Excerpt from Famous Plays: With a Discourse by Way of Prologue on the Playhouses For knowledge of the playhouses which Obtained under the Restoration, all students of dramatic history are dependent on Roscius Anglicanus, a small, imperfect volume written by John Downes, book-keeper and prompter to the Duke's Com pany from 1662 to 1706. Concerning the patents granted by Charles II. To Killigrew and Davenant, for the establishment Of their respective theatres, Downes confines himself to two sentences. A great part of his book Of fifty-two pages is occupied by a list of plays and their respective casts, performed by both companies under these managers. Of the Drury Lane or King's com pany of comedians, his account is most brief, his knowledge of them being received from Charles Booth, some time book-keeper there. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.