Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of The Suspicious Husband; afterpiece of Harlequin Free-Mason, both announced on playbill of 27 Dec. Afterpiece: Prologue by Frederick Pilon.] Receipts: #253 3s. 6d. (251.2.0; 2.1.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Frederick Pilon; probably a rewriting of an opera with the same title, 1st acted at Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, 20 May 1771, at which time Pilon was acting in Dublin]: With new Dresses, and entirely new Music and an Overture by Carter. [In mainpiece the playbill lists Dodd, but "Suett, who undertook at a few minutes' notice the part assigned to Dodd, went through the reading as though he had studied the character" (Morning Herald, 21 May).] [On this night, Whitsun Eve, the theatre was customarily closed.] Receipts: #152 4s. 6d. (134/15/0; 17/6/0; 0/3/6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Never performed here. [Prologue by Frederick Pilon.]

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author [of mainpiece: Frederick Pilon]. The 9th Night [i.e., the 1st 7 nights had occurred in the preceding season]. Receipts: #147 3s. 6d. (121/4/0; 25/19/6; 0/0/0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Frederick Pilon. Prologue probably by the author]. Public Advertiser, 11 Nov. 1784: This Day is published Aerostation (1s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Public Advertiser, 5 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Quick, No. 99, High Holbourn. Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years [not acted since 15 Apr. 1763]. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Frederick Pilon]: Altered from [The Comical History of Don Quixote, Part II, by Thomas] D'Urfey. In Act I A Grand Baratarian Procession of Sancho to his Government. The Characters all dressed in the Habits of the Times

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Brunton. Mainpiece [1st time in London; T 5, by Frederick Reynolds, 1st acted at Bath, 3 Dec. 1785. In 1795 reduced to 3 acts. Prologue and Epilogue by William Meyler (Town and Country Magazine, Apr. 1786, p. 215]. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Morning Chronicle, 17 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Miss Brunton, No. 5, George-street, York-buildings. Receipts: #350 17s. 6d. (210/11/0; 3/1/6; tickets: 137/5/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Pilon. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (see text). In 1794 reduced to an afterpiece of 3 acts]. Public Advertiser, 30 Nov. 1786: This Day is published He Wou'd be a Soldier (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #246 6s. (243.5; 3.1)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Larpent MS 750; not published; synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, Dec. 1786, pp. 333-34. Prologue by the author (London Chronicle, 23 Dec.). Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (World, 4 Jan. 1787); and see Epilogue to Such Things Are, 10 Feb. 1787]. Receipts: #165 14s. (156.1; 9.13)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Frederick Reynolds. Larpent MS 870; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 7 May]: With entire new Dresses, Scenes, Machinery and Decorations. The Music partly selected from Cimarosa, Gluck, Martin y Soler?, Reeve, Dr Arne [the printed score (Longman and Broderip [1790]) adds: Martini, Duni, Carolan, Leveridge]. The rest composed by Shield. The Chorusses selected from Handel, and sung by the Performers from the Concert of Ancient Music. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #210 13s. 6d. (208.12.0; 2.1.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Miles Peter Andrews and Frederick Reynolds; based on Le Dissipateur; ou, L'Honnete Friponne, by Philippe Nericault, dit Destouches. Prologue by the Duke of Leeds; Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The Scenery designed and executed by Greenwood. Gazetteer, 18 Nov.: At the rehearsal of the new comedy on Tuesday the Duke of Leeds, Major Scott, Mr Angerstein [the banker] and Mr Boswell were in the boxes. Mr Boswell said an epigrammatic thought had struck him...and he brought the following Impromptu into life: Andrews, your play is safe enough; For noble Leeds endures it; Boswell and Scott are pledged to puff, And Angerstein ensures it. World, 13 Dec. 1790: To-morrow will be published Better Late than Never (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #240 14s. (206.7; 32.6; 2.1)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by James Boaden. Epilogue by Edward Topham (see text). For this play Reynolds and the cg manager made a new plan for payments to the author. Benefits for the author on the 3rd, 6th and 9th nights were abandoned; instead he received #33 6s. 8d. for each of the first nine nights and #100 on the 20th night. "This was the foundation of that bargain between manager and author which, I believe, exists to the present period [1826]" (Reynolds, II, 182-83)]. Morning Chronicle, 19 Jan. 1795: This Day is published The Rage! (2s.). Receipts: #259 13s. 6d. (255.17.6; 3.16.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Miles Peter Andrews and Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by Edward Topham; Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (Crouch, II, 229)]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The new Music composed, and the rest selected by Shield. Morning Chronicle, 25 Feb. 1795: This Day is published The Mysteries of the Castle (2s.). [Mrs Cornelys was from the Crow Street Theatre Dublin.] Receipts: #243 12s. (241.19; 1.13)

