er 
1826.) The Theatre—Its Literature, and General Arrangement. 51 
bat one tier of boxes into which they can be carried without offence: this is a 
place of full dress, and the expense of coaches, superadded to that .of the 
admission, makes the cost, where a man’s family amounts to four or five, not 
more perhaps, than half-a-guinea each ! 
This is not the way to make any trade thrive—to give away two-thirds of the 
commodity produced, in hopes of getting a needless: price for the remainder. 
And if the prices of Covent Garden Theatre were four shillings for the boxes 
to-morrow, half-a-crown for the pit, and eighteen-pence for the first gallery, 
more money would be received than is received under the present system, The 
nicest stickler for ‘‘ selectness,’”? need have no fear that this measure would 
bring the pit people into the boxes. If it did, the result would only be that 
these last would be about sixty times more respectably occupied tlian they are 
at present. But, in fact, if the boxes were four shillings to-morrow, and to bring 
them down as low only as five would be a very encouraging step towards paying 
to go into thém, it should be recollected that the terms of admission are now 
three shillings and six-pence—three and six-pence is the “ half-price” which 
lets aman into the bowes just as fully as thongh he paid his seven shillings in the 
beginning of the evening. It is mere impudence to talk of maintaining select- 
ness by charging seven shillings for the entrance to a particular place at seven 
o’clock at night, when at nine o’clock, upon the very people who have paid 
their seven shillings for this “ selectness,” you let in as mahy as you can find 
for half the money; not to speak of the filthy rabble—and all this rout bound 
especially to come at the seven shilling price too, before seven o’clock—which 
you pour in (to fill the house) for nothing. 
In fact, the real calculation upon which managers hug their system of high 
prices is not at all connected with any view as to “ selectness;” and it is more- 
over a mistaken one. The object of these prices and the gain which the up- 
holders expected to derive from them, is that they enable the theatres to realise 
very large sums in a short time, whenever by chance the tide of public taste or 
curiosity happens to set in their favour. But this is hardly a legitimate object 
in trading ; and it is one which would almost necessarily lead, as it has done, 
to an unprofitable result. The drama specifically ceased to be the business of 
the manager, and the profit of furnishing it to the public at a reasonable rate 
Was given up; and the theatre was converted into a mere show-room, to which 
people might run in crowds, every now and then, to stare and wonder at some 
strange object, nomatter of what character, But upon this system of accustoming 
the town to run in shoals to see monsters, and relinquishing all expectation of 
gain except from these occasional exhibitions, the dealers place themselves in 
this situation—that the monster they must have or they fail. A splendid theatre 
and a costly company becomes the mere table upon which—with Mr. Macready 
or the man-monkey—the game of the season is to be played. And then, the 
** star ” whom they themselves have placarded into greatness, knowing that he 
must be had, or that there can be no profit, turns round upon them and demands 
such terms as, when they have him, leaves them without any profit at all. 
This was the old trick of killing the goose to get at the eggs; raising the price 
to destroy the demand, and it does not do. Four shillings the boxes, three the 
pit, and the galleries left as they are, are the highest prices, all fees cut off, 
which ought to be taken at the patent theatres. Four shillings, half-a-crown, 
and eighteen-pence—leaving the half-price nearly or altogether as it stands— 
would probably do better. The marshalment of company, too, in the houses, 
ought to be altered. The “first circle,’ as it is called, which is in reality the 
second, should be kept in the same order as regards the admission of respecta- 
ble persons only, with the “ dress ” tier below it. Why should not ladies be 
permitted, if they think fit to do so, to walk to theatres which are open from 
September to July, and yet be considered entitled to decent accommodations 
when they get there? What can the manager, whose business it is to sell his 
admissions, possibly gain by making it inconvenient to them to do so? 
The proprietors both of Covent Garden Theatre and of Drury Lane may rely 
upon it that their present high prices nig no party, unless it be the party of 
