*p1699 12 00 dl The Tragical History of King Richard III. Edition of 1700: King Henry the Sixth-Wilks; Edward Prince of Wales-Miss Allison; Richard Duke of York-Miss Chock; Richard Duke of Gloucester-Cibber; Duke of Buckingham-Powel; Lord Stanley-Mills; Duke of Norfolk-Simpson; Ratcliff-Kent; Catesby-Thomas; Henry Earl of Richmond-Evans; Oxford-Fairbank; Elizabeth-Mrs Knight; Ann-Mrs Rogers; Cicely-Mrs Powel.*c1699 12 00 dl <i>Rich's Company</i>. The date of the premiere is not knwon, but the Dedication is dated February 1699@1700, the play was entered in the <i>Term Catalogues</i> in February 1699@1700, and advertised in the <i>Flying Post</i>, 16 March 1699@1700. The latest likely date for the first production is January 1700, but the play may have appeared in late December as a rival to <i>lif</i>'s production of <i>I Henry IV</i> early in January 1700. <i>Cibber, Apology</i>, I, 275: But the <i>Master of the Revels</i>, who then licens'd all Plays for the Stage, assisted this Reformation [of the morality of the stage] with a more zealous Severity than ever. He would strike out whole Scenes of a vicious or immoral Character, tho' it were visibly shewn to be reform'd or punish'd; a severe Instance of this kind falling upon my self may be an Excuse for my relating it: When Richard the Third (as I alter'd it from $Shakespear=) came from his Hands to the Stage, he expung'd the whole first Act without sparing a Line of it. This extraordinary Stroke of a <i>Sic volo</i> occasion'd my applying to him for the small Indulgence of a Speech or two, that the other four Acts might limp on with a little less Absurdity! no! he had no leisure to consider what might be separately inoffensive. [Cibber continues with an explanation of the censor's argument for cutting the act.] Preface to Cibber's <i>Ximena</i>, 1719: <i>Richard the Third</i>, which I alter'd from Shakespear, did not raise me Five Pounds on Third Day.