Event Comment: By Command of
their Majesties. [This seems to be
the night referred to by
The Volunteer Manager in
Theatrical Review of 1 January 1763 who condemns
Miss Poitier's scandalous costume and indelicate actions: "Would any person suppose she could have
the confidence to appear with her bosom so scandalously bare, that to use
the expression of a public writer, who took some moderate notice of
the circumstance,
the breast hung flabbing over a pair of stays cut remarkably low, like a couple of empty bladders in an oil-shop. One thing
the author of that letter has omitted, which, if possible is still more gross; and that is, in
the course of
Miss Poitier's hornpipe, one of her shoes happening to slipt down at
the heel, she lifted up her leg, and danced upon
the o
ther till she had drawn it up. This had she worn drawers, would have been
the more excusable; but unhappily,
there was little occasion for standing in
the pit to see that she was not provided with so much as a fig-leaf.
The Court turned instantly from
the stage-
The Pit was astonished! and scarcely anything, but a disapproving murmur, was heard, from
the most unthinking spectator in
the twelvepenny gallery."
Miss Poitier subsequently denied any impropriety in action, and sought hearing in
the Theatrical Review. In
the Volunteer Manager" section of
the number for 1 March 1763
the editiors reaffirmed
their stand on her indecency and refused to join fur
ther in a personal altercation.