Event Comment: The date of the first performance is not certainly known, but
Pepys, on 2 July, saw Part II, stating that 2 July was the premiere of Part I and the opening of the
Duke's Company's new theatre in
Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Downes (
Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 20-21): His [
Davenant's] Company Rehears'd the First and Second Part of the
Siege of Rhodes...at
Pothecaries-Hall: And in Spring 1662 [1661], Open'd his House with the said Plays, having new Scenes and Decorations, being the first that e're were Introduc'd in
England....All Parts being Justly and Excellently Perform'd; it continu'd Acting 12 Days without Interruption with great Applause. Downes, p. 34: I must not forget my self, being Listed for an Acotr in
Sir William Davenant's Company in
Lincolns-Inn-Fields: The very first Day of opening the House there, with the
Siege of Rhodes, being to Act
Haly; (
The King,
Duke of York, and all the Nobility in the House, and the first time the King was in a Publick Theatre). The sight of that August presence, spoil'd me for an Actor too.
HMC, 10th Report, Appendix, Part IV, p. 21: @For the Siege of Rhodes all say@It is an everlasting play@Though they wonder now Roxalana is gon@What shift it makes to hold out so long@For when the second part took, butt for Bully@The first did not satisfie so fully.@ [Presumably this verse was written after
Mrs Davenport left the stage, in 1662(?).