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I. Plays Hitherto Unknown or Believed to be Unperformed
Amalasont, Queen of the Goths, or Vice Destroys Itself (By John Hughes, ca. 1697-1700, Drury Lane; unpublished)
Amalasont is listed as unperformed by all sources, but the BUCEM (II, 855) gives two songs composed by Daniel Purcell which imply late seventeenth-or early eighteenth-century performance: (1) "Hence ye curst infernal train. A song in the tragedy call'd Amalasont, Queen of the Goths . . . Sung by Mrs Lindsey" (London: Tho. Cross, ca. 1700); (2) "In a grove's forsaken shade. A song in the tragedy call'd Amalasont . . . Sung by Mrs. Erwin" (London: Tho. Cross, ca. 1697). The editors of The Biographical Dictionary state that Mrs Erwin sang "In a grove's foresaken shade" and indicate that no performances
The possibility that not only one but two songs from an unproduced play were performed publicly and published with mention of the originating play's title is remote. Virtually all theatre music publication relied upon public knowledge of and possible interest in the play itself.
The Lyers (Anonymous, ca. 1701?, venue unknown)
Found in a notice on the last page of The Czar of Muscovy (published 1701), this play was printed or said to be printed by Bernard Lintott. Its relationship if any to Mistaken Beauty, or The Lyer (1685) is unclear, and no copy has yet been located.
The Tavern Bilkers (Anonymous, 1702, Drury Lane; unpublished)
This pantomime and its date are given by Weaver and are also noted by Allardyce Nicoll.[9]
In an attempt to confirm Weaver's titles and datings, I have checked the extant issues of the London Daily Courant (the only newspaper containing theatrical notices for this period) to no direct avail. But some clues imply that Drury Lane did not necessarily list afterpieces by title. See, for example, the notices for 2 and 9 January 1717 which describe an afterpiece as "A Mimick-Night-Scene after the Italian Manner," which may well be Weaver's Perseus and Andromeda (1716-17).
The Happy Mistakes: or Self-Ruin, Self-Preservation (By Peter A. Motteux, ca. 1703; unpublished)
This play is listed but not discussed in Robert N. Cunningham's biography of Motteux.[10] I have found no mention of the play in any source, and Cunningham does not say where he came across the play title. The Happy Mistakes may possibly be a ghost; I thus attribute this play to Motteux only on a "doubtful" status.
The Rival Brothers; or, A Fatal Secret (Anonymous, 1704, Lincoln's Inn Fields)
Long available in the Readex microcard series and not unknown in major research libraries, The Rival Brothers is also to be found in many contemporary notices and was published (London: Printed and Sold by Ben. Bragg, 1704).[11] The exact premiere date remains unknown. Further identification derives from a song, "In vain malicious fate. A song in the Fatal Secret . . . sung by Mrs Willis & exactly engrav'd by Tho. Cross," BUCEM (I, 307). Very likely Theobald's play of similar title (The Fatal Secret—4 April 1733, Covent Garden) is not the source of this song: Mrs Willis is known to have performed only at Drury Lane during the season of 1732-33. "In vain malicious fate" does not appear in the printed copies of either play.
The Mountebank; or, The Humours of the Fair (By Peter A. Motteux? 18 January? 1705, Drury Lane)
This play was published with Motteux's Farewel Folly (London: James Round, 1707). As Farewel Folly premiered circa 18 January 1705 at Drury Lane (LS 2.i.85), The Mountebank, if staged at all, may well have appeared on the same program. I cannot determine if this musical interlude is related to The Mountebank; or, The Country Lass (unpublished, 21 December 1715, Lincoln's Inn Fields).
Perseus and Andromeda (By John Weaver, 1716-17, Drury Lane)
Weaver claims credit for this unpublished pantomime and provides the date in his History of Mimes. The play is briefly noted Fiske (p. 91) and is apparently related to the later Perseus and Andromeda fad of the 1720s and 30s. See discussion below of Perseus and Andromeda in Part IV.
Cupid and Bacchus (By John Weaver, 1719, Drury Lane)
This unpublished pantomime is dated and listed by Weaver as his own composition in The History of Mimes.
