Event Comment: [L+Letter from Henry Woodward, Comedian, The Meanest of all Characters To Dr John Hill, Inspector-General of Great Britain, the greatest of all characters completely damns Hill as unsuccessful player, apothecary, doctor, scholar, writer, and gentleman. It ran to three editions in the year.] We hear great interest is being made to succeed Mr Serjeant Shore, deceased, as Serjeant Trumpet to his Majesty, which is in the gift of his Grace the Duke of Grafton as Lord Chamberlain; and that the contest lies chiefly between that excellent performer, Mr. Valentine Snow, Trumpet to the First Troop of Horseguards; Mr. Debourg, the violin; and Mr Beard, of the theatre Royal in Drury Lane (Public Advertiser). Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: JJohn Rich Esq, Master and Patentee of the TRCG, died Thursday 26 Nov. 1761, about six o'clock in the evening, at his house adjoining to the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, in the seventieth year of his age. Mrs Priscilla Rich sole executrix of the Will of John Rich Esq, deceas'd. Mr John Rich was buried in Hillingdon Churchyard. (See his Epitaph, Lysons's Middlesex Parishes, p. 162) Dec. 4, 1761. ibid p. 173 (Hopkins MS Notes). Income from Boxes #85 5s. Rec'd of John Condill on acct of Fruit #20. Expenses #46 3s. 8d. [The balance brought forward to this date for this season was #2007 9s. 1d. From this was subtracted the #1291 19s. 4d. necessary for starting the season (see 9 Sept.), which left Beard a favorable balance of #715 9s. 9d. with which to carry on. The Winston Theatrical Record ceases on this date.

Event Comment: Paid half year's Poor's rate for the theatre due Michelmas last #15 12s. 6d., and ditto for the House in Bow St. passage 15s. 1!2d. (Account Book). Receipts: #144 9s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Musical Entertainment, by the Author of Midas and The Golden Pippin [Kane O'Hara]. With New Dresses and Scenery. Books of the Entertainment to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Afterpiece (1st time; BURL I, by Thomas Willet. For music see 31 July]: Books of the Burletta to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 1 July 1778: This Day is published Buxom Joan (6d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time in London; F 2, by John O'Keeffe, 1st acted at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 13 Apr. 1774. Prologue by George Colman elder (Prose on Several Occasions, III, 222)]. Public Advertiser, 16 Aug. 1780: This Day is published Tony Lumpkin in Town (1s.)

Event Comment: "As soon as the Play was over at Covent Garden Theatre yesterday evening, Reinhold walked forward and told the audience that 'It would be esteemed a particular mark of their Kindness and Favour if they would accept Miss Cranfield's performance of Colombine, Miss Brown having been taken extremely ill"' (Morning Chronicle, 11 Jan.). Receipts: #195 2s. (193.6; 1.16)

Event Comment: [Banks was from the Manchester theatre.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a Representation of the Repulse of the Spaniards before the Rock of Gibraltarv [on 13 Sept. 1782]. Scenes designed by Greenwood; Overture by Baumgarten. Receipts: #173 16s. (152.10; 20.13; 0.13)

Event Comment: Benefit for J. D'Egville. Ballet: As composed by Dauberval, and performed at the king's Theatre in the Hay-Market. To conclude with a Grand Display of the Manual Exercise. Morning Chronicle, 8 May: Tickets to be had of J. D'Egville, No. 29, Litchfield-street, Soho. Receipts: #376 9s. (151.16; 45.10; 6.14; tickets: 172.9) (charge: #247 12s. 9d.)

Event Comment: A New Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Florence, 1793, as La Confusione nata dalla Somiglianza; ossiano, I Due Gobbi]); the music by Portogallo. [Viganoni had 1st appeared at the former king's Theatre throughout the seasons of 1781-82 and 1782-83.

Event Comment: [This play was advertised on 1 May, not later, as "Not Acted these Four Years," but the performance may have been deferred by the apparent closing of the theatres until after May Fair.

Event Comment: Benefit Hyde. Receipts: money #41 3s. 6d.; tickets #69 14s. [In Daily Advertiser, 20 Feb., Hyde had given notice that tickets for the boxes numbered 208-14 had been lost and would not be accepted at the theatre.]

Event Comment: The New Theatre by the Pound. [From 4 Aug. to 20 Aug. At 1 P.M. and end at Nine. Sometimes it is called Jones' and Lacey's Company. For a puff, see Daily Advertiser, 9 Aug.]

Event Comment: 6 p. p.m. Last Time of Acting. No latter account will be taken. Prices Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 2s. Gallery 1s. [The troupe will re-open the theatre on 20 May and present pantomimes all summer.

