Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but
Luttrell's copy (
Huntington Library) of the play bears the date of acquisition 3 June [1690, apparently], and the play was advertised in the
London Gazette, No 2566, 12-16 June 1690. See
Fredson Bowers,
A Bibliographical History of the Fletcher-Betterton Play, The Prophetess, 1690,
The Library, 5th Series, XVI (1961), 169-75. It seems likely that the opera was first given early in June 1690. An edition of
The Vocal and Instrumental Musick of The Prophetess appeared in 1691. See
Works of Henry Purcell,
Purcell Society, IX.
Downes (
Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42):
The Prophetess, or Dioclesian an Opera, Wrote by
Mr Betterton; being set out with Coastly Scenes, Machines and Cloaths: The Vocal and Instrumental Musick, done by
Mr Purcel; and Dances by
Mr Priest; it gratify'd the Expectation of Court and City; and got the Author great Reputation. [See also
R. E. Moore,
Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theater (
Cambridge, Mass., 1961), Chapter V; and
E. W. White,
Early Theatrical Performances of Purcell's Operas,
Theatre Notebook, XIII (1958-59), 44.]
The Muses' Mercury (January 1707, pp. 4-5): This prologue was forbidden to be spoken the second Night of the Representation of the
Prophetess.
Mrs Shadwell was the occasion of its being taken notice of by the Ministry in the last Reign: He happen'd to be at the House on the first Night, and taking the beginning of the Prologue to have a double meaning, and that Meaning to reflect on the Revolution, he told a Gentleman, He would immediately Put a stop to it. When that Gentleman ask'd, Why he wou'd do the Author such a Disservice? He said, Because while
Mr Dryden was
Poet Laureat, he wou'd never let any Play of his be Acted. Mr
Shadwell informed the Secretary of State of it, and representing it in its worst Colours, the Prologue was never Spoken afterwards, and is not printed in Mr Dryden's Works, or his Miscellanies.
Cibber, Apology (ed.
Lowe, II, 13-14): A Prologue (by Dryden) to the Prophetess was forbid by the
Lord Dorset after the first War in
Ireland. It must be confess'd that this
Prologue had some familiar, metaphorical Sneers at
the Revolution itself; and as the Poetry of it was good, the Offence of it was less pardonable