Their Majesties' Servants (Volume 1); Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean. Actors--Authors-Audiences (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE " BOY ACTEESSES," AND THE " YOUNG LADIES." The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, is the " sacred ground" of the English drama, since the restoration of monarchy. At the Cockpit (Pit Street remains a memory of the place), otherwise called the Phoenix, in the "lane" above-named, the old English actors had uttered their last words before they were silenced. In a reconstruction of the edifice near, rather than on, the old site, the young English actors, under Rhodes, built their new stage, and wooed the willing town. There was some irregularity in the first steps made to re-establish the stage, which, after an uneasy course of about four years, was terminated by Charles II., who, in 1663, granted patents for two theatres, and no more, in London. Under one patent, Killigrew, at the head of the King's company (the Cockpit being closed) opened at the new theatre in Drury Lane, in August, 1663, with a play of the olden tune,?the " Humourous Lieutenant," of Beaumont and Fletcher. Under the second patent, Davenant and the Duke of York's company found a home,?first at the old Cockpit, then in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, the building of which was commenced in 1660, on the siteof the old granary of Salisbury house, which had served for a theatre in the early years of the reign of Charles I. This little stage was lapped up by the great tongue of fire, by which many a nobler edifice was destroyed, in 1666. But previous to the fire, thence went Davenant and the Duke's troop to the old Tennis Court, the first of the three theatres in Portugal Row, on the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, from which the houses took their name. In 1671, Davenant being dead, the company, under the nominal management of his widow, migrated to a house designed by Wren, and decorated by Grinli...