Event Comment: A Grand Serious Opera; the music by Sacchini, with additions and alterations [by Andreozzi and Mazzinghi]. Under the direction of Mazzinghi. The dresses executed from original drawings of Bartolozzi and Tresham, by Lupino. With dances analogous to the Opera. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout season]. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s. There are a number of green boxes which may be taken on application to Lee, at the Theatre; the entrance to which, and to the Gallery, will be in Oxford-street. Subscriptions will be received by Messrs Wright and Co., Henrietta-street, Covent-garden (only) where tickets are delivering daily; and such Ladies as have not compleated their subscriptions to their boxes are intreated to send their names to the office, in order to have the tickets prepared, as no person can be admitted without producing a ticket. The Nobility and Gentry are intreated to give particular orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses' heads towards Hyde-park. The Doors in Blenheim-mews for chairs only. By Command of His Majesty no person can be admitted behind the scenes during the performance. "We fear that [the Pantheon as converted into a theatre] will gratify only the eye. It must undergo still more changes before the ear will be satisfied. Whether it is that the dome is too high and disproportioned to the breadth, or that the orchestra is sunk too low beneath the audience we cannot tell, but the sound does not swell and spread in equal volume; and it is the most inaudible in the best parts of the Theatre: the Pit and the first and second tier of Boxes hear very indistincly...We found this to be the complaint of every judge of music in the place" (Morning Chronicle, 18 Feb.). "The Pantheon has opened, and is small, they say, but pretty and simple; all the rest ill-conducted, and from the singers to the scene-shifters imperfect; the dances long and bad, and the whole performance so dilatory and tedious, that it lasted from eight to half an hour past twelve" (Walpole [18 Feb. 1791], XIV, 377) [and see 19 Feb.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. 1st piece: In 3 Acts [i.e. abridged from the original 5]. Morning Herald, 19 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, Bow-street. Receipts: #347 5s. 6d. (234.1.0; 4.14.6; tickets: 108.10.0) (charge: #105). Pencilled in the Account-Book. 234.1.0-money [taken at the doors] 4.14.6-after money [taken at the doors] 238.15.6 105-charge 133.15.6-owing Lewis [on 18 Apr. he was paid 133.14.0] [The amount of his tickets, 108.10.0, he retained; hence his profit on this night was #242 4s.

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Chapman. Tickets delivered for The Toy will be admitted. 3rd piece [1st time; D 1, author unknown. Larpent MS 950; not published. Songs by John Collins and Charles Dibdin (MacMillan, Larpent Catalogue, 157-58)]. Morning Herald, 14 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Chapman, No. 16, Henrietta-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #244 18s. (122.10; 13.5; tickets: 109.3) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Fawcett [who had 1st acted Jemmy Jumps at York, 28 Apr. 1788]. Tickets delivered for The Female Pursuit will be admitted. Morning Herald, 5 May: Tickets to be had of Fawcett, No. 153, Drury-lane, facing Long-Acre. Receipts: #282 4s. 6d. (155.1.6; 6.17.0; tickets: 120.6.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Brandon, box-book and house-keeper. Tickets delivered for The Rivals will be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Receipts: #358 5s. 6d. (73.16.6; 12.4.0; tickets: 272.5.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Caulfield, Miss DeCamp, Miss Tidswell & Miss Heard. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Mr Worthy to Benson but "an apology was made for the absence of Benson...His part of Worthy was read by Whitfield" (Thespian Magazine, July 1793, p. 50).] Tickets delivered for the 8th of June will be admitted. Morning Herald, 24 May: Tickets to be had of Caulfield, No. 8, Dartmouth-street, Westminster; of Miss DeCamp, No. 70, Tottenham-Court-Road; of Miss Tidswell, No. 3, Little Charles-street, St. James's-square; of Miss Heard, No. 13, Panton-street, Hay-market. Receipts: #182 3s. (28.17; 3.5; tickets: 150.1) (charge: #86 8s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Macready, Richardson and Townsend. Tickets delivered for THE COUNTESS OF SALISBURY will be admitted. 1st piece: With a Procession representing the ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her Deceased Husband. Morning Herald, 5 June: Tickets to be had of Townsend, No. 249, High Holborn [other recipients not listed]. Receipts: #255 16s. (57/13; 8/2; tickets: 190/1)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dodd. Tickets delivered for She Wou'd and She Wou'd Not will be admitted. Morning Chronicle, 14 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Dodd, No. 8, Southampton-row, Bloomsbury. Receipts: #385 9s. 6d. (120.13.0; 49.17.0; 3.18.0; tickets: 211.1.6) (charge: #211 10s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bensley. Morning Chronicle, 16 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Bensley, No. 21, Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury. Receipts: #490 16s. (217.9.0; 92.4.6; 6.4.6; tickets: 174.18.0) (charge: #231 6s. 2d.). Account-Book breaks down Bensley's charge as follows: house #200, Mrs Siddons #20, Mrs Jordan #10 10s. Properties 5s. 8d., supernumeraries 10s. 6d., for a total of #231 6s. 2d . At the doors of the theatre #315 18s. was received. The charge subtracted from this amount leaves #84 11s. 10d., which was paid to Bensley. The Proprietors made him a gift of the #20 he paid Mrs Siddons. His own profit was therefore #104 11s. 10d., which, in addition to his tickets, gave him a grand total of #279 9s. 10d

