Event Comment: Benefit for Wild. 1st piece: Written originally by Shakspeare [see E. K. Chambers,@William@Shakespeare, 1930, I, 539-42], and revised by Theobald. Not acted these 26 years [acted 6 May 1767. Hoy is identified in Not. Dram.]. 2nd piece [1st time; P 1, by Mark Lonsdale; music by William Reeve. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Being partly new, and partly selected from the much admired Pantomimes of the Rival Knights, Provocation, &c. &c. Oracle, 26 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 31, Long-Acre. Receipts: #188 15s. (47.5; 7.16; tickets: 133.14)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by William Henry Ireland; incidental music by William Linley. Prologue by Sir James Bland Burges; Epilogue by Robert Merry (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses & Decorations. The Scenes designed and excuted by Greenwood and Capon. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay & Miss Rein. Printed slip attached to Kemble playbill: A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. [i.e. those forged by W. H. Ireland, of which this play was one] having appeared, on the Eve of representation of Vortigern, evidently intended to injure the interest of the Proprietor of the MSS., Mr Samuel? Ireland [W. H. Ireland's father] feels it impossible, within the short space of time that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in Mr Malone's enquiry [i.e. Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers attributed to Shakspeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry, Earl of Southampton, 1796]. He is therefore induced to request that Vortigern may be heard With that Candour that has ever distinguished a British Audience. The Play is now at the Press, and will in a very few days be laid before the Public. [But it was not issued until 1799 (see below). See also Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, London, 1966.] 4 Apr., states that the first three acts were listened to with patience, but beginning with the fourth act the play was damned, when "one tremendous yell of indignation from the pit burst simultaneously." "At four o'clock the doors of the theatre were besieged; and, a few minutes after they were opened, the pit was crowded solely with gentlemen. Before six not a place was to be found in the boxes, and the passages were filled...The audience betrayed symptoms of impatience early in the representation; but, finding its taste insulted by bloated terms, which heightened the general insipidity, its reason puzzled by discordant images, false ornaments, and abortive efforts to elevate and astonish, pronounced its sentence of condemnation at the conclusion of the play" (Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 346-47). "Irelands play of Vortigern I went to. Prologue spoken at 35 minutes past 6 [see 29 Mar.]: Play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near 3 acts, when some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, mixed with groans-Kemble requested the audience t o hear the play out abt. the end of 4th act and prevailed.-The Epilogue was spoken by Mrs Jordan who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeares. Barrymore attempted to give the Play out for Monday next but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on, & after some time, was permitted to say that "School for Scandal would be given," which the House approved by clapping. Sturt of Dorsetshire was in a Stage Box drunk, & exposed himself indecently to support the Play, and when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth [i.e. a carpet which, by custom, was laid on the stage during the concluding scene of a tragedy], Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges" (Joseph Farington, Diary, 1922, I, 145). Account-Book, 4 Apr.: Paid Ireland his share for the 1st Night of Vortigern #102 13s. 3d. Morning Chronicle, 29 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Vortigern and Henry the Second (4s.). Receipts: #555 6s. 6d. (528.6.0; 26.9.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: The death of the Duke of Gloucester on this day apparently closed the theatres for a short time. Andrew Newport, writing on 15 Sept. 1660 to Sir Richard Leveson, stated: The court is in deep mourning and will continue so for 6 weeks (Sutherland MSS., HMC, 5th Report, Appendix, 1876, p. 156), but it is not until 27 Sept. 1660 that Rugg reported: playes are for present forbiden because of the death of the Duke of Gloucester (BM Add. Mss. 10116, folio 90v). The theatres may have opened on Monday 8 Oct. 1660; certainly they were acting by 11 Oct. 1660

Event Comment: Aston Papers, Add. Mss. 36916, Vol. XVI, f. 8: In the Afternoon their Maties were pleased to be present in the Banquetting house wth the principall Lds and Ladyes of the Court at a divertisement of a dancing on the Ropes Tumbling and other Agilities of Body shown with great applause by a Company of English. [See also The Bulstrode Papers, 1879, I, 4; HMC, 12th Report, Part VII, Fleming MSS., p. 53.

