Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. When this play was revised and revived as The Royal Merchant; or, Beggar's Bush at Drury Lane, 19 June 1705, the bill bore the heading: Not acted these Twenty Years

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@148, p. 145. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Lord Granville, writing on 5 May 1688, refers to the King's presence on the third day, and since The Squire of Alsatia may have begun its run about 2 May 1688, Crowne's play must have been produced by the end of April. Lord Granville to Sir William Leveson, 5 May 1688: The town is as empty of news as the Court; we have had a new play called The Fall of Darius (written by Crown), by which the poet, though he could get no fame, yet had a most extraordinary third day by reason the King's presence at it; the first day of its acting Mrs Bower [Barry] was taken so violently ill in the midst of her part that she was forced to be carried off, and instead of dying in jest was in danger of doing it in earnest. Mrs Cook is dead and Mrs Boute...is again come upon the stage, where she appears with great applause. We are promised this week another new play of Shadwell's called the Alsatia Bully, which is very much commended by those who have had the private perusal of it (HMC, 5th Report, Part II, pP. 197-98). Dedication, Edition of 1688: A misfortune fell upon this Play, that might very well dizzy the Judgments of the Audience. Just before the Play began, Mrs Barry was struck with a very violent Fever, that took all Spirit from her, by consequence from the Play; the Scenes She acted fell dead from her; and in the 4th Act her distemper grew so much upon her, She cou'd go on no further, but all her part in that Act was wholly cut out and neither Spoke nor Read; that the People went away without Knowning the contexture of the Play, yet thought they knew all....[My] Thanks to His Majesty for the Honor of his Presence, on the Day which was to be for my Advantage; which He was pleased to Grant me. [See L. C. 5@148, p. 195--in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356--for a grant of #20 as a gift from the King to Crowne for this play.

Event Comment: A troupe of French Comedians played at theatre in Windsor Castle. On 25 July 1688 a warrant (L. C. 5@17, pp. 60, 65, in Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, pp. 61, 127) ordered the playhouse there to be made ready for the foreign company. According to L. C. 5@17, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 65, the French players arrived on 11 Aug. and remained at Windsor until 22 Sept

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: Sr Courtly Nice Acted by the Queen es Command. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149. p. 368. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. The Prologue, separately printed, bears a licensing date of 16 Nov. 1689, and is reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 276-77. Huygens, 15 Nov. 1689 OS (translation): The King, who had been at the comedy, at the birthday of the Queen-mother, which had been played at Whitehall, did not come home until twelve o'clock (Journal van Constantijn Huygens, Publications of the Dutch Historical Society, New Series, XXIII [Utrecht, 1876], 205)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. The MS music composed for a revival of this play, apparently at this time, by G. Finger and Daniel Purcell, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 369. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. In L. C. 5@150, p. 156, is an order to prepare the stage for the play, and, in L. C. 5@150, p. 164, is another order for new equipment. Luttrell, A Brief Relation, II, 125: The 4th, being his majesties birth day...and at night was a consort of musick, and a play afterwards. Matthew Prior wrote A Pindarique Ode which was sung before Their Majesties at court on this day. See The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, ed. H. B. Wright and M. K. Spears (Oxford, 1959), I, 96-98; II, 858. Cibber, Apology, I, 128: The agreeable was so natural to [Mountfort], that even in that dissolute Character of the Rover he seem'd to wash off the Guilt from Vice, and gave it Charms and Merit. For tho' it may be a Reproach to the Poet to draw such Characters not only unpunish'd but rewarded, the Actor may still be allow'd his due Praise in his excellent Performance. And this is a Distinction which, when this Comedy was acted at Whitehall, King William's Queen Mary was pleas'd to make in favour of Monfort, notwithstanding her Disapprobation of the Play

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honor Prophetess. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q & a Box for ye Maids Honr Edward 3. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352

Event Comment: A warrant, L. C. 5@150, p. 306, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 357, dated this day calls for a payment of L10 to William Mountfort for King Edward the Third, acted on an unspecified date before the Queen

Event Comment: Luttrell, A Brief Relation, II, 316: The players have begg'd pardon of the lords abused there, and have leave to act again on Monday. [The order for reopening is in L. C. 5@150, p. 345 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 361).] Newdigate Newsletters, 19 Dec. 1691: We heare that the Play house will be againe opened this Night or on Monday & will Continue to Act as formerly and tis S. the Sentinell who discharged his Musquet was tryed by a Court Martial and acquitted (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 82)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr Orphan, See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. Cibber, Apology, I, 183: There is in this Character [Chaplain] (of one Scene only) a decent Pleasantry, and Sense enough to shew an Audience whether the Actor has any himself. Here was the first Applause I ever receiv'd, which you may be sure, made my Heart leap with a higher Joy than may be necessary to describe

Event Comment: An order to pay Mrs Barry #25 for The Orphan (L. C. 5@151, p. 30; Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 358) probably represents payment for the performance on 9 Feb. 1691@2

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: y- Q: a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr Henry 2. [See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352.

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@151, p. 369: ye Q a Box & a Box for ye Maids Honr Fairy Queen. [See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. This play was reprinted in 1693: With Alterations, Additions, and several new Songs. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XII (1903), i.

Event Comment: According to the testimony of Sir Thomas Skipwith, 10 Dec. 1694, the young actors played during the vacation nearly thirty days without Betterton, Williams, Bright, Kinaston, Sandford, or Mrs Betterton, and made sufficient money to keep them over the vacation. L. C. 7@3, 17 Dec. 1694, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 374

Event Comment: During this month the players petitioned against the management of the United Company. See L. C. 7@3, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 368-70

Event Comment: For a meeting of the players and patentees, see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 370-79

Event Comment: On this date Thomas Betterton and his associates received a license to form a company and to act. L. C. 7@1, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 361

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: The Lord Chamberlain, L. C. 7@1--see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 339-hearing that Dogget had left Lincoln's Inn Fields and Verbruggen had left Drury Lane, restated the order against players shifting companies, and ordered that Verbruggen was to stay with Drury Lane until 1 Jan. 1696@7 but that he might enter into agreement with Lincoln's Inn Fields to act there after the close of 1696

Event Comment: Rich's Company was apparently suspended because of its action in allowing John Powell, who had been involved in an altercation with Colonel Stanhope and Charles Davenant, to act before making satisfaction for the incident. See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 368, and Cibber, Apology, II, 20n. The suspension lasted but a day; on 19 May 1698 Powell was forbidden to be received at either Drury Lane or Dorset Garden

Event Comment: See L. C. 7@3 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 382) for an agreement concerning new scenes and machines for a new opera by Settle