Event Comment: The
United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but by 9 May 1693 it had been acted four times (see
Dryden's letter, below); on the other hand, the
Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) had stated that
D'Urfey's new farce would not appear until after
Easter. Hence, it may well have been the first new play after
Passion Week. A dialogue,
Behold, the man with that gigantick might, the music by
Henry Purcell and sung by
Mr Reading and
Mrs Ayliff, is in
Orpheus Britannicus, 1690. See
Purcell's Works,
Purcell Society, XXI (1917), viii-x. A dialogue,
By these pigsnes eyes that stars do seem, the music by
John Eccles and sung by
Dogget and
Mrs Bracegirdle, is in
Joyful Cuckoldom, ca. 1695. Another,
Stubborn church division, folly, and ambition, to a Ground of
Mr Solomon Eccles, is in
Thesaurus Musicus, 1694. And
Maiden fresh as a rose, the verse by D'Urfey and sung by
Pack, but not printed in the play, is in
The Merry Musician, I (1716), 56-57. This last song may have been for a later
revival.
Gentleman's Journal, April 1693 (issued in May 1693): Since my last we have had a Comedy by Mr Durfey; 'tis called the
Richmond Heiress or a Woman once in the right (p. 130).
Dryden to
Walsh, 9 May 1693: Durfey has brought another farce upon the Stage: but his luck has left him: it was sufferd but foure dayes; and then kickd off for ever. Yet his Second Act, was wonderfully diverting; where the scene was in Bedlam: & Mrs Bracegirdle and
Solon [
Dogget] were both mad: the Singing was wonderfully good, And the two whom I nam'd, sung better than
Redding and Mrs Ayloff, whose trade it was: at least our partiality carryed it for them. The rest was woeful stuff, & concluded with Catcalls; for which the two noble
Dukes of Richmond and St@Albans were chief managers (
The Letters of John Dryden, pp. 52-53)