Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Jordan. [In mainpiece the playbill retains King as Sir Peter Teazle, but "Murray, on account of the indisposition of King, was the Sir Peter to Mrs Jordan's Lady Teazle" (Monthly Mirror, May 1797, p. 311).] Tickets delivered for the 15th [for which day the benefit was first announced] will be admitted. "On the whole, Mrs Jordan's Lady Teazle, if not excellent, was respectable; and at a time when it was thought that it would be impossible to personify her Ladyship [i.e. after the retirement of Miss Farren], Mrs Jordan is commendable in having endeavoured it...[Sir Peter] was a part well suited to Murray, who excels in the still and the pathetic...In the screen scene his mirth in revealing to Charles the story of the French milliner, and his amazement the moment after when Charles, throwing down the screen, presented that milliner in the shape of Lady Teazle, must confirm the reputation of Murray. 'Lady Teazle!' (exclaimed he, turning from her towards the door, and in an accent alarmingly impressive), 'Lady Teazle, by all that is damnable!" (Monthly Visitor, June 1797, pp. 531-32). True Briton, 6 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Jordan, No. 14, Somerset-street, Portman-square. Receipts: #550 3s. (232.4.0; 72.2.0; 7.10.6; tickets: 238.6.6) (charge: free)

Event Comment: The Late Wells, the bottom of Lemon St., Goodman's Fields. A Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick. Divided into two Parts. The Concert to conclude with the Chorus of Long Live the King. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit or First Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. Between the two Parts of the Concert will be exhibited Gratis, and not acted these 50 years, an Historical Play...written by the celebrated Mr Lee. And founded on Facts which happened in France, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Shewing the unparalleled Dissimulations, Imprecations, and Perjuries of Charles the 9th of France, the Queen Mother, and Cardinal Lorrain, to draw the Hugonot Party into their snares, by which means the Death of the Queen Navarre was effected by Poison, and most of the Protestant Princes of the Blood destroyed. Chastillon, the famous Admiral of France, with his Wife, Children, Commanders, and Followers, all put to Death, with the King's Consent, bx the cruel and Revengeful Duke of Guise, and his Adherents. After which the Massacre becoming general over the Kingdom, near near 100,000 Protestants were destroyed in the most barbarous and inhuman manner. The Concert will begin every Evening Positively at Six of the Clock, and the Whole be concluded by Half an Hour after Nine, the Wdlls being appointed (after the Entertainment is over) for the Main Guard of the Militia of the Tower Hamlets

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys does not indicate that this performance is the premiere, and Summers, The Playhouse of Pepys, p. 137, states, without offering his evidence, that the play first appeared on 11 Aug. 1664. The play also appears in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 138. If Pepys saw the premiere, the play was possibly given on 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 Aug. Pepys, Diary: Mr Creed dining with me I got him to give my wife and me a play this afternoon, lending him money to do it, which is a fallacy that I have found now once, to avoyde my vowe with, but never to be more practised I swear, and to the new play, at the Duke's house, of Henry the Fifth; a most noule play, writ by my Lord Orrery; wherein Betterton, Harris, and Ianthe's parts are most incomparably wrote and done, and the whole play the most full of height and raptures of wit and sense, that ever I heard; having but one incongruity, or what did not please me in it, that is, that King Harry promises to plead for Tudor to their Mistresse, Princesse Katherine of France, more than when it comes to it he seems to do; and Tudor refused by her with some kind of indignity, not with a difficulty and honour that it ought to have been done in to him. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 27-28: This Play was Splendidly Cloath'd: The King, in the Duke of York's Coronation Suit; Owen Tudor, in King Charle's: Duke of Burgundy, in the Lord of Oxford's, and the rest all New. It was Excellently Perform'd, and Acted 10 Days Successively

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play was acted at Oxford on 19 March 1680@1 before Charles II (see True Protestant Mercury, 19-23 March 1680@1; Wilson, Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters, p. 80; and Smith's Protestant Intelligence, 24-28 March 1681). The play may have been given first in London; if not, it probably was not acted there until after Easter, 3 April 1681. The company also performed The Plain Dealer in Oxford on 21 March 1680@1 (Smith's Protestant Intelligence, 24-28 March 1681)

