ABSTRACT
Date and publication. The decline o f the factious King’s Company culminated in its merger with the dominant Duke’s Company which was agreed on 4 May 1682; the union seems to have become fully effective by the time of a performance at court on 15 November (L S 309, 315). The new company was called the King’s Company and moved into the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The date of the opening performance is not known; the date on Luttrelľs copy (see below) could be that of either the performance or his purchase. A folio pamphlet headed Prologue. To The K ing and Queen, A t The Opening O f Their Theatre, containing D .’s Prologue and Epilogue, was published by Tonson dated 1683 (MS date 16 November 1682 on Luttrelľs copy (Huntington)). There is also an undated broadside with the same title. The present text follows the folio pamphlet.
