Colley Cibber - A Just View of the British Stage, or Three Heads are Better Than One

by William Hogarth
1724

The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library, Kinnaird 64K(b) Box 105

The image, a satire on farces, shows the stage of Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, with banners above reading "Vivitur Ingenio" (genius lives on). A violinist has been hanged on the right beside a fragment reading "Musick for ye whole Entertain-." Seated at a table on the stage, with theatrical rigging (or nooses) suspended above them, are the theatre's three actor-managers: A, Robert Wilks (holding Punch), says " Poor R-ch Faith I Pitty him"; C, Colley Cibber (holding a Harlequin puppet), says "Assist ye Sacred Nine"; and B, Barton Booth (lowering a puppet of Jack Hall into the privy of Newgate), exclaims "Ha this will do G-d D- me." On the table is a pamphlet with a print of Jack Sheppard in shackles in Newgate. Ben Jonson's ghost appears through a trap door on the left. Above the privy on the right is tacked a collection of pages from Shakespeare's plays to be used for toilet paper: "Hamlet," "Way of the World," and possibly "[Mac]beth" and "[Juli]us Ceasar," sic. On the left at the front of the stage a statue representing Tragedy has a playbill reading "Harlequin D. Faustus" tacked over its face; on the right a stature representing Comedy has a playbill reading "Harlequin Shepherd" tacked over its face.

The text below the print reads:

This print represents the Rehearsing a new Farce that will Include two famous Entertainments Dr. Faustus & Harlequin Shepherd to wch. will be added Scaramouch Jack Hall the Chimney-Sweeper's escape from Newgate through ye privy, with ye comical Humours of Ben Johnsons Ghost, Concluding wth the Hay-Dance Perform'd in ye Air by ye Figures A.B.C. Assisted by Ropes from ye Muses, Note there are no Conjurers concern'd in it as ye ignorant imagine. The Bricks, Rubbish &c. will be real, but the Excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of Chew'd Gingerbread to prevent Offence. Vivat Rex. price six pence.

—Allison Muri, March 2014, edited April 2024