Event Comment: The United Company. This play was in rehearsal before the death of Charles II-see 6 Feb. 1684@5-and was staged shortly after the playhouse reopened. Luttrell's date of acquisition of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue is 9 May 1685 (in possession of Pickering and Chatto, Ltd., 1938), and the play may have been first given on that date or during the week preceding Saturday 9 May 1685. For Cibber's account of Mountfort as Sir Courtly, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 129. The separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 228-30. A separately-printed Three New Songs in Sir Courtley Nice (1685) contains three songs, with the music by Samuel Ackroyde and an unknown composer. In addition, two songs, As I grazed unaware and O be kind my dear be kind, both composed by R. King, are in The Theater of Music, Second Book, 1685. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 40-41): The first new Comedy after King James came to the Crown, was Sir Courtly Nice, wrote by Mr Crown:...The Comedy being justly Acted, and the Characters in't new, Crown'd it with a general Applause: Sir Courtly was so nicely Perform'd, that not any succeeding, but Mr Cyber has Equall'd him. Note, Mr Griffin so Excell'd in Surly, Sir Edward Belfond, The Plain Dealer, none succeeding in the 2 former have Equall'd him, except his Predecessor Mr Hart in the latter. The Lover's Session; In Imitation of Sir John Suckling's Session of Poets (in Poems on Affairs of State, II [1703], 162): @Montrath was in Foppery conceiv'd another@Of Whitehall true Breed, Sir Nices Twin Brother:@None could tell, so alike all their Follies did seem,@Whether he acted Mumford, or Mumford him.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Palmer. Tickets at his lodgings, at Mr Watson's Linnen Draper, Corner Charles St., Covent Garden; and at Stage Door of Theatre. [Ray inserted a long plea for benefit support on the General Advertiser, saying that Mr William Barton, who keeps the Black Swan Tavern on Bartholomew Lane, will do his visiting and deliver his tickets for him since he, Ray, is so ill.] Receipts: #78 (Cross)

Event Comment: BBenefit for Mr Arne and Mr Arne Jr. Boxes Half a Guinea. First Gallery 3s. Upper Gallery 2s. To begin exactly at Half an Hour after Six o'clock. Tickets to be had of Mr Arne Sr next door to the Passage in Charles St., Covent Garden; and of Mr Arne Jr at his Chambers, No 4. in Garden Court, Temple. [N.B. This Benefit had been advertised the Wednesday before; With the New Songs perform'd at the Charity for Decay'd Musicians, the Principal Parts by Lowe, Mattocks, Miss Brent, Miss Frederica, Miss Pliemess, Miss Carter, and the Gentlemen of the Choir.

Event Comment: On this day Charles II died. Although the order to close the theatres was not issued until 20 Feb. 1684@5 (L. C. 5@145, p. 153), acting Probably ceased on Thursday 5 Feb. 1684@5. At this time John Crowne's Sir Courtly Nice was in rehearsal. John Dennis gives a dramatic account of the last day of rehearsing: The Play was now just ready to appear to the World; and as every one that had seen it rehears'd was highly pleas'd with it; every one who had heard of it was big with the Expectation of it; and Mr Crown was delighted with the flattering Hope of being made happy for the rest of his Life, by the Performance of the King's Promise; when, upon the very last Day of the Rehearsal, he met Cave Underhill coming from the Play-House as he himself was going towards it; Upon which the Poet reprimanding the Player for neglecting so considerable a Part as he had in the Comedy, and neglecting it on a Day of so much Consequence, as the very last Day of Rehearsal: Oh Lord, Sir, says Underhill, we are all undone. Wherefore, says Mr Crown, is the Play-House on Fire? The whole Nation, replys the Player, will quickly be so, for the King is dead. At the hearing which dismal Words, the Author was little better; for he who but the Moment before was ravish'd with the Thought of the Pleasure, which he was about to give to his King, and of the Favours which he was afterwards to receive from him, this Moment found, to his unspeakable Sorrow, that his Royal Patron was gone for ever, and with him all his Hopes. The King indeed reviv'd from his Apoplectick Fit, but three Days after dyed, and Mr Crown by his Death was replung'd in the deepest Melancholy (John Dennis, Original Letters, 1721, I, 53-54). [It is not clear whether the last sentence refers to the day on which Crowne had seen the King and had assurances from His Majesty, the King dying three days later, or whether there was a false rumor of the King's death on 3 Feb. 1684@5.

