side." Unfortunate for the financial future of the company, while Dryden's propaganda piece was in preparation, Charles II died. James II succeeded him, and the Monmouth Rebellion which Shaftesbury had fomented broke out. On June 3, 1685, the day of the premiere, the Duke of Monmouth landed in the west. "The nation being in a great consternation", recollected Downes, "it was performed but six times, which not answering half the charge they were at, involved the company very much in debt." This traumatic fiasco ruled out all further operatic spectacle investment until the calmer times after the Glorious Revolution of 1689. 1690s: Opera While the United Company's takings were being bled off by Davenant's sons, one of whom, Alexander, was forced to flee the country in 1693 and other predatory investors, Thomas Betterton continued to act as de facto day-to-day manager and producer, enjoying a budget on the scale of Cecil B. DeMille. In the early 1690s, he staged the three real operas of the Restoration spectacular genre, or the shows usually so designated: Dioclesian (1689–90) by Massinger/Fletcher/Betterton; King Arthur (1690–91) by John Dryden; and The Fairy-Queen (1691–92), adapted from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by perhaps Elkanah Settle, all of them featuring music by Henry Purcell. The lavish variety entertainment Dioclesian, adapted by Betterton, with many monsters, dragons, and machines, from Massinger and Fletcher's History of Dioclesian, was popular throughout the 1690s and proved a financial sucess for the United Company. Dryden's much more serious King Arthur was the first operatic entertainment that Hume was prepared to consider an artistic success, with Purcell's music playing a major part of the entertainment and the songs "for once well integrated into the play". At the very end of its history, the economics of the Restoration spectacular spiraled out of control with the magnificent production of The Fairy Queen in the 1691–92 season. It was a great success, but so stuffed with special effects and so expensive that it nevertheless proved impossible to turn a profit. As Downes recalls: "Though the court and town were wonderfully satisfied with it ... the expenses in setting it out being so great, the company got little by it." Its twelve-foot-high working fountain and six dancing real live monkeys have become notorious in theatre history. The spectacular play saw a sharp decline during the Restoration period, but spectacle would continue on the English stage as the