SEASON OF
1788-1789
the beginning of this season Thomas King resigned his
position of acting manager at Drury Lane, and he resigned
from the company itself as well. He was not to return to it
until October 1790. In thus withdrawing his services he felt
himself constrained to explain his reasons for doing so, and on 9 October
|he Public Advertiser published a long letter which he had written, from
s rctreat in the country, some ten days eailier. This letter1 has considerable
interest, particularly on two points: King carefully defines the duties
expected of a theatre’s acting manager,2 and he recites details of the some¬
what haphazard manner in which the proprietors of Drury Lane conducted
s affairs. King knew what, as acting manager, he was supposed to do,
but for
several years he had proceeded on his own — without enjoying,
ls> the protection of a signed statement from the proprietors specifically
it
that
^'dining his duties. This he had repeatedly requested, but it had never
ecn forthcoming. And so, his patience exhausted, he could do nothing
er fhan leave the management to other hands.
When the theatre opened these hands were nowhere in evidence, and
t°°*< Sheridan a fortnight before he could find a successor to King. At
_ t he cajoled his leading actor, John Philip Kemble, into taking the reins.
ofh. e Was autocratic, but he was unselfish and intelligent, and the good
j. 11S theatre, indeed of the Theatre in general, was the guiding star of
a H CntlrC ^e' As soon as he became acting manager he began to keep
Y journal 3 of what went on at Drury Lane. It contains certain factual
2 t'cnest> Vi, 522-5, who reprints it virtually in its entirety.
, ^Introduction, clii-clu.
em°randa, BM, Add. MSS. 31,972-31,975.
1085