Event Comment: As 4 Dec. 1740. Benefit Mrs Porter. Pit and Front Boxes together at 5s. N.B. All imaginable Care will be taken to keep the House warm; in order to which only one Door will be open in the Front-Boxes, where Tickets will be delivered. Receipts: money #90 16s. 6d.; seals #78 10s. (Account Book); #180 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: By Command of their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Mainpiece: Written by Dryden. Receipts: #160 6s. (Account Book); #120 (Rylands MS.). [According to the Account Book, Mrs Porter again received #20 for her performance this night.

Event Comment: By particular Desire. Receipts: #101 14s. 6d. (Account Book); #100 (Rylands MS.). [Mrs Porter again received #20 for her performance.

Event Comment: By particular Desire. Receipts: #129 14s. 6d. (Account Book); #100 (Rylands MS.). [Mrs Porter received #20 for acting this night.

Event Comment: By Desire. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. Receipts: #105 1s. (Account Book); #100 (Rylands MS.). [Mrs Porter received #20 for acting this night.

Event Comment: By Particular Desire. Receipts: #112 3s. (Account Book); #120 (Rylands MS.). Mrs Porter received #20 for this performance

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Porter. By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Servants will be allowed to keep places on the Stage, which (for the better accommodation of the Ladies) will be enclosed, and formed into an amphitheatre. Ladies are desired to send their servants by 3 o'clock. Tickets to be had and places to be taken of Mr Page at the stage door; none to be admitted Without printed Tickets. Part of the Pit will be rail'd in and added to the Frodt Boxes

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Porter. By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Stage enclos'd and form'd into an amphitheatre. Send servants by three o'clock

Event Comment: [The playbill assigns the Dauphin to Barrymore but, "Benson performed the Dauphin instead of Barrymore" (Thespian Magazine, Nov. 1792, p. 125). It is not stated who acted Duke of Gloster; doubling these two parts is not likely.] Account-Book: Paid The Prince of Wales's Porter for Performances in Cymon [on 31 Dec. 1791, et seq.] #13 10s. Receipts: #169 9s. 6d. (118.6.6; 46.8.0; 4.15.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire.Afterpiece: Never perform'd before. Ladies and Servants by 3 o'clock. Part of Pit laid into boxes; No Building on Stage. [See Theatrical Review; or, Annals of the Drama, 1763, 1 April, pp. 142-46, for critique of the Sketch of a Fine Lady's Return from a Rout. Rather damns the writing and the performance on all counts, Moody's part being so bad, to save his face he commenced Hibernian in his dialogue" to amuse the ears of his audience. The parts are listed in Larpent MS 220: Sir Gregory Jenkings, Mr Nettle (a Lawyer), 1st Clerk, 2nd Clerk, Porter, Footmen, Lady Jenkings, Nancy Jenkings, Fanny Jenkings, Jane (Lady's Maid).

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bulkley. Mainpiece: A New Comedy [by a Lady] never perform'd in this Kingdom. As performed with Universal Applause at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. [The Edition of 1774 lists the Irish Actors. The characters are: Mowbray, Sir Thomas O'Shaughnesy; Admiral Swivel; Leslie; Egerton; Capt. Egerton; Issacher; Donald M'Pherson; Strap; Elfrida Audley; Henrietta Egerton; Mrs Ornel; Mrs Issacher; Jenny, a Mantua Maker, a Maid; French servants and porters. Genest suggests a casting for ten of the characters.] Charges: #66 6s. 6d. Profit to Mrs Bulkley #33 17s., plus #93 13s. from tickets Box 232; Pit 177; Gallery 91). Paid Mrs Carne half year' salary due Lady day last #15. Paid half year's water rent due Xmas last #4. Receipts: #100 3s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: [Because of Mrs Porter's accident, she can act only every other day; The Rival Queens, therefore, will be given on alternate evenings.

Event Comment: [Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Jackson, Paskin, Hay, Dick, Doe, Hall, Carpenter, Larkman, Robson (music porter), Smart, Strahan, Anselmo, Sturgeon will be admitted.] Receipts: #398 11s. 6d. (43.0.0; 4.0.0; tickets: 351.11.6)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Paskin, Hall (carpenter), Furkins (ditto), Robson (music porter), Strahan, Haseler, Goodwin, Hill, Ledger, Hall (box-keeper) will be admitted. Receipts: #434 15s. 6d. (24.4.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 407.13.6)

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: 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: Paid the Porters at the several Inns of Court their Xmas Boxes #3 11s. 6d. (Account Book). Receipts: #207 9s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Shuter, Robson (music porter), Clarke, Brice, Stuart, Walker (door-keeper), Strahan, Anselmo, Sturgeon, Twikins, Bagley will be admitted. Receipts: #194 7s. 6d. (18/6/6; 4/3/0; tickets: 171/18/0)

