Event Comment: Three Brothers of ye Delavals play'd ye Eldest Othello, ye next Iago, ye next Cassio--+Brabantio & Lodovico Mr Pine Roderigo-Cap. Stevens and Wife Emelia $Mrs Quan did Desdemona, the performance was very decent & met with great applause the Audience from ye Boxes to the upper Gallery were fill'd with people of ye first rank & make a most brilliant appearance. & ye greatest Crowd at ye Doors I ever saw. their Agreement for ye House was a receipt of one of the Alfred Houses upon an Averidge. they had all new cloaths, & very nicely ornamented with Diamonds (Cross). [See eulogy and criticism in some detail concerning the acting, by John Hill, Inspector No 3.] All Gentlemen and Ladies who intend going in coaches this evening to Drury Lane Theatre, are desired to order their coachmen to drive thro' Covent Garden, and stop at Bridges St. Door, and as soon as they have set down the company to drive off directly towards the Strand.--Those who go in chairs, are requested to order the men to the New Door in Russel St., and to prevent the avenues being stopt up no person will be admitted to either passage without first showing their tickets at the outward door (General Advertiser). Tickets Lost. If any person has found three tickets (numbers forgot) for the private play this night at Drury Lane, and will be so kind as to bring them to the Bar of the Rainbow Coffee House, Ironmonger Lane, shall receive 15s. for the whole, or in proportion for one or two of them (General Advertiser). Tomorrow Morning at 8 o'clock will be published' (price 6d.) by Thomas Carnan, at Mr Newberry's, at the Bible and Sun in St Paul's Churchyard; An Occasional Prologue and Epilogue to Othello, as it will this night be acted at the theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, by Persons of distinction, for their diversion. Written by Christopher Smart, A.M., Fellow of Pembroke Hall in the University of Cambridge. To be had at the place above mentioned, and at the pamphlet shops at the Royal Exchange and Charing Cross. This Prologue and Epilogue will be entered in the Hall Book of the Company of Stationers, and whoever presumes to pyrate them, or any part of them, will be persecuted as the Law directs (General Advertiser). [Both pieces by Christopher Smart, according to the Daily Advertiser. See two exceedingly favorable critical comments and one derogatory reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine, March 1751 (pp. 119-22): "The greatest part of the play was much better performed than it ever was on any stage before. In the whole, there was a face of nature that no theatrical piece, acted by common players ever came up to." Macklin was Delaval's dramatic coach, according to one of these articles.

Event Comment: On this day and on Friday the 20th the Duke's players gave The Impertinents; or, The Sullen Lovers or Sir Salomon. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 29) lists these as the two plays presented by the Duke's Company, but no contemporary statement indicates for certain which play was given on each day. The Journal of Sir Richard Bulstrode: Yesterday [19] at five of ye clocke, the Court were entertained with a comedy acted by the Duke's player (The Bulstrode Papers, 1879, I, 139). Saturday 28 May 1670: The absence of the court which continues at Dover till Wensday next makes us very barren of news. There is the greatest gallantry and mirth imaginable. The Dukes players have beene there all the time past came up yesterday and the kings goe downe this day (Aston Papers, Vol. XVI, Add. Mss. 36916, folio 182)

Event Comment: The Bulstrode Papers (I, 302): There is arrived Scaramouchy, ye famous Italien comedian with his crew, to act againe, & are to have ye King's Theatre in Whitehall for their use during their stay, and all people are allowed to come there & see them, playing as they doe at other houses, so yt now a Papist may come to Court for halfe a crowne. This is not much lik'd by our other players, for it will half break both our houses. [See also a Treasury warrant for the importing of their belongings, Calendar of Treasury Books, 1672-1675, p. 757, in Boswell, Restoration Court Stage, p. 121.

