Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by John O'Keeffe. Altered by the author the following season as The Wicklow Mountains. Dross not listed in Airs, but it is the only other character in Larpent MS 1117]: With new Scenery, Music, and Dresses. The Music partly compiled, and the Overture, new Music, and the Accompanyments to the National Airs, composed by Shield.The Union Pipes and the Harp to be played by Topham and Weippert. The Scenes painted by Richards, Hodgins, Phillips, Hollogan, Blackmore and assistants. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Receipts: #215 (210.18; 4.2)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2. but printed in 3, by John O'Keeffe]: Taken [by its author]. with various Alterations, from the Opera of The Lad of the Hills [see 9 Apr. 1796]. The Music partly compiled, and the Overture, new Music and the Accompaniments to the National Airs, composed by Shield. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Account-Book. 3 Oct.: Paid O'Keeffe for the Alteration of the Lad of the Hills and the Golden Pippin [see 5 Nov.] #100. Receipts: #220 19s. 6d. (209.15.6; 11.4.0)

Event Comment: [By Franz Joseph Haydn; 1st time in London. 1st performed privately in Vienna, 29 Apr. 1798, and in public at the Vienna National Theatre, 19 Mar. 1799.] "Although not equal in grandeur to the divine compositions of the immortal Handel, [it] is, nevertheless, on the whole, a very charming production" (Morning Herald, 29 Mar.). [And see Ashley's note on 2 Apr.

Event Comment: Benefit for the Humane Society. A new grand Commemorative Oratorio [1st time; in two parts], as originally performed by Busby, in aid of the Fund for the Naval Pillar, including the new Music [by Busby: Song and Chorus, From where the sun; Song, To thy brave sons; Recitative and Song, Peace to the soul, Around the ever-honoured urn], introduced in the Grand National Concert, performed the 28th of May, at the Opera House. Leader of the Band-Cramer. Organ-Russell. The performance to be conducted by Busby, who will preside at the Piano Forte. Tickets, at playhouse prices, to be had at all the principal music shops...and of Busby, No. 9, China Terrace, Vauxhall Road. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. "The words [of Part I] are taken entirely from Gray's well-known Pindaric Ode, The Progress of Poesy," with six introductory lines written by John Gretton andthe concluding stanzas by Thomas Dutton; the text of Part II by Gretton (Dramatic Censor, II, 285-86)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known. Pepys saw it on 6 March 1679@80, calling it a "New Play," and that may have been the first day. The Prologue alludes also to the Duke of York's triumphant return from Scotland on 24 Feb. 1679@80, and the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1680. For Mrs Bracegirdle as the "little Girl," see Edmund Curll, History of the English Stage (1741), p. 26, and Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 134. For Betterton as Castalio and Mrs Barry as Monimia, probably as they performed in the next decade, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 116, 160. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37) gives the same cast except for omissions and except for Serina-Mrs Mountfort, who acted it later. Downes (pp. 37-38) adds: [Monimia, Belvidera in Venice Preserved, and Isabella in The Fatal Marriage] These three Parts, gain'd her the Name of Famous $Mrs Barry, both at court and City; for when ever She Acted any of these three Parts, she forc'd Tears from the Eyes of her Auditory, especially those who have any Sense of Pity for the Distress't. These 3 Plays, by their Excellent Performances, took above all the Modern Plays that succeeded. A song for this play, Come all the youths whose hearts have bled, the music by Forcer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first production is not known. Although the play was not entered in the Term Catalogues until May 1681, Wilson (Six Restoration Play-Dates, p.222) has argued that the reference in the Prologue to the young men (presumably Gray, Goodman, and Clarke; see February 1679@80) who had gone to Scotland and returned empty-handed suggests a performance near March 1680, when these references would have more point than they would have a year later

Event Comment: New Pantomime with Songs by Dr Arne; Scenes in Scotland; background of defeat of the rebellion (Biographia Dramatica). Scenes and Decorations New. No persons can be admitted behind the Scenes

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these two years. [See 31 Dec. 1768.] Afterpiece: A Musical Entertainment [by Isaac Bickerstaffe] never acted there. [Letter from Henry Woodward, Clement's Inn, says he fulfilled his seven years engagement and is now going to Scotland with Foote and next to the Hay Market. No direct application was made to re-engage him at Covent Garden or he was ready to meet it (Winston MS 10)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; past 2, by Richard Tickell]: Altered from [the same, by] Allan Ramsay. [MS not in Larpent; not published.] With the original Airs, new Accompaniments, and a new Overture [by Thomas Linley, Sen.]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "The above Opera, written by Allen Ramsay, has been long and justly admired, but by those only whose knowledge of the Scottish dialect has enabled them to judge of its excellencies. That an English audience might become partakers of this entertainment seems to have been the laudable design of the Dramatist, Mr Tickel, in now divesting it of its numerous provincialities, grown almost obsolete, even in Scotland, at this distant period . . . The characters were drest with a rustic simplicity, which, tho' not exactly characteristic of the Highland manner, were perfectly Pastoral" (Universal Magazine, Nov. 1781, p. 237). Receipts: #202 9s. 6d. (167/18/0; 33/3/0; 1/8/6)

