Event Comment: [Miss Brown is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill. "Notwithstanding the bills...[she acted] the summer before last, on the boards of the Richmond theatre" (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1798, p. 308). In afterpiece the playbill retains Mrs Roffey as Nelly, but she "who usually performed the part of the Servant Maid, [was] suddenly taken ill; her substitute [was] Miss Tidswell" (Morning Herald, 12 Nov.).] Account-Book: Received of Hammersley & Co., lent to pay the Company #500; paid Lowndes, printer, #10; Chorus #6; Rablus, tallow candles, #10. Receipts: #203 12s. (126.3.6; 76.7.6; 1.1.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by Prince Hoare, adapted from Camille; ou, Le Souterrain, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres]: The Musick entirely new by Dussek [and Kelly]. With new Scenery [by Marinari (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1798, p. 309)], Dresses, and Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 7 May 1799: On May 9 will be published The Captive of Spilburg (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #209 6s. 6d. (108.10.6; 99.19.6; 0.16.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by Counsellor Moore (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 368). Epilogue by John Taylor (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. "Lewis's Gossamer is one of those characters which no actor could play but himself, because no man has that happy freedom and facility, that fashionable playfulness and spirit, so joyous, free, and unrelaxing, which distinguish all his performances of this nature" (Monthly Mirror, ibid). Morning Chronicle, 8 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Laugh When You Can (2s.). Receipts: #268 10s. (263.17; 4.13)

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Lacy, formerly of the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. Tickets to be had of Fosbrook, at the Box Office of the Drury Lane Theatre, and Rice, at the Box Office of the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, where Places for the Boxes may be taken. [Address by John Taylor (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 370). On this night the following appeared both at dl and at the hay: Hollingsworth, Caulfield, Bannister Jun., Suett, Miss Pope, Mrs Bland.

Event Comment: "When Euphrasia stabs Dionysius, she exclaims, 'A daughter's arm, fell monster, strikes the blow, Yes, first she strikes...' All, or at least the greatest part of this seems to be intended to precede the blow; and yet probability requires that the blow of a woman that kills an armed warrior should be unforeseen and sudden. Mrs Siddons felt the force of this. She strikes Dionysius without speaking a word, and repeats the passage over him as he lies on the ground" (Monthly Mirror, July 1800, p. 41). Receipts: #154 11s. 6d. (90.17.6; 62.8.0; 1.6.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by George Colman, ynger]: With new Musick, Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick entirely new, composed by Kelly with an overture by Dussek]. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood? Jun, with the assistance of Chalmers and Banks. The Machinery, Decorations and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "We have to congratulate the town on the acquisition of three admirable dramatic writers, in the persons of Johnston, Greenwood, and Miss Rein, who have here exhibited a specimen of the Sublime and Beautiful which it will be difficult, indedd, to surpass" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1799, p. 47). [This piece is "an exhibition of music and dialogue, pantomime and dancing, painting and machinery, antique dresses and armour, thunder and lightning, fire and water, illumination, processions, banquets, battles, sieges, explosions, and everything that can surprize, enchant or terrify the spectators" (Morning Chronicle, 21 Jan.). Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb. 1799: This Day is published Feudal Times (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #483 15s. 6d. (381.10.6; 100.6.6; 1.18.6)

Event Comment: [As afterpiece the playbill announces the 1st night of The Magic Oak, but see 25 and 29 Jan. Robin Hood is listed in Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1799, p. 86.] Receipts: #337 3s. (327.9; 9.14)

Event Comment: Benefit for Pope. 1st piece [1st time; D 4. Larpent MS 1249; not published synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, Apr. 1799, p. 273]: Translated from [Der Graf von Burgund, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von? Kotzebue (Author of The Stranger, Lover's Vows, &c.) by Miss Anne? Plumptre, and adapted to the English Stage by Alexander? Pope. Morning Chronicle, 25 26 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Pope at his house, No. 5, Half Moon-street, Piccadilly. [This was Mrs Abington's last appearance on the stage.] "The perpetuated evidence of youth was in character with her person and her powers; the slimness of her figure, the fulness of her voice, the freshness of her spirits, the sparkle of her eye, and the elasticity of her limbs, savoured alike of a juvenility that puzzled the mind, whilst it pleased it: of her it was justly said that 'she had been on the stage thirty years; she was one-and-twenty when she came, and one-and-twenty when she went!'" (John Bernard, Retrospections of the Stage, 1830, II, 228-29). Receipts: #334 19s. 6d. (194.1.0; 2.5.0; tickets: 138.13.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss DeCamp. Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Maria Theresa DeCamp. Larpent MS 1254; not published; synopsis of plot in Monthly Visitor, May 1799, pp. 70-71. Author of Prologue unknown]. Morning Chronicle, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss DeCamp, No. 14, Tottenham Court-road. Receipts: #447 8s. (151.7; 87.8; odd and after-money: 4.9; tickets: 204.4) (charge: #211 7s. 9d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Miss Betterton. 2nd piece [1st time; P 1]. Receipts: #267 1s. 6d. (139.17.6; 5.1.0; tickets: 122.3.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Widow and Four Children of the late Mr Follett. [John Follett had died in Jan. 1799. Address by John Cartwright Cross (Monthly Mirror, June 1799, p. 367).] Receipts: #416 7s. 9d. (120.4.3; 4.1.0; tickets: 292.2.6)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; MD 5, by George Holman, based on Die Rauber, by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Prologue by John Taylor (Poems, I, 65)]: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed by Attwood, and selected from Dr Arnold, Callcott, and Mozart. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 4 Sept. 1799;: This day is published The Red Cross Knights (2s.). Ibid, 22 Aug.: It was remarked from its extreme length and the frequent fall of the drop scene that it was a play in ten acts instead of five--indeed this method of preparing for a new scene disjoints the business, and of course tends greatly to injure the effect

