The Issue of this Trial threw me at that time into a very odd Reflexion, _viz._ That if acting Plays without License did not make the Performers Vagabonds unless they wandered from their Habitations so to do, how particular was the Case of Us three late Menaging Actors at the _Theatre-Royal_, who in twenty Years before had paid upon an Averidge at least Twenty Thousand Pounds to be protected (as Actors) from a Law that has not since appeared to be against us. Now, whether we might certainly have acted without any License at all I shall not pretend to determine; but this I have of my own Knowledge to say, That in Queen _Anne_'s Reign the Stage was in such Confusion, and its Affairs in such Distress, that Sir _John Vanbrugh_ and Mr. _Congreve_, after they had held it about one Year, threw up the Menagement of it as an unprofitable Post, after which a License for Acting was not thought worth any Gentleman's asking for, and almost seem'd to go a begging, 'till some time after, by the Care, Application, and Industry of three Actors, it became so prosperous, and the Profits so considerable, that it created a new Place, and a _Sine-cure_ of a Thousand Pounds a Year,[311] which the Labour of those Actors constantly paid to such Persons as had from time to time Merit or Interest enough to get their Names inserted as Fourth Menagers in a License with them for acting Plays, _&c._ a Preferment that many a Sir _Francis Wronghead_ would have jump'd at.[312] But to go on with my Story. This Endeavour of the Patentees to suppress the Comedians acting in the _Hay-Market_ proving ineffectual, and no Hopes of a Reunion then appearing, the Remains of the Company left in _Drury-Lane_ were reduced to a very low Condition. At this time a third Purchaser, _Charles Fleetwood_, Esq., stept in; who judging the best Time to buy was when the Stock was at the lowest Price, struck up a Bargain at once for Five Parts in Six of the Patent;[313] and, at the same time, gave the revolted Comedians their own Terms to return and come under his Government in _Drury-Lane_, where they now continue to act at very ample Sallaries, as I am informed, in 1738.[314] But (as I have observ'd) the late Cause of the prosecuted Comedian having gone so strongly in his Favour, and the House in _Goodman's-Fields_, too, continuing to act with as little Authority unmolested; these so tolerated Companies gave Encouragement to a broken Wit to collect a fourth Company, who for some time acted Plays in the _Hay-Market_, which House the united _Drury-Lane_ Comedians had lately quitted: This enterprising Person, I say (whom I do not chuse to name,[315] unless it could be to his Advantage, or that it were of Importance) had Sense enough to know that the best Plays with bad Actors would turn but to a very poor Account; and therefore found it necessary to give the Publick some Pieces of an extraordinary Kind, the Poetry of which he conceiv'd ought to be so strong that the greatest Dunce of an Actor could not spoil it: He knew, too, that as he was in haste to get Money, it would take up less time to be intrepidly abusive than decently entertaining; that to draw the Mob after him he must rake the Channel[316] and pelt their Superiors; that, to shew himself somebody, he must come up to _Juvenal_'s Advice and stand the Consequence: