E-text prepared by David Starner, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg
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The Augustan Reprint Society, Series Four: No. 1, May, 1948
1720
With an Introduction by John Loftis
RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan
EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington
BENJAMIN BOYCE, University of Nebraska
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan
CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago
SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota
ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas
JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen Mary College, London
Lithoprinted from copy supplied by author
by
Edwards Brothers, Inc.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
1948
The Theatre, by "Sir John Falstaffe", is according to its author acontinuation of Richard Steele's periodical of the same name. Shortly afterSteele brought his paper to a close on April 5, 1720, the anonymous authorwho called himself "Falstaffe" appropriated his title; or if we preferFalstaffe's own account of the matter, he was bequeathed the title upon thedecease of Steele's "Sir John Edgar". At any rate, the new series ofTheatres was begun on April 9, 1720, and continued to appear twice a weekfor eleven numbers until May 14. On Tuesdays and Saturdays Falstaffeentertained the town with a pleasant essay in the tradition established byThe Tatler.
But the paper of April 9, the first of the new Theatres, was onlynominally the first of a series; Falstaffe, who numbered the paper"sixteen", had already written fifteen papers called The Anti-Theatre inanswer to Steele's Theatre. The demise of Steele's periodical merelyafforded him an opportunity of changing his title; his naturally becameinappropriate when Steele's paper was discontinued and the shorter titlewas probably thought to be more attractive to readers. Falstaffe made noattempt to pass his papers off as the work of his famous rival, to gainpopularity for them through the reputation of Steele. Indeed, theantagonism which existed between the two men would have made such an act ofdeception an unlikely one.
Steele's The Theatre, his last periodical, had been written for acontroversial purpose; by his own admission he wrote it to arouse supportfor himself in a dispute in which he was engaged with the Lord Chamberlain,the Duke of Newcastle. Steele, who by the authority of a Royal Patent wasgovernor of the Company of Comedians acting in Drury Lane, insisted thathis authority in the theatre was not respected by the Lord Chamberlain, theofficer of the Royal Household traditionally charged with supervision oftheatrical matters. Newcastle intervened in the internal affairs of DruryLane and, when Steele protested, expelled him from the theatre. Steelecould do nothing but submit, though he retaliated with a series of bitterattacks on the Duke in The Theatre