Event Comment: Luttrell, A Brief Relation, II, 316: The players have begg'd pardon of the lords abused there, and have leave to act again on Monday. [The order for reopening is in L. C. 5@150, p. 345 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 361).] Newdigate Newsletters, 19 Dec. 1691: We heare that the Play house will be againe opened this Night or on Monday & will Continue to Act as formerly and tis S. the Sentinell who discharged his Musquet was tryed by a Court Martial and acquitted (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 82)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr K Arthur. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. Luttrell, A Brief Relation, II, 331: The queen and queen dowager went this evening to the play of Mr Dryden s opera. [See also the reference to this play under January 1691@2 above.

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr Orphan, See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. Cibber, Apology, I, 183: There is in this Character [Chaplain] (of one Scene only) a decent Pleasantry, and Sense enough to shew an Audience whether the Actor has any himself. Here was the first Applause I ever receiv'd, which you may be sure, made my Heart leap with a higher Joy than may be necessary to describe

Event Comment: By Elkanah Settle. Luttrell, A Brief Relation, 29 Oct. 1692: This day the usuall show of lord mayors, where the king and queen dined, most of the nobility, &c., but the prince and princesse were not invited: the feast was at charge of lord mayor and court of alderman: the lord mayor subscribed 300#, each she rife, 150#, and the aldermen 50# apeice: the kings regiment of foot guards was all in new cloths, and the horse guards too: the militia of Middlesex were as a guard in the Strand, and the artillery, with silver and steell headpeices, lined tne streets where the mayor came

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr Fairy Queen. [See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. This play was reprinted in 1693: With Alterations, Additions, and several new Songs. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XII (1903), i.

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids of Honr double dealer. [See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352.] Cibber relates an incident which may pertain to this performance, Apology, I, 185-86: Queen Mary having commanded the Double Dealer to be acted, Kynaston happen'd to be so ill that he could not hope to be able next Day to perform his Part of the Lord Touchwood. In this Exigence, the Author, Mr Congreve, advis'd that it might be given to me, if at so short a Warning I would undertake it. The Flattery of being thus distinguish'd by so celebrated an Author, and the Honour to act before a Queen, you may be sure made me blind to whatever Difficulties might attend it. I accepted the Part, and was ready in it before I slept; next Day the Queen was presented at the Play, and was received with a new Prologue from the Author, spoken by Mrs Barry, humbly acknowledging the great Honour done to the Stage....After the Play, Mr Congreve made me the Compliment of saying, That I had not only answer'd, but had exceeded his Expectations, and that he would shew me he was sincere in his saying more of me to the Masters.--He was as good as his Word, and the next Pay-day I found my Sallary of fifteen was then advanced to twenty Shillings a Week

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but according to the Gentleman's Journal, May 1694, it followed Have at All: the other call'd The married Beau, or the Curious Impertinent, by Mr Crown, already acted many times (p. 134). The manuscript of a song composed by John Eccles and sung by Doggett is in Bodleian, School of Music Collection, c. 95, f 102. One by Henry Purcell, See, where repenting Celia lyes, sung by Mrs Ayliff, is in Thesaurus Musicus, 1695. See also Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), xvii-xviii

Event Comment: According to the testimony of Sir Thomas Skipwith, 10 Dec. 1694, the young actors played during the vacation nearly thirty days without Betterton, Williams, Bright, Kinaston, Sandford, or Mrs Betterton, and made sufficient money to keep them over the vacation. L. C. 7@3, 17 Dec. 1694, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 374

Event Comment: On this date Thomas Betterton and his associates received a license to form a company and to act. L. C. 7@1, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 361

Event Comment: Intelligence Domestick and Foreign, 21-25 June 1695: One Phillips, a Dancer in the Playhouse, is Committed to Newgate for being one of those concerned in the Robbery of the Theatre in Dorset-Garden, and a great many of their Habits are recovered again, but plundered of their Silver and Gold Lace, Fringes, &c. [See also Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 82.

