Among other things, the licensing act of 1737 stipulated that Covent
Garden and Drury Lane exclusively were the patented and licensed
theaters (respectively) in London, a fact directly related to the revolt
of prestigious players six years later. Although there were sporadic
performances of "legitimate" drama in unlicensed playhouses between 1737
and 1743, full-time professional actors and actresses were in effect
locked into the approved theaters during the regular theatrical season.
Suspecting a cartel directed against them personally and professionally
by the "Bashas" Rich at Covent Garden and Fleetwood at Drury Lane,[1]
the players from Drury Lane in the summer of 1743 banded together and
refused to perform the next season until salaries and playing conditions
improved. Tardy and partial payment of salary was the surface sore
point, unprincipled and unwarranted manipulation by the managers the
underlying one. As the Macklin-Garrick quarrel attests,[2] the conflict
was not only between labor and management; but the latter confrontation
is central to the conflict in 1743 and the subject of _The Case of Mrs.
Clive Submitted to the Publick_, published in October, 1744, by which
time Catherine (Kitty) Clive had established herself as not only first
lady of comedy but also as somewhat of a patriot of the acting
profession and the Drury Lane company.

Coming to Drury Lane in 1728 while still in her teens, Kitty Rafter
(1711-1785) quickly became a favorite of the town by virtue of her
singing voice, vivacity, and gift for mimicry. Admired first as a
singing actress, Miss Rafter in 1731 gave unequivocal notice of her
considerable talent as a comic actress in the role of Nell in Coffey's
_The Devil to Pay_, one of several hundred she mastered. Her
specialties: Flora in _The Wonder_, Lady Bab in _High Life Below
Stairs_, Lappet in _The Miser_, Catherine in _Catherine and Petruchio_,
Mrs. Heidelberg in _The Clandestine Marriage_, and the Fine Lady in