Event Comment: Benefit for R. Palmer, Russell & Dowton. 1st piece [1st time; B 1, by Edward Henry Iliff. The title-page has "by Edmund Spenser, Ynger." On his copy, now in Huntington Library, J. P. Kemble has written, "Iliffe [sic] is the real Name of the Authour"; he has made a similar notation on the playbill]: Founded on the 17th Number of The Spectator. 3rd piece [1st time; MF 1. Larpent MS 1219; not published. The characters are all taken from previous plays by John O'Keeffe, as follows: Sadboy (The Young Quaker); Signor Arionelli and Bowkitt (The Son-in-Law); Motley (The Dead Alive); Tully (The London Hermit); Lingo and Cowslip (The Agreeable Surprise); Ephraim Smooth (Wild Oats); Nipperkin (Sprigs of Laurel); Jemmy Jumps and Betty Blackberry (The Farmer); Mrs Casey (Fontainbleau)]: Written by Mr O'Keeffe. Times, 4 June: Tickets to be had of R. Palmer, No. 2, Queen's-row, Pimlico; of Russell, No. 19, Martlet-court, Bow-street; of Dowton, No. 5, Strand-lane, Surry-street, Strand. Receipts: #413 11s. 6d. (76.17.6; 37.7.0; 1.0.0 tickets: 298.7.0) (charge: #215 10s. 5d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time: F 2, by Edmund John Eyre. Text (Shrewsbury: P. Sandford, 1791) correctly assigns Prolix to Wilson. Prologue by John Wolcot (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 29 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #318 4s. (153.3; 2.5; tickets: 162.16)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece: Epilogue by George Colman, ynger.

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by George Colman, ynger]: With new Musick, Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick entirely new, composed by Kelly with an overture by Dussek]. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood? Jun, with the assistance of Chalmers and Banks. The Machinery, Decorations and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "We have to congratulate the town on the acquisition of three admirable dramatic writers, in the persons of Johnston, Greenwood, and Miss Rein, who have here exhibited a specimen of the Sublime and Beautiful which it will be difficult, indedd, to surpass" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1799, p. 47). [This piece is "an exhibition of music and dialogue, pantomime and dancing, painting and machinery, antique dresses and armour, thunder and lightning, fire and water, illumination, processions, banquets, battles, sieges, explosions, and everything that can surprize, enchant or terrify the spectators" (Morning Chronicle, 21 Jan.). Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb. 1799: This Day is published Feudal Times (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #483 15s. 6d. (381.10.6; 100.6.6; 1.18.6)

Event Comment: Pit and Boxes to be put together, and no person to be admitted without Tickets, which will be deliver'd that day at the office at cg theatre, at half a Guinea each. First Gallery 5s. Second Gallery 3s. 6d. Galleries to be opened at half an hour after Four o'clock. Pit and Boxes at Five. To begin at half an hour after Six. The Subscribers who favoured Mr Handel last season with their subscription, are desired to send to the office at cg on the day of the performance, where two tickets shall be deliver'd to each Gratis, in order to make good the Number of Performances subscrib'd to last season. [Recitative and chorus. Words taken from Milton and Spenser (Edition of 1746). Rehearsed at Handel's lodgings on 7 Feb. Burney and DeFesch in orchestra. (Deutsch, Handel, pp. 629-30.) Librettist not known, possibly Thomas Morell.

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. Possibly Edmund Warcup attended this performance: Soe to the play with Dr Needham (The Journals of Edmund Warcup, 1676-1684, ed. Keith Feiling and F. R. D. Needham, English Historical Review, XL [1925], 241)