"
In our early theatres, the arrangements for receiving the money of the
playgoers were rather of a confused kind. There would seem to have
been several doors, one within the other, at any of which visitors
might tender their admission money. It was understood that he who,
disapproving the performance, withdrew after the termination of the
first act of the play, was entitled to receive back the amount he had
paid for his entrance. This system led to much brawling and fraud. The
matter was deemed important enough to justify royal intervention. An
order was issued in 1665, reciting that complaints had been made by
"our servants, the actors in the Royal Theatre," of divers persons
refusing to pay at the first door of the said theatre, thereby
obliging the doorkeepers to send after, solicit, and importune them
for their entrance-money, and stating it to be the royal will and
pleasure, for the prevention of these disorders, and so that such as
are employed by the said actors might have no opportunity of deceiving
them, that all persons thenceforward coming to the said theatre should
at the first door pay their entrance-money, which was to be restored
to them again in case they returned the same way before the end of the
act.
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