Event Comment: [Mainpiece: new comedy in three acts by Bickerstaffe; but Act I, ii, written by Foote. Afterpiece: new musical farce by Bickerstaffe; music by Dibdin and others. An alteration from Dryden's Don Sebastian.

Event Comment: New Scenes, Dresses and Decorations for Mainpiece (playbill). This Masque was got up in a Superb manner the Scenery exquisitely fine & greatly applauded--. Miss Hayward play'd Emmeline very bad (Hopkins Diary). Mainpiece: Altered from Dryden by Garrick. First time performed. Music Purcell and Arne. New Overture by Arne

Event Comment: Benefit for Reddish. Afterpiece (musical): Taken from Dryden's Don Sebastian by Bickerstaffe. Part of the Pit paid into the Boxes. Ladies send servants at 4 o'clock. Mainpiece [by Edward Moore]: Not acted in 15 years. [See 5 April 1753.

Event Comment: Benefit for Jewell, treasurer. 2nd piece: Altered [in 3 acts from the original 5] from Dryden. Tickets to be had of Jewell at his house, adjoining to the Theatre, Suffolk-street

Event Comment: 2nd piece: 3 Acts, altered from Dryden

Event Comment: Ode: Written by Dryden, and set to Music by Handel

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. With Additions from Dryden; the Musick by Purcell and Dr Arne, and the new Airs and Chorusses by the late Mr Linley Jun. [Afterpiece in place of A Friend in Need, advertised on playbill of 21 Feb.] The Publick is respectfully informed that on Account of the sudden Indisposition of Sga Bossi DelCaro, The Scotch Ghost [advertised on playbill of 21 Feb.] cannot be performed this Evening (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill). Receipts: #212 2s. 6d. (145.1.0; 61.0.0; 6.1.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With Additions from Dryden; the Musick by Purcell and Dr Arne, and the new Airs and Chorusses by the late Mr Linley Jun. Receipts: #142 7s. 6d. (79.17.6; 60.10.0; 2.0.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sedgwick. Mainpiece: With additions from Dryden. The Musick by Purcell and Arne, and the new Airs and Chorusses by the late Linley Jun. Morning Chronicle, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Sedgwick, No. 18, Clement's-inn. Receipts: #390 8s. 6d. (97.13.6; 56.4.6; odd and after-money: 2.13;0; tickets: 233.17.6) (charge: #217 2s.)

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this Performance is stated as 16 Feb. (L. C. records) or 17 Feb. (Peregrine Bertie), but as Lent began on Wednesday 17 Feb., the performance probably occurred on Shrove Tuesday. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, P. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350. Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 17 Feb. 1685@6: To night will be the last play at court, they tell mee 'tis the Mocke Astrologer (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Rutland MSS., Part V, p. 105). John Povey to Sir Robert Southwell, 18 Feb. 1685@6: Sir, the enclosed had been sent last post, had it not been detained late by a play at Court which ended our Carnival. The night before the King and Queen were entertained by the Lord President at a ball or masque in Lady Portsmouth's lodgings. The Masquers were twelve couples whose habits were of several nations' and prescribed by a picture sent to each of them from the Queen, and the least habit cost !bove a hundred Pounds, and some above three hundred pounds, besides jewels of which Mrs Fox and some others had above thirty thousand pounds value each (Savile-Finch Correspondence, Add. Mss. 28,569; I owe this quotation to Professor John Harold Wilson)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: The Queene a Box, and a Box for the Maids of Honor at the Spanish Fryer. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. A warrant, dated 8 June 1689, L. C. 5@149, p. 154 (see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356), calls for a payment of #25 to Mrs Barry and presumably represents payment for this performance. Daniel Finch, ca. June 1689: The only day Her Majesty gave herself the diversion of a play, and that on which she designed to see another, has furnished the town with discourse for a month. The choice of the play was the Spanish Fryar, the only play forbid by the late K@@. Some unhappy expressions, among which those that follow, put her in some disorder, and forc'd her to hold up her fan, and often look behind her and call for her palatine and hood, and any thing she could next think of, while those who were said. (Sir John Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain [London, 1771-88], in the pit before her, whenever their fancy led them to make any application of what was Volume II, Appendix, Part II, pp. 78-80.) Henry Purcell's new setting for whilst I with grief did on you look may have been made by this date. It is in Deliciae Musicae, 1695

