| Lincoln's Inn Fields and Drury Lane were the leading theaters of early eighteenth-century London. Drury Lane, the more important of the two, was headed for more than twenty years by the triumvirate of actor-managers composed of Robert Wilks, Barton Booth, and Colley Cibber. The repertory they chose to present reflects and illustrates the tastes of the day.;In addition to these revivals, Drury Lane presented a number of dramas written by contemporary playwrights. Many of these were imitative of earlier plays, usually those of the Restoration. Others were more original, and those which gave voice to the views and values of the emerging middle class had special sociological significance. These new sentimental comedies and domestic tragedies were few in number and often lacking in literary merit, but they revealed the first stirrings of the long-dormant sentimental spirit which would come to dominate both literature and society by the latter part of the century.;Lincoln's Inn Fields, under John Rich, was unsuccessful in competing with Drury Lane in the presentation of straight plays, so it specialized in offering less sophisticated entertainment such as farce, pantomime, and ballad opera. The triumvirate, although it, too, usually favored lighter fare over serious works, drew most of its repertory from more standard stage pieces. The majority of its offerings consisted of works written in prior centuries, with Elizabethan and Restoration plays predominating. In the former area Shakespeare's dramas were very popular, especially the tragedies, although almost his entire canon was presented in versions which had been altered to accord with current Neoclassical dictates. The largest single component of the repertory at Drury Lane was plays written during the Restoration, especially comedies of manners, indicative of the continuing dominance of upperclass taste in the playhouse even through the first decades of the eighteenth century. |
