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Sir Thomas Killigrew 1612-1683 1

Sir William Davenant 1606-16682

The Theatre Companies
The Restoration of King Charles II did not bring back wide spread theatrical enterprise, rather Charles decided to create a restricted monopoly between two legitimate theatres. The actor companies raised initially by Michael Mohun at The Red Bull and John Rhodes at The Cockpit wanted to see a return to pre-Civil War ways of running the theatres, whereby many companies competed for the attention of 'a wide and disparate audience.'3 They were, however, disappointed, Charles gave only two patents to two of his courtiers, all other companies being banned from performance. This decision by Charles created a period of turbulent legal struggles and disputes between actors and patentee managers. The structure of this theatrical control, with two patentees holding the only rights to perform, would remain until the end of the eighteenth century.

On 21 August 1660 Charles granted Killigrew and Davenant a warrant to '...erect two companies of players...and to purchase, build, and erect...two houses or theatres with all convenient rooms and other necessaries thereunto appertaining, for the representation of tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, and all other entertainments of that nature...'4
To view the full warrant please click here.
In the warrant Charles excuses the creation of the monopoly maintaining that it would prevent 'much matter of profanation and scurrility.' However, David Thomas suggests that this was not Charles' real reason for creating the monopoly, the real reason being an intent to reward Sir Thomas Killigrew with the same honour that Davenant had received from Charles I.5 As a result of this Killigrew's company was soon labelled The King's Company, Davenant's men were called The Duke's Company.

The Original Duke's Players
Thomas Betterton, Thomas Sheppey, Robert Noakes, James Noakes, Thomas Lovell, John Mosely, Cave Underhill, Robert Turner and Thomas Lilleston.

The Original King's Players
Michael Mohun, William Wintershall, Robert Shatterall, William Cartwright, Walter Clun, Charles Hart and Nicholas Burt.

For more information on the actors/actresses please click on this link.

Killigrew, as the first to receive his patent and as the manager of more experienced pre-Civil War actors, was given the rights to all pre-Restoration Plays, even Davenant's own work. Davenant was outraged and soon petitioned the King to remedy the situation. On 12 December 1660 Davenant was given the exclusive rights to nine of Shakespeare's plays; The Tempest, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Much ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, King Lear and the very successful Henry VIII . He also recovered the rights to all of his own works.

Rivalry
An excellent description of the rivalry between the two companies comes from a later period, in the following example we see Colley Cibber looking back on the Restoration:

'These two excellent companies were both prosperous for some few years till their variety of plays began to be exhausted. Then of course the better actors (which the King's seem to have been allowed) could not fail of drawing the greater audiences. Sir William Davenant therefore, master of the Duke's Company, to make head against their success, was forced to add spectacle mid music to action; and to introduce a new species of plays, since called dramatic operas, of which kind were The Tempest, Psyche, Circe, and others, all set off with the most expensive decorations of scenes and habits, with the best voices and dancers. This sensual supply of sight and sound coming in to the assistance of the weaker party, it was no wonder they should grow too hard for sense and simple nature, when it is considered how many more people there are that can see and hear than think and judge. So wanton a change of the public taste therefore began to fall as heavy upon the King's Company as their greater excellence in action had before fallen upon their competitors. Of which encroachment upon wit several good prologues in those days frequently complained.'6

Both companies were ordered to shut during the height of the plague, June 1665 to December 1666 and both made heavy losses.
In April 1668 Davenant died and the patent and theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields passed on to his widow. The actors Betterton and Harris took over the day-to-day management of the theatre until 1673 when Davenant's son, Charles Davenant was old enough to take some responsibility. In the early 1670s both companies invested a great deal of money into constructing new theatres.

