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: Mr Berry dy'd (Cross). Receipts: #170 (Cross). British Chronicle; 8 Jan. 1760. (Winston MS 8): Died Mr Edward Berry in Russel St., Covent Garden, 53 years one of the comedians of tr dl. On this Sunday the body was interr'd in the Cemetery of St Martin's Church. The loss of so worthy a man was expressed by those present. His only daugher is to [....] with the following inscription to his memory, to whom he has left his fortune worth about #1000: @Epitaph@Here lies the remains of@Edward Berry@Who lived@With public applause and private esteem@The former he acquired as@An Excellent Comedian, the latter as an@Honest Man. 8 Jan 1760 Aet 5s.@Light lie the turf, what tho' no breathing Bust@Of mimic Marble dignifie thy dust?@Yet filial sorrow pays the Dudeous Tear@And heartworn Friendship heaves a Sigh sincere.@Pleas'd may thy shade these humble rites receive@The last sad tribute gratitude can give@

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. Afterpiece: Not acted these 12 years. [See 9 Nov. 1761.] With Additions and Alterations. [The Additions to The Fair seem to have included a number of actual animals (instead of the men costumed as an Ass and a Hog as used in Mother Shipton), for the Account Book this year for the first time notes payments, 22 March 1774, "for the hire of Horses in The Fair," and 18 June 1774, "To Mr Brooks for attending with the Camels &c. in the Fair." The tradition of bigger and better spectacles seems to have passed on from Rich to Colman.] Receipts: #180 17s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid 5 days salary list #441 15s.,; King's extra salary #2 10s.; Mr J. French on acct #5 5s.; Mr J. Palmer on note #21 (Treasurer's Book). [This month was printed An Apology for the Conduct of Charles Macklin, Comedian, which, it is hoped, will have some effect in favour of an aged player, by whom the public at large have been uncommonly gratified." Price 1s. Axtell (Gentleman's Magazine Register). This year was publish'd Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose, with Cursory Theatrical Remarks, by P. Lewis, Comedian. Contains some apostrophes to Garrick, Holland, etc.] Receipts: #213 4s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: L. C. 5@142, p. 38 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 355): Order to Mr Staggins, Master of his Majesty's Musick, and in his absence to Mr Lock, who officiates for him:--That all His Majesty's musitians doe attend to practise in the theatre at Whitehall at such tymes as Madam Le Roch and Mr Paisible shall appoint for ye practiceing of such musick as is to be in ye French comedy to be acted before His Matie [the 29 May]

Event Comment: By His Majesty's Command. [The Royal Family present.] Daily Post, 23 Nov.: We hear the King and all the Royal Family remove from Richmond...and are to be at ...Drury Lane [Friday] Evening; a List of Plays, &c. having been sent to Richmond by his Majesty's Command

Event Comment: By His Majesty's Command. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. [The King, Duke, Princess Amelia, Caroline, Mary, and Louisa present.] London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 12 Jan.: Being the first time of his Majesty's being at any Publick Diversion since the Death of the late Queen

Event Comment: RRylands MS: Old Cibber play'd Brute. [The preceding day's notice started this performance was By Command of his Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, although no such notice appears in the day's Bill. But the following note is included on the day's bill in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser.] By His Majesty's Command, no persons to be admitted behind the scenes, nor any money to be return'd after the curtain is drawn up. [Fleetwood made an earnest attempt this year to clear the stage for action. All notices up to this day contain the prohibition of members of the audience behind scenes as stated on the bill of 15 Oct. Hereafter the prohibition is enforced by His Majesty's Command.] Receipts: #182

Event Comment: Benefit Dukes. 5s., 3s., 2s. At the General Session...for Courts of Middlesex...on Thursday the 10th Day of May, 17 George II....This Court being informed, that several common Players of Interludes have for several Years used and accusdomed to assemble and meet together at or near a certain place called Tattenhoe, alias Tattenhall, alias Tottenham Court, in the Parish of St.@Pancras in this County, and to erect Booths, and act or exhibit Drolls and other Shews...whereby great Numbers of His Majesty's Subjects have been encouraged to assemble and to commit Riots and other Misdemeanors, in breach of His Majesty's Peace, and to the disturbance of the Neighborhood, of that Place; and that some of the said Players of Interludes, and other evil disposed Persons, are now seeking out and contracting for ground in or near the Place aforesaid, to build Booths for showing and acting said Plays and Drolls...and whereas all such Players of Interludes are deemed and declared Rogues and Vagabonds, and the Acting of such Plays, Drolls and Shews, are contrary to the Inns and Statues of the Realm...require the High Constable to apprehend all and every Players of Interludes, Plays, and Drolls.--Daily Advertiser, 17 May

