" As lessee of the Royal Circus or Surrey
Theatre, he besought liberty to exhibit and perform "all such
entertainments of music and action as were commonly called pantomimes
and ballets, together with operatic or musical pieces, accompanied
with dialogue in the ordinary mode of dramatic representations,"
subject, at all times, to the control and restraint of the Lord
Chamberlain, "in conformity to the laws by which theatres possessing
those extensive privileges were regulated." But all was in vain. The
king would not "notice any representation connected with the
establishment of another theatre." The other petitions were without
result.
Gradually, however, it became necessary for the authorities to
recognise the fact that the public really did require more amusements
of a theatrical kind than the privileged theatres could furnish. But
the regular drama, it was held, must still be protected: performed
only on the patent boards. So now "burletta licenses" were issued,
under cover of which melodramas were presented, with entertainments of
music and dancing, spectacle and pantomime.
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