SELECT * FROM london_stages WHERE MATCH('(@(authnameclean,perftitleclean,commentcclean,commentpclean) "William Wilks"/1) | (@(roleclean,performerclean) "William Wilks")') GROUP BY eventid ORDER BY weight() desc, eventdate asc OPTION field_weights=(perftitleclean=100, commentpclean=75, commentcclean=75, roleclean=100, performerclean=100, authnameclean=100), ranker=sph04

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We found 10791 matches on Author, 2700 matches on Performance Comments, 497 matches on Event Comments, 52 matches on Performance Title, and 2 matches on Roles/Actors.
Event Comment: It is possible that Katherine Phillips' Pompey, which was given in Dublin in February 1662@3, may have been presented in London in the late spring of 1663. Sir William Davenant's The Playhouse To Be Let, which apparently appeared in London in the late summer of 1663, has in Act V some elements of travesty upon Pompey. It is unlikely that its appearances in Dublin would make satire upon it have much point to London audiences without a performance in London; the spring of 1663 would be the most likely time for a presentation in London

Performances

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Calling at Wotton's...he tells me...that Harris is come to the Duke's house again; and of a rare play to be acted this week of Sir William Davenant's; the story of Henry the Eighth with all his wives

Performances

Event Comment: A facsimile of a bill announcing A Trial of Skill at this playhouse, 30 May 1664, is in Rariora, ed. John Eliot Hodgkin (London, n.d.), III, 53-54. See also William VanLennep, The Death of the Red Bull, Theatre Notebook, XVI (1962), 133-34

Performances

Event Comment: [No notice of production exists. See William VanLennep, "Thomas Killigrew Prepares His Plays for Production," Joseph Quincy Adams; Memorial Studies, p. 805

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Comment

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: With Creed, my wife, and Mercer to a play at the Duke's, of my Lord Orrery's, called Mustapha, which being not good, made Betterton's part and Ianthe's but ordinary too, so that we were not contented with it at all...All the pleasure of the play was, the King and my Lady Castlemayne wer there; and pretty witty Nell Gwin?, at the King's house, and the younger Rebecca? Marshall sat next us; which pleased me mightily. Downes (p. 26): All the Parts being new Cloath's with new Scenes, Sir William's great Care of having it perfect and exactly perform'd, it produc'd to himself and Company vast Profit

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Mustapha, The Son Of Solyman The Magnificent

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Knipp] told us they begin at both houses to act on Monday [29] next. But I fear, after all this sorrow, their pains will be but little. Mrs Williams says, the Duke's house will now be much the better of the two, because of their women; which I am glad to hear

Performances

Event Comment: Killigrew contemplated a revival of Cicilia and Clarinda in 1667, a memorandum of 14 Feb. 1666@7 ordering the parts to be written out. See William VanLennep, Thomas Killigrew Prepares his Plays, p. 805

Performances

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Hamlet

Performance Comment: [Adapted, probably by Sir William Davenant.] Hamlet?-Betterton. See also 28 May 1663.
Related Works
Related Work: Hamlet Author(s): William Shakespeare
Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This is on an L. C. list in the Harvard Theatre Collection. See William vanLennep, Plays on the English Stage 1669-1672, Theatre Notebook, XVI (1961), 13

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Feign'd Innocence; Or, Sir Martin Marall

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: So she [Mrs Pepys] and I to the King's playhouse, and there sat to avoid seeing Knepp in box above where Mrs Williams happened to be, and there saw The Usurper; a pretty good play, in all but what is designed to resemble Cromwell and Hugh Peters, which is mighty silly

Performances

Mainpiece Title: The Usurper

Related Works
Related Work: The Sicilian Usurper Author(s): William Shakespeare
Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17: King here. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344. See Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage, p. 307, for a letter to Lady Sunderland on this performance, and, p. 308, for an anecdote from The Life of the Late Famous Comedian, Jo. Haynes, concerning Haynes and Hart in a scene. For another allusion to the action, see Henri Ferneron, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (London, 1807), p. 179n. Pepys, Diary: 15 Jan. 1668@9: It is about my Lady Harvy's being offended at Doll Common's [Mrs Corey's] acting of Sempronia, to imitate her; for which she got my Lord Chamberlain, her kinsman, to imprison Doll: when my Lady Castlemayne made the King to release her. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Terryll, 10 Feb. 1668@9: There has not been any new lately revived and reformed, as Catiline, well set out with clothes and scenes (Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 14). See also 7 and 11 Dec. 1667

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Catiline's Conspiracy

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@12, p. 17: The King here. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 344. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Terryll, 10 Feb. 1668@9: Horace, with a farce and dances between every act, composed by Lacy and played by him and Nell, which takes (John Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence, ed. William Bray, IV, 14). See 19 Jan. 1668@9

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Horace

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This date marks the opening of the new theatre in Dorset Garden. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31): The new Theatre in Dorset-Garden being Finish'd, and our Company after Sir William's Death, being under the Rule and Dominion of his Widow the Lady Davenant, Mr Betterton and Mr Harris, (Mr Charles Davenant her Son Acting for her) they remov'd from Lincolns-Inn-Fields thither. And on the Ninth Day of November 1671, they open'd their new Theatre with Sir Martin Marral, which continu'd Acting 3 Days together, with a full Audience each Day; notwithstanding it had been Acted 30 Days before in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and above 4 times at court. [This play is also on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 18: Sir Martin.

