greatest heroine of the age. You looked on the cases of Mr.
Highmore and Mrs. Wilks with compassion, nor could any promises or
views of interest sway you to desert them; nor have you scrupled
any fatigue ... to support the cause of those whom you imagine
injured and distressed; and for this you have been so far from
endeavouring to exact an exorbitant reward from persons little able
to afford it, that I have known you to offer to act for nothing,
rather than the patentees should be injured by the dismission of
the audience.[8]

Fielding is, of course, referring to the 1733 dispute in which Mrs.
Clive (and Macklin) among the principal players stayed with the
ineffective proprietor of Drury Lane, John Highmore. Jealous that
Highmore and not he gained control of Drury Lane after former
shareholders either died or sold out, Theophilus Cibber demanded, among
other things, that Highmore share profits with his players rather than
pay fixed salaries. He then led the Drury Lane players in revolt in the
autumn of 1733 to the New Haymarket where they played without a license
until March of the 1733-1734 season, at which time they returned to
Drury Lane under the new management of Fleetwood. The actors at least
partially won this battle, and although Highmore tried to have the
vagrant act enforced, the players returned to Drury Lane unscathed. With
Highmore gone, a period of uneasy peace obtained. The players, however,
were not to win so easily the next dispute, the one that took place
after the passage of the licensing act.[9]

Mrs. Clive's decision to stay with Highmore rather than defect was
probably made because "two women--Mrs. Wilks, the widow of her [Kitty's]
old theatrical idol, and Mrs. Booth--were in he direction of the
theater.[10] But in light of Fielding's words and her actions and