Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness. [Prince, Duke of Lorrain, and Count Kinski present]

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness. [Prince, Duke of Lorrain, and Count Kinski present.

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. [Count de Montijo, the Spanish Ambassador, present.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Newly Revis'd and AlterM N.B. The Reviser begs leave to observe, that tho' he thinks the Chief Characters in this Play, are drawn with a great deal of Life and Spirit; Yet that even in this very sprightly Play there are several very obvious Faults. That as the Character of the French Count, and that of the Irish Priest, are in no sort conducive to the Plot of the Play; they may therefore be look'd upon as superfluous: That the Parting of Sullen and his Wife, is extreamly unnatural; and that the Ending of the Play (with respect to Archer) is abrupt to a Degree, &c. &c. In order therefore to amend these Errors [he has revised the play]

Event Comment: Benefit Handel. Pit and Boxes half a guinea. Gallery 5s. London Evening Post, 30 March: Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales were present; there was the greatest and most polite Audience ever seen there, and it's thought Mr Handel cou'd not get less that Night than 15001. Egmont, Diary, II, 474: In the evening I went to Hendel's Oratorio, where I counted near 1,300 persons besides the gallery and upper gallery. I suppose he got this night 1,000 1. [For further details, see Deutsch, Handel, p. 455.

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness the Duke. Egmont, Diary, III, 83: I went with my wife to the play entitled 'Sir Walter Raleigh,' revived by the comedians on occasion of the now differences with Spain. They choose one to represent Count Gundemar, who in all things is like Mr Giraldini, the Spanish minister at our Court lately recalled, and whenever any severe things were said which bore a resemblance to our ministry's transactions, or our backwardness to resent the insults of Spain, the audience clapped all over the house

Event Comment: HHenry Carey died. We are informed, General Theophilus Cibber arriv'd in Town on Saturday Morning. He made a Campaign this last summer in Dublin, where he maintained the Field, with great reputation against the illustrious Count Sheridan. We further hear the ioung Gentleman has taken up his Winter Quarters in the Territories of Covent Garden; but his scene of action, 'tis said, will be Drury Lane. Tis rumored he will be soon join'd by some Auxiliaries, draughted from the Forces on the Irish Establishment, who are to supply vacant commissions of the present Theatrical Mutineers and Deserters--Daily Advertiser

Event Comment: Benefit for Macklin. Afterpiece: A New Dramtic Satire in two acts. N.B. As several of the Town have prejudged the Pit the Boxes and Galleries acting their own parts themselves for their diversion, to be of the same species of the Lick at the Town last year; and that it can mean only the ordinary Approbation or Disapprobation of the Audience, Signor Pasquin thinks it incumbent on himself to assure to Publick that all those conjectures are groundless; And farther, he assures them that the Pit, &c. acting their parts has no other meaning than the common literal sense; and that the Audience are really interwoven in the piece; and are to be bona fide part of the Dramatis Personae; and he makes no doubt but that he shall make them perform their parts to a numerous and polite audience, and with universal Applause. But he begs that those Ladies and Gentlemen who intend to perform in the Pit and Galleries will be at the Theatre betimes, for particular reasons; and those who are to act in the Boxes are requested to send their servants to keep their places by three o'clock. Signor Pasquin has received the letters sent by the Town and the Village, and they may depend upon having Places kept for them upon the Stage. The Hiss concerning the Robin Hood Society will be complied with (General Advertiser). [The parts were: Pasquin, Marforio, Sir Eternal Grinn, Sir Conjecture Positive, Sir Roger Ringwood, Bob Smart, Soloman Common Sense; Count Hunt Bubble, Sir John Ketch, hic and Hac (Scribblers), Hydra, Lady Lucy Loveit, Miss Diana Singlelife, Miss Brilliant, Miss Bashfull (Larpent MS 96).

