Event Comment: The Earl of Arran to the Duchess of Ormond, 19 Jan. 1677@8: I met her Lord [Lord Cavendish] last night at the French play (HMC, Ormonde MSS., New Series, 1906, IV, 90). Henri Forneron, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (London, 1887): [The Duchess of Portsmouth] was at the last extremity when a slight change for the better took place, and she got up, had herself dressed, and dragged herself to her Sedan chair, to be carried to the French play, where she heard the king was to be with Madame Mazarin. The players had come to London for a short time, and Charles attended all their representations (pp. 197-98). Forneron apparently drew this information from a letter dated 20 Jan. 1677@8

Event Comment: Under the Patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Duke of York, Duke of Clarence, Duke of Cumberland, and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York [and] the Duchess of Devonshire and the Duchess of Gordon. Benefit for O'Keeffe, the Unfortunate Author of the following successful Dramatic Pieces: The Son in Law, Agreeable Surprise, Peeping Tom, Dead Alive, Young Quaker, Life's Vagaries, Castle of Andalusia, Czar, Tony Lumpkin in Town, Poor Soldier, Modern Antiques, Basket Maker, Wild Oats, Wicklow Mountains, French Grenadier [never acted], Positive Man, Love in a Camp, Tantara Rara Rogues all, Beggar on Horseback, Toy, London Hermit, Highland Reel, Blacksmith of Antwerp, Man Milliner, Irish Mimic, Little Hunchback, World in a Village, Fontainbleau, Magic Banner, Farmer, Doldrum, Sprigs of Laurel, Birth Day, Prisoner at Large, &c. &c. Tickets delivered for The Belle's Stratagem will be admitted. [O'Keeffe is referred to as being unfortunate because he was totally blind. In delivering his Poetical Composition, which is printed in Dramatic Censor, II, 265-67, the Monthly Mirror, June 1800, p. 367, reports that he was led on and off the stage by Lewis. It also notes that "Mrs Jordan...came from Drury-Lane, where she had performed the Child of Nature, to officiate at Covent-Garden as the handmaid of charity."] The Last Night of the Company's performing this season. Receipts: none listed

Event Comment: The Countess of Derby to the Duchess de la Tremoille, 25 Feb. 1660@1: Plays are often acted at court, and the King and their Royal Highnesses have been present at two this evening, at the Duchess of Buckingham's (Madame Guizot de Witt, The Lady of Latham [London, 1869], p. 268)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time at a public theatre; C 3, by Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, 1st acted privately at the Town-Hall, Newbury, 6 Apr. 1780. Text (G. Riley, 1781) assigns no parts. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Joseph Jekyll (see text)]: With new Dresses, &c. "The Prologue [the first 30 lines and the concluding couplet of which were used by Sheridan as the Prologue to Pizarro (see dl, 24 May 1799)] was so much admired that at the request of the Duchess of Devonshire and several other of the nobility it was respoken after the piece; but as King was absent from the theatre, it was delivered by Palmer" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1780, p. 23 ). "The chief singularity was that [Lady Craven] went to it herself the second night, in form; sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed, with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. The Duchess of Richmond, Lady Harcourt,...Mrs Damer, Lord Craven,...and I were with her. It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself-but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naivete as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven on the contrary was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance of the actors, which was wretched indeed, yet the address of the plot, which is the chief merit of the piece, and some lively pencilling carried it off very well, though Parsons murdered the Scotch lord, and Mrs Robinson (who is supposed to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales) thought on nothing but her own charms, or him. There is a very good though endless prologue written by Sheridan and spoken in perfection by King, which was encored (an entire novelty) the first night: and an epilogue that I liked still better and which was full as well delivered by Mrs Abington, written by Mr. Jekyl. The audience, though very civil, missed a fair opportunity of being gallant, for in one of those ----logues, I forget which, the noble authoress was mentioned, and they did not applaud as they ought to have done, especially when she condescended to avow her pretty child and was there looking so very pretty...Yet Lady Craven's tranquillity had nothing displeasing;...and it was tempered by her infinite good nature, which made her make excuses for the actors instead of being provoked at them" (Walpole [28 May 1780], XI, 178-80). Public Advertiser, 14 July 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Miniature Picture (price not listed). Receipts: #144 9s. (94.9; 48.3; 1.17)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart, "from the Spanish"; on 2 Sept. reduced to 1 act. Prologue by the author (see text)]. "The Piece, we understand, was originally founded on some topics that have of late engrossed the conversation of much of the fashionable world...The Lord Chamberlain thought [it] too delicate a nature to appear with the allusions and title it then bore, She would be a Duchess. The consequence was that the offensive bits were expunged and the piece re-christened...It would be unfair to make any observations...in the mutilated stage it was presented" (Public Advertiser, 15 Aug.). "Some part of the plot was supposed to allude to the late occurrences in the family of General John? Gunning, who was indulged with the privilege of erasing [from the MS] that which he disliked, and who reduced it to its present feeble and unconnected form" (Gazetteer, 15 Aug.). [The reference in the original title is to the simultaneous flirtation of Miss Elizabeth Gunning, the General's daughter, with the eldest sons of the Dukes of Marlborough and Argyll (see dnb, under Susannah Gunning). She would be a Duchess: in Larpent MS 915.

