at the doors, “nor any person admitted but by printed tickets, which will be delivered by Mr. Macklin, at his house in Bow Street, Covent Garden.”  At one of these performances Samuel Foote made his first appearance upon the stage, sustaining the part of Othello.  Presently, Foote ventured to give upon the stage of the Haymarket, a monologue entertainment, called “Diversions of a Morning.”  At the instance of Lacy, however, one of the patentees of Drury Lane Theatre, whom Foote had satirised, the performance was soon prohibited.  But Foote was not easily discouraged; and, by dint of wit and impudence, for some time baffled the authorities.  He invited his friends to attend the theatre, at noon, and “drink a dish of chocolate with him.”  He promised that he would “endeavour to make the morning as diverting as possible;” and notified that “Sir Dilbury Diddle would be there, and Lady Betty Frisk had absolutely promised.”  Tickets, without which no person would be admitted, were to be obtained at George’s Coffee House, Temple Bar.  Some simple visitors, no doubt, expected that chocolate would be really served to them.  But the majority were content with an announcement from the stage that, while chocolate was preparing, Mr. Foote would, with the permission of his friends, proceed with his instruction of certain pupils he was educating in the art of acting.  Under this pretence a dramatic representation was really given, and repeated on some forty occasions.  Then he grew bolder, and opened the theatre in the evening, at the request, as he stated, “of several persons who are desirous of spending an hour with Mr. Foote, but find the time inconvenient.”  Instead of chocolate in the morning, Mr. Foot’s friends were therefore invited to drink “a dish of tea” with him at half-past six in the evening.  By-and-by, his entertainment was slightly varied, and described as an Auction of Pictures.  Eventually, Foote obtained from the Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Chamberlain, a permanent license for the theatre, and the Haymarket took rank as a regular and legal place of entertainment, to be open, however, only during the summer months.  Upon Foote’s decease, the theatre devolved upon George Colman, who obtained a continuance of the license.

The theatre in Goodman’s Fields underwent experiences very similar to those of the Haymarket.  Under the provisions of the Licensing Act its performances became liable to the charge of illegality.  It was without a patent or a license.  It was kept open professedly for concerts of vocal and instrumental music, divided into two parts.  Between these parts dramatic performances were presented gratis.  The obscurity of the theatre, combined with its remote position, probably protected it for some time from interference and suppression.  But on the 19th October, 1741, at this unlicensed theatre, a gentleman, who, as the playbill of the night untruly stated, had never before appeared on any stage, undertook the part of Richard III. in Cibber’s version