Colley Cibber
Actor-manager and dramatist Colley Cibber (1671–1757) comments on the reason women wore masks at the theatre.
But while our Authors took these extraordinary Liberties with their Wit, I remember the Ladies were then observ'd, to be decently afraid of venturing bare-fac'd to a new Comedy, 'till they had been assur'd they might do it, without the Risque of an Insult, to their Modesty—Or, if their Curiosity were too strong, for their Patience, they took Care, at least, to save Appearances, and rarely came upon the first Days of Acting but in Masks, (then daily worn, and admitted in the Pit, the side Boxes, and Gallery) which Custom however, had so many ill consequences attending it, that it has been abolish'd these many Years.
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