ABSTRACT
Capon responded by producing vast realistic pictures of buildings like the Palace of Westminster and the Tower of London, exact copies of their originals on huge unwieldy canvases, and they delighted Kemble. In 1787 the Patent theatres were faced with another threat when John Palmer, already proprietor of Bath and Bristol Theatres Royal, obtained a licence from a magistrate to open the Royalty Theatre, to the east of Covent Garden and Drury Lane, near the Tower. Sheridan and Harris took immediate action, and Palmer’s enterprise was virtually stillborn. He returned to Bath. In 1780, the year of the dangerous Gordon Riots, and as the American colonies slipped away, Sheridan was elected to Parliament. Sheridan was livid, though whether from progressive principle or because of the loss of income was unclear. The story of Sheridan’s Drury Lane descended into a string of episodic escapades.
