Event Comment: Acted there but once. By Authority. Tickets deliver'd out by Miss Barton which could not get in on Thursday last, will be admitted this Night. [An Epistle from Mr Theophilus Cibber, to David Garrick, Esq. London: 1755, dated Nov. 20, 1755: When Th. Cibber returned from Guilford last July, he found a discharge from Covent Garden (p.5) He got a license from the Duke of Grafton to open Little Haymarket (p. 6). He began and acted ten nights in three weeks, with some success, but when Drury Lane opened, Th. Cibber was ordered to stop (p. 7). He then petitioned the Duke of Grafton to have The Haymarket for two or three times weekly for the rest of the season. He hoped that the Little Haymarket might be a nursery for young performers, as well as for new pieces (p. 24). See dl 24 Nov.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Hough, late Student of the Temple. Mr Hough, having been bred to the law, takes this liberty to recommend himself to the favour and protection of the several Members thereof, trusting that their Smiles of Friendship will crown his Wishes with Success. No Building on Stage

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera--Music by Galuppi. [Text--Goldoni. First performance in England. The text notes music originally by Baldassar Galuppi called Buranello, and perfected by Gioacchino Cocchi. Burney (History of Music, II, 860) notes the extreme popularity of this piece, and the success of the Paganinis as singers in it.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. Boxes #62 10s. 6d. Macklin's fifth above charges came to #25 2s. 11d. Paid for sundry clothes from Voelcher #30 10s. Paid Blackmore a Bill for Rich #29 10s. and a Bill for the Theatre from 19 April last: #84 (Account Book). [On 1 Feb. one H. F. of the Middle Temple wrote to Macklin suggesting two things to insure the success of the Married Libertine. The first was practical, "bring in a claque of friends to counteract the noise of the Scots Lords who are opposing it." The second was revisional: "The play is too long,--shorten it and give the house notice that you have so done. The scenes wherein Lady Belville is solemn, grave, complaining and moral may be much abbreviated; this will...take away that heavy, lazy and sleepy (however just) part which makes your friends languish and grow cold, and gives your enemies an opportunity to improve their rancor and malignity. This observation may be applied to every recital, narrative or description which is not absolutely necessary or descriptive,--I mean necessarily connected with the frame, contexture & execution of the drama, or something designed or painted with uncommon poetic fire and enthusiasm. Pray consider whether that serious, moral and sentimental part in the character of Angelica might not be curtailed, or entirely omitted. I would have your young captain fully employed in action without ever standing still to moralize or harangue, however sensibly and poignantly he may do it. After all this there will remain a rich and uninterrupted vein of true comic humour and lively representation in short, a well connected series and succession of business which I am convinced would keep the audience so attentive and so entirely possessed that there would be no room for languor or malice to produce any effect to your detriment." (Memoirs of Macklin [Harvard Theatre Collection, extra-illustrated edition, I, part 2, p. 414.] Receipts: #188 14s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: With New Habits, Scenes, Decorations and Music. Full Prices. Songs in the Entertainment will be given out at the Theatre. Afterpiece compos'd by Love, perform'd with success (Victor, I, 40). [N.B. In June 1762 the King of the Cherokee Indians arrived with two of his chiefs to pay respects to King George III. On 28 August they appeared at Marylebone Gardens. A dmission Price to see them 6d. (London Chronicle, No 857 & 860).

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. King & Queen (Cross Diary). The play and Farce went off extremely well--The King and Queen seemed vastly pleased--after the play the King sent the Lord Huntington to return Mr Powell thanks in his name for the entertainment he gave them, and his good wishes for his success (Hopkins Diary--MacMillan). Receipts: #240 15s. 6d. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: EEvery Man in His Humour deferr'd on account of Indisposition of Dunstall (playbill). T. Lownds paid #23 10s. for a one-eighth share of the copyright for Bickerstaff's Maid of the Mill (BM Add. MS 38730 fol. 104b) in anticipation of its stage success. [It was first performed at cg 31 Jan. 1765.

