Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: With Sir Philip Carteret to the King's playhouse, there to see Love's Cruelty, an old play, but which I have not seen before and in the first act Orange Moll come to me, with one of the porters by my house, to tell me that Mrs Pierce and Knepp did dine at my house to-day, and that I was desired to come home. So I went out presently, and by coach home, and they were just gone away; so, after a very little stay with my wife, I took coach again, and to the King's playhouse again, and come in the fourth act; and it proves to me a very silly play, and to everybody else, as far as I could judge. But the jest is, that here telling Moll how I had lost my journey, she told me that Mrs Knepp was in the house, and so shews me to her, and I went to her, and sat out the play.... I could not but observe that Sir Philip Carteret would fain have given me my going into a play; but yet, when he come to the door, he had no money to pay for himself, I having refused to accept of it for myself, but was fain; and I perceive he is known there, and do run upon the score for plays, which is a shame.... In the pit I met with Sir Ch. North

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play is on the L. C. list 5@139, p. 125, for 20 March, possibly a mistake, as 20 March is a Friday in Lent In addition, the second list, 5@12, p. 17, reads: 2 March: king here. Pepys, Diary: So with my wife, her and the girl, to the King's house to see the Virgin Martyr again, which do mightily please me, but above all the musique at the coming down of the angel, which at this hearing the second time, do still commend me as nothing ever did, and the other musique is nothing to it

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw The English Monsieur; sitting for privacy sake in an upper box: the play hath much mirth in it as to that particular humour. After the play done, I down to Knipp, and did stay her undressing herself; and there saw the several players, men and women go by; and pretty to see how strange they are all, one to another, after the play is done. Here I saw a wonderful pretty maid of her own, that come to undress her, and one so pretty that she says she intends not to keep her, for fear of her being undone in her service, by coming to the playhouse. Here I hear Sir W. Davenant is just now dead; and so who will succeed him in the mastership of the house is not yet known. The eldest Davenport is, it seems, gone from this house to be kept by somebody; which I am glad of, she being a very bad actor.... [Mrs Knepp] tells me mighty news, that my Lady Castlemayne is mightily in love with Hart of their house; and he is much with her in private, and she goes to him, and do give him many Presents; and that the thing is most certain, and Becke Marshall only privy to it, and the means of bringing them together, which is a very odd thing; and by this means she is even with the King's love to Mrs Davis

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Thence called Knepp from the King's house, where going in for her, the play being done, I did see Beck Marshall come dressed, off of the stage, and looks mighty fine, and pretty, and noble: and also Nell Gwyn?, in her boy's clothes, mighty pretty. But, Lord! their confidence! and how many men do hover about them as soon as they come off the stage, and how confident they are in their talk! Here I did kiss the pretty woman newly come, called Pegg Hughes?, that was Sir Charles Sidly's mistress, a mighty pretty woman, and seems, but is not, modest. Here took up Knepp into our coach, and all of us with her to her lodgings, and thither comes Bannister with a song of her's, that he hath set in Sir Charles Sidly's play [The Mulberry Garden] for her, which is, I think, but very meanly set; but this he did, before us, teach her, and it being but a slight, silly, short ayre, she learnt it presently. But I did get him to prick me down the notes of the Echo in The Tempest, which pleases me mightily. Here was also Haynes, the incomparable dancer of the King's house, and a seeming civil man, and sings pretty well

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Knepp's maid comes to me, to tell me that the women's day at the playhouse is to-day, and that therefore I must be there, to encrease their profit....I by coach toward the King's playhouse, and meeting W. Howe took him with me, and there saw The City Match; not acted these thirty years, and but a silly play: the King and Court there; the house, for the women's sake, mighty full

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17: King here. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344. See Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage, p. 307, for a letter to Lady Sunderland on this performance, and, p. 308, for an anecdote from The Life of the Late Famous Comedian, Jo. Haynes, concerning Haynes and Hart in a scene. For another allusion to the action, see Henri Ferneron, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (London, 1807), p. 179n. Pepys, Diary: 15 Jan. 1668@9: It is about my Lady Harvy's being offended at Doll Common's [Mrs Corey's] acting of Sempronia, to imitate her; for which she got my Lord Chamberlain, her kinsman, to imprison Doll: when my Lady Castlemayne made the King to release her. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Terryll, 10 Feb. 1668@9: There has not been any new lately revived and reformed, as Catiline, well set out with clothes and scenes (Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 14). See also 7 and 11 Dec. 1667

