afterwards advanced considerably.  Still the actors had special sources of profit.  Their admirers and patrons were not content to pay merely the ordinary prices of admission, but bought their tickets at advanced rates, and often sent presents of money in addition.  Thus Betterton—­whose salary, by-the-bye, was only L4 per week—­took a benefit in 1709, when he received L76 for two-thirds of the receipts upon the ordinary scale—­one-third being deducted by the manager for expenses—­and a further sum of L450 for the extra payments and presents of his friends.  The boxes and pit were “laid together,” as it was called, and half-a-guinea was charged for admission.  “One lady gave him ten guineas, some two, and most one guinea.  Further, he delivered tickets for more persons than the boxes, pit, and stage could hold, and it was thought that he cleared L450 at least over and above the L76.”  Certainly the great actor enjoyed on this occasion of his benefit what is popularly known as “a bumper."[3]

[3] Macready, on the occasion of his taking a benefit, invariably refused to receive any payment in excess of the ordinary charges for admission to the theatre, and was wont, with a polite note of thanks, to return the balance to those who, as he judged, had overpaid him for their tickets.

The system of actors’ benefits having thus become thoroughly established, was soon extended and made applicable to other purposes, for the most part of a charitable kind.  Thus, in 1711, a benefit performance was given in aid of Mrs. Betterton, the widow of the late famous tragedian, who had herself been an actress, but had for some time ceased to appear on the stage owing to age and other infirmities.  The “Tatler,” after an account of Betterton’s funeral, describes feelingly the situation of his widow:  “The mention I have here made of Mr. Betterton, for whom I had, as long as I have known anything, a very great esteem and gratitude, for the pleasure he gave me, can do him no good; but it may possibly be of service to the unhappy woman he has left behind him, to have it known that this great tragedian was never in a scene half so moving as the circumstances of his affairs created at his departure.  His wife, after a cohabitation of forty years in the strictest amity, has long pined away with a sense of his decay, as well in his person as in his little fortune; and in proportion to that she has herself decayed both in health and reason.  Her husband’s death, added to her age and infirmities, would certainly have terminated her life, but that the greatness of her distress has been her relief by her present deprivation of her senses.  This absence of her reason is her best defence against age, sorrow, poverty, and sickness."[4] Indeed, Steele constantly testifies his fondness for the theatre and kindly feeling towards the players, by calling attention to the benefit performances, and bespeaking the public favour for them, adding much curious mention and humorous criticism of the comedians who were especially the objects of his admiration—­Pinkethman, Bullock, Underbill, Dogget, and others.