Event Comment: No Money to be returned. Boxes 6s. Second Price 3s. Pit 3s. 6d. Second Price 2s. Gallery 2s. Second Price 1s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Brandon (only) at the office in Hart-street. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 27 Nov.]. Receipts: #270 18s. (267.8; 3.10)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Henry James Pye. Prologue by William Sotheby; Epilogue by John Taylor (see text)]: With new Dresses and Decorations. "From the first drawing up of the curtain, till its final fall, we could not discover one single flight of fancy, one solitary scene of woe...It is but justice to add that for a first night the performers, with the exception of Barrymore, were very perfect in their respective parts [and see 27 Jan.]" (Dramatic Censor, I, 175, 181). Receipts: #309 13s. (246.4.6; 61.0.6; 2.8.0)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play has generally been assigned to June 1669, partly on the basis of a suit--see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, pp. 252-53, 348-55-over a scene for it which Isaac Fuller, the scene designer, states was finished by 23 June 1669. The suit also states that the play ran for fourteen days, but it is not certain that the theatres played on consecutive days in the summer. The play has been assigned to 24 June 1669 on the basis of a letter from Charles II to Princess Henriette-Anne, dated 24 June [1669]: I am just now going to a new play that I heare very much commended (Cyril Hughes Hartmann, Charles II and Madame [London, 1934], p. 259). Elizabeth Cottington to Herbert Aston, ca. May 1669: Wee ar in expectation still of Mr Draidens play. Ther is a bowld woman [Aphra Behn (?)] hath oferd one: my cosen Aston can give you a better account of her then I can. Some verses I have seen which ar not ill; that is commentation enouf: she will think so too, I believe, when it comes upon the ptage. I shall tremble for the poor woman exposed among the critticks (Arthur Clifford, Tixall Letters [London, 1815], II, 60)

Event Comment: [Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 4 Feb. 1674@5: Tuesday night after Counsell their Maties & Court were present at the Rehearsal of the great Maske wch is to be publiquely acted on Shrove Tuesday; by wch tyme her Royall Highness will be able to be present at it, being already very well after her Lying in, as is also ye young princess (Wilson, Theatre Notes, p. 79). The Bulstrode Papers (1, 277): 8 Feb. 1674@5: On Wed night after Councell their Maties and Royal Highnesses were present at the rehearsall of the Great Maske wch will be publiquely acted on Tuesday 7 night next. [The two sources agree on the intended date of the performance but disagree upon the date of the rehearsal.

Event Comment: On this date the masque was certainly acted, and the possible performance on 15 Feb. 1674@5 may have been a final rehearsal. Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library): This day the great maske at court is publiquely acted wch is intended to exceed all others of that Nature, the 2 young Princesses, the Duke of Monmouth & all ye principall persons of quality abt ye Court having parts in it (Wilson, Theatre Notes, p. 79). The Bulstrode Papers (1, 277): 15 Feb. 1674@5: To-morrow the great mask at Court is to be publickly acted in all its bravery and pompe, the like of whch was never yett seene, all the greatest persons of quality about Court having pts in it

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but a licensing date of 28 March 1678 suggests a first performance not later than February 1678. One song, One night while all the village slept, with music by Louis Grabu and words by Sir Car Scroop, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 17): Major Mohun...[in] Mithridates, &c. An Eminent Poet seeing him Act this last, vented suddenly this Saying: Oh Mohun, Mohun! Thou little Man of Mettle, if I should write a 100 Plays, I'd Write a Part for thy Mouth; in short, in all his Parts, he was most Accurate and Correct. [Downes, p. 12, gives an identical cast except for omissions.] Princess Anne apparently played Ziphares and Frances Apsley played Semandra in a production of this drama, probably at St James's Palace or at Sir Allen Apsley's house in St James's Square, between January 1677@8 and August 1679. See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), p. 61

Event Comment: Apparently The Man of Mode had an amateur revival in Brussels in the autumn, possibly before the Duke and Duchess of York, when they were away from London. Princess Anne to Frances Apsley, 3 Oct. 1679: The play is practisde to night Miss Watts is to be Lady townly which part I beleeve wont much become her. [See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), pp. 111-12]

