The Duke's Company was a theatre company chartered by King Charles II at the start of the Restoration era, 1660. Sir William Davenant was manager of the company under the patronage of Prince James, Duke of York. During that period, theatres began to flourish again after they had been closed from the restrictions throughout the English Civil War and the Interregnum. The Duke's Company existed from 1660 to 1682, when it merged with the King's Company to form the United Company.
History The Duke's Company was one of the two theatre companies (the other being the King's Company) that were chartered by King Charles II at the start of the English Restoration era, when the London theatres re-opened after their eighteen-year closure (1642–60) during the English Civil War and the Interregnum.
The Duke's Company had the patronage of the King's younger brother Prince James, Duke of York and of Albany (later King James II & VII). It was managed by Sir William Davenant. The company started at the old Salisbury Court Theatre, and occasionally used the Cockpit in Drury Lane. After a year, the actors moved to a new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a building on Portugal Street that had previously been Lisle's Tennis Court (it opened on 18 June 1661). There they were joined by Thomas Betterton, who quickly became their star. In December 1660, the King granted the Duke's Company the exclusive rights to ten of Shakespeare's plays: Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, Henry VIII, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In 1661, their first year at Lincoln's Inn Fields, the company revived Hamlet, in a production that employed the innovation of stage scenery. Samuel Pepys saw their production on 24 August; he described it as "done with scenes very well, but above all, Betterton did the Prince's part beyond imagination".
Davenant tried to make the most of the limited Shakespearean materials available to him. In 1662 he staged The Law Against Lovers, a heavily adapted version of Measure for Measure that blended in characters from Much Ado About Nothing. It was the earliest of the many Shakespearean adaptations produced during the Restoration era and the eighteenth century.
The company also acted some of the plays in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators. Yet the rival King's Company under Thomas Killigrew controlled more of the "Old Stock Plays", the traditional repertory of English Renaissance drama (Davenant even had to petition for the right to perform his own pre-1642 plays). The Duke's Company was driven to seek out new work by a new generation of writers, and to experiment with new forms and styles. The company performed the plays of Davenant, John Dryden, Thomas Otway, George Etheredge, Thomas Shadwell and others; it produced Aphra Behn's plays from 1670 to 1682. The company also acted many translations and adaptations of French and other foreign plays; their 1662 production of Sir Samuel Tuke's The Adventures of Five Hours, a version of Calderón's comedy Los Empeños de Seis Horas, ran for thirteen straight performances and was the first great hit of Restoration drama.
Like the King's Company, the Duke's pioneered the use of the first English actresses in the early 1660s. Their standout performer was Mary Saunderson, later Mrs. Betterton, who acted many of the lead female roles in Shakespeare's plays. Anne Gibbs (later married to Thomas Shadwell), Hester Davenport and Mary Lee also had noteworthy careers.
Samuel Pepys saw many of their productions, and recorded them in his Diary. King Charles witnessed many of their productions too; in a break with past practice, the King sometimes came to the theatre to see the plays, which in previous reigns had never happened. (Instead, the acting companies had always gone to Court to perform.) In its busiest seasons, the company staged fifty different plays in a year, ten of them new works.
After Davenant's death in April 1668, Betterton took command of the company, in collaboration with Davenant's widow Lady Mary Davenant. Their management team expanded its strategies to ensure success: the company engaged in three consecutive (and profitable) summer seasons in Oxford starting in 1669. On 9 November 1671 the company moved into a new theatre in Dorset Garden, sometimes called the Queen's Theatre, "the most elegant of all the Restoration playhouses...". The Duke's Company exploited the scenic capacities of the Dorset Garden Theatre to produce many of the Restoration spectaculars and the early operas and semi-operas that characterized the Restoration era. The most successful of the company's semi-operas was the Dryden/ Davenant adaptation of The Tempest, which premiered on 7 November 1667. From 1675 on, Elizabeth Barry acted with the Duke's Company and became recognized as one of the stars of the era.
Both the Duke's and King's Companies suffered poor attendance during the turmoil of the Popish Plot period, 1678–81. When the King's Company fell into difficulties due to mismanagement, the Duke's Company joined with them to form the United Company in 1682, under the Duke's Company's management. The United Company began performances in November of that year. The King's Company theatre, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, was used mainly for plays, while the Duke's Dorset Garden theatre was devoted to operas and spectaculars.
