Event Comment: The New Tragedy of Percy [announced on playbill of 8 Dec.] is obliged to be deferred till to-morrow, on Account of the Indisposition of two principal Performers. Receipts: #99 19s. (97.19; 2.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: With Additional Music and Grand Chorusses from Handel; with New Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. Receipts: #190 15s. 6d. (145.1.0; 45.12.0; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for the New General Lying-in-Hospital, in Store-street, Tottenham-Court-Road. Tickets delivered for Venice Preserv'd will be taken. Receipts: #149 1s. 6d. (66.4.6; tickets: 82.17.0) (charge: #115)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of A Trip to Scarborough, announced on playbill of 9 Mar.] 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT I, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]: With a new Scene invented and designed by DeLoutherbourg for the occasion. [Music composed by Thomas Linley Sen. Miss Wright is identified on playbill of 24 May; and see 19 Feb.] Public Advertiser, 27 Mar. 1779: This Afternoon at Four is published A Monody (1s. 6d.). Afterpiece: Not acted these 3 years. Receipts: #213 10s. 6d. (180.18.0; 32.6.0; 0.6.6). "Some of the verses [of the Monody] were responded [to] by the principal vocalists, accompanied by the band, who occupied an orchestra built on the stage, as at the oratorios. The whole of the performers [were] requested to appear in black clothes" (Parke, I, 17)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With a new Fandango Overture, and some additional Songs

Event Comment: [The playbill of 23 July announces for performance on this night the 1st night of A Tour in Wales, "a New Dramatic Piece of Three Acts, interspersed with Songs." It appears never to have been acted. Larpent MS 484; the author is unknown.

Event Comment: Benefit for Dodd. Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years. Public Advertiser, 18 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Dodd, New Ormond-street. Receipts: #192 11s. 6d. (65.11.0; 21.13.6; 0.7.0; tickets: 105.0.0) (charge: #78 4s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never acted here. Afterpiece: With new Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. Books of the Masque to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by John Delap, based on the Suppliants, by Aeschylus, and the Haraclidae, by Euripides. Prologue by Hester Lynch Thrale (Thraliana, I, 484-85). Epilogue by Arthur Murphy (Murphy, Works, 1786, VII, 57)]: With New Dresses and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 1 Mar. 1781: This Day is published The Royal Suppliants (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #181 10s. 6d. (158.0.0; 22.2.0; 1.8.6)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Greville and Williams. Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. Tickets delivered for the 17th of December will be admitted. Tickets and places to be had of Williams at Mr Spoke's, Tottenham Court; Mr White, Auctioneer, Queen street, Westminster; Messrs Ellis and Scott, Old Bond-street; Mr Hewitt, New Bond-street; Mr Cowcieroy, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury; and at the Excise Office Coffee-House, Old Bond-street

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Written by the Author of The Son-in-Law [John O'Keeffe]. The Overture and New Music composed by Dr Arnold

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Elizabeth Inchbald; text, unauthorized (Dublin: For the Booksellers, 1788), assigns no parts]: With new Scenery, Machinery and other Decorations

Event Comment: [Holman is identified on playbill of 5 Nov. Address by John Barwis (European Magazine, Oct. 1784, p. 336, which also lists name of speaker).] Mainpiece: With new Dresses, Scenery and Decorations. In Act I a Masquerade Scene. [This notice is included in all subsequent playbills.] "This easy and natural performance of Holman . . . will prove a fatal blow to the cause of the Attitudinarians and Face-makers; to those who think dramatic excellence consists in . . . finding out meanings that were never meant ... in stretching out their fingers like monkies dying in convulsions ... in uttering their words like minute-guns at royal funerals" (Public Advertiser, 1 Nov.). "Why does Romeo wear black in the last Act? Is it on account of his banishment? He has not heard of Juliet's death" (Gazetteer, 28 Oct.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Charles Dibdin. Text (G. Kearsley, 1785) lists cast as above, but omits La Fleur (see 10 Feb.)]: The Music entirely new, composed by Dibdin. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #154 5s. 6d. (105/19/0; 47/14/6; 0/4/6; tickets not come in: 0/7/6)

Event Comment: The new Comedy of I'll Tell You What! [announced on playbill of 29 July] is obliged to be deferr'd on Account of the Indisposition of Parsons [see 4 Aug.]