Event Comment: [The playbill assigns Claudius to Packer, but "Archer, on the sudden indisposition of Packer, put on the robes of majesty, which seemed to sit sufficiently easy upon him" (Monthly Mirror, Sept. 1799, p. 175.] "The agitation of Hamlet in the course of the Play which he prepares to try the King, and his violent transports on gaining the certainty of his uncle's villainy by the effect of the piece were strongly characterized" (Morning Chronicle, 20 Sept.). Receipts: #330 17s. (245.19; 84.14; 0.4)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Hay-market. "[Raymond] appears to possess many of those wild beauties, and enthusiastic bursts for which Mossop has been celebrated; which produce an effect upon the audience, like electricity, instantaneous and irresistible" (Monthly Mirror, Oct. 1799, p. 232). Receipts: #304 13s. (213.5.0; 91.5.6; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: "...Richard III, which I saw performed at Drury-lane theatre at the beginning of the present season...The dresses of the characters which here make their appearance are in the usual half-and-half mode, made up from portraits of Charles I's reign, and from unrestrained fancy. Richard's habit, indeed, shews a faint hint, at the costume of his day; but how modernized! A fancy cap and feather,with a milliner's white-ribband rose, sewed thereon. A deep ruff, of that make not known until the reign of James I From the neck depends a ribband With the George: this decoration never seen in paintings till about the fashions of the abovementioned monarch's court. On his legs and feet, white silk stockings, white shoes, and red roses. These latter ornaments unknown before Elizabeth or James I's modes of dress prevailed; at any rate, they should have been white ones to have accorded with the party-badge in his cap." Writer signing himself "An Artist and an Antiquary" in Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1800, p. 319. Receipts: #225 16s. 6d. (178.3.6; 47.12.0; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: An accurate Edition of the [mainpiece] to be had in the Theatre. "The Prince, we observed, wore the regimentals of an English officer, and the star of a knight of the Bath or Garter. We know not well how this can be thought the costume of either Messina or Arragon" (Monthly Mirror, Oct. 1799, p. 237). Receipts: #252 16s. (151.11; 100.11; 0.14)

Event Comment: [Mrs Higginson, who is identified in European Magazine, Nov. 1799, p. 328, had, as Mrs Cussans, acted previously at Richmond and elsewhere.] 2nd piece: In one act [and in place of The Flitch of Bacon, advertised on playbill of 9 Nov.]. 3rd piece: Representation of the Battle, as 9 Nov. Receipts: #293 17s. 6d. (286.17.6; 7.0.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Morton; with incidental music by John Moorehead. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald; Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: With New Scenes [by Richards (Universal Magazine, Feb. 1800, p. 157)] and new Dresses. Morning Chronicle, 8 July 1800: This day is published Speed the Plough (2s.). Receipts: #256 7s. (253.4.6; 3.2.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. [In 1st piece the playbill retains Mrs Martyr as Dolly, but "Dolly was undertaken at a short notice, by Mrs Chapman, upon the sudden indisposition of Mrs Martyr" (Monthly Mirror, June 1800, p. 366). "In consequence of Mrs Martyr's accouchement...the part of Dolly was sustained by Miss Sims" (Dramatic Censor, II, 140).] 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, author unknown. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: To conclude with a Representation of the Storming the City of Acrev by the French [17 Mar.-20 May 1799], and the Heroic Defence made by the Turkish Troops led on by the British Sailors [under the command of Sir Sidney Smith]. Morning Chronicle, 23 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #333 4s. 6d. (118.3.6; 11.16.6; tickets: 203.4.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer and Caulfield. [In 3rd piece the playbill retains Miss DeCamp as Fanny, but "Miss DeCamp being reported ill during the representation of [1st piece], the part of Fanny, in the Entertainment, was undertaken, at a moment's notice, by Miss Heard, [who]...studying the character, scene by scene, acted the part to general satisfaction, which was announced merely to be read" (Dramatic Censor, II, 232).] Morning Chronicle, 19 May: Tickets to be had of Caulfield, No. 6, Southampton-place, Tottenham-court-road [Palmer not listed]. Receipts: #194 1s. 6d. (120.10.0; 66.10.6; 7.1.0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #212 4s. 7d.)