Event Comment: Benefit for Wild, prompter. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1]: The Words of the Ode will be given in the Theatre. 3rd piece: A Short Description of the Scenery, &c. The Hall of Fingal-the Banquet preparatory to the celebration of the Nuptials of Oscar and Malvina; The Mountain of Ben Lomond; The Military Procession of Carrol to the Hall of Fingal; A View of the Sea and Rock, from which Oscar escapes, by leaping from a precipice, 20 feet high, into the arms of his Soldiers; A View of the Bridge, with the Camp of Carrol-the Death of Carrol, by the hands of Malvina, with his Descent into the Sea, and the Burning of the Camp of Carrol. The new Music composed, and the Ancient Scots Music selected and adapted by Shield. The Overture by Reeve. Morning Herald, 3 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 46, Drury-lane. Receipts: #394 13s. (187.9; 3.10; tickets: 203.14)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wild, prompter. 1st piece: Illumination, &c. as 18 May. 3rd piece: A short Description of the Scenery, &c. The Hall of Fingal--the Banquet preparatory to the celebration of the Nuptials of Oscar and Malvina. The Mountain of Ben Lomond. The Military Procession of Carrol to the Hall of Fingal. A View of the Sea and Rock from which Oscar escapes, by leaping from a precipice 20 Feet high, into the arms of his Soldiers. A View of the Bridge with the Camp of Carrol. The Death of Carrol by the hands of Malvina, with his Descent into the Sea, and the Burning of the Camp of Carrol. The Music, &c. as 8 Apr. Morning Herald, 18 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 46, Drury-lane. Receipts: #326 0s. 6d. (164.17.6; 11.2.6; tickets: 150.0.6)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Paskin, Hall (carpenter), Furkins (ditto), Robson (music porter), Strahan, Haseler, Goodwin, Hill, Ledger, Hall (box-keeper) will be admitted. Receipts: #434 15s. 6d. (24.4.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 407.13.6)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Against my judgment and conscience (which God forgive, for my very heart knows that I offend God in breaking my vows therein) to the Opera, which is now newly begun to act again, after some alteracion of their scene, which do make it very much worse; but the play, Love and Honour, being the first time of their acting it, is a very good plot, and well done. Downes (pp. 21-22): This Play was Richly Cloath'd; The King giving Mr Betterton his Coronation Suit;...The Duke of York giving Mr Harris his...and my Lord of Oxford gave Mr Joseph Price his...and all the other Parts being very well done: The Play having a great run, Produc'd to the Company great Gain and Estimation from the Town

Event Comment: Boswell, (Restoration Court Stage, p. 280) lists this as by the King's Company, which had given it on 23 July 1662. Pepys, Diary: Hearing that there was a play at the Cockpit (and my Lord Sandwich, who came to town last night, at it), I do go thither, and by very great fortune did follow four or five gentlemen who were carried to a little private door in a wall, and so crept through a narrow place and come into one of the boxes next the King's, but so as I could not see the King or Queene, but many of the fine ladies, who yet are really not so handsome generally as I used to take them to be, but that they are finely dressed. Here we saw The Cardinall, a tragedy I had never seen before, nor is there any great matter in it. The company that came in with me into the box, were all Frenchmen that could speak no English, but Lord! what sport they made to ask a pretty lady that they got among them that understood both French and English to make her tell them what the actors said

Event Comment: The King's Company. This marks the opening of the new Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, Drury Lane, to which Killigrew moved his company from Vere Street. Downes erroneously gives the opening date as 8 April, a fact which led to the creation of the famous spurious playbill for Bridges Street, Thursday, 8 April 1663. See Montague Summers, The Restoration Theater (London, 1934), p. 15. Pepys, Diary: This day the new Theatre Royal begins to act with scenes the Humorous Lieutenant, but I have not time to see it, nor could stay to see my Lady Jemimah lately come to town, and who was here in the house. Downes (p. 3): Note, this Comedy was Acted Twelve Days Successively

