Event Comment: Benefit for Wilson. Wilson's most violent and sudden Indisposition will prevent his having the honor of appearing before the Public and his Friends this Evening, and sincerely hopes the Pieces he is under the necessity of substituting will meet their approbation. [2nd piece in place of Hail Fellow Well Met; 3rd piece of The Rights of Woman, both advertised on playbill of 7 May. A 4th (and new) play, The Point of Honor, by John Peter Roberdeau, was also advertised on playbill of 7 May. It was never acted. Hail Fellows [sic] Well Met and The Rights of Women [sic] were 1st acted, for Wilson's benefit, at the hay, 9 Aug. 1792.] Morning Herald, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Wilson at his house, Park-lane, Church-lane, Chelsea. Receipts: #285 5s. (93.17; 1.14; tickets: 189.14) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 23 Feb. 1674@5: Last night ye mask at Court was publiquely acted in ye presence of their Maties, R:11 Hsess & ye whole Court & will be once more acted before his Matie goes to Newmarket (Wilson, Theatre Notes, pp. 79-80). [Wilson points out that this performance is nowhere else mentioned.

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: The United Company. Newdigate newsletters, 2 June 1683: The same day [31 May] their Royall highnesses... in ye afternoone Countenanced a new play with their presences (Wilson, More Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 59). Wilson proposes that this play is Dame Dobson, as the separately Printed Prologue bears Luttrell's acquisition date of 1 June 1683 (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library). The separately printed Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 176-78

Event Comment: Newdigate newsletters, 2 Sept. 1693: On Thursday a person acting ye Jack pudding on a stage in Bartholomew fair Bantering upon ye Straits Expedition & return of the ffleet was taken into Custody (Folger Shakespeare Library, transcribed by Professor John Harold Wilson). Luttrell, A Brief Relation, III, 176, 2 Sept. 1693: A merry andrew in Bartholomew fair is committed for telling the mobb news that our fleet was come into Torbay, being forced in by some French privateers, and other words reflecting on the conduct of great ministers of state. Newdigate newsletters, 12 Sept. 1693: On Sunday [10 Sept.] Mr Percivall who kept a Booth during St Barthollomew fair was siezed near Charing cross upon ye acct of clipping being discovered by a young man (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 82). [See also Luttrell, A Brief Relation, III, 183, 205, 207, 212.

Event Comment: Benefit for Watson, Roberts, Wilson, and Palmer. Tickets deliver'd by Humphreys will be taken. Paid subscription to charity school and Easter offering #2 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [Probably to St Martin's Charity school #2 2s.; and Offering 10s. 6d., as indicated by payments in earlier 70's.] Receipts: #37 3s. 6d. Charges: #84. Deficit to Watson, Roberts, Wilson, and Palmer: #46 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 12 years. [The playbill retains Wilson as Maclaymore, but "At the close of the Play Hull came forward and made an Apology for Wilson's not playing Maclaymore...on Account of his being taken suddenly ill with an Ague, and begged their Acceptance of Fearon in the Part, which was accepted with that good Nature which distinguishes a British Audience" (Morning Chronicle, 24 Oct.).] Receipts: #100 15s. 6d. (100.11.0; 0.4.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Polonius to Wilson, but "Previous to the play an apology was made by Farren, for the absence of Wilson [see 2 Nov.], and requesting the Audience to accept of Munden in Polonius, which they chearfully assented to, and his performance justified their opinion" (Thespian Magazine, Dec. 1792, p. 153). "Hamlet is perfectly within the scope of [Holman's] powers; but his performance last night did not exhibit one discriminate feature of the character. He 'out Heroded Herod' throughout, with more than his usual perseverance. The praise of the evening rests with Munden, who laudably endeavoured to rescue Polonius from the buffoonery which has hitherto disgraced him" (Morning Herald, 6 Nov.). Afterpiece in place of Oscar and Malvina, advertised on playbill of 3 Nov.] Receipts: #319 2s

Event Comment: See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 117. The King's Company. The Prologue is in Thomas Jordan's A Royal Arbour of Loyal Poesie (1664). Andrew Newport to Sir Richard Leveson, 15 Dec.: Upon our stages we have women-actors, as beyond seas (HMC, 5th Report, Part I, 1876, p. 158). For a discussion of actresses who may have played Desdemona on this day, see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, pp. 6-8. Possibly Clun acted Iago. See An Elegy Upon the Most Execrable Murther of Mr Clun, 1664

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.