and the older members of the company retired into the background as much as possible.  Younger faces must occupy the centre of the stage; even Betterton, the greatest actor of his time, should be supplanted in some of his parts by the dissolute George Powell, and the genius of Mrs. Barry,[A] whom Dryden thought the greatest actress he had ever seen, was to give way to the less matured charms of the lovely Anne Bracegirdle.

[Footnote A:  Mrs. Barry is said to have been a very elegant dresser; but, like most of her contemporaries, she was not a very correct one.  Thus, in the “Unhappy Favourite,” she played Queen Elizabeth, and in the scene of the crowning she wore the coronation robes of James II.’s Queen; and Ewell says she gave the audience a strong idea of the first-named Queen.—­DORAN’S “Annals of the Stage.”]

Cibber relates the story in a sympathetic vein.  “Though the success of the ‘Prophetess’ and ‘King Arthur’ (two dramatic operas in which the patentees[A] had embark’d all their hopes) was in appearance very great, yet their whole receipts did not so far balance their expense as to keep them out of a large debt, which it was publicly known was about this time contracted....  Every branch of the theatrical trade had been sacrificed to the necessary fitting out those tall ships of burthen that were to bring home the Indies.  Plays of course were neglected, actors held cheap, and slightly dress’d, while singers and dancers were better paid, and embroider’d.  These measures, of course, created murmurings on one side, and ill-humour and contempt on the other.”

[Footnote A:  Alexander Davenant, Charles Killigrew, and Rich.]

“When it became necessary therefore to lessen the charge, a resolution was taken to begin with the salaries of the actors; and what seem’d to make this resolution more necessary at this time was the loss of Nokes, Montfort and Leigh, who all dy’d about the same year.  No wonder then, if when these great pillars were at once remov’d the building grew weaker and the audiences very much abated.  Now in this distress, what more natural remedy could be found than to incite and encourage (tho’ with some hazard) the industry of the surviving actors?  But the patentees, it seems, thought the surer way was to bring down their pay in proportion to the fall of their audiences.  To make this project more feasible they propos’d to begin at the head of ’em, rightly judging that if the principals acquiesc’d, their inferiors would murmur in vain.

“To bring this about with a better grace, they, under pretence of bringing younger actors forward, order’d several of Betterton’s and Mrs. Barry’s chief parts to be given to young Powel and Mrs. Bracegirdle.  In this they committed two palpable errors; for while the best actors are in health, and still on the stage, the public is always apt to be out of humour when those of a lower class pretend to stand in their places.”