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, where The Heyress, notwithstanding Kinaston's being beaten, is acted: and they say the King is very angry with Sir Charles Sedley for his being beaten, but he do deny it. But his part is done by Beeston, who is fain to read it out of a book all the while, and thereby spoils the part, and almost the play, it being one of the best parts in it; and though the design is, in the first conception of it, pretty good, yet it is but an indifferent play, wrote, they say, by my Lord Newcastle, But it was pleasant to see Beeston come in with others, supposing it to be dark, and yet he is forced to read his part by the light of the candles. and this I observing to a gentleman that sat by me, he was mightily pleased therewith, and spread it up and down. But that, that pleased me most in the play is, the first song that Knepp sings, she singing three or four; and, indeed, it was very finely sung, so as to make the whole house clap her.... My wife being in mighty ill humour all night, and in the morning I found it to be from her observing Knepp to wink and smile on me, and she says I smiled on her; and, poor wretch! I did perceive that she did, and do on all such occasions, mind my eyes. I did, with much difficulty, pacify her, and were friends, she desiring that hereafter, at that house, we might always sit either above in a box, or, if there be [no] room, close up to the lower boxes

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's house, and there saw The General revived--a good play, that pleases me well. The Travels of Cosmo the Third [4 May 1669 NS; 24 April 1699 OS]: [On 4 May and the two subsequent days His Highness received callers] and many of them remained to dine with his highness, who continued on each of these days his visits to the ladies, appearing at Hyde Park, at the comedies, sometimes at the king's theatre, sometimes at that of the duke's theatre (p. 195)

Event Comment: The King's Company. It is difficult to assign a date to this burlesque, but it is obviously a satiric thrust at Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco, which had been acted on 3 July 1673, and on Macbeth, which had been most recently acted (probably) on 9 Aug. 1673. As the title page of Duffett's burlesque does not name a theatre, it is not known whether it was acted before the King's Company left Lincoln's Inn Fields for the new theatre in Drury Lane. But the fact that Settle's Empress of Morocco was acted again at Dorset Garden on 6 Dec. 1673 makes December 1673 a likely month (or the King's Company to play its burlesque, although it may have been given in the late summer or early autumn, as many lesser actors are in the cast

Event Comment: The United Company. Newdigate newsletters, 20 Jan. 1682@3: Yesterday was acted at the Theatre Royall the first of a new play Entituled the City Politiques the novelty of wch drew a Confluence of Spectators under both Qualifications of Whigg and Tory to hear and behold a Ld Mayor Sheriffs & some Aldermen with their wives in yr usuall formalityes buffoond & Reviled a great Lawyer with his young Lady Jeared and Intreagued Dr Oates pfectly represented berogued & beslaved the papist plott Egregiously Rediculed the Irish Testemonyes Contradictiorily disproved & befoold the Whiggs totally vanquished & undon Law & property men oreruld & there wanted nothing of Artifice in behaviour and discourse to render all those obnoxious & dispised in fine such a medly of occurences intervened that twas a question whether more of Loyalty designe or Rhetorique prvailed but there were mighty clappings among the poeple of both partyes in Expressing either their sattisfaction or displeasure (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 81). The Prologue and Epilogue, separately Printed, have 20 Jan. 1682@3 as Luttrell's date of acquisition (Huntington Library) and are reprinted in Wiley's Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 166-69. John Dennis, To Mr --- In which are some Passages of the Life of Mr John Crown, Author of Sir Courtly Nice, June 23, 1719: About that time he writ The City Politicks, on purpose to Satyrize and expose the Whigs; a Comedy so agreeable, that it deserv'd to be writ in a much better Cause: But after he had writ he met with very great Difficulties in the getting it acted. Bennet Lord Arlington, who was then Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold, and who had secretly espous'd the Whigs, who were at that time powerful in Parliament, in order to support himself against the Favour and Power of the Lord Treasurer Danby, who was his declared Enemy, us'd all his Authority to suppress it. One While it was prohibited on the account of its being Dangerous, another while it was laid aside on the pretence of its being Falt and Insipid; till Mr Crown at last was forc'd to have Recourse to the king himself, and to engage him to give his absolute Command to the Lord Chamberlain for the acting of it; which Command the King was Pleas'd to give in his own Person (I, 49-50). Morrice Entry Book, Vol.1 1682@3: Mr Crowne [was cudgled on Wednesday last in St Martin's Lane and] hee that beat him said hee did it at the suite of the Earle of Rochester some time since deceased who greatly abused in the play for his penetency &c. (p. 353. I owe this note to the courtesy of Professor David M. Vieth of the University of Kansas and Professor G. H. Jones of Kansas State University)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 68. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. This play was also reprinted in 1686. Memoirs of the Life of William Wycherley, Esq; With a Character of his Writings [by George, Lord Lansdowne, but part possibly by Charles Gildon (1718)], pp. 7-8: [After the death of Wycherley's wife, he was committed to Newgate for debt.] From hence he remov'd himself by a Habeas Corpus to the Fleet, where he continued seven Years in a close Imprisonment, almost forgot by his old Friends, till in the Reign of King James the Second, some of them bespeaking the Plain-Dealer, got the King to the Play, who declaring his Approbation of the Poet's Performance, they improv'd his liking so far as to get him to deliver him from his long Confinement. But here the Modesty of the Man did him a considerable Prejudice, for instead of giving in a full List of his Debts, he only mention'd those, the discharge of which wou'd set him at Liberty, which was done with this additional Bounty, that the same King allow'd him Two hundred Pounds a Years as long as he Reign'd; and this was the reason that made Mr Wycherley always a Jacobite

