Event Comment: London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 6 Oct.: The Young Company . . . defer playing 'till next Wednesday se'nnight, at which time they perform a Play, call'd The Two Gentlemen of Verona, written by the celebrated William Shakespear, it being the first Comedy ever he wrote, and which has not been acted these 73 Years

Event Comment: A New Comedy. [By Mrs E. Cooper. Apparently not printed. The characters named in the bill are: Lord Belamour, Sir Roger Wrangle, Sir Charles Cumberland, Froward, Wary, Young Wrangle, Peinter, Snare, Lady Cumberland, Felicia, Ready. See also a puff by Mrs Cooper in Daily Advertiser, 17 May.]

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. [The young Princesses present.]

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 10 Dec.: We hear that last Week La Mort de Cesar, a Tragedy, written by Mons Voltaire, was acted by the young Gentlemen at the Academy in Soho-Square, with very great Applause

Event Comment: DDaily Post, 12 Sept.: Yesterday betwixt One and Two in the Morning, some Rogues broke into the Booth of the younger Yeates, in Southwark Fair, and stripp'd his Wardrobe of Cloaths to the Value of near Forty Pounds, so that he was for some time incapacitated from acting yesterday. [From this notice, it appears that Yeates had a booth at the Fair and may have been open during the entire period from 7 to 21 Sept.

Event Comment: By Desire. Daily Advertiser, 23 Dec.: On Saturday night last, at Covent Garden Playhouse, one William Wright, a young Man, who was in the Shilling Gallery, disapproving of Signora Domitilla's Dancing between the second the Third Acts, was without any Provocation, kick'd, beat, and abus'd etc

Event Comment: WWalpole to Sir Horace Mann: We have operas but no company at them; the Prince and Lord Middlesex Impresarii. Plays only are in fashion; at one house the best company that perhaps ever were together, Quin, Garrick, Mrs Pritchard, Mrs Cibber: at the other Barry, a favorite young actor and the Violette, whose dancing our friends don't like: I scold them, but all the answer is "Lord! you are so English."-Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, II, 42

Event Comment: AA Letter to Mr Garrick on his having purchased a Patent for Drury Lane Play-House published. [Written by one who subscribed himself the Plain Dealer, it pointed out the troubles in store for the young manager from grievances from subordinates, arrogance from other actors (all individualists, no unity) failure from joint managership, grievances from public, and extraordinary expense from costume. He suggests the reasons for Garrick's jumping from actor to manager are vanity and avarice. He indicates Garrick's challenge and sums up the late troubled years of management under Fleetwood and Highmore.

Event Comment: [The following letter appeared in the General Advertiser]: To Mr Ryan, Sir: As the Author whom you have judiciously, I think, call'd in to your Assistance on your Benefit Night is little known; his Name not having appeared upon the Stage in our Days; and from whence some may be apt to think it scarce worth while to produce him now;--it was thought advisable by many of your Friends, of which Number I profess myself, to draw up the following Account of him and his Dramatic Works, that such as are Strangers to him may have some further Inducement to favour you with their Company. Mr Thomas Randolph lived in the Reign of King Charles I, was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; but died young. He was a Man of pregnant Wit, gay Humour and of excellent Learning; which gain'd him the Esteem of the Polite Part of the Town, and particularly recommended him to the Favour of Ben Johnson, who adopted him one of his Sons, and held him in equal Esteem with the ingenious Mr Cartwright, another of the Laureat's adopted Sons:--The Plays he wrote were: [he lists 5 plays, commenting from Cokayne and Rich of Christ's Church College, Oxon, and West on the ethical quality of the last one, The Muses' Looking Glass]. In short, Sir, I doubt not but his old nervous Wit will still please, and join'd with the New Masque you have added, excite Curiousity enough to answer your Design; since by your Steadiness it was absoluteley necessary you should hava Novelty, as well as Interest, to procure half so good a House, as we all wish you, and especially, Your Humble Servant, I. M. [See 14 March afterpiece.

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: Benefit for the Education of a Young Gentleman in Distress. Mainpiece: At the Particular desire of several Ladies of Quality. The Gentleman for whom this Benefit is intended, after having gone thru a scholastic Education, being by a series of Misfortunes too tedious to enumerate, deprived of an academical one, takes this opportunity humbly to submit his case to the publick, and beg their indulgence so far as to enable him to go through his studies at the University

Event Comment: The Thirty-second Day. To begin at 6:30 p.m. [Published this month, A Catalogue of Curiosities, Chiefly Theatrical which are to be sold by Auction. Dedicated to Foote by Peter Skewball. A twenty-two-page pamphlet containing suggestive comments about certain actresses. "Lot 13 Two young Actresses of different complections, who having been two years under the care of a certain physician are warranted sound, very little the worse for use...Lot 33 a Coquet Crying by Mrs C-; Lot 34 A Venus half naked at See Saw by Mrs W-; Lot 35 A Very Stanch actress, somewhat overfed, and of great Virtue (Mrs Pritchard?)." N.B.: This is the greatest curiosity in the Catalogue.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: For the entertainment of two young Africans. On Friday 10 February will be perform'd a New Oratorio, call'd Susanna, with a Concerto. Pit and boxes to be put together, and no person to be admitted without tickets, which will be deliver'd that day, at the Office in Covent Garden Theatre, at half a guinea each. First Gallery 5s. Second Gallery 3s. 6d. Galleries opened at half past four. Pit and Boxes at Five. To Begin at Half an Hour after Six. [This advertisement repeated in the General Advertiser daily to 10 Feb. 1749.

Event Comment: By Particular Desire. We Hear that at Drury Lane is now in rehearsal and will shortly be perform'd a New Musical Entertainment call'd Don Saverio. The Music composed by Mr Arne (General Advertiser). Author of Merope [Aaron Hill] confin'd to his bed (Winston MS 7). Paid Cross for playing Young Worthy #1 1s. [See 26 Jan.]; Paid Salary list #254 3s. 9d.; Norton 4 chorus #1 (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #200 (Cross); #142 17s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, with the young Princes, will be this evening at Covent Garden to see the play of the Merry Wives of Windsor

Event Comment: New Music, Dresses, Habits and Decorations. Full Prices. [Which were maintained during run of this pantomime]. A New Pantomime. This Pant: was made by Mr Woodward & met wth great applause, Young Vernon sung for the first time very well. It is said some of the Scenes were bought from Sadler's Wells, wch is shut up by ye Law (Cross). Woodward Harlequin 1st time in three years. Pantomime a New Entertainment in Italian Grotesque Characters (General Advertiser). Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: mong the Addresses of the Lords and Commons to the Sovereign which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine (Nov. 1751, pp. 513-14) one recommended that provision be made for suppressing audacious crimes of robbery and violence. A contributor called Mr Urban's attention to a "method of reformation earnestly recommended more than 40 years ago by an eminent Divine" (Dean Swift). In this treatise occured the following paragraph: "The Reformation of the Stage is entirely in the power of the Court; and in the consequence it hath upon the minds of younger people, doth very well deserve the strictest care. Surely a pension would not be ill employed on some men of wit, learning and virtue, who might have power to strike out every offensive and unbecoming passage from plays already written, as well as those that may be offered to the stage for the future, by which, and other wise regulations, the theatre might become a very innocent and useful diversion instead of being a scandal and reproach to our religion and country."] Receipts: #120 (Cross)