Event Comment: In November 1678 the Duke of Modena sent his troupe of comedians to London. They remained there until mid-February 1678@9 but apparently played only six times in three months. For an account of this troupe, see A. L. Bader, The Modena Troupe in England, Modern Language Notes, L (1935), 367-69, and I. K. Fletcher, Italian Comedians in England in the 17th Century, Theatre Notebook, VIII (1954), 86-91. See also Calendar of Treasury Books, 1676-1679, pp. 1160, 1230, and Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 124

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known. Pepys saw it on 6 March 1679@80, calling it a "New Play," and that may have been the first day. The Prologue alludes also to the Duke of York's triumphant return from Scotland on 24 Feb. 1679@80, and the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1680. For Mrs Bracegirdle as the "little Girl," see Edmund Curll, History of the English Stage (1741), p. 26, and Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 134. For Betterton as Castalio and Mrs Barry as Monimia, probably as they performed in the next decade, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 116, 160. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37) gives the same cast except for omissions and except for Serina-Mrs Mountfort, who acted it later. Downes (pp. 37-38) adds: [Monimia, Belvidera in Venice Preserved, and Isabella in The Fatal Marriage] These three Parts, gain'd her the Name of Famous $Mrs Barry, both at court and City; for when ever She Acted any of these three Parts, she forc'd Tears from the Eyes of her Auditory, especially those who have any Sense of Pity for the Distress't. These 3 Plays, by their Excellent Performances, took above all the Modern Plays that succeeded. A song for this play, Come all the youths whose hearts have bled, the music by Forcer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This is the third in the series of Court performances in L. C. 5@145, p. 120: Sir Fopling Flutter. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350, and 11 Feb. 1679@80

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This is another in the series of Court performances in L. C. 5@145, p. 120. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350, and 11 Feb. 1679@80. It should be noted that not only is this date a Friday in Lent but it is also during the period of mourning for the Princess Elizabeth. Yet to place this performance in 1681 would make it fall on Sunday

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is another in the sequence of plays acted at court in L. C. 5@145, p. 120: Night's Intrigue. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350, and 11 Feb. 1679@80. If this performance were placed on 6 March 1680@1, it would fall on Sunday

Event Comment: The King's Company. The Newdigate newsletters, 3 June 1680: But on Wednesday the Duchesse of Portsmouth to disoblige Mr Settle the Poet carryed all the Court with her to the Dukes house to see Macbeth (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 80)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the entry of this play in the Term Catalogues for November 1680 suggests a first offering in September or October 1680. The music for the play was composed by Henry Purcell, his first (according to Downes composing for the stage. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 38) gives a shortened cast and adds: All the Parts in't being perfectly perform'd, with several Entertainments of Singing; Compos'd by the Famous Master Mr Henry Purcell, (being the first he e'er Compos'd for the Stage) made it a living and Gainful Play to the Company: The Court; especially the Ladies, by their daily charming presence, gave it great Encouragement. Dedication, Edition of 1680: The Reputation that this Play received on the Stage, some few Errors excepted, was more than I could well hope from so Censorious an Age....You [the Duchess of Richmond] brought her Royal Highness just at the exigent Time, whose single Presence on the Poet's day is a Subsistence for him all the Years after. A song, Hail to the myrtle shade, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book (dated 2 Nov. 1680)

Event Comment: Evelyn, Diary: Came to my house some German strangers, & Signor Pietro Reggio a famous Musitian, who had ben long in Sweden in Queene Christina s Court: he sung admirably to a Guittar & has a perfect good tenor & base: & had set to Italian composure, many of Abraham Cowleys Pieces which shew'd extremely well

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not certain, particularly since an entry in L. C. 5@145, p. 120 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 349) lists this play for 8 March, the year uncertain. Since the entry follows one for The Souldier's Fortune which followed the premiere of The Female Prelate, 31 May 1680, the L. C. entry probably is one for 8 March 1680@1. That the premiere occurred near 1 Nov. 1680 is suggested by a letter of Anne Montague to Lady Hatton, 1 Nov. 1680: For I never see the towne fuller, for I was to see the new play, The Spanish Frier, and there was all the world, but the Court is a letell dull yet; the Queen being sick, there is noe drawing room (Hatton Correspondence, Camden Society, XXII [1878], 240). A song, Farewell ungratefull Traytor, with music by Captain Pack and sung by Mrs Crofts, is in Act V. For Leigh's and Nokes' acting, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 143, 145-46. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): 'Twas Admirably Acted, and produc'd vast Profit to the Company

