Event Comment: For House. By Their Majesties's Command, 8th night (Treasurer's Book). Paid Cleansing & Lighting rate 1 year to Lady Day last, for St Martin's #20 2s.; half yrs. Land and Window Tax to Lady Day last for ditto #40 10s. 1d.; Easter Offering 10s. 6d.; Tallow chandler's 9th Bill #31 1s. 3d.; Mr Baddeley in part of #60 in liew of Benefit (remitting #30 to his credit) #30. Receipts: #211 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dickinson (First gallery Office-keeper). Rec'd Mr Condell's 3rd and last payment for Fruit Office #20. Receipts: #278 10s. Charges: #84. Profits to Dickinson: #194 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Prelude and Mainpiece By Command of their Majesties. Jane Shore is oblig'd to be deferr'd on Account of Mrs Yates's being incapable of performing. [MacMillan's note from Kemble "Mr Smith Kitely -dull enough" does not appear in the Folger, Hopkins Diary.] King and Queen Present. Rec'd from Mr Reddish on Acct #50. Paid Printer's Bill #14 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [This weekly payment throughout the season averaged #9 6s., for a total payment of #353 8s. No further itemization of it will be made.] Receipts: #284 11s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mr Grist did not play better than the first night (Hopkins Diary). Paid for Women's cloaths #12; Johnston's Music Bill #15 9s. Receipts: #114 19s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: With New Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations for the Afterpiece. This Farce is brought on the Stage by Mrs Abington--it is very dull--It is vastly well got up and was receiv'd with Applause (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly, mentioning Bickerstaff as the author. Larpent MS 397 contains elaborate stage direction at opening: "An interior apartment in the Seraglio. An arch in the middle of the back scene, which is shut with a curtian. On the right hand toward the front is a sopha in the Turkish manner, low deep, and long, covered with carpets and cushions. A little gold table about eight inches high and a foot and a half square. Upon it a rich or gold saver set with jewels, with two cups on porcelain, and a spoon made of the beak of an Indian bird, which is redder than coral, extremely rare and of extensive price." This may have been intended for a reading audience. In the piece Mrs Abington, an English slave , rebels in the confines of the Seraglio, and start a reform movement wherein men are to please the women. Concludes with demostration of the nobility of English women who will not be enslaved, who will not flatter, who will preserve their liberty and dignity, and who are capable of returning love for honor and respect. Reviewed in Westminster Magazine for Dec.: "The Audience appeared to be divided in their opinion of the merit of the Sultan, some loudly applauding, and others as loudly condemning it, when the curtain dropped. The Majority however, stood firmly for it, and a verdict was returned in its favor. The managers not only well dressed this dramatic trifle, but bestowed three new scenes on it: The Outer Gate of the Seraglio--An Interior view of it--and a Garden terminating in a prospect of the sea. The first was but la! la! The last two were beautiful and picturesque. Five airs were introduced into this piece which had a very good effect....The music of the two first was the composition of Mr Dibdin, and was exceedingly pretty."] Receipts: #143 1s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Yates. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Part of pit laid into boxes. Send servants at 4 o'clock. Tickets delivered for Cyrus (for this night) will be taken. [The Epilogue is Larpent MS 408. N.B. The Treasurer's Account Book for this year differs from those of the preceding five in not recording the income from tickets delivered out for benefit nights. See Comment, 23 Sept. 1775. The box receipts for benefit performances during this season, therefore, are not an accurate reflection of the popularity of a play.] Paid Mr Stainer for Music #2 4s. 9d. Receipts: #147 19s. 6d. Charges: #68 10s. Profits to Mrs Yates: #79 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Merope, announced on playbill of 4 Jan. "We played last night Much Ado about Nothing, and had an apology to make for the change of three principal parts. About twelve o'clock Mr Henderson sent word he was not able to play. We got Mr Lewis from Covent Garden, who supplied the part of Benedick. Soon after Mr Parsons sent word he could not play. Mr Moody supplied the part of Dogberry; and about four in the afternoon Mr Vernon sent word he could not play. Mr Mattocks supplied his part of Balthazar...In the middle of the first act, a