Event Comment: Benefit Mlle Anne Roland. By Command of Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia. [Tickets at Mrs Anne Roland's, Golden Ball and Dove, Great Newport Street.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Pope. 1st piece [1st time; D 4. Larpent MS 1249; not published synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, Apr. 1799, p. 273]: Translated from [Der Graf von Burgund, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von? Kotzebue (Author of The Stranger, Lover's Vows, &c.) by Miss Anne? Plumptre, and adapted to the English Stage by Alexander? Pope. Morning Chronicle, 25 26 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Pope at his house, No. 5, Half Moon-street, Piccadilly. [This was Mrs Abington's last appearance on the stage.] "The perpetuated evidence of youth was in character with her person and her powers; the slimness of her figure, the fulness of her voice, the freshness of her spirits, the sparkle of her eye, and the elasticity of her limbs, savoured alike of a juvenility that puzzled the mind, whilst it pleased it: of her it was justly said that 'she had been on the stage thirty years; she was one-and-twenty when she came, and one-and-twenty when she went!'" (John Bernard, Retrospections of the Stage, 1830, II, 228-29). Receipts: #334 19s. 6d. (194.1.0; 2.5.0; tickets: 138.13.6)

Event Comment: Benefit Anne Auretti. By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Tickets to be had of Anne Auretti at Mr Chisholm's, the Golden Head in Great Newport St., near Long Acre

Event Comment: Benefit for Anne Auretti. Mainpiece: By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Seven rows of Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes. Stage to be form'd into front and side Boxes. Receipts: #270 (Cross); house charges, #50 (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mlle Anne Auretti. Five rows of the Pit will be laid into the boxes, &c. [as on 7 March]. Tickets to be had at Mlle Auretti's at the second House on the left hand, the corner of Panton St., Leicester Fields, and of Hobson at the stage door. Receipts: #180 (Cross); house charges, #63 (Powel)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This marks the opening of the new Theatre Royal in Bridges Street, Drury Lane, to which Killigrew moved his company from Vere Street. Downes erroneously gives the opening date as 8 April, a fact which led to the creation of the famous spurious playbill for Bridges Street, Thursday, 8 April 1663. See Montague Summers, The Restoration Theater (London, 1934), p. 15. Pepys, Diary: This day the new Theatre Royal begins to act with scenes the Humorous Lieutenant, but I have not time to see it, nor could stay to see my Lady Jemimah lately come to town, and who was here in the house. Downes (p. 3): Note, this Comedy was Acted Twelve Days Successively

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not certain, particularly since an entry in L. C. 5@145, p. 120 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 349) lists this play for 8 March, the year uncertain. Since the entry follows one for The Souldier's Fortune which followed the premiere of The Female Prelate, 31 May 1680, the L. C. entry probably is one for 8 March 1680@1. That the premiere occurred near 1 Nov. 1680 is suggested by a letter of Anne Montague to Lady Hatton, 1 Nov. 1680: For I never see the towne fuller, for I was to see the new play, The Spanish Frier, and there was all the world, but the Court is a letell dull yet; the Queen being sick, there is noe drawing room (Hatton Correspondence, Camden Society, XXII [1878], 240). A song, Farewell ungratefull Traytor, with music by Captain Pack and sung by Mrs Crofts, is in Act V. For Leigh's and Nokes' acting, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 143, 145-46. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): 'Twas Admirably Acted, and produc'd vast Profit to the Company

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never aceted here. [Mrs Montague was from the York theatre.

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not precisely known, but a broadside copy of the Epilogue, in the Bodleian Library, has a licensing date of 20 Aug. 1685, a MS date of 24 Aug. 1685. The play was licensed on 11 Sept. 1685. These dates suggest a premiere in mid-to late-August 1685. For Anne Bracegirdle as Clita and speaker of the Epilogue, see Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 135. The Prologue and Epilogue, separately printed, are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 239-41. The broadside Prologue has a more detailed heading than that in the edition of 1686: Prologue To A Commonwealth of Women, Spoke by Mr Haynes, Habited like a Whig, Captain of the Scyth-men in the West, a Scythe in his Hand. Two songs, set by Samuel Ackroyde, are in The Theater of Musick, The Third Book, 1686

