I know it is the common Opinion, That the more Play-houses the more Emulation; I grant it; but what has this Emulation ended in? Why, a daily Contention which shall soonest surfeit you with the best Plays; so that when what _ought_ to please can no _longer_ please, your Appetite is again to be raised by such monstrous Presentations as dishonour the Taste of a civiliz'd People.[89] If, indeed, to our several Theatres we could raise a proportionable Number of good Authors to give them all different Employment, then perhaps the Publick might profit from their Emulation: But while good Writers are so scarce, and undaunted Criticks so plenty, I am afraid a good Play and a blazing Star will be equal Rarities. This voluptuous Expedient, therefore, of indulging the Taste with several Theatres, will amount to much the same variety as that of a certain Oeconomist, who, to enlarge his Hospitality, would have two Puddings and two Legs of Mutton for the same Dinner.[90]--But to resume the Thread of my History.
These two excellent Companies were both prosperous for some few Years, 'till their Variety of Plays began to be exhausted: Then of course the better Actors (which the King's seem to have been allowed) could not fail of drawing the greater Audiences. Sir _William Davenant_, therefore, Master of the Duke's Company, to make Head against their Success, was forced to add Spectacle and Musick to Action; and to introduce a new Species of Plays, since call'd Dramatick Opera's, of which kind were the _Tempest_, _Psyche_, _Circe_, and others, all set off with the most expensive Decorations of Scenes and Habits, with the best Voices and Dancers.[91]
This sensual Supply of Sight and Sound coming in to the Assistance of the weaker Party, it was no Wonder they should grow too hard for Sense and simple Nature, when it is consider'd how many more People there are, that can see and hear, than think and judge. So wanton a Change of the publick Taste, therefore, began to fall as heavy upon the King's Company as their greater Excellence in Action had before fallen upon their Competitors: Of which Encroachment upon Wit several good Prologues in those Days frequently complain'd.[92]
But alas! what can Truth avail, when its Dependance is much more upon the Ignorant than the sensible Auditor? a poor Satisfaction, that the due Praise given to it must at last sink into the cold Comfort of--_Laudatur & Alget_.[93] Unprofitable Praise can hardly give it a _Soup maigre_. Taste and Fashion with us have always had Wings, and fly from one publick Spectacle to another so wantonly, that I have been inform'd by those who remember it, that a famous Puppet-shew[94] in _Salisbury_ Change (then standing where _Cecil-Street_ now is) so far distrest these two celebrated Companies, that they were reduced to petition the King for Relief against it: Nor ought we perhaps to think this strange, when, if I mistake not, _Terence_ himself reproaches the _Roman_ Auditors of his Time with the like Fondness for the _Funambuli_, the Rope-dancers.[95] Not to dwell too long therefore upon that Part of my History which I have only collected from oral Tradition, I shall content myself with telling you that _Mohun_[96] and _Hart_ now growing old (for, above thirty Years before this Time, they had severally born the King's Commission of Major and Captain in the Civil Wars), and the younger Actors, as _Goodman_,[97] _Clark_,[98] and others, being impatient to get into their Parts, and growing intractable,[99] the Audiences too of both Houses then falling off, the Patentees of each, by the King's Advice, which perhaps amounted to a Command, united their Interests and both Companies into one, exclusive of all others, in the Year 1682.[100] This Union was, however, so much in favour of the Duke's Company, that _Hart_ left the Stage upon it, and _Mohun_ survived not long after.