ABSTRACT

Charles II arrived in Oxford on 14 March for the crucial Parliament which opened on 21 March to consider the Exclusion Bill. The King's Company also moved to Oxford and opened their season on 19 March with a performance of Saunders's Tamerlane the Great, at which the King, the Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Gwyn were present. There were two contemporary printings of the Epilogue, each on a folio half-sheet: The epilogue Spoken to the King at the opening the Play-House at Oxford on Saturday last. Being March the Nineteenth 1681. This was probably printed in Oxford by Leonard Lichfield Jr, printer to the university. The only known copy is in Christ Church, Oxford. The epilogue, 'Writ by Mr. Drey den, Spoke before His Majesty at Oxford, March 19. 1680'. this was printed by Richard Royston in London. The Oxford printing is followed here, as it seems superior at the two points where the texts differ.