Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, and the play is one of a large group commonly assigned to September-December 1690. As the Prologue implies an autumn production, it has been placed at late September, although the premiere may have been October. It was advertised in the
London Gazette, 18-22 Dec. 1690, and entered in the
Term Catalogues, Feb. 1690@1. The music was composed by
Henry Purcell. See
Purcell, Works,
Purcell Society, XXI (Dramatic Music, III, 1917), xii-xiv. Dedication: So visibly promoting my Interest on those days chiefly (the Third and the Sixth) when I had the tenderest relation to the welfare of my Play [i.e.
Southerne had two benefits].
Langbaine (
English Dramatick Poets, 1691, Appendix): This Play was acted with extraordinary Applause, the Part of
Sir Anthony Love being most Masterly play'd by
Mr Montfort: and certainly, who ever reads it, will find it fraught with true Wit and Humour.
Gentleman's Journal, January 1691@2: [
The Wives' Excuse, newly performed] was written by Mr Southern, who made that call'd
Sir Anthony Love, which you and all the Town have lik'd so well