Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Mainpiece written by the late Lord Lansdown. With the Original Songs, new set by Mr Arne, and to be sung by Mr Lowe and Mrs Clive. Never acted there before. Afterpiece wirtten by the late Mr Pope, Mr Gay, and Dr Arbuthnot. Servants will be allowed to keep places on the stage; and those ladies who have taken places are humbly desired to send for tickets to prevent mistakes. Tickets to be had of Macklin at his house in Bow St., and of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Benefit Mrs Giffard. Tragedy not acted for 7 years. The Ballad Opera, by Mendez, never performed before. Servants admitted to keep places. Tickets at Mr Giffard's (No 11) in Craven Buildings, Drury Lane; and places for the boxes of Hobson, at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit Muilment. Tickets to be had of him at the Angel in King-Street, Covent Garden; and of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Afterpiece a new Pastoral English Opera set to Music by Mr DeFesch. Tickets to be had at DeFesch's Lodgings, the Ironmonger's in St Martin's Court, Leicester-Fields; and of Hobson at the stage door. Tickets deliver'd out for As You Like It by Mr DeFesch will be taken

Event Comment: Not Acted these Eight Years [see 24 April 1741]. Benefit Cibber, Jr. Tickets and places of Hobson at the Stage door. Tickets ddliver'd out for All's Well at Covent Garden theatre will be taken to the above mentioned play this night. [Mrs Clive's Prologue recommended the cause of Liberty to the Ladies of Great Britain. Cibber had pleaded in his advance advertisement on 5 April in the General Advertiser.] As I have in justice to my creditors assigned over so much of my salary as reduces the remainder to a very small pittance, I very much depend on the encouragement and indulgence of the town at my Benefit. [On the day of the benefit he inserted in the General Advertiser a long, double column address to the Publick puffing his Benefit, and scotching a rumor industriously and invidiously spread that he came to Drury Lane only to impede Mrs Cibber in her performance there. In this he washes in public the linen of his domestic affairs at some length, professing his virtue, forbearance, and generosity, and Mrs Cibber's unfairness and ingratitude, citing her salary as about #700 per year, not a penny of which would she afford for his relief from creditors, or to bail him out of the Fleet prison where he languished six months. He alleges that she was instrumental in forming a cartel between the rival theatrical managers with precluded his employment by either house, and that she refused to act a benefit for him when he was in debtor's prison.

Event Comment: Benefit Arne. The demand for Places being more than Double what the Boxes will contain, Mrs Arne is oblig'd to lay the Pit and Boxes together, at 5s., where servants will be allow'd to keep places, as likewise on the stage, which will be form'd into front and side boxes. Ladies send servants by 3 o'clock. Tickets to be had, and places for the boxes to be taken of Arne next door to the Crown and Cushion in Great Queen St., by Lincoln's Inn Fields; and of Hobson at the stage door.--General Advertiser. Tom Arne sends his service; He is forced to put his Pit and Boxes together, which I reckon will be no advantage to him, ladies hoops taking up more room than the difference of price.--Mrs Cibber to Garrick, 8 April (Boaden, Private Correspondence of Garrick, I, 40)

Event Comment: Tickets deliver'd out by Mr Davis will be taken. [Bransby doubled in Oxford and Tyrrel. The General Advertiser quoted a long Epilogue on the Birthday of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland Written by the Farmer (who had taken over the role of Swift's Drapier) and spoken by Garrick in Dublin. It also quoted the following long puff for Ray's Benefit to come]: Sir, As long acquaintance best entitles us to friendly good natured offices, and as no more proper time can be found to confer them than when the person is in the Decline of life, give me leave to recommend (thro' your means) Mr Ray of Drury Lane Theatre, the oldest actor now belonging to that House, to the Favour of the Town, at his ensuing Benefit next Saturday. A person who once agreeably entertained the Public, should always feel the warmth of their Indulgence, tho' the Infirmities of Old age may have render'd him less pleasing than formerly. This Application is therefore meant to those friends of his, whom Distance of time, and change of Situation may have made it impossible any other way to acquaint them, that The Merchant of Venice is to be acted for his Benefit on Saturday next; therefore 'tis hoped they will be so kind as to send for his Tickets to Mr Hobson, in the Playhouse Passage, or to Mr Ray's lodgings, the second Door in Queen's Court, Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the Favour will ever be greatly acknowledged by him

