But necessarily the enterprise
ended in disaster. Palmer, his friends alleged, lost his whole
fortune; it was shrewdly suspected, however, that he had, in truth, no
fortune to lose. In any case he speedily retired from the new theatre.
It was open for brief seasons with such exhibitions of music, dancing,
and pantomime, as were held to be unaffected by the Act, and
permissible under the license of the local magistrates. From time to
time, however, the relentless patentees took proceedings against the
actors. Delpini, the clown, was even committed to prison for
exclaiming "Roast Beef!" in a Christmas pantomime. By uttering words
without the accompaniment of music he had, it appeared, constituted
himself an actor of a stage play.
Some five-and-twenty years later, Elliston was now memorialising the
king, now petitioning the House of Commons and the Privy Council, in
reference to the opening of an additional theatre. He had been in
treaty for the Pantheon, in Oxford Street, and urged that "the
intellectual community would be benefited by an extension of license
for the regular drama.
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