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. Tickets delivered for The Double Gallant will be taken. Morning Chronicle, 16 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 8, Great Russel-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #288 5s. 6d. (119.6.0; 17.18.0; tickets: 151.1.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Storace. Mainpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Never [previously] acted at this theatre. Tickets delivered for the 11th Instant will be `dmitted. Morning Chronicle, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Sga Storace [for 11 May], No. 26, Howland-street, Fitzroy-square. Receipts: #443 12s. (193.6; 75.4; 5.11; tickets: 169.11) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Opera: With Chorusses under the Direction of Kelly. Ballet: Paul et Virginie [advertised in Morning Chronicle, 1 Jan.] is still unavoidably postponed on account of the indisposition of Mme Hilligsberg. The Subscribers are most respectfully entreated to be careful to whom they give their Tickets, as many improper persons have lately presented themsleves 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 indentical Boxes to which such Tickets belong, instead of being admitted into any other part of the Theatre. The Public are entreated to understand that neither Ladies in Undress Hats or Bonnets, nor Gentlemen in Boots, will be admitted into the Pit of the Opera

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer. Tickets delivered for The Country Girl will be admitted. [Afterpiece in place of The Sultan, advertised on playbill of 11 Apr.] Oracle, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Palmer, No. 12, New Lisle-street, Leicester Fields. Receipts: #346 11s. (158.3.0; 49.11.6; 4.2.6; tickets: 134.14.0). (charge: #241 16s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by John Grubb. Larpent MS 1132; not published. Author of Prologue unknown]. Morning Herald, 16 May: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 19, Martlet-court, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #403 13s. 6d. (152.10.0; 57.5.0; 4.16.0; tickets: 187.10.0; odd money: 1.2.6) (charge: none listed). [Account-Book: Suett to have #100 of Tickets and half those above that sum which he brings in; of which due him #43 15s.

Event Comment: Benefit for Wewitzer. Receipts: #198 15s. (72.6.6; 39.10.6; 10.3.6; tickets: 76.11.6; odd money: 0.3.0) [Account-Book: Wewitzer to have to the Amount of #100 in tickets; [although] he brought in [only] #76 11s. 6d., wit upper Gallery tickets.] (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. True Briton, 11 May: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 10, Hart-street, Covent-Garden. Account-Book: Suett by agreement with the proprietors to pay half the value of tickets he brings in over #100. Receipts: #319 11s. (91.16.0; 54.2.0; 1.8.6; tickets 172.4.6) (charge: not levied; see above)

