The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-08
Theatres OF OIaen Time-AUdiences
Seated upon the StaGe-Piny-house
Customs OF the Past. ~.
From Cassel's Magazine

For a long time the spectators who were
admitted to seats upon the stage seriously
incommoded the actors and afronted
the less privileged portion of the audi
ence. In an early Spectator, Steele, de-
scribing visit to the Haymarket Theatre,
makes mention Of his surprise at seeing q
well-dressed young fellow in afull bot
toned wig appear in the MIDST Of the sea,
and, without any visible concern, take
snuff. The Fine Gentleman in Garrick's
little comedy Of "Lethe /" describes to
iEsop his manner of spending his evenings:
81 dress and SO generally behind the
scenes Of both play houses-not, you may
imagine, to be diverted with the play, but
to intrigue and show myself. | stand upon
the stage, talk loud and stare about, which
confounds the actors and diSturbs the au-
dience, upon which the galleries, who hate
the appearance of one of us, begin to hiss
and cry, "Off, off !" while I, undaunted,
stamp my foot so, loll with my shoulders
thus, take snuff with my right hand, and
smile scornfully thus. This exasperates
the savages, and they attack US with VOL
leys of sucked oranges and halE-eaten pip
pins" And you retire :" Esop in
QulTeS. w lluOuG OOuUl, 1CpllCo luO
Fine Gentleman, "If l am sober; for
orange will stain silk, and an apple dis
figure feature"
It was long custom in the London
theatres, on special occasions or particular
benefits, to accommodate an overlooking
house by means of benches erected across
the stage, rising one above the others, un-
til sometimes the spectators were perched
up higher than the trees Of the scenery,
and hats and bonnets were beheld fastened
to the clouds. The play of Garrick's
benefit in l742 contains an announcement
that {" the stage will be formed into an am
phitheatre, where servants will be allowed
to keep places" In the following year it
was stated ''The stage will be formed
into side boxes, and seven rows of the pit
will be rallied into boxes" The entrances
were oftentimes, on these occasions, so
choked up by the spectators that the play
ers could hardly come upon the scene );
"and," says an authority, "the feats Of
Bosworth Field, amidst drums, trumpets,
battle-axes, and spears, were enacted be-
tween two audiences, while Richard spoke
his tent soliloquy and his dying lines upon
q carpet no bigger than tablecloth."
Tate Wilkinson relates that he had seen
Mrs. Cibber, as Juliet, prostrating herself
on an old couch covered with black cloth,
to represent the tomb of the Capnlets,
with at least two hundred persons behind
her; and that when Quin returned to the
stage for one night to play Falstaff for
Ryan's benefit, notwithstanding the impa-
tience of the audience to see their old
favorite, it was several minutes before he
could force his way on to the stage through
the numbers that wedged him in. Is 5s.4.
But this arrangement, however remune-
rative to the actor whose benefit was thus
SO literally patronized, was very unsatis-
factory to those among the spectators who
came to the theatre for entertainment and
with an eye to scenic illusion. Moreover,
chickering's and jealousies ensued between
the audiences before and behind the cur
TAIN. Thereupon arose a practice, espe-
cially favored by the less popular come
dams, of inserting at the bottom of their
advertisements and play-bills, by way of
an additional attraction, notice in the
following terms: ON. B.-There will be
no building on the STAGE" Thus, on the
occasion of Mrs. Bellamy's benefit, in
1853, the bills Of the night announced:
'"No part of the pit will be rallied into
boxes, nor any building on the stage.n'