Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. Nell Gwyn's attendance again on Friday 9 June suggests that she attended the premiere. On that assumption, this Calendar lists the probable ten performances which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36) alludes to: And all the Parts being admirably Acted, it lasted successively 10 Days; it got more Money than any preceding Modern Tragedy

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [After looking in at lif], and so to the King's house: and there, going in, met with Knepp, and she took us up into the tireing-rooms: and to the women's shift, where Nell was dressing herself, and was all unready, and is very Pretty, prettier than I thought. And so walked all up and down the house above, and then below into the scene-room, and there sat down, and she gave us fruit: and here I read the questions to Knepp, while she answered me, through all her part of Flora's Figary's which was acted to-day. But, Lord! to see how they were both painted would make a man mad, and did make me loath them; and what base company of men comes among them, and how lewdly they talk! and how poor the men are in clothes, and yet what a shew they make on the stage by candle-light, is very observable. But to see how Nell cursed, for having so few people in the pit, was pretty; the other house carrying away all the people at the new play, and is said, now-a-days, to have generally most company, as being better players. By and by into the pit, and there was the play, which is pretty good

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Sometime in September Nell Gwyn attended this play, but the document listing her attendance is mutilated and the exact date is lost. See William VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing at the King's Expence, Harvard Library Bulletin, IV (1950), 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this play on three occasions in September or October. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended a performance of this play in September or October. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. A performance of this play was attended by Nell Gwyn, but the date is uncertain. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but the fact that it was entered in the Stationers' Register, 29 Nov. 1674, suggests that it was probably first produced in the autumn

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance was attended by Nell Gwyn. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. There is no indication as to whether this is the premiere; the play was not licensed for publication until 27 Nov. 1676. Preface to Settle's Ibrahim (licensed 4 May 1676): Having a Play, call'd the Triumphant Widow, given him [Thomas Shadwell] to bring into the Duke's Playhouse, he spitefully foists in a Scene of his own into the Play, and makes a silly Heroick Poet in it, speak the very words he had heard me say, and made reflexions on some of the very Lines he had so senselessly prated on before in his Notes [to The Empress of Morocco]

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216: K: & Q:. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. BM Add. Mss. 27, 962v, f. 312 (a transcript of a newsletter by Salvetti), 14 Dec. 1674 (translation): On last Wednesday all the royal family were present at the theatre to hear the tragedy of Hamlet, which, for their greater entertainment, was adorned and embellished with very curious dances between the acts. [I am indebted to Professor George Hilton Jones, Kansas State University, for this item.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance, the premiere, is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216: first Acting. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p406. The title page states: The English Opera; or The Vocal Musick in Psyche, with the Instrumental Therein Intermix'd...By Matthew Lock. Preface: All the Instrumental Musick (which is not mingled with the Vocal) was Composed by that Great Master, Seignior Gio. Baptista Draghi, Master of the Italian Musick to the King. The Dances were made by the most famous Master of France, Monsieur St.Andree. The Scenes were Painted by the Ingenious Artist, Mr Stephenson. In those things that concern the Ornament or Decoration of the Play, the great industry and care of Mr Betterton ought to be remember'd, at whose desire I wrote upon this Subject. Roger North Upon Music: I am sure the musick in the Psyche was composed by Mr M. Lock, of whom wee may say, as the Greeks sayd of Cleomenes, that he was ultimus Heroum. This masque is also in print, and begins 'Great Psyche,' &c. and the book containing the whole musick of that entertainment is not unworthy of a place in a vertuoso's cabanet (ed. John Wilson [1959], pp. 306-7). Preface to Settle's Ibrahim (licensed 4 May 1676): I have often heard the Players cursing at their oversight in laying out so much on so disliked a play [Psyche]; and swearing that they thought they had lost more by making choice of such an Opera: writer than they had gained by all his Comedies; considering how much more they might have expected, had such an Entertainment had that scence in it, that it deserved: and that for the future they expect the Tempest, which cost not one Third of Psyche, will be in request when the other is forgotten. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 35-36): In February 1672. The long expected Opera of Psyche, came forth in all her Ornaments; new Scenes, new Machines, new Cloaths, new French Dances: This Opera was Splendidly set out, especially in Scenes; the Charge of which amounted to above 800l. It had a Continuance of Performance about 8 Days together it prov'd very Beneficial to the Company; yet the Tempest got them more Money

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this play. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407, where VanLennep speculates that it might have been John Crowne's The Country Wit, which is not otherwise known to be acted until 10 Jan. 1675@6. It should be noted that this performance falls on a Friday in Lent

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, 407. This day may well have been the premiere; the play was not licensed until 5 July 1675

Event Comment: [The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, btt an additional known performance on 15 June suggests that early June probably saw the initial run. The music for two songs, Thou joy of all hearts and When you dispense your influence, both set by Dr William Turner, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, Second Book, 1679. Preface, Edition of 1676: I have no reason to complain of the success of this Play, since it pleased those, whom, of all the World, I would please most: Nor was the Town unkind to it....[There] being no Act in it, which cost me above Five days writing: and the last Two (the Play-house having great occasion for a Play) were both written in Four Days. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): The Libertine and Virtuoso: Both Wrote by Mr Shadwell; they were both very well Acted, and got the Company great Reputation. The Libertine perform'd by Mr Betterton Crown'd the Play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407