Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but a broadside copy of the Epilogue, in the Bodleian Library, has a licensing date of 20 Aug. 1685, a MS date of 24 Aug. 1685. The play was licensed on 11 Sept. 1685. These dates suggest a premiere in mid-to late-August 1685. For Anne Bracegirdle as Clita and speaker of the Epilogue, see Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 135. The Prologue and Epilogue, separately printed, are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 239-41. The broadside Prologue has a more detailed heading than that in the edition of 1686: Prologue To A Commonwealth of Women, Spoke by Mr Haynes, Habited like a Whig, Captain of the Scyth-men in the West, a Scythe in his Hand. Two songs, set by Samuel Ackroyde, are in The Theater of Musick, The Third Book, 1686

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first production is not known. The play was entered in the Term Catalogues, June 1689, and announced in the London Gazette, 24-27 June 1689. In the extreme scarcity of information concerning the theatres during the disturbed winter of 1688-89, it is difficult to know when this play may have been first presented. It was probably acted not later than April, possibly in March

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: The Queene a Box & a Box for the Maids of Honor at ye Massacre of Paris. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. The date of the first performance is not knwon, but as it was entered in the Term Catalogues, November 1689, it was probably first acted in early November or in October 1689. A song, Thy Genius lo!, composed by Henry Purcell, is in Orpheus Britannicus, 1698. Possibly it was sung by Bowman. See also The Works of Henry Purcell, Purcell Society, XX (1916), xviii-xix

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: The Queene a Box, and a Box for the Maids Honor at Don Sebastian King of Portugal. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. There is no certainly that this is the first performance. The play was entered in the Stationers' Register, 15 Dec. 1689. See also Charles E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1961), pp. 242-46. Preface, Edition of 1690: I am...to acknowledge, with all manner of gratitude, their civility; who were pleas'd to endure it with so much patience....Above twelve hundred lines have been cut off from this tragedy since it was first deliver'd to the actors. They were indeed so judiciously lopt by Mr Betterton, to whose care and excellent action I am equall y oblig'd, that the connexion of the story was not lost. Does a cryptic remark by Huygens, 3 Dec. 1689 OS, refer to this play: Dat dat geklap met de handen in comedie, onlanxgebeurt, als er gesproken wierd van een Coning, die wederom quam in sign rijck, van seer quade consequentie was. Dat voorseker de Con. too mercifull was, en dat er mosten exempelen gestatueert werden (Journal van Constantijn Huygens, Dutch Historical Society Transactions, New Series, XXIII [Utrecht, 18-212)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: Ye Q: a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honor Amphitrion. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. The date of the first performance is not known, and it is doubtful that this one is the first; the premiere may have occurred early in October. The Songs and Music were published in 1690 and again in 1691, and have been edited by the Purcell Society, XVI (1906), iii-vi. Dedication, Edition of 1690: But what has been wanting on my part, has been abundantly supplied by the Excellent Composition of Mr Purcell; in whose person we have at length found an English Man equal with the best abroad. At least, my Opinion of him has been such, since his happy and judicious performances in the late opera [The Prophetess], and the experience I have had of him, in the setting my three Songs for this Amphitryon": To all which, and particularly to the composition of the Pastoral Dialogue, the numerous Quire of Fair Ladies gave so just an Applause on the Third Day. Cibber, Apology, I, 113: As we have sometimes great Composers of Musick who cannot sing, we have as frequently great Writers that cannot read; and though without the nicest Ear no Man can be Master of Poetical Numbers, yet the best Ear in the World will not always enable him to pronounce them. Of this Truth Dryden, our first great Master of Verse and Harmony, was a strong Instance: When he brought his Play of Amphytrion to the Stage, I heard him give it his first Reading to the Actors, in which, though it is true he deliver'd the plain Sense of every Period, yet the whole was in so cold, so flat, and unaffecting a manner, that I am afraid of not being believ'd when I affirm it

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but by 9 May 1693 it had been acted four times (see Dryden's letter, below); on the other hand, the Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) had stated that D'Urfey's new farce would not appear until after Easter. Hence, it may well have been the first new play after Passion Week. A dialogue, Behold, the man with that gigantick might, the music by Henry Purcell and sung by Mr Reading and Mrs Ayliff, is in Orpheus Britannicus, 1690. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XXI (1917), viii-x. A dialogue, By these pigsnes eyes that stars do seem, the music by John Eccles and sung by Dogget and Mrs Bracegirdle, is in Joyful Cuckoldom, ca. 1695. Another, Stubborn church division, folly, and ambition, to a Ground of Mr Solomon Eccles, is in Thesaurus Musicus, 1694. And Maiden fresh as a rose, the verse by D'Urfey and sung by Pack, but not printed in the play, is in The Merry Musician, I (1716), 56-57. This last song may have been for a later revival. Gentleman's Journal, April 1693 (issued in May 1693): Since my last we have had a Comedy by Mr Durfey; 'tis called the Richmond Heiress or a Woman once in the right (p. 130). Dryden to Walsh, 9 May 1693: Durfey has brought another farce upon the Stage: but his luck has left him: it was sufferd but foure dayes; and then kickd off for ever. Yet his Second Act, was wonderfully diverting; where the scene was in Bedlam: & Mrs Bracegirdle and Solon [Dogget] were both mad: the Singing was wonderfully good, And the two whom I nam'd, sung better than Redding and Mrs Ayloff, whose trade it was: at least our partiality carryed it for them. The rest was woeful stuff, & concluded with Catcalls; for which the two noble Dukes of Richmond and St@Albans were chief managers (The Letters of John Dryden, pp. 52-53)