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Production Notes for Three Plays by Thomas Killigrew

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Albert Wertheim
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Extract

Little is known about the productions of Thomas-Killigrew's plays before the closing of the theaters, and there is even considerable doubt whether some of them were produced at all. During the Interregnum Killigrew lived in exile on the Continent and lacking playhouse, playgoers and actors, nevertheless continued to write his plays as “a diversion.” With the restoration of King Charles II to the throne of England, however, Killigrew's theatrical fortunes rose considerably. On August 21, 1660 Charles II issued a grant bestowing upon Killigrew, then a Groom of the Bedchamber, and upon Sir William Davenant “full power and authority to Erect two Companies of Players.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 1969 , pp. 105 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1969

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References

NOTES

1. For a summary of the arguments surrounding the possible Caroline productions of The Parson's Wedding and The Princess see Bentley, G. E., The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, IV (Oxford, 1956), 701–708.Google Scholar

2. Killigrew's epistle to the reader in the 1664 folio edition of his plays begins, “I shall only say, If you have as much leasure to Read as I had to write these Plays, you may, as I did, find a diversion.” Killigrew, Thomas, Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1664)Google Scholar, Sig. [2].

3. The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert, ed. Joseph Quincy Adams (New Haven, 1917), p. 87.

4. See The London Stage, Part I, ed. William Van Lennep (Carbondale, 1965).

5. Lennep, William Van, “Thomas Killigrew Prepares His Plays for Production,” Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. McManaway, James G.et al. (Washington, D.C., 1948), pp. 803–808.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., p. 806.

7. The London Stage, op. cit., p. 43.

8. Thomas Killigrew, Comedies and Tragedies. All quotations from this edition are followed by parentheses indicating act, scene and page numbers.

9. Summers, Montague, The Restoration Theatre (London, 1934), p. 202.Google Scholar

10. Campbell, Lily B., Scenes and Machines on the English Stage During the Renaissance (London, 1923), p. 264n.Google Scholar

11. The London Stage, op. cit., pp. 43, 22, 30, 60, 12.

12. Killigrew, Thomas, Claracilla (London, 1641).Google Scholar The title of this play was changed to Claricilla in the 1664 text.

13. Lennep, William Van, op. cit., p. 806.Google Scholar

14. Parentheses following quotations from the 1641 text of Claracilla indicate page signatures.

15. Harbage, Alfred, Thomas Killigrew (Philadelphia, 1930), pp. 143–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16. Killigrew, Thomas, The Prisoners (London, 1641).Google Scholar

17. The change of the heroine's name from Cecilia, the name she bore in the 1641 version, to Lysimella, strongly suggests that Killigrew was not simply reproducing the earlier text in 1664, but that he had taken considerable pains to revise The Prisoners almost certainly for projected production.

18. Parentheses following quotations from the 1641 text of The Prisoners indicate page signatures.

19. Lennep, William Van, op. cit., p. 803.Google Scholar

20. Malone, Edmond, The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare, III (London, 1821), 250–251.Google Scholar See also Campbell, Lily B., op. cit., pp. 229–230.Google Scholar

21. Wright, James, Historia Histrionica (London, 1699)Google Scholar, Sig. C1v-C2.