great degree reversed, and
the actor's place of abode is often stated in his advertisements in
order that the public may call upon him to obtain tickets for his
benefit, if they prefer that course to purchasing them in the usual
way at the box-office of the theatre. In the case of actresses this
plan has often been found efficacious in diminishing the exuberant
ardour of certain youthful supporters of the stage, by enabling them
to discover that the fair performer who had peculiarly stirred their
dramatic sympathies, was hardly seen to such advantage by daylight, in
the seclusion of her private dwelling, as when under the glare of gas,
with distance lending enchantment to rouge and pearl-powder, and
casting an accommodating veil over divers physical deficiencies and
unavoidable deteriorations.

As benefits became common, and they were relegated to the close of the
season, when the general appetite for theatrical entertainments may be
presumed to be tolerably satiated, the actors found it very necessary
to put forward performances of an unusual kind to attract patronage
and stimulate the curiosity of the public. It was understood that on
these occasions criticism was suspended, and great licence was
permissible. A benefit came to be a kind of dramatic carnival. Any and
everything was held to be lawful, and efforts of an experimental kind
were almost demanded--certainly excused under the circumstances. The
player who usually appeared wearing the buskin now assumed the sock,
and the established comedian ventured upon a flight into the regions
of tragedy. Novelty of some sort was indispensable, and the audience,
if they might not wholly approve, were yet expected to forbear
condemning. The comic actors especially availed themselves of their
privileges, and on the strength of their popularity--the comedian
always establishing more intimate and friendly relations between
himself and his audience than are permitted to the tragedian--indulged
in very strange vagaries. Mr. Spiller, on the occasion of his benefit
at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1720, issued an
advertisement: "Whereas I, James Spiller, of Gloucestershire, having
received an invitation from Hildebrand Bullock, of Liquorpond Street,
London, to exercise the usual weapons of the noble science of defence,
will not fail to meet this bold invader, desiring a full stage, blunt
weapons, and from him much favour." At another time the same actor
announced his bene