Event Comment: On Saturday 6 January will be performed for the benefit of Joseph Lowe, citizen of London under Misfortunes, the tragedy of King Richard III. The part of Richmond by Mr Joseph Lowe

Event Comment: [Macklin dismissed after this night. See the account in The Genuine Arguments of the Council, with the Opinion of the Court of the King's Bench, &c., By a Citizen of the World, (London, 1774). Extracts in E. R. Page, George Colman, the Elder (New York, 1935). See notes for 23 and 30 Oct. and the subsequent action in note for 20 Nov. He did not return until 18 May 1775. This night was aparently, except for #4 5s. which was not recorded on the books of the theatre until 18 June well after the season closed. Macklin's suit in court against the rioters was judged 24 Feb. 1775. A column and a half account of the trial appeared in the Public Advertiser, Saturday 13 May 1775, giving the testimony of the witnesses accused of starting the riot, the lawyers, and the judge. The accused were Leigh, Miles, James, Aldus, and Clarke. The first four were convicted of a conspiracy and a riot, the last of a riot only. During the Course of the Business Lord Mansfield took Occasion to observe, that the Right of Hissing, and Applauding in a theatre was an unalterable Right, but there was a wide Distinction between expressing the natural Sensations of the Mind as they arose on what was seen and heard, and executing a pre-concerted Desagn, not only to hiss an Actor when he was playing a Part in which he was universally allowed to be excellent, but also to drive him from the theatre, and effect his utter ruin." See also William W. Appleton, Charles Macklin, An Actors Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), Chapter X.

Event Comment: Paid 5 days salary list #441 15s.,; King's extra salary #2 10s.; Mr J. French on acct #5 5s.; Mr J. Palmer on note #21 (Treasurer's Book). [This month was printed An Apology for the Conduct of Charles Macklin, Comedian, which, it is hoped, will have some effect in favour of an aged player, by whom the public at large have been uncommonly gratified." Price 1s. Axtell (Gentleman's Magazine Register). This year was publish'd Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose, with Cursory Theatrical Remarks, by P. Lewis, Comedian. Contains some apostrophes to Garrick, Holland, etc.] Receipts: #213 4s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss George. [Monologue by Charles Stuart {.European Magazine, Sept. 1786, p. 165).] Morning Chronicle, 31 July: Tickets to be had of Miss George, No. 23, King-street, St. Ann's, Soho. Afterpiece: Never performed here

Event Comment: [G$Garrick] promised me the Part of Tressel; when the Play was given out, and I prepar'd for it, I saw in the Bills next Morn, another Person's Name [Blakes].-Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, quodet in Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 136. Receipts: #180 (Cross); #182 9s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: Paid Charles Sarjant for the Like sum advanc'd towards the repairs of the Houses in Bow St... #11 (Account Book). Receipts: #170 10s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). Garrick's last time of performing Benedict . In the Farce the whole set of Clouds fell down upon the Stage but did no Damage (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly.] King was hoarse. Spleen deferr'd. Receipts: #270 10s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

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: Both pieces By Command of his Majesty. The Comedy Love for Love design'd to be perform'd this day, is deferr'd till further notice. Present His Majesty and Princess of Wales, Lady Augusta, Princess Louisa, Prince William and Prince Frederick. Boxes #94 7s. 6d. [about 384 persons, nearly the capacity of the Boxes, which was about 560]. Paid Macklin one fifth part of #179 being the surplus after #63 allow'd for the charge as per agreement...#35 16s. Gave the Yeomen of the King and Princess's Guard #2 2s., and the King's Footmen and Chairmen #1 1s. (Account Book). Receipts: #242 (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 9 years. [See 7 Feb. 1757.] Mr J. Aickin hissed.--Mr Holland and Mrs Baddeley played well (Hopkins Diary). Mr Garrick had the honour of being with the King of Denmark Tuesday morning last, and conversed with him for near half an hour on the state of the stage in England and France. The King gave him an elegant gold snuff-box studded with diamonds as a small mark of the great regard he had for his extraordinary talents (London Evening Post, 14 Oct.)