Event Comment: At the Little Theatre in James Street near the Haymarket. Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin exactly at 6:00. Boxes 4s. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s. 6d. to the public. After several of our Lords and Masters, the Men, have with various success made wry faces for the amusement of the town; permit a woman to attempt the arduous task of laughing the men out of their follies; declaring, however, that while she attempts the ridicule of vices peculiar to the other sex, she will by no means spare the slightest foible of her own (Public Advertiser). The Theatre is fitted up in an elegant manner, and constant fires are kept to make the house agreeably warm (Gazetteer & New Daily Advertiser). [This Lecture continued to 6 March.

Event Comment: Author's Day. [Publication of the play announced in the Public Advertiser this day, along with the following "puff" by Censor Dramaticus: "Sir: I have just given the new comedy, the Double Mistake, its first reading, and must confess I never was better pleased at a first reading than at present: It is chaste, sententious and genteel in its dialogue, interesting in its plot, the characters all of consequence, strongly marked and happily kept up, and even the virtuoso entertaining without being tiresome. I heartily wish it success, and congratulate the author on such a production, which shows that virtuous principles in high life render the persons that possess them doubly charming, and add real grace and dignity to their appearance in public life....I hope I may be believed when I say I have not the most distant knowledge of the author, and that impartiality shall ever be, and ever was my constant plan in observations of this kind."

Event Comment: [D$DuBellamy, as would appear from a letter to the Printer of the Public Advertiser, 20 Sept. "Being at the Opera House last week to see the Conscious Lovers and As You Like It, not to mention the various and allowed excellencies of each performer, I was most agreeably surprized at the songs, in the bills said to be sung by a Gentleman, which indeed his genteel figure and polite address, at first sight well authenticated; but for the songs, viz. If Love's a Sweet Passion,--Blow, Blow Thou Winter's Wind,--with some others I must confess I never heard the like; his voice was finely masculine, strong, sweet, clear and articulate; his manner not servilely confined to the pedantic stiffness of some, or the affectation of others; in a word he sung like a Gentleman; and the sound, as Milton elegantly expresses it, 'Floated the Wings of silence.' This is not intended (by doing justice to Mr D. B@@y) to depreciate any....I am told he has applied to Mr Beard, with what success I know not, [hopes he will be one of the new singers at Covent Garden] signed T. S."]

Event Comment: To be published by Subscription: A General History of The Stage, for the last ten years; comprehending all remarkable Occurrences during that Period, the Production and Success of every new Piece, and Anecdotes of the Principal Performers. By Joseph Younger. Prompter to the Theatre Royal In Covent Garden. Printed Proposals to be had Becket and DeHondre in the Strand, and of Griffin in Catherine Street

Event Comment: [The Young Gentleman who played Posthumus is identified by Kemble and Winston as Mr Warboys.] Gave Duke of Cumberland's Footmen #2 2s. (Account Book). [Town and Country Magazine (quoting Theatre No XIII) remarked on Warboys acting: "The success he met with will probably deter him from following the profession of the stage...not happy either in person or in physiognamy."] Receipts: #250 6s

Event Comment: Oratorio composed by Handel. Tickets to be had and places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Johnston at the Stage Door of the Theatre, at Half a Guinea each. Pit 5s. First Gallery 3s. 6d. Second Gallery 2s. The Doors to be opened at Five o'Clock. To Begin at Half past Six. N.B. Those ladies who had Side Boxes last year, are humbly requested if they intend to continue them the ensuing season, to give immediate notice to Mr Johnston to have them secured. [The Westminster Magazine (March) commented: "One of those whims by which the public are continually influenced, has made it the ton to resort to this theatre to hear and see Miss Linley, the syren of Bath. This young lady who is greatly indebted to nature for the eclat with which she is followed, and not a little to the fortuitous concurrence of remarkable incidents in her life has drawn crowded houses incessantly; and this success has been insured by the constant attendance of his Majesty and the Royal family at this theatre."