Event Comment: Gift for ye Sufferers by ye fire in Cornhill (Cross). [A column and a half "Letter to the Author" appeared in the General Advertiser this day, laying historical background for Ford's Lover's Melancholy]. The history of the stage before the Restoration is like a Foreign Land, in which no Englishman had ever travelled; we know there were such things as Playhouses, and one Shakespear a great writer, but the historical traces of them are so imperfect, that the manner in which they existed is less known to us, than that of Eschylus or the theatres of Greece. For this reason, 'tis hoped that the following Gleaning of Theatrical History will readily obtain a place in your paper. 'Tis taken from a Pamphlet written in the reign of Charles I, with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's Melancholly Lover"; and as it contains some historical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Johnson, Ford, Shakespear, and the Lover's Melancholy it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the Public. [The substance of the remainder retails Jonson's critical cantankerousness and his wounded pride at the failure of the New Inn, quoting some epigrams made at Jonson's expense on his allegation that Ford was a plagiary. This second "puff" for the play, presumably also written by Macklin, formed the basis for a Steevens-Malone controversy late in the century, centering on the existence or nonexistence of the pamphlet referred to by Macklin as "Old Ben's Light Heart made Heavy, &c." A summary account of the evidence appears in the Dramatic Works of John Ford, by Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1811) I, Intro. XVI, XXXI.] Receipts: #210 (Cross); #208 1s. (Powel)

Event Comment: At Mr Phillips New Theatre at the Bowling Green. To begin at seven o'clock. Benefit for Phillips and Mrs Phillips (Daily Advertiser), but benefit for Morgan and Mrs Morgan (Hogan)

Event Comment: At the New Theatre, Bowling Green, Southwark. A Concert, etc. Benefit for Mrs Morgan. Never acted there. Being positively the last Night of Acting in the Borough (Daily Advertiser)

Event Comment: Receipts: #92 17s. Mem: Princess Caroline died this day in the afternoon, and the two theatres &c. were silenc'd to Friday the 6th of January following, seven nights. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted this season. Full Prices. [Sparked by Victor's publication of his History of the Theatres of London and Dublin, 1730 to the Present, a series of articles on the Rise and Progress of the English Stage appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for May (p. 214 ff); June (p. 264 ff); and July (p. 297).

Event Comment: Benefit for Decayed Actors formerly belonging to the theatres royal. Last Night. Original articles between Garrick and Lacy expired (Winston MS 9)

Event Comment: Full Prices. There will not be room behind the Scenes for more than the persons acting in the coronation, [Others] cannot possibly be admitted. The coronation of their Majesties was followed by a stage representation of it at both houses...Garrick knew that Rich would spare no expense in the presentation of his show; he knew too that he had a taste in the ordering, dressing, and setting out these pompous processions, superior to his own; he therefore was contented with the old dresses which had been occasionally used from 1721-1761. This show he repeated for near forty nights successively, sometimes at the end of a play, and at other times after a farce. The exhibition was the meanest, and the most unworthy of a theatre, I ever saw. The stage was...opened into Drury Lane; and a new and unexpected sight surprised the audience, of a real bonfire, and the populace huzzaing and drinking porter to the health of Queen Anne Bullen. The Stage in the meantime, amidst the parading of Dukes, duchesses, archbishops, peeresses, heralds &c. was covered with a thick fog from the smoke of the fire, which served to hide the tawdry dresses of the processionalists. During this idle piece of mockery, the actors, being exposed to the suffocations of smoke, and the raw air from the open street, were seized with colds, rheumatisms, and swelled faces. At length the indignation of the audience delivered the comedians from this wretched badge of nightly slavery, which gained nothing to the managers but disgrace and empty benches. Tired with the repeated insult of a show which had nothing to support it but gilt copper and old rags, they fairly drove the exhibitors of it from the stage by hooting and hissing, to the great joy of the whole theatre....Rich...fully satisfied [the publick's] warmest imaginations (Davies, Life of Garrick, I, 365 ff.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Books of the afterpiece to be had at the Theatre. Afterpiece: Founded on the plan of the old Ballad of that name. The songs adapted to old English, Irish and Scotch tunes. [Shuter's Prologue is Larpent MS 218, wherein he enters in character of a Ballad singer, interrupting the music as the overture comes to a close. He sings snatches from some ten old ballads, stopping in the midst of each to comment on the superiority of modern circumstances which parallel those referred to in the old ballads. As the bell rings he introduces the afterpiece.

Event Comment: Benfit towards the increase of a Fund (Established by the Performers of this Theatre) for the support of such actors, and their families, who from Age or Infirmities, shall be oblig'd to quit the stage. Charges #65 7s. 6d. [including candles, extra kettle drum, side drum, organ and tabor & pipe]. Balance due Fund #101 17s. 6d. plus a special income of #17 13s. from 64 Box tickets (Account Book). Receipts: #167 5s. (Account Book)