_Prologue, "The Twin Rivals," Farquhar, produced 1702._
"In Dryden's time," writes Dr. Johnson, explaining that with all his
diligence in play-writing the poet could not greatly improve his
fortune,[2] "the drama was very far from that universal approbation
which it has now obtained. The playhouse was abhorred by the Puritans,
and avoided by those who desired the character of seriousness or
decency. A grave lawyer would have debased his dignity, and a young
trader would have impaired his credit by appearing in those mansions
of dissolute licentiousness. The profits of the theatre, when so many
classes of the people were deducted from the audience, were not
great, and the poet had, for a long time, but a single night. The
first that had two nights was Southern; and the first that had three
was Rowe. There were, indeed, in those days, arts of improving a
poet's profit, which Dryden forbore to practise; but a play seldom
produced him more than a hundred pounds by the accumulated gain of the
third night, the dedication, and the copy."
[2] He had, it was alleged, entered into a contract to furnish
four plays in each year.
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