the fact that it had been opened eight years before by “the French Comedians,” was also sometimes styled the French House. Next comes the no-longer-existent theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which Christopher Rich had rebuilt in 1714, and which his son John had made notorious for pantomimes. Here the Beggar’s Opera, precursor of a long line of similar productions, had just been successfully produced. Finally, most ancient of them all, there was the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, otherwise the King’s Play House, or Old House. The virtual patentees at this time were the actors Colley Cibber, Robert Wilks, and Barton Booth. The two former were just playing the Provok’d Husband, in which the famous Mrs. Oldfield (Pope’s “Narcissa”) had created a furore by her assumption of Lady Townley. These, in February 1728, were the four principal London theatres. Goodman’s Fields, where Garrick made his début, was not opened until the following year, and Covent Garden belongs to a still later date.
Fielding’s first dramatic essay—or, to speak more precisely, the first of his dramatic essays that was produced upon the stage—was a five-act comedy entitled Love in Several Masques. It was played at Drury Lane in February 1728, succeeding the Provok’d Husband. In his “Preface” the young author refers to the disadvantage under which he laboured in following close upon that comedy, and also in being “contemporary with an Entertainment which engrosses the whole Talk and Admiration of the Town,”—i.e. the Beggar’s Opera. He also acknowledges the kindness of Wilks and Cibber “previous to its Representation,” and the fact that he had thus acquired their suffrages makes it doubtful
