to scorn the ebulli-
tions of jealousy or the efforts of malice ;—thus supported
by your liberality, I may say your justice, I bid defiance to
enemies, and view rivals with complacency.
Before retiring from your presence, there is another
point on which I feel myself called on to offer an observa-
tion—the practice of admitting the public to this theatre by
orders requiring the payment of a small sum, has been
made a source of most indecent ridicule, and of bitter cen-
sure. I do not know that any man is accountable for
financial arrangements in which his own interest only is at
stake; but I cannot suffer to pass unnoticed the elegant
effusions to which this system has given rise in a neigh-
bouring establishment, where, to pass over the observations
made in a celebrated farce lately enacted there for one
night only, poetry like the following is sung, for the en-
tertainment of the more refined company who frequent it,
wherein, alluding to tjis threatre, it is said or sung—
There are nightly in the boxes
Coal-heavers sitting with their doxies.

So much for the good taste and good feeling of those
who are perpetually puffing their lofty pretensions, when
I have it in my power to prove that the same system, I
mean that of shilling orders, was so far in contemplation,
that they were actually printed and prepared for circula-
tion. Whether I have done ill or well in adopting such a
system, the public will probably not feel themselves called
on to decide, I was incited to it by seeing it practised on
many sides of me; but this I am proud to state, and I call
en you to attest the fact, that if I have lowered the prices
of admission I have not derogated from the character of
the entertainment ; that during the last season, the degree
of novelty and talent that has been submitted to your ap-
probation, has net been excelled at any period since the
erection of the theatre. And lam further most proud to
state, in answer to the contemptible insinuations to which
I have alluded, that since the introduction of the shilling
orders, the boxes of this theatre have been graced by a de-
gree of respectability and fashion not surpassed by the
most brilliant audiences ever attracted to this side of the
water.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is your approbation, your
good opinion only, that I covet ; and honoured, munificently
honoured, as I have been, and hope to be by that, the sar-
casms of rivals, or the efforts of persecution, shall be shaken
off like dew-drops from the lion's mane. To obtain this,
Ladies and Gentlemen, shall be the object of my continued
exertions—of my most strenuous industry. Ere we meet
again on Easter Monday, the decorations of this building
will be replaced with a degree of novelty and elegance
which I hope will, in some measure, express my gratitude
for yourpatronage; much novelty will be prepared for your
entertainment ; and this much shall at least be proved,
that though a small price of admission may be received at
the doors, there shall be no niggardliness of expenditure
within them. Till that period, Ladies and Gentlemen,
with feelings more deep, more powerful, than I have
language to express, in my own name and that of the per-
formers, permit me to bid you most respectfnlly farewell.
This address was received with rapturous applause.