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this Performance is stated as 16 Feb. (L. C. records) or 17 Feb. (Peregrine Bertie), but as Lent began on Wednesday 17 Feb., the performance probably occurred on Shrove Tuesday. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, P. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 17 Feb. 1685@6: To night will be the last play at court, they tell mee 'tis the Mocke Astrologer (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, p. 105). John Povey to Sir Robert Southwell, 18 Feb. 1685@6: Sir, the enclosed had been sent last post, had it not been detained late by a play at Court which ended our Carnival. The night before the King and Queen were entertained by the Lord President at a ball or masque in Lady Portsmouth's lodgings. The Masquers were twelve couples whose habits were of several nations' and prescribed by a picture sent to each of them from the Queen, and the least habit cost !bove a hundred Pounds, and some above three hundred pounds, besides jewels of which Mrs Fox and some others had above thirty thousand pounds value each (Savile-Finch Correspondence, Add. Mss. 28,569; I owe this quotation to Professor John Harold Wilson)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is known by one of the rare playbills extant from this period. It is in HMC, Verney MSS., 7th Report, p. 509, and reproduced opposite page 240 in Lawrence, Elizabethan Playhouse, 2d Series: Never Acted but once. At the Theatre Royal, in Drury-Lane, this present Wensday being the Nineth day of November, will be presented, A New Play called, Henry the Second King of England. No money to be return'd after the curtain is drawn. By their Majesties Servants. Vivant Rex & Regina. Lady Margaret Russell to Katherine Russell, 10 Nov. 1692: You will be surprised that Lady Cavendish has been hindered by a little sore throat from going yesterday to a new play of King Henry and Rosamond, which is much commended (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Part V, Rutland MSS., p. 124)

Event Comment: On Sunday Charles, Duke of Cambridge, the son of the Duke of York, died. On 7 May 1661, Francis Newport wrote to Sir Richard Leveson: The Duke of Cambridge dyed on Sunday in the afternoon and was buryed yesternight without any solemnity, noe mourning in the Court for him (HMC, Sutherland MSS, 5th Report, Appendix, 1876, p. 151). If the theatres were closed because of this death, the closure was for not more than ten days

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Then my wife and I to Drury Lane to the French comedy, which was so ill done, and the scenes and company and everything else so nasty and out of order and poor, that I was sick all the while in my mind to be there. See also Boswell (Restoration Court Stage, p. 280). W. J. Lawrence (Early French Players in England, The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies (1912), pp. 139-40) argues that the play was Chapoton's Le Mariage d'Orphee et d'Eurydice. See also The Description of the Great Machines of the Descent of Orpheus into Hell. Presented by the French Comedians at the cockpit in Drury Lane. The Argument Taken out of the Tenth and Eleventh Books of Ovid's Metamorphosis (1661). Rugg's Diurnal the French players (BM Add. Mss. 10116, f243v)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play appears on Herbert's List, following the entry for 26 Oct. 1661. (See William VanLennep, "Thomas Killigrew prepares his Plays for Production," J. Q. Adams Memorial Studies (Washington, D. C., 1948, p. 803.) Pepys, Diary: W. Pen and I to the Theatre, but it was so full that we could hardly get any room, so he went up to one of the boxes, and I into the 18d. places, and there saw Love at first sight, a play of Mr Killigrew's and the first time that it hath been acted since before the troubles, and great expectation there was, but I found the play to be a poor thing, and so I perceive every body else do. BM Add. Mss. 34217, fol. 31b, in Hotson Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @First then to speake of his Majestys Theatre@Where one would imagine Playes should be better@Love att the first sight did lead the dance@But att second sight it had the mischance@To be so dash'd out of Countenance as@It never after durst shew itts face@All though its bashfullnesse as tis thought@Be far from being the Authors ffault.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, where there was a new play (Cutter of Coleman Street), made in the year 1658, with reflections much upon the late times; and it being the first time, the pay was doubled, and so to save money, my wife and I went up into the gallery, and there sat and saw very well; and a very good play it is. It seems of Cowly's making. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 25): This Comedy being Acted so perfectly Well and Exact, it was perform'd a whole Week with a full Audience. John Dennis, Dedication to The Comical Gallant, 1702: The only Play that ever Mr Cowley writ, was barbarously treated the first night, as the late Mr Dryden has more than once informed me, who has told me that he went to see it with the famous Mr Sprat, now Bishop of Rochester, and that after the Play was done, they both made a visit to Mr Cowley. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 81): This Play met with some Opposition, at its Representation under this new Name, from some who envyed the Authors unshaken Loyalty to the Prince, and the Royal Cause, in the worst of Times. BM Add. Mss. 34217, fol. 31b, in Hotson (Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 247): @The Cutter of Coleman street had more fame@Before the Author chang'd its name@And shewd himselfe an Englishman right@By mending of things to spoyle them quite@And bee's more to blame because he can tell@(No better) to make new strings soe well.

