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: This performance was attended by Richard Boyle (Diary, Vol. III, Chatsworth, through the courtesy of Professor Kathleen Lynch)

Event Comment: Newsletter, 7 April: Last evening their Majesties were diverted with a comedy acted at St James's by the little young ladies of the Court, who appeared extraordinarily glorious and covered with jewels (HMC, Fleming MSS. 12th Report, VII, 70). This may have been a performance of The Faithful Shepherdess which was entered by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, in his diary, 2 April 1670 [error for 6 April (?)]: I saw Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, and many young ladies act the Faithful Shepherdess very finely (Diary, Volume V, in Chatsworth. I owe this entry to Professor Kathleen Lynch). In Covent Garden Drollery, 1672 (ed. G. Thorn-Drury), p. 68, is an Epilogue spoken by the Lady Mary Mordaunt, before the King and Queen at court, to the Faithful Shepherdess. As Lady Mary was then about twelve, this Epilogue seems to confirm the possibility that the play was The Faithful Shepherdess acted by amateurs

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Comedy [By Francis Lynch]

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

Event Comment: The United Company. Newdigate newsletters, 20 Jan. 1682@3: Yesterday was acted at the Theatre Royall the first of a new play Entituled the City Politiques the novelty of wch drew a Confluence of Spectators under both Qualifications of Whigg and Tory to hear and behold a Ld Mayor Sheriffs & some Aldermen with their wives in yr usuall formalityes buffoond & Reviled a great Lawyer with his young Lady Jeared and Intreagued Dr Oates pfectly represented berogued & beslaved the papist plott Egregiously Rediculed the Irish Testemonyes Contradictiorily disproved & befoold the Whiggs totally vanquished & undon Law & property men oreruld & there wanted nothing of Artifice in behaviour and discourse to render all those obnoxious & dispised in fine such a medly of occurences intervened that twas a question whether more of Loyalty designe or Rhetorique prvailed but there were mighty clappings among the poeple of both partyes in Expressing either their sattisfaction or displeasure (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 81). The Prologue and Epilogue, separately Printed, have 20 Jan. 1682@3 as Luttrell's date of acquisition (Huntington Library) and are reprinted in Wiley's Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 166-69. John Dennis, To Mr --- In which are some Passages of the Life of Mr John Crown, Author of Sir Courtly Nice, June 23, 1719: About that time he writ The City Politicks, on purpose to Satyrize and expose the Whigs; a Comedy so agreeable, that it deserv'd to be writ in a much better Cause: But after he had writ he met with very great Difficulties in the getting it acted. Bennet Lord Arlington, who was then Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold, and who had secretly espous'd the Whigs, who were at that time powerful in Parliament, in order to support himself against the Favour and Power of the Lord Treasurer Danby, who was his declared Enemy, us'd all his Authority to suppress it. One While it was prohibited on the account of its being Dangerous, another while it was laid aside on the pretence of its being Falt and Insipid; till Mr Crown at last was forc'd to have Recourse to the king himself, and to engage him to give his absolute Command to the Lord Chamberlain for the acting of it; which Command the King was Pleas'd to give in his own Person (I, 49-50). Morrice Entry Book, Vol.1 1682@3: Mr Crowne [was cudgled on Wednesday last in St Martin's Lane and] hee that beat him said hee did it at the suite of the Earle of Rochester some time since deceased who greatly abused in the play for his penetency &c. (p. 353. I owe this note to the courtesy of Professor David M. Vieth of the University of Kansas and Professor G. H. Jones of Kansas State University)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by John Delap, based on the Suppliants, by Aeschylus, and the Haraclidae, by Euripides. Prologue by Hester Lynch Thrale (Thraliana, I, 484-85). Epilogue by Arthur Murphy (Murphy, Works, 1786, VII, 57)]: With New Dresses and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 1 Mar. 1781: This Day is published The Royal Suppliants (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #181 10s. 6d. (158.0.0; 22.2.0; 1.8.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Bertie Greatheed. Prologue by the Rev. David Williames. Epilogue by Hester Lynch Piozzi (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 20 May 1788: This Day is published The Regent (1s. 6d.). Afterpiece: Not acted these 12 years [acted 29 May 1779]. "I do think that Mrs Siddons for Vigour of Action, pathetic Tone of Voice, & a sort of Radiance which comes round her in Scenes where strong heroic Virtues are displayed, never had her Equal" (Thraliana, II, 715). Receipts: #226 13s. (211.1; 14.4; O.18; tickets not come in:0.10)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. 1st piece: Never acted in this Theatre. [Prologue by George Colman, elder. Monologue by Hester Lynch Piozzi (European Magazine, May 1797, p. 343).] True Briton, 12 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. "The scenery destroyed much of the effect of the tragedy; for the characters are supposed to be 'steeped in poverty to the very lips;' and yet their apartments would have become a family in the meridian of wealth and prosperity. Mrs Siddons was also too well dressed for Mrs Wilmot" (Monthly Mirror, May 1797, p. 308). "In the scene in which [Mrs Siddons's] son having put into her hands a casket to keep, and she having touched a spring it opens and she sees jewels, her husband (Kemble) enters, and in despair exclaims, 'Where shall we get bread?' With her eyes fixed on the jewels, she runs to him, knocks the casket against her breast and exclaims, 'Here! Here!' In Mrs Siddons's tone and in her look there was an anticipation of the murder which was to take place" (Robinson, I, 39). Receipts: #618 2s. (386.8.6; 43.19.0; 2.4.0; tickets: 185.10.6) (charge: #211 1s.)

Event Comment: Flora's Figarys appears in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 148, under this date. As Flora's Vagaries, it had been acted at Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 Jan. 1663. The play was not published before 1670, and the entry in Herbert's list has sometimes been regarded as the date of licensing, sometimes as the date of a performance in London. Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 427, assigned it to ca. January 1662@3 at Vere St, presumably because "Mr Bird" in the cast in the quarto of 1670 referred to Theophilus Bird, who died before 3 Nov. 1663. But the cast in the edition of 1670 is presumably that for 5 Oct. 1667, when Pepys saw the play and referred to Nell Gwyn and Mrs Knepp as acting in it; they, too, are listed in the quarto of 1670 but could hardly have played in it in 1663. If the cast in the 1670 edition is not that for 3 Nov. 1663 and if the "Mr Bird" is Theophilus Bird Jr, then the obstacles to consiuering 3 Nov. 1663 as the date of a performance rather than of licensing are less formidable. [I am indebted to professor John Harold Wilson for much of this argument.

Event Comment: Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 10 Sept. 1674: This Evening their Maty & Court are diverted by a play Acted by his Royall Hss Servants at Whitehall. [Transcribed by Professor John Harold Wilson.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216: K: & Q:. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. BM Add. Mss. 27, 962v, f. 312 (a transcript of a newsletter by Salvetti), 14 Dec. 1674 (translation): On last Wednesday all the royal family were present at the theatre to hear the tragedy of Hamlet, which, for their greater entertainment, was adorned and embellished with very curious dances between the acts. [I am indebted to Professor George Hilton Jones, Kansas State University, for this item.

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the fact that Narcissus Luttrell purchased a copy on 22 March 1679@80 suggests that the premiere occurred not later than February. A copy, with Luttrell's date of purchase, is in the Ohio State University Library. (I am indebted to Professor J. H. Wilson for this information.