A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dorset Garden Theatre

by William H. Husk

DORSET GARDEN THEATRE. This house was erected upon the garden of a mansion belonging to the Earl of Dorset, situate upon the bank of the Thames at the bottom of Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. Sir William (then Mr.) Davenant had obtained a patent for its erection in 1639 and another in 1662, but from various causes the building was not erected in his lifetime. His widow, however, built the theatre, from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren; and the Duke's company, removing from Lincoln's Inn Fields, opened it Nov. 19, 1671. It became celebrated for the production of pieces of which music and spectacle were the most prominent features, amongst which the most conspicuous were Davenant's adaptation of Shakspere's 'Macbeth,' with Lock's music, 1672; Shadwell's adaptation of Shakspere's 'Tempest,' with music by Lock, Humfrey, and others, 1673; Shadwell's 'Psyche,' with music by Lock and Draghi, Feb. 1673-4; Shadwell's 'Libertine,' with Purcell's music, 1676; Dr. Davenant's 'Circe,' with Banister's music, 1677; Shadwell's alteration of Shakspere's 'Timon of Athens,' with Purcel's music, 1678; and Lee's 'Œdipus' and 'Theodosius,' both with Purcel's music, in 1679 and 1680 respectively. In 1682 the King's and Duke's companies were united, and generally performed at Drury Lane; but operas and other pieces requiring a large space for stage effects were still occasionally brought out at Dorset Garden, amongst them Dryden's 'Albion and Albanius,' with Grabu's music, 1685; and Powell and Verbruggen's 'Brutus and Alba,' with Daniel Purcell's music, in 1697. In 1699 the house was let to William Joy, a strong Kentish man styled 'The English Samson,' and for exhibitions of conjuring, fencing, and even prize-fighting. It was again opened for the performance of plays in 1703, and finally closed in Oct. 1706. After the demolition of the theatre the site was successively occupied as a timber yard, by the New River Company's offices, and the City Gas Works. An engraving showing the river front of the theatre was prefixed to Elkanah Settle's 'Empress of Morocco,' 1673, another, by Sutton Nicholls, was published in 1710, and a third in the Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1 814.

[ W. H. H. ]