Event Comment: Paid salary list 3 days at #72 4s. 1d. per diem #216 12s. 3d.; Mr Weston on his note #5 5s.; Mrs Abington 3 first days not on list #2 10s. (Treasurer's Book). [From a long review in the Public Advertiser 3 Oct.: Two new performers in parts very difficult to execute-Mr Cautherly a pupil of the greatest master of the art of acting that ever graced the English stage (if not European)...has this summer convinced us that he is susceptible of the most refined instructions of his great patron and tutor. Of the Lady, I can say nothing prior to her appearance 30 Sept. as I am noways acquainted with her history any more than that by declaration of common report; she is the spouse of the brother of that Mr Barry who has so greatly pleas'd the town this summer at the Opera House." [Comments on her figure, voice and countenance well adapted to express the stronger passions.] She seemed to be so much in love with Romeo as to forget she represented a young and inexperienced virgin unused to men...The first scene of consequence is the Masquerade scene, which was as to business very badly conducted; but this, I doubt not will be rectified another night, they were discovered in disorder and they went off in confusion. It appeared a tumultous assembly rather than a Masquerade of nobility in an Italian Palace. Romeo stayed so long behind the crow that he was oblig'd to run to his station opposite Juliet to be in time for "Cousin Benvolio, do you mark that lady." [A long and detailed review of the stage action act by act.] In the Garden scene an unlucky accident happened to Cautherly...his nose ran with blood and he was oblig'd to keep his handkerchief to his nose all through, which was a great loss to the audience...The Apothecary is the best figure I ever saw, and spoke more sensibly than I ever heard an apothecary speak in my life. Mr Castle has rescued that character from ridicule, and worked by pity what buffoonery used to run off with-applause." Receipts: #145 11s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book.

Event Comment: The proclamation against plays and interludes at bf was printed again in the London Post, 7-9 Aug. 1700. Nevertheless, entertainment occurred at the Fair: Flying Post, 13-15 Aug. 1700: At Barns's and Findley's Booth, between the Crown-Tavern and the Hospital-Gate, over-against the Cross Daggers in West-Smithfield (during the usual Time of Bartholomew Fair)...Four of the most Famous Companies ever in England, who perform such Curiosities in Dancing, Tumbling, and Vaulting, far surpassing any ever yet seen. Post Boy, 17-20 Aug. 1700: At the Monument Booth, over against the Fleece and Seven Stars, near the Crown Tavern in West Smithfield, will be perform'd by the famous Dutch Womans Companies of Rope-Dancers, at the same Ground where she was last Year

Event Comment: Benefit for the Subscription opened in favour of the West India Sufferers [from two hurricanes that had devastated the West Indies on 3 and 10 Oct. 1780]

Event Comment: At Mr Croome's, at the Sign of the Shoe and Slap, near the Hospital Gate in West Smithfield, is to be seen, The Wonder of Nature, A Girl, above Sixteen Years of Age, born in Chesire, and not above Eighteen Inches long, having shed the Teeth seven several Times, and not a perfect Bone is any part of her, only the Head; yet she hath all senses to Admiration, and Discourses, Reads very well, Sings, Whistles, and all very pleasant to hear. Sept. 4, 1667. God Save the King. (Henry Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 189)

Event Comment: This work is advertised in The Loyal Protestant 22, 27, and 29 Aug. 1682: at Mrs Saffry's, a Dutch Woman's booth, over against the Greyhound Inne in West Smithfield. [Her first announcement calls the company "By an Approved Company"; the other two notices refer to it as "the first New-market Company." See Rosenfeld, The Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6.] John Coysh paid #6 for a booth at the Fair (Rosenfeld, The Theatre of the London Fairs, p. 6). See also Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, p. 222, for notice of the Indian Water Worksv. In Wit and Drollery (1682), p. 304, are verses on the Fair: @Here's the Whore of Babylon the Devil and the Pope,@The Girl is just agoing on the Rope@Here's Dives and Lazarus and the World's Creation,@Here's the Tall Dutch Woman the like's not in the Nation,@Here is the Booth where the High-Dutch Made is@Hear are the Bears that dance like any Ladies,@Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat says the little penny Trumpet@Here's Jacob Hall, that does so jump it, jump it.@Sound Trumpet Sound, for Silver Spoon and Fork,@Come here's your dainty Pit and Pork.@ [See also August 1680.

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 68: The King and Queene & a Box for ye Maydes of Honor at the Opera. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 350, and 1 Jan. 1684@5. The opera was certainly given on 3 June, probably on 10 June, and probably on 13 June, the day that the news of the Duke of Monmouth's landing reached London; as Downes states that it was acted six times, there were three additional performances between 3 and 13 June 1685. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 40): In Anno 1685. The Opera of Albion and Albanius was perform'd; wrote by Mr Dryden, and Compos'd by Monsieur Grabue: This being perform'd on a very Unlucky Day, being the Day the Duke of Monmouth, Landed in the West: The Nation being in a great Consternation, it was perform'd but Six times, which not Answering half the Charge they were at, Involv'd the Company very much in Debt. Roger North: The first full opera that was made and prepared for the stage, was the Albanio of Mr Grabue, in English, but of a French genius. It is printed in full score, but proved the ruin of the poor man, for the King's death supplanted all his hopes, and so it dyed (Roger North on Music, ed. John Wilson [London, 1959], p. 311). The Prologue and Epilogue, published separately, are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 244-46. The score and the libretto were published in 1687 (licensing date of 15 March 1686@7): Albion and Albanius; An Opera; Or, Representation in Musick. Set by Lewis Grabu, Esq; Master of His late Majesty's Musick

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but a broadside copy of the Epilogue, in the Bodleian Library, has a licensing date of 20 Aug. 1685, a MS date of 24 Aug. 1685. The play was licensed on 11 Sept. 1685. These dates suggest a premiere in mid-to late-August 1685. For Anne Bracegirdle as Clita and speaker of the Epilogue, see Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 135. The Prologue and Epilogue, separately printed, are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 239-41. The broadside Prologue has a more detailed heading than that in the edition of 1686: Prologue To A Commonwealth of Women, Spoke by Mr Haynes, Habited like a Whig, Captain of the Scyth-men in the West, a Scythe in his Hand. Two songs, set by Samuel Ackroyde, are in The Theater of Musick, The Third Book, 1686

Event Comment: London Gazette, No 2533, 17-20 Feb. 1689@90: The Musick-Meeting that was lately held in Villers-street in York-Buildings, is removed to Exeter Change in the Strand; the Entrance is at the West-door of the said Exchange; and will begin at the Hours as formerly, every Monday