The original companies with patent, 1660-82 Charles II was a patron and interested in the theater. Shortly after its restoration in 1660 granted exclusive rights of representation, called letters patent, the King’s Company and the Duke’s Company, led by two middle-aged playwright Caroline, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant. The patented fought for the rights of representation of works from the previous generation, Jacobean and Caroline, which involved the first necessity for economic survival that may arise before any new work. His next priority was to build new, patent splendid theaters at Drury Lane and Dorset Gardens, respectively. Striving to outdo each other in magnificence, Killigrew and Davenant theaters were eventually quite similar, both designed by Christopher Wren, both suitable for music and dance, and both equipped with mobile scenarios and elaborate machinery to produce thunder, lightning and waves.The audience of the early Restoration period was not exclusively a courtesan, as sometimes alleged, but was quite small and could hardly keep two companies. There was no untapped reserves of theatergoers. Ten consecutive performances were a resounding success. This system is so closed forcing playwrights to be extremely sensitive to popular taste. The changing fashions in drama every week, more than one season to another, as each company reacted to the offers of the other, and are urgently looking for new works. The King’s Company and the Duke’s Company competed for public favor, by popular actors, and new works, and in this climate, new genres were born and flourished as the heroic drama, pathetic drama and comedy of the Restoration.
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