Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, and the play is one of a large group commonly assigned to September-December 1690. As the Prologue implies an autumn production, it has been placed at late September, although the premiere may have been October. It was advertised in the London Gazette, 18-22 Dec. 1690, and entered in the Term Catalogues, Feb. 1690@1. The music was composed by Henry Purcell. See Purcell, Works, Purcell Society, XXI (Dramatic Music, III, 1917), xii-xiv. Dedication: So visibly promoting my Interest on those days chiefly (the Third and the Sixth) when I had the tenderest relation to the welfare of my Play [i.e. Southerne had two benefits]. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, 1691, Appendix): This Play was acted with extraordinary Applause, the Part of Sir Anthony Love being most Masterly play'd by Mr Montfort: and certainly, who ever reads it, will find it fraught with true Wit and Humour. Gentleman's Journal, January 1691@2: [The Wives' Excuse, newly performed] was written by Mr Southern, who made that call'd Sir Anthony Love, which you and all the Town have lik'd so well

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Although this performance is not certainly the premiere, it is the earliest known acting of the play. This performance is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 14. John Boyle, Fifth Earl of Orrery: Master Anthony too the sequel of Guzman was after Lord Orrery's Death brought upon the Stage, but being disrelish'd by the Audience appear'd only one Night. It is probable The Author had not supervis'd and corrected It sufficiently before he died (The Dramatic Works of Roger Boyle, ed. W. S. Clark II, II, 950). If these private notes, written some fifty years after the premiere, are correct, this performance may have been the premiere and the only day of acting it

Event Comment: A new Tragedy. [By Anthony Brown.] A Compleat List (1747), pp. 182-83: With no Success, which the Friends of the Author imputed in a great Measure to Mr Quin's refusing to act a Part in it; whereupon, to shew their Resentment, he did not appear on the Stage for some Nights without being hissed or houted at

Event Comment: 2nd ballet: 1st time; composed by Barre; the Music by Bossi. "Mme Hilligsberg, who possesses the first rank among the dancers of London, is a woman of distinguished merit: she succeeds with peculiar happiness in sportive and jocose expressions, and she is bewitchingly graceful as a Welch or Scotch country girl. Her figure is very handsome; but her arms are somewhat long and thin. The third dancer is Mme Laborie; she possesses an agreeable figure, much animation and native gracefulness. She might become a first-rate dancer [if] she did not trust too much to her natural talents, and bestowed more attention on the art" (Goede, 265). "Les Deux Jumelles, ou la Meprise, pouvoient tres bien faire le sujet d'unjoli divertissement; mais pour un grand ballet, il a fallu y appeller le secours des dieux, & faire descendre ce que nous appelons une gloire de nuages qui se developpent assez mal: c'est la faute du machiniste ou du charpentier. D'ailleurs, cette gloire ne sert a rien, puisque l'Amour vient dans un assez mauvais cabriolet, pousse par des hommes qu'on voit un peu trop distinctement, & s'en retourne de meme a reculons. Nous avons vu souvent le char de l'Amour aller en avant; mais il est rare qu'on le voie reculer, & cette meme gloire eprouve autant de difficulte pour remonter qu'elle en avout eue pour descendre, laissant le spectateur tres convaincu de son inutilite" (Anthony LeTexier, L'Ami des Meres, 1799, I, 192-93). The subscribers are most respectfully intreated to be careful to whom they give their Tickets, as many improper persons have lately presented themselves for admission into the Theatre with those Tickets; and the subscribers are requested to observe that, in future, persons of this description will be conducted directly to the identical Boxes to which such Tickets belong, instead of being admitted into any other part of the Theatre. And the public are intreated to understand that neither Ladies in Undress Hats or Bonnets, nor Gentlemen in Boots will be admitted into the Pit of the Opera

Event Comment: At Mr Penkethman's and Mr Miller's Booth, at the Horns-Inn at Pye Corner, entering into Smithfield. A Celebrated Droll, Shewing the Pomp and Grandeur she lived in King Edward the IVth's Time, and the Misery she fell into upon Richard Duke of Gloucester's being made Protector. How she was oblig'd to do Penance in a white Sheet, carrying a lighted Torch bare Foot thro' the City, and then turn'd out to Starve; as also how she wandering met with her Husband, and the Tragick End of them Both. With the comical and diverting Humours of Sir Anthony Noodle, a foolish Courtier, and his Man Weezel

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 12 years. [See 26 April 1763.] This Comedy is reviv'd for the Queen to See Mr G. in Sir Anthony Bramble which he perfkrmed inimitably--he wrote and spoke a New Address to the Ladies in the Character of Sr. Anto. which was receiv'd with very great Applause. The Play is long and heavy (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly.] Paid salary list #624 6s. 6d.; Westminster Charity Subscription #5 5s.; Griffith 3 weeks 15s.; Mrs Greville for cloaths in Irish Widow, #5 9s. Receipts: #273 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: "The great powers of Mrs Jordan cannot be better displayed than in the wonderful contrast of her Country Girl and Viola. In one all archness and vivacity; in the other serious, gentle, tender and sentimental" (Public Advertiser, 16 Nov.). [In afterpiece the playbill retains Parsons as Sir Anthony Halfwit, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted and a MS annotation substitutes Wilson's. "Parsons was taken suddenly ill & J. Wilson read his part" (MS annotation on British Museum playbill, in Harris, 11).] Receipts: #108 12s. (79/11/0; 28/13/6; 0/7/6)

Event Comment: Anthony Devolto, an operator of puppet shows, was forced to petition the King against paying a fee for running a theatre, and the King granted his petition. See CSPD, 1672; in Speaight, The History of the English Puppet Theatre, p. 76

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author [i.e. compiler of the entertainment, identified in Oracle, 21 May, as LeTexier]. The Tickets, engraved by Bartolozzi, will be delivered in Lisle-street [LeTexier's home address] only, and no where else