Event Comment: "A to the dresses [in afterpiece], they almost as nearly resemble the habits of the peasantry of Russia as of Scotland" (Morning Chronicle, 29 Sept.). Receipts: #201 12s. 6d. (160.10.0; 40.11.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: The Prologue, extant in a broadside in the Worcester College Library, appears to represent a performance occuring before the end of 1660. It has been reprinted by Noyes, Ben Jonson, pp. 105-6, and by Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 16-17. The King's Company

Event Comment: Diary of Richard Boyle, Volume III, in the Duke of Devonshire's Library in Chatsworth: the new play caled the Indian Queen. [I am indebted to Professor Kathleen Lynch for this notice.

Event Comment: The King's Company, presumably. For a version of this play, see R. G. Howarth, "A Manuscript of James Shirley's Court Secret," Review of English Studies, VII (1931), 302-13. The manuscript is in the Worcester College Library (Plays 9. 21). Pepys, Diary: My wife going to-day to dine with Mrs Pierce, and thence with her and Mrs Clerke to see a new play, The Court Secret. [The play had not been acted before the Restoration.

Event Comment: A proclamation forbidding the keeping of Bartholomew Fair (and Sturbridge Fair in Salisbury) is in the Chetham Library, Manchester. A similar notice is in The Newes, 17 August 1665. No doubt, Southwark Fair fell under a similar closing order

Event Comment: Henry Muddiman, 29 Nov. 1666: The Players have upon great proffers of disposing a large share to charitable uses prevailed to have liberty to act at Both Houses, which they begin this day (CSPD, Charles II, clxxcii, 6, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 250). A manuscript prologue for the opening of the theatre in Bridges Street is in J. Payne Collier's MS Restoration Stage History, Part I, p. 106, in the Houghton Library, Harvard. The Diary of John Milward, Esq., ed. Caroline Robbins (Cambridge, 1938), p. 49: This day at my coming to the House [of Commons] it moved that plays might be tolerated and acted in the common theatres, and whether any members of the House of Commons should be admitted to go to acts of the playhouses, but it was not resolved

Event Comment: The King's Company. For an edition of this play from the MS prompt copy, see The Change of Crownes, ed. F. S. Boas (Oxford University Press, 1949). For the consequences of Lacy's ad libbing, see 16, 20, and 22 April, and 1 May. Pepys, Diary: I to the King's house by chance, where a new play: so full as I never saw it; I forced to stand all the while close to the very till I took cold, and many people went away for want of room. The King and Queene, and Duke of York and Duchesse of York there, and all the Court, and Sir W. Coventry. The play called The Change of Crownes; a play of Ned Howard's the best that ever I saw at that house, being a great play and serious; only Lacy did act the country-gentleman come up to Court, who do abuse the Court with all the imaginable wit and plainness about selling of places, and doing every thing for money. The play took very much.... Gervase Jaquis to the Earl of Huntington, 16 April: Here is another play house erected in Hatton buildings called the Duke of Cambridgs play-house, and yester-day his Matie the Duke & many more were at the King's Playe house to see some new thing Acted (Hastings MSS, HA 7654, Huntington Library)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. Gervase Jaquis to the Earl of Huntington, 7 May: Upon monday last the Duchesse of Newcastl's play was Acted in the theater in Lincolns Inne field the King and the Grandees of the Court being present and soe was her grace and the Duke her husband (Hastings MS., Ha 7657, Huntington Library)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage," p. 13. Diary of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington: Heer dined with mee my lord of Canterbury my ld Sandwich and my brother and sister Orrery, and in the afternoone wee all went but his Grace to see my brothers new play cald Tryphon which was much applauded (Volume IV, in the Library at Chatsworth. This excerpt supplied by Kathleen Lynch). Pepys, Diary: My wife tells me of my Lord Orrery's new play "Tryphon," at the Duke of York's house...and [we] went thither, where, with much ado, at half-past one, we got into a blind hole in the 18d. place, above stairs, where we could not hear well, but the house infinite full, but the prologue most silly, and the play, though admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same design, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have, any one of which alone would be held admirable, whereas so many of the same design and fancy do but dull one another; and this, I preceive, is the sense of every body else, as well as myself, who therefore showed but little pleasure in it