Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361: The King at ye Mistress. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. There is no indication as to whether this performance was the premiere. As the play was licensed on 24 May 1687, the premiere may have been as late as 12 May, but possibly was earlier. Sir George Etherege to Will Richards, 19 May 1687: I have heard of the success of The Eunuch, and am very glad the town has so good a taste to give the same just applause to Sir Charles Sedley's writing, which his friends have always done to his conversation (Letterbook, ed. Rosenfeld, p. 212). Sir George Etherege to Middleton, 2O June 1687: I saw a play about ten years ago Called the Eunuch, so heavy a lump the players durst not charge themselves with the dead weight, but it seems Sir Charles Sedley has animated the mighty mass and now it treads the stage lightly (ibid., p. 227). [See also 26 March 1687 and season of 1676-77.] Thomas Shadwell, The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal (licensed, 25 May 1687.) Dedication to Sir Charles Sedley: Your late great obligation in giving me the advantage [presumably the third day's gain] of your comedy, call'd Bellamira, or the Mistress, has given me a fresh subject for my Thanks; and my Publishing this Translation affords me a new opportunity of owning to the world my grateful resentments to you. I am heartily glad that your Comedy (as I never doubted) found such success, that I never met with any Man of Sence but applauded it: And that there is abundance of Wit in it, your Enemies have been forced to confess....For the Judgment of some Ladies upon it that it is obscene, I must needs say they are Ladies of a very quick apprehension, and did not find their thoughts lye very much that way, they could not find more obscenity in that than there is in every other Comedy. A song, Thyrsis unjustly you complain, headed A Song in Bellamira, or, the Mistress. Set by Mr Tho. Shadwell, is in Vinculum Societatis, 1687 (licensed 8 June 1687)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361: Valentinian at Whitehall. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. These players received the customary fee of #20. See A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, ed. Inderwick, III, 255

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Luttrell's date of acquistion of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue is 6 Feb. 1687@8 (see A. S. Borgman, The Life and Death of William Mountford [Cambridge, Mass., 1935], p. 26n). Very probably the play had its premiere early in February. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 256-58. A song, Lucinda close or veil those eyes, with music by J. B. Draghi, is in The Banquet of Musick, The Second Book, 1688. Charles Gildon, The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (London, 1698 (?), p. 102: [It] did not succeed as the Author wish'd

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. By this time Henry Purcell had apparently composed the Act tunes for this play. See Purcell, Works, The Purcell Society, XVI (1906), xxxii. Luttrell [A Brief Relation, I, 431): The 6th was observed as a festival of joy for the king s comeing to the crown;...and at night was a play at court

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. When this play was revised and revived as The Royal Merchant; or, Beggar's Bush at Drury Lane, 19 June 1705, the bill bore the heading: Not acted these Twenty Years

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but as the play was licensed to be published, 21 May 1688, it was probably first acted early in April 1688, perhaps in late March. In 1688, also was separately printed New Songs Sung in The Fool's Preferment: In I, I sigh'd and pin'd and There's nothing so fatal as Woman, the music composed by Henry Purcell. In III, Fled is my love, the music composed by Henry Purcell, and sung by Mountfort. 'Tis death alone and I'le mount to yon blue coelum, the music composed by Henry Purcell. In IV, I'le sail upon the Dog-star, and A Dialogue by Jockey and Jenny, Jenny, gin you can love, the composer not stated. In V, If thou wilt give me back my love, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Mountfort. See also Purcell's Works, The Purcell Society, XX (1916), iv-vi. When this play was revived at Drury Lane on 16 July 1703, the bill was headed: Not Acted these Fifteen Years

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Lord Granville, writing on 5 May 1688, refers to the King's presence on the third day, and since The Squire of Alsatia may have begun its run about 2 May 1688, Crowne's play must have been produced by the end of April. Lord Granville to Sir William Leveson, 5 May 1688: The town is as empty of news as the Court; we have had a new play called The Fall of Darius (written by Crown), by which the poet, though he could get no fame, yet had a most extraordinary third day by reason the King's presence at it; the first day of its acting Mrs Bower [Barry] was taken so violently ill in the midst of her part that she was forced to be carried off, and instead of dying in jest was in danger of doing it in earnest. Mrs Cook is dead and Mrs Boute...is again come upon the stage, where she appears with great applause. We are promised this week another new play of Shadwell's called the Alsatia Bully, which is very much commended by those who have had the private perusal of it (HMC, 5th Report, Part II, pP. 197-98). Dedication, Edition of 1688: A misfortune fell upon this Play, that might very well dizzy the Judgments of the Audience. Just before the Play began, Mrs Barry was struck with a very violent Fever, that took all Spirit from her, by consequence from the Play; the Scenes She acted fell dead from her; and in the 4th Act her distemper grew so much upon her, She cou'd go on no further, but all her part in that Act was wholly cut out and neither Spoke nor Read; that the People went away without Knowning the contexture of the Play, yet thought they knew all....[My] Thanks to His Majesty for the Honor of his Presence, on the Day which was to be for my Advantage; which He was pleased to Grant me. [See L. C. 5@148, p. 195--in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356--for a grant of #20 as a gift from the King to Crowne for this play.