Event Comment: [By Theophilus Cibber.] Alter'd from Shakespear. Containing the Marriages of King Edward the Fourth , and young Prince Edward , with Lady Gray , and Lady Anne . The Distresses of Queen Margaret . The Deposing King Henry the Sixth . The Battles Fought at St. Albans, Wakefield, Mortimer's-Cross, and Tewkesbury. The Deaths of Lord Clifford of Cumberland , and his Son, the Duke of York , his Steward. And many other True Historical Passages

Event Comment: Full Prices. There will not be room behind the Scenes for more than the persons acting in the coronation, [Others] cannot possibly be admitted. The coronation of their Majesties was followed by a stage representation of it at both houses...Garrick knew that Rich would spare no expense in the presentation of his show; he knew too that he had a taste in the ordering, dressing, and setting out these pompous processions, superior to his own; he therefore was contented with the old dresses which had been occasionally used from 1721-1761. This show he repeated for near forty nights successively, sometimes at the end of a play, and at other times after a farce. The exhibition was the meanest, and the most unworthy of a theatre, I ever saw. The stage was...opened into Drury Lane; and a new and unexpected sight surprised the audience, of a real bonfire, and the populace huzzaing and drinking porter to the health of Queen Anne Bullen. The Stage in the meantime, amidst the parading of Dukes, duchesses, archbishops, peeresses, heralds &c. was covered with a thick fog from the smoke of the fire, which served to hide the tawdry dresses of the processionalists. During this idle piece of mockery, the actors, being exposed to the suffocations of smoke, and the raw air from the open street, were seized with colds, rheumatisms, and swelled faces. At length the indignation of the audience delivered the comedians from this wretched badge of nightly slavery, which gained nothing to the managers but disgrace and empty benches. Tired with the repeated insult of a show which had nothing to support it but gilt copper and old rags, they fairly drove the exhibitors of it from the stage by hooting and hissing, to the great joy of the whole theatre....Rich...fully satisfied [the publick's] warmest imaginations (Davies, Life of Garrick, I, 365 ff.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin. In Act IV of mainpiece the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullenv. Paid John Doe for sticking Black Bills #6 3s. Receipts: none listed (charge: #84)

Event Comment: In Act IV of mainpiece the Procession from the Abbeyv at the Coronation of Anne Bullenv. [Abergavenny is not listed in playbill, but is referred to in review of the performance in Morning Chronicle, 28 Oct.

Event Comment: In Act I of mainpiece the Banquetv; In Act IV the Procession from the Abbeyv at the Coronation of Anne Bullenv; To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christeningv. The Music and a Chorus composed by Shield. Receipts: #180 6s. 6d. (179.2.6; 1.4.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. With the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen. Receipts: #207 2s. (204/14; 2/8)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen. Afterpiece: To end with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. After which will be an Historical Procession of the Several Companies, with their respective Pageants, and the Chief Magistrates belonging to the City of London, from its Foundation. Books of the Songs, with an Explanation of the Procession, to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #198 8s. 6d. (195/9/0; 2/19/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Clarke. Mainpiece: With the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pope. Mainpiece: In Act I Banquetv. [In Act IV] the Procession from the Abbeyv, at the Coronation of Anne Bullen . To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christeningv. Public Advertiser, 9 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Pope at her house in Half-moon-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #289 8s. (202.6; 2.1; tickets: 85.1)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I The Banquetv. [In Act IV] the Procession from the Abbeyv at the Coronation of Anne Bullenv. To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christeningv. Receipts: #145 13s. 6d. (143.15.0; 1.18.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Miss Brunton as Lady Anne, but she "who attended, and was dressed for her character...was suddenly taken ill...The part was read by Mrs Rock" (Public Advertiser, 24 Oct.).] Receipts: #197 1s. (195.15; 1.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull and Macready. 1st piece: In Act I a Grand Banquet. With the Procession [in Act IV] from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen . To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christening. [In 2nd piece the scenes, as listed on 10 May, are indicated.] Morning Herald, 20 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 7, Duke's-court, Westminster; Diary, 21 May: of Macready, No. 3, Mary-street, Charles-street, Tottenham-Court-Road. Receipts: #282 14s