"From this original hint, then, but every way unequal to it,
sprang forth that succession of monstrous medleys that have so long
infested the stage, and which arose upon one another alternately at
both houses, outvying in expense, like contending bribes on both sides
at an election, to secure a majority of the multitude." Cibber indeed
waxes very wrath over the matter, and appears to desire that lawful
authority should "interpose to put down these poetical drams, these
gin-shops of the stage, that intoxicate its auditors and dishonour
their understanding with a levity for which I want a name." But
Cibber's anger is in truth very much that of a manager vying with the
liberal outlay of a rival, and in such wise forced to expend large
sums in costly entertainments.
At an earlier date ballet-dancers had been imported from France. Some
time about 1704 the great Mr. Betterton and his company, suffering
from insufficient patronage at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields,
had been reduced to resort to "foreign novelties." Three of the most
famous dancers of the French Opera, L'Abbee, Balon, and Mademoiselle
Subligny, were at several times brought over at extraordinary rates to
revive that sickly appetite which plain sense and nature had satiated.
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