Event Comment: Benefit for Jackson. No Building on Stage. Tomorrow the Play at this theatre will begin at half an hour after six, and continue so to the End of the Season

Event Comment: MMrs Yates very imperfect, and played very bad (Hopkins Diary--MacMillan). Receipts: #63 5s. 6d. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for boxes to be had from Johnston at Stage Door; No money received at Stage Door, nor any returned after Curtain rises. Play will begin at exactly six o'clock; The passage from the Strand up Catherine Street to Drury Lane Theatre will be clear for Carriages. Paid Renters #8 (Drury Lane Treasurer's Book). [A constant expense nightly for 191 nights amounting to #1528 for the season. Will not be further itemized.] Receipts: #82 12s. 6d. (Drury Lane Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: QQueen Mab not played for 2 years. [See 9 April 1765.] Mainpiece: By Desire. Receipts: #157 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: MMr Jefferson played Buckingham for the first Time, as a tryal, and is engaged for the next season. --Pretty well (Hopkins MS Notes)

Event Comment: By command of their Majesties. Did not go to see Garrick play Archer that I might avoid the abhorred sight of George and his family (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Aickin. Mainpiece: Not played for 2 years. [See 15 Dec. 1768.] The Last time of performing before the holidays

Event Comment: Doors open by 5 o'clock. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Winston MS 10: 7 Sept. Garrick has given two silver cups to be play'd for at cricket between Chertsey and Hampton. [The Town and Country Magazine for this month (from Theatre No XX) gives much about actors employed at both patent theatres, their relationships and articles of agreement.

Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). Doors open at 5 o'clock. Play to begin promptly at six. Paid Printer's Bill #9 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #236 18s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. [See 21 May 1773.] Introductory Interlude played 9th time By Particular Desire. Paid Bassoons & German Flutes in Xmas Tale 2 nights this and last season #3 10s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #174 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Smith Don Felix--very so, so. The Play was very imperfect (+Hopkins Diary). Receipts: #249 12s. 6d. (235.6.0; 12.15.6; 1.11.0)

Event Comment: [Kemble's 1st appearance as Shylock was at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 3 Dec. 1781. In mainpiece the playbill assigns Antonio to Bensley, but "Clarke played Antonio in the room of Bensley, who was taken ill" (Morning Chronicle, 23 Jan.).] Receipts: #167 19s. 6d. (167/12/0; 0/5/0; ticket not come in: 0/2/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bellamy. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. "Mrs Bellamy was too much frightened to speak the address [written by Charles Stuart (European Magazine, May 1785, p. 354)], and Miss Farren spoke it--Mrs Bellamy herself added some few words in prose" (Genest, VI, 342). But Stuart's address was abandoned, and in its place Miss Farren spoke one written by Alexander Bicknell (Gentleman's Magazine, June 1785, pp. 449-50). This occurred at the end of the play; following the address the curtain rose, and Mrs Bellamy "succeeded in muttering a few words, expressive of her gratitude" (Reynolds, I, 282-83). [This was Mrs Yates's last appearance in London. In July of this year she was acting in Birmingham (Morning Chronicle, 18 July). Mrs Bellamy's last appearance on the stage was at CG, 1 June 1780.] Receipts: #306 4s. (188/1/0; 13/3/6; 0/14/6; tickets: 104/5/0) (charge: #113 8s. 10d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5]: Altered from Beaumont and Fletcher, by Dryden [by Thomas King. The original alteration, 1700, was by Sir John Vanbrugh, not by Dryden. The present alteration has been attributed to John Philip Kemble, but in his copy of the play, now in the Huntington Library (K-D 95), he has written "by Thomas King"]. Public Advertiser, 22 Nov. 1787: This Day is published, as now revived with material Additions, The Pilgrim (1s.). Receipts: #85 9s. 6d. (72.5.0; 13.4.6; 0.0.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years [acted 27 Oct. 1787]. [As afterpiece the playbill announces The Island of St. Marguerite, but "Kelly's illness prevented...The Island" (Kemble Mem., which lists the substitute play).] Receipts: #139 15s. (110.0; 28.4; 1.11)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Henry. [As afterpiece the playbill announces Arthur and Emmeline, but it was not acted. Kemble Mem. lists the substitute play.] Diary, 24 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Henry, Bruton-street, Berkeley-square. Receipts: #153 12s. (38.6; 21.2; 0.19; tickets: 93.5) (charge: #111 13s. 9d.)

