Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", pp. 12-14. The play seems to be a translation by Shadwell of Moliere's Tartuffe. Elkanah Settle, in the Preface to his Ibrahim (licensed 4 May 1676) attacks Shadwell and refers to Shadwell's translation of Tartuffe into The Hypocrite, which, according to Settle, was acted six days

Event Comment: The King's Company. It is uncertain when this play was first given, but it may well have appeared in the summer, as it was licensed for publication 9 Oct. 1669 and entered in the Term Catalogues, November 1669

Event Comment: The news of the death of Henrietta-Maria, the Queen Mother, reached London ca. 3 Sept. 1669. There may well have been an order forbidding playing, although it is not extant; but an order, L. C. 5@12, p. 251 (in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 322) directs the two companies to act again on Monday, 18 Oct. 1669. Probably the theatres were closed for approximately six weeks

Event Comment: This play is not certainly indicated as the one given on this day in A Calendar of Inner Temple Records, ed. Inderwick, III, 73; but the sequence of performances listed there suggests that this may have been the play offered on Candlemas Day. The actors received the customary fee of #20

Event Comment: The King's Company. The Epilogue, which was printed in A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several Persons, 1673, pp. 29-32, and reprinted by Noyes, Ben Jonson on the English Stage, pp. 247-48, by its references to Lent seems to indicate a Lenten revival. As this play was allotted to the King's Company ca. 12 Jan. 1668@9, it has been assigned to that company. The revival may have occurred in March 1670, perhaps not until later

Event Comment: Newsletter, 7 April: Last evening their Majesties were diverted with a comedy acted at St James's by the little young ladies of the Court, who appeared extraordinarily glorious and covered with jewels (HMC, Fleming MSS. 12th Report, VII, 70). This may have been a performance of The Faithful Shepherdess which was entered by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, in his diary, 2 April 1670 [error for 6 April (?)]: I saw Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, and many young ladies act the Faithful Shepherdess very finely (Diary, Volume V, in Chatsworth. I owe this entry to Professor Kathleen Lynch). In Covent Garden Drollery, 1672 (ed. G. Thorn-Drury), p. 68, is an Epilogue spoken by the Lady Mary Mordaunt, before the King and Queen at court, to the Faithful Shepherdess. As Lady Mary was then about twelve, this Epilogue seems to confirm the possibility that the play was The Faithful Shepherdess acted by amateurs

Event Comment: On this day and on Friday the 20th the Duke's players gave The Impertinents; or, The Sullen Lovers or Sir Salomon. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 29) lists these as the two plays presented by the Duke's Company, but no contemporary statement indicates for certain which play was given on each day. The Journal of Sir Richard Bulstrode: Yesterday [19] at five of ye clocke, the Court were entertained with a comedy acted by the Duke's player (The Bulstrode Papers, 1879, I, 139). Saturday 28 May 1670: The absence of the court which continues at Dover till Wensday next makes us very barren of news. There is the greatest gallantry and mirth imaginable. The Dukes players have beene there all the time past came up yesterday and the kings goe downe this day (Aston Papers, Vol. XVI, Add. Mss. 36916, folio 182)

Event Comment: On this day arrived in London the news of the death of the King's sister, the Duchess of Orleans, which occured on 20 June 1670. According to The Bulstrode Papers (I, 144), 25 June 1670: The players are silenced dureing this tyme of sadness. [Probably acting ceased for at least six weeks, the customary period for silencing the companies when the Court went into full mourning. Nevertheless, the Duke's Company may have been permitted to act at Oxford. See Sybil Rosenfeld, "Some Notes on the Players in Oxford, 1661-1713," Review of English Studies XIX (1943), 366-67.

Event Comment: Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 285, believes that the ballet may have been given again. See 20 Feb. 1670@1

Event Comment: Early in 1672 a group of French players may have acted in London, but the evidence is not precise or detailed. See W. J. Lawrence, Early French Players in England, p. 142

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the premiere probably occurred during this month. The Preface states: This Play, as it was wrote in less than a moneth, and was the last Play that was Acted at the King's Theatre in Covent-Garden, before the fatal Fire there. [The Preface may mean that this was the last new play acted before the fire.] Two songs for this play, with music by Robert Smith, are in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is most uncertain. The play was apparently finished in July 1671-see C. E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1961), p. 83-and the play may have been acted before April 1672. For the possibilities see Macdonald, Bibliography of Dryden, p. 110, and Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 404-5. The Prologue and Epilogue are in Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. The song, Whilst Alexas lay prest, the music by Nicholas Staggins, was printed in Westminster Drollery (entered in the Stationers' Register, 3 June 1672) and in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673. Another song, Why should a foolish Marriage Vow, set by Robert Smith, is also in Choice Songs and Ayres, 1673

Event Comment: The King's Company. This is another in the series of plays acted entirely by actresses and probably Performed in the early summer of 1672. The Prologue and Epilogue are in Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 313): This play was reviv'd at the Old Theatre, in little Lincolns-Inn-fields, and acted all by Women, a new Prologue and Epilogue being spoken by Mrs Marshall in Man's Cloaths, which Reader may find printed in Covent-Garden Drollery, 80, pag. 3. &c

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347. Very probably this play was also acted on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 July 1672, but the company may not have acted daily in the summer

