Event Comment: Benefit for Townsend and Mrs Johnson. 3rd piece [1st time in London; F 1, by William Dunlap]: Performed with distinguished Applause at the John St.? Theatre, New York [on 9 Jan. 1797]; compressed into one act [from two], and adapted for the English Stage by a Gentleman [perhaps the author]. "Commencing at half past eleven o'clock, and after a tiresome variety of other entertainments, the audience thought they had had enough for their money, and demanded the fall of the curtain before the conclusion of [Tell Truth and Shame the Devil]" (Monthly Mirror, June 1799, p. 367). Morning Chronicle, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Townsend, No. 9, Leicester-place. [Mrs Johnson not listed.] Receipts: #442 17s. 6d. (108.1.0; 1.11.0; tickets: 333.5.6, of which Townsend sold 218.2.0; Mrs Johnson 115.3.6)

Event Comment: [Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Mrs Egan, Hill, Hall (carpenter), Robson (music porter), Strahan, Simmons, Bologna, Williams, Hay, Findlay will be admitted.] Receipts: #438 18s. (43.18.6; 5.1.0; tickets: 389.18.6)

Event Comment: Benefit William Turner. Tickets 3s. 6d. At 7 p.m

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(?).

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To Sir William Davenant's Opera; this being the fourth day that it hath begun, and the first that I have seen it. To-day was acted the second part of The Siege of Rhodes. We staid a very great while for the King and the Queen of Bohemia. And by the breaking of a board over our heads, we had a great deal of dust fell into the ladies' necks and the men's hair, which made good sport. The King being come, the scene opened; which indeed is very fine and magnificent, and well acted, all but the Eunuch, who was so much out tha he was hissed off the stage

Event Comment: See Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 169, for a fee of #20 paid to Sir William Davenant's@company, the receipt being signed by Richard Baddeley; and for #1 5s. for baize to cover the stage and scenes. The play may well have been Love and Honour

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This apparently was not the first performance, but the time of premiere is not known. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I and Mercer to the Duke's house, and there saw The Rivalls, which is no excellent play, but good acting in it; especially Gosnell comes and sings and dances finely, but, for all that, fell out of the key, so that the musique could not play to her afterwards, and so did Harris also go out of the tune to agree with her. Downes (p. 23): The Rivals, A Play, Wrote by Sir William Davenant; having a very Fine Interlude in it, of Vocal and Instrumental Musick, mixt with very Diverting Dances: M Price introducing the Dancing, by a short Comical Prologue, gain'd him an Universal Applause of the Town....And all the Womens Parts admirably Acted; chiefly Celia, a Shepherdess being Mad for Love; especially in Singing several Wild and Mad Songs

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. An entry in the journal of William Hamon--see also Late January 1664--refers to a performance ca. 6 Jan. 1664@65: Item given my 4 sistars for the Rivalls 00 06 00 (Folger MS. v. a. 422)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. The date on the list seems to be "3," but as this is a Sunday, it is more likely "9." This performance may well be the one to which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31) refers: Note, Mr Cademan in this Play [The Man's the Master], not long after our Company began in Dorset-Garden; his Part being to Fight with Mr Harris, was Unfortunately, with a sharp Foil pierc'd near the Eye, which so Maim'd both the Hand and his Speech, that he can make little use of either; for which Mischance, he has receiv'd a Pension ever since 1673, being 35 Years a goe. [For a discussion of this accident, see William VanLennep, Henry Harris, Actor, Friend of Pepys, Studies in English Theatre History (London, 1952), p. 16, and the entry under 20 Aug. 1673.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Sometime in September Nell Gwyn attended this play, but the document listing her attendance is mutilated and the exact date is lost. See William VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing at the King's Expence, Harvard Library Bulletin, IV (1950), 406

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twelve Years. Written by Sir William D'Avenant, and carefully revised. Receipts. #28 7s. 6d

Event Comment: Not Acted these Sixteen Years. For the Entertainment of his Excellency Sid Mahomet Ben Ali Abogly, Ambassador from the Emperor of Morocco. Written by Sir William D'Avenant, and very carefully revis'd with Alterations. Receipts: #31 9s. 6d

Event Comment: As altered by Mr Dryden and Sir William Davenant from Shakespear

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Comedy [in 5 Acts by Sir William Davenant, slightly altered for the stage by Henry Woodward] never acted there. [The lady identified by Hopkins MS Notes and named in the Edition of 1775. The Westminster Magazine for Nov. suggests Shuter instead of Quick for Sancho. The review thought it an indifferent Comedy which "yet could be made a most excellent farce....The dialogue has all the rust of antiquity about it, and the modernizing scenes are left to the discretion of the performers. However, in representation, this piece cannot fail of entertaining....Miss Leeson, who appeared in the character of Isabella, has an agreeable plaasing figure, a good face and a marking eye; her voice is weak, but after she got rid of her fright was sufficiently articulate; there was an ease and nature in her deportment and dialogue that entitles her to encouragement."

