Event Comment: "[Kemble's] 'Did not you speak to it?' is an Emphasis not at all justified by the Context... Palmer should not have worn in the Farce the Breeches which but a little before were on Ostrick's thigh" (.Public Advertiser, 6 Oct.). Receipts: #242 16s. (211/3/0; 31/0/6; 0/12/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [on playbill of 23 Apr.]. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Sigismunda was at Manchester, 10 Jan. 1778.] Public Advertiser, 20 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 7, Leicester-fields. Receipts: #324 1s. (146/2/0; 8/1/6; 0/2/6; tickets: 169/15/0)(charge: #106 10s. 1d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 1 Jan. 1781]. A Dramatic Entertainment of Singing, Dancing, and Dialogue, in Honour of Shakespeare. In which will be introduced a Pageant, the music by Dibdin. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "The Jubilee is now worn out and of no repute" (Public Advertiser, 21 Nov.). [For a complete account of the original production in 1769 see Christian Deelman, The Great Shakespeare Jubilee, 1964, pp. 280-86.] Receipts: #241 9s. (199/16/0; 39/8/6; 2/4/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Williames and Bates. Public Advertiser, 9 May: Tickets to be had of Williames, No. 2, Duke's-court, Bow-street; of Bates, No. 12, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #193 18s. 6d. (20.6.0; 10.8.0; 1.3.6; tickets: 162.1.0) (charge: #109 5s. 3d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2(?), by Ralph Wewitzer. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of action in Public Advertiser, 28 Dec.]: With new Music, Scenery, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The Music composed by Walter? Clagget. The Scenes designed and executed by Richards, Carver, Hodgins and others. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Receipts: #192 2s. (188.12; 3.10)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bulkley. Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. [See 19 April 1769.] Afterpiece: A Farce Never acted there [Wm Whitehead]. Tomorrow (for the only Time this Season) The Merchant of Venice with Love-a-la-Mode. Shylock and Sir Archy by Mr Macklin being the only time of his performing this season. For the Benefit of Miss Macklin (playbill). Charges #66. Profit to Mrs Bulkley #43 6s. 6d. plus #103 16s. from tickets (Box 194; Pit 298; Gallery 106). Paid one half year's paving &c. for the Theatre due Lady Day #26 5s. (Account Book). Receipts: #109 6s. 6d

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. Paid 2 extra Flutes 15th Inst. 10s.; Paid author of the Sultan's benefit balance 21 Dec. last #60 7s. 6d.; Mr Hopkins bill for Licensing to the 26th inst. #8 8s. (Treasurer's Book). [N.B. Bickerstaff the author was living in exile presumably in St Malo, France. Garrick knew his address from a letter 24 June 1772. Whether the funds were forwarded to him, no record seems to exist. Presumably they were.] Receipts: #218 15s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Powell. Part of pit will be laid into boxes, where servants will be allowed to keep places. Ladies are desired to send servants by 3 o'clock. [Powell paid no House charges, so received a clear benefit of #170 19s. plus #109 5s. from disposing of 439 combined Box and Pit tickets (Accoudt Book).] Receipts: #170 19s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid Black? Lyon bill #2 7s. 4d. (Treasurer's Book). [This is a recurring item weekly throughout the season varying in amounts from about #1 to #3. Tavern. Run by Yearley Waterer. Not noted further. Total payments this season about #75.] Public Advertiser, Theatrical Intelligence: Any Young Lady inclined to the Stage, is offered an advantageous Opportunity to experience her Theatrical Abilities in a very desirable Situation. As this Advertisement appears not from an itinerant Manager, nor results from a Dearth of People, but a Wish to promote Merit, which often (for want of the proper Mode of Application, or Fear in the Parties of their Intentions being made public, in case their Services should not be received) lies hid and unnoticed, it is hoped none but such as are possessed of a good Figure, as that will be greatly regarded, and whose Capabilities are blended with a real Inclination will apply. Enquire for W. at No. 114, in Long-Acre between the hours of Eleven and One on Wednesday or Thursday Morning in person, as no Attention will be paid to any Substitute. The Stage: A Gentlewoman, who has played capital Characters with unblemished Reputation in the three Kingdoms, takes this Method of acquainting such Ladies who have Talents and Inclination for the stage, that she undertakes to instruct them for the Profession many having been unsuccessful, more from Want of previous Instructions than Want of Genius. Her Attention to the great Articles of Reading and Speaking, with Elegance and Propriety, as well as Expression, Grace, and Ease, will be found of infinite Service to those who are assisted by the least Understanding. Those Ladies who do not intend to display their Talents in Public may be instructed for their Amusement. Enquire for E. H. No. 2 Queen Street, near Windmill Street, Haymarket. N.B. Any Lady will be waited on by a Line directed as above. [These advertisements ran for a number of days.] Receipts: #183 16s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Mr Kirk for copper tickets as per bill #5 5s. (Account Book). [These copper checks (illustrated in W. J. Lawrence, Old Theatre Days and Ways, London, 1935, p. 86) were supposedly given, by the box office keeper, to each person who entered the boxes. They were there dropped into a slit box by those who paid the money gatherer between the acts, or were returned to the box office by the holder if he left before the third act. The system was devised to check the receipts from the money gatherers against the number of copper tickets issued. Collusion between the Box office keeper and the gatherer could occur, but was checked by a third office, the numberer who counted heads, from his central position, as the gatherers went their rounds.] Receipts: #222 1s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid Cooper (printer) as per bill #31 7s. (Account Book). Receipts: #190 (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid Colman the balance of his 3 nights for the Man of Business #230 7s. 6d. Receipts: #213 4s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid Gardiner (shoemaker) #18 18s. 6d. Receipts: #181 7s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Bellamy & Settree (mercers) #38 12s.; Paid Toms for Trumpeter's coats & Banners #34 13s.; Paid Hughes (Linnendraper) #6 (Account Book). Receipts: #205 6s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid the Duke of Bedford 1/2 Yrs Rent #171 12s. 10d. Receipts: #203 11s. 6d. (166/12/0; 35/3/6; 1/16/0)

