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]