Event Comment: [
The Duke's Company. This performance is on
the L. C. lists at
Harvard. See
VanLennep, "
Plays on the English Stage", pp. 16-17. This performance may have been
the premiere.
Shadwell, in his Preface, implies that it was acted six days. As Saturday was a day frequently chosen for a first showing and as
the play was certainly given again on 14 Dec. 1670,
the sequence of performaces which follow in this Calendar is based on
the assumption that Saturday 10 Dec. 1670 was
the first day, Wednesday 14 Dec. 1670
the fourth day of acting.
The Preface: This Play...came upon
the Stage with all
the disadvantages imaginable: First, I was forced, after I had finish'd it, to blot out
the main design of it; finding, that, contrary to my intention, it had given offence.
The second disadvantage was, that notwithstanding I had (to
the great prejudice of
the Play) given satisfaction to all
the exceptions made against it, it met with
the clamorous opposition of a numerous party, bandied against it, and resolved, as much as
they could, to damn it, right or wrong, before
they had heard or seen a word on't.
The last, and not
the least, was, that
the Actors (though since
they have done me some right) at first were extreamly imperfect in
the Action of it.... This of mine, after all
these blows, had fall'n beyond Redemption, had it not been revived, after
the second day, by her [
Mrs Johnson's (?)] kindness (which I can never enough acknowledge) who, for four days toge
ther, beautified it with
the most excellent Dancings that ever has been seen upon
the Stage. This drew my enemies, as well as friends, till it was something better acted, understood, and liked, than at first