It is true, that while things continued in this situation, there were
a great many play-houses, sometimes six or seven open at once. Of
these some were large, and in part open, where they acted by day
light; others smaller, but better fitted up, where they made use of
candles. The plainness of the theatre made the prices small, and drew
abundance of company; yet upon the whole it is doubtful, whether the
spectactors in all these houses were really superior in number, to
those who have frequented the theatres in later times. If the spirit
and judgment of the actors supplied all deficiencies, and made as some
would insinuate, plays more intelligible without scenes, than they
afterwards were with them, it must be very astonishing; neither is it
difficult to assign another cause, why those who were concerned in
play-houses, were angry at the introduction of scenes and decorations,
which was, that notwithstanding the advanced prices, their profits
from that time were continually sinking; and an author, of high
authority in this case, assures us, in an historical account of the
stage, that the whole sharers in Mr. Hart's company divided a thousand
pounds a year a-piece, before the expensive decorations became
fashionable. Sir William Davehant considered things in another light:
he was well acquainted with the alterations which the French theatre
had received, under the auspice of cardinal Rich[e]lieu, who had an
excellent taste; and he remembered the noble contrivances of Inigo
Jones, which were not at all inferior to the designs of the best
French masters. Sir William was likewise sensible that the monarch he
served was an excellent judge of every thing of this kind; and these
considerations excited in him a passion for the advancement of the
theatre, to which the great figure it has since made is chiefly owing.
Mr. Dryden has acknowledged his admirable talents in this way, and
gratefully remembers the pains taken by our poet, to set a work of his
in the fairest light possible, and to which, he ingenuously ascribes
the success with which it was received. This is the hislory of the
life and progress of scenery on our stage; which, without doubt, gives
greater life to the entertainment of a play; but as the best purposes
may be prostituted, so there is some reason to believe that the
excessive fondness for decorations, which now prevails, has hurt the
true dramatic taste. Scenes are to be considered as secondary in a
play,