The managers may have paid certain journals
for the regular insertion of advertisements, and received payment from
less favoured or less influential newspapers for theatrical news or
information.
One of Charles Lamb's most pleasant papers arose from "the casual
sight of an old playbill which I picked up the other day; I know not
by what chance it was preserved so long." It was but two-and-thirty
years old, however, and presented the cast of parts in "Twelfth Night"
at Old Drury Lane Theatre, destroyed by fire in 1809. Lamb's delight
in the stage needs not to be again referred to. "There is something
very touching in these old remembrances," he writes. "They make us
think how we once used to read a playbill, not as now, peradventure
singling out a favourite performer and casting a negligent eye over
the rest; but spelling out every name down to the very mutes and
servants of the scene; when it was a matter of no small moment to us
whether Whitfield or Packer took the part of Fabian; when Benson, and
Burton, and Phillimore--names of small account--had an importance
beyond what we can be content to attribute now to the time's best
actors.
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