Event Comment: This performance was attended by Jacques Thierry and Will Schellinks, who stated: Judged to be their best play (Seaton, Literary Relationships, pp. 334-36). This performance may have been the premiere. The Duke's Company. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson (Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 247): @Then came the Knight agen with his Lawe@Against Lovers the worst that ever you sawe@In dressing of which he playnely did shew it@Hee was a far better Cooke then a Poet@And only he the Art of it had@Of two good Playes to make one bad.

Event Comment: The King's Company. See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 118. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, p. 246: @O' th' contrary Salendina for witt@Most say did come far short of it@And though I confesse there was some fault there@Yett this I'll say in defense of the Author@A good Plott though ill writt lookes more like a Play@Then all your fine lines when the plott is away.

Event Comment: The King's Company. See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 118. This was a new play, but it is not clear that this day was the premiere. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @For the surprizall it was a good proofe@By its getting them mony it took well enough@Without which Divell take the Play@Be it never so good the Actors say@But they may thanke God with all their hart@That Lacy plaid Brankadoros part.

Event Comment: This play is in Herbert, Dramatic Records p. 118: Cornelia a New Play, sir W. Bartleys. The date in Herbert is 1 June, a Sunday in 1662, with another play in the same group falling on Sunday. Nevertheless, the verse comment (see below) written, apparently, before the summer of 1662 points toward 2 June 1662 rather than 1 June 1663. Edward Browne also lists it as one of the plays he attended. The play was not printed. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @For Cornelia they all doe say@There was abundance of witt in the play@Indeed t'had soe much t' was the worse for 't@For t' was to witty for the vulgar sort@And they who'd have poetts their Benefactors@Say witt without mony's naught for the Actors.

Event Comment: Rugge's Diurnal, BM Add. Mss. 10117, folio 179: Acted at Whitehall atcourt a play witt wt'out mony before King and nobility. Pepys, Diary, 15 Oct.: But she [Lady Carteret] cries out of the vices of the Court, and how they are going to set up plays already; and how, the next day after the late great fast, the Duchesse of York did give the King and Queene a play. Nay, she told me that they nave heretofore had plays at court the very nights before the fast for the death of the late King [i.e., on the night preceding 30 Jan.]

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: Newsletter: Lacy, the famous comedian, is at length, by great intercession, released from his durance under the groom porter, where he stood committed by His Majesty's order for having 'on his own head' added several indecent expressions in the part he acted in a late play called The Change of Crowns, written by Mr Edward Howard (HMC, Fleming MSS, 12th Report, Part VII [1890], p. 47)

