Event Comment: The King's Company. T
his play has generally been assigned to June 1669, partly on
the basis of a suit--see
Hotson,
Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, pp. 252-53, 348-55-over a scene for it which
Isaac Fuller,
the scene designer, states was finished by 23 June 1669.
The suit also states that
the play ran for fourteen days, but it is not certain that
the theatres played on consecutive days in
the summer.
The play has been assigned to 24 June 1669 on
the basis of a letter from
Charles II to
Princess Henriette-Anne, dated 24 June [1669]: I am just now going to a new play that I heare very much commended (
Cyril Hughes Hartmann,
Charles II and Madame [
London, 1934], p. 259).
Elizabeth Cottington to
Herbert Aston, ca. May 1669: Wee ar in expectation still of
Mr Draidens play.
Ther is a bowld woman [
Aphra Behn (?)] hath oferd one: my cosen
Aston can give you a better account of her
then I can. Some verses I have seen which ar not ill; that is commentation enouf: she will think so too, I believe, when it comes upon
the ptage. I shall tremble for
the poor woman exposed among
the critticks (
Arthur Clifford, Tixall Letters [London, 1815], II, 60)
Performances
Mainpiece Title: Tyrannic Love Or The Royal Martyr
Performance Comment: . Edition of 1670: Prologue-; Maximin-Mohun; Porphyrius-Hart; Charinus-Harris; Placidius-Kynaston; Valerius-Lydall; Albinus-Littlewood; Nigrinus-Beeston; Amariel-Bell; Berenice-Mrs Rebecca? Marshall; Valeria-Mrs Ellen Guyn; St Catharine-Mrs Hughes; Felicia-Mrs Knepp; Erotion-Mrs Uphill; Cydnon-Mrs Eastland; Epilogue-Mrs Ellen [when she was to be carried off Dead by the Bearers; [Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 10) omits some of these roles, adds Damilcar-Mrs James [and lists Mrs Boutel [who later played the role; see the edition of 1695] for St Catharine. The edition of 1686 adds: Apollonius-$Cartwright.