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This is another in the series of Court performances in L. C. 5@145, p. 120. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350, and 11 Feb. 1679@80. It should be noted that not only is this date a Friday in Lent but it is also during the period of mourning for the Princess Elizabeth. Yet to place this performance in 1681 would make it fall on Sunday

Event Comment: London Gazette, No 2651, 6-9 April 1691: The Consort of Vocal and Instrumental Musick lately held in York-Buildings, will be performed again (at the same place and hours as formerly) on Monday next (being Easter-Monday) by the Command, and for the Entertainment, of her Royal Highness the Princess of Denmark

Event Comment: The United Company. Newdigate newsletters, 11 June 1692: And on Monday [the Princess Anne] comes to see the new opera (Wilson, More Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 59)

Event Comment: London Gazette, No. 3264, 18-22 Feb. 1696@7: On Wednesday next, being the 24th instant, will be performed at York Buildings, a New Song Set by Signior Baptist, for the Birth Day of Her Royal Highness the Princess, and by Her Royal Highness's Command

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but it cannot be later than December 1698, for the play was advertised in the Post Man, 27-29 Dec. 1698. The play may have been produced earlier in the season, but it apparently followed the two operatic works (The Island Princess and Rinaldo and Armida), as the Epilogue alludes to the "late Singers." It also refers to Sigismondo Fideli, as being lately arrived, and he is known to have given a concert on 22 Dec. 1698

Event Comment: James Brydges, Diary: I set Mr Bullock down at ye Playhouse, & came home (Huntington MS St 26). John Dryden wrote to Mrs Steward on 23 Feb. [1699@1700, but possibly 1698@99, as the letter concerns theatrical affairs of the autumn and winter of 1698-99]: The Poem of The Confederates [see The Island Princess, November 1698] some think to be Mr Walsh: the copies are both lik'd. And there are really two factions of ladyes, for the two play-houses. If you do not understand the names of some persons mention'd I can help you to the knowledge of them. You know, Sir Tho. Skipwith is master of the play-house in Drury-Lane; and my Lord Scarsdale is the patron of Betterton's house, being in love with somebody there [presumably Anne Bracegirdle] (The Letters of John Dryden, p. 133)

Event Comment: Receipts: #147 3s. 6d. Signora Schiavonetti is announced as in the Service of her Highness the Princess Sophia of Hanover

Event Comment: By Command. The two young Princesses present

Event Comment: By His Royal Highness's Command. Written by Beaumont and Fletcher. [The Princess present.

Event Comment: By His Royal Highness's Command. [For the Princess' attendance at this play, see Diary of Mary Countess Cowper, pp. 46-47.

Event Comment: To all the Nobility, Gentlemen, and Ladies. At 7 p.m. Weekly Journal, 2 July: The Pleasure that our English People of Quality took, in being acquainted, that a Gentleman of ours, the curious Mr Abel, hath brought over hither all the most delicate Entertainments...made them last Thursday, for his Encouragement, flock in abundance to his Concert...among whom were the Princess of Wales, who went Incognito, besides several of the Nobility, and other Persons of Quality

Event Comment: Not Acted these Ten Years. Written Originally by Beaumont and Fletcher, and since Revis'd

Event Comment: Benefit Dupre. The Princesses Anna and Amelia present

Event Comment: Benefit Giorgio Giacomo Beswilleball, Servant to his Serene Highness the Margrave of Brandenburgh Anspach, Brother to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. Tickets 5s. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Dupre. By Command. For the Entertainment of the Young Princesses

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Written by Beaumont and Fletcher. [The Princess present.

Event Comment: Steele wrote a Prologue for the opening, but the Lord Chamberlain had already engaged one by Tickell. For Steele's Prologue, see Blanchard, Occasional Verse of Richard Steele, p. 49: for Tickell's, see R. E. Tickell, pp. 231-32. Original Weekly Journal, 27 Sept.: His Majesty beheld the Performance with much Satisfaction. The young Princesses were present, and a very great Concourse of Nobility and Gentry

Event Comment: Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 4 Oct.: His Majesty, and their Highnesses the Young Princesses were at the Play...the House being very full