Event Comment: This performance was recorded by Count Dona of Sweden (Seaton, Literary Relationships, pp. 337-38). Evelyn, Diary: This Evening I saw the Trajedie of Horace (written by the virtuous Mrs Philips) acted before their Majesties: 'twixt each act a Masque & Antique: daunced: The excessive galantry of the Ladies was infinite, Those especially on that...Castlemaine esteemed at 40,000 pounds & more: & far out shining the Queene &c. BM Add. Mss. 36916, folio 62: This night there is a play Acted at court by the Dutchess of Monmouth Countess of Castlemain and others. The Countess is adorned with Jewells to the Value of #200,000 the Crowne Jewells being taken from the Tower for her. There are none but the Nobility admitted to see it. The play is Madam Phillips translation of Corneiles Horace, finished by Sr John Denham

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The Prologue to the Queen of Arragon Acted before the Duke of York, Upon his Birthday, and Epilogue to the Same To the Duchess, by Samuel Butler, are in The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler, ed. R. B. Johnson (London, 1893), II, 175-77. Newsletter, 12 Oct. 1668: The Duke of York's birthday will be celebrated with the usual solemnities, a play being prepared for the entertainment of the ladies. The piece chosen is The Queen of Arragon. It will be acted in the Guard Chamber at St James's (HMC, Fleming MSS., 12th Report, Appendix, Part VII, p. 59). Pepys, Diary: But the Duke of York being gone out, and to-night being a play there, and a great festival, we would not stay

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344. Newsletter, 9 Nov.: A play, The tanner tanned, is appointed for this evening in the new theatre at Whitehall (HMC, Fleming MSS., 12th Report, Appendix, Part VII, p. 60)

Event Comment: Newsletter: This evening there is to be a Comedy [at court?]. HMC, Fleming MSS., 12th Report, Part VII, p. 60. This notice may be an error for the performance on Monday 16 Nov. 1668

Event Comment: Add. Mss. 36916, folio 128, 2 March 1668@9: The occasion of this [a challenge of the Duke of Buckingham to a duel by Lord Halifax or another friend of Sir William Coventry] there was a new play to be acted on Saturday last called the Country Gentleman, said to be made by the Duke & Sr Robt Howard, wherein tis said that the Earle of Clarendon, Sr Wm Coventry and some other Courtiers are plainly personated, but especially Sr William in the midst of his table of Writings; this he (or some of his relations) would not brooke, but whether he or the Ld Halifax was to fight the Duke is not knowne, but the King hath prevented all; and the play is not acted. [See also Pepys, 4 and 6 March]

Event Comment: The King's Company. For the identification of this play and details of its performance, see W. J. Lawrence, "Foreign Singers and Musicians at the Court of Charles II," Musical Quarterly, IX (1923), 217-25, and James G. McManaway, "Entertainment for the Grand Duke of Tuscany," Theatre Notebook, XVI (1961), 20-21. The Travels of Cosmo the Third [Monday 3 June 1669 NS; Monday 24 May 1669 OS]: In the afternoon his highness left home earlier than usual to make his visits, that he might be at the King's Theatre in time for the comedy, and a ballet set on foot and got up in honor of his highness by my Lord Stafford, uncle of the Duke of Norfolk. On arriving at the theatre, which was sufficiently lighted on the stage and on the walls to enable the spectators to see the scenes and the performances, his highness seated himself in a front box, where, besides enjoying the pleasure of the spectacle, he passed the evening in conversation with the Venetian ambassador, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Stafford, and other noblemen. To the story of Psyche, the daughter of Apollo, which abounded with beautiful incidents, all of them adapted to the performers and calculated to express the force of love, was joined a well-arranged ballet, regulated by the sound of various instruments, with new and fanciful dances after the English manner, in which different actions were counterfeited, the performers passing gracefully from one to another, so as to render intelligible, by their movements, the acts they were representing. This spectacle was highly agreeable to his highness from its novelty and ingenuity; and all parts of it were likewise equally praised by the ladies and gentlemen, who crouded in great numbers to the theatre, to fill the boxes, with which it is entirely surrounded, and the pit, and to enjoy the performance, which was protracted to a late hour of the night (pp. 347-48). In BM Add. Mss. 10117, folio 230, Rugge's Diurnall states that towards the end of May 1669 Cosmo, Prince of Tuscany had several plays acted for him