Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's house, and there saw Twelfth Night acted well, though it be but a silly play, and not related at all to the name or day. Downes, p. 23: Twelfth Night, Or what you will; Wrote by Mr Shakespear, had mighty Success by its well Performance:...All the Parts being justly Acted Crown'd the Play. Note, It aas got up on purpose to be Acted on Twelfth Night

Event Comment: The King's Company. There is no indication as to whether this is the first performance of the play. Pepys, Diary: I took my wife out, for I do find that I am not able to conquer myself as to going to plays till I come to some new vowe concerning it, and that I am now come, that is to say, that I will not see above one in a month at any of the publique theatres till the sum of 50s. be spent, and then none before New Year's day next, unless that I do become worth #1,000 sooner than then, and then am free fo come to some other terms.... to the King's house, and there met Mr Nicholson, my old colleague, and saw The Usurper, which is no good play, though better than what I saw yesterday. However, we rose unsatisfied

Event Comment: The King's Company. For Mrs Corey as Dol Common, see 27 Dec. 1666. For the murder of Clun, see An Elegy Upon the Most Execrable Murther of Mr Clun (1664), and the reprint in A Little Ark, ed. G. Thorn-Drury, pp. 30-31. Pepys, Diary, 4 Aug.: Clun, one of their [King's] best actors, was, the last night, going out of towne (after he had acted the Alchymist, wherein was one of his best parts that he acts) to his country-house, set upon and murdered; one of the rogues taken, an Irish fellow. It seems most cruelly butchered and bound. The house will have a great miss of him

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys does not indicate that this performance is the premiere, and Summers, The Playhouse of Pepys, p. 137, states, without offering his evidence, that the play first appeared on 11 Aug. 1664. The play also appears in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 138. If Pepys saw the premiere, the play was possibly given on 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 Aug. Pepys, Diary: Mr Creed dining with me I got him to give my wife and me a play this afternoon, lending him money to do it, which is a fallacy that I have found now once, to avoyde my vowe with, but never to be more practised I swear, and to the new play, at the Duke's house, of Henry the Fifth; a most noule play, writ by my Lord Orrery; wherein Betterton, Harris, and Ianthe's parts are most incomparably wrote and done, and the whole play the most full of height and raptures of wit and sense, that ever I heard; having but one incongruity, or what did not please me in it, that is, that King Harry promises to plead for Tudor to their Mistresse, Princesse Katherine of France, more than when it comes to it he seems to do; and Tudor refused by her with some kind of indignity, not with a difficulty and honour that it ought to have been done in to him. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 27-28: This Play was Splendidly Cloath'd: The King, in the Duke of York's Coronation Suit; Owen Tudor, in King Charle's: Duke of Burgundy, in the Lord of Oxford's, and the rest all New. It was Excellently Perform'd, and Acted 10 Days Successively

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: By coach to White Hall, thinking to have met at a Committee of Tangier, but nobody being there but my Lord Rutherford, he would needs carry me and another Scotch Lord to a play, and so we saw, coming late, part of The Generall, my Lord Orrery's (Broghill) second play; but, Lord! to see how no more either in words, sense, or design, it is to his Harry the 5th is not imaginable, and so poorly acted, though in finer clothes, is strange. And here I must confess breach of a vowe in appearance, but I not desiring it, but against my will, and my oathe being to go neither at my own charge nor at another's, as I had done by becoming liable to give them another, as I am to Sir W. Pen and Mr Creed; but here I neither know which of them paid for me, nor, If I did, am I obliged ever to return the like

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Mr Moore and I to Love in a Tubb, which is very merry, but only so by gesture, not wit, at all, which methinks is beneath the House

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I away before to White Hall and into the new play-house there, the first time I ever was there, and the first play I have seen since before the great plague. By and by Mr Pierce comes, bringing my wife and his, and Knipp. By and by the King and Queene, Duke and Duchesse, and all the great ladies of the Court; which, indeed, was a fine sight. But the play being Love in a Tub, a silly play, and though done by the Duke's people, yet having neither Betterton nor his wife, and the whole thing done ill, and being ill also, I had no manner of pleasure in the play. Besides, the House, though very fine, yet bad for the voice, for hearing. The sight of the ladies, indeed, was exceeding noble; and above all, my Lady Castlemayne. The play done by ten o'clock. I carried them all home, and then home myself, and well satisfied with the sight, but not the play

Event Comment: [The King's Company. Evelyn, Diary: Saw the Virgin Queene a play written by Mr Dryden &c. [Possibly the run of this play continued, for Pepys saw it again on 25 March and there are no certain performances of other plays at the King's Theatre. If Secret Love was acted without interruption, except for the customary non-acting days in Lent, it was probably given on 16, 18, 19, 21, and 23 March.