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Feign'd Innocence; Or, Sir Martin Marall

Event Comment: Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 8) gives a cast for Julius Caesar [by William Shakespeare] which includes Richard Bell, who died in the Drury Lane fire at the end of this month. It is not known when a performance of this play occurred, but a Prologue to Julius Caesar is in Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. Downes lists: Julius Caesar-$Bell; Cassius-$Major Mohun; Brutus-$Hart; Anthony-$Kynaston; Calphurnia-$Mrs Marshal. [Downes adds Portia-$Mrs Corbet, but this probably refers to a later performance.

Performances

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. It is uncertain whether this performance and those for 13 and 28 March belong to 1670@1 or 1671@2. They are on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347), but VanLennep's discovery of an L. C. list for the Duke's Company covering March 1670@1 but not including these plays led him to believe that they Pertain to March 1671@2. See VanLennep, Plays on the English Stage, p. 19. On 9 March 1670@1 or 1671@2 Henry Herbert qranted permission to the Duke's Company to act The Lady Errant. See The Plays and Poems of William Cartwright, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Madison, Wisc., 1951), p. 85

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Hannibal

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

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Herod And Mariamne

Performances

Mainpiece Title: London In Its Splendor

Performance Comment: Consisting of Triumphant Pageants, whereon are Represented many Persons Richly Arrayed, Properly Habited, and significant to the Design. With several Speeches, and a Song, Suitable to the Solemnity. All prepared for the Honour of the Prudent Magistrate, Sir William Hooker Kt. Lord Mayor of the City of London. As also, a Description of His Majesties Royal Entertainment at Guildhall, by the City, in a plentiful Feast, and a glorious Banquet. At the Peculiar Expences of the Worshipful Company of Grocers.
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

Performances

Mainpiece Title: The Libertine

Event Comment: Andrew Marvell to William Popple, 24 July. Scaramuccio acting dayly in the Hall at Whitehall, and all Sorts of People flocking thither, and paying their Money as at a common Playhouse; nay even a twelve-penny Gallery is builded for the convenience of his Majesty's poorer Subjects (Marvell's Works, ed. H. M. Margoliouth, [Oxford, 1927], II, 320). For a warrant to Nicholas Staggins for writing "a chaccon" for "Scaramoucha" see Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 122

Performances

Event Comment: The Bulstrode Papers (I, 324) 3 Dec. 1675: The Earle of Pembroke had another rencounter yesterday at a play house at which he wounded one Davenant, Sir William's son, and got a hurt himself

Performances

Performances

Mainpiece Title: The Virtuoso

Performance Comment: Edition of 1676: Prologue-; Epilogue-; A copy in the William Andrews Clark Jr Memorial Library, Los Angeles, has the following manuscript cast, which may well be the original cast. (The trimming of the page has sometimes cut off the first letter or two of a name, and these have been supplied.) Sir NicholasGimcrack-Percivall; Sir Formal Trifle-Anthony Leigh; Sir Samuel Hearty-Underhill; Longvill-Betterton; Bruce-Smythe; Hazard-Jevon; Lady Gimcrack-Mrs Shadwell; Clarinda-Mrs Currer; Miranda-Mrs Betterton; unassigned-Mrs Price.
Event Comment: According to L. C. 7@1-see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p.325n--a disagreement within the King's Company resulted in the Lord Chamberlain's directing Michaell Mohun, Charles Hart, Edward Kynnaston, and William Cartwright to manage the company under his supervision

Performances

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Nell Gwyn attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p.408. It is not certain that this was the premiere, but, as the play was licensed for publication on 20 Nov. 1676, the first performance may well have been on this day. A song, Away with the causes of riches and cares, with music by Matthew Lock, is in Catch that Catch Can, No. 64, 1685. Another, Beneath a shady willow, with music by William Turner, is in A New Collection of Songs and Poems...by Thomas D'Urfey, 1683. Edition of 1677: That its only good Fortune was, in being the Subject of the Courts Diversion, where their Noble Clemency and Good Nature were extremely requisite, in covering its defects from the too Censorious; His Majesty, according to His accustomed Royal and Excellent Temper, was pleas'd to descend so far, as to give it a particular Applause, which was seconded by your Grace [The Duke of Ormond]

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Madam Fickle; Or, The Witty False One

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the licensing date of 26 Dec. 1676 establishes the premiere as occurring in December 1676 or earlier. One song, Why does the foolish world mistake, with music by William? Turner, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679

Performances

Mainpiece Title: Pastor Fido; Or, The Faithful Shepherd

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@143, p. 162: At the Fond Husband. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 349. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36): [This comedy and Otway's The Soldier's Fortune] took extraordinary well, and being perfectly Acted; got the Company great Reputation and Profit. One song, Under the branches of a spreading tree, set by William? Turner, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679. For Nokes and Leigh in this play, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 149. According to The Guardian, 15 June 1713, Charles II attended three of the first five nights of this play

Performances

Mainpiece Title: A Fond Husband; Or, The Plotting Sisters