Event Comment: The
Duke's Company. This performance is on the
L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At
the Man of Mode. See also
Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348.
Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See
VanLennep,
Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. It is uncertain whether this is the premiere, but the licensing date of 3
June 1676 suggests that the first production may have occurred at this time.
Downes (
Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36): This Comedy being well Cloath'd and well Acted, got a great deal of Money. One song,
As Amoret with Phyllis sat, the words by
Sir Car Scroope and the music by
Nicholas Staggins, is in
Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679; another,
When first Amintas charmed my heart, the music by
Staggins, is in the same collection, Fifth Book, 1684.
John Dennis: I remember very well that upon the first acting this Comedy, it was generally believed to be an agreeable Representation of the Persons of Condition of both both Sexes, both in Court and Town; and that all the World was charm'd with
Dorimont (
A Defence of Sir Fopling Flutter, 1722, p. 18). For the full text of Dennis' discussion of this play, see
The Critical Works of John Dennis, ed.
E. N. Hooker (
Baltimore, 1943), II, 241-50
Performances
Mainpiece Title: The Man Of Mode; Or, Sir Fopling Flutter