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?-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: My wife and I by water to the Opera, and there saw The Bondman most excellently acted; and though we had seen it so often, yet I never liked it better than to-day, Ianthe [Mrs Saunderson] acting Cleora's part very well now Roxalana [Mrs Hester Davenport] is gone. We are resolved to see no more plays till Whitsuntide, we having been three days together. Met Mr Sanchy, Smithes, Gale, and Edlin at the play, but having no great mind to spend money, I left them there

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I by coach to the Opera, and there saw the 2nd part of The Siege of Rhodes, but it is not so well done as when Roxalana [Mrs Davenport] was there, who, it is said, is now owned by my Lord of Oxford

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I to the Cockpitt, with much crowding and waiting, where I saw The Valiant Cidd acted, a play I have read with great delight, but is a most dull thing acted, which I never understood before, there being no pleasure in it, though done by Betterton and by Ianthe [Mrs Saunderson], and another fine wench [Mrs Norton] that is come in the room of Roxalana [Mrs Davenport]; nor did the King or Queen once smile all the whole play, nor any of the company seem to take anyPleasure but what was in the greatness and gallantry of the company

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: After dinner with my wife to the Duke's Theatre, and saw the second part of Rhodes, done with the new Roxalana; which do it rather better in all respects for person, voice, and judgment, than the first Roxalana [Mrs Davenport]. Home with great content with my wife, not so well pleased with the company at the house to-day, which was full of citizens, there hardly being a gentleman or woman in the house; a couple of pretty ladies by us that made sport in it, being jostled and crowded by prentices

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's House, where we saw The Villane again; and the more I see it, the more I am offended at my first undervaluing the play, it being very good and pleasant, and yet a true and allowable tragedy. The house was full of citizens, and so the less pleasant, but that I was willing to make an end of my gaddings, and to set to my business for all the year again to-morrow. Here we saw the old Roxalana [Mrs Davenport] in the chief box, in a velvet gown, as the fashion is, and very handsome, at which I was glad

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw The English Monsieur; sitting for privacy sake in an upper box: the play hath much mirth in it as to that particular humour. After the play done, I down to Knipp, and did stay her undressing herself; and there saw the several players, men and women go by; and pretty to see how strange they are all, one to another, after the play is done. Here I saw a wonderful pretty maid of her own, that come to undress her, and one so pretty that she says she intends not to keep her, for fear of her being undone in her service, by coming to the playhouse. Here I hear Sir W. Davenant is just now dead; and so who will succeed him in the mastership of the house is not yet known. The eldest Davenport is, it seems, gone from this house to be kept by somebody; which I am glad of, she being a very bad actor.... [Mrs Knepp] tells me mighty news, that my Lady Castlemayne is mightily in love with Hart of their house; and he is much with her in private, and she goes to him, and do give him many Presents; and that the thing is most certain, and Becke Marshall only privy to it, and the means of bringing them together, which is a very odd thing; and by this means she is even with the King's love to Mrs Davis

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but it followed The Gordian Knot Unty'd, which is mentioned in the Prologue. Edward III was advertised in the London Gazette, No. 2629, 19-22 Jan. 1690@1, and entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1690@1. The authorship is uncertain. The title page bears no author's name, but the Dedication is signed by Will. Mountfort. In addition, on 10 Oct. 1691 Mountfort received a grant of #10 when Edward III was played before the Queen (L. C. 5@150, p. 306, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 357). On tne other hand, the Gentleman's Journal, October 1692, stated that it was written by the author of Henry the Second, which has been attributed to John Bancroft. See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 388-89, for a summation of the evidence on this problem. Alfred Harbage, Elizabethan-Restoration Palimpsest, Modern Language Review, XXXV (1940), 319, thinks that this is a revision of Robert Davenport's The Politic Queen