Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the
Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) makes clear that it followed
Congreve's play: We have had since a Comedy, call'd,
The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot, by
Henry Higden Esq; I send by here the Prologue to it by
Sir Charles Sedley, and you are too great an Admirer of
Shakespeare, not to assent to the Praises given to the Fruits of his rare Genius (p. 61). The play was announced in the
London Gazette, No. 2875, 29 May-June 1693. The music for one song,
All hands up aloft, was by
Berenclow, and the song appears in
D'Urfey,
Wit and Mirth, 1699. Dedication, edition of 1693: But now it is forced to beg for your Protection from the malice and severe usage it received from some of my Ill natured Friends, who with a Justice peculiar to themselves, passed sentence upon it unseen or heard and at the representation made it their business to persecute it with a barbarous variety of Noise and Tumult.
Gildon,
The Life of Mr Thomas Betterton (p. 20): The actors were completely drunk before the end of the third act, and being therefore unable to proceed with this "Pleasant Comedy," they very properly dismissed the audience
Performances
Mainpiece Title: The Wary Widow; Or, Sir Noisy Parrat