Event Comment: Benefit for Wild (prompter) and Miss Brown. Mrs Barry's indisposition prevents her appearing in the character of Athenais

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Brown. The Words of the Pastoral Dialogue to be had Gratis at the Theatre. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. Receipts: #244 6s. 6d. (167.1.6; tickets: 77.5.0) (charge: #64 10s.)

Event Comment: A new Tragedy. [By Anthony Brown.] A Compleat List (1747), pp. 182-83: With no Success, which the Friends of the Author imputed in a great Measure to Mr Quin's refusing to act a Part in it; whereupon, to shew their Resentment, he did not appear on the Stage for some Nights without being hissed or houted at

Event Comment: New Tragedy by John Brown never Acted before (playbill). This author is conceal'd, but is it ye first dramatic piece he ever wrote-Great Applause and deservedly (Cross). Receipts: #160 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit William Turner. Tickets 3s. 6d. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: The date of the first performance is not certainly known, but Pepys, on 2 July, saw Part II, stating that 2 July was the premiere of Part I and the opening of the Duke's Company's new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 20-21): His [Davenant's] Company Rehears'd the First and Second Part of the Siege of Rhodes...at Pothecaries-Hall: And in Spring 1662 [1661], Open'd his House with the said Plays, having new Scenes and Decorations, being the first that e're were Introduc'd in England....All Parts being Justly and Excellently Perform'd; it continu'd Acting 12 Days without Interruption with great Applause. Downes, p. 34: I must not forget my self, being Listed for an Acotr in Sir William Davenant's Company in Lincolns-Inn-Fields: The very first Day of opening the House there, with the Siege of Rhodes, being to Act Haly; (The King, Duke of York, and all the Nobility in the House, and the first time the King was in a Publick Theatre). The sight of that August presence, spoil'd me for an Actor too. HMC, 10th Report, Appendix, Part IV, p. 21: @For the Siege of Rhodes all say@It is an everlasting play@Though they wonder now Roxalana is gon@What shift it makes to hold out so long@For when the second part took, butt for Bully@The first did not satisfie so fully.@ [Presumably this verse was written after Mrs Davenport left the stage, in 1662(?).

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To Sir William Davenant's Opera; this being the fourth day that it hath begun, and the first that I have seen it. To-day was acted the second part of The Siege of Rhodes. We staid a very great while for the King and the Queen of Bohemia. And by the breaking of a board over our heads, we had a great deal of dust fell into the ladies' necks and the men's hair, which made good sport. The King being come, the scene opened; which indeed is very fine and magnificent, and well acted, all but the Eunuch, who was so much out tha he was hissed off the stage

Event Comment: See Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 169, for a fee of #20 paid to Sir William Davenant's@company, the receipt being signed by Richard Baddeley; and for #1 5s. for baize to cover the stage and scenes. The play may well have been Love and Honour

Event Comment: This play is in Herbert, Dramatic Records p. 118: Cornelia a New Play, sir W. Bartleys. The date in Herbert is 1 June, a Sunday in 1662, with another play in the same group falling on Sunday. Nevertheless, the verse comment (see below) written, apparently, before the summer of 1662 points toward 2 June 1662 rather than 1 June 1663. Edward Browne also lists it as one of the plays he attended. The play was not printed. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @For Cornelia they all doe say@There was abundance of witt in the play@Indeed t'had soe much t' was the worse for 't@For t' was to witty for the vulgar sort@And they who'd have poetts their Benefactors@Say witt without mony's naught for the Actors.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This apparently was not the first performance, but the time of premiere is not known. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I and Mercer to the Duke's house, and there saw The Rivalls, which is no excellent play, but good acting in it; especially Gosnell comes and sings and dances finely, but, for all that, fell out of the key, so that the musique could not play to her afterwards, and so did Harris also go out of the tune to agree with her. Downes (p. 23): The Rivals, A Play, Wrote by Sir William Davenant; having a very Fine Interlude in it, of Vocal and Instrumental Musick, mixt with very Diverting Dances: M Price introducing the Dancing, by a short Comical Prologue, gain'd him an Universal Applause of the Town....And all the Womens Parts admirably Acted; chiefly Celia, a Shepherdess being Mad for Love; especially in Singing several Wild and Mad Songs

