his
greater ease and the quiet of the theatre," letters of unreasonable
size were abandoned, and the playbills were printed after an amended
and more modest pattern.

With the rise and growth of the press came the expediency of
advertising the performances of the theatres in the columns of the
newspapers. To the modern manager advertisements are a very formidable
expense. The methods he is compelled to resort to in order to bring
his plays and players well under the notice of the public, involve a
serious charge upon his receipts. But of old the case was precisely
the reverse. The theatres were strong, the newspapers were weak. So
far from the manager paying money for the insertion of his
advertisements in the journals, he absolutely received profits on this
account. The press then suffered under severe restrictions, and was
most jealously regarded by the governing powers; leading articles were
as yet unknown; the printing of parliamentary debates was strictly
prohibited; foreign intelligence was scarcely obtainable; of home news
there was little stirring that could with safety be promulgated. So
that the proceedings of the theatres became of real importance to the
newspaper proprietor, and it was worth his while to pay considerable
sums for early information in this respect. Moreover, in those days,
not merely by reason of its own merits, but because of the absence of
competing attractions and other sources of entertainment, the stage
was much more than at present an object of general regard. In Andrew's
"History of British Journalism" it is recorded on the authority of the
ledger of Henry Woodfall, the publisher of the _Public Advertiser_:
"The theatres are a great expense to the papers. Amongst the items of
payment are: Playhouses, L100. Drury Lane advertisements, L64 8s. 6d.;
Covent Garden ditto, L66 11s. The papers paid L200 a-year to each
theatre for the accounts of new plays, and would reward the messenger
with a shilling or half-a-crown who brought them the first copy of a
playbill." In 1721, the following announcement appeared in the _Daily
Post_: "The managers of Drury Lane think it proper to give notice that
advertisements of their plays, by their authority, are published only
in this paper and the _Daily Courant_, and that the publishers of all
other papers who insert advertisements of the same plays, can do it
only by some surreptitious intelligence or hearsay, which frequently
leads them to commit gross e