Event Comment: On this day
Charles II died. Although
the order to close
the theatres was not issued until 20 Feb. 1684@5 (L. C. 5@145, p. 153), acting Probably ceased on Thursday 5 Feb. 1684@5. At this time
John Crowne's
Sir Courtly Nice was in rehearsal.
John Dennis gives a dramatic account of
the last day of rehearsing:
The Play was now just ready to appear to
the World; and as every one that had seen it rehears'd was highly pleas'd with it; every one who had heard of it was big with
the Expectation of it; and
Mr Crown was delighted with
the flattering Hope of being made happy for
the rest of his Life, by
the Performance of
the King's Promise; when, upon
the very last Day of
the Rehearsal, he met
Cave Underhill coming from
the Play-House as he himself was going towards it; Upon which
the Poet reprimanding
the Player for neglecting so considerable a Part as he had in
the Comedy, and neglecting it on a Day of so much Consequence, as
the very last Day of Rehearsal: Oh Lord, Sir, says Underhill, we are all undone. Wherefore, says Mr Crown, is
the Play-House on Fire?
The whole Nation, replys
the Player, will quickly be so, for
the King is dead. At
the hearing which dismal Words,
the Author was little better; for he who but
the Moment before was ravish'd with
the Thought of
the Pleasure, which he was about to give to his King, and of
the Favours which he was afterwards to receive from him, this Moment found, to his unspeakable Sorrow, that his Royal Patron was gone for ever, and with him all his Hopes.
The King indeed reviv'd from his Apoplectick Fit, but three Days after dyed, and Mr Crown by his Death was replung'd in
the deepest Melancholy (John
Dennis, Original Letters, 1721, I, 53-54). [It is not clear whe
ther
the last sentence refers to
the day on which Crowne had seen
the King and had assurances from His Majesty,
the King dying three days later, or whe
ther
there was a false rumor of
the King's death on 3 Feb. 1684@5.