Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the fact that the play was advertised in the
London Gazette, No. 3130, 7-11 Nov. 1695, suggests that it was acted not later than October 1695, although the first production may have been earlier than that. Part of the music was composed by
Henry Purcell:
Celia has a thousand charms, sung by
Young Bowen;
Take not a woman's anger ill, sung by
Leveridge;
and How happy is she, sung by
Miss Cross; all are in
Deliciae Musicae, The Third Book, 1696. See also
Purcell's Works,
Purcell Society, XXI (1917), x-xi. Another song,
To me you made a thousand vows, set by
John Blow, is in
Amphion Anglicus, 1700. Dedication, Edition of 1696: I...found so much interrutpion
and discouragement from some prejudic'd Gentlemen, who ought to have us'd me better, or, at least, had no reason to use me ill, that I repented I had bestow'd any time upon it....In spite of 'em, my Lord, it was kindly receiv'd,
and that too, at a time when the Town was never thinner of Nobility
and Gentry