Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by John Brandon, Dick, Denman, Hall (carpenter), Hay, Williamson will be admitted. [Miss Lascelles is identified in Morning Post, 4 June.] Receipts: #409 16s. (39.2.6; 6.9.0; tickets: 364.4.6)

Event Comment: [Mrs Mountain was from cg. "To her claims as a singer she adds (what we rarely find associated in one and the same person) the qualifications requisite to constitute a performer" (Dramatic Censor, III, 5).] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by John Till Allingham]

Event Comment: [L+Letter from Henry Woodward, Comedian, The Meanest of all Characters To Dr John Hill, Inspector-General of Great Britain, the greatest of all characters completely damns Hill as unsuccessful player, apothecary, doctor, scholar, writer, and gentleman. It ran to three editions in the year.] We hear great interest is being made to succeed Mr Serjeant Shore, deceased, as Serjeant Trumpet to his Majesty, which is in the gift of his Grace the Duke of Grafton as Lord Chamberlain; and that the contest lies chiefly between that excellent performer, Mr. Valentine Snow, Trumpet to the First Troop of Horseguards; Mr. Debourg, the violin; and Mr Beard, of the theatre Royal in Drury Lane (Public Advertiser). Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: [Noise, & some fighting in ye pit Mr Woodward when ye Entertainment was over each Night gave it out again, which the opposite Party look'd upon as Impudent--ye Inspector wrote against it--the fool, against the Silent Woman, as Indecent, & this Night whatever passages he had mark'd out were hiss'd by two or 3 people (Cross). [The Inspector edited by Dr John Hill.] Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: [N.B. There is no playbill for this date.] This Week will be publish'd A Letter from Henry Woodward, Comedian, the meanest of all characters [see Inspector N. 524] to Dr John Hill, Inspector General of Great Britain, the greatest of all Characters [see all the Inspectors]. "I do remember an Apothecary...whom late I noted In Tatter'd Weeds;.. .Culling of simples..." Shakespeare. Printed and publish'd by M. Cooper in Pater Noster Row. Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: [This month published Observations on the Use of Theatres, their present regulations and possible improvements. Price 1s. Printed for Cooper. See review in Gentleman's Magazine (p. 232). Proposal is that the "conduct of theatrical entertainments be for the future taken under the care of the goverment, and a person of judgment and integrity appointed by the name of comptroller, or conductor of the stage, who alone shall determine what old plays shall be acted, and what new ones received; and who shall take charge of the money received, and defray the necessary expenses, accounting for the remainder to the public. The author seemingly Dr John Hill, lately (see 21 Dec. 1758) upset by the failure of his farce, The Rout. (Winston MS 8). Receipts: #108 (Cross); #122 6d. (Winston MS 8)

Event Comment: Three Brothers of ye Delavals play'd ye Eldest Othello, ye next Iago, ye next Cassio--+Brabantio & Lodovico Mr Pine Roderigo-Cap. Stevens and Wife Emelia $Mrs Quan did Desdemona, the performance was very decent & met with great applause the Audience from ye Boxes to the upper Gallery were fill'd with people of ye first rank & make a most brilliant appearance. & ye greatest Crowd at ye Doors I ever saw. their Agreement for ye House was a receipt of one of the Alfred Houses upon an Averidge. they had all new cloaths, & very nicely ornamented with Diamonds (Cross). [See eulogy and criticism in some detail concerning the acting, by John Hill, Inspector No 3.] All Gentlemen and Ladies who intend going in coaches this evening to Drury Lane Theatre, are desired to order their coachmen to drive thro' Covent Garden, and stop at Bridges St. Door, and as soon as they have set down the company to drive off directly towards the Strand.--Those who go in chairs, are requested to order the men to the New Door in Russel St., and to prevent the avenues being stopt up no person will be admitted to either passage without first showing their tickets at the outward door (General Advertiser). Tickets Lost. If any person has found three tickets (numbers forgot) for the private play this night at Drury Lane, and will be so kind as to bring them to the Bar of the Rainbow Coffee House, Ironmonger Lane, shall receive 15s. for the whole, or in proportion for one or two of them (General Advertiser). Tomorrow Morning at 8 o'clock will be published' (price 6d.) by Thomas Carnan, at Mr Newberry's, at the Bible and Sun in St Paul's Churchyard; An Occasional Prologue and Epilogue to Othello, as it will this night be acted at the theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, by Persons of distinction, for their diversion. Written by Christopher Smart, A.M., Fellow of Pembroke Hall in the University of Cambridge. To be had at the place above mentioned, and at the pamphlet shops at the Royal Exchange and Charing Cross. This Prologue and Epilogue will be entered in the Hall Book of the Company of Stationers, and whoever presumes to pyrate them, or any part of them, will be persecuted as the Law directs (General Advertiser). [Both pieces by Christopher Smart, according to the Daily Advertiser. See two exceedingly favorable critical comments and one derogatory reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine, March 1751 (pp. 119-22): "The greatest part of the play was much better performed than it ever was on any stage before. In the whole, there was a face of nature that no theatrical piece, acted by common players ever came up to." Macklin was Delaval's dramatic coach, according to one of these articles.

Event Comment: At Hill's Large Theatrical Booth on the Bowling Green, Mainpiece an Italian Comic Farce translated into English by the celebrated Punch, Poet Laureate to the Grand Mogul

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: JJohn Rich Esq, Master and Patentee of the TRCG, died Thursday 26 Nov. 1761, about six o'clock in the evening, at his house adjoining to the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, in the seventieth year of his age. Mrs Priscilla Rich sole executrix of the Will of John Rich Esq, deceas'd. Mr John Rich was buried in Hillingdon Churchyard. (See his Epitaph, Lysons's Middlesex Parishes, p. 162) Dec. 4, 1761. ibid p. 173 (Hopkins MS Notes). Income from Boxes #85 5s. Rec'd of John Condill on acct of Fruit #20. Expenses #46 3s. 8d. [The balance brought forward to this date for this season was #2007 9s. 1d. From this was subtracted the #1291 19s. 4d. necessary for starting the season (see 9 Sept.), which left Beard a favorable balance of #715 9s. 9d. with which to carry on. The Winston Theatrical Record ceases on this date.

Event Comment: Benefit John Leigh. Receipts: #103 12s. 6d