Event Comment: Sir John Perceval to Elizabeth Stockwell, 20 Sept.: We should have languished for want of diversion but for Othello, which drew all the stragglers in town together, and our number was greater than I imagined....Meanwhile I declare that they who cannot be moved at Othello's story so artfully worked up by Shakespeare, and justly played by Betterton, are capable of marrying again before their husbands are cold, of trampling on a lover when dying at their feet, and are fit converse with tigers only (Egmont MS, II, 240)

Event Comment: UUniversal Spectator, 11 Jan.: Last Wednesday his Highness the Prince went to...Drury-Lane, to see Mr Cibber's new Pastoral....The Actors were for a while prevented from performing, by the great Disturbance some of the Audience made. But on a Speech from Mr Cibber, with a Promise it should not be acted again, the Catcalls, &c. ceased, and they were suffered to go on and end the same. See also Applebee's, 11 Jan.; Egmont, Diary, III, 325; Whincop, p. 198

Event Comment: Afterpiece: [By Henry Fielding.] For a comment on the performance, see Egmont, Diary, I, 97

Event Comment: For details, see Egmont, Diary, I, 107-8. Place of performance not known

Event Comment: DDaily Journal, 14 Jan.: We hear...that...The Modish Couple, which met with great Opposition the two first Nights, but was acted the third with Success, before one of the finest Assemblies of Persons of Quality that has been seen, was last Night again so interrupted, that the Players could not perform but were forced to dismiss the Audience.' The violent Treatment which this Piece has met with, is supposedles those People who made it their Business to raise Disturbances at every new Performance that comes on the Stage. [For another account, see Egmont, Diary, I, 216.

Event Comment: See Egmont, Diary, I, 222

Event Comment: [T$Their Majesties, Prince, and Princesses present. See Egmont, Diary, I, 224.

Event Comment: A private performance. For details, see Deutsch, Handel, pp. 285-86, Dean, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios, pp. 203-204, and Egmont, Diary, I, 225

Event Comment: See Egmont, Diary, I, 257. Daily Advertiser, 18 April: Last Night there was a Rehearsal of...Flavius...at which were present a great Number of the Nobility

Event Comment: An Oratorio in English. Formerly Compos'd by Mr Handel, and now revised by him, with several Additions, and to be performed by a great Number of the best Voices and Instruments. N.B. There will be no Action on the Stage. but the House will be fitted up in a decent Manner for the Audience. The Musick to be disposed after the maner of the Coronation Service. [Their Majesties, Prince, Princess Royal and Amelia present. See also Egmont, Diary, I, 266, and Dean, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios, pp. 205-97.

Event Comment: [Q$Queen, Prince and three eldest Princesses present. See also Egmont, Diary, I, 281.

Event Comment: See Egmont, Diary, I, 296

Event Comment: See Egmont, Diary, I, 297

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. Egmont, Diary, I, 333: to the new play called The Miser, which is well translated from Moliere by Mr Fielding, and well acted

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 28 March: Their Majesties, together with his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Princesses were again...to see Deborah...at which was likewise present one of the most numerous Audiences of Nobility and Persons of Distinction that has been ever seen in any Theatre. Egmont, Diary, I, 345: It was very magnificent, near a hundred performers, among whom about twenty-five singers. [See also Lady A. Irwin to Lord Carlisle, in Deutsch, Handel, pp. 309-10.

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Persons of Distinction. Egmont, Diary, I, 472: I went... to see the famous moving tragedy, called George Barnwell

Event Comment: By Desire. Mainpiece: Written by Ben. Johnson. Egmont, Diary, I, 474: I went ... to see the Fox represented, a noted play of Benj. Johnson's

Event Comment: By Desire. Mainpiece: Written by Ben. Johnson. Afterpiece: Set to Musick by Mr Arne. Egmont, Diary, I, 474: I went to ... see the Alchymist, wrote by Ben. Johnson

Event Comment: By Desire. Written by Ben. Johnson. Egmont, Diary, II, 2: I went ... to see The Silent Woman

Event Comment: [Their Majesties and three eldest Princesses present. Egmont also present.]

Event Comment: [Their Majesties, Prince of Wales, and three eldest Princesses present. Egmont also present. For a satiric pamphlet on opera, see Harmony in an Uproar, dated 12 Feb.; much of it is reprinted in Deutsch, Handel, pp. 344-57.]

Event Comment: Benefit Author of Chrononhotonthologos. Note, the Author gives out no Tickets (a few Boxes excepted) depending intirely upon the Courtesy of the Town. Egmont, Diary, II, 40: After dinner I went to the Haymarket playhouse, where among other representations I saw the strong man show one of his feats. Two chairs were placed on the stage at such a distance as that laying himself along, his head and a small part of his shoulders rested on one, and his feet on the other, so that his body and legs were suspended in the air. Then six grown men (two of whom I observed to be remarkably tall) go up, and stood perpendicular upon his body, two on his chest, two on his body, and two on his legs. He bore them all a quarter of a minute, and bending his body downward till it almost touched the ground between the chairs, with a surprising spring and force raised his body with all that weight upon it, not only level as he lay at first, but higher in the air. The mob of the gallery not satisfied with this, hissed, whereupon he refused to show any other of his tricks

Event Comment: A new Oratorio or Sacred Drama. Set to Musick by Signor Nicola Porpora. [By Paul Rolli. Egmont present.]

Event Comment: Composed by Mr Handel. [Prince and Princess of Orange, Princess Caroline, Mrs Pendarves, Lady Rich, and Egmont present.]

Event Comment: Daily Advertiser, 6 Nov.: The King, the Prince of Wales and Princess Amelia, were again to . . . Artaxerxes, in which Signor Farnelli continues to sing to a crowded Audience, with all imaginable Applause. Egmont, Diary, II, 132: Went to the opera, where I heard the finest voice that Europe affords, Faranelli, lately come over. Norwich Gazette, 9 Nov.: We hear that both Operas (occasion'd by their dividing) are at a vast expence to entertain the Nobility and Gentry for the ensuing Season; the Opera House in the Haymarket are reckon'd to stand near 12000l. and Mr Handell at near 9000l. for the Season