arly play for Rich until December 1743, from
which time she "determined to stay there," doing all in her power to
please her audiences and him. Yet she "found, by his Behaviour to me, it
was designed I should not continue with him." Clive's specific
exposition of Rich's mistreatment of her is a portrait of an actress
aware of her worth and of a manager at his worst. Fired from Covent
Garden--against custom and justice--at the end of the season without
being told, Mrs. Clive could not arrange to play in Ireland, where she
was a great favorite,[19] for Rich's cheat did not become clear to her
until summer was too far advanced. Clive says it all when she observes
"it is unlawful to act any where but with them." Fleetwood was the only
alternative for the next season, and he still owed her L160. 12s. At the
time of Clive's Case (October, 1744) Fleetwood had not yet contacted her
for engagement at Drury Lane even though he could not "but know I am
disengag'd from the other Theatre." Nor could have Clive expected much
of a salary from him even if he did call on her since the last season he
offered her "not near half as much as he afterwards agreed to give
another Performer, and less than he then gave to some others in his
Company." Mrs. Clive could not but conclude that the managers were in
league to distress her.[20] In the final third of her essay, Mrs. Clive
presents a rather touching account of the personal costs of a piece of
legislation which was itself manipulated and "interpreted in the narrow
sense of forming the legal safeguard to the patent monopoly."[21]

The "Ladies" who had promised their protection to Mrs. Clive obviously
were influential in convincing Rich to re-hire her, for less than one
month after the appearance of Clive's Case the Prince of Wales and his
Princess sponsored at the Haymarket a concert for her benefit,[22] and
her name is regularly listed in the Covent Garden playbills soon after.
The absence of publicity from Mrs. Clive, or about her, suggests that
her second short year at Covent Garden was fairly acceptable to all
concerned, although Portia in _The Merchant of Venice_ was hardly her
forte.

The next season finds her back at Drury Lane, where she reigns
uncontested queen of comedy for more than twenty years. In addition to
the return of Clive, the 1745-1746 season (one poor in attendance and
new plays) at Drury Lane is noteworthy because of a reinstated Macklin,
a de-throned Fleetwood, a ne