Event Comment: Benefit for Fawcett. 3rd piece [DO 2. Larpent MS 1251; not published]: Never acted at a Public Theatre [1st acted privately at Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith, 28 Feb. 1798]; Written by her Serene Highness the Margravine of Anspach. The Music partly by the Margravine, and partly by Sarti, Guglielmi, Paisiello, and Saphio. Grand Overture, La Chasse, by Reeve. The Scenery painted by Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, &c. The Machinery by Sloper. The Dresses by Dick and Mrs Egan. Morning Chronicle, 17 Apr.: Her Serene Highness the Margravine of Anspach having, with unprecedented Kindness and Liberality, lent Mr Fawcett the Manuscript of the above magnificent and interesting Opera, he begs leave to state that nothing shall be wanted on his Part to render it as acceptable to the Public as it was to the Nobility who had the pleasure of seeing it at the Brandenburgh house Theatre. Ibid, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Fawcett, No. 41, Frith-street, Soho. Receipts: #532 6s. 6d. (239.1.6; 2.9.0; tickets: 290.16.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wathen. 2nd and 3rd piece: By permission of the Proprietors of the Theatre-Royal, Drury Lane. 2nd piece: Never acted at this Theatre [i.e. in the regular summer season; it had been acted "out of season" on 9 Feb. 1797]. Morning Chronicle, 16 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Wathen, No. 2, Frith Street, Soho

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Hunter, late of Covent-Garden Theatre. [Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Tickets to be had of Mrs Hunter, No. 12, Leicester-street, Leicester-square; and of Rice at the Theatre, where Places for the Boxes may be taken. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys does not indicate that this performance is the premiere, and Summers, The Playhouse of Pepys, p. 137, states, without offering his evidence, that the play first appeared on 11 Aug. 1664. The play also appears in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 138. If Pepys saw the premiere, the play was possibly given on 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 Aug. Pepys, Diary: Mr Creed dining with me I got him to give my wife and me a play this afternoon, lending him money to do it, which is a fallacy that I have found now once, to avoyde my vowe with, but never to be more practised I swear, and to the new play, at the Duke's house, of Henry the Fifth; a most noule play, writ by my Lord Orrery; wherein Betterton, Harris, and Ianthe's parts are most incomparably wrote and done, and the whole play the most full of height and raptures of wit and sense, that ever I heard; having but one incongruity, or what did not please me in it, that is, that King Harry promises to plead for Tudor to their Mistresse, Princesse Katherine of France, more than when it comes to it he seems to do; and Tudor refused by her with some kind of indignity, not with a difficulty and honour that it ought to have been done in to him. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 27-28: This Play was Splendidly Cloath'd: The King, in the Duke of York's Coronation Suit; Owen Tudor, in King Charle's: Duke of Burgundy, in the Lord of Oxford's, and the rest all New. It was Excellently Perform'd, and Acted 10 Days Successively

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: With Creed, my wife, and Mercer to a play at the Duke's, of my Lord Orrery's, called Mustapha, which being not good, made Betterton's part and Ianthe's but ordinary too, so that we were not contented with it at all...All the pleasure of the play was, the King and my Lady Castlemayne wer there; and pretty witty Nell Gwin?, at the King's house, and the younger Rebecca? Marshall sat next us; which pleased me mightily. Downes (p. 26): All the Parts being new Cloath's with new Scenes, Sir William's great Care of having it perfect and exactly perform'd, it produc'd to himself and Company vast Profit