Event Comment: The Lord Chamberlain, L. C. 7@1--see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 339-hearing that Dogget had left Lincoln's Inn Fields and Verbruggen had left Drury Lane, restated the order against players shifting companies, and ordered that Verbruggen was to stay with Drury Lane until 1 Jan. 1696@7 but that he might enter into agreement with Lincoln's Inn Fields to act there after the close of 1696

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first performance is not known. A contract between Cibber and Rich was signed on 29 Oct. 1696 (L. C. 3@73, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 381-82), with an agreement that it was not to be printed until a month after it was acted. Since the play was advertised in the Post Man, 20-23 March 1696@7, it may have been acted as early as January 1697, certainly not later than February 1697. Possibly Leveridge set the music for a song, Tell me, Belinda, prithee do, which is in A New Book of Songs by Mr Leveridge, advertised in the London Gazette, No. 3293, 3 June 1697. A Comparison Between the Two Stages (1702), p. 18: Lady in Fashion, by a Player, Damn'd. Preface, Edition of 1697: Not to miss the Advantage of Mr Doggett's Excellent Action; I prepar'd a low Character

Event Comment: An order by Sunderland, the Lord Chamberlain, required the theatres to bring each new play before him (L. C. 5@152, in Krutch, Comedy and Conscience, p. 181). Luttrell, A Brief Relation, IV, 235-36, 5 June 1697: Several new playes having been lately acted, contrary to good manners, the lord chamberlain has given orders that nore be acted hereafter till his secretary has perused them

Event Comment: The Portledge Papers, 19 June 1697: On Thursday last in the neighbourhood of Somerset house in the evening was a great entertaynment of Musick and singing in so much as that part of the Strand was so crouded with coaches and sedans that I having occasion to goe that way could hardly Pass and I heard it reported that it was designed for the Prince of Wales birthday but the Lord Feversham hearing of it put it off till Thursday (ed. S. J. Kerr and I. C. Duncan, London, 1928, p. 261)

Event Comment: In L. C. 5@152, pp. 202, 220--see Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 105--is a reference to a performance given jointly by both companies. As this was the customary date of the celebration of King William's birthday, this musical work was probably given on this day. The BM copy has a MS date of 29 Nov. 1697; and a dialogue from this work was noticed in the Post Boy, 30 Nov.-2 Dec. 1697. The music was composed by John Eccles

Event Comment: Evelyn, Diary: I dined at Mr Pepys 's, where I heard that rare Voice, Mr Pate, who was lately come from Italy, reputed the most excellent singer, ever England had: he sang indeede many rare Italian Recitatives, &c.: & severall compositions of the late Mr Pursal, esteemed the best composer of any Englishman hitherto

Event Comment: Flying Post, 23-25 Aug. 1698: At Mr Barns's and Mr Appleby's Booth, over against the Cross-Daggers in Smithfield, is to be seen the most famous Rope-Dancers of Europe, who have brought over the Morocco Woman, the two German Maidens, and the Danish Woman and her Company, which out-does all Men and Women that ever danced yet on the Ropes, the German Maiden outdoing all Men and Women, that ever Danc'd before her, both for high leaping and fine Dancing, and whatever has been done by any person on the Ground, as side, upright, cross or back Capers, is performed by her on the Dancing Rope, and rises to that prodigious height, as will startle all that see her. William King, A Journey to London in the Year 1698 (2d edition, corrected, 1699), pp. 27-28: I was at Bartholomew Fair....I went to the Dancing on the Ropes, which was admirable. Coming out I met a man that would have took off my Hat, but I secur'd it, and was going to draw my Sword, Crying out, Begar! Damn'd Rogue! Morblew, &c. when on a sudden I had a hundred People about me, Crying here, Monsieur, see Jephtha's Rash Vow, here, Monsieur, see the Tall Dutch Woman, see the Tyger, says another; see the Horse and no Horse, whose Tayl stands where his Head should do; see the German Artist, Monsieur; see the Siege of Namur, Monsieur: So that betwixt Rudeness and Civility, I was forc'd to get into a Fiacre, and with an air of Hast, and a full Trot, got home to my Lodgings

Event Comment: See L. C. 7@3 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 382) for an agreement concerning new scenes and machines for a new opera by Settle