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but it seems likely to have been in mid-January. See the discussion under 10 Jan. 1693@4 and Evelyn's remarks on 11 Jan. 1693@4. Part of the music for the play was composed by John Eccles: Young I am and yet unskill'd, sung by a girl, in Gentleman's Journal, January@February 1693@4, and Thesaurus Musicus, 1694: What state of life can be so blest, -Mrs Hudson, in Thesaurus Musicus, 1694. One song was set by Henry Purcell, How happy's the husband, the words by Congreve and sung by Mrs Ayliff, in Thesaurus Musicus, 1694: see also Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), xiii-xiv

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. The fee of #20 was paid to John Miles, an officer of Betterton's Company. See Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, III, 342

Event Comment: Benefit Cross (Numberer), John and Chr. Rich. Receipts: money #10 13s.; tickets #98 5s

Event Comment: Benefit Harper. Afterpiece: An Entertainment of Dancing in Grotesque Characters. Compos'd by Mr John Weaver

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Horton. Afterpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. Receipts: money #65 15s.; tickets #51 18s

Event Comment: KKing John deferred on account of Mrs Cibber's Indisposition

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Ward. Afterpiece: Never acted there before. Mainpiece: Not acted this season. Mrs Ward having been defrauded of a number of Tickets for the above play, those sold at the door will not be admitted. [Afterpiece is John Lee's alteration of Wycherley's play into two acts. See dl 26 April 1765.] @Receipts #74 2s. 6d.@House charges #63@Candles #1 5s.@Extra: Kettle drum 5s.@Side Drum 2s.@Wardrobe #1 9s.@Total #66 1s.@Balance due Mrs Ward #8 1s. 6d.@Tickets 115 129 179 #66@Money #74 2s. 6d.@Total value of House #140 2s. 6d. (Account Book). [Mrs Ward seems to have profited only to the extent of #74 1s. 6d.

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not certain. This performance is known from an entry in the Newdigate newsletters, which also states that Rollo was to be acted on the following Monday. If this statement is accurate, the performance of The Loyal Brother on 4 Feb. 1681@2 may be the third night rather than the opening performance. Newdigate newsletters, 4 Feb. 1681@2: On Monday morn [the Moorish Ambassador] & ye Comers meet to conclude ye treaty and in ye afternoon goes to see Rollo D. of Normandy at ye Ks playhouse wre ye K was this afternoon to see ye new play calld ye Loyall brothr (Wilson, More Theater Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 59). The Prologue and Epilogue were printed separately and have been reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 70-72. Luttrell acquired his copies (Huntington Library) on 7 Feb. 1681@2. In The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, 1961), Charles E. Ward believes (pp. 166, 355) that The Loyal Brother was first acted in the autumn of 1681; but the entry in the Newdigate newsletters seems to make February 1682 the more probable time

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Paid Mr Vincent for 3 sets of Abels Symphonies #2 5s. (Account Book). Receipts: #116 11s. (Account Book). This was the last time Mr Beard appeared on the stage. John Beard Esq Buried in the vault (at Hampton) 12 Feb. 1791. This celebrated actor was bred up at the King's Chapel, and was afterwards one of the singers at the Duke of Chandos's Chapel at Canons, where he took a part in Handel's Oratorio of Hester. His first appearance on the stage was 30 August 1737, in the character of Sir John Loverule [Devil to Pay], at Drury Lane. In 1739 he married Lady Henrietta Herbert, daughter of James, Earl of Waldegrave, and Widow of Lord Edward Herbert. Upon this event he quitted the Stage. After a few years he returned to it again, and continued to be a great favourite with the public both as an actor and a vocal performer till 1767, when he finally retired from the theatre. Lady Henrietta Beard died in 1753; and in 1759 Mr Beard married a Daughter of John Rich Esq Patentee of Covent Garden Theatre. On this occasion he removed a second time to that theatre, where he had acted from 1744 to 1748; and on the death of his father-in-law in 1761, was appointed Manager. Mr Beard, who was as much esteem'd in private life as he was admired on the stage, was for many years an Inhabitant of Hampton. See Lysons's Middlesex Parishes, p. 89 and 80. Mr Beard died 4 Feb. 1791, aged 74 years. See his Epitaph, ibidem. See Lady Beard's Epitaph in St Pancreas Churchyard (Hopkins MS Notes)

Event Comment: The King's Company. There is uncertainty as to the date of the first performance, but in A Bibliography of John Dryden, p. 193, Macdonald cites as evidence for this date, Wood's Ath. Ox., IV, 209. The play was certainly first acted not later than this month, because John Evelyn saw it on 14 Dec. 1671. For further details, see 14 Dec. 1671