Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 31 Dec. 1685: Yesterday was acted The Committee. The King and Queen were there and all the whole Court went to see it, but coming a little after it was begun [I] could not get any roome (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 100). Bridget Noel to the Countess of Rutland, ca. 6 Jan. 1685@6: [Last Wednesday] my Lady Exeter engaged us to goe to a play with her...which was a Commity. The King and Queen was at it, and the house as full as ever I saw it (ibid.)

Event Comment: Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 31 Dec. 1685: Last night was a masque at Mr Oldfield's in Soho Square, there was a great deale of very good company (ibid.). [Bridget Noel, writing to the Countess of Rutland, ca. 6 Jan. 1685@5, refers to a musicale, but her letter leaves unclear whether she refers to the same one Peregrine Bertie discusses (ibid.).

Event Comment: The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, 18 Jan. 1685@6: After dinner the Lord? Chancellor, having drunke smartly at table (which was his custome) called for one Monfort, a gentleman of his that had been a comedian, an excellent mimick, and to divert the company, as he called it, made him give us a caus, that is, plead before him in a feigned action, wher he acted all the principal lawyers of the age, in their tone of voice, and action or gesture of body; and thus ridiculed not only the lawyers, but the law itselfe. This, I confess, was very diverting, but not soe prudent as I thought for soe eminent a man in soe great a station of the lawe; since nothing could get a man more enemies than to deride thos whom they ought most to sopport (ed. Browning, pp. 408-9)

Event Comment: The United Company. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 23 Jan. 1685@6: Today will be acted King and noe King, by the King's command; everybody is sending to keep places; next week begins the French opera (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 102)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 28 Jan. 1685@6: Last night was acted, the Chances at Whitehall, and to-night should have been a musicke meeting at Yorke Buildings, which I am jest now told is to bee put of till next weeke. The French Opera will begin the weeke after the next (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 102)

Event Comment: The United Company. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland. 6 Feb. 1685@6: Thursday was acted Mithridates? for the Queen and Goodman played (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 104). [In L. C. 5@147, is a warrant to pay Mrs Barry for two plays-Valentinian and Mithridates-acted before the King and Queen, #40. The date of the warrant is 8 May 1686. If this warrant represents payment for this performance of Mithridates, probably Valentinian was acted in 1686.

Event Comment: The United Company. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 6 Feb. 1685@6: Today is Othello (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II., p. 104)

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this Performance is stated as 16 Feb. (L. C. records) or 17 Feb. (Peregrine Bertie), but as Lent began on Wednesday 17 Feb., the performance probably occurred on Shrove Tuesday. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, P. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 17 Feb. 1685@6: To night will be the last play at court, they tell mee 'tis the Mocke Astrologer (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, p. 105). John Povey to Sir Robert Southwell, 18 Feb. 1685@6: Sir, the enclosed had been sent last post, had it not been detained late by a play at Court which ended our Carnival. The night before the King and Queen were entertained by the Lord President at a ball or masque in Lady Portsmouth's lodgings. The Masquers were twelve couples whose habits were of several nations' and prescribed by a picture sent to each of them from the Queen, and the least habit cost !bove a hundred Pounds, and some above three hundred pounds, besides jewels of which Mrs Fox and some others had above thirty thousand pounds value each (Savile-Finch Correspondence, Add. Mss. 28,569; I owe this quotation to Professor John Harold Wilson)

Event Comment: The United Company. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 6 March 1685@6: To day is acted Jevarns' new farse; Thursday was the first day. I must confess it is the strangest thinge I ever saw; 'twas mighty full the last time, and to day there is noe getting in (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 106). [Since Friday 5 March was a Friday in Lent, it is possible that the farce was not given on that day.

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known. The edition of 1687 states on the title page: This may be printed, April 23. 1686. It was entered in the Stationers' Register, 8 May 1686, under the title: The Disappointed Marriage; or, Ye Generous Mistris. It was probably first given before mid-April 1686, with the publication delayed, a delay accounting for the fact that Mrs Percival, who did not marry Mountfort until 2 July 1686, appears in the cast as Mrs Mountford. A song, O love that stronger art than wine, the music by John Blow, the verse by Ousley, and sung by John Bowman, is in The Theater of Music, The Fourth Book, 1687

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 125: The King & Queene & a Box for ye Maydes of honor. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. General Patrick Gordon, 6 May 1686: I saw the Scots Batallion exercized in the Hide Park before the King and Queen, and saw the comedy, Rehearsal, acted (Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auckleuchbies [Aberdeen, 1859], p. 133)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on L. C. list, 5@147, p. 260: The King & Queene & a Box for ye Maydes of honor. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. Langhans, New Restoration Theatre Accounts, pp. 127-28, thinks that acting resumed on 27 Sept. 1686 and continued to 25 June 1687, with 30 Performances from 25 June to 12 Oct