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So back to the Cockpitt [Whitehall], and there, by the favour of one Mr Bowman, he [Creed] and I got in, and there saw the King, and Duke of York and his Duchess (which is a plain woman, and like her mother, my Lady Chancellor). And so saw The Humersome Lieutenant acted before the King, but not very well done. But my pleasure was great to see the manner of it, and so many great beauties, but above all Mrs Palmer, with whom the King do discover a great deal of familiarity. Sometime before the Coronation of Charles II, on 23 April 1661, there may have been acted The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver. An edition of 1661 refers to its being "often publikely acted by some of his Majesties Comedians" and the Dedication suggests that it would make a good entertainment at the mirthful time of the Coronation. The edition lists no actors' names, no prologue, no epilogue

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, which begins again to-day with The Witts, never acted yet with scenes; and the King and Duke and Duchess were there...and indeed it is a most excellent play, and admirable scenes. Downes (p. 21): All the other Parts being exactly Perform'd; it continu'd 8 Days Acting Successively

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Hence my wife and I to the Theatre, and there saw The Joviall Crew, where the King, Duke and Duchess, and Madame Palmer, were; and my wife, to her great content, had a full sight of them all the while. The play full of mirth

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Creed and I to my wife again, and...to the Cockpitt, where we saw Claracilla, a poor play, done by the King's house (but neither the King nor Queen were there, but only the Duke and Duchess, who did show some impertinent and, methought, unnaturall dalliances there, before the whole world, such as kissing, and leaning upon one another); but to my very little content, they not acting in any degree like the Duke's people

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. The play, licensed on 27 Nov. 1667, was not printed until 1667. There is no certainty that this is the premiere, but it may well have been, as Pepys saw it on 30 March and on 11 April suggested that it had recently had its first showing: [The Duchess of Newcastle] was the other day at her own play, The Humourous Lovers; the most ridiculous thing that ever was wrote, but yet she and her Lord mightily pleased with it; and she, at the end, made her respects to the players from her box, and did give them thanks

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The Prologue to the Queen of Arragon Acted before the Duke of York, Upon his Birthday, and Epilogue to the Same To the Duchess, by Samuel Butler, are in The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler, ed. R. B. Johnson (London, 1893), II, 175-77. Newsletter, 12 Oct. 1668: The Duke of York's birthday will be celebrated with the usual solemnities, a play being prepared for the entertainment of the ladies. The piece chosen is The Queen of Arragon. It will be acted in the Guard Chamber at St James's (HMC, Fleming MSS., 12th Report, Appendix, Part VII, p. 59). Pepys, Diary: But the Duke of York being gone out, and to-night being a play there, and a great festival, we would not stay

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17: King here. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344. See Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage, p. 307, for a letter to Lady Sunderland on this performance, and, p. 308, for an anecdote from The Life of the Late Famous Comedian, Jo. Haynes, concerning Haynes and Hart in a scene. For another allusion to the action, see Henri Ferneron, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (London, 1807), p. 179n. Pepys, Diary: 15 Jan. 1668@9: It is about my Lady Harvy's being offended at Doll Common's [Mrs Corey's] acting of Sempronia, to imitate her; for which she got my Lord Chamberlain, her kinsman, to imprison Doll: when my Lady Castlemayne made the King to release her. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Terryll, 10 Feb. 1668@9: There has not been any new lately revived and reformed, as Catiline, well set out with clothes and scenes (Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 14). See also 7 and 11 Dec. 1667

Event Comment: On this day arrived in London the news of the death of the King's sister, the Duchess of Orleans, which occured on 20 June 1670. According to The Bulstrode Papers (I, 144), 25 June 1670: The players are silenced dureing this tyme of sadness. [Probably acting ceased for at least six weeks, the customary period for silencing the companies when the Court went into full mourning. Nevertheless, the Duke's Company may have been permitted to act at Oxford. See Sybil Rosenfeld, "Some Notes on the Players in Oxford, 1661-1713," Review of English Studies XIX (1943), 366-67.

