Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw The Mock Astrologer, which I have often seen, and but an ordinary Play

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I towards the King's playhouse, and by the way found Betty Turner?, and Bab. and Betty Pepys staying for us; and so took them all to see Claricilla, which do not please me almost at all, though there are some good things in it

Event Comment: The King's Company. See 3 March 1668@9 for another play acted(on a Wednesday in Lent by the young players. Langbaine, (English Dramatick Poets, p. 208): Coxcomb, a Comedy, which was reviv'd at the Theatre-Royal, the Prologue being spoken by Jo. Haines. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw The Coxcomb, the first time acted, but an old play, and a silly one, being acted only by the young people

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17: ye King here. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Hearing that The Alchymist was acted, we did go, and took [Pierce] with us to the King's house; and it is still a good play, having not been acted for two or three years before; but I do miss Clun, for the Doctor. But more my eyes will not let me enjoy the pleasure I used to have in a play

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and saw The Generous Portugalls, a play that pleases me better and better every time we see it; and, I thank God! it did not trouble my eyes so much as I was afeard it would

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and saw The Spanish Curate revived, which is pretty good play, but my eyes troubled with seeing it, mightily

Event Comment: The King's Company. For the identification of this play and details of its performance, see W. J. Lawrence, "Foreign Singers and Musicians at the Court of Charles II," Musical Quarterly, IX (1923), 217-25, and James G. McManaway, "Entertainment for the Grand Duke of Tuscany," Theatre Notebook, XVI (1961), 20-21. The Travels of Cosmo the Third [Monday 3 June 1669 NS; Monday 24 May 1669 OS]: In the afternoon his highness left home earlier than usual to make his visits, that he might be at the King's Theatre in time for the comedy, and a ballet set on foot and got up in honor of his highness by my Lord Stafford, uncle of the Duke of Norfolk. On arriving at the theatre, which was sufficiently lighted on the stage and on the walls to enable the spectators to see the scenes and the performances, his highness seated himself in a front box, where, besides enjoying the pleasure of the spectacle, he passed the evening in conversation with the Venetian ambassador, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Stafford, and other noblemen. To the story of Psyche, the daughter of Apollo, which abounded with beautiful incidents, all of them adapted to the performers and calculated to express the force of love, was joined a well-arranged ballet, regulated by the sound of various instruments, with new and fanciful dances after the English manner, in which different actions were counterfeited, the performers passing gracefully from one to another, so as to render intelligible, by their movements, the acts they were representing. This spectacle was highly agreeable to his highness from its novelty and ingenuity; and all parts of it were likewise equally praised by the ladies and gentlemen, who crouded in great numbers to the theatre, to fill the boxes, with which it is entirely surrounded, and the pit, and to enjoy the performance, which was protracted to a late hour of the night (pp. 347-48). In BM Add. Mss. 10117, folio 230, Rugge's Diurnall states that towards the end of May 1669 Cosmo, Prince of Tuscany had several plays acted for him

Event Comment: The King's Company. The Epilogue, which was printed in A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several Persons, 1673, pp. 29-32, and reprinted by Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage, pp. 247-48, by its references to Lent seems to indicate a Lenten revival. As this play was allotted to the King's Company ca. 12 Jan. 1668@9, it has been assigned to that company. The revival may have occurred in March 1670, perhaps not until later

Event Comment: Sir Ralph Verney, 11 May 1670: The King & Duke are at dover...all the Towne is gonn, & the Kings Musicke, & Duke's players, & all the Bravery that could be got on such a sudden (Memoirs of the Verney Family [London, 1899], IV, 201). See also a newsletter, 17 May 1670 (HMC, Fleming MSS. 12th Report, VII, 70)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the premiere probably occurred during this month. The Preface states: This Play, as it was wrote in less than a moneth, and was the last Play that was Acted at the King's Theatre in Covent-Garden, before the fatal Fire there. [The Preface may mean that this was the last new play acted before the fire.] Two songs for this play, with music by Robert Smith, are in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673

Event Comment: Anthony Devolto, an operator of puppet shows, was forced to petition the King against paying a fee for running a theatre, and the King granted his petition. See CSPD, 1672; in Speaight, The History of the English Puppet Theatre, p. 76