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this revival is not precisely known but that it occurred in mid-March is indicated by Luttrell's date of 21 March 1683@4 on his copy of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library). It should be noted, however, that Friday 21 March is a Friday in Lent, a day on which the companies sometimes did not act. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 202-6. When this play was advertised to be acted on 8 Nov. 1704, the bill bore the heading: "Not Acted these 20 Years." Langbaine (English Dramatic Poets, p. 37): This Play was reviv'd by the Players, since the Union of the Two Houses, and reprinted in quarto Lond. 1684 with a new Prologue and Epilogue, the former written by Jo. Haynes the Comedian

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, adapted from Die Spanier in Peru, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (consisting of the 1st 30 lines and the concluding couplet of his Prologue to The Miniature Picture); Epilogue by the Hon. William Lamb (see text). For publication see 1 July]: The Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick, Airs and Chorusses incidental to the Piece composed and selected [from Gluck, Sacchini, &c. (Morning Chronicle, 25 May)] by Kelly. The Symphony preceding the Play, and those between the Acts, composed for the occasion by Dussek. The Scenery designed and executed by Marinari, Greenwood? Jun, Demaria, Banks, Blackmore, &c. [See Theatre Notebook, XX, 30-32, for suggestion that one scene was designed by DeLoutherbourg.] The Machinery, Decorations, and Dresses under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood, and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Account-Book, 14 May: Paid Miss Anne? Plumtree [i.e. Plumptree] for Spaniards in Peru #25. [It was this translation of Kotzebue's play that Sheridan adapted for the stage as Pizarro. For an account of the relationship between the translation and its adaptation see Marcella Gosch, "'Translators' of Kotzebue in England," Monatshefte fur deutschen Unterricht, XXXI, 178-83.] Paid Johnston [on this and other days] for sundries for Pizarro #135 14s. "It requires certainly more than English patience and spirits to sustain any Play of five hours in length. It is not one of the worst features of Pizarro that it contains a great deal which may be spared, without injury to the piece [see 25, 27 May]" (Morning Chronicle, 25 May). Receipts: #540 3s. 6d. (406.0.6; 17.5.0; 0.4.0; tickets sold by Fosbrook's Office: 116.14.0)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216, the original at Harvard. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348; William S. Clark, Pordage's Herod and Mariamne, RES, V (1929), 61-64

Event Comment: Afterpiece With the Scene of the Drawing. [William Hint in a Letter on Managers (Daily Gazetteer 26 Oct.) laments that Dunstall was cast as Sir William Belfond in the mainpiece and that Hippisley was cast in an inferior part. He thought Hippisley would have done better as Sir William.

Event Comment: MMiss Williams made her first appearance this Night in Polly. Spoke some of the part tolerably well, wants power in her singing (Hopkins). Polly by Miss Williams. Great Applause (Cross Diary). Miss Williams made her first appearance this night in Polly--a Lady, I think, that has but few requisites for the stage--a very indifferent voice spoke some of the part tolerable,--some few hisses (Hopkins Diary--MacMillan). Receipts: #256 9s. 6d. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Benefit R. Williams. Mainpiece: Not Acted these Twenty Years. On this day the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen of the City presented a petition to the King seeking the suppression of the theatre in Goodman's Fields. Thomas Odell, Master of the Theatre, also appeared before His Majesty and sought royal leave to continue acting.--See Grub St. Journal, 7 May, for a summary of the events, but see also Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer and London Journal, 2 May

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, author unknown. MS: Larpent 651; not published]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice at the Theatre; and Tickets to be had of Mrs Williams, the Artificial Flower Warehouse, Store-street, Bedford-square. [Mrs Williams is identified in Morning Post, 11 Feb.]