Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. There is considerable uncertainty as to when the first performance occurred, but it appears to have been acted first at court. See Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, pp. 131-34. The first Prologue, written by Lord Mulgrove, and the second, written by Lord Rochester, are in A Collection of Poems Written upon several Occasions by several Persons (1673). Roger North: And now we turne to the Publik theatres. It had bin strange if they had not observed this promiscuous tendency to musick, and not have taken it into their scenes and profited by it. The first proffer of theirs, as I take it, was in a play of the thick-sculd-poetaster Elkanah Settle, called The Empress of Morocco; which had a sort of masque poem of Orfeus and Euridice, set by Mr M. Lock, but scandalously performed. It begins The Groans of Ghosts, &c. and may be had in print (Roger North on Music, ed. John Wilson [London, 1959], p. 306)

Event Comment: Nahum Tate published a poem The Battle of the B@@d's in the Theatre Royal Dec. 3, 1680, in Poems Written on Several Occasions, 2d edition, 1684, pp. 153-54

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. There may have been a revival of Oedipus in the summer of 1696. In Francis Manning's Poems upon Several Occasions and to Several Persons (1701) there is a poem To Mr Betterton, Acting Oedipus King of Thebes. The first stanza describes the splendor of the installation of the Duke of Gloucester as a Knight of the Garter, an event which occurred at Windsor Castle in July 1696; but there is no certainty that Betterton's performance occurred before that date. It should be noted also that the play was reprinted in 1696

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. It is uncertain whether this performance and those for 13 and 28 March belong to 1670@1 or 1671@2. They are on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347), but VanLennep's discovery of an L. C. list for the Duke's Company covering March 1670@1 but not including these plays led him to believe that they Pertain to March 1671@2. See VanLennep, Plays on the English Stage, p. 19. On 9 March 1670@1 or 1671@2 Henry Herbert qranted permission to the Duke's Company to act The Lady Errant. See The Plays and Poems of William Cartwright, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Madison, Wisc., 1951), p. 85

Event Comment: The United Company. An order, 9 Feb. 1683@4, in L. C. 5@145, p. 14 (Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 356), and another, L. C. I, specify requirements for a play to be acted at Whitehall on 11 Feb. 1683@4, and name Valentinian as the drama. The first Prologue and the Epilogue Written by a Person of Quality were printed separately; Luttrell's copy (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library) is dated 20 Feb. 1683@4. They are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 249-51. It is not certain on what date the first performance occurred, for premieres at court are quite rare in the Restoration period. In Nahum Tate's Poems by Several Hands (1685): Sir Francis Fane: A Masque Made at the Request of the Earl of Rochester, for the Tragedy of Vadentinian. Downes (p. 40): The well performance, and the vast Interest the Author made in Town, Crown'd the Play, with great Gain of Reputation; and Profit to the Actors. For an intended cast of Rochester's alteration of the play by John Fletcher, see the introductory note to the season of 1675-76. In A Pastoral in French by Lewis Grabu (published in 1684; advertised in the London Gazette, No. 1947, 17 July 1684) are two songs for this play for which Grabu apparently composed the music: Injurious charmer of my vanquished heart and Kindness hath resistless charms. In Choice Ayres and Songs, The Fourth Book, 1684, is: A new Song in the late reviv'd Play, call'd Valentinian: Where would coy Aminta run [the composer of the music not being indicated]

Event Comment: The data in Langhans, New Restoration Theatre Accounts, pp. 130-31, leave the acting days uncertain. Between 13 May 1689 and 7 Dec. 1689 the company acted on 91 days. It then played regularly through 8 Feb. 1689@90, and acted on 83 days (out of a possible 84) between 10 Feb. and 7 June, on 8 days from 13 June through 4 July 1690. In Poems on Affairs of State= (Fifth Edition, 1703), I, ii, 238, is A Prologue spoken by Mr Mountfort, after he came from the Army, and Acted on the Stage (see also A. S. Borgman, The Life and Death of William Mountfort [Cambridge, Mass., 1935], p. 55). The date at which Mountfort spoke this Prologue is not certain, but he was certainly in London ca. Tuesday 15 Oct. 1689 when he was involved in a disagreement within the United Company. See L. C. 5@192, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 334n

