<P> Gerard Langbaine reports that the play was revived by the King's Company in 1675 . The play remained vivid enough in memory for John Rich to revive it at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1725 . However, it was not until David Garrick revived the play with substantial alterations in 1751 that the play regained currency on the English stage . Garrick's revisions served to focus attention on Kitely's jealousy; he both trimmed lines from the other plots and added a scene in which he attempts to elicit information from Cob while hiding his jealousy . The scene was a favourite, praised by Arthur Murphy and others; Kitely became one of Garrick's signature roles, and the play was never long out of his repertory . </P> <P> The play declined in popularity in the last quarter of the century, in large part because it was seen as a Garrick vehicle . George Frederick Cooke revived the play at Covent Garden . Elizabeth Inchbald lauded the performance, calling Cooke's Kitely the equal of Garrick's . Cooke had mixed success with the play, though; it failed in Edinburgh in 1808 . After 1803, Cooke may have alternated with Kemble in the title role for productions at Covent Garden . </P> <P> Thereafter, the play has been subject to tentative revivals, none of which have established it as viable for modern repertory . Edmund Kean played Kitely in an unsuccessful 1816 production; his performance was praised by William Hazlitt . William Charles Macready essayed the role at the Haymarket Theatre in 1838; Robert Browning attended and approved the performance, but the play did not figure prominently in Macready's repertory . </P> <P> Perhaps the most unusual revival occurred in 1845, when Charles Dickens and his friends mounted a benefit production . Aided by Macready, Dickens took the faintly Dickensian role of Bobadill; George Cruikshank was Cob; John Forster played Kitely . The production went off well enough to be repeated three or four times over the next two years . Bulwer - Lytton wrote a poem as prologue for an 1847 production; in addition to Browning, Tennyson and John Payne Collier attended . </P>

Ben jonson every man in his humour summary