The South-Sea Director (By John Rich, 1720, Lincoln's Inn Fields; unpublished)
The title and date of this new pantomime are listed in Weaver, who attributes this entertainment to "Lun," i.e., John Rich.
Love and Wine (Anonymous, ca. 1720-22?, Lincoln's Inn Fields; unpublished)
This piece is suggested by a song, "Wine's a mistress gay and easy," sung by Richard Leveridge "in the entertainment of Love and Wine," and noted in BUCEM, II, 630. Leveridge sang only for John Rich (at Lincoln's Inn Fields and after 1732 at Covent Garden) from 1714 until his retirement in 1751. Thus a play of identical title listed by Nicoll for 1754 (III.334) cannot be the play from which "Wine's a mistress" derives.[12]
The Savage; or, The Force of Nature (By James Miller, ca. early 1737, Drury Lane; unpublished)
A notice in William Havard's King Charles (1737) states that The Savage; or, The Force of Nature, a comic afterpiece, was performed at Drury Lane and was written "by the Author of the Universal Passion,"[13] i.e., the Universal Passion being a contemporary play by James Miller (1706-1744). Miller's first play is currently believed to be The Humours of Oxford (9 January 1730, Drury Lane), and he achieved his reputation entirely after 1730. The Universal Passion appeared 28 February 1737 and King Charles on 1 March. I have not located a copy; therefore, this play cannot be positively verified.
An anonymous play entitled The Savage appeared at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 27 February 1727; no evidence exists to suggest that this is the play by Miller.
Robin Hood (1730, Lee and Harper's Great Theatrical Booth, Bartholomew Fair)
This ballad opera, found in the William Andrews Clark Library, was "Printed for J. Watts and sold by J. Roberts," 1730. The title page supplies the venue and date.
Ridotto al Fresco (By Theophilus Cibber, June 1732, Drury Lane)
This afterpiece, written by Theophilus Cibber, is known by a publication announcement in the Gentleman's Magazine, June 1732 (London: J. Roberts), although the only published copy I have seen is "Printed for the Benefit of Richard Cross the Prompter and Sold at the Theatre. 1733." The London Stage (3.i.283) lists and indexes Ridotto al Fresco as the sub-title of T. Cibber's The Harlot's Progress (31 March 1733), but the 1733 text shows that the "Ridotto" section as probably performed in 1732 is simply tacked onto the mainpiece (a theatrical representation of Hogarth's famous print series) and is not dramatically connected to The Harlot's Progress (nor is "the Masque of the Judgement of Paris," also listed in the concluding performance directions). A song entitled a "grand Comic Ballad" in the "Ridotto" is named in the script, but the lyrics are not provided as was done for the songs in the Harlot's Progress section of the text; perhaps either the publisher or Cibber himself decided that the song need not be reprinted.
The Triumphs of Love and Hymen (By Edward Phillips, ca. early 1734?, unstaged?)
Probably yet another of the many musical entertainments written in honor of the royal nuptials between Princess Anne, Princess Royal, and the Prince of Orange (15 March 1734), this unpublished masque is alluded to in The Dramatick Sessions (1734).[14] As was the case with the similarly celebratory Aurora's Nuptials (1734), this masque was most likely never staged, although newspaper runs listing theatrical advertisements are incomplete for this season. Performance, if any, almost certainly would have taken place at Covent Garden or Lincoln's Inn Fields: Phillips was John Rich's musical director for these theatres.
The Whim; or, The Miser's Retreat (ca. 1734, Goodman's Fields)
The title page of this play, published by J. Watts (London, 1734), states "As it is Performed at the / New Theatre in Goodman's-Fields." This anonymous ballad opera (termed "A Farce" on the title page) is found in the Readex collection (from a copy in the New York Public Library) and is discussed by Edmond M. Gagey.[15]
Jeptha (By Maurice Greene [composer], ca. 1-12 April 1737, King's Theatre)
This unpublished oratorio is identified by Otto Deutsch.[16] An exact performance date is not known because newspapers containing theatrical advertisements for this two-week period are not extant, but Greene's piece was apparently presented during Lent in April 1737. Although G. F. Händel prepared
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