Event Comment: The United Company. A somewhat puzzling entry in the Reverend Robert Kirk's description of London in 1689 implies a performance of The Committee undertaken but not completed: At a play in Whitehall King Charles, his trage-comedy, when the actors were come to that part of seducing King Charles II, some Williamites in the pit below hissed at it (as if the play had meant the like of King James in Ireland). At this there sprang such huzzas and holloes above applauding that part of the play, that it was in a confusion, and they durst pursue it no further, lest the two parties made violence one upon another. Two or three noblemen were remarked to be forward in the acclamations of joy, and therefore are looked on as Jacobites. The Play's name is The Committee, November 28, 1689 (Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archeological Society, New Series, VI, 655)

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but A Comparison between the Two Stages (1702) (pp. 21-23) implies that this work preceded Rinaldo and Armida (performed at lif probably in November 1698). The Island Princess was not published until 1699 (the Masque being advertised in the Post Boy, 7-9 Feb. 1698@9, and the Opera in the Flying Post, 7-9 March 1698@9). A Comparison between the Two Stages (1702), pp. 21-22: Sullen: The old House have a Bawble offer'd 'em, made out of Fletcher's Island Princess, sometime after alter'd by Mr Tate, and now erected into an Opera by Motteux: The Actors labour at this like so many Galley Slaves at an Oar, they call in the Fiddle, the Voice, the Painter, and the Carpenter to help 'em; and what neither the Poet nor the Player cou'd do, the Mechanick must do for him:...but as I was saying-the Opera now possesses the Stage, and after a hard struggle, at length it prevail'd, and something more than Charges came in every Night: The Quality, who are always Lovers of good Musick, flock hither, and by almost a total revolt from the other House, give this new Life, and set it in some eminency above the New; this was a sad mortification to the old Stagers in Lincolns-Inn-fields. For a poem, The Confederates; or the first Happy Day of the Island Princess, see Poem on Affairs of State, 1703, II, 248-50

Event Comment: Luttrell, A Brief Relation, IV, 518-79: This day being the anniversary of the kings birth...there was also a fine ball at St. James to conclude the solemnity, where the king was present: their royal highnesses the prince and princesse dined with his majestie at Kensington, who all the while were diverted with a fine consort of musick; and Mr Tate, the poet laureat, presented the king with a curious ode

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Containing the Distresses and Death of King Henry the Sixth , the Murther of young King Eduard the Fifth and his Brother in the Tower, with the Landing of the Earl of Richmond , and the Memorable and Decisive Battle in Bosworth Field

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Taken from the French of Moliere. Afterpiece: A new Tragedy of half an Act [By Henry Carey]. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. Receipts: #31 (Account Book); #30 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by George, Duke of Buckingham

Event Comment: Written by George Duke of Buckingham. Never perform'd there before. Tis hop'd no Gentleman will take it ill if they are not admitted behind the Scenes, it being impossible to go through the Performance, if the Passages are not kept clear. Tickets at 4s., 2s. 6d., 1s. 6d. [prices repeated for the run of this play]

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Macklin and Mrs Bennet. Tickets deliver'd out by Leigh, Carter and Miss Story will be taken. Tickets and places to be had of Bradshaw &c., and of Mrs Macklin at No. 12 in Wild Court, Wild St. Afterpiece: The Most Grave, Whimisical, Serious, Operatical Tragedy of Half and Act. Receipts: #150

Event Comment: By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke, and Princesses Amelia, Caroline, Louise. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear,

Event Comment: Never acted there before [i.e., by this company]. Written by George, Duke of Buckingham. Mr Bayes' Troops have been on their March for some Days past from their last Encampment in Goodman's Fields; they march'd in good Order through the City without Beat of Drum, and were received at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where they have now pitch'd their Tents with great Acclamations of Joy by the Populace. We hear they will be re-enforced by some Auxiliaries from Covent-Garden; and we can assure the Publick, there will certainly be a Battle of Monday next, so the Report of their going quietly into Winter Quarters without coming to Action, proves a groundless Tale, and was merely calculated to serve some private Ends. Daily Advertiser, 4 Dec