Event Comment: The Duke's Company.
The date of
the first performance is not known, but as
the play was entered in
the Term Catalogues, November 1681, it was probably first given in September, certainly not later than October.
Downes (
Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 38-39): Being a kind of Opera, having several Machines of Flyings for
the Witches, and o
ther Diverting Contrivances in't: All being well perform'd, it prov'd beyond Expectation; very Beneficial to
the Poet and Actors. Edition of 1682, To
the Reader: I heard that great opposition was design'd against
the Play (a month before it was acted)...
The Master of the Revels (who I must confess used me civilly enough) Licenc'd it at first with little alteration: But
there came such an Alarm to him...that upon a Review, he expunged all that you see differently Printed, except about a dozen lines which he struck out at
the first reading....I had so numerous an assembly of
the best sort of men, who stood so generously in my defence, for
the first three days, that
they quash'd all
the vain attempts of my Enemies,
the Inconsiderable Party of Hissers yielded, and
the Play lived in spight of
them