Sometimes the actor was able to hire or
purchase scenes and dresses, the latter being procured generally from
certain shops in Monmouth Street dealing in cast clothes and tarnished
frippery that did well enough for histrionic purposes; then, engaging
a company, he would start from London as a manager, to visit certain
districts where it was thought that a harvest might be reaped. The
receipts were divided among the troop upon a prearranged method. The
impresario took shares in his different characters of manager,
proprietor, and actor. Even the fragments of the candles that had
lighted the representations were divided amongst the company.
Permission had always to be sought of the local magnates before a
performance could be given; and the best-dressed and most
cleanly-looking actor was deputed to make this application, as well as
to conciliate the farmer or innkeeper, whose barn, stable, or great
room was to be hired for the occasion. Churchill writes:
The strolling tribe, a despicable race,
Like wandering Arabs, shift from place to place.
Vagrants by law, to justice open laid,
They tremble, of the beadle's lash afraid;
And fawning, cringe for wretched means of life
To Madame Mayoress or his worship's wife.
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