Event Comment: PPost Boy, 19 Nov.: We hear the Celebrated Mrs Oldfield is very Ill at her House in Grosvenor-street

Event Comment: DDaily Post, 24 Oct, Yesterday...dy'd at her House in Grosvenor-Street, that celebrated Actress Mrs Oldfield

Event Comment: Towards a fund for ye Support of a publick Charity-(ye Lock Hospl.). King Lear & Duke & no Duke given out for Wed., 23 & bills put up, but not play'd on account of Mr Havard's illness, at 12 at noon, bills were dispers'd saying--the Play of King Lear, design'd for to Night is oblig'd to be defer'd on Account of Mr Havard's sudden illness. N.B--It was a very hot day (Cross). Tickets to be had at the following Coffee Houses: The St James, in St James's St.; The Mount, in Grosvenor St.; George's the upper end of the Haymarket; the Bedford and Tom's in Covent Garden; Garraway's in Cornhill; and at the Stage Door of the Theatre. Tickets deliver'd out for 16 April will be taken. [Cross lists no Receipts.

Event Comment: For the Benefit of the Wid. Kraus & her children whose Husband was murder'd by Robbers near Chelsea (Cross). Tickets to be had at White's Chocolate House, and the St James Coffee House, St James St.; at Allmack's Coffee House, Halfmoon St.; The Mount Coffee House, Grosvenor St.; Sam's Coffee House and The Jerusalem Coffee House, Exchange Alley; of Mrs Kraus, at her house in Halfmoon St., Picadilly, and of Mr Varney at the stage Door, where places may be taken. Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: Part of Pit laid into Boxes. Tickets to be had of Dodsley in Pall Mall: Miller in the Strand; Chapelle in Grosvenor St.; and Varney at the Stage Door, where Places may be taken. Mrs Cibber's Benefit, on account of her illness, is oblig'd to be deferr'd till the 7th of next month. Cross For ye Author. Receipts: #190 (Cross)

Event Comment: The Profits of this Performance will be given to a Public Charity. Pit and Boxes 10s. 6d. First Gallery 5s. Upper Gallery 3s. 6d. The Ladies are desired for their own conveniency to come without Hoops, and to send servants by 3 o'clock to keep places. Tickets to be had at Arthur's Chocolate House and the St James Coffee House in St James's Street; The Mount Coffee-House in Grosvenor St.; the Cocoa-Tree in Pall Mall; George's facing the Haymarket; Tom's and the Bedford Coffee Houses in Covent Garden; and of Varney at the Stage Door, where Places may be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for a Widow Gentlewoman and her Children, who have suffered the loss by Two Ships, to the amount of #2000. Urged at the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Tickets to be had at Mr Harper's at the Corner of Avemary Lane; Mount's Coffee-House, Grosvenor St.; Smyrna Coffee-House, Pall Mall; Sam's Coffee-House in Change Alley, Cornhill; and of Sarjant at the Stage Door, where Places for the Boxes may be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for the Colleges of Philadelphia and New York. Mainpiece a Sacred Ode written by Dr Brown set to select Airs, Duets and Choruses from Mr Handel, and other Eminent Composers, with the addition of several new songs. Pit and Boxes to be put together. No Persons to be admitted without tickets, which will be deliver'd at the Office of the theatre at 1!2 a Guinea each; and also at the following Coffee House, viz: the Smyrna, Pall Mall; the Mount, Grosvenor St; George's, Temple Bar; the Rainbow, Cornhill, the New York, Sweetings's Alley; and the Pennsylvania, Birchin Lane. First Gallery 5s. Second Gallerp 3s. 6d. Galleries to be opened at half past Four, Pit and Boxes at Five. To begin at 1!2 after Six (playbill). This philanthropic enterprise, of which the theatrical benefit was but a part, seems not to have born much fruit for the respective Colleges. See Letter to the Governors of the Colleges of New York, respecting the Collection that was made in the Kingdom in 1762 and 1763, for the Colleges of Philadelphia and New York, to which are added Explanatory notes and appendix. By Sir James Jay, M. D. (London, 1771). The funds collected seem largely to have been used up in a law suit. The Governor of the College of New York, Rev. Dr Johnson, asked Jay to collect funds, which he did. Alderman Trecothick wrote Dr Johnson that the funds were not safe in Jay's hands. The Governors insulted Jay, and when they found they were wrong refused to apologize. They entered a bill against him in Chancery to gain the funds. It dragged out for four years. When the power of Attorney had been given to Trecothick, he claimed that a sum of #1437 15s. 6d. was unaccounted for by Jay, and was supposed to be in Jay's hands. Jay explained the Governors had not reckoned on reimbursement for his time and expenses for two years.

