Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but it had been acted by the time the January 1692@3 issue of the
Gentleman's Journal appeared in March (on page 1 of that issue, the editor states that We are now in March):
Mr Southerne's New Comedy, call'd,
The Maid's last Prayer, or Any rather than fail, was acted the 3d time this evening,
and is to be acted again to morrow. It discovers much knowledge of the Town in its Author;
and its Wit
and purity of Diction are particularly commended (p. 28). The first song in the play,
Tho you make no return to my passion, composed by
Henry Purcell, was sung, according to the printed play, by
Mrs Hodgson; by
Mrs Dyer, according to
Thesaurus Musicus, First Book, 1693. The second song, composed by
Samuel? Akeroyd, was sung by
Mrs Ayliff (Thesaurus Musicus, The First Book, 1693). Another song,
No, no, no, no, resistance is but vain, written by
Anthony Henley, composed by Henry Purcell,
and sung by
Mrs Ayliff and Mrs Hodgson, Act IV, is in
Purcell's Works,
Purcell Society, XX (1916), xiv-xv. A song,
Tell me no more I am deceiv'd, written by
William Congreve, set by Henry Purcell,
and sung by
Mrs Ayliff, is in
Works, XX (1916), xv-xvi. According to the
London Gazette, No. 2852, 9-13 March 1692@3, the play was published "this day" (13 March 1692@3)