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first performance is uncertain, but the fact that Luttrell dated his separately printed copies of the Prologue and Epilogue 5 April 1682 (Huntington Library) sets a probability that the play first appeared within a week to ten days preceding that date. The Prologue and Epilogue, separately printed, have been reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 89-91. A Prologue Intended for Vertue Bertray'd, by Thomas Shadwell, is reprinted in Welbeck Niscellany 3, A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, ed. Francis Needham, 1934. Some details in it suggest the "Dead Time" preceding Easter, when the Court was gone, the Russian ambassador departed, the Moroccan Ambassador shortly to go. The Russian ambassador left on 15 Feb. 1681@2 OS (see Evelyn, Diary), and the Prologue refers to the execution of Colonel Vratz and his accomplices on 10 March 1681@2 (Evelyn, Diary)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is known by a L. C. order, 5@144, p. 303 (see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356), dated 11 Nov. 1682, that Rule a Wife and Have a Wife be given at court on 15 Nov. 1682. The union of the Companies apparently became fully effective on this date

Event Comment: The United Company. An order, 9 Feb. 1683@4, in L. C. 5@145, p. 14 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356), and another, L. C. I, specify requirements for a play to be acted at Whitehall on 11 Feb. 1683@4, and name Valentinian as the drama. The first Prologue and the Epilogue Written by a Person of Quality were printed separately; Luttrell's copy (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library) is dated 20 Feb. 1683@4. They are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 249-51. It is not certain on what date the first performance occurred, for premieres at court are quite rare in the Restoration period. In Nahum Tate's Poems by Several Hands (1685): Sir Francis Fane: A Masque Made at the Request of the Earl of Rochester, for the Tragedy of Vadentinian. Downes (p. 40): The well performance, and the vast Interest the Author made in Town, Crown'd the Play, with great Gain of Reputation; and Profit to the Actors. For an intended cast of Rochester's alteration of the play by John Fletcher, see the introductory note to the season of 1675-76. In A Pastoral in French by Lewis Grabu (published in 1684; advertised in the London Gazette, No. 1947, 17 July 1684) are two songs for this play for which Grabu apparently composed the music: Injurious charmer of my vanquished heart and Kindness hath resistless charms. In Choice Ayres and Songs, The Fourth Book, 1684, is: A new Song in the late reviv'd Play, call'd Valentinian: Where would coy Aminta run [the composer of the music not being indicated]

Event Comment: Cardell Goodman, the actor, was brought to court for complicity in a poisoning case. See Luttrell, A Brief Relation, I, 318, and J. C. Jeaffreson, A Young Squire of the Seventeenth Century (London, 1878), II, 143-44

Event Comment: Samuel Pepys to Robert Southwell, 10 Oct. 1685: To night wee have had a mighty Musique--Entertainment at court for the welcoming home the King and Queen. Wherein the fraequent Returnes of the Words, Arms, Beauty, Triumph, Love, Progeny Peace, Dominion, Glory, &c. had apparently cost our Poet-Prophet more paine to finde Rhimes then Reasons (R. G. Howard, Letters and the Second Diary of Samuel Pepys [London, 1932], p. 171. [The entertainment for this occasion seems not to have survived.

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance ison the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 68: Sr Phoplyn. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. The Earl of Middleton to Sir George Etherege, 7 Dec. 1685: Every week there are plays at court. The last time Sir Fopling appeared with the usual applause, and the King was pleased to tell me that he expected you should put on your socks (Letterbook of Sir George Etherege, ed. Rosenfeld, p. 345)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 31 Dec. 1685: Yesterday was acted The Committee. The King and Queen were there and all the whole Court went to see it, but coming a little after it was begun [I] could not get any roome (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 100). Bridget Noel to the Countess of Rutland, ca. 6 Jan. 1685@6: [Last Wednesday] my Lady Exeter engaged us to goe to a play with her...which was a Commity. The King and Queen was at it, and the house as full as ever I saw it (ibid.)

