Event Comment: Benefit for Wild. 2nd piece [1st time; F 1, by Robert Woodbridge]. Morning Herald, 4 June 1793: This day is published The Pad (price not listed). 3rd piece [1st time; BALL. P 2 (?), by James Byrn, altered from his The Provocation!]: The Incidents partly new, and partly selected from the much admired Pantomime called Provocation. In the course of the Pantomime a representation of an Engagement between an English and French Man of War; A Ship-wreck; The original Allegoric Scene from Provocation: A View of an English Camp; A Naval and Military Procession. Morning Herald, 9 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 46, Drury-lane. Receipts: #335 1s. 6d

Event Comment: At Cushing's Booth, facing the King's Head, Smithfield. The tragedy contains the barbarous contrivances of King John against his nephew Prince Arthur; his method of persuading Hubert to undertake the cruel murder of that youth; the sufferings of Arthur in his confinement, where Hubert attempts to put out eyes with a red-hot iron, til moved to compassion by the tender entreating of the young prince, he quits his horrid purpose. The manner of Arthur's leaping from the battlements of the tower where he was imprisoned, when by attempting to escape his severe treatment he loses his life. The terrors that attended the villainous Uncle King John, and at length his dreadful death, who is poisoned in the midst of all his glory, and in terrible anguish and distraction, pays his nephew's blood with the price of his own. The comic contains the exquisite drolleries of Sir Lubberly and his man, their whimsical journey from Cumberland, and no less whimsical exploits in London; the odd reception they met with from their three faithful friends, Tom Rash the Porter, Jeffrey Holdfast the Constable, and Moll Tatter the Beggar Woman, the one getting a wife, the other a bastard

Event Comment: The Characters in the Mainpiece New Dress'd. Neville MS Diary: At 6, went into the Pit...House not very full. King John was performed with new Dresses and Decorations. Powell and Smith are good in York and the Bastard, and Mrs Bellamy in Constance....The entertainment was the procession of the Coronation, with the ceremony of the Champion. Every truly free soul, on seeing a representation of such extravagant pageantry, must abhor that form of Government, of the superfluous trappings of which it is but a small specimen. Receipts: #91s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Kemble's 1st appearance as King John was at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 18 Apr. 1782; Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Constance was at Bath on, by coincidence, the same day.] Receipts: #300 9s. (289/8/0; 10/3/6; 0/5/0; tickets not come in: 0/12/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time: F 2, by Edmund John Eyre. Text (Shrewsbury: P. Sandford, 1791) correctly assigns Prolix to Wilson. Prologue by John Wolcot (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 29 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #318 4s. (153.3; 2.5; tickets: 162.16)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece "English Herald [omitted from playbill] Trueman; Cooke Ill." In afterpiece the playbill retains Aumer as Hephestion, but "Hephestion C. Kemble, Aumer at the Opera House. Miss Redhead, Miss Leak absent, Ill" (Powell).] Powell, 13 Mar.: King John rehearsed at 10; Edwy and Elgiva at 12; Jack of Newbury read at 2; 14 Mar.: Jack of Newbury rehearsed at 11. Receipts: #255 3s. (204.14.0; 48.8.6; 2.0.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by John Cartwright Cross. Larpent MS 1124; not published]: Founded on the recent and glorious Achievement, at the above French Fort, of Sir Sydney Smith. [On 17 Mar. 1796 a force under Sir William Sydney Smith had destroyed six French vessels in the Bay of Herqui.] To conclude with the British striking the French Colours on the Fort, burning their Corvettes in the Harbour. The new Music by Shield. Oracle, 29 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr at her house, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #384 11s. 6d. (192.14.0; 10.1.0; tickets: 181.16.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Yates. House Charges #65 5s. [Profit to Yates #118 16s. 6d.] Not performed for 20 years. Revived with alterations. Paid B. Johnson's Head Bill #2 5s. 6d. Paid #2 2s. for licensing Dido (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #184 6d. (Treasurer's Book). About 5 went into the Pit at Drury Lane to see the False Friend reviv'd with alterations, for the benefit of Yates. It engages the attention, but was very well performed. Don John by Holland; Don Pedro by Powell; Lopez by Mr Yates, the drinking Servant by Baddeley; Leonora by Mrs Barry (whom I never saw before); Isabella by Miss Plym and Jacintha by Mrs Yates. I think an Abigail an odd character for her, but no doubt she was willing to play anything for her husband's benefit. After the dance of the Vintage, Mr Yates spoke by way of Interlude a new piece on his being in France called the "Modern Traveller," containing some strokes on the affectation of French Fashions, &c. We had the Farce of High Life Below Stairs with minuet by Mrs Yates and a French Valet, which I do not remenber to have seen when I saw this Farce (before) (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: New Overture and Pieces of Music Between the Acts. Music by Barthelemon. New Scenes, Habits and Decorations. The Scenes designed by DeLoutherberg, and painted by Messrs French, Royer, and Greenwood. Books of the songs and Chorusses to be had at the Theatre. This piece is got up in a most Superb manner. The Scenery is beyond description fine -& the whole Performance tho' the most complicated upon the stage went off with uncommon Applause. Mrs Abington played finely--Mr Slingsby & Sga Hidou danc'd for the first time & were Amazingly well Rec'ed. The Ballets are very Grand (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly in wording.] Rec'd stopages #17 18s.; Paid salary list #567 16s.; J. French on Acct #5 5s. (Treasurer's Book). Mainpiece: Never performed before, by John Burgoyne. [The review in the Westminster Magazine, Nov. 1774, tells the plot, and concludes: "After some superb exhibitions of transparent scenery, several characteristic airs, and elegant dances, Mr Oldworth...proclaims Maria his only daughter and gives her to Sir Harry. After a dance of Cupids, Hymen, &c....offering them eternal wreaths, the Druid of the Oaks, freed by the present powers of Beauty from that sequestered habitation to which by mystic spells he had long been doomed, appears to ratify their union, and astonishes the spectators by his magic influence, in a glorious vision of that felicity the virtues of the happy pair had so justly insured. An admirable vaudeville, and a grand dance, conclude the dramatic entertainment....Had it not appeared obvious that the whole was intended as a mere vehicle for the splendid spectacle, we do not suppose, in spite of the managers Orders and Puffs, that the author's labors would have been tolerated. The very excellent scenery, however, of the ingenious Mr Loutherbourg preserved this piece from that damnation, which as a dramatic production, it justly merited."] Receipts: #263 14s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)