Event Comment: The King's Company. For an edition of this play from the MS prompt copy, see The Change of Crownes, ed. F. S. Boas (Oxford University Press, 1949). For the consequences of Lacy's ad libbing, see 16, 20, and 22 April, and 1 May. Pepys, Diary: I to the King's house by chance, where a new play: so full as I never saw it; I forced to stand all the while close to the very till I took cold, and many people went away for want of room. The King and Queene, and Duke of York and Duchesse of York there, and all the Court, and Sir W. Coventry. The play called The Change of Crownes; a play of Ned Howard's the best that ever I saw at that house, being a great play and serious; only Lacy did act the country-gentleman come up to Court, who do abuse the Court with all the imaginable wit and plainness about selling of places, and doing every thing for money. The play took very much.... Gervase Jaquis to the Earl of Huntington, 16 April: Here is another play house erected in Hatton buildings called the Duke of Cambridgs play-house, and yester-day his Matie the Duke & many more were at the King's Playe house to see some new thing Acted (Hastings MSS, HA 7654, Huntington Library)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. It is not certain this is the first performance, but it may well have been. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. Pepys, Diary: Sir W. Pen and I to the Duke's house, where a new play. The King and Court there: the house full, and an act begun. And so went to the King's. Downes (p. 28): Sir Martin Marral, The Duke of New-Castle, giving Mr Dryden a bare translation of it, out of a Comedy of the Famous French Poet Monseur Moleire: He adapted the Part purposely for the Mouth of Mr Nokes, and curiously Polishing the whole....All the Parts being very Just and Exactly perform'd, specially Sir Martin and his Man, Mr Smith, and several others since have come very near him, but none Equall'd, nor yet Mr Nokes in Sir Martin: This Comedy was Crown'd with an Excellent Entry. In the Last Act at the Mask, by Mr Priest and Madam Davies; This, and Love in a Tub, got the Company more Money than any preceding Comedy

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: It being almost twelve o'clock, or a little more, and carried [Mercer, Mrs Horsfield, and Mrs Gayet] to the King's playhouse, where the doors were not then open; but presently they did open; and we in, and find many people already come in, by private ways, into the pit, it being the first day of Sir Charles Sidly's new play, so long expected, The Mulberry Garden, of whom, being so reputed a wit, all the world do expect great matters. I having sat here awhile, and eat nothing to-day, did slip out, getting a boy to keep my place...And so to the play again, where the King and Queen, by and by, come, and all the Court; and the house infinitely full. But the play, when it come, though there was, here and there, a pretty saying, and that not very many neither, yet the whole of the play had nothing extraordinary in it, at all, neither of language nor design; insomuch that the King I did not see laugh, nor pleased the whole play from the beginning to the end, nor the company; insomuch that I have not been less pleased at a new play in my life, I think. And which made it the worse was, that there never was worse musick played--that is, worse things composed, which made me and Captain Rolt, who happened to sit near me, mad. So away thence, very little satisfied with the play, but pleased with my company. [For Bannister's setting a song for Mrs Knepp for this play, see 7 May 1668.

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: By and by comes my wife and Deb. home, have been at the King's playhouse to-day, thinking to spy me there; and saw the new play, Evening Love, of Dryden's, which, though the world commends, she likes not. Evelyn, Diary: To a new play, with severeall of my Relations, the Evening Lover, a foolish plot, & very Prophane, so as it afflicted me to see how the stage was. degenerated & poluted by the licentious times

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage," p. 13. Diary of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington: Heer dined with mee my lord of Canterbury my ld Sandwich and my brother and sister Orrery, and in the afternoone wee all went but his Grace to see my brothers new play cald Tryphon which was much applauded (Volume IV, in the Library at Chatsworth. This excerpt supplied by Kathleen Lynch). Pepys, Diary: My wife tells me of my Lord Orrery's new play "Tryphon," at the Duke of York's house...and [we] went thither, where, with much ado, at half-past one, we got into a blind hole in the 18d. place, above stairs, where we could not hear well, but the house infinite full, but the prologue most silly, and the play, though admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same design, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have, any one of which alone would be held admirable, whereas so many of the same design and fancy do but dull one another; and this, I preceive, is the sense of every body else, as well as myself, who therefore showed but little pleasure in it