Event Comment: The Public is most respectfully informed that in consequence of the sudden Indisposition of Mrs Jordan the New Comedy is unavoidably deferred. [The original playbill and Public Advertiser both announce the 6th night of Better Late than Never (see 29 Dec.). The above is from a second playbill for this night in BM (Burney 937.c.7). "Mrs Jordan's Illness defers...Better Late than Never" (Kemble Mem., which lists the substitutes play).] Receipts: #123 5s. (83.19.0; 33.4.6; 6.1.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill omits Earl of Richmond. The assignment is taken from Oracle, 14 Nov.] "In the play Trinculo's curtain [as used for his 1st scene in The Tempest] stood for the Tower, and Bosworth Field was a delightful little farm-yard" (Oracle, 15 Nov.). The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 9 Jan. 1792]. Receipts: #189 2". (152.18; 35.1; 1.3)

Event Comment: "When [Mrs Siddons's] approach was known from the words of the play, and almost before she was within view of the audience, the applause commenced on all sides, and continued for some minutes" (London Chronicle, 23 Jan.). "The same bold, nervous articulation, with the same violent bursts of passion--bursts that confound criticism, though they harrow up the soul...There is a dignified deportment even in her shocks of surprise--her starts of horror--her agonies of death. She never descends to a superfluous motion" (Morning Chronicle, 23 Jan.). Receipts: #432 8s. 6d. (393.12.6; 35.8.0; 3.8.0)

Event Comment: The Public is most respectfully informed that in consequence of the sudden Indisposition of Mrs Jordan the New Comedy is unavoidably deferred. [The original playbill and Public Advertiser both announce the 6th night of Better Late than Never (see 29 Dec.). The above is from a second playbill for this night in BM (Burney 937.c.7). "Mrs Jordan's Illness defers...Better Late than Never" (Kemble Mem., which lists the substitutes play).] Receipts: #123 5s. (83.19.0; 33.4.6; 6.1.6)

Event Comment: ["Boyce absent from this Evening's Performance" (Powell).] Powell: Much Ado about Nothing rehearsed at 10 (Barrymore ill; Farren and Dignum one scene each; Caulfield two scenes) [but this play was not acted this season]. Receipts: #209 19s. (120/16/6; 80/2/0; 9/0/6)

Event Comment: The Publick is respectfully requested to observe that no Play Bills can be depended upon for this Theatre except those signed by C. Lowndes [and see 16 Sept.]. Powell: Mountaineers rehearsed at 10. Receipts: #252 2s. (209.5.6; 42.15.6; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: [This was Baddeley's last appearance on the stage (see 19 Nov.).] Powell: R. Palmer Ill, Benson Trip [as in playbill]; Banks Servt to Joseph Surface for Benson. School for Lovers rehearsed at 10; Mithridates at 12 [but this play not acted at this or any other London theatre between 1738 and 1800], Receipts: #329 1s. (259.0.6; 68.9.0; 1.11.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Prince Hoare. Larpent MS 1126; not published; synopsis of plot in Monthly Magazine, May 1796, p. 320]: With new Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, &c. The Musick principally composed by the late Mr Storace [who had died on 19 Mar.], with a few Selections from Paisiello, Haydn and Sarti. [Grove, under Storace, states that the music was completed and prepared for the stage by Kelly and Sga Storace.] The Scenes designed and executed by Marinari and assistants. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. "It was exceedingly tedious the first night, not being over till eleven o'clock. Since, it has been prudently cut down, and yet has lost nothing. A prologue, written on the very morning of representation, deploring the loss of the composer, was spoken (perfectly) by the last unfortunate Benson [for whom see 9 June. It was written by Hoare (Universal Magazine, May 1796, p. 362), and Was perhaps spoken only on the 1st night; it is not listed on any playbill]" (Monthly Magazine, May 1796, p. 320). "In short, possessing all the science of Harrison, the melody of Incledon, and the pleasing articulation of the late Mrs Kennedy, we have no hesitation in pronouncing [Braham] the first public singer of the present day. He was three times encored. His action is indifferent, and his dialogue scarcely audible" (Morning Herald, 2 May). Receipts: #297 14s. (258.10.6; 38.19.6; 0.4.0)

Event Comment: The Fifth Day. At the Castle Tavern, Paternoster Row. [See 30 Dec., hay; 3 Dec., ct.