DRURY LANE THEATRE A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2473, 10 December 1886, Page 2

DRURY LANE THEATRE A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

For' this gentleman (Colley" Gibber, Esij'.'jiS ;\yho; wore a. wide-flappedcoat, silver-buckled .shoes,, ruffled shirt, and ponderous wlgVuhder which great, bushy eyebrows- Jh their shadows enablfed his ;&harp • ejta 'p peer moty&eeiily'.at thpschs addressed,. Kittf Raftor sang a songMor in thosedayiessentialtpan recited'some lines. ' The result was Mr Cibber nodded his be-wigged bad—Which as all tho world knew, was full of wis* judgmonts-and pronounced her exceM. lent. At this the. bright-eyed little woman's heart rejoiced within her; aud presently, when be offered her an en 4 gagement in the playhouse at a salary of twenty shillings a week her delight know no bounds. The part assigned her on thei.ccasinn of her first appearanoe was that of a. page, in the dark tragodf beariug the impressive title long to bo. remembered by her—" Mithridatdjji Kin? of Pqntus." The page aoug to sing ptopor to the : oircanujUnew of tho soeno inwhick he appearedi whloh quaint ditty was-received with extraor' dinary applauso.'; This was a fair beginning; and from pages, lu. silken how, velvet jerkins, and feathered. oaps,, she foughther difficult wav up the ladder leading to theatrical fame. Before the close of her first season'she was oast for tlia- charaofcer of Phillida; -in Otille/ Gibber's "Love in a'Riddle!'; the.firet -night's representation of which was destined to secure her an unlopM for "triumph,-" Saucy Kitty dive,"' by.'J. Fitzgerald Mollay, see English UinAs trated Magazine. '--;.pC>