Event Comment: In afterpiece, added, following Lord Mayor's Show: A New Historical Procession of the Several Companies, with their respective Pageants, and the Chief Magistrates belonging to the City of London, from its Foundation. The Scenes, Machinery and Decorations, both of the Pantomime and Procession, invented and designed by Richards, and executed by Him, Smirk, Hodgins, Catton, and others. Book of the Songs, with an Explanation of the Procession [reprinted in Public Advertiser, 21 Jan.], to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 21 Jan.: The glee is the composition of the late [Benjamin] Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs are by Handel, [the Earl of] Kelly, Abel, Stamitz, and Shield . . . More than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the Procession. Receipts: #236 4s. 6d. (231/4/0; 5/0/6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by John O'Keeffe, based on Le Rival Suppose, by Germain Francois Poulain de Saint-Foix. It was written in honor of the 21st birthday, 12 Aug., of the Prince of Wales. Prologue by George Colman, the elder (Colman, Prose, m, 248)]: The Overture by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 2 Oct. 1783: This Day is published The Birth Day (1s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Holcroft, based on Le Mariage de Figaro, by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais; incidental music by William Shield. In 1789 reduced to an afterpiece of 3 acts. Prologue by the author (Europaen Magazine, Dec. 1784, p. 467)]: With new Dresses, Decorations, &c. Public Advertiser, 10 Mar. 1785: This Day is published The Follies of A Day (1s. 6d.). [For an account of Holcroft's shorthand transcription of the original, taken down during a performance in Paris, and the hasty rehearsals of it in London, see Elbridge Colby, A Bibliography of Thomas Holcroft, 1922, pp. 48-50.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; BURL 3]: Written by the Author of Midas [Kane O'Hara; music by Samuel Arnold]. Books of the Burletta to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 22 Aug.: This Afternoon, at Three, will be published April-Day (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Public Advertiser, 18 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis at his house in Broad Court, Bow-street, Covent Garden

Event Comment: Benefit for Dignum and Mrs Wilson. Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Dignum, Little Wild-street, Drury-lane; of Mrs Wilson, No. 2, Catherine-street, Strand. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. Receipts: #301 19s. 6d. (33/5/0; 15/19/0; 1/2/6; tickets: 251/13/0) (charge: #108 15s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Jewell, treasurer. 2nd piece: Taken from The Devil upon Two Sticks. 3rd piece: Never performed here. Public Advertiser, 8 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Jewell, No. 26, Great Suffolk-street, Hay-market

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Elizabeth Inchbald. Larpent MS 789; not published. Prologue by Henry Sampson Woodfall Jun. (London Chronicle, 17 Dec.); Epilogue by Frederick Pilon (Public Advertiser, 19 Dec.)]. [Miss Blower had 1st appeared at dl, 27 Apr. 1782, and thereafter in Dublin.] Receipts: #180 7s. 6d. (169.19.0; 10.8.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. Tickets delivered for the 24th of April will be taken. Public Advertiser, 16 Apr.: Tickets [for 24 Apr.] to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 7, King-street, Covent Garden. Mainpiece: Written by Richard Steele. 3rd piece [1st time; ENT I, author unknown. Larpent MS 830; not published]. Receipts: #253 17s. 6d. (159.12.0; 8.9.6; tickets: 85.16.0)