Event Comment: Opera [1st time; Past 3, author unknown]. The music [to Part I] composed by Giovanni Battista? Bianchi, [to Part II by] Rauzzini, [to Part III by] Giordani. With Grand Chorusses. With new Decorations devised and painted by Novosielski, and new Dresses. The Side-boards, with a cold Collation and all sorts of Wines, at 12 o'clock. The Performance under the direction of Vestris Sen., and to conclude with a Ball. Tickets, at 2 Guineas each, are ready to be delivered at the Office in Union-court, where Boxes may be taken. No Masks will be admitted. The Doors will be opened at 9:00, and the Performance to begin at 10:00. Books of the Performance will be given out (gratis) at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 7 June: The Omaggio, or homage paid by the vassals and tenants to their Lord, is naturally calculated to give free scope to lively, and sentimental music. In the former stile Bianchi and Giardini [sic] were equally succesful; and in the latter Rauzzini was surprisingly great, both as composer and performer...Slingsby would, in our opinion, have come out with as great a share of applause as the best of them, having to go through an English dance in his own stile, but by some unaccountable accident...the music-band stopped short when he was in the very climax of his exertions. The scenes are in the rural stile, with the addition of natural trees, flowering shrubs, &c., set in the neatest order...The company did not begin to move till about four, and by five the rooms were cleared. Public Advertiser, 7 June: The Vestris' gave incontrovertible proof of the variety of their powers...They did more, they shewed what this country had never seen-the possibility of presenting to the eye a large and extensive stage filled with dancers all in motion at the same time

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered from Massinger. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Dibdin]: Taken from The Islanders [1st acted at CG, 25 Nov. 1780]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage-Door. No Persons admitted behind the Scenes, nor any Money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 15 Oct.]. Receipts: #185 17s. 6d. (183/11/0; 2/6/6)

Event Comment: [Extra night] Benefit for Bonnor. Afterpiece [1st time; INT 1]: Translated [by Charles Bonnor] from a new Production of Dorvigny, entitled La Fete de Campagne; ou, L'Intendant Comedien malgre Lui, now acting in Paris with uncommon Applause [MS: Larpent 664; not published; in later season occasionally acted under the title of Transformation]. Tickets to be had of Bonnor, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden. Bonnor begs leave to inform his Friends and the Public that on account of his Absence at the time his Night was to have been appointed he was induced to decline a Benefit in the course of the Season, but the Manager having obligingly made him an Offer of the Theatre, free of all Expense, and the several Performers kindly engaging to assist him, he has fixed on this Day. Receipts: none listed

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Public Advertiser, 5 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Quick, No. 99, High Holbourn. Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years [not acted since 15 Apr. 1763]. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Frederick Pilon]: Altered from [The Comical History of Don Quixote, Part II, by Thomas] D'Urfey. In Act I A Grand Baratarian Procession of Sancho to his Government. The Characters all dressed in the Habits of the Times

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. 3rd piece [1st time; F 1, author unknown. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Altered from [the same by] Farquhar. Public Advertiser, 6 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Quick, No. 99, High Holbourn. Receipts: #324 1s. (156.4; 2.17; tickets: 165.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. 2nd piece [1st time; INT 1, probably by Robert Baddeley. Larpent MS 765; not published]. 3rd piece [1st time; MF 1, author unknown. Larpent MS 766; not published]: The Overture and Music entirely new. Public Advertiser, 5 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 2, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #285 (96.3.0; 14.1.6; 0.18.6; tickets: 173.17.0) (charge: #105 9s. 4d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. [Mrs Wells had 1st acted Macheath at the hay, 14 Sept. 1781; Bannister had acted Polly at the same theatre, 16 Sept. 1785.] Gazetteer, 3 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Bannister, No. 7, Suffolk-street, Haymarket. "There is now a most vehement rage of innovation in language, government, religion, and everything else...On the British stage, with infinite applause, young and beautiful actresses perform sometimes the Parts of highwaymen; and some singing actors squall in an affected voice resembling, and intended to imitate, that of women; the most humourous dramatic pieces are frittered away into songs; and I should not be surprised to hear that henceforth Miranda and Juliet are to be personated by grim-visaged grenadiers seven feet high, and Falstaff by a slender miss just entered her teens" (Universal Magazine, Mar. 1795, p. 171). Receipts: #285 14s. (162.4.6; 5.9.6; tickets: 118.0.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for R. Palmer. 2nd piece [1st time; INT I(?), author unknown; not in Larpent MS; not published]. Public Advertiser, 12 May: Tickets to be had of R. Palmer, No. 14, East Place, Lambeth. Receipts: #302 (104.8.0; 18.16.6; 1.6.6; tickets: 177.9.0) (charge: #106 17s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer. End I afterpiece: A Grand Representation of Mount Vesuvius, at the Time of an Eruption. Oracle, 28 Feb: Tickets to be had of Palmer, No. 3, London Road, St. George's Fields. Receipts: #340 5s. 6d. (144.1.0; 22.0.0; 4.4.6; tickets: 170.0.0) (charge: #126 4s. 11d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wild. 1st piece: Written originally by Shakspeare [see E. K. Chambers,@William@Shakespeare, 1930, I, 539-42], and revised by Theobald. Not acted these 26 years [acted 6 May 1767. Hoy is identified in Not. Dram.]. 2nd piece [1st time; P 1, by Mark Lonsdale; music by William Reeve. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Being partly new, and partly selected from the much admired Pantomimes of the Rival Knights, Provocation, &c. &c. Oracle, 26 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 31, Long-Acre. Receipts: #188 15s. (47.5; 7.16; tickets: 133.14)

Event Comment: 1st piece: With Alterations; Not acted these 6 years [acted 18 May 1792]. [The playbill announces this performance as "By Command of Their Majesties," but they, "who had been expected here last night, did not arrive; the indisposition of two of the Princesses having detained them at Windsor" (Morning Herald, 16 Apr.). "After the Relief of Williamstadt [which is not listed on the playbill, but which on 13 Apr. is called '8th Time,' and on 16 Apr. '10th Time'], the Irishman in London...was attempted to be performed; but after many unsuccessful apologies, the piece was not suffered to proceed, and the farce originally intended for representation, The Lying Valet, not without considerable difficulty, many of the performers having quit the theatre, was gone through with, to the gratification of a part of the audience who appeared determined rather to exercise their power than adhere to propriety" (Public Advertiser, 16 Apr.).] The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [same for rest of season]. Receipts: #345 5s