was released 16 Aug. 1659. Upon the Restoration license (21 Aug. 1660) was given to D'Avenant and to Thomas Killigrew to ‘erect’ two companies of players. These and other documents are quoted by Malone. Sir William D'Avenant's company, known as the Duke's, from the Duke of York (afterwards James II), its patron, was established about March 1662 in a new theatre near Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Before the erection of this building it acted at the theatre in Salisbury Court. It comprised Betterton [q. v.], Nokes, Kynaston, and other actors assembled in 1659–60 by Rhodes, a bookseller near Charing Cross, who in the days of Charles I is said to have been wardrobe-keeper to the king's company of comedians at Blackfriars, and who when the army of Monck was approaching London had obtained a license to form a dramatic company. On 15 Nov. 1660 Betterton and his associates began to act at Salisbury Court under an agreement which they had formed with D'Avenant. Here, or at the Cockpit, they continued to act until March or April 1662. From his first attempt to establish his company D'Avenant met with constant opposition from Sir Henry Herbert, whose privileges and claims as master of the revels were disregarded both by D'Avenant and Killigrew. In a petition to Charles II, presented by Herbert in August 1660, Herbert protests against the permissions to erect playhouses as an ‘unjust surprize’ and as ‘destructive to the power’ he exercises. Of D'Avenant he speaks as one ‘who obtained leave of Oliver and Richard Cromwell to vent his operas at a time when your petitioner owned not their authority.’ In spite of the opposition the grant passed the privy signet 21 Aug. 1660. Herbert then, in consequence of ‘the unusuall and unreasonable rates’ taken at the ‘playhouse doores of the respective persons of quality that desire to refresh or improve themselves’ by the sight of ‘morrall entertainments,’ despatched a warrant requiring the actors at the Cockpit at their peril to send all the plays they intended to act, that ‘they may be reformed of prophanes and ribaldry.’ Against this the actors petitioned. Herbert then brought an action against the players, and two actions against D'Avenant. The decision upon the case between Herbert and D'Avenant was referred by Charles, 30 June 1662, to the lord chancellor (Clarendon) and the lord chamberlain (Manchester). In the statement of his wrongs Herbert speaks of D'Avenant as ‘a person who exercised the office of master of the revels to Oliver the Tyrant,’ and is ‘credibly informed’ that he, ‘the said D'Avenant, published a poem in vindication and justification of Oliver's actions and government, and an epithalamium in praise of Oliver's daughter, Mrs. Rich.’ Herbert gained some of his cases, but court influence was against him, and the struggle to assert his powers was in the end abandoned. By the final conditions meanwhile under which the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields opened, the total receipts, after the charges for supernumeraries, &c., were deducted, were divided into fifteen shares, of which the actors took five, leaving D'Avenant ten, ‘two towards the house rent, buildings, scaffolding, and making of frames for scenes; one for a provision of habits, properties, and scenes …; and seven to maintain all the women that are to perform or represent women's parts in tragedies, comedies, &c., and in consideration of erecting and establishing his actors to be a company, and his pains and expenses for that purpose for many years.’ D'Avenant's gross receipts from the ten shares Herbert estimates at 200l. a week. The agreement bears date 5 Nov. 1660. The first part of the ‘Siege of Rhodes’ was the first piece acted by D'Avenant's company. It was followed by the second part of the same play, and after an interval by ‘The Wits.’ This piece was mounted with costly scenery, which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus), oblivious of the performances at Rutland House, calls ‘the first that ever was introduced in England.’ Mrs. Saunderson, afterwards Mrs. Betterton, was Iantha in the ‘Siege of Rhodes,’ and Mrs. Davenport Roxalana, a character which did not appear in the first sketch of the play. Mrs. Saunderson and Mrs. Davenport, with Mrs. Davies [q. v.] and Mrs. Long, were the four principal actresses, whom, in pursuance of the previously mentioned agreement, D'Avenant boarded in his own house. From the first D'Avenant's performances obtained a strong hold on the public. His theatre, in consequence of the name he gave his performances under Cromwellian rule, was known as the Opera. Pepys makes frequent reference to it. D'Avenant's ‘Love and Honour,’ printed in 4to, 1649, which was revived in 1661, had a great run, and produced ‘the company much gain and estimation’ (Downes, ib.) ‘It was richly dressed—the king, the Duke of York, and the Earl of Oxford having given their coronation suits to Betterton, Harris, and Price’ (ib.) On 18 Feb. 1662 D'Avenant produced his ‘Law against Lovers’ (folio collection), an alteration of ‘Measure for Measure,’ with the characters of Benedick and Beatrice introduced. Those of his own works with which D'Avenant opened had been rehearsed in the Apothecaries' Hall. The ‘Playhouse to be
Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/112