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. L. C. 5@139, p. 125, lists it for 3 March, but as this date falls on Sunday, it is probably an error in dating. The play was licensed on 22 May 1667. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's playhouse...and I in and find my wife and Mrs Hewer, and sat by them and saw The English Princesse, or Richard the Third; a most sad, melancholy play, and pretty good; but nothing eminent in it, as some tragedys are; only little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play, and there telling the next day's play; so that it come in by force only to please the company to see her dance in boy's clothes; and, the truth is, there is no comparison between Nell's dancing the other day at the King's house in boy's clothes and this, this being infinitely beyond the other. Downes (p. 27): Wrote by Mr Carrol, was Excellently well Acted in every Part;...Gain'd them an Additional Estimation, and the Applause from the Town, as well as profit to the whole Company

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: But, Lord! to see how this play of Sir Positive At-all [The Sullen Lovers], in abuse of Sir Robert Howard, do take, all the Duke's and every body's talk being of that, and telling more stories of him, of the like nature, that it is now the town and country talk, and, they say, is most exactly true. The Duke of York himself said that of his playing at trap-ball is true, and told several other stories of him

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Pepys] and I to the King's playhouse, and there saw The Island Princesse, the first time I ever saw it; and it is a pretty good play, many good things being in it, and a good scene of a town on fire. We sat in an upper box, and the jade Nell come and sat in the next box; a bold merry slut, who lay laughing there upon people; and with a comrade of hers of the Duke's house, that come in to see the play

Event Comment: Lady Mary Bertie to Katherine Noel, 16 Feb. 1670@1: Here is no newes but that the grand Ballett is not to be danced till Shrove-Munday (HMC, 12th Report, Part V, Vol. II, p. 22). The Bulstrode Papers, 20 Feb. 1670@1: This evening was danced over the grand ballet at Whitehall, wherein the Court appeared in their greatest gallantry imaginable, and the time spent in songs, the chiefest dances and musicke the town could afford (I, 173). Lady Mary Bertie, 23 Feb. 1670@1: I was on Munday atcourt to see the grane ballett danced. It was so hard to get room that wee were forced to goe by four a clocke, though it did not begin till nine or ten. The [they (?)] were very richly [dressed] and danced very finely, and shifted their clothes three times. There was also fine musickes and excelent sing some new song made purpose for it (HMC, 12th Appendix, Part V, Vol. II, p. 22)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 116. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345. There is no certainty that this is the premiere, but the frequency of performance of The Tempest during September-October-November would make November 1674 a suitable time for a burlesque of this sort. A small quarto, The Songs & Masque in the New Tempest (in the Huntington Library, 122925), without a title page, contains what are apparently the songs and concluding masque of the play. It may have been issued during the run of the play and sold at the theatre. It does not name any performers. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 177): This Play was to draw the Town from the Duke's Theatre, who for a considerable time had frequented that admirable reviv'd Comedy call'd The Tempest

Event Comment: [The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, btt an additional known performance on 15 June suggests that early June probably saw the initial run. The music for two songs, Thou joy of all hearts and When you dispense your influence, both set by Dr William Turner, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, Second Book, 1679. Preface, Edition of 1676: I have no reason to complain of the success of this Play, since it pleased those, whom, of all the World, I would please most: Nor was the Town unkind to it....[There] being no Act in it, which cost me above Five days writing: and the last Two (the Play-house having great occasion for a Play) were both written in Four Days. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): The Libertine and Virtuoso: Both Wrote by Mr Shadwell; they were both very well Acted, and got the Company great Reputation. The Libertine perform'd by Mr Betterton Crown'd the Play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Man of Mode. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. It is uncertain whether this is the premiere, but the licensing date of 3 June 1676 suggests that the first production may have occurred at this time. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36): This Comedy being well Cloath'd and well Acted, got a great deal of Money. One song, As Amoret with Phyllis sat, the words by Sir Car Scroope and the music by Nicholas Staggins, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679; another, When first Amintas charmed my heart, the music by Staggins, is in the same collection, Fifth Book, 1684. John Dennis: I remember very well that upon the first acting this Comedy, it was generally believed to be an agreeable Representation of the Persons of Condition of both both Sexes, both in Court and Town; and that all the World was charm'd with Dorimont (A Defence of Sir Fopling Flutter, 1722, p. 18). For the full text of Dennis' discussion of this play, see The Critical Works of John Dennis, ed. E. N. Hooker (Baltimore, 1943), II, 241-50