Performance Handbill, May 27, 1768.
- imprint_number: 1768.015
- title: [By permission of the worshipful the Mayor of Williamsburg (for the benefit of Miss Yapp) … on Friday the 27th instant [May] will be presented a comedy, written by Shakespeare, called Merchant of Venice. … To which will be added a comedy of two acts, never performed here, called High Life Below Stairs.]
- sequence_number: 15
- year: 1768
- place_issued: Williamsburg
- issuing_press: Purdie & Dixon
- author: Virginia Company of Comedians
- notes: The mayor of Williamsburg was merchant James Cocke (1 Dec. 1767 to 30 Nov. 1768). The Virginia Company of Comedians conducted at least nine performances between April 4 and June 8 of 1768. Each show was advertised in advance, with a promotional handbill for each show printed in advance, and a detailed playbill the issued the day of the performance. Of the nine known performances, promotional handbills for only four of the advertised shows and one show-time playbill have survived.
Imprint is non-extant, and so title assumed from advertising notice in the Purdie & Dixon Gazette of May 19, 1768. Production of all of the company's imprints is assigned to Purdie & Dixon based on the company's advertising. They advertised all of their performances in the Purdie & Dixon Gazette, but only about half of them in that of William Rind; moreover, these performances were concurrent with the meetings of the General Assembly and the General Court, when Rind's press was producing work for the public-printing concession, making the Purdie & Dixon press the most likely origin.
- Related Bios:
This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The
content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection.
For more information, please see David Rawson Index of
Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond,
Virginia.
