In England systematised entertainments of dancing and
singing were brought upon the English stage by Davenant, "to check,"
we are told, "the superiority enjoyed by the royal comedians in their
exhibition of the regular drama." English singing, however, had
declined in public favour when the taste for Italian opera arose here
about the close of the seventeenth century, and dancing became then
the only feasible counter-attraction to the regular drama. The first
ballets were produced at small cost; but by-and-by the managers
increased more and more their expenditure on account of the dancers,
until the rival theatres were compared to candidates at an election,
competing in bribery to secure "a majority of the multitude." Cibber,
while defending himself against Pope's attack upon him in "The
Dunciad," admitted that he had not virtue enough to starve by opposing
the public, and pleaded guilty to the charge of having as a manager
produced very costly ballets and spectacles. At the same time he
condemned the taste of the vulgar, avowed himself as really on the
side of truth and justice, and compared himself to Henry IV.
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