The History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare (Volume 3); And Annals of the Stage to the Restoration (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1831. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... from the passage. Violetta observes, 'We have excellent poets in town, they say;' to which Sir Nicholas replies, with some astonishment, 'I'th' town? what makes so 'many scholars, then, come from Oxford and Cambridge, 'with dossers full of lamentable tragedies and ridiculous 'comedies, which they might here vent to the players, but 'they will take no money for them.' He seems to mean, either that the players will not consent to take money for acting them, or he speaks ironically, -that the scholars ' will take no money for them, ' because they can prevail upon none of the companies to buy them. on the payment of actors. The performers at our earlier theatres were distinguished into whole sharers, three-quarter sharers, half sharers, and hired men. Into how many shares the receipts at the doors were divided, in any instance, does not appear; and, doubtless, it depended upon the number of persons of which a company consisted, and other circumstances. Malone ' suspected ' that the money taken was separated into forty portions, and that the receipts at the Globe or Blackfriars did not usually amount to more than 91. on each performance: he assigns fifteen of the forty shares to the housekeepers or proprietors, and twenty-two shares to the actors, leaving three shares to be applied to the purchase of new plays. His notion of the nightly receipts was founded upon1 the accounts of Sir Henry Herbert, which, on this point; do not begin earlier than the year 1628. The King's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 170. players, performing in the summer at the Globe, and in the winter at the Blackfriars, allowed him a benefit at each theatre, for five years and a half: the highest amount he netted was in the first year of this bargain, when he received 17/. 10s.; and the lowest 11. 5s...