Of the theatrical wardrobe department of to-day it is unnecessary to say much.  Something of the bewildering incongruity of the old “tiring-room” distinguishes it—­yet with a difference.  The system of the modern theatre has undergone changes.  Wardrobes are now often hired complete from the costume and masquerade shops.  The theatrical costumier has become an independent functionary, boasting an establishment of his own, detached from the theatre.  Costume plays are not much in vogue now, and in dramas dealing with life and society at the present date, the actors are understood to provide their own attire.  Moreover, there is now little varying of the programme, and, in consequence, little demand upon the stock wardrobe of the playhouse.  Still, when in theatres of any pretension, entertainments in the nature of spectacles or pantomimes are in course of preparation, there is much stir in the wardrobe department.  There are bales of cloth to be converted into apparel for the supernumeraries, yards and yards of gauze and muslin for the ballet; spangles, and beads, and copper lace in great profusion; with high piles of white satin shoes.  Numerous stitchers of both sexes are at work early and late, while from time to time an artist supervises their labours.  His aid has been sought in the designing of the costumes, so that they may be of graceful and novel devices in fanciful or eccentric plays, or duly correct when an exhibition, depending at all upon the history of the past, is about to be presented by the manager.

CHAPTER XVI.

“HER FIRST APPEARANCE.”

From the south-western corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields a winding and confined court leads to Vere Street, Clare Market.  Midway or so in the passage there formerly existed Gibbon’s Tennis Court—­an establishment which after the Restoration, and for some three years, served as a playhouse; altogether distinct, be it remembered, from the far more famous Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, situate close by in Portugal Street, at the back of the College of Surgeons.  Nevertheless, the Vere Street Theatre, as it was called, can boast something of a history; at any rate, one event of singular dramatic importance renders it memorable.  For on Saturday, the 8th of December, 1660, as historians of the drama relate, it was the scene of the first appearance upon the English stage of the first English actress.  The lady played Desdemona; and a certain Mr. Thomas Jordan, an actor and the author of various poetical pieces, provided for delivery upon the occasion a “Prologue to introduce the first woman that came to act on the stage in the tragedy called ‘The Moor of Venice.’”