Event Comment: Journal of the Earl of Anglesey, 25 Jan. 1671@2: At eight of the clock The King's playhouse took fire, and most of that side of Russell Street and many other houses thereabout were burnt down, and we in Drury Lane and all about in great danger; but the Lord had mercy, and by great industry and blowing up houses the fire was overcome: I had no rest, but sat up almost all night, even till six in the morning. The Lord pardon sin, which brings judgements (HMC, 13th Report, Part VI [London, 1893], p. 270. The Bulstrode Papers (I, 217): About 8 hapened a sad and violent fire, which begun in the King's Theater, and in a few howers burnt down that...severall were hurt and killed, amongst which was Mr Bell, one of the actors in that house. For a poem, On the Unhappy Conflagration of the Theatre Royal, January 25th, 1672, see Fitzgerald, A New History of the English Stage, I, 137

Event Comment: The King's Company. Although the play was not licensed until 16 Oct. 1676 and not published until 1678, the Epilogue refers in detail to the burning of the King's Theatre in Bridges Street, Drury Lane, suggesting that the premiere came not long after that event

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list 5@141, p. 215. the Kings Mate. See also Nicoll. Restoration Drama, p. 345

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 215: King & Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 215: King & Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359: The Rivall Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. That this is the premiere is indicated by a letter from the Marquis of Worcester to the Marchioness, 17 March 1676@7: Sir Charles Sedley's Cleopatra has been acted often, and to-day a new play of the death of Alexander, but I have not been to see either, living a mighty drudging life (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Beaufort MSS., IX, 66). Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 11), has a cast which agrees (except for omissions) with that in the edition of 1677. Downes adds (p. 16): [Hart in] Alexander, towards the latter End of his Acting; if he Acted in any one of these but once in a Fortnight, the House was fill'd as at a New Play, especially Alexander, he Acting that with such Grandeur and Agreeable Majesty, That one of the Court was pleas'd to Honour him with this Commendation; That Hart might Teach any King on Earth how to Comport himself

Event Comment: See 22 May 1677. John Verney to Edmund Verney, 31 May 1677: On Wednesday his Majesty's birth night was some gallantry at Whitehall, where was acted a French opera, but most pitifully done, so ill that the King was aweary on't, and some say it was not well contrived to entertain the English gentry, who came that night in honour to their King, with a lamentable ill-acted French play, when our English actors so much surpass; however, the dances and voices were pretty well performed (HMC, 7th Report, Appendix, Part I, 1879, p. 468)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Lord Latimer, July 1677: But the Kings Comedy [probably Mr Limberham] lyes in the Sudds till you please to send me into Northamptonshyre: it will be almost such another piece of business as the fond Husband, for such the King will have it, who is parcell poet with me in the plott; one of the designes being a story he was pleas'd formerly to tell me; and therefore I hope he will keep the jeast in countenance by laughing at it...I have a farther honour to beg, that my Tragedy [All for Love], which will be acted at Michaelmasse, & is already written, may have the honour to be addressed to my Lord Treasurer; & that your Lordship and My Lord Mulgrave wil I hope beg together for me (The Letters of John Dryden, ed. Ward, pp. 11-12)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is known from a document in The Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror, July 1816, p. 26, and in Fitzgerald, A New History, I, 145. This document lists the receipts and attendance: The King's box, #1 10s., possibly six persons; Mr Hayles' boxes, #2 16s., possibly 14 persons; Mr Mohun's boxes, #3 16s., possibly 19 persons; Mr Yate's boxes, #1 15s. 6d., possibly 9 persons; James' boxes, #2 4s., possibly 11 persons. Mr Kent's pit, 112 persons; and Mr Britan's pit, 79 persons; a total of 191 persons paying #23 17s. 6d. Mr Bracy's gallery, 100 persons; Mr Johnson's gallery, 44 persons; a total of 144 persons, paying #10 16s. Upper Gallery, 119 persons, paying #5 19s. Mrs Kempton (upper gallery?), 5s. The house rent is listed as #5 14s. The attendance appears to total at least 513 persons. Compare these data with those for 12 Dec. 1677

Event Comment: The King's Company. The Newdigate newsletters, 29 May 1680: Their Matyes players have put out a Bille that on Munday next they will Act a new play abt the ffemale prelate or the History of Pope Joan (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 80). Newdigate newsletters, 3 June: On Munday last the King's players began to Act the new play called Pope Joan (ibid.)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The Newdigate newsletters, 3 June 1680: On Munday last the King's players began to Act...Pope Joan & on Tuesday the D. of Norolke was there to see it (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 80)

Event Comment: The King's Company. According to the L. C. records (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 33 on) the King's Theater was closed from 19 to 29 Jan. 1680@1