Event Comment: The Nobility, Gentry and Public at large are respectfully informed that, in compliance with the wishes of many of the principal Subscribers an supporters of this undertaking, and it being found that, without offence to law, the entertainments advertised for the Hanover-square Rooms may be given at this Place. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout season]. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s. As the Proprietors would not presume, even to save themselves from utter ruin, to offend either the Authority of the King, or of the Laws, they forbear all idea of performing Operas until the hardship and justice of their case shall produce the proper influence upon his Majesty's benevolent mind; and, under the circumstances in which thy stand, with a Company of the most celebrated singers and dances in the world, in their respective departments, engaged at an expense of #18,000, they confide in the liberality to the Public that they will countenance and support such an Entertainment as they are legally warranted to give, until they shall recover their just right of performing Operas under his Majesty's license. "From dinner we all went to the Opera House in the Haymarket, where for the first time they performed for money [see 23 Feb., 10 and 22 Mar.]; the singers, to avoid the [licensing] Act, coming in their own dresses and confining themselves to the airs. It will be seen whether this restriction will be considered sufficient" (Windham Diary, 219). "The action of Orpheus and Eurydice has been seen before at both the rehearsals [see 10 and 22 Mar.], but the scenery could not be then sufficiently displayed. It was very correctly managed on Saturday night...The scene of the Elysian fields deserved the most admiration, where, by means of lights placed behind gauze, a filmy hue is thrown over the stage, and the figures assume the appearance of aerial beings" (Gazetteer, 28 Mar.)

Event Comment: [Huddart, whose 1st appearance on the stage was at the Crow Street Theatre Dublin, on 14 May 1798, is identified in European Magazine, Oct. 1798, p. 258.] "In the gentle and tender scenes [Huddart] was impressive...but in the impassioned parts he was often too boisterous, and from his too eager exertion, he exhausted himself, in a great measure, before the conclusion of the piece" (Morning Herald, 16 Oct.). [Mrs Pope, as Miss Campion, had 1st appeared as Desdemona at the same theatre, 11 Mar. 1790. Mrs Wybrow was from the Royal Circus. She had appeared at cg on 6 June 1798.] Afterp iece [1st time; BALL. PI, by John Cartwright Cross. Larpent MS 1228. Text (i.e. synopsis of the ballet, and the songs) in his Circusiana (Lackington, Allen & Co., 1890), Vol. 1; it lists the cast for the Royal Circus]: Taken chiefly from the favourtie Piece of the latter Title [1st acted at the Royal Circus, 9 Apr. 1798], with Alterations and Additions by the original Author. The Music by Sanderson, and Scenery by Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, Blackmore, &c. Receipts: #294 15s. 6d. (290.8.6; 4.7.0)

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So back to the Cockpitt [Whitehall], and there, by the favour of one Mr Bowman, he [Creed] and I got in, and there saw the King, and Duke of York and his Duchess (which is a plain woman, and like her mother, my Lady Chancellor). And so saw The Humersome Lieutenant acted before the King, but not very well done. But my pleasure was great to see the manner of it, and so many great beauties, but above all Mrs Palmer, with whom the King do discover a great deal of familiarity. Sometime before the Coronation of Charles II, on 23 April 1661, there may have been acted The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver. An edition of 1661 refers to its being "often publikely acted by some of his Majesties Comedians" and the Dedication suggests that it would make a good entertainment at the mirthful time of the Coronation. The edition lists no actors' names, no prologue, no epilogue

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Then my wife and I to Drury Lane to the French comedy, which was so ill done, and the scenes and company and everything else so nasty and out of order and poor, that I was sick all the while in my mind to be there. See also Boswell (Restoration Court Stage, p. 280). W. J. Lawrence (Early French Players in England, The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies (1912), pp. 139-40) argues that the play was Chapoton's Le Mariage d'Orphee et d'Eurydice. See also The Description of the Great Machines of the Descent of Orpheus into Hell. Presented by the French Comedians at the cockpit in Drury Lane. The Argument Taken out of the Tenth and Eleventh Books of Ovid's Metamorphosis (1661). Rugg's Diurnal the French players (BM Add. Mss. 10116, f243v)

Event Comment: See also 15 Dec. 1662. Evelyn, Diary: I went with Sir S. Tuke to heare the Comedians con, & repeate his new Comedy, the Adventures of 5 houres: a play whose plot was taken out of the famous Spanish Poet Calderon

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. See also 15 and 23 Dec. 1662. Pepys, Diary: There being the famous new play acted the first time to-day, which is called The Adventures of Five Hours, at the Duke's house, being, they say, made or translated by Colonel Tuke, I did long to see it; and so made my wife to get her ready, though we were forced to send for a smith, to break open her trunk...and though early, were forced to sit almost out of sight, at the end of one of the lower forms, so full was the house. And the play, in one word, is the best, for the variety and the most excellent continuance of the plot to the very end, that ever I saw, or think ever shall, and all possible, not only to be done in the time, but in most other respects very admittable, and without one word of ribaldry; and the house, by its frequent plaudits, did show their sufficient approbation. Evelyn, Diary: I went to see Sir S: Tuke (my kinsmans) Comedy acted at the Dukes Theater, which so universaly tooke as it was acted for some weekes every day, & was belived would be worth the Comedians 4 or 5000 pounds: Indeede the plot was incomparable but the language stiffe & formall. Downes (pp 22-23): Wrote by the Earl of Bristol, and Sir Samuel Tuke: This Play being Cloath'd so Excellently Fine in proper Habits, and Acted so justly well....It took Successively 13 Days together, no other Play Intervening. Lady Anglesey to her husband, 10 Jan. 1663: Lord Bristol has made a play which is much commended (CSPD 1663-64, p. 8)

Event Comment: On this date a band of French comedians received a permit authorizing them to bring their scenes and stage decoration to England. See W. J. Lawrence, "Early French Players in England," The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies, p. 140; Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 252; and Madame M. Horn-Monval, "French Troupes in England during the Restoration," Theatre Notebook, VII (1953), 82