privilege of watching her lover, Captain Plume.  Of course the deception is discovered, and all ends happily in the orthodox fashion [the only bit of orthodoxy about the performance, by-the-way].  The girl is allowed to marry the Captain and settles down, we may suppose, to the pleasures of domesticity and woman’s gowns.  The comedy was admirably acted throughout, Wilks, Cibber, and that prince of mimics, Dick Estcourt, being in the cast, and the seal of popular approval was quickly put upon the production.  At present such a seal should bring hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars into the pockets of the author, but it is possible that a few paltry pounds represented the profits of Farquhar.[A]

[Footnote A:  The “Recruiting Officer” first saw the light in April 1706.]

In the meantime the spirit of discontent was abroad among the members of the Drury Lane company.  Well it might be when the manager of the house, as Cibber points out, “had no conception himself of theatrical merit either in authors or actors, yet his judgment was govern’d by a saving rule in both.  He look’d into his receipts for the value of a play, and from common fame he judg’d of his actors.  But by whatever rule he was govern’d, while he had prudently reserv’d to himself a power of not paying them more than their merit could get, he could not be much deceived by their being over or undervalued.  In a word, he had with great skill inverted the constitution of the stage, and quite changed the channel of profits arising from it; formerly (when there was but one company) the proprietors punctually paid the actors their appointed sallaries, and took to themselves only the clear profits:  But our wiser proprietor took first out of every day’s receipts two shillings in the pound to himself; and left their sallaries to be paid only as the less or greater deficiencies of acting (according to his own accounts) would permit.  What seem’d most extraordinary in these measures was, that at the same time he had persuaded us to be contented with our condition, upon his assuring us that as fast as money would come in we should all be paid our arrears.”

Lawyer Rich lived too soon.  How useful would he have been in these latter days, when irresponsible managers infest the profession and turn an honest penny by trading on the credulity and unbusinesslike qualities of many a deluded player.  The average manager pays his debts and is quite as stable and upright in his dealings as one could desire, but what can be said of the man who take companies “on the road,” after making all sorts of glowing promises, and finally elopes with the money-box, leaving his actors stranded in a strange city.  Incidents of this kind, which to the victims have more of tragedy than any play in their repertoire, occur almost every day during the theatrical season, but nothing is done to prevent the ever-increasing scandal.  The erstwhile proprietor of the company returns by Pullman car to New York, complains loudly about “poor business,” a “sunken fortune,” &c., and then prepares to take out another combination.  As for his dupes, who are probably half-starving in some third class western town, they may walk home on the railroad ties.