One hundred years ago
Are Englishmen beginning to think begging creditable? On Saturday night the performance at Her Majesty's Theatre ended in a most extraordinary scene. The performers in the Italian opera, Faust, had not been paid, and after two or three scenes had been got through, the curtain rose on a number of scene-shifters, supers, and ballet- girls, who all 'made pitiful appeals to the audience for the money of which they had been defrauded.' Showers of silver and copper were thrown to them, and they struggled with each other for ihe pennies, the scene lasting for more than half an hour. The poor people were greatly to be pitied, and had a fair right to strike, as, indeed, performers of the first rank have been known to do; but we question if, ten years ago, they would not have considered this public begging almost shameful. The growing feeling appears to be that whenever a poor man or woman suffers a misfor- tune, society may be called upon to make it up to them. In this instance society was the audience, and we almost wonder that the employers did not request that the visitors should pay a second time for the tickets. The old plan of sending the hat round after a street performance is not, perhaps, dignified, but it has at least the merit of being just.
Spectator, 13 March 1886
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