23/29 For some fifty years the great Mr.Betterton held his place upon the stage, and upon his death was interred with something like royal honours in Westminster Abbey. He was the first to give back to Londoners a theatre they might visit legally and safely; and that done, he is heard of no more. Killigrew and Davenant were soon invested with patent rights, and entitled to a monopoly of theatrical management in London; probably they prospered by displacing Rhodes--but so much cannot be positively asserted. Yet the influence and effect of these did not soon abate. Upon them followed indeed a sort of after-crop of troubles, seriously injurious to the stage. |