Event Comment: Betterton's Company.
The date of
the premiere is not known, but
Dryden, on 14 Dec. 1699, indicated that
the run of
the play had been completed by that day. A copy in
the Folger Shakespeare Library has a notice of its publication.
Downes,
Roscius Anglicanus, p. 45:
Iphigenia a Tragedy, wrote by
Mr Dennis, a good Tragedy and well Acted; but answer'd not
the Expences
they were at in Cloathing it. [In
The Life of Mr John Dennis (
London, 1734)
the author states that
Colonel Codrington prevailed on all his friends to take tickets for
the dramatist's third night.] Preface, Edition of 1700: And from
the first representations I expected all
the success that I could reasonably desire. I never in my life at any Play took notice of a more strict attention, or, a more profound silence. And
there was something like what happen'd at
the Representation of
Pacuvius his Tragedy. For upon
Orestes discovering his passion to
Iphigenia in
the fourth Act,
there was a general murmur through
the Pit, which is what I had never seen before. But after three or four representations, several people, who during that time had wholly abandon'd
themselves to
the Impression which Nature had made on
them, began to study how to be discontented by Art; and repented heartily at having been pleas'd with what
Athens and
Rome and
Paris had been pleas'd before.
A Comparison between the Two Stages (1702), p. 23:
Critick: I must needs Complement him [
Dennis] with
the Success of his laborious
Iphigenia: Ay, here's a Tragedy with a witness--show a more tragick Poet if you can--'twas a smart
Epilogue. But I marvel a Man of Mr Dennis's Penetration wou'd suffer, nay beg his Friend to Burlesque him at that unreasonable rate: But
the Author was conscious
the Audience might mistake it for a Comedy, and so he gets Colonel C-(he was sure his Word wou'd be taken) to tell 'em it was not a Comedy but a Tragedy:
The hint was good and necessary, for o' my word very few knew what to make of it before, tho'
there were many Tremendous things in't. [
The dialogue continues to examine Dennis' Preface, and Dennis's assertions
there concerning his play.