Carolean Theatre and Drama

Abstract

One of the first changes Charles II made shortly after reclaiming the English throne in May 1660 was to reopen the public theatres, closed in 1642 by Puritan edict. Although plays were performed surreptitiously during the Interregnum by a few severely impoverished and poorly patronised companies that stood in continual fear of arrest and imprisonment, as well as by William Davenant, who cleverly billed his operatic productions as ‘musical entertainments’ aimed at ‘instruction’ and produced them at his residence (Rutland House) to subvert Puritan objection to regular plays and public playhouses,1 Charles’s restoration signalled London’s liberation from the longstanding and repressive laws that had forbidden all forms of public entertainment, from plays and music to dancing and outdoor games. On 9 July 1660, less than two months after his return, Charles, eager to revive and personally sanction cultural activities as emblematic of a complete ‘restoration’ and shrewd enough to appreciate how his imprimatur on theatre could shape and effect public approval of him, granted two personal friends and courtiers — Sir William Davenant (Poet Laureate to Charles I) and Thomas Killigrew — hereditary patents which gave them equal and sole control of London’s theatrical productions, effectively instituting a system of stage monopoly that would last for 182 years.