Event Comment: Benefit for Woodward. Tickets delivered for Every Man in His Humour, March 18th, and for this Day, will be admitted. Public Advertiser, 7 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Woodward, Chapel Street, Grosvenor Place, Hyde-Park Corner. Receipts: #204 10s. (168.15; tickets 35.15) (charge: free)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but a licensing date of 28 March 1678 suggests a first performance not later than February 1678. One song, One night while all the village slept, with music by Louis Grabu and words by Sir Car Scroop, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 17): Major Mohun...[in] Mithridates, &c. An Eminent Poet seeing him Act this last, vented suddenly this Saying: Oh Mohun, Mohun! Thou little Man of Mettle, if I should write a 100 Plays, I'd Write a Part for thy Mouth; in short, in all his Parts, he was most Accurate and Correct. [Downes, p. 12, gives an identical cast except for omissions.] Princess Anne apparently played Ziphares and Frances Apsley played Semandra in a production of this drama, probably at St James's Palace or at Sir Allen Apsley's house in St James's Square, between January 1677@8 and August 1679. See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), p. 61

Event Comment: Peregrine Bertie to the Countess of Rutland, 31 Dec. 1685: Last night was a masque at Mr Oldfield's in Soho Square, there was a great deale of very good company (ibid.). [Bridget Noel, writing to the Countess of Rutland, ca. 6 Jan. 1685@5, refers to a musicale, but her letter leaves unclear whether she refers to the same one Peregrine Bertie discusses (ibid.).

Event Comment: John Dryden to Sir George Etherege, 16 Feb. 1686@7: The Coffee-house stands certainly where it did, & angry men meet in the square sometimes, as Abercomy, & Goodman lately did, where they say Alexander the Great was wounded in the arme (The Letters of John Dryden, ed. Ward, p. 27). See 27 Oct. 1686

Event Comment: Benefit Henry Eccles, Jr. At 6 p.m. Tickets 2s. 6d. The Dancing Room is in Crosby Square in Bishopsgate Street

Event Comment: cted sometime during this week.] Evening Post, 22 Nov.: We hear that last Week the Gentleman of Mr Clare's Academy in Soho Square acted the celebrated Tartuffe of Moliere, done into English by themselves, before many Persons of Distinction, with great Applause

Event Comment: Benefit Chapman. Receipts: money #39 12s.; tickets #89 19s. Daily Post, 24 April: We hear that on Monday next the Hon. and Antient Company of Lumber Troopers will perform a fine Exercise in New-street Square, and from thence proceed in a Body...to...Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, to see...the Busy Body, with the Opera of Flora...for the Benefit of Mr Chapman, belonging to the said Troop

Event Comment: [Sometime during last week'] the Tragedy of Junius Brutus, written by Voltaire, was acted in French by the young Gentlemen educated at the Academy in Soho Square. -Daily Advertiser, 8 Nov

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Thurmond. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality and distinction. [Tickets at Thurmond's House, Haydon Square.] Boxes 4s. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Benefit Mr Thurmond. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality and Distinction. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. [Tickets at Thurmond's House, Haydon Square.

Event Comment: See Daily Advertiser, 4 Feb., for a letter from Colley Cibber to the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court. Daily Advertiser, 4 Feb.: Whereas it is agreed on between several Gentlemen, to erect a New Theatre for the exhibiting of Plays, Farces, Pantomime, &c. all such Persons as are willing to undertake the said Building, are desir'd to bring their Plans for the same by the 2d of May next ensuing, in order to be laid before the said Gentlemen, the Time and Place of which Meeting will be advertis'd in this Paper on the last of April. Proportions of the Ground: The North Side 120 Feet; the West, square with the North, 130 Feet; the South 110 Feet; and the East on a Bevil, joining the Parallel. Note, There must be a Passage left to go round the Building, and the Stages to be 30 Feet wide at the First Scene; the Distance between Wall and Wall 80 Feet; and the Scene-Rooms, Green and Dressing Rooms, to be on the outside of the last mention'd Measure. The Stage to be either North or South

Event Comment: By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales [who were present]. Mainpiece: Written by Beaumont and Fletcher. Afterpiece: Written by the Author of the Toy Shop. [For a letter on the disputes between the footmen and the gentlemen, see Grub St. Journal, 17 March.] [There is in the Bennett Collection, I, 93, in the Birmingham Library, an exceptionally curious advance notice for a performance to be given at Drury Lane soon after Easter of The Conscious Lovers and The Devil to Pay, with no cast for either play in the bill. The announcement appears to refer to the spring of 1737 and presumably appeared around the middle of March. It is intended for the benefit of a Widow under Misfortunes and the bill bears the heading: Gift and Pleasure. According to the announcement, the widow has been left Italian pictures, antiqees, jewels, and precious stones; and she intends, for the encouragement of her benefactors, to make a gift of all the objects, which will be placed in three hundred parcels. Tickets for the performance are advertised at five shillings, and no one is to be admitted without a ticket. The pit and boxes are to be put together at two tickets for each person, and the first and second galleries are placed together at one ticket for each spectator. The tickets are not to be left with the door-keepers as usual, but only shewn and kept. On the day following the benefit a raffle will be held, by Mr Foubert's Patent Mathematical Machine, at Hickford's Great Room in Brewers Street, Golden Square, and only holders of tickets will be admitted to the raffle, After this entry was set, an advertisement was found in the Daily Advertiser, 18 April 1738, announcing this performance for 13 May 1738. The Daily Advertiser on 5 May 1738, however, announced that the proposed performance had been cancelled.

Event Comment: LLondon Daily Post and General Advertiser, 21 Aug.: On Saturday Morning early died at his house the Buffalo's Head Tavern in Bloomsbury Square, Mr Fielding, formerly belonging to the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane

Event Comment: Benefit Beard. Tickets at Beard's House, New North Street, Red-Lion Square

Event Comment: Benefit Denoyer. By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. [Tickets at Denoyer's Lodgings, the Corner of St. James's-Square, in Pall-Mall.

Event Comment: Benefit Desnoyer. By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. [Tickets at Desnoyer's House in St. James's Square.