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. At 6 p.m. Post Boy, 28 Sept.: We hear that last Week Mr Rich made an Assignment of the New Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and his Patent granted by King Charles II to Mr Keene and Mr Bullock jun. and that they open on Saturday next, with a celebrated Play of Shakespear's call'd, Cimbiline, which will be entirely new dress'd

Event Comment: [The following letter appeared in the General Advertiser]: To Mr Ryan, Sir: As the Author whom you have judiciously, I think, call'd in to your Assistance on your Benefit Night is little known; his Name not having appeared upon the Stage in our Days; and from whence some may be apt to think it scarce worth while to produce him now;--it was thought advisable by many of your Friends, of which Number I profess myself, to draw up the following Account of him and his Dramatic Works, that such as are Strangers to him may have some further Inducement to favour you with their Company. Mr Thomas Randolph lived in the Reign of King Charles I, was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; but died young. He was a Man of pregnant Wit, gay Humour and of excellent Learning; which gain'd him the Esteem of the Polite Part of the Town, and particularly recommended him to the Favour of Ben Johnson, who adopted him one of his Sons, and held him in equal Esteem with the ingenious Mr Cartwright, another of the Laureat's adopted Sons:--The Plays he wrote were: [he lists 5 plays, commenting from Cokayne and Rich of Christ's Church College, Oxon, and West on the ethical quality of the last one, The Muses' Looking Glass]. In short, Sir, I doubt not but his old nervous Wit will still please, and join'd with the New Masque you have added, excite Curiousity enough to answer your Design; since by your Steadiness it was absoluteley necessary you should hava Novelty, as well as Interest, to procure half so good a House, as we all wish you, and especially, Your Humble Servant, I. M. [See 14 March afterpiece.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Brereton. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Morning Chronicle, 21 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Brereton, No. io, Charles-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #317 6s. 6d. (121/17/0; 7/11/6; 1/6/0; tickets: 186/12/0) (charge: #106 2s.)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play has generally been assigned to June 1669, partly on the basis of a suit--see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, pp. 252-53, 348-55-over a scene for it which Isaac Fuller, the scene designer, states was finished by 23 June 1669. The suit also states that the play ran for fourteen days, but it is not certain that the theatres played on consecutive days in the summer. The play has been assigned to 24 June 1669 on the basis of a letter from Charles II to Princess Henriette-Anne, dated 24 June [1669]: I am just now going to a new play that I heare very much commended (Cyril Hughes Hartmann, Charles II and Madame [London, 1934], p. 259). Elizabeth Cottington to Herbert Aston, ca. May 1669: Wee ar in expectation still of Mr Draidens play. Ther is a bowld woman [Aphra Behn (?)] hath oferd one: my cosen Aston can give you a better account of her then I can. Some verses I have seen which ar not ill; that is commentation enouf: she will think so too, I believe, when it comes upon the ptage. I shall tremble for the poor woman exposed among the critticks (Arthur Clifford, Tixall Letters [London, 1815], II, 60)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is known from testimony in the trial of Charles Lord Mohun for the attack on William Mountfort on 9 Dec. 1692. The evidence given by Brereton at the trial stated: I had not seen my Lord Mohun for two or three days before this Fact was committed;...but the Friday before, the Play of Alexander the Great was Acted, and my Lord Mohun and I were talking of the Play, and he said it was a good Play, and he commended Mr Mountford's Acting extreamly (The Tryal of Charles Lord Mohun [London, 1693], p. 26)