Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the fact that the play was advertised in the London Gazette, No. 3177, 20-23 April 1696, suggests that it was first performed not later than March 1696. Preface, Edition of 1696: This Comedy by the little success it met with in the Acting, has not at all deceived my Expectations....Give me leave to thank the Well-natur'd Town for Damning me so suddenly; They would not suffer me to linger in suspence, nor allow me any degrees of Mortification; neither my Sex, Dress, Musick and Dancing, cou'd allow it a three Days Reprieve. A Comparison Between the Two Stages (1702), p. 17: Ramble: I never heard of that. Sullen: Oh this is a Lady's

Event Comment: In spite of decrees concerning the transfer of a player from one house to another, Dogget entered into an agreement with Rich's Company. See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 338-39. Cibber, Apology, I, 229: And the late Reputation which Dogget had acquired from acting his Ben in Love for Love, made him a more declared Male-content on such Occasions; he over-valued Comedy for its being nearer to Nature than Tragedy, which is allow'd to say many fine things that Nature never spoke in the same Words; and supposing his Opinion were just, yet he should have consider'd that the Publick had a Taste as well as himself, which in Policy he ought to have complied with. Dogget, however, could not with Patience look upon the costly Trains and Plumes of Tragedy, in which knowing himself to be useless, he thought were all a vain Extravagance: And when he found his Singularity could no longer oppose that Expence, he so obstinately adhered to his own Opinion, that he left the Society of his old Friends, and came over to us at the Theatre-Royal: This happened in the Winter following the first Division of the (only) Company

Event Comment: Elizabeth Barry to the Right Hon. Lady Lisburne, 5 Jan. 1698@9: As for the little affairs of our house I never knew a worse Winter only we have had pretty good success in the Opera of Rinaldo and Armida where the poet made me command the Sea the earth and Air but had I really that Authority I cou'd with joy forsake it all to wait on your Ladyship....Eliz: Barry. Lon: jan: ye 5th this monent Alexander is bespoke to entertain ye Bride I mentioned [the daughter of Lord Litchfield married to Lord Baltimore's son] & all their guest to-morrow (See M. A. Shaaber, A Letter from Mrs Barry, The Library Chronicle, The University of Pennsylvania, XVI [1950], 46)

Event Comment: Flying Post, 21-23 Feb. 1699: The famous Italian, Seignor Fideli, is to Sing next Tuesday at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane; both in Italian and English; which he never yet performed

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. John Dryden to Mrs Steward, 4 March 1698@9: This Day is playd a reviv'd Comedy of Mr Congreve's called the Double Dealer, which was never very takeing; in the play bill was printed, Written by Mr Congreve; with Severall Expressions omitted: What kind of Expressions those were you may easily ghess; if you have seen the Monday's Gazette, wherein is the King s Order, for the reformation of the Stage: but the printing an Authours name, in a Play bill, is a new manner of proceeding, at least in England (Letters of John Dryden, 112-13)

Event Comment: In Honour of the Queen's Coronation: The Lady's Consort of Musick. To be plac'd in two several Quiers on each side of the Hall; a Manner never yet perform'd in England. The Hall to be well illuminated. At 5 p.m. and to hold Three full Hours. Tickets 5s. Note, That the moon will shine, the Tide serve, and a Guard placed from the College to St. James's Park, for the safe Return of the Ladies

Event Comment: Benefit Cibber. Mainpiece: several new Additions never performed but once, particularly a Scene of Comical Magickv

Event Comment: [Text by Joseph Addison. Music by Thomas Clayton.] A new Opera never yet perform'd. By Subscription. None to be admitted into the Boxes or Pit but by the Subscribers' Tickets. [Both A Critical Discourse upon Operas (1709) and Jacobs (I, 3) refer to the unsatisfactory nature of the music; as a result, according to Jacobs, "It had not the Success due to its Merit."

