1826.] The Theatre—Its Literature, and General Arrangement. 49 
sive right during such a period as three years (without going to the extent of the 
French law) would increase the profit of a successful dramatic author very 
largely ; the poet would not then stand entirely below every other artist 
concerned in furnishing the material of theatrical entertainment ; and we might 
probably have some man of real talent, making the experiment, whether he 
could not write for the stage. 
~ But still, with ali the humbug, the trade of the impresario is not a profitable 
cone. Take the amount of debt (unpaid) incurred by the several theatresin London 
within the last twenty years, and set it against the amount which we may sup- 
pose managers and proprietors (who don’t live extravagantly) to have spent; 
and the general trade will be found probably to have been carried on at a loss. 
From the rebuilding of Drury-lane Theatre, under Whitbread, to the beginning 
of Elliston’s lease, there was a loss ef between £80,000 and £90,000. Part 
of this debt has since been reduced by Elliston’s annual payments of rent; but 
Elliston now, in his turn, stops, in six years, for £30,000. In the mean time 
three-fourths of the minor theatres have been bankrupt sixteen times over ; each 
establishment—the whole assets of it—not paying a candle-snuffing in the pound. 
Covent-Garden, with fresh capital brought in, has managed to rub on-(while 
others were starving); so the Haymarket, and so the Lyceum (with the aid .of 
Mathews’s entertainments, which have brought large sums of money and cost 
almost nothing); but it has been only living—only a moderate return upon ca-~ 
spital—not making large profits, or retiring with great fortunes. 
Now, part of this failure of profit arises, no doubt, from the interference of 
new theatres; but a good slice of it (probably the greater part) seems to be 
owing to the arrangements of the patent managers themselves, whose conduct 
of their trade is certainly two centuries behind the spirit of the time, upon 
every principle of common reason or commercial policy. 
It is hardly worth while to say any thing about the dimension of the patent 
theatres, though they are too large. Large theatres assist several descriptions 
of entertainments, which are now popular, and to which, in combination with 
others, there is no objection; they keep the galleries at a good distance from 
the lower boxes, which is extremely convenient; and, though the fourth row 
in the pit is the best seat in the house, yet every body, if the house were 
smaller, could not get into it; and he who does get into it—unless the floor 
would open and take compassion, or a hand be stretched forth from the ceiling 
his relief—the Lord have mercy upon him when he wants to get out of it | 
But the policy, unfortunately, which led to this extension in the size of the 
theatres, originated in the same mistake which pervades all the rest of their 
arrangements—an anxiety to grasp at the gain of half-a-crown additional to-day, 
although we lose a guinea or even ten guineas in consequence of it to-morrow. 
And first, in order perhaps, that people who do come to the theatre may be 
known to come there purely for intellectual enjoyment, care is taken at Covent- 
Garden theatre (and at Drury-lane there is no company) that when they are 
there,-they shall suffer every possible bodily inconvenience. In the pit, of 
which the “ fourth row ” is the best place in the house—it is only within these 
five years, at either theatre, that there have been backs to the benches. Peo- 
ple sat like wretches impaled, suffering under one infliction, to listen to another. 
For the boxes (at Covent-Garden), by the arrangement of making them eight 
“or nine seats deep, and leaving no clear passage down the centre, those who sit 
there might as well sit in the gallery ; and he who would come into the front 
Tow, or quit it, after the curtain is up, must climb over eight benches, and crush 
twenty or thirty people—not to speak of those who resist, and whom he has to 
fight—in his progress. Then, after the “ half-price,” what with the getting 
an extra fifty shillings by cramming the upper gallery fuller than it will hold ; 
_»and the statutable nuisance which might be kept within more reasonable bounds 
(although it cannot be got rid of altogether), in the boxes; from nine o’clock to 
the end of the evening, the whole house is disturbed every instant with quarrels 
and clapping of doors; besides that two-thirds of its extent exhibits one con- 
tinued scene of every character of riot, intemperance, and indecency. 
H 
M.M. New Series —Vour. H. No.7. 
