"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
"Their Majesties' Servants." Annals of the English Stage (Volume 1 of 3)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Actors -- Great Britain; Theater -- Great Britain -- History
In 1671, Davenant being dead, the company, under the nominal
management of his widow, migrated to a house designed by Wren, and
decorated by Grinling Gibbons. This was the Duke's Theatre, in Dorset
Gardens. It was in close vicinity to the old Salisbury Court Theatre,
and it presented a double face--one towards Fleet Street, the other
overlooking the terrace which gave access to visitors who came by
the river. Later, this company was housed in Lincoln's Inn Fields
again; but it migrated, in 1732, to Covent Garden, under Rich. Rich's
house was burnt down in 1808, and its successor, built by Smirke, was
destroyed in 1856. On the site of the latter now stands the Royal
Italian Opera, the representative, in its way, of the line of houses
wherein the Duke's Company struggled against their competitors of the
King's.
The first house of those competitors in Drury Lane was burnt in 1672,
but the King's Company took refuge in the "Fields" till Wren built
the new house, opened in 1674. The two troops remained divided, yet
not opposed, each keeping to its recognised stock pieces, till 1682,
when Killigrew, having "shuffled off this mortal coil,"[17] the
two companies, after due weeding, formed into one, and abandoning
Lincoln's Inn to the tennis-players, Dorset Gardens to the wrestlers,
and both to decay, they opened at the New Drury, built by Sir
Christopher, on the 16th of November 1682. Wren's theatre was taken
down in 1791; its successor, built by Holland, was opened in 1794,
and was destroyed in 1809. The present edifice is the fourth which
has occupied a site in Drury Lane. It is the work of Wyatt, and was
opened in 1812.
Thus much for the edifice of the theatres of the last half of the
seventeenth century. Before we come to the "ladies and gentlemen" who
met upon the respective stages, and strove for the approval of the
town, let me notice that, after the death of Oliver,[18] Davenant
publicly exhibited a mixed entertainment, chiefly musical, but which
was not held to be an infringement of the law against the acting of
plays. Early in May 1659, Evelyn writes:--"I went to see a new opera,
after the Italian way, in recitative music and scenes, much inferior
to the Italian composure and magnificence; but it was prodigious,
that in a time of such public consternation, such a vanity should
be kept up or permitted." That these musical entertainments were
something quite apart from "plays," is manifest by another entry in
Evelyn's diary, in January 1661:--"After divers years since I had
seen any play, I went to see acted 'The Scornful Lady,' at a new
theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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