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 14. A song in this play, Thus all our Lives, with music by John Banister, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, 1673. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31): [Concerning several plays] All which Expir'd the third Day, save the Royal Shepherdess, which liv'd Six. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke of York's house, and there before one, but the house infinite full, where, by and by, the King and Court come, it being a new play, or an old one new vamped, by Shadwell, called The Royal Shepherdesse!; but the silliest for words and design, and evepything, that ever I saw in my whole life, there being nothing in the world pleasing in it, but a good martial dance of pikemen, where Harris and another do handle their pikes in a dance to admiration; but never less satisfied with a play in my life

Event Comment: Lady Mary Bertie to Katherine Noel, 4 Feb. 1670@1: I have news to send you but that there are two very fine new plays lately acted (HMC, 12th Report, Part V [London, 1889], II, 22)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 32) states: The first new Play Acted there, was King Charles the VIII. of France; it was all new Cloath'd, yet lasted but 6 Days together, but 'twas Acted now and then afterwards. Two songs for this play, Too justly alas, set by James Hart, and O love if e'er thou'lt ease a heart, set by Pelham Humphrey, are in Choice Songs and Ayres, First Book, 1673

Event Comment: London Gazette, No 834, 13-17 Nov. 1673: At the Musick School in White Fryers, on Thursday next, will be new Musick, Vocal and Instrumental, beginning and ending at the same hours as formerly, and for the future, the first day of every Month shall be new Musick

Event Comment: This date of performance is not a certainty; for the evidence, see Spencer, Shakespeare Improved, p. 94. Neither is Shadwell's authorship of the alterations a certainty, for the contributions of other playwrights have never been fully determined. (See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 43.) The instrumental music was composed by Matthew Lock, with new vocal music by James? Hart and Pietro Reggio. See Songs Set by Signior Pietro Reggio, 1680. And differing versions of the second Prologue and the second Epilogue are in BM Egerton MS. 2623, ff. 54-55. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 34-35): The Year after in 1673. The Tempest, or the Inchanted Island, made into an Opera by Mr Shadwell, having all New in it; as Scenes, Machines; particularly, one Scene Painted with Myriads of Ariel Spirits; and another flying away, with a Table Furnisht out with Fruits, Sweetmeats and all sorts of Viands; just when Duke Trinculo and his Companions, were going to Dinner; all things Perform'd in it so Admirably well, that not any succeeding Opera got more Money

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359: The Rivall Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. That this is the premiere is indicated by a letter from the Marquis of Worcester to the Marchioness, 17 March 1676@7: Sir Charles Sedley's Cleopatra has been acted often, and to-day a new play of the death of Alexander, but I have not been to see either, living a mighty drudging life (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Beaufort MSS., IX, 66). Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 11), has a cast which agrees (except for omissions) with that in the edition of 1677. Downes adds (p. 16): [Hart in] Alexander, towards the latter End of his Acting; if he Acted in any one of these but once in a Fortnight, the House was fill'd as at a New Play, especially Alexander, he Acting that with such Grandeur and Agreeable Majesty, That one of the Court was pleas'd to Honour him with this Commendation; That Hart might Teach any King on Earth how to Comport himself

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is known through a document summarized in The Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror, July 1816, p. 25, and summarized in Fitzgerald, A New History, I, 145. Although this performance is the first certainly known, it is probably not the premiere, for the attendance (see below) was too small for the premiere of a new work by John Dryden. Since the play was entered in the Stationers' Register, January 1678, the first production was probably not long before this performance. The document in The Theatrical Inquisitor gives this information: The King's Box, no receipts; Mr Hayles' boxes, #3 (probably 15 spectators); Mr Mohun's boxes, #1 12s. (probably 8 spectators); Mr Yeats' boxes, 12s. (probably 3 spectators); James' boxes, #2 (probably 10 spectators). Mr Kent's pitt, 82 spectators, and Mr Britan's pitt, 35 spectators, a total of 117, paying #14 12s. 6d. Mr Bracy's gallery, 42 spectators; and Mr Johnson's gallery, 21 spectators; a total of 63 spectators, who paid #4 14s. 6d. Mr Thomson's gallery, 33 spectators, paying #1 13s. The total attendance appears to have been 249; the receipts were #28 4s. The house rent came to #5 14s. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 11) gives a cast which is identical except for omissions