Event Comment: [Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Mrs Egan, Hill, Hall (carpenter), Robson (music porter), Strahan, Simmons, Bologna, Williams, Hay, Findlay will be admitted.] Receipts: #438 18s. (43.18.6; 5.1.0; tickets: 389.18.6)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Furkins, Bishop, Doe, Strahan, Warwhick, Thompson, Berecloth, Williams, Robson (music porter), Creswell, Simmons will be admitted. Receipts: #296 18s. 6d. (44.10.0; 5.3.0; tickets: 247.5.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by James Cobb. Larpent MS 1050; published (pirated) 1795]: The Musick, principally new, composed by Storace, with a few Pieces selected from Anfossi, Mozart, Bianchi, Ditters and Sarti. The Scenes and Decorations are all designed and painted by Greenwood, except the View of the New Settlement, which is by Capon. The Dresses, &c. are executed by Johnston and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Powell: Cherokee rehearsed at 9:30. Receipts: #340 5s. 6d. (284.5.0; 54.13.0; 1.7.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2 (?), by William Linley. Also attributed to Cordal Powel, librarian to the Prince of Wales (London Chronicle, 19 Jan. 1796). Larpent MS 1106; not published, except for Airs (C. Lowndes, 1796). Synopsis of action in Pocket Magazine, Jan. 1796, p. 59]. The Musick composed by W. Linley. The Scenes [for a description of which see Theatre Notebook, 1965, XIX, p. 58] entirely new, and painted by Greenwood. The Machinery and Decorations by Cabanel, Johnston and Jacobs. The Dresses by Johnston and Miss Rein. Nothing under Full Prince will be taken. Account-Book, 22 Jan.: Paid Wm. Linley for music of new pantomime #25. Receipts: #619 3s. (608.9; 10.14)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 3 (except for 1st two performances, which were 2), by James Harvey D'Egville. Synopsis of action (C. Lowndes [1795])]: A Representation calculated to shew the extent and powers of the New Stage, and which has been in preparation during the whole of the Season (notice on playbill of 10 Feb.). The Musick composed by Krazinsky Miller. The Scenes, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations are entirely new. The Scenery designed and executed by Marinari, and his Assistants. The Machinery designed by Cabanel, and executed by him and Jacobs. The Dresses and Decorations by Johnston and Miss Rein. Powell: [The pantomime] was astonishingly well received, except the chorus of 'Happy Pair' at the end, which was so shamefully managed that the performers met with, what they much deserved, great disapprobation. The acting of the piece was in general well conducted, but the Processionv [The Piece will conclude with the Entry of Alexander into Babylonv, and his Marriage with Statirav (playbill)], for want of room to arrange behind, was unavoidably sent on in a very confused manner...Alexander's car could not be sent on this evening, not being yet complete. [These difficulties are somewhat surprising, in view of the fact that the pantomime had had 54 rehearsals. And see 13 Feb.] 11 Feb.: Chorusses to New Ballet rehearsed at 10; Natural Son at 11; New Ballet at 11; New Ballet (full rehearsal) at 6; 12 Feb.: New Ballet rehearsed at 12. Receipts: #504 3s. 6d. (417.2.0; 83.16.6; 3.5.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by James Cobb. Text: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800. Miss Waters is identified in the Songs]: The Scenes, Music, Machinery, Dresses, and Decorations are all entirely new. The Music composed by Mazzinghi and Reeve. The Scenery painted by Richards, Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, Backmore, &c. [based on drawings of Indian scenery by Thomas Daniell]. The Machinery and Decorations by Cresswell, Sloper, Goostree, &c. The Dresses by Dick and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs, also describing the Scenes and Spectacle of the Return from the Tiger Hunt, to be had at the Theatre, price six pence. "The whole [forms] an exhibition of the utmost grandeur...The expense attending the decoration must have been immense...The dailogue is certainly not of the first description of writing, but it forms, on the whole, a very safe vehicle for some of the best music the English stage has for some time been able to boast"(Morning Herald, 13 Nov.). Account-Book, 27 Dec.: Paid Cuthbert for Wheels, &c. for the Elephants #13 18s. Receipts: #364 7s. 6d. (363.19.6; 0.8.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by James Hook Jun. Larpent MS 1065; not published; synopsis of plot in Pocket Magazine, May 1795, p. 334]: The Musick composed by Hook? Sen. The Scenes, Dresses, Decorations and Machinery are entirely new. The Scenery of the Opera designed and painted by Greenwood and Capon. The Masque and Decorations by Marinari. The Machinery by Cabanel and Jacobs.The Dresses by Johnston and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. [Afterpiece in place of The Adopted Child, advertised on playbill of 5 May.] Receipts: #269 8s. (213.0.6; 53.16.0; 2.11.6)