Further, he delivered tickets
for more persons than the boxes, pit, and stage could hold, and it was
thought that he cleared L450 at least over and above the L76."
Certainly the great actor enjoyed on this occasion of his benefit what
is popularly known as "a bumper."[3]

[3] Macready, on the occasion of his taking a benefit,
invariably refused to receive any payment in excess of the
ordinary charges for admission to the theatre, and was wont,
with a polite note of thanks, to return the balance to those
who, as he judged, had overpaid him for their tickets.

The system of actors' benefits having thus become thoroughly
established, was soon extended and made applicable to other purposes,
for the most part of a charitable kind. Thus, in 1711, a benefit
performance was given in aid of Mrs. Betterton, the widow of the late
famous tragedian, who had herself been an actress, but had for some
time ceased to appear on the stage owing to age and other infirmities.
The "Tatler," after an account of Betterton's funeral, describes
feelingly the situation of his widow: "The mention I have here made of
Mr. Betterton, for whom I had, as long as I have known anything, a
very great esteem and gratitude, for the pleasure he gave me, can do
him no good; but it may possibly be of service to the unhappy woman he
has left behind him, to have it known that this great tragedian was
never in a scene half so moving as the circumstances of his affairs
created at his departure. His wife, after a cohabitation of forty
years in the strictest amity, has long pined away with a sense of his
decay, as well in his person as in his little fortune; and in
proportion to that she has herself decayed both in health and reason.
Her husband's death, added to her age and infirmities, would certainly
have terminated her life, but that the greatness of her distress has
been her relief by her present deprivation of her senses. This absence
of her reason is her best defence against age, sorrow, poverty, and
sickness."[4] Indeed, Steele constantly testifies his fondness for the
theatre and kindly feeling towards the players, by calling attention
to the benefit performances, and bespeaking the public favour for
them, adding much curious mention and humorous criticism of the
comedians who were especially the objects of his admiration--Pinkethman,
Bullock, Underbill, Dogget, and others.

[4] The "Tatler," No. 167, May 4, 1710.

Other b