Background
The staging of Harlequin Sheppard — a play by John Thurmond based around the exploits of the famed criminal and escape-artist Jack Sheppard — by the three impresarios of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane: Colley Cibber, the actor Barton Booth, and Robert Wilks, in November 1724, spurred Hogarth into immediate action. The play was so poor that it closed after only seven performances, but for Hogarth it was evidence that while they claimed to be for high art, the Drury Lane producers were actually trying to out-compete John Rich at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Rich was at the forefront of the resurgence of the pantomime in England and his productions aimed at spectacle rather than art.
Read more about this topic: A Just View Of The British Stage
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