John Downes was the prompter of the Duke's Company from 1662 to 1706. In 1708 he published his Roscius Anglicanus, the "main source of information about the Restoration theatre" for later generations.
Company structure Management Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant was the first manager for the Duke's Company. Moreover, he was the patent holder and fundamentally the creator of the theatre group. After Killigrew had been granted his patent for the King's Company, Davenant drafted a document to give him and Killigrew duel monopoly over the theatre companies. Davenant could do this because he was rewarded with a warrant from Charles I during 1639 to build his own theatre, which whilst defunct still added gravitas to his claims. Furthermore, his masque work with Charles I, also being the writer for the two operas performed during the Puritan regime certainly cemented him as an accomplished and reliable manager to the second company. Thus the Duke's company was created.
Davenant, with a background in masque, grew to believe that spectacle was the way forward for British theatre. Mary Edmond comments that he "realised very early on that play goers would soon be demanding scenic theatres". Thus he went forward with creating theatre spaces that used changeable scenes, as well as always updating these scenes to make performances feel fresh and new for the audiences. During his time as manager he set the standard for the Duke's company. After being lumbered with only 23 plays in comparison to the King's 108, Davenant turned his company in the direction of new writing and adaptations of pre-restoration work that he did have. He worked with writers such as George Etheredge, John Dryden and Roger Boyle.
Not only did he attempt to keep the work performed for the Duke's men modern, he also had plans to keep the theatres as functional and of the highest quality. This new and exciting theatre manifested as Dorset Garden. Whilst this was not created until after his death, he managed to fund the project. He did this by selling 7 7/10ths of his shares to people at a price range of £600 – £800. Then sharers then managed to raise the rest of the substantial sum of £9000 which it is roughly considered to have cost.
Henry Harris and Thomas Betterton The theatre house was built under the next set of managers for the Duke's company. This was the collaboration of Thomas Betterton and Henry Harris under the watch of Davenant's wife. Both Betterton and Harris were star players of Davenant. They continued the legacy of the Duke's company well. The theatre house that was erected during their time as managers was state of the art, boasting machinery, something that was no doubt inspired by European theatres. Furthermore, they continued to boast new writers including Aphra Behn, Thomas Otway and once again John Dryden. Unlike Davenant, neither wrote their own work. However, unlike the King's Company, the second managers wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible. Their decisions had "been reviewed by the board of sharing actors as well as by representatives of the Davenant family". Thus we see that despite having recognizable influence within the company, the duo didn't want to alienate or anyone involved in the company.
Ownership As for who owned the company, it doesn't appear that there was one owner. Instead the companies were owned by shareholders who all had some say in the running of the company, and who helped with raising funds. Indeed, the main shareholder and patent holder should be considered the principal owner, which would therefore mean William Davenant would be the owner for the period of 1660–1668. Thereafter Lady Davenant would be considered the owner, with Betterton and Harris as the managers. William Van Lennep supports this assumption writing "The formal structure, then, of this type of arrangement consisted of a proprietor (the largest shareholder), who was the master of the company in both theatrical and financial affairs; a small number of sharing actors, who received a proportion of the profits after the gross receipts had provided for the major expenses; and a large number of actors on salary."
Joining the company People joined the company by buying shares within the company, as "the companies were a business, and shares in them were sold to raise money needed to furnish theatres, hire personnel, and produce plays". Therefore, it is assumed that only those of a certain class could join the company.
Least influential member In 1660, for the first time women were allowed to perform on the commercial stage. However, the significance of this at the time was evidently not as apparent. One can assume this because the records of this precise actress that performed is yet to be found; therefore suggesting that it was not recorded, undermining the influence of women performing in the theatre. An example of one of the women that was first to perform was Mrs. Eastland. Although her name appears on the prompter of Killigrew's original actresses, "her name appears on no dramatis personae until 1669 and she only ever played minor parts". In addition, she only appears on the cast list in 1669; nine years after the start of the company. In spite of the allowance of women in the theatre, it is evident that the patriarchal nature of the theatre was still very apparent. For men, the acting profession was a respected and successful career, however, "no woman with serious pretentions to respectability would countenance a stage career". But due to the nature and demands of being an actress; learning lines quickly, and needing to have a civilised etiquette meant that the company had to find women of a middle ground; this suggests the class differences, and the overall significance of men compared to women within the company.
Plays