Playgoers were bidden to be content with
Drury Lane and Covent Garden; it was not conceivable to the noblemen
and commoners occupying the Houses of Parliament, or to the
place-holders in the Chamberlain's office, or in the royal household,
that other theatres could possibly be required.
Still attempts were occasionally made to establish additional places
of entertainment. In 1785, John Palmer, the actor famous as the
original Joseph Surface, laid the first stone of a new theatre, to be
called the East London, or Royalty, in the neighbourhood of the old
Goodman's Fields Theatre, which had been many years abandoned of the
actors and converted into a goods warehouse. The building was
completed in 1787. The opening representation was announced; when the
proprietors of the patent theatres gave warning that any infringement
of their privileges would be followed by the prosecution of Mr. Palmer
and his company. The performances took place, nevertheless, but they
were stated to be for the benefit of the London Hospital, and not,
therefore, for "hire, gain, or reward;" so the actors avoided risk of
commitment as rogues and vagabonds.
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