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. An entry in the journal of William Hamon--see also Late January 1664--refers to a performance ca. 6 Jan. 1664@65: Item given my 4 sistars for the Rivalls 00 06 00 (Folger MS. v. a. 422)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. The date on the list seems to be "3," but as this is a Sunday, it is more likely "9." This performance may well be the one to which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31) refers: Note, Mr Cademan in this Play [The Man's the Master], not long after our Company began in Dorset-Garden; his Part being to Fight with Mr Harris, was Unfortunately, with a sharp Foil pierc'd near the Eye, which so Maim'd both the Hand and his Speech, that he can make little use of either; for which Mischance, he has receiv'd a Pension ever since 1673, being 35 Years a goe. [For a discussion of this accident, see William VanLennep, Henry Harris, Actor, Friend of Pepys, Studies in English Theatre History (London, 1952), p. 16, and the entry under 20 Aug. 1673.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Sometime in September Nell Gwyn attended this play, but the document listing her attendance is mutilated and the exact date is lost. See William VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing at the King's Expence, Harvard Library Bulletin, IV (1950), 406

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twelve Years. Written by Sir William D'Avenant, and carefully revised. Receipts. #28 7s. 6d

Event Comment: Not Acted these Sixteen Years. For the Entertainment of his Excellency Sid Mahomet Ben Ali Abogly, Ambassador from the Emperor of Morocco. Written by Sir William D'Avenant, and very carefully revis'd with Alterations. Receipts: #31 9s. 6d

Event Comment: As altered by Mr Dryden and Sir William Davenant from Shakespear

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Comedy [in 5 Acts by Sir William Davenant, slightly altered for the stage by Henry Woodward] never acted there. [The lady identified by Hopkins MS Notes and named in the Edition of 1775. The Westminster Magazine for Nov. suggests Shuter instead of Quick for Sancho. The review thought it an indifferent Comedy which "yet could be made a most excellent farce....The dialogue has all the rust of antiquity about it, and the modernizing scenes are left to the discretion of the performers. However, in representation, this piece cannot fail of entertaining....Miss Leeson, who appeared in the character of Isabella, has an agreeable plaasing figure, a good face and a marking eye; her voice is weak, but after she got rid of her fright was sufficiently articulate; there was an ease and nature in her deportment and dialogue that entitles her to encouragement."

Event Comment: Benefit for Edwin. 2nd piece [1st time; F 2, by George Colman, elder, based of L'Avocat Patelin, by David Augustin de Brueys. This is usually ascribed to William Macready. But on the title-page of his copy (K-D 295 in Huntington Library) J. P. Kemble has written "This Piece was not written by Mr Macready." Public Advertiser, 29 Aug. states that "Colman...presented Edwin upon this occasion with a new Farce, taken from a celebrated French Play." World, 15 Oct. 1787 refers to Colman's dislike of L'Avocat Patelin, but adds, "When [he] came to translate it himself, he found reason to alter his opinion."]. Public Advertiser, 25 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Edwin, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden

Event Comment: Music by Fisher. The whole to conclude with a Capital Scene by Servandoni. Books of the Songs, Chorusses &c. [of the afterpiece] to be had at the Theatre. [Customary note on all succeeding bills advertising the Sylphs this season. Mrs Williams was probably Mrs Willems.

Event Comment: [Mrs Brown is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1790 season.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Dramatic Poem, Never Performed [written on the model of a Greek Tragedy by William Mason]. The Overture and all the Music entirely New Composed by Dr Arne. With New Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations (playbill). Altered by Colman to Mason's distress. (Biographia Dramatica). Books of the Chorus to be had at the Theatre. Rec'd from Bensley on account of Cash advanc'd last season #100 (Account Book). Receipts: #201 12s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With alterations by the author [William Mason]. The Overture and all the new Music composed by Giardini.[On playbill of 27 Feb.: With a New Scene painted by Richards.] Public Advertiser, 23 Feb. 1779: This Day at Noon is published Elfrida (price not listed). [Afterpiece: Prologue by the author (New Spouter's Companion, c. 1798, p. 59).