e 19th
October, 1741, at this unlicensed theatre, a gentleman, who, as the
playbill of the night untruly stated, had never before appeared on any
stage, undertook the part of Richard III. in Cibber's version of
Shakespeare's tragedy. The gentleman's name was David Garrick. Had he
failed the theatre might have lived on. But his success was fatal to
it. The public went in crowds from all parts of the town to see the
new actor. "From the polite ends of Westminster the most elegant
company flocked to Goodman's Fields, insomuch that from Temple Bar the
whole way was covered with a string of coaches." The patentees of
Drury Lane and Covent Garden interfered, "alarmed at the deficiency
of their own receipts," and invoked the aid of the Lord Chamberlain.
The Goodman's Fields Theatre was closed, and Garrick was spirited away
to Drury Lane, with a salary of 600 guineas a-year, a larger sum than
had ever before been awarded to any performer.

It will be seen that the Chamberlain had deemed it his mission to
limit, as much as possible, the number of places of theatrical
entertainment in London. Playgoers were bidden to be content with
Drury Lane and Covent Garden; it was not conceivable to the noblemen
and commoners occupying the Houses of Parliament, or to the
place-holders in the Chamberlain's office, or in the royal household,
that other theatres could possibly be required.

Still attempts were occasionally made to establish additional places
of entertainment. In 1785, John Palmer, the actor famous as the
original Joseph Surface, laid the first stone of a new theatre, to be
called the East London, or Royalty, in the neighbourhood of the old
Goodman's Fields Theatre, which had been many years abandoned of the
actors and converted into a goods warehouse. The building was
completed in 1787. The opening representation was announced; when the
proprietors of the patent theatres gave warning that any infringement
of their privileges would be followed by the prosecution of Mr. Palmer
and his company. The performances took place, nevertheless, but they
were stated to be for the benefit of the London Hospital, and not,
therefore, for "hire, gain, or reward;" so the actors avoided risk of
commitment as rogues and vagabonds. But necessarily the enterprise
ended in disaster. Palmer, his friends alleged, lost his whole
fortune; it was shrewdly suspected, however, that he had, in truth, no
fortune to lose. In any case he speedily retired fro