followed in his third season; _As You Like It_, _Cymbeline_, _The
Merry Wives of Windsor_, and _Twelfth Night_, in his fourth. Each
succeeding season saw further additions to the Shakespearean
repertory, until only six Shakespearean dramas were left
unrepresented, viz.--_Richard II._, the three parts of _Henry VI._,
_Troilus and Cressida_, and _Titus Andronicus_. Of these, one alone,
_Richard II._, is really actable.

The leading principles, to which Phelps strictly adhered throughout
his career of management, call for most careful consideration. He
gathered round him a company of actors and actresses, whom he
zealously trained to interpret Shakespeare's language. He accustomed
his colleagues to act harmoniously together, and to sacrifice to the
welfare of the whole enterprise individual pretensions to prominence.
No long continuous run of any one piece was permitted by the rules of
the playhouse. The programme was constantly changed. The scenic
appliances were simple, adequate, and inexpensive. The supernumerary
staff was restricted to the smallest practicable number. The general
expenses were consequently kept within narrow limits. For every
thousand pounds that Charles Kean laid out at the Princess's Theatre
on scenery and other expenses of production, Phelps in his most ornate
revivals spent less than a fourth of that sum. For the pounds spent by
managers on more recent revivals, Phelps would have spent only as many
shillings. In the result, Phelps reaped from the profits of his
a handsome unencumbered income. During the same period Charles
Kean grew more and more deeply involved in oppressive debt, and at a
later date Sir Henry Irving made over to the public a hundred thousand
pounds above his receipts.