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this production is determined by a letter (see below). For a discussion of the origin and development of this play, see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, pp. 274-76. A song, Why shou'd the world mistake, the music composed by John Eccles and sung by Mrs Hudson, is in Thesaurus Musicus, 1695. An unidentified letter, 22 March 1693@4: We had another new play yesterday, called The Ambitious Slave, or a Generous Revenge. Elkanah Settle is the author of it, and the success is answerable to his reputation. I never saw a piece so wretched, nor worse contrived. He pretends 'tis a Persian story, but not one body in the whole audience could make any thing of it; 'tis a mere babel, and will sink for ever. The poor poet, seeing the house would not act it for him, and give him the benefit of the third day, made a present of it to the women in tie house, who act it, but without profit or incouragement (Edmond Malone, An Historical Account of the Stage in Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare [London, 1821], III, 163-64). Gentleman's Journal, March 1694: 'Tis not altogether strange for a Play to be less kindly receiv'd, immediately after one that has deservedly ingross'd all the Applause which the Town can well bestow in some time on new Dramatic Entertainments. Perhaps Mr Settle may partly impute to this, the want of success of a new Tragedy of his which was lately acted, 'tis called, The Ambitious Slave; or, The Generous Revenge. [This play followed Southerne's The Fatal Marriage.

Event Comment: An unidentified letter, 22 March 1693@4. There is hardly anything now to make it acceptable to you, but an account of our winter diversions, and chiefly of the new plays which have been the entertainment of the town. The first that was acted was Mr Congreve's, called The Double Dealer [see October 1693]. It has fared with that play, as it generally does with beauties officiously cried up: the mighty expectation which was raised of it made it sink, even beneath its own merit. The character of The Double Dealer is artfully writt, but the action being but single, and confined within the rules of true comedy, it could not please the generality of our audience, who relish nothing but variety, and think any thing dull and heavy which does not border upon farce.--The criticks were severe upon this play, which gave the author occasion to lash 'em in his Epistle Dedicatory, in so defying or hectoring a style, that it was counted rude even by his best friends; so that 'tis generally thought he has done his business, and lost himself: a thing he owes to Mr Dryden's treacherous friendship, who being jealous of the applause he had gott by his Old Batchelour, deluded him into a foolish imitation of his own way of writing angry prefaces. The 2d play is Mr Dryden's, called Love Triumphant, or Nature will prevail [see 15 January 1694]. It is a tragi-comedy, but in my opinion one of the worst he ever writt, if not the very worst: the comical part descends beneath the style and shew of a Bartholomew-fair droll. It was damn'd by the universal cry of the town, nemine contradicente, but the conceited poet. He says in his prologue, that this is the last the town must expect from him; he had done himself a kindness had he taken his leave before. The 3d is Mr Southern's call'd The Fatal Marriage, or the Innocent Adultery [see February 1693@4]. It is not only the best that author ever writt, but is generally admired for one of the greatest ornaments of the stage, and the most entertaining play has appeared upon it these 7 years. The plot is taken from Mrs Behn's novel, called the Unhappy Vow-Breaker. I never saw Mrs Barry act with so much passion as she does in it; I could not forbear being moved even to tears to see her act. Never was poet better rewarded or incouraged by the town; for besides an extraordinary full house, which brought him about 140 #. 50 noblemen, among whom my Lord Winchelsea, was one, give him guineas apiece, and the printer 36 #. for his copy. This kind usage will encourage desponding minor poets, and vex huffing Dryden and Congreve to madness. [For the fourth play, see 21 March 1693@4; Edmond Malone, Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare (London, 1821), III, 162-64.

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 [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Morton. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald (his Miscellaneous Poems, 1801, p. 88). Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (London Chronicle, 12 Jan.)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. Morning Herald, 14 Apr. 1798: This Day is published Secrets Worth Knowing (2s.). Receipts: #311 6s. (307.9; 3.17)