Love in Disguise Read Online Free PDF Page A

Hoots, hisses, catcalls, and shouts of “old prices” made the theater a scene of chaos. Some of the crowd sat with their backs to the stage. Others stood on their benches, hats still on, singing and yelling.
    Fancy shivered, the men out there were ugly, really angry. Someone could very well get hurt.Of course she had known about Kemble and the proprietors raising the prices, but she had supposed it was necessary. After all, the old Covent Garden had burnt down last September and it was very expensive to rebuild. And all the actors and actresses had lost their stage costumes, some collected over many, many years and impossible to replace. Too, this new theater was a larger one, very richly decorated. The five tiers of boxes running entirely around the house were supported by slender fluted pillars - and they were gilded. The boxes were highly ornamented and so were the ceilings. The whole thing was supposed to have cost £150,000.
    Fancy knew, too, that the new prices were quite high: seven shillings for a box and F shillings for the pit. But could the theater be that important to those ruffians out there, or were they just looking for trouble?
    As the play went on the upper gallery grew more and more noisy. A great many soldiers rushed in to capture these rioters, who then let themselves down to the lower gallery and escaped. Fancy could not hear them for the noise in the theater - the cries and shouts created a constant clamor - but Kemble and Mrs. Siddons spoke their lines as though they had the full attention of the house. Their faces never for a second reflected the fact that they were facing a hostile, rioting crowd.
    Fancy’s heart swelled with pride for them. And when the time came for her to do her bit, she moved onstage and ignored the audience like a trouper. Later, back in the safety of the wings, she had to admit to herself that she was frightened. The crowd was ugly - very ugly.
    She had heard about such things, but they had never seemed real to her. In all her years in the theater she had never seen a rioting crowd. It was not only frightening to her physically, but also mentally. It was rather like having someone in your family suddenly go mad. After all, the audience was a vital part of any performance. And noisy and unruly as they often were, Fancy was accustomed to thinking of them as her friends. Now they had become enemies, suddenly vicious enemies. It was very difficult to bear.
    And the concern of the rest of the company, most of whom seemed on Kemble’s side, was very evident.
    So upset was Fancy by the events of the evening that when Henry arrived with two grooms to escort her to her carriage, she had no word of censure for that faithful servant. Indeed, once in the coach she laid her pounding head against his shoulder and whimpered, “Oh, Henry, it was awful. They’ve gone mad - all of them.”
    Henry spoke the soothing words he knew she wanted to hear. “It’ll blow over. You’ll see. Things’ll be back right afore long.”
    But even this attempt at comfort was interrupted by the raucous voices of rioters marching down the pavement four and five abreast.
    Fancy peered out her window. “They’re pushing people into the kennels, Henry! Oh, it’s horrible.”
    “Don’t look. Miss Fancy. We’re safe enough in here. Come now, we’ll be home soon in St. James’s Square. There’s no call to worry yourself.”
    True to Henry’s word they reached home safely, and as she quitted the carriage Fancy wondered what would happen now. Would they do Richard III on the twentieth as advertised?
      What a reception Uncle George would get, she thought. Surely he had never faced an audience like that. A little fear nagged at her. She hoped that Uncle George would not have been too liberally at the bottle before his performance.  Certainly Mr. Kemble wasn’t at all happy that Uncle George had ignored rehearsals.
    He was a great actor, George Frederick Cooke, especially good in Richard III. And, of