Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Morning Chronicle, 19 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 1, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #190 0s. 6d. (127.15.6; 58.5.6; 2.19.0; odd money: 1.0.6; tickets: Suett allowed to issue Tickets, paying a Moiety over #100 [total of tickets not listed]) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Powell. [1st piece: Prologue by the author (see text).] 3rd piece: To conclude with Robinson Crusoe's departure from the Island. Morning Chronicle, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Powell, No. 6, Craven-street, Strand. Receipts: #489 14s. 6d. (164.8.0; 67.15.6; 0.16.6; odd money: 6.14.6; tickets: 250.0.0) (charge: #213 2s. 4d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mme Banti. A new Serious Opera [1st performed at Florence, 1795]; the Music by Paisiello [with additions by Benelli, Federici and Guglielmi]

Event Comment: Benefit for Barrymore and Wathen. Morning Chronicle, 12 May: Tickets to be had of Barrymore, No. 20, Judd Place, West, Somers Town; of Wathen, No. 4, Park-row, Knightsbridge. Receipts: #148 (84.18.6; 59.8.6; 3.13.0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #218 12s. 5d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In I a Grand Masquerade. Account-Book: Paid Sloper [master carpenter] for Scene Men #40 17s. 11d. Receipts: #179 0s. 6d. (176.9.6; 2.11.0)

Event Comment: "Mr T. has performed in the Norwich Company. [He] did not appear to us to possess a single requisite for the profession of an actor...We observed that the characters of Lenox and Rosse were doubled [i.e. combined]-a resource, at all times, disreputable to the theatre and to the manager" (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, pp. 369-70). Receipts: #299 15s. 6d. (293.8.6; 6.7.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Holman. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. In IV a Grand Banquet. Morning Herald, 28 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Holman at his chambers, No. 14 John-street, Adelphi. "There is a deficiency in the length of [Holman's] upper lip that continually exposes his teeth to the audience...He has a method of hurrying over the latter part of a sentence, as if to give it more effect, but in reality destroys the intention and solemnity of the scene" (Candid Strictures,45-46). Receipts: #280 11s. 6d. (188.10.6; 3.16.0; tickets: 88.5.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I incidental to the Tragedy, a Grand Masquerade. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] Afterpiece: With the Fantoccini, as 30 Oct. ["In the late performance of this play at Covent Garden theatre, we perceive that this objection [i.e. Romeo and Juliet in III. v standing on the stage] is removed; the principal part of the scene is spoken from a balcony...The grand funeral dirge is introduced with magnificence and ostentation. A long procession of monks, friars, &c., accompanied with music, is made to passover the stage. But what end is all this farce and shew to answer?...We must rather laugh at so much pomp and expence bestowed on Juliet. If there is any distress stirring, the candle-snuffers and scene-shifters, who assist as chief mourners, have it all to themselves" (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 293). Receipts: #197 3s. 6d. (193.5.6; 3.18.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Poitier Jr. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. [See 1 May 1758.] Receipts: #47 in cash. Deficit to Poitier Jr #17 5s., covered by #39 7s. from tickets (Boxes 79; Pit 92; Gallery 50). Total income #86 7s. Charges #64 5s

Event Comment: Benefit for Poitier. On Account of the Dancing No Building on the Stage. Tickets and places to be had of Mr Poitier, at Mr Piddington's, Coach-Maker, in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Mr Poitier hopes his Friends will favour him with their Commands, as this is the last Benefit he proposes taking

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mingotti

Event Comment: Benefit for Aldridge. Public Advertiser, 14 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Aldridge, No. 2, Great Maddox-street, Hanover-square. Receipts: #189 9s. (123.4; tickets: 66.5) (charge: #64 10s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Aldridge. Public Advertiser, 10 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Aldridge at the Carpet Warehouse, Covent Garden Piazza

Event Comment: Benefit for Hodson, author of Zoraida [who is named in the Account-Book, but not on the playbill; see 8 Feb. 1780]. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Receipts: #92 19s. (60.3; 32.11; 0.5; tickets: none listed) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: Benefit for the young D'Egvilles, Johnston & Dale. Receipts: #233 1s. 6d. (24.12.0; 15.15.6; 0.16.0; tickets: 191.18.0) (charge: #108 7s. 11d.)