"Well, Sir, when the winter came on, what was done by your Deputies? Why, instead of keeping their word with me, they spent above two months of the season in getting up "All for Love, or, the World well Lost," a Play which has indeed a noble first act, an act which ends with a scene becoming of the dignity of the Tragic Stage. But if Horace had been now alive, and been either a reader or spectator of that entertainment, he would have passed his old sentence upon the Author.

"'Infelix operis summâ, quia ponere totum
Nesciet.'" [Ars Poetica, 34.]
Nichols' "Theatre," p. 544.

[ [131] Cibber here skips a few years, for the report by Sir Thomas Hewitt is dated some years after the granting of the Patent. The text of it will be found in Nichols's "Theatre," p. 470:—

"My Lord,
Scotland-yard, Jan. 21, 1721.

"In obedience to his Majesty's commands signified to me by your Grace the 18th instant, I have surveyed the Play-house in Drury-lane; and took with me Mr. Ripley, Commissioner of his Majesty's Board of Works, the Master Bricklayer, and Carpenter: We examined all its parts with the greatest exactness we could; and found the Walls, Roofing, Stage, Pit, Boxes, Galleries, Machinery, Scenes, &c. sound, and almost as good as when first built; neither decayed, nor in the least danger of falling; and when some small repairs are made, and an useless Stack of Chimnies (built by the late Mr. Rich) taken down, the Building may continue for a long time, being firm, the Materials and Joints good, and no part giving way; and capable to bear much greater weight than is put on them.

"My Lord Duke,
"Your Grace's Most humble and obedient servant,
"Thomas Hewett.

"N.B. The Stack of Chimnies mentioned in this Report (which were placed over the Stone Passage leading to the Boxes) are actually taken down."

[ [132] See ante, vol. i. p. 234.

[ [133] Cibber, vol. i. p. 94, relates how, when the King's Company proved too strong for their rivals, Davenant, "to make head against their Success, was forced to add Spectacle and Music to Action."

[ [134] In the season 1718-19, Rich at Lincoln's Inn Fields frequently produced French pieces and operas. He must have had a company of French players engaged.

[ [135] This is, no doubt, John Weaver's dramatic entertainment called "The Loves of Mars and Venus," which was published, as acted at Drury Lane, in 1717.

[ [136] The following lines ("Dunciad," iii. verses 229-244) are descriptive of such pantomimes as Cibber refers to:—

"He look'd, and saw a sable Sorc'rer rise,