Performance and Publication
The play was first produced on stage by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1674, and was first published in a 1675 quarto issued by the booksellers James Magnes and Richard Bentley. The publishers credited the play's authorship to an anonymous "Person of Quality." In a Preface to the play, Bentley wrote that Dryden had had the anonymous play in his possession for many years; and "finding a Scene wanting he supply'd it" before turning it over to the actors of the King's Company. Bentley's statement may not be literally precise, and may mean that Dryden gave the anonymous original a light revision of some extent.
Dryden, however, responded negatively to this publication. In a note included in the first edition of his King Arthur (1691), Dryden complained about having been "imposed on by the booksellers foisting in a play which is not mine," and added a list of the plays and poems he'd written and published to that date.
Read more about this topic: The Mistaken Husband
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