Event Comment: An order of the Lord Chamberlain (5@12, p. 202) dated 1 April 1671, states that the theatres are to be closed because of the death of the Duchess of York on 31 March 1671. See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 322. It is uncertain how long the theatres were closed, but probably the closure extended for six weeks

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the date of licensing, 4 May 1676, suggests a production not later than March or April 1676. The Dedication indicates that the play was also acted privately at the residence of the Duchess of Albemarle, New-Hall

Event Comment: G. Lady Chaworth to Lord Roos, 2 Nov. 1676: I have not yet seen Mr Pack, being att Lord Major's show when hee was heere....The pageants were but three and worse then others formerly, but the King, Queen, Duke and Duchess finer in both clothes, liveries, coaches and traine then ever, to the honour of the Citty (HMC, 12th Report, Part V, Rutland Papers, II, 31)

Event Comment: Sir Charles Lyttleton, 10 Nov. 1677: [The Princess of Orange] is gone to ye play to-night in these and all ye Duchesses jewells (Hatton Correspondence, Camden Society, 1878, XXII, 155). The Prince and Princess had been married on 4 Nov. 1677

Event Comment: Apparently The Man of Mode had an amateur revival in Brussels in the autumn, possibly before the Duke and Duchess of York, when they were away from London. Princess Anne to Frances Apsley, 3 Oct. 1679: The play is practisde to night Miss Watts is to be Lady townly which part I beleeve wont much become her. [See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), pp. 111-12]

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: Edward Bedingfield to the Countess of Rutland, 1 Jan. 1684@5: Wee are in expectation of an opera composed by Mr Dryden, and set by Grabuche [Grabut], and so well performed at the repetition that has been made before his Majesty at the Duchess of Portsmouth's pleaseth mightily, but the rates proposed will not take soe well, for they have set the boxes at a guyny a place, and the Pitt at halfe. They advance 4,000 l. on the opera, and therefore must tax high to reimburse themselves (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 85)

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: Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 22 Oct. 1687: There are to be 5 Pageants on the Ld Mayors day one representing Liberty by a Beautifull young Lady attended with Riches Plenty and ffreedom &c. (transcribed by Professor John Harold Wilson). Luttrell (A Brief Relation, I, 418): The 29th was the anniversary of the lord mayors show, the new one, sir John Shorter, now entring on his office; the shew was splendid and the entertainment great, according to custome: his majestie, with the prince of Denmark, did the citty the honour to dine with them at Guildhall, as also the nobility, foreign ministers, amongst which was the popes nuncio (who was invited particularly by some of the aldermen): the streets were new gravell'd all that morning on one side of the way, from Charing-crosse to the citty, for his majesties passage. His majestie was well satisfied with the whole entertainment. The Duke of Beaufort to the Duchess, 29 Oct. 1687 [a summary, apparently]: Has just come from the greatest entertainment he ever saw at a Lord Mayor's feast in the city, and the best ordered, though there was the greatest concourse there and in the streets that was ever known, and the greatest acclamations, all through the city as the King passed. The Queen did not dare venture, remembering that the Bristol entertainment had put her out of order, but all the nobility in town, and the foreign ministers were there. The Pope's Nuncio in particular was invited by the Lord Mayor and nobly entertained (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Beaufort MSS., Part IX, pp. 90-91)

Event Comment: Benefit Estcourt. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. London in 1710 (pp. 138-39): On this occasion the actors represented a prodigiously satirical Interscenium, which was not to be found in the printed copy of the play....In this interlude a troop of soldiers came on, singing at the top of their voices an English song which had been made by the army in Flanders about the Duke of Marlborough. In it Prince Eugene is praised for his open-handedness, while Marlborough, on the other hand, is blamed for his avarice, so that every verse ended: 'but Marlborough not a penny.' The people, who are very bitter against the whole family, even the Duke himself, laughed prodigiously, and bandied about monstrous insults, although Marlborough's daughter, the Duchess of Montagu, was herself at the play and was so greatly shamed that she was covered with blushes....When the song was at an end, there was such a clapping and yelling that the actors were unable to proceed for nearly a quarter of an hour