Event Comment: The Two Misers is unavoidably oblig'd to be deferr'd. Books of the Entertainment [The Two Misers?] to be had at the theatre. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No persons admitted behind the scenes, nor any money returned after the curtain is up. Places for the Boxes to be taken, of Mr Sarjant (only) at the Stage Door. The Doors to be opened at Half after Five o'clock. To Begin exactly at Half after Six. Vivant Rex and Regina. (Customary footnote for succeeding Playbills. It will not be repeated here. The Westminster Magazine, September, p. 459, indicates a Prelude was also given this opening night, consisting of several of the actors comparing notes on their various successes, casts of parts, droll accidents, which they had experienced during their different summer excursions. Mattocks, Dunstall, Lee Lewes, Miss Barsanti, and Hull participated. The reviewer reported the content of their reminiscences, but disliked the jumbled nature of the Prelude. Another account in the Morning Post, 21 September.] Note: For performance at hay 20 September, see Season of 1774-1775, p. 1905

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Last Night of performing before the Holidays. [See first version of this afterpiece under title What We Must All Come To, 9 Jan. 1764. It was damned then but now met with success. A Comedy by Arthur Murphy. The reviewer for the Westminster Magazine for April stamped the afterpiece with his approval.

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. Afterpiece: A Comedy of two Acts never performed. Dr Thomas Francklin. [According to the Biographia Dramatica, "This is a poor performance, founded on Destouches' L'Amour Use, and met with no success; being nearly condemned, nothwithstanding the King and Royal family were present. Foote told his friends, that, when he lighted the King, to his chair, his Majesty asked who the piece was written by: 'It was written (says the wicked Wit) by one of your Majesty's Chaplains; but it is dull enough to have been written by a Bishop.)'"]