Despite his cunning in obtaining a patent Killigrew was a remarkably incompetent manager and was at constant loggerheads with his actors. His poor management meant he had to bribe some of the more important actors to stay. However, this did not prevent him being appointed Master of Revels in 1673. Davenant was by far the better leader, described by Leslie Hotson as 'a most capable and energetic manager.'7 After Davenant's death Betterton prospered as theatrical manager until 1682. In 1676 Killigrew came into a bitter conflict with his son Charles; Killigrew had promised to make over to Charles all his power and authority in the company, however, Killigrew did not honour this deal, and a yearlong struggle between the two ensued. Finally in 1677 Charles got his way and took over the Theatre Company and the position as Master of Revels. Killigrew had sold all his rights to the company and any profit made by his shares went straight to his creditors. Charles Killigrew was not happy about inheriting this debt, but unfortunately he faired no better as a theatre manager. In under a year he was forced to allow the actors self-government. After much mismanagement and double dealing the company collapsed in 1682, by November of that year the Duke's Company moved into Drury Lane and the two companies became one. For the next twelve years the United Company would be London's only troupe of players. Thomas Killigrew died on 19 March 1683.

Union (1682)
Under the guidance of Betterton, The United Company prospered at Drury Lane. However, in 1688 William Davenant's son, Alexander gained control of the company and removed Betterton from managerial responsibility. By 1692 the theatre was £800 in debt, the actors were up in arms and the audience numbers had fallen. It was then that Alexander Davenant and Charles Killigrew decided to cut the actors salaries, heightening the tension in the company and pushing it to breaking point. Alexander Davenant was soon discovered to be embezzling funds from the theatre and fled to the Canary Islands in 1693.

Disunion (1695)
In 1687 Christopher Rich bought into the company and by 1693 had weaselled his way into power and control of the theatre; in Hotson's book he is described as, 'as sly a Tyrant as ever was at the Head of a Theatre.'8 Rich cut salaries and pitted the actors against each other. Betterton could take no more and soon gathered the actors together and made a bid for freedom. On 25 March 1695 King William III issued the grant for a separate licence. This was issued to Betterton, Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Bowman, Williams, Underhill, Doggett, Bowen, Mrs. Verbruggen, Mrs. Leigh and Bright. Betterton's company moved back to Lincoln's Inn Fields and London once again had two Companies to applaud.

Rival Companies
Betterton's company continued with the most success. It had the best and most well known actors, this brought the audiences in. Rich's popularity with shareholders plummeted as the financial situation of the theatre continued to worsen. Betterton's players, however, were becoming slack under self-government and he could no longer hold them together. In 1698 Jeremy Collier wrote A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage; this smote the theatres while they were already crippled. Though both companies survived these bad times, Christopher Rich had little more theatrical success while Betterton continued at Lincoln's Inn Fields until, in his old age, the company moved to the new theatre in the Haymarket built by Captain John Vanburgh.

Elizabeth Barry (1658-1713)9 Very little is known about Barry's early life. Anthony Aston describes her as, 'not handsome, her mouth opening most on the right side...Mrs Barry was middle-sized and had darkish hair, light eyes, dark eye-brows and was indifferently plump. In tragedy she was solemn and august, in comedy alert, easy and genteel, pleasant in her face and action, filling the stage with variety of gesture.'10 As an actress she was initially unsuccessful and was dismissed on more than one occasion. From this poor start she was taken under the wing of the Earl of Rochester. He coached her as an actress and she soon became his lover. With his help her skills on stage rapidly improved and her performances were said to delight the Royal Family. The Duchess of York even took English lessons under Barry's instruction. So pleased was she with Barry, that after 1688 when the Duchess became Queen she gave her coronation robes for use in Barry's part as Elizabeth in Bank's Earl of Essex. Barry was most popular and successful when acting in the plays of Thomas Otway. She was the first actress to receive a benefit performance, and Cibber maintains that it was down to her that the tradition of actor's benefit performances began. Prior to this it was only the playwrights who were allowed benefit performances. Dryden said her work was, 'always excellent' and Betterton described her as giving success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader.'11 She had two children, one by Rochester and the other by the playwright George Etherege. She retired in 1709 and died 7 November 1713 aged fifty-five.

