Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wilson. Wilson's most violent and sudden Indisposition will prevent his having the honor of appearing before the Public and his Friends this Evening, and sincerely hopes the Pieces he is under the necessity of substituting will meet their approbation. [2nd piece in place of Hail Fellow Well Met; 3rd piece of The Rights of Woman, both advertised on playbill of 7 May. A 4th (and new) play, The Point of Honor, by John Peter Roberdeau, was also advertised on playbill of 7 May. It was never acted. Hail Fellows [sic] Well Met and The Rights of Women [sic] were 1st acted, for Wilson's benefit, at the hay, 9 Aug. 1792.] Morning Herald, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Wilson at his house, Park-lane, Church-lane, Chelsea. Receipts: #285 5s. (93.17; 1.14; tickets: 189.14) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by William Kenrick, based on The Country Lasses, by Charles Johnson]: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Overture and the rest of the Music composed by Hook. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 2 Dec. 1778: This Day at Noon is published The Lady of the Manor (1s. 6d.)