We beg you, sirs, to beg your men that they
Would please to give us leave to hear the play.
"Tom Dove," it may be noted, was a "bear-ward," or proprietor of
bears, of some fame; his name is frequently mentioned in the light
literature of the period.
At this time the servants were admitted gratis to the upper gallery of
the theatre on the conclusion of the fourth act of the play of the
evening. In 1697, however, Rich, the manager of the theatre in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, placed his gallery at their disposal, without
charge, during the whole of the evening. Cibber speaks of this
proceeding on the part of Rich as the lowest expedient to ingratiate
his company in public favour. Alarmed by the preference evinced by the
town for the rival theatre in Drury Lane, Rich conceived that this new
privilege would incline the servants to give his house "a good word in
the respective families they belonged to," and, further, that it would
greatly increase the applause awarded to his performances. In this
respect his plan seems to have succeeded very well.
Cibber relates that "it often thundered from the full gallery above,
while the thin pit and boxes below were in the utmost serenity.
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