Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/440

 as the King's Company, the troupe collected by Davenant was styled the Duke's Company. One of the first recorded duties of Betterton was, at royal command, to visit Paris with a view to seeing the French stage, and judging what, in its scenery, &c., might with advantage be adopted in England. Scenery was not altogether unknown on the English stage. Davenant had employed it in an entertainment entitled the ‘Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expressed by vocal and instrumental music and by art of perspective in scenes.’ This was performed at the Cockpit in 1658, Cromwell, by whom it is said to have been read, having given permission for its performance as calculated to inflame public sentiment against the Spaniards. In the ‘Siege of Rhodes’ in two parts by Davenant, witnessed by Pepys on 2 July 1661, and in the ‘Wits’ of the same author, scenery, according to Downes, was first publicly employed. Supposing the visit of Betterton to have immediately anticipated the performance of the ‘Siege of Rhodes,’ in which he played Solyman, Betterton would probably have seen ‘L'Ecole des Maris’ of Molière. He must, whenever his visit took place, have seen the representations given at the Théâtre de Molière. That the comedies of Molière influenced him in his dramatic composition is evident. At the close of this year (1661) Betterton played Colonel Jolly in the ‘Cutter of Coleman Street’ of Cowley, and made his first appearance in one of his greatest characters, Hamlet. Mercutio, Sir Toby Belch, Bosola in the ‘Duchess of Malfi,’ and Macbeth are among the characters he assumed in 1662–6. In 1665 and 1666 performances, in consequence of the plague and the fire, were almost entirely suspended. In April 1668 Davenant died. The Duke's Company remained at Lincoln's Inn Fields until 1671, when it migrated to a new house built for it, by subscription as it seems, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, and named Dorset Garden Theatre. Davenant's patent had come into the hands of his son, Charles Davenant, who associated with himself in the management Harris and Betterton. Prior to the removal Betterton had taken part in a play of his own and had married. ‘Woman made a Justice,’ a comedy which has never been printed, and concerning which nothing is known except that it was acted fourteen consecutive days, a long run for the period; the ‘Amorous Widow, or the Wanton Wife,’ a comedy taken from Georges Dandin; and the ‘Roman Virgin, or the Unjust Judge,’ an alteration of Webster's ‘Appius and Virginia,’ all by Betterton, were all, according to Downes, given at Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the ‘Amorous Widow’ Betterton played a character called Lovemore; in the ‘Roman Virgin’ he was naturally Virginius. Mrs. Saunderson, whom Betterton married, was a member of the Lincoln's Inn Company. She has been erroneously said to have been the first woman who ever appeared on the English stage. Downes mentions her as one of the four principal women actresses of Davenant's company whom Davenant boarded at his own house. She was an excellent actress and an estimable woman. Colley Cibber preferred her Lady Macbeth in some respects to that of Mrs. Barry. ‘She was,’ he continues, ‘to the last the admiration of all true judges of nature and lovers of Shakespeare, in whose plays she chiefly excelled, and without a rival. When she quitted the stage, several good actresses were the better for her instruction. She was a woman of an unblemished and sober life, and had the honour to teach Queen Anne, when princess, the part of Semandra in “Mithridates,” which she acted at court in King Charles's time. After the death of Mr. Betterton, her husband, that princess, when queen, ordered her a pension for life, but she lived not to receive more than the first half-year of it.’ She also, according to Davies (Dramatic Miscellanies), gave lessons to the Princess Mary and to Mrs. Sarah Jennings, afterwards Duchess of Marlborough. After the death of her husband she lost her reason. Mrs. Betterton is said in the ‘Biographia Britannica,’ on the authority of ‘a lady intimate with her for many years,’ to have recovered her senses before she died. ‘According to our best information,’ says the same publication, her death ‘was about six months’ after that of her husband. This is inaccurate. Betterton died on 28 April 1710. On 4 June 1711, or more than thirteen months after his death, the ‘Man of the Mode’ was acted at Drury Lane Theatre for the benefit of the ‘widow of the late famous tragedian Mr. Betterton.’ She lived for nearly six months after this date. 1670 is ordinarily given as the year of her marriage to Betterton. Both the ‘Biographia Britannica’ and the ‘Biographia Dramatica,’ the last edition of which is generally trustworthy, speak positively on the subject. This date is also wrong. Downes, the prompter to the company, gives the cast with which the ‘Villain’ by Major Thomas Porter, ‘King Henry VIII,’ ‘Love in a Tub’ by Etherege, the ‘Cutter of Coleman Street’ of Cowley, Webster's ‘Duchess of Malfi,’ and other dramas were played between 1662 and the outbreak of the plague in 1665, and in each case numbers Mrs. Betterton among