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Oedipus: A Tragedy was written by John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, Dryden being responsible for the first and third acts, and Lee for the second, fourth, and fifth. It was first performed by the Duke of York's company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in the autumn of 1678. The premiere was a success, and the company's leading actor, Thomas Betterton, and his wife, Mary Betterton, won special praise for their performances as Oedipus and Jocasta.1 The play was not soon forgotten. Dryden's editors count 29 performances in the eighteenth century, the last in 1740.2 However, the record of performances between the premiere and 1700 is scanty. Only two are documented. At a performance in October 1692 the actor Samuel Sandford accidentally inflicted a serious stab-wound on his colleague George Powell.3 Christopher Rich's company performed the play at Drury Lane on 26 November 1698.4 The sequence of printed editions, from the first (1679; Wing D2322), through the second (1682; Wing D2323), third (1687; Wing D2324), fourth (1692; Wing D2325) to the fifth (1696; Wing D2326), points to additional probable revivals in 1682, 1687, and 1696.5 (A sixth edition appeared in 1701.) The purpose of this note is to present evidence that the play was performed by Betterton's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields early in 1698.
In 1695, the year of their breakaway from the United Company of Christopher Rich, Betterton's company performed The She-Gallants, the first play by George Granville (1666-1735; from 1712, Baron Lansdowne). They performed his second, Heroick Love: A Tragedy, either very late in 1697 or, more probably, in January 1698. The text of the play was published a...