Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the
Gentleman's Journal, January 1691@2, suggests that it was first given in December 1691, although the tendency of this journal to be dated one month
and appear in the next month makes the interpretation of its information difficult: We have had a new Comedy this last Month, call'd
The Wives Execuse; or Cuckolds make themselves: It was written by
Mr Southern, who made that call'd
Sir Anthony Love, which you
and all the Town lik'd so well. I will send you
The Wives Excuse, as soon as it comes out in Print, which will be very speedily:
And tho' the Town hath not been so kind to this last, as to the former, I do not doubt but you will own that it will bear a Reading; which some that meet with a better Fate too often do not; some that must be granted to be good Judges commend the Purity of its Language (pp. 51-52).
Henry Purcell composed the music for this work. One song,
Corinna I excuse thy face, the words (according to the Edition of 1692) by
Tho. Cheek, the music by Henry Purcell, but without the singer's name, is in
The Banquet of Musick, The Sixth
and Last Book, 1692 (licensed 17 Feb. 1691@2).
Say, cruel Amoret, sung by
Mountfort;
Hang this whining way, sung by
Mrs Butler;
and Ingrateful lover, the words by
Major General Sackville, are in
Joyful Cuckoldom, ca. 1695. See also
Purcell, Works,
Purcell Society, XXI (1917), xxvi-xxix