ic
flag. A riot at the Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1721, led to George I.'s
order that in future a guard should attend the performances. This was
the origin of the custom that long prevailed of stationing sentries on
either side of the proscenium during representations at the patent
theatres. Of late years the guards have been relegated to the outside
of the buildings. On the occasion of state visits of royalty to the
theatre, however--although these are now, perhaps, to be counted among
things of the past--Beefeaters upon the stage form an impressive part
of the ceremonial.

Theatrical rioting has greatly declined in violence, as well it might,
since the O.P. saturnalia of disturbance, which lasted some sixty-six
nights at Covent Garden Theatre in 1809. Swords were no longer worn,
but the rioters made free use of their fists, called in professional
pugilists as their allies, and in addition to catcalls, armed
themselves with bells, post-horns, whistles, and watchmen's rattles.
The O.P. riots may be said to have abolished the catcall, but they
established "goose." Captures of the rioters were occasionally made by
Brandon, the courageous box-office keeper, and they were charged at
Bow Street Police Court with persistent hissing, with noisily crying
"Silence!" and with "unnatural coughing." The charges were not
proceeded with, but one of the accused, Mr. Clifford, a barrister,
brought an action against Brandon for false imprisonment. In this case
the Court of King's Bench decided that, although the audience in a
public theatre have a right to express the feelings excited at the
moment by the performance, and in this manner to applaud or hiss any
piece which is represented, or any performer; yet if a number of
persons, having come to the theatre with a predetermined purpose of
interrupting the performance, for this end make a great noise so as to
render the actors inaudible, though without offering personal violence
or doing injury to the house, they are in law guilty of a riot.
Serjeant Best, the counsel for the plaintiff, urged that, as plays and
players might be hissed, managers should be liable to their share;
they should be controlled by public opinion; Garrick and others had
yielded cheerfully to the jurisdiction of the pit without a thought of
appealing to Westminster Hall. "Bells and rattles," added the
serjeant, "may be new to the pit; but catcalls, which are equally
stunning, are as old as the English drama." Appar