Nell Gwyn (1650-1687)12 Born in poverty near Drury Lane; Gwyn's father was an ex-soldier and little is known of her mother except that she met a grisly end in 1679, drowned in a pond in Chelsea whilst intoxicated. Nell Gwyn started her career in the playhouse as a orange wench, but was soon noticed by Charles Hart and took to the stage aged fifteen. She joined Killigrew's company at Drury Lane in 1665, her first role being that of Cydaria in Dryden's The Indian Emperor. In 1667 she left the stage briefly as she had become Lord Buckhurst's mistress, she returned and remained with the company until 1669. Her last performance was as Almahide in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada, this performance had to be postponed for some months as she was pregnant with King Charles's son. According to Peter Cunningham it was as King Charles's mistress that she endeared herself to the public.13 In her acting career she had been picked out by Dryden who wrote many parts for her, she excelled in delivering Dryden's often risqué prologues and epilogues. She was illiterate and described by Cunningham as, 'the antithesis of Puritanism.'14 Gwyn never forgot her old friends in the theatre and was faithful to Charles in life and death. Indeed on his deathbed Charles said to his brother, 'let not poor Nelly starve.'15 James did as his brother bid him, yet she did not long outlive her beloved King, dying just two years after him.

Anne Bracegirdle (c.1674-1748)16 At an early age Bracegirdle was taken in by Betterton and his wife and trained for the stage. She first appeared in The Orphan in 1680. In 1693 she played her first comedy by Congreve, the two were to become closely acquainted. In 1695 following Betterton to Lincoln's Inn Fields, Bracegirdle played one of her most popular roles as Belinda in Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife. In 1705 she moved to the Haymarket theatre with Betterton's company. Here Bracegirdle met Mrs. Oldfield and the two became instant rivals. The Encyclopaedia Britannica relates the story that, 'it was left to the audience to determine which was the better comedy actress, the test being the part of Mrs. Brittle in Betterton's Amorous Widow, which was played alternately by the two rivals on successive nights. When the popular vote was given in favour of Mrs. Oldfield, Mrs. Bracegirdle quitted the stage, making only one reappearance at Betterton's benefit in 1709.'17 Anne Bracegirdle had a public private life, Macaulay calls her, 'a cold, vain and interested coquette, who perfectly understood how much the influence of her charms was increased by the fame of severity which cost her nothing.'18 Her infamous beauty got herself and others into trouble on more than one occasion. The actor William Mountford was murdered by Captain Hill and Lord Mohun after he saved her from being ravished by the two men. In her life time she was the suspected mistress and wife of William Congreve, the two were indeed close, but little more can be proven. For all that she was or seemed to be, while she lived she had a virtuous reputation. Even being presented by Lord Halifax with eight hundred guineas in tribute to her virtue. She died in 1748 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

HART, CHARLES (d. 1683) As the grandson of Shakespeare’s sister it is not surprising that Hart began his stage career early. His first parts were female roles at the Blackfriars theatre. During the Civil War he was a lieutenant in Prince Rupert’s cavalry regiment and after this he played illegally at the Cockpit and at other noblemen’s private houses. In 1663 as part of Killigrew's company Hart played at the Theatre Royal until 1682. During his time there he was often given leading roles and was highly respected by his contemporaries, he is often mentioned by Pepys, indicating the extent of his fame. Betterton valued Hart highly and would not play the part of Hotspur until Hart had retired. Hart was Nell Gwyn's first lover and contributed to her stage training. Later in his life he was debilitated by disease and did not act often after 1679. John Downes comments, 'If he acted...but once in a fortnight, the house was filled as at a new play... one of the court was pleased to honour him with this commendation: that Hart might teach any king on earth how to comport himself... In all the comedies and tragedies he was concerned he performed with exactness and perfection that not any of his successors have equalled him.'19 Charles Hart died in 1683 and was buried on the 20th of August.