Event Comment: The True News; or, Mercurius Anglicus, 4-7 Feb. 1679@80: On Munday night last happened a great dispute in the Duke's Play-house, some Gentlemen in their Cupps entring into the Pitt, flinging Links at the Actors, and using several reproachfull speeches against the Dutchess of P. and other persons of Honour, which has occasioned a Prohibition from farther Acting, till his Majesties farther pleasyre. A letter written by the Dowager Countess of Sunderland to Henry Sidney, dated 6 Jan. 1679@80 [possibly misdated] refers to disorders which are similar to those recorded in The True News: You must needs hear of the abominable disorders amongst us, calling all the women whores and the men rogues in the playhouses--throwing candles and links--calling my Lord Sunderland traitor, but in good company; the Duke of York?, rascal; and all ended in "God bless his Highness, the Duke of Monmouth. We will be for him against the world." I am told they may be fined a great deal if they are prosecuted. Two of these are knights of shires, Sir Scroope How, and my Lord Wharton's@eldest son; the only sufferer yet is Porter. They are ashamed, I hear, and afraid (R. W. Blencowe, Diary of the Times of Charles the Second by the Honourable Henry Sidney [London, 1843], I, 237)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Lady Anne Howe to the Countess of Rutland, 26 Jan. 1681@2: The King went by water to the new play yesterday, it being the poet's day, and is call'd the Loyallest (HMC, Rutland MSS., 12th Report, Appendix, Part V, p. 64). Newsletter, 26 Jan. 1681@2: Yesterday was a new play called the Royalist, where the Salamanca Doctor is exposed (HMC, 10th Report, Appendix, Part IV, p. 175)

Event Comment: Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 22 Oct. 1687: There are to be 5 Pageants on the Ld Mayors day one representing Liberty by a Beautifull young Lady attended with Riches Plenty and ffreedom &c. (transcribed by Professor John Harold Wilson). Luttrell (A Brief Relation, I, 418): The 29th was the anniversary of the lord mayors show, the new one, sir John Shorter, now entring on his office; the shew was splendid and the entertainment great, according to custome: his majestie, with the prince of Denmark, did the citty the honour to dine with them at Guildhall, as also the nobility, foreign ministers, amongst which was the popes nuncio (who was invited particularly by some of the aldermen): the streets were new gravell'd all that morning on one side of the way, from Charing-crosse to the citty, for his majesties passage. His majestie was well satisfied with the whole entertainment. The Duke of Beaufort to the Duchess, 29 Oct. 1687 [a summary, apparently]: Has just come from the greatest entertainment he ever saw at a Lord Mayor's feast in the city, and the best ordered, though there was the greatest concourse there and in the streets that was ever known, and the greatest acclamations, all through the city as the King passed. The Queen did not dare venture, remembering that the Bristol entertainment had put her out of order, but all the nobility in town, and the foreign ministers were there. The Pope's Nuncio in particular was invited by the Lord Mayor and nobly entertained (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Beaufort MSS., Part IX, pp. 90-91)

