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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
The Union of the Companies that had brought the theatre of London under the one roof of Drury Lane in 1682 degenerated under the mis-management of Christopher Rich into open rebellion in 1695. In that year Betterton and a group of followers abandoned the Theatre Royal to set up a rival company in the old theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This new group managed quite successfully for several seasons, but a decline soon set in, partly due to the shabby old theatre itself, but mainly due to internal bickering and poor management. By the first years of the eighteenth century the company was in such straits that a revitalization was understood to be necessary if the players were to survive.
1 Quoted in Whistler, Laurence, Sir John Vanbrugh, Architect and Dramatist (London, 1938), pp. 105–106.Google Scholar
2 Quoted but not dated in Whistler, pp. 104–105.
3 Daniel Defoe, Review of the Affairs of France, Vol. II, No. 26 (Thursday, May 3, 1705).
4 Rehearsal of Observator, 5 May 1705, cited in Whistler, p. 107.
5 Quoted by Wilkinson, Robert, Londina Illustrata (London, 1808), Vol. II.Google Scholar Not paginated.
6 Defoe, Vol. II, No. 26.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Downes, John, Roscius Anglicanus (London, 1789), p. 64.Google Scholar
10 Cibber, Colly, An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colly Cibber (London, 1822), pp. 295–296.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., p. 298.
12 Downes, p. 65.
13 Culled from Avery, Emmet L., The London Stage (Carbondale, Illinois, 1960)Google Scholar, Part II.
14 Ibid., Part II, p. xxvii.
15 Cibber, p. 196.
16 Whistler, pp. 135–136.
17 From the original broadside in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
18 Sands, Molly, “Mrs. Tofts, 1685?–1756,” Theatre Notebook, XX, No. 3 (Spring, 1966), 108.Google Scholar
19 The Tatler, April 18, 1709.
20 From the original MS in Doran's, JohnTheir Majesties Servants, extra illus trated edition (London, 1865)Google Scholar, courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection.
21 From the original MS in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
22 Avery, Part II, p. xxviii.
23 Letter from Vanbrugh to the Earl of Carlisle, quoted in Whistler, pp. 139–140.
24 Cibber, pp. 364 and 366. The “original model” of Drury Lane to which Cibber refers was that existing before the minor alterations made by Christopher Rich in 1698. At that time Rich cut back the former “semi-Oval figure” of the apron to a straight line, removing the downstage pair of entrance doors and substituting stage boxes in their stead. This change was exceedingly unpopular with the actors, since they had to play at least ten feet farther back from the audience than they did formerly, and they felt that contact with the audience was severely diminished.
25 Cited in Whistler, p. 109.
26 Given, along with other figures, in Phillips', HughMid Georgian London (London, 1964), p. 91.Google Scholar
27 An enlargement of the Haymarket section of the View is given in Phillips, p. 88.
28 Variously reproduced; this in particular quoted from an engraving in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
29 Wilkinson, Vol. II.
30 O'Reilly, Robert Bray, An Authentic Narrative of the Principal Circumstances relating to the Opera House in the Hay-Market (London, 1791), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar
31 Milizia, Francesco, Del Teatro (Roma, 1771), pp. 118–119.Google Scholar My translation.
32 Given in Phillips, p. 277.
33 Whistler, p. 290.
34 Wedlake Brayley, Ed., Historical and Descriptive Account of The London Theatres (London, 1826), Vol. 2, p. 28.Google Scholar Harvard Theatre Collection.
35 Plans of what must be the design of the brothers Adam have yet to be published. Since the Novosielski alteration of 1782 “shaped the flat sides to form a horseshoe,” it may not be amiss to think of the Opera House of the brothers Adam as having been simply an enlarged copy of the rectangular Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres.
36 Pennant, Thomas, Esq., Some Account of London, 5th Edition (London, 1813), p. 162.Google Scholar Pennant seems a little confused about who did what when.