Event Comment: Benefit Hobson

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Hobson at the Stage Door of the Theatre. By Reason of the many inconveniences that have arose by Gentlemen's being admitted behind the scenes, 'tis hoped it won't be taken amiss, that no money will be taken there

Event Comment: By his Majesty's Command. Benefit Mlle Violette. Eight rows of the Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes, and servants will be allow'd to keep places on the stage. Places for the Boxes may be taken of Hobson at the stage door of the theatre

Event Comment: On Friday next, for the Benefit of Sga Padouana, The Merchant of Venice. Tickets at her lodgings at Mr Anderson's, a Watchmaker in Little Wild St., and of Hobson at the stage door. Sga Padouana being utterly unacquainted with the English Language, and without any personal Friendships here to recommend and encourage her, as she has always endeavor'd to please the Town to the utmost of her Power, intirely depends on the known Candour, and Benevolence of this Nation, and humbly hopes for the Indulgence of the Publick on her Benefit night

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece written by Beaumont and Fletcher, never acted there. Servants allow'd to keep places on the stage which will be form'd into front and side boxes, and so commodiously enclos'd as to prevent the Ladies from taking cold. Ladies send servants by three. Tickets of Mrs Clive at her House in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. Benefit Mrs Giffard. Tickets to be had of her at her house, No 11 in Craven Buildings, Drury Lane, and of Hobson at the stage door where places may be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Delane. Mainpiece: As written by Shakespear. Tickets deliver'd for Monday the 9th will be taken. Tickets to be had of Delane at his lodgings at the Unicorn in New Exchange Row in the Strand. Places of Hobson at the stage door. There is now in rehearsal at the Theatre Royal [dl] and speedily will be acted, a new Petit Piece in imitation of that species of writing on the French Theatre call'd The Suspicious Husband Criticiz'd; or the Plague of Envy (General Advertiser). [A Folger edition of 1750 entitled Chorus for Shakespear's Tragedy of King John lists songs by Sullivan, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Storer, and Mrs Mozeen; the play had no other performance at a London theatre in the interim between 1747 and 1750.

Event Comment: Benefit Cibber Jun. Tickets and places to be had of Hobson at the stage door. Tickets deliver'd out by Mr Moore, and tickets deliver'd out for the Distress'd Wife dated 16 March will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. The Farce never before acted. Tickets to be had of Macklin at his House in Bow St; and of Hobson at the stage door where places may be taken for the Boxes.--General Advertiser. [Afterpiece by Charles Macklin.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Elmy. Tickets and places of Hobson, and of Mrs Elmy at her lodgings at the Star in Bow St., Covent Garden

