Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first production is not certain, but tradition states that
Dryden died on the third day (1 May 1700); if this report is correct, the first performance occurred on 29 April 1700. In
A Collection of New Songs...Compos'd by Mr Daniel Purcel, Perform'd in the Revis'd Comedy call'd the Pilgrim (1700) is a
song,
Chronos, Chronos, mend thy pace, with
Janus sung by
Freeman,
Momus by
Pate,
Diana by
Mrs Erwin.
Gottfried Finger apparently composed the passage sung by
Venus,
Calms appear when storms are past.
William Egerton,
Faithful Memoirs of...Mrs Anne Oldfield (1731):
The Pilgrim was indeed reviv'd for the Benefit of Mr Dryden, Ann. 1700, but he dying on third Night of its Representation, his
Son attended the Run of it,
and the Advantages accrued to his Family.
Cibber, Apology, I, 269-70: This
Epilogue,
and the
Prologue the same Play [The Pilgrim], written by Dryden, I spoke myself, which not being usually done by the same Per
son, I have a mind, while I think of it, to let you know on what Occasion they both fell to my Share....
Sir John Vanbrugh, who had given some light touches of his Pen to the
Pilgrim to assist the Benefit Day of Dryden, had the Disposal of the Parts,
and I being then as an Actor in some Favour with him, he read the Play first with me alone,
and was pleased to offer me my Choice of what I might like best for myself in it. But as the chief Characters were not (according to my Taste) the most shining, it was no great Self-denial in me that I desir'd he would first take care of those who were more difficult to be pleased; I therefore only chose for myself two short incidental Parts, that of the stuttering
Cook and the
mad Englishman....Sir John, upon my being contented with so little a Share in the Entertainment, gave me the Epilogue to make up my Mess; which being written so much above the Strain of common Authors, I confess I was not a little pleased with.
And Dryden, upon his hearing me repeat it to him, made a farther Compliment of trusting me with the Prologue. Cibber, Apology, I, 305-6: In theYear 1699,
Mrs Oldfield was first taken into the House, where she remain'd about a Twelve-month almost a Mute
and unheeded, 'till Sir John Vanbrugh, who first recommended her, gave her the Part of
Alinda in the Pilgrim revis'd. This gentle Character happily became that want of Confidence which is inseparable from young Beginners, who, without it, seldom arrive to any Excellence: Notwithst
anding, I own I was then so far deceiv'd in my Opinion of her, that I thought she had little more than her Per
son that appear'd necessary to the forming a good Actress; for she set out with so extraordinary a Diffidence, that it kept her too despondingly down to a formal, plain (not to say) flat manner of speaking. Nor could the silver Tone of her Voice 'till after some time incline my Ear to any Hope in he favour.
A Comparison Between the Two Stages (1702), p. 27: [After
Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields had revived
Shakespeare and Johnson] Nay then, says the whole party at
D. Lane, faith we'll e'en put the Pilgrim upon him--ay faith, so we will, says Dryden,
and if youll let my
Son have the Profits of the Third Night, I'll give you a Secular Mask: Done, says the House,
and so the Bargain was struck