Event Comment: [The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", pp. 16-17. This performance may have been the premiere. Shadwell, in his Preface, implies that it was acted six days. As Saturday was a day frequently chosen for a first showing and as the play was certainly given again on 14 Dec. 1670, the sequence of performaces which follow in this Calendar is based on the assumption that Saturday 10 Dec. 1670 was the first day, Wednesday 14 Dec. 1670 the fourth day of acting. The Preface: This Play...came upon the Stage with all the disadvantages imaginable: First, I was forced, after I had finish'd it, to blot out the main design of it; finding, that, contrary to my intention, it had given offence. The second disadvantage was, that notwithstanding I had (to the great prejudice of the Play) given satisfaction to all the exceptions made against it, it met with the clamorous opposition of a numerous party, bandied against it, and resolved, as much as they could, to damn it, right or wrong, before they had heard or seen a word on't. The last, and not the least, was, that the Actors (though since they have done me some right) at first were extreamly imperfect in the Action of it.... This of mine, after all these blows, had fall'n beyond Redemption, had it not been revived, after the second day, by her [Mrs Johnson's (?)] kindness (which I can never enough acknowledge) who, for four days together, beautified it with the most excellent Dancings that ever has been seen upon the Stage. This drew my enemies, as well as friends, till it was something better acted, understood, and liked, than at first

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Virtuoso. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. The Diary of Robert Hooke, 25 May 1676: Mr Abraham Hill gave J. Hoskins, Aubery and I an account of Vertuoso play. A song, How retched is the slave to love, the music by Francis Forcer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): The Libertine and Virtuoso: Both Wrote by Mr Shadwell; they were both very well Acted, and got the company great Reputation

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but a licensing date of 18 Feb. 1677@8 suggests a premiere not later than January 1677@8. It is possible, however, that this play followed Sir Patient Fancy (17 Jan. 1677@8), as the licensing date of Timon follows that for Sir Patient Fancy. Part of the music for Timon was composed by Louis Grabu and was published, without the singers' names, in Choice Ayres and Songs, 1679. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): Timon of Athens, alter'd by Mr Shadwell; 'twas very well Acted, and the Musick in't well Perform'd; it wonderfully pleas'd the Court and City; being an Excellent Moral

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not certain, but the play was acted soon after Shadwell's death in November 1692. Gentleman's Journal, November 1692: We have lately lost Thomas Shadwell Esquire....The Comedy which, as I told you, he design'd for the Stage, was acted since his decease: 'Tis call'd the Volunteers; and though that Orphan wanted its Parent to support it, yet it came off with reasonable success. [When this play was revived at Drury Lane 27 July 1711, the bill bore the heading: Not acted these Twenty Years.