Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Newdigate newsletters, 15 Aug. 1682: Thursday last being acted a play called the Tragedy of Romulus att the Dukes Theatre & the Epilogue spoken by the Lady Slingsby & written by Mrs Behn having reflected on ye Duke of Monmouth, ye Lord Chamberlaine thereupon has order[ed] them both in Custody to answer th[at] affront for ye same (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 81). See also True Protestant Mercury, 12-16 Aug. 1682, for essentially the same statement. The Prologue and Epilogue were printed separately, and Luttrell' copy (Huntington Library) bears his acquisition date of 8 Aug. 1682. They are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 132-34. The separately printed Prologue states that Mrs Behn also wrote it. A song, Where art thou god of love, the music by Giovanni Draghi, is in Theater of Music, The Third Book, 1686

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, for the play was apparently not printed until 1704. Nevertheless, some details indicate a performance early in the early in the season of 1696-97. In the first place, the presence of Verbruggen in the cast indicates that it must have been acted before 1 Jan. 1696@7, when Verbruggen was permitted to act at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The play also parodies the works of Mrs Manley, whose The Royal Mischief had been staged (probably) in April 1696, and it is likely that the company would emphasize the pertinence of the parody by presenting it soon after the appearance of the original. Although The Female Wits may not have been acted until later in the autumn, it seems likely that it was acted first in the late summer or early autumn. Preface, Edition of 1704: [The] Success of this Play has been such...having been Acted six Days running without intermission....Among the rest, Mr Powel and his Wife excell'd in the Characters they represented, as did Mrs Verbruggen, who play'd the Chief Character....The Lady whose Play is rehears'd, personated one Mrs M-ly [Manley]