Beggars' Bush - After 1642

After 1642

After the closure of the London theatres in 1642, at the start of the English Civil War, a droll known as The Lame Commonwealth was formed from material extracted from Beggars' Bush. The droll features additional dialogue strongly suggesting it was taken from a performance text. The Lame Commonwealth was printed in Francis Kirkman's The Wits, or Sport Upon Sport (1662), a collection of twenty-seven drolls.

Beggars' Bush was revived and adapted during the Restoration era. Samuel Pepys saw an early production at Gibbon's Tennis Court on 20 November 1660. In a 3 January 1661 performance of the play, Pepys, for the first time in his life, saw women appear onstage. One popular adaptation titled The Royal Merchant was published, probably in 1706 (the quarto is undated). This was later adapted into a opera, which was published in 1768. Another adaptation, called The Merchant of Bruges, was printed in 1816, 1824, and 1834. And John Dryden modeled the main plot of his Marriage à la mode (1672) on Beggars' Bush.