Event Comment: Benefit for King. 2nd piece: Not acted for more than 20 years [acted 14 May 1782]. The Dialogue by Garrick and King. The Music by Michael Arne and Vernon. Tickets delivered for Friday May 5 [for which day the benefit was first announcedP will be admitted. True Briton, 6 May: Tickets to be had of King, No. 56, New Store-street, Bedford-Square. Receipts: #290 9s. 6d. (111.5.6; 58.4.6; 4.16.0; tickets: 116.3.6) (charge: #211 18s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Jordan. [In mainpiece the playbill retains King as Sir Peter Teazle, but "Murray, on account of the indisposition of King, was the Sir Peter to Mrs Jordan's Lady Teazle" (Monthly Mirror, May 1797, p. 311).] Tickets delivered for the 15th [for which day the benefit was first announced] will be admitted. "On the whole, Mrs Jordan's Lady Teazle, if not excellent, was respectable; and at a time when it was thought that it would be impossible to personify her Ladyship [i.e. after the retirement of Miss Farren], Mrs Jordan is commendable in having endeavoured it...[Sir Peter] was a part well suited to Murray, who excels in the still and the pathetic...In the screen scene his mirth in revealing to Charles the story of the French milliner, and his amazement the moment after when Charles, throwing down the screen, presented that milliner in the shape of Lady Teazle, must confirm the reputation of Murray. 'Lady Teazle!' (exclaimed he, turning from her towards the door, and in an accent alarmingly impressive), 'Lady Teazle, by all that is damnable!" (Monthly Visitor, June 1797, pp. 531-32). True Briton, 6 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Jordan, No. 14, Somerset-street, Portman-square. Receipts: #550 3s. (232.4.0; 72.2.0; 7.10.6; tickets: 238.6.6) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Under the Patronage of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, H. R. H. the Duke of York, and H. R. H. the Duke of Clarence. Benefit for a Fund for the Relief of the Wounded Seamen, and also for the Widows and Orphans of the Brave Men who fell in the late Glorious Action, under Admiral Lord Viscount Duncan [see 16 Oct.]. The Tickets for the Boxes are issued under the Direction of a Committee consisting of the following Noblemen and Gentlemen, who have obligingly undertaken to attend to the arrangement of the Evening: The Duke of Leeds, The Duke of Bedford, The Earl of Guildford, The Earl of Thanet, The Right Honorable the Lord Mayor [Brook Watson], Mr Alderman Combe, M. P., Mr Alderman Skinner, John Julius Angerstein, Esq. Tickets and Places for the Boxes not disposed of by the Committee to be had of Fosbrook at the Box Office, Little Russell-Street, and at the Bar of Lloyds Coffee House. Ladies and Gentlemen having Privilege of the Theatre are requested by the Stewards to waive the use of it for this Evening. [Address by Richard Cumberland (European Magazine, Nov. 1797, p. 339). True Briton. 23 Nov. 1797, prints a letter from the Chairman of Committee of Subscribers to the performers of the theatre, thanking them for not "accepting the usual emolument on the night of performance."] Receipts: #631 8s. (357.17.6; 57.4.6; 1.11.0; money extra left at the doors: 2.14.6; tickets: 212.0.6) (charge: #161 0s. 6d.)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for The Choral Fund, instituted for the Relief of their decayed Members, their Widows, and Orphans. Conductor-Dr Arnold. Leader of the Band-Barthelemon. Organ-Smart Jun. Principal Instrumental Performers-Lindley, Harrington, Holmes, Smart and Sons, Betts, Hyde, Lyon and Son, Boyce, Kauntze, French, Oliver, Dickenson, Manessier, Piercy, King, Brandi, Cubit and Son, Hoffman, Charlton, Gillingham, Buckinger, Nerborn, Wilcox, Mawby, Purryer, Barrett, Windsor, Jackson, Forrett, Fenny, Flack and Son, Dressler, Zwingman, &c. Double Drums-Jenkins; The Chorus will be selected, and assisted by the Young Gentlemen of the Westminster Choir. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin precisely at 7:00. A Subscription of One Guinea will entitle the Subscriber to Five Box Tickets. Tickets to be had at the principal Music Shops, and of the Secretary, J. Vale, Old Bethlem, Bishopsgate. Tickets and Places for the Boxes to be had of Rice, at the Theatre

Event Comment: Benefit for the Voluntary Contribution now open at the Bank, for the Defence of our Country. Boxes 10s. 6d. Pit 5s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Tickets to be had and Places to be taken of Brandon, at the Stage-Door in Hart-street. Tickets also to be had at the Bar of Lloyd's Coffee-House. [Prologue by William Boscawen (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1798, p. 178. Author of Address unknown.] "A subscription was set on foot behind the scenes," to which most of the performers contributed #10 apiece (Monthly Mirror, ibid). Account-Book, 12 May: Paid into the Bank of England in aid of the Voluntary Contribution #394 15s. Receipts: #518 8s. (280.9; 12.2; tickets: 225.17) [the difference of #123 13s. appears to have been the house charge]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. 1st piece [1st time; INT 1, by John Cartwright Cross. Larpent MS 1213; not published]. Genest, VII 365, states that the Epilogue Address "was in all probability the Epilogue to Alonzo [by David Garrick]." 3rd piece: conclude with a Rural Procession: Four Lads bearing Streamers-Plough decorated with Flowers-Four Countrymen bearing a May-day Garland-Four Lasses Bearing Implements of Husbandry-Country Girls leading a Lamb, decorated with Flowers-Four Lasses bearing a Garland-a Chorus and Finale. Tickets delivered for Every One has His Fault will be admitted. Times, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 8, Great Russell-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #259 16s. 6d. (124.7.0; 2.13.0; tickets: 132.16.6)

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

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Mellon. Morning Chronicle, 17 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Mellon, No. 17, Little Russell-Street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #122 2s. 6d. (71.17.6; 48.17.6; 0.19.0; odd money: 0.8.6; tickets: Miss Mellon to pay a Moiety over #50 [total of tickets not listed]) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. Account-Book; Suett to have a Moiety of his tickets over #105. Morning Chronicle, 19 May: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 21, King-street, Bloomsbury-square. Receipts: #588 18s. (359.17.6; 38.13.0; 2.2.0; tickets] 188.5.6) (charge: none listed)