Social History
average attendance by total population
In 1808 the Earl of Carlisle published a pamphlet entitled Thoughts upon
the Present Condition of the Stage. As to the general attitude of the London
theatre-going public in the preceding century he remarks,
The stage formerly seemed to have commanded more universal interest than
at present. . . . The beauties of the author, and the merits of the player, were much
more constantly, than in these days, the topics of conversation and observation.
And so they were, even though his lordship continues by observing, as
did many other critics of the stage, that this state of affairs was “the natural
consequence of hearing accurately [i.e. in the smaller theatres existing
before the 1790’s], and of being able not only to compare one actor with
another, but with himself.” In the years to which this writer refers, the
absorption in theatrical matters of a great number of persons living in
London, whether they were playgoers or not, was indeed a well-established
fact. 1 he ratio of those who were actual playgoers to the total population
may be set forth as follows.
By the end of the eighteenth century London contained roughly
900,000 inhabitants. In 1790 this was estimated as, in the City 495,550;
In Westminster 240,800; in Middlesex 93,500.270 Adjacent areas such as
Southwark, Hammersmith, Greenwich, etc. are not included in this reckon-
lng> had they been so the grand total would have been very much higher.
L*f all these inhabitants — from the King to the most impecunious apprentice —
only a relatively small number can be said to have attended the various
catres. In 1750, when the population was 676,000 a careful accounting
glVCS t-bis number as some 12,000 a week, or an average of 1,000 a night
Drury Lane and the same at Covent Garden. 271 But as time went on
It ^ ^ f,°f,U^at*on increased, the size of the theatres increased likewise.
18 Probable, therefore, that the ratio remained the same, even though
the
average of nightly attendance rose to perhaps 1,500.
1790), 393-
p_ rr^ * ^am Pcdicord, The Theatrical Public in the Time of Garrick (New York, 1954),
ccix