Event Comment: The
United Company. There is uncertainty concerning
this date; it appears on
Luttrell's copy (
Huntington Library) of the separately printed
Prologue and
Epilogue, and the date may represent the time of his purchase rather than a date of performance. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in
Wiley,
Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 141-45.
Downes (
Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 39-40): All the preceding Plays, being the chief that were Acted in
Dorset-Garden, from November 1671, to the Year 1682; at which time the Patentees of each Company United Patents; and by so Incorporating the
Duke's Company were made the
King's Company, and immediately remov'd to the Theatre Royal in
Drury-Lane. Upon
this Union,
Mr Hart being the Heart of the Company under
Mr Killigrew's Patent never Acted more, by reason of his Malady; being Afflicted with the Stone and Gravel, of which he Dy'd some time after: Having a Sallary of 40 Shillings a Week to the
Day of his Death. But the Remnant of that Company; as,
Major Mohun,
Mr Cartwright,
Mr Kynaston,
Mr Griffin,
Mr Goodman,
Mr Duke Watson,
Mr Powel, Sr,
Mr Wiltshire,
Mrs Corey,
Mrs Bowtell,
Mrs Cook,
Mrs Montfort. [Joined the new company]. Note, now Mr Monfort and
Mr Carlile, were grown to the Maturity of good Actors. The mixt Company then Reviv'd the several old and Modern Plays, that were the Propriety of
Mr Killigrew, as
Rule a Wife, and have a Wife:
Mr Betterton Acting
Michael Perez;
Don Leon,
Mr Smith,
Cacofogo,
Mr Cartwright:
Margaretta,
Mrs Barry:
Estiphania,
Mrs Cook. Next, @
The Scornful Lady.@
The Plain Dealer.@
The Mock Astrologer.@
The Jovial Crew.@
The Beggars Bush.@
Bartholomew-Fair.@
The Moor of Venice.@
Rollo.@
The Humorous Lieutenant.@
The Double Marriage.@ With divers others.
George Powell, Preface to
The Treacherous Brothers (1690): The Time was, upon the uniting of the Two Theatres, that the Reviveing of the old stock of Plays, so ingrost the study of the House, that the Poets lay dorment; and a new Play cou'd hardly get admittance, amongst the more precious pieces of Antiquity, that then waited to walk the Stage.
Cibber, Apology, ed.
Lowe, I, 95-96): I shall content myself with telling you that Mohun and Hart now growing old [for, above thirty Years before
this Time, they had severally born the King's Commission of Major and Captain in the
Civil Wars), and the younger Actors, as
Goodman,
Clark, and others, being impatient to get into their Parts, and growing intractable, the Audiences too of both Houses then falling off, the Patentees of each, by the King's Advice, which perhaps amounted to a Command, united their Interests and both Companies into one, exclusive of all others in the Year 1682.
This Union was, however, so much in favour of the Duke's Company, that Hart left the Stage upon it, and Mohun survived not long after