Event Comment: Flora's Figarys appears in
Herbert,
Dramatic Records, p. 148, under this date. As
Flora's Vagaries, it had been acted at
Christ Church,
Oxford, on 8 Jan. 1663. The play was not published before 1670, and the entry in Herbert's list has sometimes been regarded as the date of licensing, sometimes as the date of a performance in
London.
Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 427, assigned it to ca. January 1662@3 at
Vere St, presumably because "
Mr Bird" in the cast in the quarto of 1670 referred to
Theophilus Bird, who died before 3 Nov. 1663. But the cast in the edition of 1670 is presumably that for 5 Oct. 1667, when
Pepys saw the play and referred to
Nell Gwyn and
Mrs Knepp as acting in it; they, too, are listed in the quarto of 1670 but could hardly have played in it in 1663. If the cast in the 1670 edition is not that for 3 Nov. 1663 and if the "Mr Bird" is
Theophilus Bird Jr, then the obstacles to consiuering 3 Nov. 1663 as the date of a performance rather than of licensing are less formidable. [I am indebted to professor
John Harold Wilson for much of this argument.
Performances
Mainpiece Title: Flora's Vagaries