Event Comment: The United Company. On 23 April 1689 Luttrell purchased a copy of the Prologue. The broadside copy, with Luttrell's date of acquisition, is in the possession of Mr Louis Silver, Wilmette, Illinois, to whose courtesy I am indebted for permission to use this date. When the Prologue, which is reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 271-72, appeared in The Fourth and Last Volume of the Works of Mr Tho. Brown (1719), the Prologue has the title: Jo. Haines in Penance; Or, his Recantation-Prologue, at his acting of Poet Bays in the Duke of Buckingham's Play call'd The Rehearsal. Spoken in a white Sheet, with a burning Taper in his Hand, upon his Admittance in to the House after his Return from the Church of Rome. In the Preface to his play, The Fatal Mistake (1691-92), Haines stated: In troth I have Acted Mr Bays so often, and so feelingly, that I could not possibly forbear copying after so fair an Original

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first production is not certain, but tradition states that Dryden died on the third day (1 May 1700); if this report is correct, the first performance occurred on 29 April 1700. In A Collection of New Songs...Compos'd by Mr Daniel Purcel, Perform'd in the Revis'd Comedy call'd the Pilgrim (1700) is a song, Chronos, Chronos, mend thy pace, with Janus sung by Freeman, Momus by Pate, Diana by Mrs Erwin. Gottfried Finger apparently composed the passage sung by Venus, Calms appear when storms are past. William Egerton, Faithful Memoirs of...Mrs Anne Oldfield (1731): The Pilgrim was indeed reviv'd for the Benefit of Mr Dryden, Ann. 1700, but he dying on third Night of its Representation, his Son attended the Run of it, and the Advantages accrued to his Family. Cibber, Apology, I, 269-70: This Epilogue, and the Prologue the same Play [The Pilgrim], written by Dryden, I spoke myself, which not being usually done by the same Person, I have a mind, while I think of it, to let you know on what Occasion they both fell to my Share....Sir John Vanbrugh, who had given some light touches of his Pen to the Pilgrim to assist the Benefit Day of Dryden, had the Disposal of the Parts, and I being then as an Actor in some Favour with him, he read the Play first with me alone, and was pleased to offer me my Choice of what I might like best for myself in it. But as the chief Characters were not (according to my Taste) the most shining, it was no great Self-denial in me that I desir'd he would first take care of those who were more difficult to be pleased; I therefore only chose for myself two short incidental Parts, that of the stuttering Cook and the mad Englishman....Sir John, upon my being contented with so little a Share in the Entertainment, gave me the Epilogue to make up my Mess; which being written so much above the Strain of common Authors, I confess I was not a little pleased with. And Dryden, upon his hearing me repeat it to him, made a farther Compliment of trusting me with the Prologue. Cibber, Apology, I, 305-6: In theYear 1699, Mrs Oldfield was first taken into the House, where she remain'd about a Twelve-month almost a Mute and unheeded, 'till Sir John Vanbrugh, who first recommended her, gave her the Part of Alinda in the Pilgrim revis'd. This gentle Character happily became that want of Confidence which is inseparable from young Beginners, who, without it, seldom arrive to any Excellence: Notwithstanding, I own I was then so far deceiv'd in my Opinion of her, that I thought she had little more than her Person that appear'd necessary to the forming a good Actress; for she set out with so extraordinary a Diffidence, that it kept her too despondingly down to a formal, plain (not to say) flat manner of speaking. Nor could the silver Tone of her Voice 'till after some time incline my Ear to any Hope in he favour. A Comparison Between the Two Stages (1702), p. 27: [After Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields had revived Shakespeare and Johnson] Nay then, says the whole party at D. Lane, faith we'll e'en put the Pilgrim upon him--ay faith, so we will, says Dryden, and if youll let my Son have the Profits of the Third Night, I'll give you a Secular Mask: Done, says the House, and so the Bargain was struck

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive.--At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve. [The Stage] will be properly inclos'd, and form'd into Boxes, to prevent the Ladies taking Cold. [Tickets at Mrs Clive's House, Cecil Street, the Strand.

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Being full of my desire of seeing my Lord Orrery's new play this afternoon at the King's house, The Black Prince, the first time it is acted; where though we come by two o'clock, yet there was no room in the pit, but we were forced to go into one of the upper boxes, at 4s. a piece, which is the first time I ever sat in a box in my life. And in the same box come, by and by, behind me, my Lord Barkeley and his lady; but I did not turn my face to them to be known, so that I was excused from giving them my seat; and this pleasure I had, that from this place the scenes do appear very fine indeed, and much better than in the pit. The house infinite full, and the King and Duke of York was there. By and by the play begun, and in it nothing Particular but a very fine dance for variety of figures, but a little too long. But, as to the contrivance, and all that was witty (which, indeed, was much, and very witty), was almost the same that had been in his two former plays of Henry the 5th and Mustapha, and the same points and turns of wit in both, and in this very same play often repeated, but in excellent language, and were so excellent that the whole house was mightily pleased with it all along till towards the end he comes to discover the chief of the plot of the play by the reading of a long letter, which was so long and some things (the people being set already to think too long) so unnecessary that they frequently begun to laugh, and to hiss twenty times, that, had it not been for the King's being there, they had certainly hissed it off the stage. But I must confess that, as my Lord Barkeley says behind me, the having of that long letter was a thing so absurd, that he could not imagine how a man of his parts could possibly fall into it; or, if he did, if he had but let any friend read it, the friend would have told him of it; and, I must confess, it is one of the most remarkable instances that ever I did or expect to meet with in my life of a wise man's not being wise at all times, and in all things, for nothing could be more ridiculous than this, though the letter of itself at another time would be thought an excellent letter, and indeed an excellent Romance, but at the end of the play, when every body was weary of sitting, and were already possessed with the effect of the whole letter, to trouble them with a letter a quarter of an hour long was a most absurd thing. After the play done, and nothing pleasing them from the time of the letter to the end of the play, people being put into a bad humour of disliking (which is another thing worth the noting), I home by coach, and could not forbear laughing almost all the way home, and all the evening to my going to bed, at the ridiculousness of the letter, and the more because my wife was angry with me, and the world, for laughing, because the King was there, though she cannot defend the length of the letter