The Benefit Performance
Dramatic
٠
Late eighteenth-century critic, William Cooke ( Elements
؛
and a modern one, w. |. Lawrence (old Theatre Days and
ل,
Criticism
wrote witli great severity against tlie well established benefit
ق
193
}VajS
it bred a group of benefit seekers more
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ystern. Tlte former felt that by
with making convivial foiends who would subscribe heavily on
:r٥
enefit nights, titan they were with studying their art and improving tlteir
.to put
success . ; . the
that “to insur
!
hT:!' I he latter
his pocket, and, equipped with a sheaf of playbills and a bundle
؟
s
tickets, wait obsequiously upon the nobility and gentry in ltope of
no sign came of the
Generation after generation passed
ه
p،;k
p ayers’ awakening to a sense oftlaeir degradation."
approach is to accept the obsequiousness of the century as
؛ ؛
th
f ?ntury itself accepted it, anti examine benefit performances foom tlte
and professional standpoint, 'rite analysis wliiclt follows is based on
ا
b
theatres, for patterns are discernilile tliere as tliey are
the paten
ا؛؛؟؛ ،
not
f in the frequent but sporadic benefits at tlte unlicensed places of per-
formante. p h
efi
P
p
during the fi
m
the
0
dec t ;he hrst place, as an outcome
to prevail. One for
benefit continue
Lcntury, three k
t
: ح
acto
(including
and a tltird for c
one for author
house sc
:قح;يءي ع
liospitals, educational institutions, tile blind, international
grounT
financial arrange-
plage four fo
In the secon
prison r
egery
benefit, at wl
or fre
a "clea
benefits continue
Penn
went to the beneficiary; a “liouse charge" benefit, for wlticlt
؛؟؛ ؟
the hi
paid the managers a fixed sum for liouse services, plus extras
for
benefit, in whigh two
“ ؛؛
.
:;sic
the profits and the liouse charges; and a “half-value-of-tickets”
benefit
Woof of a better name. In this last form as many as twenty-one
house
.tickets to dispose of No
lieuse
gharges ^vere
mad(, :t! were g
hi;: the managers received the cash collected at the door,
1
-g
h
ل ؟
pins On (!_ h
the face value of the tickets collected. As eacli ticket had tlie
; '
beneb j
y s name on it, it was easy to know what charge to make liim