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5]: By the celebrated Henry Fielding; and never yet performed or published. With new Scenes, Dresses, &c. [and incidental music by Michael Arne. Prologue by David Garrick. Epilogue by the same (see text)]. Public Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1778: This Day is published The Fathers (1s. 6d.). "This play was written by Mr Henry Fielding, some years before his death. Mr Garrick saw it at that time. Mr Fielding gave the only fair copy he had of it to his friend Sir Charles Williams, of whose judgment he entertained a high opinion. Sir Charles soon after went abroad, and the comedy was mislaid. Mr. Fielding communicated this circumstance to his family on his death-bed; and enquiry was made for it, but without effect. At length Mr Thomas? Johnes, Member for Cardigan, looking over Sir Charles's books, found a comedy in manuscript, which he read, and, approving, had it transcribed and sent to Mr Garrick for his opinion, who, like Archimedes, cried out, 'This is the lost sheep! This is Mr Henry Fielding's play!' Mr Garrick communicating it to Mr Johnes, Mr Johnes immediately sent the original manuscript, which was in Mr Fielding's hand-writing, to the family, with his best wishes for its success, promising to assist it to the utmost of his power" (Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1778, p.586). See also, for corroboration of the above and for other details, Wilbur L. Cross, The History of Henry Fielding, 1918, III, 99-104. Receipts: #210 11s. 6d. (186.6.0; 23.19.6; 0.6.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, author unknown. MS not in Larpent; synopsis of action in Public Advertiser, 8 and 9 Jan.]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. To conclude with a Representation of the Repulse of the Spaniards before the Rock of Gibraltar [on 13 Sept. 1782; this was included in all subsequent performances]. The Music partly new [by William Shield, with overture by Carl Friedrich Baumgarten] and partly compiled from the best Masters. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Books of the Pantomime to be had at the Theatre. Account-Book, 4 June: Paid the Author of Harlequin Junior a Compliment on the Success #30. Receipts: #261 5s. 6d. (257/10/0; 3/8/0; tickets not come in: 0/7/6)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for the Author. Play [1st time; T 5]: Written by the Rev. [Thomas] Stratford. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Tickets to be had of Dr Stratford, No. 5, Cecil-street, Strand, and of Fosbrook at the Theatre. Dr Stratford, in the overflowing of a grateful heart, is happy indeed in returning thanks to the Ladies and Gentlemen who, with equal benignity and humanity, have so generously exerted themselves in bringing forward his tragedy of Russel. Above the mean manoeuvres that have been practised by persons he had the least reason to expect such a conduct from, and which have detained him almost three years in London, at a ruinous expense, he went with a party of his friends, on Wednesday last, to the Hay-market, in support of the other Lord Russel, penned by superior genius. As he never injured an individual, he trusts every intention to defeat the success of his play will be disappointed by a generous London audience who, he still presumes to hope, will be actuated by the same noble spirit and principle that first induced the Lady and Gentleman to undertake so arduous a task as appearing on a public theatre. As many parts of the play will be expunged and altered, he begs leave to mention that it cannot be again represented till Wednesday next, when the characters of Lord Howard and Hubert will be performed by two other Gentlemen, who have generously undertaken their parts, and an entire new address will be spoken by the Gentleman who performs Lord Russel, wrote by himself. "The performers ... rendered the Doctor's Tragedy one of the most laughable farces at which we were ever present. [It] has much Calimanco in it, and where we could hear a sentence compleat (which was seldom indeed) it abounded with Fustian" (Public Advertiser, 21 Aug.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Ferrarese. Sga Ferrarese, whose long and grievous Indispositions have been an Obstacle to the Success she ardently wished to obtain, cannot plead any Merit of her own, and only depends for Patronage on that well-known Liberality of a Public, equally disposed to allow for involuntary Deficiencies as to reward even an Attempt to captivate their Benevolence. Tickets, half a guinea each, to be had of Sga Ferrarese, No. 19, Oxendon Street, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer. Mainpiece [1st time; C 3, by George Colman, the elder, altered from The Mutual Deception, by Joseph Atkinson, which was based on Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard, by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, and 1st acted at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 2 Mar. 1785. Prologue by the author (.European Magazine, Sept. 1786, p. 166). Author of Epilogue unknown]. Afterpiece: Never acted at this Theatre. [Prologue and Epilogue by David Garrick.] "This play, originally French, was translated by an Officer (the plot of which may be found in The Man's the Master, as well as in many other English plays and farces) who, with some few additions, changed it into five acts, and called it The Mutual Deception (which is now in print), but was represented in Ireland with little or no success. This Comedy, however, has undergone many very masterly alterations, and received many additions by the able hand of the attentive Manager of this Theatre" (Public Advertiser, 30 Aug.). Public Advertiser, 6 May 1788: To be published May 7, Tit for Tat (1s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Four Acts. The Music by Dr Arne and Giardini. Books of the Lyric Part of the Drama to be had at the Theatre. [Mrs Pollock is identified in European Magazine, Dec. 1792, p. 456. "Candour and impartiality compel us to advise this lady to desist from a pursuit that affords her not the most distant prospect of success. She is deficient in every dramatic requisite, her person alone excepted" (Morning Herald, 26 Nov.).] Receipts: #182 0s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Kent and Family. By Desire of Her Serene Highness, the Margravine of Anspach. Kent's most respectful Compliments waits on the Ladies and Gentlemen of Hammersmith, and its Vicinity, informs them that Mr Newman has kindly granted the Assembly Room for one or two Evenings; to accomodate Her Highness the Margravine and principal Inhabitants: Kent has spar'd neither trouble or expence to render it conveniant [sic] as possible, the Room itself being very respectable & the Entrance unexceptionable. He earnestly solicits the company of his Friends in general, assuring them that every endeavour will be exerted for their Entertainment; the Interest of every Lady & Gentleman will be ever most gratefully remember'd, as very highly contributing to Kent's extricating himself from a Situation obvious to all acquainted with the Expence he has been at, and the ill Success he has met with. To begin exactly at 6:30. Admittance 2s. Tickets to be had at the Winsor Castle, of Kent, and Miss Connard in Union Court, and of Miss Kent, at Mrs Bevias

Event Comment: Principal Instrumental Performers as 4 Mar. Morning Herald, 12 Mar.: Mrs Hindmarsh made her first appearance with much success

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 1, by James Byrn. Performed in place of Windsor Castle, advertised on playbill of 11 May]: The Overture and new Music composed, and the rest compiled, by W. Parke. "It being thought, by some, intended to treat the Clergy with disrespect, produced much disapprobation. The next night [20 May], when given only as an Interlude, it met with better success" (Oulton, 1796, II, 177). Receipts: #158 12s. (152.8. 6.4)