pice; he was further
famous for wickerwork lions, pasteboard swans, and all sham birds and
beasts appertaining to a theatrical menagerie. He wished on a certain
occasion to spy the nakedness of the enemy's camp, and therefore
contrived to insinuate himself, with a friend, into the two-shilling
gallery, to witness the night rehearsal of a pantomime at Covent
Garden Theatre. Among the attractions of this Christmas foolery a real
elephant was introduced, and in due time the unweildly brute came
clumping down the stage, making a prodigious figure in a procession.
The friend who sat close to Johnstone jogged his elbow, whispering,
"This is a bitter bad job for Drury. Why, the elephant's
_alive_!--he'll carry all before him, and beat you hollow. What d'ye
think on't, eh?" "Think on't," said Johnstone, in a tone of the utmost
contempt, "I should be very sorry if I couldn't make a much better
elephant than that at any time!"]

Yet it was under the auspices of such a man that Oldfield made
several of her most brilliant successes, not forgetting the memorable
appearance as Lady Betty. And all the while, no doubt, Mr. Rich was
thinking how much more sensible an attraction would be an elephant or
a tight-rope walker. But Nance, who had now a firm friend in Cibber,
went merrily on her way, creating new characters in comedy and
astonishing even her most enthusiastic admirers by the imposing air
she could frequently give to a tragic part. In none of them, grave or
gay, was she more charming than as Sylvia, the heroine of Farquhar's
"Recruiting Officer," a play in which she graced man's clothes. Sylvia
is a delightful creature who masquerades as a dashing youth, and
thereby has the privilege of watching her lover, Captain Plume. Of
course the deception is discovered, and all ends happily in the
orthodox fashion [the only bit of orthodoxy about the performance,
by-the-way]. The girl is allowed to marry the Captain and settles
down, we may suppose, to the pleasures of domesticity and woman's
gowns. The comedy was admirably acted throughout, Wilks, Cibber, and
that prince of mimics, Dick Estcourt, being in the cast, and the seal
of popular approval was quickly put upon the production. At present
such a seal should bring hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars into
the pockets of the author, but it is possible that a few paltry pounds
represented the profits of Farquhar.[A]

[Footnote A: The "Recruiting Officer" first saw the light in Ap