the King's
murder, 1648, they ventured to act some plays, with as much caution
and privacy as could be, at the Cockpit." John Evelyn records in his
_Diary_, under the date of February 5, 1648: "Saw a tragicomedy acted
in the Cockpit after there had been none of these diversions for many
years during the war." Trouble, however, was brewing for these daring
actors. As Wright records: "They continued undisturbed for three or
four days, but at last, as they were presenting the tragedy of _The
Bloody Brother_ (in which Lowin acted Aubery; Taylor, Rollo; Pollard,
the Cook; Burt, Latorch; and, I think, Hart, Otto), a party of
foot-soldiers beset the house, surprised 'em about the middle of the
play, and carried 'em away in their habits, not admitting them to
shift, to Hatton House, then a prison, where, having detained them
some time, they plundered them of their clothes, and let 'em loose
again."[614]

[Footnote 614: Hazlitt's Dodsley, XV, 409.]

In 1649 the interior of the building was sacked, if we may trust the
manuscript note entered in the Phillipps copy of Stow's _Annals_
(1631): "The playhouse in Salisbury Court, in Fleet Street, was pulled
down by a company of soldiers set on by the sectaries of these sad
times, on Saturday the 24 day of March, 1649. The Phoenix, in Drury
Lane, was pulled down also this day, being Saturday the 24 day of
March, 1649, by the same soldiers."[615] In the passage quoted,
"pulled-down" merely means that the stage and its equipment, and
possibly a part of the galleries and the seats, were wrecked, not that
the walls of the building itself were thrown down.

[Footnote 615: See _The Academy_, October 28, 1882, p. 314. The
soldiers here mentioned also "pulled down on the inside" the Fortune
playhouse.]

In 1656 Sir William Davenant undertook to create a form of dramatic
entertainment which would be tolerated by the authorities. The Lord
Protector was known to be a lover of music. Sir William, therefore,
applied for permission to give operatic entertainments, "after the
manner of the antients," the "story sung in recitative music," and the
representation made "by the art of perspective in scenes." To such
entertainments, he thought, no one could object. He was wise enough to
give his first performances at Rutland House; but in 1658 he moved to
the Cockpit, where, says Aubrey, "were acted very well, _stylo
recitativo_, _Sir Francis Drake_ and _The Siege of Rhodes_ (1st and 2d
parts). It did