Event Comment: Benefit
Estcourt. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality.
London in 1710 (pp. 138-39): On this occasion the actors represented a prodigiously satirical Interscenium, which was not to be found in the printed copy of the play....In this interlude a troop of soldiers came on, singing at the top of their voices an
English song which had been made by the army in
Flanders about the
Duke of Marlborough. In it
Prince Eugene is praised for his open-h
andedness, while Marlborough, on the other h
and, is blamed for his avarice, so that every verse ended: 'but Marlborough not a penny.' The people, who are very bitter against the whole family, even the Duke himself, laughed prodigiously,
and b
andied about monstrous insults, although Marlborough's daughter, the
Duchess of Montagu, was herself at the play
and was so greatly shamed that she was covered with blushes....When the song was at an end, there was such a clapping
and yelling that the actors were unable to proceed for nearly a quarter of an hour