Event Comment: [The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but a letter--see 2 Jan. 1670@1--indicates that the first part had been acted before that date and that Part II was to be shortly staged. The point of the Prologue spoken by Ellen Gwyn seems to have derived from an incident at Dover (see Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 20) in May 1670, when James Nokes attired himself in a ridiculous fashion, including "Broad wast Belts." The speakers of the Epilogue and the Prologue to the Second Part are mentioned in Sir William Haward's MS (Bodl. MS Don. b., pp. 248-49); see The Poems of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley (Oxford, 1958), IV, 1848-49. In Part I a song Beneath a myrtle shade, with music by John Bannister, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, First Book, 1673. Another, Wherever I am, with music by Alphonso Marsh, is in the same collection, as is also How unhappy a lover am I, the music by Nicholas Staggins. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Bohun, ca. Jan. 1670@1: Since my last to you I have seen The Siege of Grenada, a play so full of ideas that the most refined romance I ever read is not to compare with it; love is made so pure, and valour so nice, that one would image it designed for an Utopia rather than our stage. I do not quarrel with the poet, but admire one born in the decline of morality should be able to feign such exact virtue; and as poetic fiction has been instructive in former ages, I wish this the same event in ours. As to the strict law of comedy I dare not pretend to judge: some think the division of the story is not so well if it could all have been comprehended in the day's actions (The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 25). According to John Evelyn--see 9 Feb. 1670@1--Robert Streeter did some of the scenes for this play. In the Preface to The Fatal Discovery, ca. February 1697@8, George Powell, in discussing revivals of Dryden's plays, stated: In relation to our reviving his Almanzor...very hard crutching up what Hart and Mohun could not prop

Event Comment: Benefit John Roberts, now Confin'd in the Fleet Prison. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Receipts: #157 15s. [The Account Book lists the payment of 2s. per acting night to each shareholder: @Shareholder Mrs Martha Bedwell No. Share 1@No. Nights 36@Payment #3 12s.@Shareholder Mrs Creighton No. Shares 1@No. Nights 36@Payment #3 12s.@Shareholder Mr Francis Bedwell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 37@Payment #3 14s.@Shareholder Mr Robert Griffin No. Share 1@No. Nights 37@Payment #3 14s.@Shareholder Mr John Mitchell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 87@Payment #8 14s.@Shareholder Mrs Mary Michell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 87@Payment #8 14s.@Shareholder Mr John Walsh No. Shares 1@No. Nights 86@Payment #8 12s.@Shareholder Mr Lucuss No. Shares 1@No. Nights 54@Payment #5 8s.@Shareholder Col. Wade No. Shares 1@No. Nights 8@Payment 16s.@Shareholder Sir Arthur Croft No Shares 1@No. Nights 8@Payment 16s.@Shareholder Mr John White No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr John Croft, Esq No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr Rubin Adolphus No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr Henry Woodfall No. Shares 1@No. Nights 3@Payment 6s.@Total No. Shares 14@No. Nights 494@Payment #49 8s.@ Winston MS 8 notes that on 1 Feb. dl had only 20 renters at 2s. a night.