But the fondness of George III. for the drama on one occasion was not unattended with risk, for as he was on his way to the Haymarket Theatre, on 25th July 1777, a madwoman attacked and did some damage to his chair. And as he was entering his box in Drury Lane Theatre, on 15th May 1800, he was shot at by a madman named James Hadfield. But he did not lose his composure, and he slept as quietly as usual during the interval between the play and the after-piece. What nowadays would be considered an unpardonable offence was occasionally taken by actors with their royal patrons. When Parsons, for instance, was playing the Chief Carpenter in the “Siege of Calais,” advancing close to the royal box, he exclaimed, “An’ the King were here and did not admire my scaffold, I would say, D--n him! he has no taste”--an impudent sally which amused the King even more than the audience.
An act of indecorum, but trivial compared with that of Parsons, happened when the young King of Denmark--who married the sister of George III.--was present in October 1768, at the tragedy of “Jane Shore,” during the performance of which he went fast asleep, and remained so to the amusement of the audience, but to the annoyance of Mrs. Bellamy, who played Alicia.
She waited for her opportunity, and having to pronounce the words, “O thou false lord,” she approached the royal box, and uttered them “in such a piercing tone, that the King awoke in sudden amazement, but with perception enough to enable him to protest that he would not be married to a woman with such a voice though she had the whole world for a dowry.”[143]
It was on 3rd December 1779, when the “Winter’s Tale” was being played by royal command at Drury Lane, that the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., was subdued by the beauty of the charming actress, Mary Robinson, in her character of Perdita. An intrigue ensued, and he corresponded with her under the name of “Florizel.” He provided for her a costly establishment, “and when after two years the connection terminated, she obtained from him a bond for £20,000, which she afterwards surrendered.” And although he had sworn to be “unalterable to my Perdita through life,” he abandoned her, and left her to want. But Charles Fox obtained for her an annuity of £300, and, when sojourning in France, Marie Antoinette gave a purse knitted by her own fingers to “la belle Anglaise.”