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. An unnamed play is the entry in A Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 175, but a Prologue to this play "Acted at the Middle Temple" is in A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several Persons (1673). It may have been acted at this time

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but it may well be. Two songs, Ah false Amyntas, and Amyntas led me to a grove, both set by Robert Smith, are in Choice Songs and Ayres, 1673. Preface to the edition of 1673: Good, Sweet, Honey, Sugar-candied Reader, ...Indeed that day 'twas Acted first, there comes into the Pit a long, lither, plegmatick, white, ill-favour'd, wretched Fop, an Officer in Masquerade newly transported with a Scarfe & Feather out of France, a sorry Animal that has nought else to shield it from the uttermost contempt of all mankind, but that respect which we afford to Rats and Toads, which though we do not well allow to live, yet when considered as a part of God's Creation, we make honourable mention of them. A thing, Reader--but no more of such a Smelt: This thing, I tell ye, opening that which serves it for a mouth, out issued such a noise as this to those that state about it, that they were to expect a woful Play, God damn him, for it was a womans.... Reader, I have a complaint or two to make to you, and I have done; Know then that this Play was hugely injur'd in the Acting, for 'twas done so imperfectly as never any was before, which did more harm to this than it could have done to any of another sort; the Plot being busie (though I think not intricate) and so requiring a continual attention, which being interrupted by the intolerable negligence of some that acted in it, must needs much spoil the beauty on't. My Dutch Lover spoke but little of what I intended for him, but supplied it with a great deal of idle stuff, which I was wholly unacquainted with until I heard it first from him. According to the Preface, the Prologue was lost

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This date of the premiere is not known, but the presence of Cademan (who was injured in August 1673) in the cast suggests a late spring or early summer production. In addition, two songs, in the play, Beauty no more shall suffer eclipse, and Full round the health good natured and free, both set by Robert Smith, are in Choice Ayres and Songs, 1673 (which was entered in the Stationers' Register, June 1673). It is possible, then, that the play was first given early as May 1673. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 33: A Comedy call'd The Reformation, Written by a Master of Arts in Cambridge; the Reformation in the Play, being the Reverse to the Laws of Morality and Virtue; it quickly made its Exit, to make way for a Moral one

Event Comment: The King's Company. It is difficult to assign a date to this burlesque, but it is obviously a satiric thrust at Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco, which had been acted on 3 July 1673, and on Macbeth, which had been most recently acted (probably) on 9 Aug. 1673. As the title page of Duffett's burlesque does not name a theatre, it is not known whether it was acted before the King's Company left Lincoln's Inn Fields for the new theatre in Drury Lane. But the fact that Settle's Empress of Morocco was acted again at Dorset Garden on 6 Dec. 1673 makes December 1673 a likely month (or the King's Company to play its burlesque, although it may have been given in the late summer or early autumn, as many lesser actors are in the cast

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but, as the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1674, it was probably first presented not later than the early months of 1674

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but, as the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1674, a first production not later than March 1674 is likely. In addition, the relatively large number of minor actors suggests that it might be a Lenten performance by the young players of the company. As to the authorship, the title page states: Written by a Person of Honour. On the other hand, Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 526) reports that he had heard that it was written by Duffett. The second Prologue is in Covent Garden Drollery, 1673, but the fact that it was intended but not spoken does not assist in dating the first performance

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The Journal of Baron von Schwerin, [14 June 1674 NS (?)], 4 June 1674 OS: (translation) Attended an English play, [The Tempest], or the Enchanted Island, which because of the changing of the scenes was well worth seeing (in Gesandtschafts-Berichten des Ministers Otto von Schwerin [Berlin, 1837], p. XXII). See also 16 May 1674

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. There is no indication as to whether this is the premiere; the play was not licensed for publication until 27 Nov. 1676. Preface to Settle's Ibrahim (licensed 4 May 1676): Having a Play, call'd the Triumphant Widow, given him [Thomas Shadwell] to bring into the Duke's Playhouse, he spitefully foists in a Scene of his own into the Play, and makes a silly Heroick Poet in it, speak the very words he had heard me say, and made reflexions on some of the very Lines he had so senselessly prated on before in his Notes [to The Empress of Morocco]

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 215: The King & Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345. The cast in the edition of 1681 may not, of course, be the one for this performance; but all the performers named in it could have performed at this time

Event Comment: London Gazette, No. 961, 1-4 Feb. 1674@5: A Rare Concert of four Trumpets Marine, never heard before in England. If any Persons desire to come and hear it, they may repair to the Fleece Tavern, near St James's, about two of the clock in the Afternoon every day in the Week (except Sundays). Every Concert shall continue one hour, and so to begin again; the best places are one shilling, the other six pence

Event Comment: On this date the masque was certainly acted, and the possible performance on 15 Feb. 1674@5 may have been a final rehearsal. Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library): This day the great maske at court is publiquely acted wch is intended to exceed all others of that Nature, the 2 young Princesses, the Duke of Monmouth & all ye principall persons of quality abt ye Court having parts in it (Wilson, Theatre Notes, p. 79). The Bulstrode Papers (1, 277): 15 Feb. 1674@5: To-morrow the great mask at Court is to be publickly acted in all its bravery and pompe, the like of whch was never yett seene, all the greatest persons of quality about Court having pts in it