with the belief that "a good poet
will give the reader a more lively idea of an army or a battle in a
description, than if he actually saw them drawn up in squadrons and
battalions, or engaged in the confusion of a fight. Our minds should
be open to great conceptions, and inflamed with glorious sentiments
by what the actor speaks, more than by what he appears. Can all the
trappings or equipage of a king or hero give Brutus half the pomp and
majesty which he receives from a few lines in Shakespeare?" Which is
all very true, yet "the tailor and painter" will continue popular, no
doubt, until the crack of doom.

The month of December 1714 saw the reopening of the theatre in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, under letters patent originally granted by
Charles II. to Christopher Rich, and restored by his broken-English
Majesty George I. The renewal created a dangerous rival to Drury Lane,
but it is not probable that the king worried over having planted such
a thorn in the sides of Messrs. Steele, Booth, Wilks, and Cibber[A].
He remembered, he told Mr. Craggs, "when he had been in England
before, in King Charles his time, there had been two theatres in
London; and as the patent seemed to be a lawful grant, he saw no
reason why two playhouses might not be continued."

[Footnote A: On the death of Queen Anne the old licence or patent of
Drury Lane lapsed, and when the new one was issued Steele was named
therein as a partner.] Several useful players left Drury Lane to go
over into Lincoln's Inn Fields,[A] chief among them being Mrs. Rogers,
who felt greatly relieved in transferring her affectations of virtue
to a house where she would no longer be overshadowed by the genius
of Oldfield. As for Nance, she was faithful to the old theatre,
and continued to be the fairest though perhaps the frailest of its
pillars, notwithstanding the personal charms of Mrs. Horton. The
latter was a strolling player recently admitted to the sacred
precincts of Drury. She had been in the habit of "ranting tragedy in
barns and country towns, and playing Cupid in a booth, at suburban
fairs. The attention of managers was directed towards her; and Booth,
after seeing her act in Southwark, engaged her for Drury Lane, where
her presence was more agreeable to the public than particularly
pleasant to dear Mrs. Oldfield."[B]

[Footnote A: 'Tis true, they none of them had more than a negative
merit, in being only able to do us more harm by their leaving us
without noti