Event Comment: [Written by Shakespear. With new Scenes and Cloaths. At the Desire of several Persons of Distinction the Pit and Boxes will be put together at 3s. Boxes on the Stage 4s. Gallery 1s. [The Prologue is in The Comedian, No. VII, October 1732, with a long essay on the major theatres of the present season.] Daily Advertiser, 4 Oct.: A very splendid and crowded Audience...testify'd their Approbation both of the Decorations and Performance. The principal Embellishments are as follows: On a large Oval over the Pit is represented the Figure of His Majesty, attended by Peace, Liberty, and Justice, trampling Tyranny and Oppression under his Feet; round it are the Heads of Shakespear, Dryden, Congreve, and Betterton. On the Coving on the Left Hand is painted the Scene of Cato pointing at the dead Body of his Son Marcus; in the Middle, that of Julius Caesar stabb'd in the Senate-House; and on the Right, that of Marc Anthony and Octavia, where the Children are introduc'd in All for Love. On the Sounding-Board over the Stage is an handsome Piece of Painting of Apollo and the Nine Muses. [See also Daily Post, 4 Oct. and Gentleman's Magazine, II (October 1732), 1028.

Event Comment: Mr Anthony Aston, commonly call'd Tony Aston . . . His Comical and Unparallelled Medley at the Bouffler's Tavern. 6 P.M. Tickets 2s. 6d

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; burl 2, by Charles Dibdin, based on The Loves of Mars and Venus, by Peter Anthony Motteux]: With New Scenes and Dresses. The Music chiefly composed by Dibdin. [Dr Arne and Dr Arnold each wrote one air.] Books of the Burletta to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 5 Feb. 1778: This Day at Noon is published Poor Vulcan! (1s.). [The playbill lists Reinhold in place of Mahon, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted and a MS annotation substitutes Mahon's.] Receipts: #232 5s. 6d. (230.2.6; 2.3.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. "Quick, in July 1777, played Richard III at Bristol" (Anthony Pasquin [pseud. for John Williams], Poems [1789], II, 244). "Most people expected from Quick a comic representation of Richard the Third--but strange to tell he was earnest in the attempt, and succeeded tolerably. The audience, however, were not disposed to be very serious, and named him 'Little Dicky'" (Public Advertiser, 8 Apr.). [Address by Robert Merry (European Magazine, Apr. 1790, p. 307.] Gazetteer, 1 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Quick, Broad-court, Bow-street. Receipts: #430 17s. 6d. (265.5.6; 4.15.0; tickets: 160.17.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by George Colman, ynger, based on Raoul Barbe Bleue, by Michel Jean Sedaine (although, in the 1st edition of the play, this denied by Colman). Text (Cadell and Davies, 1798)]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick composed and selected [from Paisiello] by Kelly. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood? Jun, Chalmers, and others. The Machinery, Decorations, and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood, Gay, and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Times, 8 Feb. 1798: This Day is published Blue Beard (1s. 6d.). "In the course of the representation, many blunders in working the scenery, which are unavoidable in a first representation of this nature, occurred, and the delays which took place were frequently very great...It was twelve o'-clock before the curtain dropped...The Expense of getting it up is said to be not less than #2,000" (London Chronicle, 18 Jan.). Proud swells the tide, with loads of capering heels, And vacant Folly shouts applause in peals; Hoards, even beyond th miser's wish, are thrown, To deck some sham farago for the town...Money for dresses, money for new scenes, New music, decorations, and machines; The cost of these, including every freak, Would pay ten decent players four pounds a week. Anthony Pasquin (pseud. for John Williams), "Innovation," in The Devil [1787], II, no. 2, 46. Receipts: #319 14s. 6d. (216.17.6; 102.2.0; 0.15.0)

Event Comment: 2nd ballet: 1st time; composed by Barre; the Music by Bossi. "Mme Hilligsberg, who possesses the first rank among the dancers of London, is a woman of distinguished merit: she succeeds with peculiar happiness in sportive and jocose expressions, and she is bewitchingly graceful as a Welch or Scotch country girl. Her figure is very handsome; but her arms are somewhat long and thin. The third dancer is Mme Laborie; she possesses an agreeable figure, much animation and native gracefulness. She might become a first-rate dancer [if] she did not trust too much to her natural talents, and bestowed more attention on the art" (Goede, 265). "Les Deux Jumelles, ou la Meprise, pouvoient tres bien faire le sujet d'unjoli divertissement; mais pour un grand ballet, il a fallu y appeller le secours des dieux, & faire descendre ce que nous appelons une gloire de nuages qui se developpent assez mal: c'est la faute du machiniste ou du charpentier. D'ailleurs, cette gloire ne sert a rien, puisque l'Amour vient dans un assez mauvais cabriolet, pousse par des hommes qu'on voit un peu trop distinctement, & s'en retourne de meme a reculons. Nous avons vu souvent le char de l'Amour aller en avant; mais il est rare qu'on le voie reculer, & cette meme gloire eprouve autant de difficulte pour remonter qu'elle en avout eue pour descendre, laissant le spectateur tres convaincu de son inutilite" (Anthony LeTexier, L'Ami des Meres, 1799, I, 192-93). The subscribers are most respectfully intreated to be careful to whom they give their Tickets, as many improper persons have lately presented themselves for admission into the Theatre with those Tickets; and the subscribers are requested to observe that, in future, persons of this description will be conducted directly to the identical Boxes to which such Tickets belong, instead of being admitted into any other part of the Theatre. And the public are intreated to understand that neither Ladies in Undress Hats or Bonnets, nor Gentlemen in Boots will be admitted into the Pit of the Opera