Of all the dramatists, perhaps Fielding
treated hissing with the greatest indifference. In 1743, his comedy of
"The Wedding Day" was produced. Garrick had in vain implored him to
suppress a scene which he urged would certainly endanger the success
of the piece. "If the scene is not a good one, let them find it out,"
said Fielding. As had been foreseen, an uproar ensued in the theatre.
The actor hastened to the green-room, where the author was cheering
his spirits with a bottle of champagne. Surveying Garrick's rueful
countenance, Fielding inquired: "What's the matter? Are they hissing
me now?" "Yes, the very passage I wanted you to retrench. I knew it
wouldn't do. And they've so horribly frightened me I shall not be
right again the whole night." "Oh," cried the author, "I did not give
them credit for it. So they have found it out, have they?" Upon the
failure of his farce of "Eurydice," he produced an occasional piece
entitled "Eurydice Hissed," in which Mrs. Charke, the daughter of
Colley Cibber, sustained the part of Pillage, a dramatic author.
Pillage is about to produce a new play, and one of his friends
volunteers to "clap every good thing till I bring the house down.
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