PLAYHOUSE. 
661 
By his Majefty’s Company of Comedians. 
At the New Theatre in Drury*lane. 
This Day, being Thursday, April 8th, 1663, will be 
aCled a Comedy called 
The HVMOVROVS LIEVTENANT. 
The King 
Demetrius 
Seleucus 
Leontius 
Lievtenant 
Celia 
WlNTERSEL. 
Mr. Hart. 
Mr. Byrt. 
Major Mahon. 
Mr. Clyn. 
Mrs. Marshall. 
The Play will begin at three exaClly. 
Boxes 4s. Fit 2s. 6d. Middle Gallery is. 6d. Upper 
Gallery is. 
The hour of opening the doors is the mod linking 
difference between thole times and the prefent; for, as 
to the entrance-money, we do not find the increafe to have 
kept pace with that of other fuperfluities. We have at 
this moment a Ihilling-gallery 5 and for a long time the 
O. P. for the boxes was only 5s., is. above the price 
Hated to have been 160 years ago. Another remark 
which will moll likely be made by our readers, is, that 
the King’s part is performed by an aClor who is not (tyled 
Mr. like the reft,but fimplycalled by his furnam eWinterfel, 
we fuppofe out of peculiar fefpeft. That nicety, how¬ 
ever long it may have been continued, (and we are not 
able to enlighten our readers upon the fubjeCl,) has not 
reached the prefent day. 
During thefe removals of the King’s Company, their 
rivals belonging to the Duke of York were fluffing their 
places of performance, and were fome time before they 
were wholly fettled. From the Cockpit they went to a 
new theatre, built in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which was 
opened in the fpring of the year 1662. This houfe Hood 
clofe to, if not partly upon, the divifion of the parilhes 
of St. Giles in the Fields and St. Clement Danes. It 
fronted towards Little Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a plot of 
ground whereon Carey-ftreet has been fince built, which 
then had a thoroughfare to Chancery-lane near Bell-yard, 
through Jack-a-napes-lane and Portugal-row ; and formed 
a path-way from St. Clement’s Fields,'crofting Thickett’s 
Field, to Chancery-lane. The fcite is now occupied by 
Spode’s earthen ware-warehoufe. 
The Lincoln’s-inn Theatre has been called, at various 
times, and by different writers, the Portugal-row Theatre, 
Sir William Davenant’s theatre, the Duke of York’s the¬ 
atre, the Duke’s old theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, &c. 
This confufion has arifen, as well from the near neigh¬ 
bourhood of this theatre to the one that flood by Vere- 
ftreer, already defer!bed, as from the circumftance of both 
refpeCtively being built in tennis-courts. While this 
theatre was building, Davenant prepared and rehearfed 
both parts of the Siege of Rhodes, and the comedy of 
The Wits, at Apothecaries’ Hall. In the month of 
March or April, 1662, the houfe was opened with the 
firlt part of the Siege of Rhodes, “ having new feenes and 
decorations, being the firft that e’er were introduced in 
England.” And it appears that Davenant engaged eight 
"women to join his company, boarding four of them, as 
principal aflreffes, in his own houfe. 
The avidity of the public for theatrical entertainments 
fufficiently recompenfed, for a confiderable time, the 
affiduity of the performers, and the expectations of the 
managers and proprietors. Their fuccefs was, however, 
foon interrupted by national calamities. In 1665, the 
plague broke out in London with great violence; and in 
the fucceeding year, the fire, which deftroyed the metro¬ 
polis, put a Hop to the further progrefs of (tage-perform- 
ances. After a difcontinuance of eighteen months, both 
houfes were again opened at Chriftmas 1666. The nrife- 
ries occafioned by the plague and fire were forgotten, and 
public diverfions were again followed with as much 
eagernefs as they had been before their interruption. 
Vol, XX. No. 1399. 
