invisible architecture; all which,
without thinking any one part of it necessary, tho' I seem'd to
approve, I could not help now and then breaking in upon his delight
with the impertinent question of--_But, Master, where are your
actors_?"

* * * * *

This exhibition of a spirit so commonplace and inartistic proved too
much for Cibber. Perhaps he might have pardoned it had there been
no salary owing him, for your greatest apostle of the drama will
sometimes do a good deal of winking at glaring inconsistencies when
a money _quid pro quo_ looms up in the distance. Here was a case,
however, where the _quid pro quo_ loomed not at all, and the author of
the "Careless Husband" became correspondingly disgusted. I told him
(Rich) I came to serve him at a time when many of his best actors had
deserted him; that he might now have the refusal of me; but I could
not afford to carry the compliment so far as to lessen my income by
it; that I therefore expected either my casual pay to be advanced, or
the payment of my former sallary made certain for as many days as we
had acted the year before. No, he was not willing to alter his former
method; but I might chuse whatever parts I had a mind to act of theirs
who had left him.

* * * * *

"When I found him, as I thought, so insensible, or impregnable, I
look'd gravely in his face, and told him--He knew upon what terms I
was willing to serve him, and took my leave."

* * * * *

Shortly after the interview Cibber joined the Haymarket company, and
one result of his defection was an open quarrel between Rich and
Swiney.

This season of 1706-7 was a memorable one for Oldfield. She then
played for the first time with the chaste Anne Bracegirdle,[A] whom
she quickly cast into the shade. So apparent, indeed, was the shadow
that the elder of the two retired from the stage in the course of
a few months, in the very prime of her beauty. It was a pathetic
incident, and yet the cloud had its silver lining. How often are we
called upon to pity players who linger before the footlights long
after they should have made their exits; instead of departing at the
right moment, leaving behind them charming memories, they die by
inches in full view of the audience.

[Footnote A: "Mrs. Bracegirdle was perhaps a woman of a cold
constitution," says Genest.]

[Illustration: MRS. ANNE BRACEGIRDLE]

Perhaps p