Many others [i.e. Plays] were Acted by the Old Company at the Theatre Royal, from the time they begun, till the Patent defcended to Mr. Charles Killigrew, which in 1682, he join'd it to Dr. Davenant's Patent, whofe Company Acted then in Dorset Garden, which upon the Union, were Created the King's Company: After which, Mr. Hart Acted no more, having a Pension to the Day of his Death, from the United Company.

Next follows an Account of the Rife and Progreffion, of the Dukes Servants; under the Patent of Sir William Davenant who upon the faid Junction in 1682, remov'd to the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, and Created the King's Company.

In the Year 1659, General Monk, Marching then his Army out of Scotland to London. Mr. Rhodes a Bookfeller being Wardrobe-Keeper formerly (as I am inform'd) to King Charles the First's, Company of Comedians in Black-Friars; getting a License from the then Governing State, fitted up a House then for Acting call'd the Cock Pit in Drury-Lane, and in a short time Compleated his Company. T.

In this Interim, Sir William Davenant gain'd a Patent from the King, and Created Mr. Betterton and all the rest of Rhodes's Company, the King's Servants; who were Sworn by my Lord Manchester then Lord Chamberlain, to Serve his Royal Highness the Duke of York, at the Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields..

His Company being now Compleat, Sir William in order to prepare Plays to Open his Theatre, it being then a Building in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, His Company Rehears'd the First and Second Part of 'The Siege of Rhodes'; and 'The Wits' at Pothecaries-Hall: And in Spring 1662, Open'd his House with the faid Plays, having new Scenes and Decorations, being the firft that e're were Introduc'd in England.§.

Thefe being all the Principal, which we call'd Stock-Plays; that were Acted from the Time they Open'd the Theatre in 1662, to the beginning of May 1665, at which time the Plague began to Rage: The Company ceas'd Acting; till the Christmafs after the Fire in 1666.|| .

The new Theatre in Dorfet-Garden being Finish'd, and our Company after Sir William's [Davenant] Death, being under the Rule and Dominion of his Widow the Lady Davenant, Mr Betterton, and Mr Harris, (Mr Charles Davenant her Son Acting for her) they remov'd from Lincolns-Inn-Fields thither. And on the Ninth Day of November 1671, they open'd their new Theatre with Sir Martin Marral.¶ .

All the preceding Plays, being the cheife that were Acted in Dorfet-Garden, from November 1671, to the Year 1682; at which time the Patentees of each Company United Patents, and by fo Incorporating the Duke's Company were made the King's Company, and immediately remov'd to the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. p. 16. + p. 17 $ p. 19. § p. 20. || p. 26.

1 p. 31.

P. 39

Such is the hiftory, by an eye-witness, of the London flage foon after the Restoration.

The then general state of society and town life is defcribed in the third chapter of Lord Macaulay's Hiflory of England. At prefent we have only to deal with one particular fashion of dramatic compofition. -the new, grandiloquent, bombastic, pfeudo-heroic plays, introduced by D'Avenant, and having for their mafter-writer Dryden. It is impoffible here to measure the extravagance of these plays: fomewhat, however, may be gathered from the Illuftrations to the present work.

Affociated with this was the inordinate use of rhyming verfe. Dryden in early life fought the battle of rhyme against Sir Robert Howard; only afterwards publicly to abandon it, in his Lines to the Earl of Rofcommon, in 1680.

To ridicule these rhyming mouthing plays and with not a little personality-after the common custom of that time-to attack their authors, were the chief objects of Villiers and his coadjutors in writing The Rehearfal. Its merit however is as much in its conception as in its execution: in seeing that the popular rant was rant, and in determining to expofe it: as in writing the ftudied nonsense of which this play is fo largely compofed. Hence, the importance of The Rehearfal in our national literature, is not so much from its intrinfic merits, moft laughable as are fome of the parodies; but from its marking-defpite a partial failure to influence at the time-a bend in the ftream of dramatic compofition.