MOHUN, MICHAEL (c. 1625-1684)20 Michael Mohun worked in both the pre-and early Restoration periods.Playing at the Cockpit in Drury Lane before the Civil War. During the war he served on the King's side with valour and was promoted to captain, and subsequently, in Flanders, to major. In 1660 he returned with the restored Charles II and continued in his former profession. Mohun played a great variety of parts, usually as second to Charles Hart. They were good friends and lived and died in the same fashion; like Hart, Mohun also suffered from disease later in life and essentially retired from the stage in 1679. Pepys was always complimentary of Mohun's work. Pepys 20 November 1660 'Mr Sheply and I to the new playhouse near Lincoln's Inn Fields (which was formerly Gibbons's tennis court)...here I saw the first time one Mohun who is said to be the best actor in the world, lately come over with the king.'21 Pepys 22 November 1660 'I to the new playhouse and saw part of The Traitor, a very good tragedy, where Mohun did act the traitor very well.'22

Thomas Betterton (c.1635-1710)23 Betterton was born in London, his father was the under-cook to King Charles I. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him as, 'athletic, slightly above middle height, with a tendency to stoutness: his voice was strong rather than melodious, but in recitation it was used with the greatest dexterity.'24 In 1659 Betterton obtained a licence to create a company of players at the Cockpit, Drury Lane. The company's first production was in 1660, this is when Betterton made his first appearance on stage. He soon became very popular and was given many of the leading roles. The opening of Lincoln's Inn Fields heralded Betterton's move with the rest of Rhodes' company to the Dukes'Company. Here his popularity increased and not only with the public. King Charles held Betterton in high esteem and sent him to Paris to examine stagecraft. In 1662 he married Mary Saunderson, an excellent actress famed for her rendition of Ophelia. In 1692 Betterton and Sir Francis Watson were both ruined by a poor business decision on the part of Watson. With the help of friends in court Betterton reopened Lisle's tennis court playhouse at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1693. The theatre opened with Congreve's Love for Love, one of Betterton's personal favourites. Indeed for his benefit performance he played the role of Valentine in the very same play making around five hundred pounds profit. His last performance was in 1710 and he died later that year and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

 

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1 Anthony Masters, The Play of Personality in the Restoration Theatre, ed. Simon Trussler, the Boydell Press 1992, p.83.
2 http://www.gwu.edu/~klarsen/theatre.html
3 Theatre in Europe: a Documentary History: Restoration and Georgian England, 1660-1788, ed. David Thomas, Cambridge University Press 1989, p.7.
4 Ibid., p.12.
5 Ibid., p.11.
6 Ibid., p.135.
7 Leslie Hotson, The Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, Russell & Russell Inc 1962, p.219.
8 Ibid., p.293.
9 Montague Summers, The Restoration Theatre, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co 1934, plate I.
10 Theatre in Europe: a Documentary History: Restoration and Georgian England, 1660-1788, ed. David Thomas, Cambridge University Press 1989, p.144.
11 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume III, Cambridge University Press 1910, p.444.
12 The London Stage 1660-1800: Vol 1 1660-1700, ed. William Van Lennep, Sourthern Illinois University Press 1965, between pp.64-65.
13 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume XII, Cambridge University Press 1910, p.750.
14 Ibid., p.750.
15 Ibid., p.750.
16 Montague Summers, The Restoration Theatre, plate XIX, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co 1934, facing p.224.
17 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume IV, Cambridge University Press 1910, p.358.
18 Ibid., p.358.
19 Theatre in Europe: a Documentary History: Restoration and Georgian England, 1660-1788, ed. David Thomas, Cambridge University Press 1989, p.130.
20 Ibid., p.129.
21 Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, The Globe edition, Macmillian & Co Ltd 1905, p.56.
22 Ibid., p.57.
23 Anthony Masters, The Play of Personality in the Restoration Theatre, ed. Simon Trussler, the Boydell Press 1992, p.98.
24 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Volume III, Cambridge University Press 1910, p.832.