Event Comment: John Dryden to Lord Latimer, July 1677: But the Kings Comedy [probably Mr Limberham] lyes in the Sudds till you please to send me into Northamptonshyre: it will be almost such another piece of business as the fond Husband, for such the King will have it, who is parcell poet with me in the plott; one of the designes being a story he was pleas'd formerly to tell me; and therefore I hope he will keep the jeast in countenance by laughing at it...I have a farther honour to beg, that my Tragedy [All for Love], which will be acted at Michaelmasse, & is already written, may have the honour to be addressed to my Lord Treasurer; & that your Lordship and My Lord Mulgrave wil I hope beg together for me (The Letters of John Dryden, ed. Ward, pp. 11-12)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Jacob Tonson, ca. August 1684: I desire to know whether the Dukes house are makeing cloaths & putting things in a readiness for the singing opera [The Tempest?], to be playd immediately after Michaelmasse: for the Actors in the two plays, which are to be acted of mine, this winter [All for Love and The Conquest of Granada], I had spoken with Mr Betterton by chance at the Coffee house the afternoon before I came away: & I believe that the persons were all agreed on, to be just the same you mentioned. Only Octavia was to be Mrs Buttler, in case Mrs Cooke were not on the Stage. And I know not whether Mrs Percivall who is a Comedian, will do so well for Benzayda (Letters of John Dryden, ed. Ward, pp. 23-24)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Jacob Tonson: I have broken off my Studies from The Conquest of China (Letters of John Dryden, p. 97)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Mrs Steward, 26 Nov. 1699: If you come up next Week, you will be entertaind with a New Tragedy; which the Author of it, one Mr Dennis, cryes up at an Excessive rate, & Colonel Codrington, who has seen it, prepares the world to give it loud Applauses. Tis calld Iphigenia, & Imitated from Eurypides, an old Greek poet. This is to be Acted at Betterton's House, & another play of the same name, is very shortly to come on the stage in Drury Lane (The Letters of John Dryden, p. 129)

Event Comment: John Dryden to Mrs Steward, 11 April 1700: Within this Moneth there will be played for my Profit, an old play of Fletcher s, called the Pilgrim, corrected by my good friend Mr Vanbrook; to which I have added A New Masque, & am to write a New Prologue & Epilogue. Southern s tragedy, called the Revolt of Capoua, will be played At Bettertons House within this fortnight. I am out with that Company, & therefore if I can help it, will not read it before tis Acted; though the Authour much disires I shou'd (The Letters of John Dryden, p. 136)

Event Comment: Benefit Thurmond. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. With all the Original Decorations proper to the Play

Event Comment: Sir Samuel Tuke's The Adventures of Five Hours was probably intended to have its first performance on this day. The edition of 1663 reads: The Prologue Enters with a Play-Bill in his hands, and Reads, This day being the 15th of December, shall be Acted a New Play, never Plai'd before, call'd The Adventures of Five Hours. [On the other hand, Evelyn, on 23 Dec. 1662, saw a rehearsal of the comedy, and Pepys, 8 Jan.1662@3, refers to a performance on that day as the first one.

Event Comment: Sir Ralph Verney, 11 May 1670: The King & Duke are at dover...all the Towne is gonn, & the Kings Musicke, & Duke's players, & all the Bravery that could be got on such a sudden (Memoirs of the Verney Family [London, 1899], IV, 201). See also a newsletter, 17 May 1670 (HMC, Fleming MSS. 12th Report, VII, 70)

Event Comment: Sir Charles Lyttleton, 10 Nov. 1677: [The Princess of Orange] is gone to ye play to-night in these and all ye Duchesses jewells (Hatton Correspondence, Camden Society, 1878, XXII, 155). The Prince and Princess had been married on 4 Nov. 1677

Event Comment: Sir Robert Southwell to Edward Southwell, 26 Aug. 1685 (in Morley, Bartholomew Fair, pp. 224-26): I think it not now so proper to quote you verses out of Persius, or to talk of Caesar and Euclide, as to consider the great theatre of Bartholomew Fair....You wou'd certainly see the garboil there to more advantage if Mr Webster and you wou'd read, or cou'd see acted, the play of Ben Jonson, call'd Bartholomew Fair:...The main importance of this fair is not so much for merchandize, and the supplying what people really want; but as a sort of Bacchanalia, to gratify the multitude in their wandring and irregular thoughts. Here you see the rope-dancers gett their living meerly by hazarding of their lives, and why men will pay money and take pleasure to see such dangers, is of separate and philosophical consideration. You have others who are acting fools, drunkards, and madmen, but for the same wages which they might get by honest labour, and live with credit besides. Others, if born in any monstrous shape, or have children that are such, here they celebrate their misery, and by getting of money forget how odious they are made

Event Comment: John Lacy's The Old Troop; or, Monsieur Raggou was probably acted by this time. Not published until 1672, it was, however, referred to in the Epilogue to The Vestal Virgin (which was entered in the Stationers' Register, 7 March 1664@5): @If nothing pleases but Variety,@I'll turn Ragou into a Tragedy.@When Lacy, like a whining Lover dies.

Event Comment: John Evelyn, writing to Viscount Cornbury this day, protested the frequency of theatrical performances during the Lenten "Indiction" after hearing that there was to be "no Lent indicted this year." He wondered if Fridays and Saturdays could not be spared from the licentiousness of plays. (See Diary and Correspondence, ed. Bray III, 150-52.

Event Comment: John Aubrey to Anthony a Wood, 26 Oct. 1671: I am writing a comedy for Thomas Shadwell, which I have almost finished since I came here, et quorum pars magna sui.... And I shall fit him with another, The Countrey Rebell, both humours untoucht, but of this, mum! for 'tis very satyricall against some of my mischievous enemies which I in my tumbling up and down have collected (Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark [Oxford, 1898], I, 52n). See also the season of 1670-71

Event Comment: John Dryden wrote a Prologue to the University of Oxford and an Epilogue to the University of Oxford in 1674. The Prologue was apparently spoken by Hart, the Epilogue by Mrs Marshall. See also Sybil Rosenfeld, Some Notes on the Players in Oxford, 1661-1713, Review of English Studies, XIX (1943), 368

Event Comment: John Perin paid #1 10s. for a booth at the Fair in 1680. See Rosenfeld, Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6

Event Comment: [John Banks's The Island Queens (1684) altered.] And by reason of the extraordinary Charge in the Decoration of it, the Prices will be rais'd, Boxes 5s., Pit 3s., First Gallery 2s., Upper Gallery 1s. At 5:30 p.m

Event Comment: John Vanbrugh to Jacob Tonson (Vanbrugh, Works, IV, 125): The Opera will begin about the 10th of March under the Academy of Musick. It will be a very good one this year, and a better the next. They having engag'd the best Singers in Italy, at a great Price. Such as I believe will bring the Expences to about twice as much as the Receipts. But the fund Subscribed being about #20000, may probably Support it, till Musick takes such root, as to Subsist with less aid. The King gives a #1000 a year to it

Event Comment: [John Baker, Diary, p. 106: "Went apres midi con Uxor in chariot to 'Messiah', could not get seat in Upper Gallery, sat in lower."