Event Comment: Benefit Hobson

Event Comment: Written by Shakespear. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Hobson at the Stage-Door of the Theatre. As the Admittance of Persons behind the Scenes has occasioned a general Complaint on Account of the frequent Interruptions in the Performance, tis hop'd Gentlemen won't be offended, that no Money will be taken there for the future. [This notice appears on succeeding bills for the season and will hence not be repeated. See note on public objection to nonadmittance behind scenes 22 Feb. 1748.] Receipts: #150 (Cross); #I26 12s. (Clay MS). Nichols Literary Anecdotes, II, 319-20: There is one part of theatrical conduct which ought unquestionably to be recorded to Mr Garrick's honour, since the cause of virtue and morality and the formation of public manners are very considerably dependent upon it, and that is the zeal with which he ever aimed to banish from the stage all those plays which carry with them an immoral tendency, and to prune from those which do not absolutely on the whole promote the interests of vice such scenes of licentiousness and libertinism as a redundency of wit and too great liveliness of imagination have induced some of our comic writers to indulge themselves in, and to which the sympathetic disposition of an age of gallantry and intrigue had given a sanction. The purity of the English stage was certainly much more fully establish'd during the administration of this theatrical minister than it had ever been during preceding managements; for, what the publick taste had itself to some measure begun, he, by keeping that taste within its proper channel, and feeding it with a pure and untainted stream, seems to have completed; and to have endeavoured as much as possible to adhere to the promise made in the prologue which was spoken at the first opening of that theatre under his direction, @Bade scenic virtue form the rising age@And truth diffuse her radiance from the stage.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Cibber (Cross). And the Stage (for the better Accommodation of the Ladies) will be form'd into Front and Side Boxes, where Servants will be allow'd to keep Places, as well as in the Boxes and the Pit. Ladies are desired to send Servants to keep Places by 3 o'clock. Tickets to be had of Mrs Cibber, at her house in Thrift St, Soho, and of Hobson, at the Stage Door of the Theatre, where Places may be taken. Tomorrow The Foundling (being the 13th Night). Receipts: #250 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #81 17s.; tickets, #187 5s. 6d. (Clay MS). This charge was also set down that the principle [sic] treasurer should not know to the contrary, because it was told him that Mrs Cibber paid for her benefit, and if he had imagin'd otherwise, he perhaps would have insisted upon the same terms for his wife (Mrs Pr-h-d). I must therefore subtract it with Mr G-k's Benefit, it standing in their Books exactly in the same manner as his (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Barry. Pit and Boxes laid together, and Stage, for better accommodation of the Ladies, will be form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Tickets to be had of Barry at the corner of Bow St., and of Hobson at the Stage Door. [This month was printd The Town, a Satire by Wm. Kenrick, with especial attack upon Garrick and Garrick's plays. In Miss in her Teens, he boasts the strange pretense, To satire Coxcombs, while he murders sense." Kenrick is one of the few who criticizes Garrick (p. 21) for playing a low character Abel Drugger, rather than a king. He yields indirect praise to Janeton Auretti by blaming the town for cheering her dance, while neglecting the players: @Yet if Janeton shakes her slender feet@How loud the thunder clatters through the Pit.@ Prologue intended to have been spoken on the Revival of The Distress'd Mother, for the Benefit of Mr Barry, but omitted through some misunderstanding. Written by Mr Rolt, printed in Gentleman's Magazine, March 1748, p. 134.] Receipts: #270 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #80 3s. 6d.; tickets, #118 5s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard. Part of Pit laid into Boxes, and stage form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Tickets and Places to be had at Mrs Pritchard's in Duke's late Earl's Court, (Bow Street), at Mr Vaughan's at the Golden Fan, next the Royal Exchange, Cornhill; and of Hobson at the stage door. Receipts: #220 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #63 10s. 6d.; tickets, #118 17s. (Clay MS). By her agreement she has ten Guineas return'd her out of this charge, and therefore I shall subtract that out of the rest (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Woffington. As ye Curtain was rising for ye farce a Gentleman's sword was taken out of ye Scabbard & carry'd up with ye Curtain & there Hung to ye terror of those under it (least it shou'd fall) & ye Mirth of ye rest of ye Audience--a Scene man fetch'd it down (Cross). Four rows of the Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes; and the stage form'd into front and side boxes. Tickets and places of Hobson at the stage door. Receipts: #240 (Cross); house charges, #50 (Powel).This was also in her agreement to pay no more than the above sum (Powel). Cash, #84 19s. 6d.; tickets, #100 3s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Delane. He did not publish a Bill 'till after Mr Barry's Day [see 10 March] (Cross). Tickets and places to be had of Delane, in Broad Court, the upper end of Bow St., Covent Garden, and of Hobson, at the stage Door. On Thursday next, by Particular Desire, the last new comedy call'd The Foundling. Receipts: #156 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #91 14s.; tickets, #62 15s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive, Mainpiece: At the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Part of Pit rail'd into Boxes. Stage form'd into front and side Boxes. Send servants by 3. Tickets and places of Mrs Clive in Great Queen St., Lincolns Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Cross: Ned Thompson dy'd. Receipts: #220 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash #78; tickets, #94 10s. (Clay MS)