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]

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the premiere is not certain, but the fact that a song in the play, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Mrs Hudson, is in the Gentleman's Journal, January@February 1693@4 (advertised in the London Gazette, No 2955, 5-8 Marcn 1693@4) suggests that the play had its premiere in February. The play was advertised in the London Gazette, No 2959, 19-22 March 1693@4. The music for additional songs was composed by Henry Purcell: The danger is over, sung by Mrs Hudson, is in Joyful Cuckoldom, ca. 1695; I sighed and owned my love, sung by Mrs Ayliff, is in Thesaurus Musicus, Book III, 1695. See also Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), i-iii. Two songs were composed by John Eccles: Still, I'm grieving, sung by Mrs Bracegirdle; and Give then royal maid your sorrows o're, sung by Mrs Cibber, are in Thesaurus Musicus, 1695. Gentleman's Journal, March 1694 (advertised in London Gazette, No 2964,5-9 April 1694): Mr Southern's new Play call'd The Fatal Marriage; or, The Innocent Adultery, has been so kindly receiv'd, that you are by this time no stranger to its merit. As the world has done it justice, and it is above my praise, I need not expatiate on that subject. [See also 22 March 1693@4.

Event Comment: [By Mrs Mary Davys.] Never Acted before. Preface: The first Night, in which lay all the Danger, was attended with only two single Hisses....The one was a Boy, and not worth taking Notice of, the other a Man who came prejudic'd. Receipts: #28 10s

Event Comment: KKing did Tom (Well) Mrs Clive being taken ill-Mrs Abington did Phillis & I borrow Mrs Baker from Rich to do Lucinda. Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Costollo, Mrs Pitt, Stede. Tickets deliver'd by Mrs Stephens will be taken. Mainpiece: Not Acted these 2 Years. [See 9 May 1759.] Afterpiece: Not acted these 6 years. [See 7 May 1756.] Receipts: #54 19s. 6d. plus income from tickets: Stede #36 10s. (Box 20; Pit 120; Gallery 135); Costollo #80 11s. (Box 77; Pit 340; Gallery 103); Mrs Pitt #52 18s. (Box 6; Pit 178; Gallery 247); Mrs Stephens #11 10s. (Box 17; Pit 23; Gallery 38). Total from tickets #181 9s. (Box 120; Pit 661; Gallery 523). [The charges were borne by Stede, Costollo and Mrs Pitt. Mrs Stephens receipts were clear. Of the charges Costollo bore half, and Stede and Mrs Pitt each bore one quarter.] Charges: #63 (Account Book)

Event Comment: [The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but a letter--see 2 Jan. 1670@1--indicates that the first part had been acted before that date and that Part II was to be shortly staged. The point of the Prologue spoken by Ellen Gwyn seems to have derived from an incident at Dover (see Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 20) in May 1670, when James Nokes attired himself in a ridiculous fashion, including "Broad wast Belts." The speakers of the Epilogue and the Prologue to the Second Part are mentioned in Sir William Haward's MS (Bodl. MS Don. b., pp. 248-49); see The Poems of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley (Oxford, 1958), IV, 1848-49. In Part I a song Beneath a myrtle shade, with music by John Bannister, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, First Book, 1673. Another, Wherever I am, with music by Alphonso Marsh, is in the same collection, as is also How unhappy a lover am I, the music by Nicholas Staggins. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Bohun, ca. Jan. 1670@1: Since my last to you I have seen The Siege of Grenada, a play so full of ideas that the most refined romance I ever read is not to compare with it; love is made so pure, and valour so nice, that one would image it designed for an Utopia rather than our stage. I do not quarrel with the poet, but admire one born in the decline of morality should be able to feign such exact virtue; and as poetic fiction has been instructive in former ages, I wish this the same event in ours. As to the strict law of comedy I dare not pretend to judge: some think the division of the story is not so well if it could all have been comprehended in the day's actions (The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 25). According to John Evelyn--see 9 Feb. 1670@1--Robert Streeter did some of the scenes for this play. In the Preface to The Fatal Discovery, ca. February 1697@8, George Powell, in discussing revivals of Dryden's plays, stated: In relation to our reviving his Almanzor...very hard crutching up what Hart and Mohun could not prop

Event Comment: Receipts: #138. The weekly bill for the scenemen doubled this week, #18 16s. Paid Meares as per bill #6 18s. 1d.; Paid Mrs Buck for 13 days salary as dresser at 1s. 6d. per day; 19s. 6d.; Paid Mr Buck for making 13 Tambourines for The Fair, #2 15s.; Paid Mrs Lucy Gwynn a bill for cleaning silks, &c., 17s

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Stede, Hollingsworth and Master Jones. Tickets deliver'd by Abbot, Wilkinson, Mrs Woolley, Pilford, T. Ansell, Mrs Hitchcock, Widow Trott, Sherrat, Whately, Doe, Mrs Paddick, Claridge, and Curteen will be taken. [No charges. House took half value of tickets plus ready receipts of #20 10s.] Receipts: #20 10s. (Account Book). @Tickets Box Pit Gallery Value Half Value@Miss Stede 29 47 42 #18 10s. #9 5s.@Hollingsworth 3 6 17 #3 7s. #1 13s. 6d.@Mrs Jones - - - - -@Abbott 17 71 79 #22 16s. #11 8s.@Wilkinson 27 34 1 #11 19s. #5 19s. 6d.@Mrs Woolley 12 44 56 #15 4s. #7 12s.@Pilfold 36 249 93 #55 13s. #27 16s. 6d.@Ansell 11 58 60 #17 9s. #8 14s. 6d.@Mrs Hitchcock 37 44 24 #18 5s. #9 2s. 6d.@Mrs Trott 17 3 6 #5 6s. #2 13s.@Sharratt - 21 15 #4 13s. #2 6s. 6d.@Whatley - 9 35 #4 17s. #2 8s. 6d.@Doe 2 27 41 #8 13s. #4 6s. 6d.@Mrs Paddick 5 14 18 #5 3s. #2 11s. 6d.@Claridge 7 27 29 #8 14s. #4 7s.@Curteen 30 28 60 #17 14s. #8 17s.@Total 233 682 576 #218 3s. #109 1s. 6d.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@145, p. 120. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 349. There is no certainty that this is the first performance, but a licensing date of 28 Jan. 1677@8 and Mrs Behn's statement in the Preface that she hurried the play into print suggest a premiere not far from this date. Edition of 1678: To the Reader: I Printed this Play with all the impatient haste one ought to do, who would be vindicated from the most unjust and silly aspersion, Woman could invent to cast on Woman; and which only my being a Woman has procured me, That it was Bawdy, the least and most Excusable fault in the Men Writers, to whose Plays they all crowd, as if they came to no other end then to hear what they condemn in this: but from a Woman it was unnaturall. One song, Sitting by yonder river side, with music by Thomas? Farmer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Giffard. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Part of the Stage will be formed into Side-Boxes. [Tickets at Giffard's Lodgings (Mr Bolney's) in Great Queen Street, near Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Event Comment: IImogen for the first time by Mrs Yates. This Farce was the Comedy of Gilblas. Cut into Two Acts (Hopkins). Benefit for Mr Yates. No building on Stage. Receipts: #217 (MacMillan); charges: #64 4s. [Profit: #152 16s.