and a new one built on its site. It was promised that it should be
"very fine, large, and commodious," and it was built between June and
September, 1753; how fine, large, and commodious it was may, therefore,
be imagined. A year later, the German Calvinists, wanting a place of
worship, bought the theater, and New York was without a playhouse until
a new one on Cruger's Wharf was built by David Douglass, who had married
Lewis Hallam's widow, Hallam having died in Jamaica, in 1755. This was
abandoned in turn, and Mr. Douglass built a second theater, this time
in Chapel Street. It cost $1,625, and can scarcely have been either very
roomy or very ornate. Such as it was, however, it was the home of the
drama in all its forms, save possibly the ballad opera, until about
1765, and was the center around which a storm raged which culminated
in a riot that wrecked it.

The successor of this unhappy institution was the John Street Theater,
which was opened toward the close of the year 1767. There seems to have
been a period of about fifteen years during which the musical drama
was absent from the amusement lists, but this house echoed, like its
earliest predecessors, to the strains of the ballad opera which "made
Gay rich and Rich gay." "The Beggar's Opera" was preceded, however, by
"Love in a Village," for which Dr. Arne wrote and compiled the music;
and Bickerstaff's "Maid of the Mill" was also in the repertory. In 1774
it was officially recommended that all places of amusement be closed.
Then followed the troublous times of the Revolution, and it was not
until twelve years afterward--that is, till 1786--that English Opera
resumed its sway. "Love in a Village" was revived, and it was followed
by "Inkle and Yarico," an arrangement of Shakespeare's "Tempest," with
Purcell's music, "No Song, No Supper," "Macbeth," with Locke's music,
McNally's comic opera "Robin Hood," and other works of the same
character; in fact, it may safely be said that few, if any, English