Event Comment: The Duke's Company. See 2 March 1661. Pepys, Diary: I and Captain Ferrers to Salisbury Court, by water, and saw part of the Queen's Maske

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Mrs Pierce and her husband and I and my wife to Salisbury Court, where coming late he and she light of Col. Boone that made room for them, and I and my wife sat in the pit, and there met with Mr Lewes and Tom Whitton, and saw The Bondman done to admiration

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Then to Whitefryars, and there saw part of Rule a wife have a wife, which I never saw before, but do not like it

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. An edition dated 1661 lists no cast, no prologue, and epilogue. Pepys, Diary: And so to White-fryars and saw The Little Thiefe, which is a very merry and pretty play, and the little boy do very well

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Then by water, Creed and I, to Salisbury Court and there saw Love's Quarrell acted the first time, but I do not like the design or words

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So back to the Cockpitt [Whitehall], and there, by the favour of one Mr Bowman, he [Creed] and I got in, and there saw the King, and Duke of York and his Duchess (which is a plain woman, and like her mother, my Lady Chancellor). And so saw The Humersome Lieutenant acted before the King, but not very well done. But my pleasure was great to see the manner of it, and so many great beauties, but above all Mrs Palmer, with whom the King do discover a great deal of familiarity. Sometime before the Coronation of Charles II, on 23 April 1661, there may have been acted The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver. An edition of 1661 refers to its being "often publikely acted by some of his Majesties Comedians" and the Dedication suggests that it would make a good entertainment at the mirthful time of the Coronation. The edition lists no actors' names, no prologue, no epilogue

Event Comment: Elizabeth Bodvile, ca. July 1661: One Monday I was at the new apprer [opera] (Camden Society, 1878, XXII, 21). The Duke's Company

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To Sir William Davenant's Opera; this being the fourth day that it hath begun, and the first that I have seen it. To-day was acted the second part of The Siege of Rhodes. We staid a very great while for the King and the Queen of Bohemia. And by the breaking of a board over our heads, we had a great deal of dust fell into the ladies' necks and the men's hair, which made good sport. The King being come, the scene opened; which indeed is very fine and magnificent, and well acted, all but the Eunuch, who was so much out tha he was hissed off the stage

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. If the play was acted on eight successive days, as Downes states, this would be the eighth, and last, performance in this run Pepys, Diary: I took her [Mrs Pepys] to the opera, and shewed her The Witts, which I have seen already twice, and was most highly pleased with it

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. If the run of The Wits occurred as it is outlined above, this would presumably be the first day of Hamlet. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, and there saw Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, done with scenes very well, but above all, Betterton did the prince's part beyond imagination. Downes (p. 21): The Tragedy of Hamlet: Hamlet being Perform'd by Mr Betterton, Sir William (having seen Mr Taylor of the Black-Fryars Company Act it, who being Instructed by the Author Mr Shakespear) taught Mr Betterton in every Particle of it; which by his exact Performance of it, gain'd him Esteem and Reputation, Superlative to all other Plays...No succeeding Tragedy for several Years got more Reputation, or Money to the Company than this

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Hence my wife and I to the Theatre, and there saw The Joviall Crew, where the King, Duke and Duchess, and Madame Palmer, were; and my wife, to her great content, had a full sight of them all the while. The play full of mirth

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I...to the Theatre, where we seated ourselves close by the King, and Duke of York, and Madame Palmer, which was great content; and, indeed, I can never enough admire her beauty. And here was Bartholomew Fayre, with the puppet-show, acted to-day, which had not been these forty years (it being so satyricall against Puritanism, they durst not till now, which is strange they should already dare to do it, and the King to countenance it), but I do never a whit like it the better for the puppets, but rather the worse

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Walking through Lincoln's Inn Fields observed at the Opera a new play, Twelfth Night, was acted there, and the King there; so I, against my own mind and resolution, could not forbear to go in, which did make the play seem a burthen to me, and I took no pleasure at all in it; and so after it was done went home with my mind troubled for my going thither, after my swearing to my wife that I would never go to a play without her

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I...called my wife at my brother's where I left her, and to the Opera, where we saw The Bondman, which of old we both did so doat on, and do still; though to both our thinking not so well acted here (having too great expectations), as formerly at Salisbury-court. But for Betterton he is called by us both the best actor in the world

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Evelyn, Diary: I was so idle as to go see a play, cald Love and honor

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, where I met my wife and Captain Ferrers and Madamoiselle LeBlanc, and there did see the second part of The Siege of Rhodes very well done

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: [The Country Captain] being done I...went to the Opera, and saw the last act of The Bondman

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: By and by called on by Mr Sanchy and his mistress, and with them by coach to the Opera, to see The Mad Lover, but not much pleased with the play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I to the Opera, and saw Hamlett well performed

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Seeing that the Spanish Curate was acted to-day, I...home again and sent to young Mr Pen and his sister to go anon with my wife and I to the Theatre...we went by coach to the play, and there saw it well acted, and a good play it is, only Diego the Sexton did overdo his part too much. [Sir Edward Browne seems to connect this play with the Duke's Company. See Introdutcion to 1661-1662.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Evelyn, Diary: I saw acted the 2d? part of the Siege of Rhodes: In this acted the faire & famous Comoedian call'd Roxalana for that part she acted, & I think it was the last; then taken to be the E. of Oxfords Misse (as at this time they began to call lew'd women) it was in Recitativa Musique

Event Comment: This performance was attended by Jacques Thierry and Will Schellinks, who stated: Judged to be their best play (Seaton, Literary Relationships, pp. 334-36). This performance may have been the premiere. The Duke's Company. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson (Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 247): @Then came the Knight agen with his Lawe@Against Lovers the worst that ever you sawe@In dressing of which he playnely did shew it@Hee was a far better Cooke then a Poet@And only he the Art of it had@Of two good Playes to make one bad.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I went [to the Opera] and there saw The Law Against Lovers, a good play and well performed especially the little girl's [Viola?-the loss of $Roxalana">Moll Davis] (whom I never saw act before) dancing and singing; and were it not for her, the loss of $Roxalana [Hester Davenport] would spoil the house

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, and there saw Romeo and Juliet, the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do, and I am resolved to go no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them out more or less. Downes (p. 22): Note, There being a Fight and Scuffle in this Play, between the House of Capulet, and House of Paris; Mrs Holden Acting his Wife, enter'd in a Hurry, Crying, O my Dear Count! She Inadvertently left out, O, in the pronuntiation of the Word Count! giving it a Vehement Accent, put the House into such a Laughter, that London Bridge at low-water was silence to it. This Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, was made some time after into a Tragi-comedy, by Mr James Howard, he preserving Romeo and Juliet alive; so that when the Tragedy was Reviv'd again, twas Play'd Alternately, Tragical one Day, and Tragicomical another; for several Days together. [No specific notices are known which would indicate when Howard's version appeared.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Mr Herbert] and I and the two young ladies and my wife to the playhouse, the Opera, and saw The Mayde in the Mill, a pretty good play