Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Tickets deliver'd by Mrs Lampe, and Mrs Jones, Mrs Masters (formerly Miss Lalauze), Besford, Miss Cranfield, Bates, Widow Wise, Widow Emery, and Ledger, and those deliver'd for She Stoops to Conquer will be taken. Doors open half past 5. To begin at half past 6 o'clock

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 215. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345. Although there is no certainty that this is the premiere, the two performances in early May 1675 suggest that this performance and the two following represent the initial run. Dedication to edition of 1676: If Sophonisba receiv'd some applause upon the stage, I arrogate nothing from the merit of the Poem

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359: Augustus Caesar. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. The music for a song in act I, scene I, was composed by Nicholas Staggins, and printed in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679. There is no certainty that this was the premiere, but it may well have been. The play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1676

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359: The Rivall Queene. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. That this is the premiere is indicated by a letter from the Marquis of Worcester to the Marchioness, 17 March 1676@7: Sir Charles Sedley's Cleopatra has been acted often, and to-day a new play of the death of Alexander, but I have not been to see either, living a mighty drudging life (HMC, 12th Report, Appendix, Beaufort MSS., IX, 66). Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 11), has a cast which agrees (except for omissions) with that in the edition of 1677. Downes adds (p. 16): [Hart in] Alexander, towards the latter End of his Acting; if he Acted in any one of these but once in a Fortnight, the House was fill'd as at a New Play, especially Alexander, he Acting that with such Grandeur and Agreeable Majesty, That one of the Court was pleas'd to Honour him with this Commendation; That Hart might Teach any King on Earth how to Comport himself

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is known from a document in The Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror, July 1816, p. 26, and in Fitzgerald, A New History, I, 145. This document lists the receipts and attendance: The King's box, #1 10s., possibly six persons; Mr Hayles' boxes, #2 16s., possibly 14 persons; Mr Mohun's boxes, #3 16s., possibly 19 persons; Mr Yate's boxes, #1 15s. 6d., possibly 9 persons; James' boxes, #2 4s., possibly 11 persons. Mr Kent's pit, 112 persons; and Mr Britan's pit, 79 persons; a total of 191 persons paying #23 17s. 6d. Mr Bracy's gallery, 100 persons; Mr Johnson's gallery, 44 persons; a total of 144 persons, paying #10 16s. Upper Gallery, 119 persons, paying #5 19s. Mrs Kempton (upper gallery?), 5s. The house rent is listed as #5 14s. The attendance appears to total at least 513 persons. Compare these data with those for 12 Dec. 1677

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: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the entry of this play in the Term Catalogues for November 1680 suggests a first offering in September or October 1680. The music for the play was composed by Henry Purcell, his first (according to Downes composing for the stage. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 38) gives a shortened cast and adds: All the Parts in't being perfectly perform'd, with several Entertainments of Singing; Compos'd by the Famous Master Mr Henry Purcell, (being the first he e'er Compos'd for the Stage) made it a living and Gainful Play to the Company: The Court; especially the Ladies, by their daily charming presence, gave it great Encouragement. Dedication, Edition of 1680: The Reputation that this Play received on the Stage, some few Errors excepted, was more than I could well hope from so Censorious an Age....You [the Duchess of Richmond] brought her Royal Highness just at the exigent Time, whose single Presence on the Poet's day is a Subsistence for him all the Years after. A song, Hail to the myrtle shade, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book (dated 2 Nov. 1680)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The exact date of this performance is not known, but the Prologue refers to "After a four Months Fast," suggesting that the theatre did not reopen until the end of the Long Vacation (24 Oct. 1681 is the beginning of Michaelmas Term). The Epilogue also seems to refer to events at Bartholomew Fair, and the Prologue to the King's visit to Newmarket, from which the King did not return until 12 Oct. 1681. Furthermore, The Impartial Protestant Mercury, No. 54, 28 Oct. 1681, reports: A Revised Play was some days since Acted on an Eminent Publick Theatre, and the Prologue is extreamly talked of. [The periodical reprints some of the lines (which are essentially those in the printed version).] The Loyal Protestant, No. 70, 29 Oct. 1681, refers to the same performance and reprints part of the Epilogue (which also is essentially that of the separately printed Epilogue). All of these elements point to a performance in mid-October. Both the Prologue and the Epilogue were printed separately, and have been reprinted by Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 43-45. Broadside copies of the Prologue and Epilogue in the Huntington Library bear Luttrell's manuscript notations that both were written by Dryden. Luttrell's date of acquisition is 13 Feb. 1681@2, an instance in which Luttrell's date of purchase does not apparently correspond closely to a date of performance

Event Comment: The King's Company. Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 15 Nov. 1681: This being ye Q.s birthday ye K.s players acted Alexdr ye great after wch was a ball & entertainment given to ye Ct. (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 80). Luttrell, 15 Nov. 1681: The 15th, being the birth day of her majestie, was kept with ringing of bells, bonefires, &c.; and at night there was a play acted at Whitehall before the king and queen, where the court appeared in great splendor (A Brief Relation, I, 144). The Earl of Arran to Ormond, 15 Nov. 1681: I am going to a play at court (HMC, Ormonde MSS., New Series, VI, 230). L. C. 5@144, p. 246, 22 Nov. 1681: Whereas Jeoffrey Ayleworth, Thomas ffarmer, Thomas ffinall & Richard Tomlinson foure of his Mates Musitians have neglected their dury in attending at ye play acted before his Mate at Whitehall on Tuesday night last for which I have suspended them (L. C. to the Treasurer of the Chamber, in Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 100)

Event Comment: The United Company. Newdigate newsletters, 28 Nov. 1682: This day was Acted a new play called the Duke of Guise by Mr Dryden it was formerly forbidd as reflecting upon the D of Monmouth but by ye supplication of ye Author its now allowed to be acted (Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 81). The Prologue and Epilogue, separately printed, bear Luttrell's date of acquisition (Huntington Library) as 4 Dec. 1682, but above this date Luttrell has written: "30 Nov." The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 149-52. Dedication, Edition of 1683: In the Representation itself, it was persecuted with so notorious Malice by one side, that it secur'd us the Partiality of the other. In a report from the Abbe Rouchi, in London, 14 Dec. 1682, it is stated that the Duke of Guise was acted three times (Campana de Cavelli, Les Derniers Stuarts [Paris and London, 1871], I, 398). One song, Tell me Thyrsis all your anguish, with music by Captain Pack, is in the edition of 1683 and also in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Fourth Book, 1683

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but Luttrell's copy of the separately printed Prologue and Epilogue bears the date 12 Nov. 1683 (item 87, Sotheby's sale, 12 June 1939), and the premiere probably occurred shortly before that date. A revised version of the Epilogue, correcting errors, appeared almost immediately after the one first published; it bears Luttrell's date of 14 Nov. 1683. The Epilogue, in the revised version, bears the note: Written by Mr Dryden. The Prologue and both versions of the Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 183-87. In addition, a song, Awake O Constantine awake, with music by Thomas Farmer, is in The Theater of Music, 1865; it also appeared in A Collection of the Newest and Choicest Songs, 1864 (which bears Luttrell's date, 10 March 1683@4, Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library)