Event Comment: Receipts: #146 2s. Paid Meares #5 16s. 6d.; Monck #1 10s.; Hargreaves (smith) #13 6s. 11d.; Kemp, six nights for lamps, #9 12s. At the Bedford tonight & slept [slipt?] in at Covent Garden Mr Bettenson was at the Bedford, we were talking about the Count, a poor man that comes there slept in after the play at Drury Lane Gallery (Hailey, "Brietzcke Diary," Vol. 197, p. 69)

Event Comment: Young Gentlewoman-Miss E. Miller, marryed since to Mr Thomas Baker, an actor of cg, and a singing master. Mrs Baker is at present separated from her husband (1792) and performs only at Sadler's Wells in Pantomimes &c! Qu: Count Haslang and Mrs Baker (Hopkins MS Notes). Income from Boxes #27 2s. 6d. Nightly expense as usual #32 16s. 11d. Receipts: #74 7s. 6d. (Winston Theatrical Record)

Event Comment: Benefit for Shuter. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. Afterpiece: Taken from a Comedy of Mrs Behn's. [The False Count.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire.Afterpiece: Never perform'd before. Ladies and Servants by 3 o'clock. Part of Pit laid into boxes; No Building on Stage. [See Theatrical Review; or, Annals of the Drama, 1763, 1 April, pp. 142-46, for critique of the Sketch of a Fine Lady's Return from a Rout. Rather damns the writing and the performance on all counts, Moody's part being so bad, to save his face he commenced Hibernian in his dialogue" to amuse the ears of his audience. The parts are listed in Larpent MS 220: Sir Gregory Jenkings, Mr Nettle (a Lawyer), 1st Clerk, 2nd Clerk, Porter, Footmen, Lady Jenkings, Nancy Jenkings, Fanny Jenkings, Jane (Lady's Maid).

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: Sixth Night. For the Author of the Mainpiece. [By actual count, the seventh.

Event Comment: Gentleman's Magazine, XLX, p. 147: The cause of Macklin against Clarke, Aldys, Lee, James, and Miles came on to be tried in the Court of the King's Bench. The Indictment consisted of two counts; the first specifying that on the 18th of November 1773 the defendents had been guilty of a riot; the other that they had been guilty of conspiracy....The jury withdrew and in a few minutes brought Clark in guilty of the riot and the others of conspiracy. Judgment was deferred till next term

Event Comment: [This was Vestris Jun.'s 1st appearance in England.] "Young Vestris astonished John Bull more by his agility than his grace, and some have been known to count the number of times he turned round like a tee-totum. This may be called les tours des jambes-not dancing' (Angelo, II, 320). "The theatre was brimful in expectation of Vestris. At the end of the second act he appeared; but with so much grace, agility, and strength, that the whole audience fell into convulsions of applause: the men thundered; the ladies, forgetting their delicacy and weakness, clapped with such vehemence, that seventeen broke their arms, sixty-nine sprained their wrists, and three cried bravo! bravissimo! so rashly, that they have not been able to utter so much as 'no' since, any more than both Houses of Parliament' (Walpole [17 Dec. 1780], XI, 340-41)

Event Comment: This Night, the last of performing before the Holidays, will not be counted a Subscription Night, but the Tickets admitted as usual

Event Comment: The Count of Narbonne [announced on playbill of 9 Feb] is obliged to be deferred, on account of the Indisposition of Mrs Siddons. Receipts: #116 19s. 6d. (77.5.0; 36.13.0; 1.16.6; tickets not come in: 1.5.0)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces The Count of Narrbonne, but "The Play was changed, on the illness of Mrs Crouch-who never slacks, but when thus, unable to perform. Douglas was the substitute" (World, 2 Apr.). Afterpiece in place of Richard Coeur de Lion, announced on playbill of 29 Mar.] Receipts: #223 1s. 6d. (193.4.0; 28.2.6; 1.15.0)

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera (never performed [in London; 1st performed at Florence, 1778]); the Music by Gazzaniga [with additions by Storace, Posi, Trachi (World, 11 May)], under the direction of Mazzinghi. At the London production of La Vendemmia, the duet (Count-Susanna) Crudel perche finora from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro was sung by Benucci and Anna Storace; probably the first piece of any Mozart opera which was heard on the London stage" (Loewenberg, 364). [In June 1789 it was published by Birchall and Andrews, as "A favorite duett...sung in...La Vendemmia...by Sg Benucci and Sga Storace". See Illustration

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Morichelli. Afterpiece: An Heroic Entertainment in one act, consisting of Songs and Dances with Chorusses, and never performed upon any public Stage, but composed for the private Theatre of a Nobleman at Venice [in 1789]. The words by Count Alexander Pepoli; the music by Cimadoro; the pantomime and dances by Noverre. Tickets to be had of Mme Morichelli, No. 127, Pall Mall