In such wise the loss sustained from the condemnation of
a play at its first representation would not fall solely upon the
manager; the author would at least be a fellow-sufferer. Gradually the
chance of the overplus was deferred from the second to the third
performance. The system no doubt varied according to the position of
the dramatist, who, if he were a successful writer, could make his own
terms, so far as the selection of the overplus night was concerned.
Sir John Denham, in the prologue to his tragedy, "The Sophy," acted at
Blackfriars about 1642, speaks of the second _or_ third day's overplus
as belonging to the poet:
Gentlemen, if you dislike the play,
Pray make no words on't till the second day
Or third be passed.
After the Restoration it became a settled practice that what was then
called "the author's night" should be the third performance of his
play; and the dramatist in time received further profit from
subsequent representations.
Then grant 'em generous terms who dare to write,
Since now that seems as dangerous as to fight;
If we must yield yet ere the day be fixt,
Let us hold out the third, and, if we may, the sixth.
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