The Theater in the Victorian Age

[Tom Bogar]

Bill, I checked an online dictionary and it says:

Dress Circle: A section of seats in a theater or opera house, usually the first tier above the orchestra...So called because it is a circular row of seats at an entertainment, the spectators of which are expected to be in dress clothes.

You got it, Roger. That was the expectation, primarily b/c the denizens of the pit below throughout the 18th c and first half of the 19th c, seated on crude benches rather than separate seats, were so ill-mannered--mostly working class folk. Those in the boxes and dress circle liked to be "above" the riff-raff. (Also, those in the pit were subjected to objects and spittle descending from the gallery and third tier; those in the dress circle were more protected.)