Event Comment: The United Company.
The date of
the first production is not known, but
the Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) makes clear that it followed
Congreve's play: We have had since a Comedy, call'd,
The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot, by
Henry Higden Esq; I send by here
the Prologue to it by
Sir Charles Sedley, and you are too great an Admirer of
Shakespeare, not to assent to
the Praises given to
the Fruits of his rare Genius (p. 61).
The play was announced in
the London Gazette, No. 2875, 29 May-June 1693.
The music for one song,
All hands up aloft, was by
Berenclow, and
the song appears in
D'Urfey,
Wit and Mirth, 1699. Dedication, edition of 1693: But now it is forced to beg for your Protection from
the malice and severe usage it received from some of my Ill natured Friends, who with a Justice peculiar to
themselves, passed sentence upon it unseen or heard and at
the representation made it
their business to persecute it with a barbarous variety of Noise and Tumult.
Gildon,
The Life of Mr Thomas Betterton (p. 20):
The actors were completely drunk before
the end of
the third act, and being
therefore unable to proceed with this "Pleasant Comedy,"
they very properly dismissed
the audience
Performances
Mainpiece Title: The Wary Widow; Or, Sir Noisy Parrat
Performance Comment: Edition of 1693: The Prologue by Sir Charles Sydly-; Epilogue-Mrs Lassells.