One of the follies of 1728 was the performance of the Beggar's Opera at the Theatre in Lincoln's inn-fields by children ; and that the childish exhibition might be supported in all its branches, the Managers contrived to send a book of the songs across the Stage by a flying Cupid to Prince Frederick of Wales.
The Village Opera was acted, in March 1729, at the Theatre Drury-lane. The absurd custom of placing seats upon the stage had been much condemned previous to that period; but the Managers ventured to introduce one for the Dutchess of Queensberry on the first representation of the piece; and thus incurring the resentment of the audience, they hissed incessantly till it was removed, and the wits wrote epigrams upon the subject:
"Bent on dire work, and kindly rude, the Town
Impatient hiss'd thy seat, dear Dutchess, down;
Conscious that there had thy soft form appear'd,
Lost all in gaze, no vacant ear had heard:
Thy lambent eyes had look'd their rage away,
And the relenting hiss, and sav'd the play.
Thus not in clouds (as father Homer sung)
Such as fair Venus round Æneas flung,