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Revision as of 00:44, 29 March 2006

Oooh. We also need someone to figure out the Little Theatre, Haymarket vs. Queen's Theatre Haymarket. As for this one, I can probably find a contemporary discussion from Robert Gould, although it would be of the post-fire theater. A reputation/background would be a large section, as well as theatrical management (and that I think has to exist) and, to some degree, the patent system, since this was one of only two official theaters. Covent Garden was a rough place, apparently. I don't know the geography well, so a map of London from the 18th c. showing where the thing was would help. (Gould suggests that Navy men fresh off the boat would hand around in Covent Garden looking for the prostitutes who apparently were thick as flies in the neighborhood, and they would accost theater-goers as they went home. To prove to their "girlfriend" how tough they were, they'd beat up some innocent patron. (This from The Play-house a Satyr.)) Geogre 12:25, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Haymarket Theatres? What those?

Rereading ye olde Restoration spectacular, I also see that this article now creates the false impression that Drury Lane was the King's Company's first theater, when in fact they were up and running in some pedestrian venue on Vere Street for a while before they were forced into building a Proscenim-arch-and-moving-shutters type of place thanks to the competition from the Duke's Company's Lincoln's Inn Fields. Of course my only source right now for all that is the Restoration spectacular article, so I guess I have some work to do there. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 22:05, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but bear in mind that your subject is Drury Lane, not the King's Company! There were a number of older theatres in London in 1660, but do you really care? OK, if you do: the theatre in Vere Street was pretty new in 1660, and as so many venues throughout the period, it was a refurbished tennis court. Only the big expensive Wren theatres that I mention in RS were built from scratch for dramatic purposes, as far as I can remember, and even they tended, architecturally, to imitate tennis courts. Davenant had started doing operas and various stuff well before 1660, as you know (yes, you do! RS!) and he had probably outfitted Vere Street and used it from 1658 (speculation: public playacting was a criminal activity, so it's vague). This is the theatre that Pepys, with a touching lack of prescience, thought so fine, when the King's Company used it from November 1660 till 7 May 1663, while Bridges Street was being built.

Do you happen to have access to a library that enjoys possession of The London Stage 1660-1800, btw? Because everything of this nature is collected there. The somewhat unmanageable copy of the 1660—1700 volume now on my desk belongs to my uni library--they keep trying to get it back from me--but it's my precioussss....! . I sleep with it under my pillow. I'll bet you good money it's Beauclerk's source, if he's serious about what he's doing. If it was possible to buy it second-hand or from the publisher, I'd sell my son to a cotton plantation and buy it, and charter the Queen Elizabeth II to take it to Stockholm for me, and have my own copy, and be happy for ever. But I digress. If there's a copy near you, you'll find it useful, is what I mean to say.

Haymarket is just a place, a square. "The" theatre in /the/ Haymarket (some of them the "Queens Theatre in Haymarket") is one of those messes, with a vast number of theatres through the centuries on different sites along the sides of the Haymarket square. Geogre, why are you doing that to nice Bunchofgrapes, what did he ever do to you? He's not writing London playhouses. Haymarket is nothing to do with Drury Lane. Bishonen File:Godzilla.cropped.png talk 23:33, 28 March 2006 (UTC).

Well, I knew Geogre was trying to trick me! <raspberries> While I'm here, what's the source for Wren having designed the 1663 theatre? Or did I make that up? Or Beauclerk? I'm seeing a lot of stuff that's pretty sure Wren designed 1674, but very little regarding him and 1663. (Library? Outside of academia, I don't think we are allowed useful libraries in America anymore.) —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 00:08, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

I reckon you made it up out of whole cloth. :-( They didn't care much who designed what, it looks like. That Wren designed the 1674 house is just a rumour--maybe based on that very same longitudinal section, I dunno--the London Stage doesn't say anything about the architect of either of those buildings. But I agree Wren is likely for the 1674, and that there's not a whisper for Bridges Street. Would it make you feel better to have a fine quote about the interior of Bridges Street that's not even by Pepys, but by Prince Cosmo III of Tuscany? Remind me to transcribe it tomorrow... zZzZzZzZ...it's only short, but today is o-ver...zzzzz. Goodnight, Geogre. Bishonen talk 00:44, 29 March 2006 (UTC).