Both companies were at firft fuccefsful; but after the 
novelty of the feveral performers was worn away, and 
their flock of plays had been repeated until they became 
familiar, the Duke’s Company, excellent as they were 
allowed to be, felt their inferiority by the (lender audi¬ 
ences they were able to draw together. This confideration 
induced fir William Davenant to try the effeCts of anew 
theatre, built with greater magnificence than that in 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields; and he chofe Dorfet Garden, pro¬ 
bably where the old playhoufe in Salifbury Court flood, 
as a proper place for the purpofe; but before this theatre 
was finifhed he died; and on that event the manage¬ 
ment of his property therein came into the hands of his 
widow lady Davenant, Mr. Betterton, and Mr. Harris, 
a (filled by Charles Davenant, afterwards well-known as 
a politician and civil lawyer. 
The defign is attributed to fir Chriftopher Wren, whofe 
attention might have been directed by Davenant, in his 
lifetime, to the giving effeCt to the new feenery; and 
therefore this elegant (IruClure was as richly adorned 
without as within. The front had a fouthern afpeCt, 
with a portico, and two (mailer arches for the convenience 
of carriages. See Plate II. The building and feenery 
cod 5000I. Though this theatre was probably ereCled 
upon nearly the fame fpot where dramatic exhibitions 
had, with only occafional intermifiions, exifted for near 
a century, the projeCl was not carried into effeCt without 
confiderable oppofition from the citizens. The volumi¬ 
nous Baxter records this circumftance: “ A new play¬ 
houfe (he fays) being built in Sali(bury-court, Fleet-ftreet, 
called the Duke of York’s, the lord mayor (as it is faid) 
defired of the king that it might not be, the youth of the 
city being already fo corrupted by fenfual pleafures; but 
be obtained not his end.” It was opened by Davenant’s 
widow, aided by Betterton at the head of the Duke of 
York’s Company, on the 9th of November, 1671, with 
Dryden’s Comedy of Sir Martin Marall, which was re¬ 
peated to a full audience for three days, “ ndtwithftand- 
ing it had been afted thirty days before in Lincoln’s Inn 
Fields, and above four times at court.” The novel in¬ 
troduction of operas and farces, and the revival of fuch 
(lock-pieces as admitted a difplay of feenery and fplendid 
dreffes, proved fufficient to attraCl a long fucceflion of 
crowded houfes. Here, in 1682, the ambalfador from the 
emperor of Morocco was entertained with Pfyche, “a 
play of extraordinary fplendour;” and on other evenings 
faw Macbeth and the Temped, and was extremely pleafed. 
However, the renewal of the embelliftiments and dreffes, 
although the houfe was “more frequented than the 
King’s, proved a pageant too coftly in continuance for 
the aCtors to derive a competent emolument : and which 
circumftance finally led to a jnn&ion of the company 
with their long-continued rivals at Drury-lane. This 
fcheme was formed under an Agreement, dated OSober 
the 14th, 1681, between Dr. Davenant, Betterton, and 
Smith, of the one part; and Charles Hart, and Edward 
Kynafton, of the other part: whereby, in confideration 
of certain penfions, Hart and Kynafton agreed within a 
month to make over “ all the right, title, and claim, 
which they or either of them had to any plays, hooks, 
deaths, and feenes, in the king’s playhoufe.” They alfo 
promifed to “promote, with all their power and intereft, 
an agreement between both play houfesand which 
took effeCt about July 1682. 
“If the merit of Shakefpeare and his cotemporaries 
(fays Mr. Dibdin) maintained at lead eight theatres at a 
time, without the advantages of feenes or aftreffes, one 
introduced 'to attraCl the view, and the other to charm 
the fenfes, tjiere dearly mult have been a deplorable de¬ 
ficiency in the dramatic productions at the Reftoration ; 
when two theatres at a time made fo indifferent a drift to 
get on, that, in order to give ftrength to their perform¬ 
ances, they united; and thus all the dramatic merit of 
the kingdom was concentrated in one company.” 
Nor did the advantages which were expeCled to follow 
8 F this 
