Event Comment: [as Miss Mahon Mrs Second has sung in the cg oratorios in 1789 and 1790.] Receipts: #189 5s. (187.5.6; 1.19.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I a Grand Masquerade. [For Miss Allingham see 13, 18 Oct.] Receipts: #172 7s. (170.10; 1.17)

Event Comment: [As afterpiece the playbill announces Olympus in an Uproar, but it "was obliged to be postponed, on account of the sudden indisposition of Mrs Martyr. The change was announced in bills published at a late hour, and the door-keepers were ordered to acquaint the audience as they entered of the change. This information ought to have been given from the stage; but instead of that decent ceremony the curtain drew up on Rosina. John Bull resented this want of respect, and made a tremendous clamour, which Incledon and Townsend in vain attempted, by repeated apologies, to allay. At last, however, the storm gradually subsided, and Rosina was suffered to warble her mellifluous tones" (True Briton, 14 Nov.).] Receipts: #199 4s. (193.6; 5.18)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: As altered from Beaumont and Fletcher. Not acted these 18 years [acted 3 Oct. 1780. For Miss Allingham see 13, 18, 27 Oct.]. Receipts: #152 (143.8.6; 8.11.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "An elegant fire-place was introduced into the Royal Stage Box at Covent Garden Theatre on Wednesday evening last, to the great surprise and no less comfort of their Majesties" (Morning Herald, 17 Dec.). Receipts: #399 12s. 6d. (393.3.6; 6.9.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years [acted 7 Oct. 1791]. Middleton, after performing the first scene of Nerestan, retired abruptly into the wardrobe, pulled off his coat, and telling the dresser he should be back in ten minutes, left the theatre; he did not return, however, according to his appointment, and Davenport read the remainder of the character: a fit of insanity is supposed to have seized him" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1797, p. 55). [Middleton did not appear on the stage again until 27 Feb. 1797.] Afterpiece [1st time: P 2 (?), by James Wild and John Follett. MS of Songs only: Larpent MS 1148; synopsis of action in Pocket Magazine, Dec. 1796, p. 412]: With entire new Scenery, Machinery, Music, Dresses. The Overture and Music by Reeve. The Scenery painted by Phillips, Blackmore, Hollogan, Thorne, Byrn. The Machinery, Trick and Changes of Scenery invented and executed by Cresswell and Sloper. The Dresses by Dick, Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "Among the changes are a trunk into a gingerbread nut-man's wheel-barrow--a poor man's hut into an old oak, with a group of Gypsies boiling their kettle under it--one of the clowns into a thick candle, and the candle afterwards into a green-house tub, with a large shrub in it" (Oracle, 20 Dec.). Receipts: #193 5s. 6d. (183.4.6; 10.1.0)

Event Comment: [Miss D'Evelyn is identified in MS list in Kemble playbills of new performance for this season.] Complaints having been made of the Box-Keepers and Door Keepers of this Theatre applying for Christmas Boxes, it is requested by Proprietors that no such Application may be attended to; and any person belonging to the Theatre persevering in the Practice will be immediately discharged. Receipts: #197 1s. 6d. (133.8.6; 61.11.6; 2.1.6)

Event Comment: [This was Mrs Pope's last appearance on the stage. She dies on 15 Mar. 1797. "Her talents...were of the first order. She studied no model; she played from her own understanding and feeling. Perhaps her chief forte was comedy. Her elegance, her playfulness, her understanding had here fuller scope" (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1797, p.200). "There is a certain peculiarity in her action which I never could reconcile to my notions of grace and propriety, viz. a constant outstretching of the arms at the close of a sentimental or a declamatory speech, accompanied with a lowly inclination of the head, like that of the oriental sage when he pays reverence to his prophet" (ibid, p. 170).] Receipts: #431 5s. 6d. (423.0.6; 8.5.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 12 years [not acted since 4 Nov. 1780]. "Mrs Siddons's manner of receiving the death ofMoneses, and the struggle that ended in her own, was one of the best efforts of the art we ever beheld. This effort, however, was too much for her powers; for after her fall, her groans were so audible that the curtain was properly dropped [in the middle of Act V], and it was some moments before she could be removed from the stage. [The curtain was raised again, and] on the conclusion of the tragedy the audience would not suffer the farce to begin until Whitfield came forward, and assured them that she was perfectly recovered" (True Briton, 4 Feb.). Receipts: #257 13s. 6d. (181.18.0; 73.5.6; 2.10.0)

Event Comment: 2nd ballet: With entirely new Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Scenes painted by Greenwood, and under his direction. "Magnificent, perhaps beyond parallel on a British stage, but it is considerably too long, as it was past twelve before it was concluded" (True Briton, 8 Feb.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 9 years. [Mrs Worthington is identified in MS list in Kemble playbills of new performers for this season.] Ballet: 1st time; composed by Giacomo? Gentili. Afterpiece [1st time: ENT 1, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; acted in place of The Prize, advertised on playbill of 4 Mar. Text (C. Lowndes, 1797)]: Altered from a Dramatick Entertainment performed 1794 [The Glorious First of June]. In the course of which will be introduced a representation of the late Glorious Engagement between the British and Spanish Fleets on the Fourteenth of February [1797, under Sir John Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent]. Receipts: #253 9s. (151.2.6; 100.17.0; 1.9.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 2]: Composed by Charles? Farley; Founded chiefly on a principal Episode ["The History of Don Raymond," Vol. I, chaps. III, IV] in the Romance of The Monk [by Matthew Gregory Lewis]. With entire new Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music by Reeve. The Scenery designed by Phillips, and executed by him, the assistance of Hollogan, Blackmore, Thorne, Byrn, &c. The Machinery by Cresswell and Sloper. The Dresses and Decorations by Dick, Goostree and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs and Chorusses [T. N. Longman, 1797] to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #377 17s. (364.3.6; 13.13.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for a Fund for the Relief of those whose Infirmities oblige them to retire from the Stage. Receipts: #179 8s. (75.11; 50.14; 3.7; tickets: 49.16) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for R. Palmer and Russell. [Miss Dorell is identified in MS list in Kemble playbill of new performers for this season.] True Briton, 31 May: Tickets to be had of R. Palmer, No. 28, Lower Eaton-street, Pimlico; of Russell, No. 46, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury. Receipts: #290 13s. (65.13.0; 52.7.6; 4.3.0; tickets: 168.9.6, of which R. Palmer sold 107.9.6, and Russell 61.0.0) (charge: #225 9s. 3d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Follett. [Egerton was from the hay (see 23 Jan.).] 2nd piece: In one Act. 3rd piece: Two new Scenes, as 17 Apr.; Procession, as 26 May. Morning Herald. 5 June: Tickets to be had of Follett, No. 46, Drury-lane. Receipts: #360 18s. (116.13.6; 3.11.0; tickets: 240.13.6)

Event Comment: [Extra night] Benefit for the Widows and Orphans of those brave Men who perished, and those who were wounded, in the Glorious Action of the 14th February last [see king's, 18 May.] Patrons: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness Duke of York, His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. Stewards: Duke of Leeds, Duke of Bedford, Earl of Chesterfield, Earl Spencer, Lord Kinnaird, Charles Grey Esq., Thomas Tyrwhitt Esq., Wm. Lushington Esq., Wm. Manning Esq., John Thomson Esq., John Julius Angerstein Esq. Boxes to be taken, and Tickets had at the Office of the Theatre, and at the Bar of Lloyd's Coffee-House. Receipts: none listed