From our Office near the Haymarket, Nov. 23.
"Worthy Sir,
"Upon reading your Tatler of Saturday last,[310] by which we received the agreeable news of so many deaths, we immediately ordered in a considerable quantity of blacks; and our servants have wrought night and day ever since, to furnish out the necessaries for these deceased. But so it is, Sir, that of this vast number of dead bodies, that go putrefying up and down the streets, not one of them has come to us to be buried. Though we should be both to be any hindrance to our good friends the physicians, yet we cannot but take notice, what infection her Majesty's subjects are liable to from the horrible stench of so many corpses. Sir, we will not detain you; our case in short is this: here are we embarked, in this undertaking for the public good: now if people shall be suffered to go on unburied at this rate, there's an end of the usefullest manufactures and handicrafts of the kingdom: for where will be your sextons, coffin-makers, and plumbers? What will become of your embalmers, epitaph-mongers, and chief mourners? We are loth to drive this matter any further, though we tremble at the consequences of it: for if it shall be left to every dead man's discretion not to be buried till he sees his time, no man can say where that will end; but thus much we will take upon us to affirm, that such a toleration will be intolerable.
"What would make us easy in this matter, is no more but that your Worship would be pleased to issue out your orders to ditto dead to repair forthwith to our office, in order to their interment, where constant attendance shall be given to treat with all persons according to their quality, and the poor to be buried for nothing; and for the convenience of such persons as are willing enough to be dead, but that they are afraid their friends and relations should know it, we have a back door into Warwick Street, from whence they may be interred with all secrecy imaginable, and without loss of time, or hindrance of business. But in case of obstinacy (for we would gladly make a thorough riddance), we desire a further power from your Worship, to take up such deceased as shall not have complied with your first orders, wherever we meet them; and if after that there shall be complaints of any persons so offending, let them lie at our doors.—We are,
"Your Worship's till death,
The Master and Company Of Upholders.
"P.S.—We are ready to give in our printed proposals at large; and if your Worship approves of our undertaking, we desire the following advertisement may be inserted in your next paper:
"Whereas a commission of interment has been awarded against Dr. John Partridge,[311] philomath, professor of physic and astrology; and whereas the said Partridge hath not surrendered himself, nor shown cause to the contrary, these are to certify, that the Company of Upholders will proceed to bury him from Cordwainers' Hall, on Tuesday the 29th instant, where any six of his surviving friends, who still believe him to be alive, are desired to come prepared to hold up the pall.
"Note.—We shall light away at six in the evening, there being to be a sermon."
FOOTNOTES:
[303] "Comus," 366.
[304] Charles Hart, who died in 1683, was the creator of several important parts in plays by Wycherley, Dryden, and Lee. Hart and Mohun were the principal members of Killigrew's company. Hart was the grandson of Shakespeare's sister Joan, and Cibber mentions specially the fame of his representation of Othello. See No. 138.
[305] Michael Mohun, like Hart, fought on the side of Charles in the Civil War, and began his life as an actor by performing women's parts. He generally played second to Hart. Gildon ("Comparison between Two Stages," 1702) says that plays were so well acted by Hart and Mohun that the audience would not be distracted to see the best dancing in Europe.
[306] The thirteen years' monopoly at Drury Lane came to an end in 1695, when Betterton opened a new theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1705, Betterton's company moved to the new theatre in the Haymarket; but the drama did not succeed at Vanbrugh's house, and in 1706 the Haymarket was let to M'Swiney. In 1708, through the instrumentality of Colonel Brett, the actors were again reunited at Drury Lane, and the Haymarket Theatre was devoted to Italian operas. But Rich soon quarrelled with his company, some of whom entered into negotiations with M'Swiney. In June 1709, Drury Lane Theatre was closed by an order from the Lord Chamberlain, and after certain structural alterations at the Haymarket, plays were acted successfully at that house. For a time there was thus again only one theatre open, until William Collier, M. P., a lawyer, got for himself the licence refused to Rich, and entered into forcible possession.
[307] In the "Touchstone," 1728, attributed to James Ralph, we are told that rope-dancing was then still in great esteem with the generality of people, though it had for some years been held in contempt in the refined neighbourhood of St James's. See Prologue to Steele's "Funeral":