“My dear Sir,—I will not advertize any Play beyond Monday, depend on it, since you wish I should not. As to next week’s being eminently unfavourable to the Theatre, whoever told you so was eminently ignorant of what he pretended to know. The week in which I acted the ‘Haunted Tower,’ was said to be eminently unfavourable to the Theatre, so was the week in which I acted the ‘Siege of Belgrade,’ and the ‘School for Scandal,’ and ‘Pizarro.’ The two most successful pieces that ever were acted were both presented to the Public in the End of May, a time of all others the most eminently unfavourable to the Theatre. There is no time unfavourable to a work of real merit, with Judges so good, so unbiassed, and considerately kind, as generally compose the Audiences in London.
“As to Orders, pray use your own Discretion about the number of Friends you wish to send into the Boxes or Gallery for your Support, but into the Pit no Orders are ever admitted from any person whatsoever. I never wrote an Order for the Pit in my life. Having told you this, now let me tell you, that, if you take my Advice, you will not send an Order at all into the theatre on the first night. I am perfectly convinced that I have seen many a piece expire at its first Appearance, that might have lived to a good old age, if it had not been smothered in the Birth by the over-officiousness of injudicious Friends,—Yours truly,
