Event Comment: With all the Songs, Dances, and Decorations proper to the Play

Event Comment: Benefit Castelman, the Treasurer. Written by Shakespear

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. It is not certain this is the first performance, but it may well have been. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. Pepys, Diary: Sir W. Pen and I to the Duke's house, where a new play. The King and Court there: the house full, and an act begun. And so went to the King's. Downes (p. 28): Sir Martin Marral, The Duke of New-Castle, giving Mr Dryden a bare translation of it, out of a Comedy of the Famous French Poet Monseur Moleire: He adapted the Part purposely for the Mouth of Mr Nokes, and curiously Polishing the whole....All the Parts being very Just and Exactly perform'd, specially Sir Martin and his Man, Mr Smith, and several others since have come very near him, but none Equall'd, nor yet Mr Nokes in Sir Martin: This Comedy was Crown'd with an Excellent Entry. In the Last Act at the Mask, by Mr Priest and Madam Davies; This, and Love in a Tub, got the Company more Money than any preceding Comedy

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) makes clear that it followed Congreve's play: We have had since a Comedy, call'd, The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot, by Henry Higden Esq; I send by here the Prologue to it by Sir Charles Sedley, and you are too great an Admirer of Shakespeare, not to assent to the Praises given to the Fruits of his rare Genius (p. 61). The play was announced in the London Gazette, No. 2875, 29 May-June 1693. The music for one song, All hands up aloft, was by Berenclow, and the song appears in D'Urfey, Wit and Mirth, 1699. Dedication, edition of 1693: But now it is forced to beg for your Protection from the malice and severe usage it received from some of my Ill natured Friends, who with a Justice peculiar to themselves, passed sentence upon it unseen or heard and at the representation made it their business to persecute it with a barbarous variety of Noise and Tumult. Gildon, The Life of Mr Thomas Betterton (p. 20): The actors were completely drunk before the end of the third act, and being therefore unable to proceed with this "Pleasant Comedy," they very properly dismissed the audience

Event Comment: Elizabeth Bodvile, ca. July 1661: One Monday I was at the new apprer [opera] (Camden Society, 1878, XXII, 21). The Duke's Company

Event Comment: On the assumption that the run began on 28 June and extended twelve days (as Downes states), it would continue through 11 July. On 3 July a group of players entitled the Red Bull Company began a series of performances at Oxford. The performances are known through the entries in Anthony Wood's journal. For a discussion of the problems as to what actors these were, see Sybil Rosenfeld, "Some Notes on the Players in Oxford, 1661-1713", Review of English Studies, XIX (1943), 366. On this day the players acted Tu Quoque, in which, according to Richard Walden (Io Ruminans, 1662) Anne Gibbs acted Gertrude

Event Comment: At Oxford on this day the so-called red bull players acted All's Lost by Lust in the morning, The Young Admiral in the afternoon. According to Richard Walden (Io Ruminans, 1662) Anne Gibbs played Dionysia in the former, Rosinda in the latter

Event Comment: At Oxford in the morning A Mad World My Masters was played; in the afternoon, The Merry Milkmaids of Islington. According to Richard Walden (Io Ruminans, 1662) Anne Gibbs played Harebrain's Wife in the former, A Lady in the latter

Event Comment: At Oxford in the morning the players gave The City Wit; in the afternoon, Tu Quoque. For the latter, see 3 July

Event Comment: At Oxford the players gave The Young Admiral in the morning, The Rape of Lucrece in the afternoon. According to Richard Walden (Io Ruminans, 1662) Anne Gibbs played Rosinda in the former, Lucretia in the latter

Event Comment: At Oxford the players gave All's Lost by Lust in the morning, The Milkmaids in the afternoon. For these plays see 4 and 5 July

Event Comment: At Oxford the players gave The City Wit in the morning, The Poor Man's Comfort in the afternoon

Event Comment: At Oxford the players gave Tu Quoque in the morning, A Very Woman in the afternoon. For the former, see 3 July

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Captain Ferrers and I to the Opera, and saw The Witts, again, which I like exceedingly. The Queen of Bohemia was here, brought by my Lord Craven

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. If the play was acted on eight successive days, as Downes states, this would be the eighth, and last, performance in this run Pepys, Diary: I took her [Mrs Pepys] to the opera, and shewed her The Witts, which I have seen already twice, and was most highly pleased with it

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Against my judgment and conscience (which God forgive, for my very heart knows that I offend God in breaking my vows therein) to the Opera, which is now newly begun to act again, after some alteracion of their scene, which do make it very much worse; but the play, Love and Honour, being the first time of their acting it, is a very good plot, and well done. Downes (pp. 21-22): This Play was Richly Cloath'd; The King giving Mr Betterton his Coronation Suit;...The Duke of York giving Mr Harris his...and my Lord of Oxford gave Mr Joseph Price his...and all the other Parts being very well done: The Play having a great run, Produc'd to the Company great Gain and Estimation from the Town