Event Comment: Benefit for Edwin. 2nd piece [1st time; F 2, by George Colman, elder, based of L'Avocat Patelin, by David Augustin de Brueys. This is usually ascribed to William Macready. But on the title-page of his copy (K-D 295 in Huntington Library) J. P. Kemble has written "This Piece was not written by Mr Macready." Public Advertiser, 29 Aug. states that "Colman...presented Edwin upon this occasion with a new Farce, taken from a celebrated French Play." World, 15 Oct. 1787 refers to Colman's dislike of L'Avocat Patelin, but adds, "When [he] came to translate it himself, he found reason to alter his opinion."]. Public Advertiser, 25 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Edwin, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden

Event Comment: Never Acted before. [By George Lillo. Puffs of the play appeared in London Evening Post, 15 June, Daily Post, 16 and 21 June.

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: [By John Dennis. Date of premiere unknown. Published 19 May.] Dedication: Falstaffe 's part...was by no means acted to the satisfaction of the Audience, upon which several fell from disliking the Action to disapproving the Play

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: 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: Rich's Company. The date of this production is not certain. The Dedication, signed by George Powell and John Verbruggen, is dated Monday, 16 Oct. 1696, but this date is in error, for the sixteenth fell on Friday in October; however, 16 Nov. 1696 fell on Monday. In addition, the Dedication implies that the two men hope to have visitors (i.e., spectators at performances) on "Wednesday, and Saturday next, the Visiting Days of, Your Friends and Servants, George Powell, John Verbruggen." It is possible that the text and the songs were printed in advance of performance and were available at the theatre, but it is still uncertain whether the opera first appeared in October or November 1696. The Single Songs, With the Dialogue, was published separately in 1696, with Daniel Purcel named as the composer. The songs to which performers' names are listed are as follows: Cease, Cynthia, cease your fruitless tears, sung by Mrs Cross. I courted and writ, the verse by Jo Hanes and sung by Church. How happy I am the fair sex can defy, the verse by Jo Hanes and sung by Leveridge. 'Tis in vain to tell me I am deceived, sung by Freeman. Great queen of Hymen's hallowed fires, sung by Mrs Willis. Why, Chloe, will you not perceive, the verse by John Robens and sung by Church. Why dost thou fly me, sung by Edwards and Mrs Cross. If mortals laugh and sing, sung by Freeman. The Songs were entered in the Term Catalogues, November 1696

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by John O'Keeffe. Prologue by John Taylor. Epilogue by George Colman, ynger (see text)]. "No piece in the remembrance of this writer was ever better acted. No piece was ever better cast...The palm of acting, however, must be given to Blanchard. One short scene of rustic generoisity, in which he gives his purse to Farmer Banks, displayed finer efforts than we ever saw before" (Oracle, 18 Apr.). Public Advertiser, 15 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, Bow-street. Receipts: #315 (225.6.6; 3.15.6; tickets: 85.18.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 3, as altered by George Colman, the elder]: Written by Lillo, Author of George Barnwell. Not acted these 50 years [acted 4 Sept. 1755. Prologue by the alterer (Colman, Prose, III, 233)]. The Words of the Song in the Tragedy will be given at the Doors of the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 28 June 1783: This Afternoon will be published Fatal Curiosity (1s)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss George. Morning Herald, 8 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss George, No. 23, King-street, St. Ann's, Soho. Receipts: #284 5s. 6d. (114/15/0; 26/0/0; 1/7/6; tickets: 142/3/0) (charge: #109 5s. 4d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 1st piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by John Cartwright Cross. Text Q. Roach, 1794). For music see 1 May]. 2nd piece: For that night only, by Permission of George Colman, Esq. Jun.; Never (previously] performed here. 3rd piece: For this night only, by Permission of George Colman, Esq. Jun. [holder of copyright of both pieces]. Morning Chronicle, 7 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden. Receipts: #333 8s. 6d. (146/2/0; 5/17/6; tickets: 181/9/0)

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