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: My wife and I to the Opera, and saw Hamlett well performed

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?-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: 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: My wife and I slunk away to the Opera, where we saw Wit in a Constable, the first time that it is acted; but so silly a play I never saw I think in my life

Event Comment: A play, unidentified, was given by the Duke's Company at this time. The customary fee of #20 was paid. See A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, ed. Inderwick, III, II

Event Comment: A play, unidentified, was given at the Middle Temple. Since the Duke's Company acted at the Inner Temple, the King's Company probably Played here. The company received the usual fee of #20. See A Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 170

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. Evelyn, Diary: I saw acted the Law against Lovers

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: I took Creed by coach and to the Duke's playhouse, where we did see The Five Hours entertainment again, which indeed is a very fine play, though, through my being out of order, it did not seem so good as at first; but I could discern it was not any fault in the play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company, the receipts for #20 being signed by Richard Baddeley (A Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 170). W. J. Lawrence (Review of English Studies, IX (1933), 221) suggests The Adventures of Five Hours as a possibility. Pepys, Diary: I met Madam Turner...she and her daughter having been at the play to-day at the Temple, it being a revelling time with them