Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The Diary of Robert Hooke: Mr Hoskins and I at Shadwell. Atheistical wicked play 2 1!2 sh

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is uncertain. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: King and Queene at Alcibiades and a box for the Mayds of Honor. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. The item on the L. C. list is ambiguously dated; it follows an entry for 28 Sept. 1675 and bears only the figure "22." It is possible that the play was given on 22 Sept. 1675, but the order of the L. C. listing, the sequence of known performance on 24, 25, and 28 Sept., and the fact that most of the cast are principals in the company suggest a late September or early October production rather than an early September one

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. There is no certainty that this is the premiere of this play; in fact, there is uncertainty concerning the first production, for Nell Gwyn saw a play on 19 March 1673@4, The Country Knight, about which nothing otherwise is known and which might be this play. Nevertheless, the fact that the play was not entered in the Term Catalogues until May 1676 makes it unlikely that the play was first acted two years before its publication, especially since it became a moderately popular play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Man of Mode. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. It is uncertain whether this is the premiere, but the licensing date of 3 June 1676 suggests that the first production may have occurred at this time. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36): This Comedy being well Cloath'd and well Acted, got a great deal of Money. One song, As Amoret with Phyllis sat, the words by Sir Car Scroope and the music by Nicholas Staggins, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679; another, When first Amintas charmed my heart, the music by Staggins, is in the same collection, Fifth Book, 1684. John Dennis: I remember very well that upon the first acting this Comedy, it was generally believed to be an agreeable Representation of the Persons of Condition of both both Sexes, both in Court and Town; and that all the World was charm'd with Dorimont (A Defence of Sir Fopling Flutter, 1722, p. 18). For the full text of Dennis' discussion of this play, see The Critical Works of John Dennis, ed. E. N. Hooker (Baltimore, 1943), II, 241-50

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Man of Mode and Box for the Mayds of Honor. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348

Event Comment: See a note from the Marquis Cattaneo to the Duke of Modena (in Campana de Cavelli, Les derniers Stuarts [Paris and London, 1871], I, 171), in which he states that the entire court went three or four times to see The Man of Mode

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. This play may well have been performed regularly since 25 May. The Diary of Robert Hooke, 2 June 1676: with Godfrey and Tompion at Play. Met Oliver there. Damned Doggs. Vindica me Deus. People almost pointed. [Several entries in Hooke's Diary concern The Virtuoso. See his entries for 1 June, 3 June, 1 July.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. Nell Gwyn's attendance again on Friday 9 June suggests that she attended the premiere. On that assumption, this Calendar lists the probable ten performances which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36) alludes to: And all the Parts being admirably Acted, it lasted successively 10 Days; it got more Money than any preceding Modern Tragedy

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 408. It is not known when the premiere occurred, but this is the earliest known performance. The Prologue, missing in the 1677 edition, is in the 1693 edition. A song, Make haste, my shepherd, come away, with music by Francis Forcer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, Second Book, 1679