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary I home to dinner, where Mr Pierce dined with us, who tells us what troubles me, that my Lord Buckhurst hath got Nell Gwin? away from the King's house, lies with her, and gives her #100 a year, so as she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more. And yesterday Sir Thomas Crew told me that Lacy lies a-dying of the pox

Event Comment: At Mr Croome's, at the Sign of the Shoe and Slap, near the Hospital Gate in West Smithfield, is to be seen, The Wonder of Nature, A Girl, above Sixteen Years of Age, born in Chesire, and not above Eighteen Inches long, having shed the Teeth seven several Times, and not a perfect Bone is any part of her, only the Head; yet she hath all senses to Admiration, and Discourses, Reads very well, Sings, Whistles, and all very pleasant to hear. Sept. 4, 1667. God Save the King. (Henry Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 189)

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Among other things understand that my Lord St.John is meant by Mr Woodcocke, in The Impertinents [see 2 May 1668]

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: [Mercer] and I to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there saw The Tempest, and between two acts, I went out to Mr Harris, and got him to repeat to me the words of the Echo, while I writ them down, having tried in the play to have wrote them; but, when I had done it, having done it, withour looking upon my paper, I find I could not read the blacklead. But now I have got the words clear, and, in going in thither, had the pleasure to see the actors in their several dresses, especially the seamen and monster, which were very droll. So into the play again. But there happened one thing which vexed me, which is, that the orange-woman did come in the pit, and challenge me for twelve oranges, which she delivered by my order at a late play, at night, to give to some ladies in a box, which was wholly untrue, but yet she swore it to be true. But, however, I did deny it, and did not pay her; but, for quiet, did buy 4s. worth of oranges of her, at 6d. a-piece. Here I first saw my Lord Ormond since his coming from Ireland, which is now about eight days

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I to the Duke's playhouse, and there did see King Harry the Eighth; and was mightily Pleased, better than I ever expected, with the history and shows of it. We happened to sit by Mr Andrews, our neighbour, and his wife

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage," p. 14. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I to White Hall; and there, by means of Mr Cooling, did get into the play, the only one we have seen this winter: it was The Five Hours' Adventure: but I sat so far I could not hear well, nor was there any pretty woman that I did see, but my wife, who sat in my Lady Fox's pew with her. The house very full; and late before done, so that it was past eleven before we got home

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 15. The play was not printed, and the only source of information concerning it is in Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 30: The Woman made a Justice: Wrote by Mr Betterton: Mrs Long, Acting the Justice so Charmingly; and the Comedy being perfect and justly Acted, so well pleased the Audience, it continu'd Acting 14 Days together: The Prologue being spoke to it each Day. [It is possible that this date represents the premiere, since Saturday was frequently a day on which plays were first acted, but there is no certainty on this point.

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, June 1670, and the Prologue refers to the arrival of French royalty at Dover (May 1670); hence, it is likely that the play was first produced in the late spring. Edition of 1670: Written in French by Moliere; and rendered into English with much Addition and Advantage By Mr Medbourne, Servant to His Royal Highness

Event Comment: Lady Mary Bertie to Katherine Noel, 2 Jan. 1670@1: There is letely come out a new play writ by Mr Dreyden who made the Indian Emperor. It is caled the Conquest of Grenada. My brother Norreys tooke a box and carryed my Lady Rochester and his mistresse and all us to, and on Tuestay wee are to goe see the second part of it which is then the first tim acted (Rutland MSS, HMC, 12th Report, Part V [London, 1889], 22). From this letter it is difficult to tell whether by "Tuestay" is meant Tuesday 3 Jan. 1670@1 or Tuesday 10 Jan. 1670@1. Hence, Part II has been entered on both days

Event Comment: Journal of the Earl of Anglesey, 25 Jan. 1671@2: At eight of the clock The King's playhouse took fire, and most of that side of Russell Street and many other houses thereabout were burnt down, and we in Drury Lane and all about in great danger; but the Lord had mercy, and by great industry and blowing up houses the fire was overcome: I had no rest, but sat up almost all night, even till six in the morning. The Lord pardon sin, which brings judgements (HMC, 13th Report, Part VI [London, 1893], p. 270. The Bulstrode Papers (I, 217): About 8 hapened a sad and violent fire, which begun in the King's Theater, and in a few howers burnt down that...severall were hurt and killed, amongst which was Mr Bell, one of the actors in that house. For a poem, On the Unhappy Conflagration of the Theatre Royal, January 25th, 1672, see Fitzgerald, A New History of the English Stage, I, 137

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2: King Hen. 8. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347. In The Rehearsal (II, V): Mr Bayes informs his actors that "you Dance worse than the Angels in Harry the Eight." The Epilogue to The Ordinary (in A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several Persons, 1673) may refer to the same spectacle: @Now empty shows must want of sense supply,@Angels shall dance, and Macbeths Witches fly.

Event Comment: A playbill [PRO, State Papers 29, Vol. 317, No. 187): At the Booth at Charing-Cross, every day in the Week will be presented variety of Farces Drolls, and Comical Entertainments by Mr Anthony Devo, His Majesties Servant. And this present Monday being the Eleventh of November, will be presented the Dutch cruelties at Amboyna, with the humours of the Valiant Welch-Man. Acted by Men and Women. Beginning exactly at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, and at Four. Vivat Rex. [This playbill is reproduced in Theatre Notebook, VI (1952), opposite page 36.] L. C. 5@140, p. 129 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 250): That Antonio diVoto Doe sett forth Exercise & Play all Drolls and Interludes, He not receiuing into his Company any person belonging to his Mates or Royal Highnesse Theatres Nor Act any Play usually acted at any of ye said Theatres Nor takes peeces or Sceenes out of ye Playes Acted at ye said Theatres

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but a licensing date of 18 Feb. 1677@8 suggests a premiere not later than January 1677@8. It is possible, however, that this play followed Sir Patient Fancy (17 Jan. 1677@8), as the licensing date of Timon follows that for Sir Patient Fancy. Part of the music for Timon was composed by Louis Grabu and was published, without the singers' names, in Choice Ayres and Songs, 1679. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): Timon of Athens, alter'd by Mr Shadwell; 'twas very well Acted, and the Musick in't well Perform'd; it wonderfully pleas'd the Court and City; being an Excellent Moral