Shakespeare in performance works were plundered for these scenes. Among the drolls taken from Shakespeare were "Bottom the Weaver" (Bottom's scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream") and "The Grave-makers" (the gravedigger's scene from "Hamlet"). At the Restoration in 1660, Shakespeare's plays were divided between the two newly licensed companies: the King's Company of Thomas Killigrew and the Duke's Men of William Davenant. The licensing system prevailed for two centuries; from 1660 to 1843, only two main companies regularly presented Shakespeare in London. Davenant, who had known early-Stuart actors such as John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, was the main figure establishing some continuity with
Shakespeare in Original Pronunciation "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 2010 by the University of Kansas, and "Twelfth Night" in 2012 by the American Theatre of Actors. Shakespeare's writing dates to the Early Modern English period, a period of great linguistic change for the English language. One change taking place during this time was known as the Great Vowel Shift—a change in the pronunciation of English long vowels. This vowel shift meant that many words during Early Modern English were pronounced differently than their standard Modern English pronunciation today. According to linguist David Crystal, Shakespeare in original pronunciation is "...Shakespeare as hopefully he would have