Event Comment: The United Company. The exact date of the first production is not known, but the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1691@2, and mentioned in the Gentleman's Journal, February 1691@2 (licensed 12 February 1691@2). In all probability, it was first acted not later than January 1691@2. The music to one song, As soon as the Chaos, was composed by Henry Purcell. See Purcell, Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), xvii. Two songs--Bonny lad prithee lay thy pipe down, with music by Tollet; Great Jove once made love like a bull, with music by Mountfort--are in The Banquet of Musick, The Sixth and Last Book, 1692. Dedication, Edition of 1692: Having at last so well acquitted it self on the Stage (tho' the thronging, imperfect Action, and worse than all, the faulty length, which I will never be guilty of again, render'd it little Diversion the first day). A Letter to Mr D'Urfey [by Charles Gildon], Edition of 1692: If there be any fault in this Play, 'tis that which few are guilty of; that is, there are too many good Characters, too full of Humour, a very Pardonable failing, which only proceeds from Variety, the life of Pleasure and Wit, tho' that gave it the disadvantage of seeming too long the first days Acting, tho' the Stage's being throng'd with Spectators, did not a little contribute to the imperfect Acting of it, which accidental Misfortunes concurring with the Endeavours of an opposite Faction, must needs have damn'd it, had it not by the Force and Vigour of its own Worthy, rais'd it self the second day with the general Applause of all that saw it....But the Marriage-hater went further, and in spight of all the disadvantages it labour'd under of Action and Audience, pleas'd on, after several times Repetition. See also Poeta Infamis; or, A Poet not worth Hanging (1692) for a variety of comments upon this play. London Mercury, 26 Feb. 1691@2: Query 4. Whether in Justice he [D'Urfey] is not obliged to present Mr Dogget (who acted Solon to so much Advantage) with half the Profit of his Third Day, since in the Opinions of most Persons, the good Success of his Comedy was half owing to that admirable Actor? Query 5. Whether, if there be any Wit in bringing a Person upon the Stage with an extravagantly broad-brimmed Hat, and a Muff of the same Size, so it will not be a very easy Matter for the next Poet that writes a Play, to Out-hat and Out-muff his Predecessors, and consequently to Out-wit him? Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42: Mr Dogget perform'd the part of Solon Inimitably. Gentleman's Journal, p. 454, February 1691@2 (licensed 12 Feb. 1691@2): I send you the Marriage-hater match'd, a new Comedy by Mr Durfey; it hath met with very good success, having been plaid six days together, and is a diverting Play. Gentleman's Journal, January 1691@2: Now I speak of Music I must tell you that we shall have speedily a new Opera, wherein something very surprising is promised us; Mr Purcel who joyns to the Delicacy and Beauty of the Italian way, the Graces and Gayety of the French, composes the Music, as he hath done for the Prophetess, and the last Opera called King Arthur, which hath been plaid several times the last Month [presumably December 1691]

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but by 9 May 1693 it had been acted four times (see Dryden's letter, below); on the other hand, the Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) had stated that D'Urfey's new farce would not appear until after Easter. Hence, it may well have been the first new play after Passion Week. A dialogue, Behold, the man with that gigantick might, the music by Henry Purcell and sung by Mr Reading and Mrs Ayliff, is in Orpheus Britannicus, 1690. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XXI (1917), viii-x. A dialogue, By these pigsnes eyes that stars do seem, the music by John Eccles and sung by Dogget and Mrs Bracegirdle, is in Joyful Cuckoldom, ca. 1695. Another, Stubborn church division, folly, and ambition, to a Ground of Mr Solomon Eccles, is in Thesaurus Musicus, 1694. And Maiden fresh as a rose, the verse by D'Urfey and sung by Pack, but not printed in the play, is in The Merry Musician, I (1716), 56-57. This last song may have been for a later revival. Gentleman's Journal, April 1693 (issued in May 1693): Since my last we have had a Comedy by Mr Durfey; 'tis called the Richmond Heiress or a Woman once in the right (p. 130). Dryden to Walsh, 9 May 1693: Durfey has brought another farce upon the Stage: but his luck has left him: it was sufferd but foure dayes; and then kickd off for ever. Yet his Second Act, was wonderfully diverting; where the scene was in Bedlam: & Mrs Bracegirdle and Solon [Dogget] were both mad: the Singing was wonderfully good, And the two whom I nam'd, sung better than Redding and Mrs Ayloff, whose trade it was: at least our partiality carryed it for them. The rest was woeful stuff, & concluded with Catcalls; for which the two noble Dukes of Richmond and St@Albans were chief managers (The Letters of John Dryden, pp. 52-53)