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not certain, but it was very likely this day. Writing on 12 May 1688, Peregrine Bertie states that it had been acted nine days successively. If the ninth performance fell on Friday 12 May, the premiere probably occurred on Wednesday 3 May. The Prologue and Epilogue, printed separately, are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 261-63. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 41): This Play by its Excellent Acting, being often Honour's with the presence of Chancellor Jeffereies, and other great Persons had an Uninterrupted run of 13 Days together. Note, The Poet receided for his third Day in the House in Drury Lane at single Prizes 130 l. which was the greatest Receipt they ever had at that House at single Prizes. Dedication, Edition of 1688: This, I must confess, made me hope for success upon the Stage, which it met with, but so great, as was above my expectation (in this Age which has run mad after Farces) no Comedy, for these many years, having fill'd the Theatre so long together: And I had the great Honour to find so many Friends, that the House was never so full since it was built, as upon the third day of this Play; and vast numbers went away, that could not be admitted. For Leigh as Belfond Sr, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 147-48; and for Underhill as Lolpoop, I, 154-55. For further comment upon the play, see 12 May 1688

Event Comment: The United Company--Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 12 May 1688: We have had since my last another new play, a comedy writ by Shadwell, called the Esquire of Alsatia. It has been acted nine days successively, and on the third day the poet got 16l. more than any other poet ever did. When all this is granted, there is nothing in it extraordinary--except it is a Latin song--but the thing reason why it takes soe well is, because it brings severall of the cant words upon the stage which some in town have invented, and turns them into ridicule (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, Vol. II, p. 119)

Event Comment: The United Company. BM Sloane MS 3929, newsletter: 19 May 1688: On Munday last the King prince and princess were to see a play called the Squire of Alsatia. [I owe this quotation to Professor John Harold Wilson.

Event Comment: A troupe of French Comedians played at theatre in Windsor Castle. On 25 July 1688 a warrant (L. C. 5@17, pp. 60, 65, in Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, pp. 61, 127) ordered the playhouse there to be made ready for the foreign company. According to L. C. 5@17, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 65, the French players arrived on 11 Aug. and remained at Windsor until 22 Sept

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first production is not known. The play was entered in the Term Catalogues, June 1689, and announced in the London Gazette, 24-27 June 1689. In the extreme scarcity of information concerning the theatres during the disturbed winter of 1688-89, it is difficult to know when this play may have been first presented. It was probably acted not later than April, possibly in March

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the fact that the play was announced in the London Gazette, 23-27 May 1689, and entered in the Term Catalogues, June 1689, suggests that the premiere probably occurred not later than April 1689, possibly very early in May 1689

Event Comment: The United Company. On 23 April 1689 Luttrell purchased a copy of the Prologue. The broadside copy, with Luttrell's date of acquisition, is in the possession of Mr Louis Silver, Wilmette, Illinois, to whose courtesy I am indebted for permission to use this date. When the Prologue, which is reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 271-72, appeared in The Fourth and Last Volume of the Works of Mr Tho. Brown (1719), the Prologue has the title: Jo. Haines in Penance; Or, his Recantation-Prologue, at his acting of Poet Bays in the Duke of Buckingham's Play call'd The Rehearsal. Spoken in a white Sheet, with a burning Taper in his Hand, upon his Admittance in to the House after his Return from the Church of Rome. In the Preface to his play, The Fatal Mistake (1691-92), Haines stated: In troth I have Acted Mr Bays so often, and so feelingly, that I could not possibly forbear copying after so fair an Original

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: The Queene a Box, and a Box for the Maids of Honor at the Spanish Fryer. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. A warrant, dated 8 June 1689, L. C. 5@149, p. 154 (see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356), calls for a payment of #25 to Mrs Barry and presumably represents payment for this performance. Daniel Finch, ca. June 1689: The only day Her Majesty gave herself the diversion of a play, and that on which she designed to see another, has furnished the town with discourse for a month. The choice of the play was the Spanish Fryar, the only play forbid by the late K@@. Some unhappy expressions, among which those that follow, put her in some disorder, and forc'd her to hold up her fan, and often look behind her and call for her palatine and hood, and any thing she could next think of, while those who were said. (Sir John Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain [London, 1771-88], in the pit before her, whenever their fancy led them to make any application of what was Volume II, Appendix, Part II, pp. 78-80.) Henry Purcell's new setting for whilst I with grief did on you look may have been made by this date. It is in Deliciae Musicae, 1695

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: Sr Courtly Nice Acted by the Queen es Command. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352

Event Comment: The United Company. Rowland Davies, 13 June 1689: After dinner I went with Mr N. Lysaght and W. Jephson to see Circe acted at the Queen's Theatre, which was done to admiration, with better scenes than I could imagine (The Journal of the Very Rev. Rowland Davies, Camden Society, Vol. 68 [1856], 24)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149. p. 368. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. The Prologue, separately printed, bears a licensing date of 16 Nov. 1689, and is reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 276-77. Huygens, 15 Nov. 1689 OS (translation): The King, who had been at the comedy, at the birthday of the Queen-mother, which had been played at Whitehall, did not come home until twelve o'clock (Journal van Constantijn Huygens, Publications of the Dutch Historical Society, New Series, XXIII [Utrecht, 1876], 205)