The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery is a Restoration comedy

Restoration comedy

Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama...

 written by John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...

. The play was first acted late in 1672

1672 in literature

The year 1672 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* In London, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is destroyed by fire. The King's Company moves into the theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields, which their rivals the Duke's Company left the previous year.* During the 1672–73 theatre...

, by the King's Company

King's Company

The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682.-History:...

 at their theatre at Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields

Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London, UK. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes...

, but was not a success with its audience.

Apart from the question of the play's quality — many critics have regarded it as a rush job, written mainly in prose with some blank verse — Dryden was suspected of anti-Catholic satire, especially in his choice of a subtitle. This was a sensitive issue at the time, given strong Catholic sympathies among some elements of the royal court — primarily the Duke of York, the future King James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

.

The cast of the original production included Michael Mohun

Michael Mohun

Michael Mohun was a leading British actor both before and after the 1642—60 closing of the theatres.Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's theatrical establishment at the Cockpit Theatre, "eventually becoming a key member of Queen...

 as the Duke of Mantua, Edward Kynaston

Edward Kynaston

Edward Kynaston was an English actor, one of the last Restoration "boy players," young male actors who played women's roles.-Career:...

 as Prince Frederick, Charles Hart

Charles Hart (17th-century actor)

Charles Hart was a prominent British Restoration actor.A Charles Hart was christened on 11 December 1625, in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, in London. It is not absolutely certain that this was the actor, though the name was not common at the time...

 as Aurelian, William Cartwright

William Cartwright (actor)

William Cartwright was an English actor of the seventeenth century, whose career spanned the Caroline era to the Restoration. He is sometimes known as William Cartwright, Junior or William Cartwright the younger to distinguish him from his father, another William Cartwright William Cartwright...

 as Mario, and Nicholas Burt

Nicholas Burt

Nicholas Burt , or Birt or Burght among other variants, was a prominent English actor of the seventeenth century. In a long career, he was perhaps best known as the first actor to play the role of Othello in the Restoration era.A "Nicholas Bert" was christened on 27 May 1621, in Norwich; the record...

 as Camillo. The role of Hyppolita, the nun, was taken by Mary Knep

Mary Knep

Mary Knep , also Knepp, Nepp, Knip, or Knipp, was an English actress, one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage during the Restoration era....

; Rebecca Marshall

Rebecca Marshall

Rebecca Marshall was a noted English actress of the Restoration era, one of the first generation of women performers on the public stage in Britain...

 played Lucretia.

Dryden drew plot material from a play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...

 titled Con quien vengo vengo.

The Assignation was published in quarto

Book size

The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...

 in 1673

1673 in literature

The year 1673 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*With the death of Sir Henry Herbert, Thomas Killigrew is appointed Master of the Revels...

 by Henry Herringman

Henry Herringman

Henry Herringman was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publisher of the works of John Dryden...

. Dryden dedicated the play to Sir Charles Sedley. The play was republished in 1678 and 1692.

See also

• The Assignation is also a short story by Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
  
  .