public theatres, why, then, at more private dramatic entertainments?  Upon such points doubt must still prevail.  It seems certain, however, that a Mrs. Coleman had presented herself upon the stage in 1656, playing a part in Sir William Davenant’s tragedy of “The Siege of Rhodes”—­a work produced somehow in evasion of the Puritanical ordinance of 1647, which closed the theatres and forbade dramatic exhibitions of every kind; for “The Siege of Rhodes,” although it consisted in a great measure of songs with recitative, explained or illustrated by painted scenery, did not differ much from an ordinary play.  Ianthe, the heroine, was personated by Mrs. Coleman, whose share in the performance was confined to the delivery of recitative.  Ten years later the lady was entertained at his house by Mr. Pepys, who speaks in high terms both of her musical abilities and of herself, pronouncing her voice “decayed as to strength, but mighty sweet, though soft, and a pleasant jolly woman, and in mighty good humour.”

If this Mrs. Coleman may be classed rather as a singer than an actress, and if we may view Davenant’s “Siege of Rhodes” more as a musical entertainment than as a regular play, then no doubt the claim of the Desdemona of Clare Market to be, as Mr. Thomas Jordan described her, “the first woman that came to act on the stage,” is much improved.  And here we may say something more relative to the Vere Street Theatre.  It was first opened in the month of November, 1660; Thomas Killigrew, its manager, and one of the grooms of the king’s bedchamber, having received his patent in the previous August, when a similar favour was accorded to Sir William Davenant, who, during Charles I.’s reign, had been possessed of letters patent.  King Charles II., taking it into his “princely consideration” that it was not necessary to suppress the use of theatres, but that if the evil and scandal in the plays then acted were taken away, they might serve “as innocent and harmless divertisement” for many of his subjects, and having experience of the art and skill of his trusty and well-beloved Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, granted them full power to elect two companies of players, and to purchase, build and erect, or hire, two houses or theatres, with all convenient rooms and other necessaries thereunto appertaining, for the representation of tragedies, comedies, plays, operas, and all other entertainments of that nature.  The managers were also authorised to fix such rates of admission as were customary or reasonable “in regard of the great expenses of scenes, music, and such new decorations as have not been formerly used:”  with full power “to make such allowances out of that which they shall so receive to the actors and other persons employed in the same representations, in both houses respectively, as they shall think fit.”  For these patents other grants were afterwards substituted, Davenant receiving his new letters on January 15th, and Killigrew his on April 25th, 1662.