as a favour than a disobligation. Her demands therefore were
two hundred pounds a year certain, and a benefit clear of all charges,
which were readily sign'd to."

In the meantime Drury Lane is closed by order of the Lord
Chamberlain,[A] on the ground that in seeking to take from the actors
one-third of their benefit receipts the management have proceeded
illegally. Soon the new forces of Swiney take possession of the
Haymarket, and for a short time London has but one playhouse. Mayhap
Mr. Rich is chagrined, or perhaps he is not ill-pleased, and in any
case he extracts great comfort from a manifesto published in his
behalf by the treasurer of Drury Lane, sweet-named Zachary Baggs. In
this formidable document, which seeks to prove that the seceders are a
lot of ingrates, Oldfield is held up to the public as a sad example of
depravity. Her account with Master Rich is thus itemised:

L s. d.
To Mrs. Oldfield, at 4 l. a week salary, which
for 14 weeks and one day; she leaving off acting
presently after her benefit (viz.) on the 17th of
March last, 1708, though the benefit was intended
for her whole nine months acting, and she refused
to assist others in their benefits; her salary for
these 14 weeks and one day came to, and she was
paid 56 13 4

In January she required, and was paid ten guineas,
to wear on the stage in some plays, during the whole
season, a mantua petticoat that was given her for
the stage and though she left off three months before
she should, yet she hath not returned any part of
the ten guineas 10 15 0

And she had for wearing in some plays a suit of
boys cloaths on the stage; paid 2 10 9

By a benefit play; paid 62 7 8

[Footnote A: June 1709.]

But what cares laughing Nance for Master Baggs' spiteful paragraph
about the mantua petticoat. Mantua petticoat, forsooth! she has more
artistic things to think about than that, and so pray do not plague
her, gentle reader, with so commonplace an incident. Let her act on
serenely until that glorious night in April 1713, when, back at Drury
Lane, under the triumvirate of Cibber, Wilks and Dogget, she helps to
make sedate Addison's equally sedate "Cato" a triumphant success.

CHAPTER V

A DEAD HERO