* * * * *

And now Cibber announces that he expects to shock us, although the story he goes on to disclose is not in any sense improper.  Could it be that according to his eighteenth century reverence for precedence the crime lay in the rough and tumble way in which, as he ventures to show, an humble player treated the future husband of a dethroned Countess.  Here, at least, is the awful tale: 

* * * * *

“After twenty excuses to clear himself of the neglect I had so warmly charged him with, he concluded them with telling me he had been out all the morning upon business and that his linnen was too much soil’d to be seen in company.  Oh, ho! said I, is that all?  Come along with me, we will soon get over that dainty difficulty.  Upon which I haul’d him by the sleeve into my shifting-room, he either staring, laughing, or hanging back all the way.  There, when I had lock’d him in, I began to strip off my upper cloaths, and bade him do the same; still he either did not or would not seem to understand me, and continuing his laugh, cry’d, What! is the puppy mad?  No, No, only positive, said I; for look you, in short, the play is ready to begin, and the parts that you and I are to act to-day are not of equal consequence; mine of young Reveller (in ’Greenwich Park’[A]) is but a rake; but whatever you may be, you are not to appear so; therefore take my shirt and give me yours; for depend upon’t, stay here you shall not, and so go about your business.

[Footnote A:  A play written by Mountford.]

“To conclude, we fairly chang’d linnen, nor could his mother’s have wrap’d him up more fortunately; for in about ten days he marry’d the Lady.”

* * * * *

The gallant Colonel not only married the ex-Countess but became so flirtatious with at least one other woman that he suggested to Cibber the most risque scene in the “Careless Husband.”  This, then, was the model gentleman to whom Skipwith made over a share in the Drury Lane patent, and through whose efforts the rival companies were united in 1708.  Swiney, according to the orders of the Lord Chamberlain, was to conduct the Haymarket for operatic performances, and the players were all to act at the older house.

For a time life at the theatre went as merrily as a marriage bell.  The public, of both high and low degree, crowded Drury Lane, and every one was happy excepting sour-faced Rich, who saw with disgust that the plausible, insinuating Brett was fast overshadowing him in the management.  How wily Christopher schemed and schemed, and how the gay Colonel was finally compelled to relinquish his portion of the patent altogether, are details that need not be set forth here.  It will suffice to say, that as a result of all this intriguing, affairs at Drury Lane assumed an almost chaotic character.  Nor was it long before Owen Swiney entered into treaty with Wilks, Dogget, Mrs. Oldfield and Cibber, who were to come over to the Haymarket as the heads of a new company.