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Stockwell to Aickin, but "Fearon, in consequence of Aickin's illness, took the part of Stockwell at a short notice and upon the whole acquitted himself respectably" (Morning Chronicle, 6 Oct.).] "There is an infinite combination in Mrs Abington, a power of making everything new yet conformable to the character (Public Advertiser, 14 Oct.). Receipts: #328 11s. 6d. (326/11/0; 2/0/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. Pit and Boxes will be laid together. Ladies and Gentlemen are most earnestly requested to come early, to prevent Inconvenience in getting to their Places, and to send their Servants to keep them by Four o'clock. "At the close of the entertainment Mrs Abington came forward, and delivered a short poetical address to her fashionable auditory [written by Maurice Morgann (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 263)], apposite to her feelings on the present occasion" (Morning Herald, 11 Feb.). "The character [of Scrub] throughout was well conceived, and executed with a sprightliness and degree of humour that kept the house in a continual roar of laughter" (Public Advertiser, 11 Feb.) "Mrs Abington's voice was in its usual tone; her manners and deportment were inattentive and torpid, rather than active and interesting" (Morning Post, 11 Feb.). "With all her endeavours to give new points to the character, she entirely failed. Her appearance en culottes, so preposterously padded, exceeded nature. Her gestures to look comical could not get the least hold of the audience, though they had seen her before in men's clothes, when playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, where her figure, dressed as a lawyer in his gown, gave effect to her excellent delivery on mercy, and the audience had been always delighted. But this leu de benefice, comparatively speaking, was disgusting and absurd as she dressed the character ... However, I have heard it originated in a bet she had previously made" (Henry Angelo, Reminiscenes, 11, 281-82). Receipts: #406 13s. 6d. (249/9/6; 1/9/0; tickets: 155/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: The New Comedy of Animal Magnetism [advertised on playbill of 23 Apr.] is obliged to be deferred till Tuesday next. [1st piece in place of The Guardian, advertised on playbill of 23 Apr.] Receipts: #159 16s. 6d. (154.1.0; 5.15.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, ascribed variously to John O'Keeffe and to James Foord; adapted from La Gageure Imprevue, by Michel Jean Sedaine. Text prints a Prologue "Supposed to be written by G. Colman, Esq., and intended to be spoken by Bannister Jun.," but "it arrived, by accident, too late at the theatre to be studied and recited" (London Chronicle, 25 Aug.)]. "A new afterpiece was...attempted to be represented, [but] it was not heard out" (Public Advertiser, 19 Aug.). Public Advertiser, 8 Oct. 1788: This Day is published A Key to the Lock (1s.)

Event Comment: The New Comedy of The Toy [advertised on playbill of 29 Jan.] is obliged to be deferred till Tuesday next. Receipts: #252 19s. 6d. (244.16.0; 8.3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dignum. Mainpiece: Never performed there. [Miss Hagley had sung in the dl oratorios this season (see 27 Feb.).] Receipts: #254 10s. (45.18; 16.6; 0.13; tickets: 191.13) (charge: #107 8s. 6d.)

Event Comment: The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 4 May 1790]. Receipts: #77 9s. 6d. (52.18.0; 20.14.0; 2.15.0; tickets not come in: 1.2.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. A new and accurate Edition of the Tragedy to be had at the Theatre. "[Mrs Siddons's] eyes possess a peculiar brilliancy and animation...Her voice is sonorous and variable" (Candid Strictures, 33). Receipts: #311 13s. (296.3; 13.0; 2.10)

Event Comment: 1st piece: With new Scenes and Dresses. And a Procession, representing the Ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her deceased Husband. As You Like It [advertised on playbill of 21 Sept.] is obliged to be deferr'd, on account of the sudden indisposition of a Principal Performer. Receipts: #156 5s. (151.12.6; 4.12.6)