Explore "Scenes: Private Theatres" by Charles Dickens on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
‘Richard the Third. -Duke of Glo'ster 2_l._; Earl of Richmond, 1_l_; Duke of Buckingham, 15_s._; Catesby, 12_s._; Tressel, 10_s._ 6_d._; Lord Stanley, 5_s._; Lord Mayor of London, 2_s._ 6_d._'
Such are the written placards wafered up in the gentlemen's dressing-room, or the green-room (where there is any), at a private theatre; and such are the sums extracted from the shop-till, or overcharged in the office expenditure, by the donkeys who are prevailed upon to pay for permission to exhibit their lamentable ignorance and boobyism on the stage of a private theatre. This they do, in proportion to the scope afforded by the character for the display of their imbecility. For instance, the Duke of Glo'ster is well worth two pounds, because he has it all to himself; he must wear a real sword, and what is better still, he must draw it, several times in the course of the piece. The soliloquies alone are well worth fifteen shillings; then there is the stabbing King Henry-decidedly cheap at three-and-sixpence, that's eighteen-and-sixpence; bullying the coffin-bearers-say eighteen-pence, though it's worth much more-that's a pound.