DRURY LANE THEATRE A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Western Star, Issue 1077, 30 October 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

DRURY LANE THEATRE A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.

For this gentleman (Colley Cibber, Esq.), who wore a wide-flapped coat, silver-buckled shoes, ruffled , shirt, and ponderous wig, under - which great, bushy eyebrows protruded, as |if the securityiof their shadows enabled his sharp eyes to peer more keenly at those ho addressed, Kitty-Eaftor sang a songfor singing was in those days essential to an actress—and recited some linos. The result was Mr Gibber nodded his be-wigged' head—which, as all ,the world knew, was full of wise judgmeuteand pronounced her excellent. At this the biight-eyed little woman’s heart rejoiced within her; and presently, «vhen he offered her an engagement in the playhouse at the salary 'of ..twenty, shillings a week her delight'knew: no ! bounds. The part assigned her on.the occasion of her first appearance was that of a page, in the dark tragedy’ bearing the impressive title long to be remembered by her—“ ; Mithridates, King of Pontus.” The page had a song to sing proper to the circumstan- ; ces of the scene in which he appeared, which quaint ditty was received with extraordinary ‘ applause. This was a fair beginning; and from pages in silken hose, velvet jerkins, and feathered caps, she fought her difficult way up the ladder leading to theatrical fame. Before the close of her first season she was cast for' the character of JPhillida in Colley Cibber’s “ Love in a Riddle”; the first night’s representation of which was destined to secure her an unlocked for triumph,—“ Saucy Kitty Olive,” by J. Fitzgerald Mollay, see English Illustrated Magazine.