Edmund Bertram gave a good description of such an evening in Chapter 13 of\nMansfield Park;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNay,\u201d said Edmund, who began to listen with alarm. \u201cLet us do nothing by\nhalves. If we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit,\nboxes, and gallery, and let us have a play entire from beginning to end; so as\nit be a German play, no matter what, with a good tricking, shifting afterpiece,\nand a figure dance, and a hornpipe, and a song between the acts. If we do not\noutdo Ecclesford, we do nothing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I rather like to think that JA had heard of this odd combination of acts –\n(see below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you attended a night at the Theatre Royal or Covent Garden, what could\nyou expect to see? The answer is – quite a lot for your money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the audience was gathering- or rather rushing into their seats, the\norchestra would be playing various selections of music. This gave the audience a cue that the performance was about to begin (note,\nthe house lights could not be switched off to warn the audience of the\nimpending performance).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The orchestra sat in a sunken pit between the audience and the proscenium\narch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the arch would be hung the curtain – made of green baize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane Austen certainly got her facts right when it came to recreating an\nauthentic late Georgian\/early Regency theatrical performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you recall the curtain at the Mansfield Park theatricals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAn enormous roll of green baize had arrived from Northampton, and been\ncut out by Mrs. Norris (with a saving by her good management of full three\nquarters of a yard), and was actually forming into a curtain by the\nhousemaids.”<\/em> And;<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe must have a curtain,\u201d said Tom Bertram; \u201ca few yards of green baize\nfor a curtain, and perhaps that may be enough.\u201d<\/em>Chapter 13. (See earlier\npost linked here<\/a>\non green baize.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prompter then rang his bell once more and the beginning of entertainment\nproper began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there was to be a prologue the curtain did not rise, until after the\nprologue had been spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some prologues became well known. Audiences would demand that a particular\nprologue (and indeed epilogue) would be said whether it was announced on the\nplaybill or not. Mrs Siddons was renowned for speaking them very beautifully.\nThomas King who often said the prologue to David Garrick\u2019s Bon Ton (a play\nperformed by the Austen family at Steventon); this was considered to be one of\nthe high points of his career! (See Prologues and epilogues of the 18th\nCentury, by Mary Knapp (1956).)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then came the mainpiece -a five-act play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After pieces, usually two act farces, followed, but it was often considered\nthat this was not enough for the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The theatre management usually inserted some musical diversion or dancing\nbetween the two pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) examples of this incongruous custom\nwas the performance of “A Hornpipe in Wooden Shoes” after a\nperformance of Hamlet. See Charles Beecher Hogan (the London Stage (1770-1800).\nUnfortunately no date is given in Prof. Hogan’s book for this \u201cfamous\nperformance\u201d but I feel sure it would have appealed to JA sense of the\nridiculous. She must surely have heard of it (or performances like it) living\nin such a theatrically obsessed family, which lead her to make Edmund Bertram\npour forth his sarcastic speech quoted above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have found one dated playbill for such an incongruous evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Covent Garden Monday 24th October 1796;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Othello Moor of Venice (mainpiece)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterpiece Harlequin\u2019s Treasure<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a view of the Deserts of Arabia<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome Pass the Box-to be sung,\u201d composed by Arne<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prison scene with a Hornpipe danced in fetters by Blurton.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience of the period generally saw nothing unusual or odd about this\namalgam of unconnected pieces. However the fact the Edmund Bertram (or JA) made\nnote of the absurdity of it all indicates to me at least the possibility that\nnot everyone was enamored of such billings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They certainly appreciated variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also had to have stamina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The theatre Museum in London has calculated that most performances totaled 4\nhours. But there were notable exceptions. The performance of Hamlet at Drury\nLane on 8th March 1784 took 4 hours. After, that came a ballet \u201cThe Return of\nthe Hunters\u201d, which lasted 30 minutes. Then came a new two act musical farce,\n\u201cThe Double Disguise\u201d still to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A long night to sit on a wooden bench with no back to it. IMHO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wendeborn in his book \u201cA View of England\u201d vol. II p251-52 stated;“It has been frequently and perhaps not unjustly objected to English theatrical entertainments, that they last too long; and that the spectators, at least those in the pit and in the galleries <\/em>i.e. those who most often entered the theatre when the doors were first Edmund Bertram gave a good description of such an evening in Chapter 13 of Mansfield Park; \u201cNay,\u201d said Edmund, who began to listen with alarm. \u201cLet us do nothing by halves. If we are to act, let it be in … Continue reading
\nThis it did for two or sometimes three, separate intervals over a period of\nabout half an hour. The beginning of the music was preceded always by the\nringing of the prompter\u2019s bell. When the music ended the bell was rung\n(vigorously,) again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nChapter 14<\/p>\n\n\n\n
opened] are obliged to remain in their places above 4 hours together. It is\ntherefore the more necessary to keep the stage, during that time, always busy\nand that the dramatic writers should introduce as much variety in their plays\nand multiply the situations in them as much as possible. It is indeed very\nvisible in the theatres of London that the eyes and thoughts of the generality of\nspectators wander about much; that they begin to yawn and forget the play. For\nthis reason good humour is to be kept between the acts by means of songs,\ndances, processions and things of that kind have observed that this was\nnecessary even in many of Shakespeare’s plays to prevent drowsiness among the\naudience.\u201d\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"