It was the fashion for patrons of the stage at this time to treat its professors with great scorn, and often to view them with a kind of vindictive jealousy, “I see the gallants do begin to be tired with the vanity and pride of the theatre actors, who are indeed grown very proud and rich,” noted Pepys, in 1661.  In the second year of her reign, Queen Anne issued a decree “for the better regulation of the theatres,” the drama being at this period the frequent subject of royal interference, and strictly commanded that “no person of what quality soever should presume to go behind the scenes, or come upon the stage, either before or during the acting of any play; that no woman should be allowed, or presume to wear, a vizard mask in either of the theatres; and that no person should come into either house without paying the price established for their respective places.”

As the stage advanced more and more in public favour, the actors ceased to depend for existence upon private patronage and found it unnecessary to be included among the retinue and servants of the great.  After the Restoration patents were granted to Killigrew and Davenant, and their companions were described as the servants of the king and of the Duke of York respectively; but individual noblemen no longer maintained and protected “players of interludes” for their own private amusement.  And now the court began to come to the drama instead of requiring that the drama should be carried to the court.  Charles II. was probably the first English monarch who habitually joined with the general audience and occupied a box at a public theatre.  In addition, he followed the example of preceding sovereigns, and had plays frequently represented before him at Whitehall and other royal residences.  These performances took place at night, and were brilliantly lighted with wax candles.  With the fall of the Stuart dynasty the court theatricals ceased almost altogether.  Indeed, in Charles’s time there had been much decline in the dignity and exclusiveness of these entertainments; admission seems to have been obtainable upon payment at the doors, as though at a public theatre.  Evelyn writes in 1675:  “I saw the Italian Scaramuccio act before the king at Whitehall, people giving money to come in, which was very scandalous, and never so before at court diversions.  Having seen him act in Italy many years past, I was not averse from seeing the most excellent of that kind of folly.”

It is to be observed that in Pepys’s time, and long afterwards, the prices of admission to the theatres were:  Boxes, four shillings; pit, two shillings and sixpence; first gallery, one shilling and sixpence; and upper gallery, one shilling.  It became customary to raise the prices whenever great expenses had been incurred by the manager in the production of a new play or of a pantomime.  As the patent theatres were enlarged or rebuilt, however, the higher rate of charges became permanently established.  After