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

Event Comment: As 5 March. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 13 March: Last Night their Majesties and the Princess Caroline . . . heard Esther, an Oratorio; and Mr Handel's two new inimitable Concertos on the Organ. [Egmont also present.]

Event Comment: A public concert. [See Egmont, Diary, n, 164.]

Event Comment: At 7 P.M. Egmont, Diary, II, 174: I went to the opera called Iphigenia, composed by Porpora, and I think the town does not justice in condemning it

Event Comment: [Their Majesties and the Princess Amelia present. Egmont also attended.]

Event Comment: Receipts: #49 19s. 6d. Egmont, Diary, II, 208: acted indifferently

Event Comment: Written by the late Mr Dryden. Set to Musick by Mr Handel. Pit and Boxes half a Guinea. Galleries 4s. and 2s. 6d. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 20 Feb.: Last Night his Royal Highness the Duke, and her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia were at. . . Mr Dryden's Ode, set to Musick by Mr Handel. Never was upon the like Occasion so numerous and splendid an Audience at any Theatre in London, there being at least 1300 Persons present; and it is judg'd that the Receipt of the House could not amount to less than 450l. It met with general Applause, tho attended with the Inconvenience of having the Performers placed at too great a distance from the Audience, which we hear will be rectified the next Time of Performance. [Egmont also present.]

Event Comment: In the morning Handel's new opera, Justin, was rehearsed. [See Egmont, Diary, II, 342.

Event Comment: Benefit Handel. Pit and Boxes half a guinea. Gallery 5s. London Evening Post, 30 March: Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales were present; there was the greatest and most polite Audience ever seen there, and it's thought Mr Handel cou'd not get less that Night than 15001. Egmont, Diary, II, 474: In the evening I went to Hendel's Oratorio, where I counted near 1,300 persons besides the gallery and upper gallery. I suppose he got this night 1,000 1. [For further details, see Deutsch, Handel, p. 455.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. [See Egmont, Diary, II, 511, for behavior of royalty.

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness the Duke. Egmont, Diary, III, 83: I went with my wife to the play entitled 'Sir Walter Raleigh,' revived by the comedians on occasion of the now differences with Spain. They choose one to represent Count Gundemar, who in all things is like Mr Giraldini, the Spanish minister at our Court lately recalled, and whenever any severe things were said which bore a resemblance to our ministry's transactions, or our backwardness to resent the insults of Spain, the audience clapped all over the house

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: [With alterations by John Philip Kemble] Not acted these 4 years. [In his prompt copy (1808) now in Harvard Theatre Collection Kemble's annotation lists the following as needed in the opening scene: 10 principals, Captain of the Guard, 3 Knights, 2 Pages, 2 Gentlemen with Crown, 2 Gentlemen with Map, Physician, Herald, 2 Ladies with Goneril, 2 Ladies with Regan, 2 Standard Bearers, 12 Guards. Nearly every scene opens or closes with drums and trumpets. In the storm scene, "Thunder and lightning; lamps down," i.e. the footlights lowered out of sight into a shallow trough. It is not unlikely that these arrangements were adhered to in this present revival.] "Kemble said that, however singular it might be, in Lear an audience quite unsettled him; the noise of the box-doors caught his ear, and routed all his meditated effects; and he found it absolutely impossible to do that at night which he had thrown out during the rehearsal in the morning" (Boaden, Siddons, II, 376). Receipts: #350 9s. 6d. (310.9.6; 38.12.0; 1.8.0)