SEASON OF
1756-1757
- usual popularity, especially The Historical Register, and with
the most lively advertising tile London theatres had ever employed. Field-
Jug’s satiric pen also liad an unintentional slrare in bringing about the
passage of the Licensing Act in tlie late spring, only two years after a similar
bill had been rejected by Parliament. The restraints of tire Act caused
Fielding to conclude his season before he had staged some dramatic pieces
which he lrad announced as forthcoming, and, of course, tire restrictioirs on
the number of playhouses and tire censorship of drama made their effect
even more fully felt in later years. Finally, tire season marked the end of the
four-year rivalry between the Opera of tire Nobility at tire King’s and
Handel’s operatic venture at Covent Garden.
Like several preceding seasons, this one was a comprehensive one.
٥rury Lane and Covent Garden gave their usual repertories, witlr Covent
Garden under lease by Handel for operas, sonretimes twice weekly. Henry
Giffard moved ftonr Goodman's Fields to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, apparently,
according to the newspapers, to have the advantage of a larger house nearer
the center of theatrical London. The Haymarket did not perform regularly
Until Fielding gave it new life with the Great Mogul’s Company of Come-
؛ans.
Fhe Opera of tire Nobility continued to present Italian opera at the
King’s. Again, as in some earlier seasons, Londoners frequently had a clroice
٥٢
five liouses offering plays or operas on the same niglit.
The theatres, as a rule, lreld to their customary practices for admission
and curtain time. For plays with pantomimes and for some newly revived