Event Comment: Benefit for Woodward. Afterpiece: A New farce written by Mr Woodward-for his Benefit, The farce was a kind of dispute among ye Actors, & went off, as it was a Benefit, without Interruption, but I believe will not be play'd agen, ye Epil: was a parody upon Shakespear's Stage of Life, & was Lik'd (Cross). No Part of Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes. Ladies send servants by three. Tickets to be had of Woodward at Clarendon's Warehouse, and of Hobson at the stage door. Last time of performing the mainpiece this season. [Larpent MS 92, indicates the afterpiece as a criticism from the actors' view of the way they are handled by audiences, and of their own damnation of a play presented to them. All works up to the Epilogue: @'All the town's a farce-he says and swears,@And all the men and women merely players...'@ which is severe upon politicians, doctors, statesmen and connoisseurs. The characters appear under their own names, Cross, Clive, etc.] Receipts: #300 (Cross)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This day marks the resumption of acting by the King's Company after the disastrous fire at Bridges Street, Drury Lane; the players turned to the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields which the Duke's Company had recently left. The Prologue was printed in Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. Sloane MS. 4455 folio 26 verso: The Prologue of a Play entitled Witt without Money-Spoken at the Dukes old Theatre (after the Kings was burnt) by the King's players, Feb. 26 1671. The Curtaine being drawne up all the Actors were discover'd on the stage in Melancholick postures, & Moone [Mohun] advancing before the rest speaks as follows, addressing chiefly to ye King then [present]. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 216): Wit Without Money: a Comedy which I have seen acted at the Old House in little Lincolns-Inn-Fields with very great Applause: the part of Valentine being Play'd by that compleat Actor Major Mohun deceas'd. This was the first Play that was acted after the Burning the King's House in Drury-lane: a New Prologue being writ for them by Mr Dryden

Event Comment: The United Company. The players received the customary fee of #20. See A Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood, p. 179. Newdigate newsletters, 3 Feb. 1682@3: Yesterday the Governors? of ye Temple Invited the Greate Lds: of [...] together with the Ld. Keeper to dinner where afterwards they were entertayned with variety of songs & a play was Acted before them Called the Chances by the Kings players (Wilson, More Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 59)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361: The King at ye Mistress. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. There is no indication as to whether this performance was the premiere. As the play was licensed on 24 May 1687, the premiere may have been as late as 12 May, but possibly was earlier. Sir George Etherege to Will Richards, 19 May 1687: I have heard of the success of The Eunuch, and am very glad the town has so good a taste to give the same just applause to Sir Charles Sedley's writing, which his friends have always done to his conversation (Letterbook, ed. Rosenfeld, p. 212). Sir George Etherege to Middleton, 2O June 1687: I saw a play about ten years ago Called the Eunuch, so heavy a lump the players durst not charge themselves with the dead weight, but it seems Sir Charles Sedley has animated the mighty mass and now it treads the stage lightly (ibid., p. 227). [See also 26 March 1687 and season of 1676-77.] Thomas Shadwell, The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal (licensed, 25 May 1687.) Dedication to Sir Charles Sedley: Your late great obligation in giving me the advantage [presumably the third day's gain] of your comedy, call'd Bellamira, or the Mistress, has given me a fresh subject for my Thanks; and my Publishing this Translation affords me a new opportunity of owning to the world my grateful resentments to you. I am heartily glad that your Comedy (as I never doubted) found such success, that I never met with any Man of Sence but applauded it: And that there is abundance of Wit in it, your Enemies have been forced to confess....For the Judgment of some Ladies upon it that it is obscene, I must needs say they are Ladies of a very quick apprehension, and did not find their thoughts lye very much that way, they could not find more obscenity in that than there is in every other Comedy. A song, Thyrsis unjustly you complain, headed A Song in Bellamira, or, the Mistress. Set by Mr Tho. Shadwell, is in Vinculum Societatis, 1687 (licensed 8 June 1687)

Event Comment: Nothing said abour ye prolog: (Cross). The Music of the Funeral Procession compos'd by Dr Boyce. [See "William Boyce's 'Solemn Dirge' in Garrick's Romeo and Juliet Production of 1750," by Charles Haywood, Shakespeare Quarterly, Spring, 1960.] This day is Publish'd at 1s. 6d. Romeo and Juliet a Tragedy, revised and alter'd from Shakespear by Theophilus Cibber, First revised in September 1744, at the Theatre in the Haymarket; now acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. To which is added a Serio-Comic Apology for Part of the Life of Mr Theophilus Cibber, Comedian, written by himself. Interspers'd with memoirs and anecdotes relating to the Stage Managements, Theatrical Resolutions, &c. also cursory Observations on principal Players: particularly Mr Quin, Mr Ryan, Mrs Woffington, Mrs Ward, and Miss Bellamy; Mr Garrick, Mr Barry, Mrs Cibber, Mrs Clive, Mrs Pritchard, &c. Likewise Original Letters that passed between the late Sir Thomas DeVeil and Mr Theophilus Cibber relating to the Stage Act, Concluding with a copy of Verses, call'd the Contrite Comedian's Confession. Printed for C. Corbett, the Publisher, at Addison's Head, facing St Dunstan's Church, Fleet St; G. Woodfall, at the King's Arms, the corner of Craig's Court, Charing Cross. [See 11 Oct.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)