South façade of the Dorset Garden Theatre, as it was pictured in the libretto of The Empress of Morocco (1673). With Hollar’s rendering of the exterior, published in 1681/82,[1] it is the only primary source as to what the exterior looked like. Several other pictures exist (see below), but as they are from the early nineteenth century, more than a hundred years after the theatre had been demolished,[2] they cannot be considered to be reliable sources.
The Dorset Garden Theatre in London, built in 1671, was in its early years also known as the Duke of York's Theatre, or the Duke's Theatre. In 1685, King Charles II died and his brother, the Duke of York, was crowned as James II. When the Duke became King, the theatre became the Queen's Theatre in 1685, referring to James' second wife, Mary of Modena. The name remained when William III and Mary II came to the throne in 1689.
It was the fourth home of the Duke's Company, one of the two patent theatre companies in Restoration London, and after 1682 continued to be used by the company's successor, the United Company.
^The London Stage (part 2), p.194, quoting The Daily Courant of 1 June 1709. By that time a new Queen's Theatre had been built (1705) in the Haymarket.
