Event Comment: Letter from John Potter, Proprietor of the New Theatre in the Haymarket, to the author of the General Advertiser: As the resentment of the Town for the disappointment of the performance advertised to be exhibited at my theatre on Monday last, shall fall entirely upon me, I hope I may be allowed to acquaint the public with the nature of my case. [Suggests he should not be to blame for misbehavior of any person who hired his house, that he had some apprehensions in this case, but that the Bottle Conjurer paid the rent in advance and agreed to have a House officer in the box office to return the money if the audience was displeased.] All the caution above mentioned was taken, and the money locked up in the office, guarded by persons of reputation, who would have returned it, and publicly on the stage told them, that if the person did not appear, their money should be return'd. But instead of complying with that offer, my House was pulled down, the Office broken open, the money taken out, and the servants oblig'd to fly to save their lives. I hope therefore this may be deem'd a sufficient justification in my behalf, and all that could be reasonably expected from me; and that those gentlemen who are conscious of having injured me, will be so generous as to make me a reasonable Satisfaction, considering the damage I have suffer'd, which in a moderate computation will amount to upwards of four thousand pounds. This day is Publish'd, at 1s. Lethe, a Dramatic Satire, by David Garrick as it is perform'd at Drury Lane. By Paul Vaillant, facing Southampton Street in the Strand. [A letter from Samuel Foote to the Author of the General Advertiser clears himself from any imputation of confederacy in the Bottle Conjuror fraud. See also my Introduction, note 103.] Receipts: #100 (Cross); #119 2s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [altered by John Philip Kemble]: With new Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, and Machinery. In Act I, at the opening will be introduced, for the First Time a Battle between the Macedonians and the Persians. In Act IV, the Royal Banquet. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] The Scenes designed and painted by Marinari. The Dresses and Decorations by Johnston and Miss Rein. The Machinery by Cabanel. "[In the last scene] the expiring tone with which [Kemble] pronounces 'Cover me'; his shivering, when wrapt round in the imperial robes; his wan and wasted countenance; the manner of his labouriously drawing his legs together, and their aguish knocking when they meet, surpass all description" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1796, p. 180). Receipts: #375 2s. 6d. (306.14.6; 67.3.0; 1.5.0)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece: With alterations by John Philip Kemble.] Receipts: #115 14s. (81.0.6; 32.9.6; 2.4.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Cooke. Tickets deliver'd for the Orphan 28 March will be taken. Ladies send servants by three o'clock

Event Comment: Benefit for Phillimore, Denman, Cooke, Stokes, Miss Tidswell, Miss Heard, Mrs Benson. Morning Herald, 9 June: Tickets to be had of Miss Heard at Mrs Fletcher's, No. 239, Piccadilly; True Briton, 5 June: of Mrs Benson, No. 31, Hart-street, Bloomsbury [no others listed]. Receipts: #78 10s. (35.0.6; 41.2.6; 2.7.0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #224 15s. 3d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Cooke. At the Great Tiled Booth, Bowling Green

Event Comment: Third piece: an entire New Act [introduced into Tom Thumb, By T. Cooke]. Daily Journal, 30 Nov.: Whereas it hath been advertised, that an entire New Act, called, The Battle of the Poets, is introduced into the Tragedy of Tom Thumb; This is to assure the Town, that I have never seen this additional Act, nor in any ways concerned therein. Henry Fielding

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A new Farce [By T. Cooke]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: never acted [a tragedy by Thomas Cooke]. Macklin's Reply to Garrick published