Event Comment: Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 11 Feb. 1685@6: To-day was the French opera. The King and Queen were there, the musicke was indeed very fine, but all the dresses the most wretched I ever saw; 'twas acted by none but French. A Saturday the Court goes to another play, to take their leaves of those vanitys till after Lent (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 104). [This performance is on the L. C. list 5@147, p. 125: The King & Queene & a Box for ye Maydes of honor at ye French Opera [the charge for the royal box was increased from #20 to #25 on this occasion]. W. J. Lawrence conjectured that this French opera was Cadmus et Hermione and that Jacques Rousseau, a scene painter of Paris, provided the decor. See W. J. Lawrence, The French opera in London; A Riddle of 1686, TLS, 28 March 1936, p. 268

Event Comment: Possibly a play was given this day at court. See the correspondence under 11 Feb. 1685@6

Event Comment: The United Company. Lord Ashburnham's Diary: I waited on my Mother home and afterwards I went into the play (the Maiden Queen) There was a great deale of company, I came home before 8 at night, I am now not charm'd with Playes &c. (Ashburnham MS 932, East Sussex County Record Office, County Hall, Lewes, Sussex; I owe this entry and the subsequent ones from this MS to the kindness of Professor George Hilton Jones, Kansas State University). This is an unusual example of the revival of a play at the public theatre the day before its presentation at court

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. The date of the first performance of this revision is not known. As it is somewhat unlikely that a play would have its premiere at court, the first production possibly appeared earlier in the month. See 6 Nov. 1668 for an earlier revision of this work. The title-page of the edition of 1687 states: As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal. Reviv'd with Alterations

Event Comment: On this day the news of the death of the Duchess of Modena was brought to Windsor, and newsletters stated that the Court was to go into mourning the following Sunday. Acting at the theatres may have been curtailed during the late summer

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. By this time Henry Purcell had apparently composed the Act tunes for this play. See Purcell, Works, The Purcell Society, XVI (1906), xxxii. Luttrell [A Brief Relation, I, 431): The 6th was observed as a festival of joy for the king s comeing to the crown;...and at night was a play at court

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Lord Granville, writing on 5 May 1688, refers to the King's presence on the third day, and since The Squire of Alsatia may have begun its run about 2 May 1688, Crowne's play must have been produced by the end of April. Lord Granville to Sir William Leveson, 5 May 1688: The town is as empty of news as the Court; we have had a new play called The Fall of Darius (written by Crown), by which the poet, though he could get no fame, yet had a most extraordinary third day by reason the King's presence at it; the first day of its acting Mrs Bower [Barry] was taken so violently ill in the midst of her part that she was forced to be carried off, and instead of dying in jest was in danger of doing it in earnest. Mrs Cook is dead and Mrs Boute...is again come upon the stage, where she appears with great applause. We are promised this week another new play of Shadwell's called the Alsatia Bully, which is very much commended by those who have had the private perusal of it (HMC, 5th Report, Part II, pP. 197-98). Dedication, Edition of 1688: A misfortune fell upon this Play, that might very well dizzy the Judgments of the Audience. Just before the Play began, Mrs Barry was struck with a very violent Fever, that took all Spirit from her, by consequence from the Play; the Scenes She acted fell dead from her; and in the 4th Act her distemper grew so much upon her, She cou'd go on no further, but all her part in that Act was wholly cut out and neither Spoke nor Read; that the People went away without Knowning the contexture of the Play, yet thought they knew all....[My] Thanks to His Majesty for the Honor of his Presence, on the Day which was to be for my Advantage; which He was pleased to Grant me. [See L. C. 5@148, p. 195--in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356--for a grant of #20 as a gift from the King to Crowne for this play.

Event Comment: A troupe of French Comedians played at theatre in Windsor Castle. On 25 July 1688 a warrant (L. C. 5@17, pp. 60, 65, in Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, pp. 61, 127) ordered the playhouse there to be made ready for the foreign company. According to L. C. 5@17, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 65, the French players arrived on 11 Aug. and remained at Windsor until 22 Sept