Event Comment: [By Niccola Haym. Apparently never printed.] Colman's Opera Register: A new Pastorall Opera called Dorinda. The musick of this is taken out of Severall Italian operas by Nico Haym. In this Sigra Margarita had no part. The other Singers the same as in the former [The Faithful Shepherd], the Same Scene & Habits also & the same prices. It was performed 4 times on the opera days successively

Event Comment: Benefit Signora Stradiotti, who has never yet perform'd in Publick since her Arrival here in England. Tickets 5s

Event Comment: It being particularly desir'd by several Ladies of Quality who have never yet seen it

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Knight. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Receipts: money #27 17s. 6d. and tickets #23 13s. The Epilogue was printed in Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 7 April, with a note: The Author of the following Epilogue would never have thought of publishing such a Trifle, but to let the Town see that scandalous Piece (as some were pleas'd to call it) not fit to be spoken. Mrs Knight's Zeal to the Government (which she has always express'd at the Worst of Times) cannot be enough applauded....It was wrote with no other Design than to do her some Service on her Benefit-Day; but has had indeed a quite contrary Effect, and kept back that Part of her Audience whose Money is as good as other Peoples, tho' their Principles (as being Tories) are the worst in the World

Event Comment: The first of Twelve Grand Concerts. In Daily Courant, 9 Jan., proposals had been issued for setting up by subscription a monthly concert for the first Wednesday of each month. There were never to be fewer than three of the best singers and nineteen performers in all. Each subscriber was to pay to Trustees John Shipton and Thomas Ives one guinea for a year. The concerts were to begin when there were 350 subscribers. On this date 100 subscriptions had been received

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Robinson, who never yet perform'd in Publick By Command. Pit and Boxes half a guinea. Gallery 5s. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: We hear the famous Mr Pinkethman is building a handsome Playhouse at Richmond, for the Diversion of the Nobility and Quality that attend the Court of their Royal Highnesses; and will begin to play there soon after Whitsuntide, and shew the fine musical Picture he has prepar'd of the Royal Family, the like of which has never been seen in England.-Read's Weekly Journal, 31 May. Mr Prince the famous Dancing-Master is lately Deceas'd.-Original Weekly Journal, 31 May

Event Comment: Performed after the French Manner. With New Scenes and Decorations proper to the Play. In which will be seen a Battle on Horseback between the Knight of the Sun and the Emperour of the Moon, call'd in French La Cavalcade Espagnol, a Performance never yet seen in England

Event Comment: [By Sir Richard Steele.] With new Scenes, and all the Characters new drest. Daily Journal, 8 Nov.: Where a greater Concourse of People was never known to be assembled. [See also Cibber, Apology, II, 206; Dennis, Remarks on a Play call'd The Conscious Lovers; and British Journal, 10 Nov. and 8 Dec.

Event Comment: [By Sandford.] All the Characters being entirely new dress'd. [The Preface gives a long account of the difficulties attendant on the production, particularly the inexperience of the amateur performers.

Event Comment: [By John Gay.] True Briton, 22 Jan.: I was a Spectator, the first Night, at...The Captives; when I was Witness to a Ceremony, which I can never judge to be either beneficial to the Author, or contribute much to the Entertainment of the Town. There were large Quantities of Brandy distributed amongst the Footmen in the Boxes, and that in so plentiful a manner, that several of them were carried out of the House dead drunk. This, it seems, is call'd, Christening a Play

Event Comment: LLondon Journal, 17 Oct.: We hear there is a new Opera now in Practice...called, Tamerlane, the Musick composed by Mynheer Hendel, and that Signior Borseni, newly arriv'd from Italy, is to sing the Part of the Tyrant Bajazet. N.B. It is commonly reported this Gentleman was never cut out for a Singer

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Night Scene. The Scenes being all painted from tne real Place of Action. [By John Thurmond.] Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, 5 Dec.: [It] was dismiss'd with a universal hiss.-And, indeed, if Shepherd had been as wretched, and as silly a Rogue in the World, as the ingenious and witty Managers have made him upon the Stage, the lower Gentry, who attended him to Tyburn, wou'd never have pittied him when eh was hang'd

Event Comment: Receipts: #69 4s. 6d. Mrs Pendarves to Mrs Ann Granville, 12 Dec. (Delany, Autobiography, I, 101-2): I was to see the opera of Dioclesian, and was very much disappointed, for instead of Purcell's musick which I expected, we had Pepusch's, and very humdrum it was; indeed I never was so tired with anything in my life