Two scholars, who have well ftudied this portion of our literary history, give the following accounts of this play. EDMOND MALONE, in his Life of Dryden, thus writes: The great fuccefs which had attended Dryden's heroick plays, doubtless excited the jealousy of the rival candidates for fame. In this clafs, however, we cannot place Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was fo far from exercifing his pen in any performance of that kind, that he thought the loud applause which had been bestowed for fome years on the rhyming tragedies produced

by D'Avenant, Dryden, Stapylton, Howard, Killigrew, and others, much misplaced, and refolved to correct the publick tafte by holding them up to ridicule. With this view, in conjunction, it is faid, with Martin Clifford, Master of the Charter Houfe, Butler, Sprat, and others, he wrote the celebrated farce entitled THE REHEARSAL. Some of the contemporary writer have stated, that it took up as much time as the Siege of Troy; and with justice exprefs their surprise, that fuch a combination of wits, and a period of ten years, should have been requifi e for a work, which apparently a lefs numerous band could have produced without fuch mighty throws. In the Key to this piece, published by a bookfeller in 1704, we are told, that it was written, and ready for representation, before the middle of the year 1665, and that Sir Robert Howard, under the nam of Bilboa, was then intended to have been the hero of the face. That fome interlude of this kind might have been thus early intended, is not improbable, but affuredly the original hero was not Howard, but D'Avenant; not only on account of the name of Bilboa, which alludes to his military character, (for he was Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance under the Duke of New. castle, in the Civil Wars,) but from the circumftance of the patch that in the course of the drama he is obliged to wear on his nose; which can relate to none but D'Avenant. Befides, he was a much more distinguished character, not only as Poet Laureate, but as fuperintendant of the Duke of York's Company of Comedians, and the introducer of heroick plays on the English ftage. The allusions to Sir Robert Howard's tragedies are fo few and inconfiderable, that he never could have been the author's principal object.As foon as it was refolved that Dryden should be the hero, an abundant use was made of his INDIAN EMPEROR and CONQUEST of Granada; yet the author was unwilling to lofe any of the ftrokes which were peculiarly levelled at D'Avenant, and thus the piece became a kind of patchwork.

Mich

This lively farce was first performed on the 7th of December. 1671, and was published in the following year. of the fuccefs, doubtlefs, was owing to the mimickry employed, Dryden's drefs, and manner, and ufual expreffions, were all minutely copied, and the Duke of Buckingham took incredible pains in teaching Lacy, the original performer of Bayes, to speak fome paffages of that part, in these he probably imitated Dryden's mode of recitation, which was by no means excellent. *

A more recent editor, Mr. ROBERT BELL in his Life of Dryden prefixed to his Poetical Works, gives this account of the present play.

Davenant enjoys the credit of having introduced what were called heroic plays. Dryden established them. They were • Critical and Mis. Prose Works of J. Dryden, i. 94-100. Ed. 1800.

called heroic because they were written in a language elevated above nature, and exhibit paffion in a state of maniacal ecstasy. These pieces had now held possession of the stage some nine or ten years, when the Duke of Buckingham undertook to expose their abfurdities in The Rehearsal, produced in the winter of 1671. It is faid that he was affifted in the design by Butler, Sprat, Clifford, and others. This is probable enough, from the structure of the ridicule, which resembles a piece of mosaic work. Davenant was originally meant for the hero, but his recent death feems to have led to the substitution of Dryden, who was on other accounts a more confpicuous mark for this fort of fatire. Not fatisfied with parodying fome of the most familiar paffages in Dryden's plays, the Duke of Buckingham took confiderable pains in teaching Lacy, who performed Bayes, to mimic his author in his manner of reciting them. Dryden was notoriously a bad reader, and had a hesitating and tedious delivery, which, skilfully imitated in lines of furpaffing fury and extravagance, must have produced an irresistible effect upon the audience. The humour was enhanced by the drefs, gefticulations, and byplay of the actor, which prefented a clofe imitation of his original. Dryden bore this unwarrantable attack in filence; being fully conscious, no doubt, that fo far as it reflected upon his plays it was unanswerable. But he afterwards fhowed that he had a keen sense of the obligations the duke had laid him ander on this occafion, and he discharged them in full, with compound intereft, in his Abfalom and Achitophel.

