"In the year 1659," writes John Downes in his _Roscius Anglicanus_, "General Monk marching then his army out of Scotland to London, Mr. Rhodes, a bookseller, being wardrobe-keeper formerly (as I am informed) to King Charles the First's company of commedians in Blackfriars, getting a license from the then governing state,[618] fitted up a house then for acting, called the _Cockpit_, in Drury Lane, and in a short time completed his company." If this statement is correct, the time must have been early in the year 1659-60, and the company must have attempted at first to play without a proper license. From the _Middlesex County Records_ (III, 282), we learn that one of their important actors, Thomas Lilleston, was held under bond for having performed "a public stage-play this present 4th of February [1659-60] in the Cockpit in Drury Lane in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, contrary to the law in that case made"; and in the Parish Book[619] of St. Giles we find the entry: "1659. Received of Isack Smith, which he received at the Cockpit playhouse of several offenders, by order of the justices, L3 8_s._ 6_d._" Shortly after this, it is to be presumed, the company under Rhodes's management secured the "license of the then governing state" mentioned by Downes, and continued thereafter without interruption. The star of this company was Betterton, whose splendid acting at once captivated London. Pepys went often to the theatre, and has left us some interesting notes of his experiences there. On August 18, 1660, he writes: Captain Ferrers, my Lord's Cornet, comes to us, who after dinner took me and Creed to the Cockpit play, the first that I have had time to see since my coming from sea, _The Loyall Subject_, where one Kinaston, a boy, acted the Duke's sister, but made the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life, only her voice not very good. [Footnote 618: For his troubles with the Master of the Revels see Halliwell-Phillipps, _A Collection of Ancient Documents_, p. 26.] [Footnote 619: Parton, _op. cit._, p. 236.] Again on October 11, 1660, he writes: Here in the Park we met with Mr. Salisbury, who took Mr. Creed and me to the Cockpit to see _The Moor of Venice_, which was well done. Burt acted the Moor, by the same token a very pretty lady that sat by me called out to see Desdemona smothered. The subsequent history of the Cockpit falls outside the scope of the present treatise. The reader who desires to trace the part the building played in the Restoration would do well to consult the numerous documents printed by Malone from the Herbert Manuscript.[620] [Footnote 620: Malone, _Variorum_, III, 244 ff.] CHAPTER XIX SALISBURY COURT