Long runs were unknown to the
theatre of Pepys's day, but a successful piece was frequently revived.
Occasionally, Pepys would put himself to the trouble of attending a
first night. But this was an indulgence that he practised sparingly.
He resented the manager's habit of doubling the price of the seats,
and he was irritated by the frequent want of adequate rehearsal.
Pepys's theatrical experience began with the reopening of theatres
after the severe penalty of suppression, which the Civil Wars and the
Commonwealth imposed on them for nearly eighteen years. His playgoing
diary thus became an invaluable record of a new birth of theatrical
life in London. When, in the summer of 1660, General Monk occupied
London for the restored King, Charles II., three of the old theatres
were still standing empty. These were soon put into repair, and
applied anew to theatrical uses, although only two of them seem to
have been open at any one time. The three houses were the Red Bull,
dating from Elizabeth's reign, in St John's Street, Clerkenwell, where
Pepys saw Marlowe's _Faustus_; Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, off Fleet
Street; and the Old Cockpit in Drury Lane, both of which were of more
recent origin.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130