The town was highly amused, although its taste was not in the leaft degree corrected, by The Rehearsal. Heroic plays continued to flourish as long as Dryden continued to write them; a drudgery which his neceffities imposed upon him for several years afterwards.

Milton died on the 8th of November, 1674.

Five editions of The Rehearfal appeared in the Author's life time. Of the fecond and third I cannot learn even the dates. There is a copy of the fourth, 1683, in the Bodleian. An examination of the fifth, 1687, would seem to fhow a general permanence of the text, but that, probably in each edition, there were here and there additions and alterations en bloc, inftigated by the appearance of fresh heroic plays: some of these additions increase, with the multiplying corruption of the times, in personality and moral offenfivenefs. For our literary history, the first edition is sufficient. That, the reader now has.

Annot. Ed. of Eng. Poets. J. Dryden, i. 40—42. Ed. 1554.

B

!

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-'The RehearsAL.'

• Editions not seen. † Editions having the 'Key' either before or after the text. § having the Key' in footnotes.

(a) Issues in the Author's lifetime.

I. As a separate publication.

1. 1672. London. I vol. 4to. 2. ?

3.

4*1683 London. 1 vol. 4to.

5. 1687. London.

6. 1692. London. 7. 1701. London. 10. 1710. London.

I vol. 4to.

Editio princeps: see title at p. 15.
Second edition.

Third edition.

Fourth edition. There is a copy in Bodleian Library.

Title as No. 1. The Fifth Edition with Amendments and large Additions by the Author."

(b) Issues since the Author's death.

I. As a separate publication.

I vol. 4to.
I vol. 4to.
I vol. 8vo.

Title as No. 1. The Sixth Edition.
Title as No. 1. The Seventh Edition.

The Rehearsal': a Comedy Written by his Grace, GEORGE late Duke of BUCKINGHAM to expose some Plays then in vogue, and their Authors. With a Key and Remarks, necessary to Illustrate the most material passages of this piece, and to point out the authors and Writings here exposed Never Printed with it before. London Printed in the year 1710.

13. †1735. London. I vol. 8vo. The Rehearsal' &c. The Thirteenth Edition. 15. t1755. London. 1 vol. 8vo. "The Rehearsal' &c. The Fifteenth Edition. 16. 1768. London. 1 vol. 8vo. 'The Rehearsal &c. The Seventeenth Edition. With the new occasional Prologue, written by PAUL WHITEHEAD Esq. on opening Covent Garden Theatre, Sept the 14th 1767.

21. 2 Nov. 1868. London, 1 vol. 8vo. English Reprints. See title at page 1. 11. With other Works.

81704 London. ? vols. 8vo. Works. First edition. 11. §1711-12 London.

to vols. 8vo.

5 vols. 8vo. .. This list is imperfect.

A Collection of the best English Plays. Chosen out of all the best Authors. Printed for the Company of Booksellers. The Rehearsal' is in Vol. II.

The Dramatick works of his Grace George Villiers, Late Duke of Buckingham. With his Miscellaneous Poems, Essays and Letters. Adorn'd with cuts. The Rehearsal' is in Vol. 11.

The genuine Works of his Grace George Villiers Duke of Buckingharr. Compleat. pp. 159-247Theatrical Magasine 'The Rehearsal.' A Comedy as it is actest at the Theatres Royal in Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

Bell's British Theatre. The Rehearsal' is in Vol. 29.

An edition of Villiers' Works: prepared by Bishop Percy, but never published. It was nearly all destroyed by fire in 1808. See pp. "The Rehearsal,' and its 'Key,' are in Vol. 1. The Modern British Drama. 'The Rehearsal' is in Vol. 4