message was brought me that Mr Lamash (who was to play the part of Borachio) was not come to the House. I had nobody there that could go on for it, so I was obliged to cut his scenes in the first and second acts entirely out, and got Mr Wrighten to go on for the remainder of the part. At length we got the play over without the audience finding it out. We had a very bad house. Mr Parsons is not able to play in The School for Scandal to-morrow night; do not yet know how we shall be able to settle that" (Garrick, Private Correspondence, II, 328-29: Hopkins, prompter,in letter to Garrick, 6 Jan. 1779. He does not state who took Wrighten's place as the Sexton.).] On account of the sudden Illness of a Principal Performer, the new Pantomime [The Wonders of Derbyshire, announced on playbill of 4 Jan.] is obliged to be deferred till Friday. Receipts: #74 11s. (48.19; 25.10; 0.2)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dickinson, pit office-keeper, and Carleton Jun., box lobby door-keeper. [Afterpiece in place of The Irish Widow, announced on playbill of 25 May.] Morning Chronicle, 18 May: Tickets to be had of Dickinson, No. 5, Wild-court, Wild-street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields [Carleton not listed]. Receipts: #280 3s. 6d. (26.1.0; 6.9.0; 0.18.6; tickets: 246.5.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: "The company [of spectators] was so numerous that there was hardly room on the stage for the performers to go through their pans . . . Mme Simonet displayed all that power of acting for which she has been so justly celebrated since the first introduction of the ballets called 0?Action when first Vestris held the sceptre of Terpsychore at the King's Theatre [in 1780-81]" (Public Advertiser, 18 Feb., which also has a synopsis of the action)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Palmer as Woodville , but "The curtain was dropped in the middle of the first act, and after a delay of near half an hour, Barrymore informed the audience Palmer was not come to the theatre...and therefore solicited permission for Benson to [act] Woodville, which he had undertaken at a few minutes' notice. Benson (who had played the two first scenes of Vane) agreeable surprised the audience by his representation of Woodville" (Thespian Magazine, June 1793, p. 2). Who continued in the part of Vane (which cannot be doubled with that of Woodville) is not stated. R. Palmer, who acted it on 14 Feb., was indisposed.] Receipts: #175 4s. (117.16; 52.14; 4.14)

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill retains Barrymore and C. Kemble as on 9 June, but "Barrymore being ill, C. Kemble play'd Kera Khan, and Cooke Kajah. Messrs Tett, Horsfall, Pilbrow, Bardeauleau absent from the first Chorus this Evening" (Powell).] Powell: New Ballet [Glorious First of June] rehearsed at 12. Receipts: #158 17s. (96/19; 54/11; 7/7)

Event Comment: The United Company. There is uncertainty concerning this date; it appears on Luttrell's copy (Huntington Library) of the separately printed Prologue and Epilogue, and the date may represent the time of his purchase rather than a date of performance. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 141-45. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 39-40): All the preceding Plays, being the chief that were Acted in Dorset-Garden, from November 1671, to the Year 1682; at which time the Patentees of each Company United Patents; and by so Incorporating the Duke's Company were made the King's Company, and immediately remov'd to the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. Upon this Union, Mr Hart being the Heart of the Company under Mr Killigrew's Patent never Acted more, by reason of his Malady; being Afflicted with the Stone and Gravel, of which he Dy'd some time after: Having a Sallary of 40 Shillings a Week to the Day of his Death. But the Remnant of that Company; as, Major Mohun, Mr Cartwright, Mr Kynaston, Mr Griffin, Mr Goodman, Mr Duke Watson, Mr Powel, Sr, Mr Wiltshire, Mrs Corey, Mrs Bowtell, Mrs Cook, Mrs Montfort. [Joined the new company]. Note, now Mr Monfort and Mr Carlile, were grown to the Maturity of good Actors. The mixt Company then Reviv'd the several old and Modern Plays, that were the Propriety of Mr Killigrew, as Rule a Wife, and have a Wife: Mr Betterton Acting Michael Perez; Don Leon, Mr Smith, Cacofogo, Mr Cartwright: Margaretta, Mrs Barry: Estiphania, Mrs Cook. Next, @The Scornful Lady.@The Plain Dealer.@The Mock Astrologer.@The Jovial Crew.@The Beggars Bush.@Bartholomew-Fair.@The Moor of Venice.@Rollo.@The Humorous Lieutenant.@The Double Marriage.@ With divers others. George Powell, Preface to The Treacherous Brothers (1690): The Time was, upon the uniting of the Two Theatres, that the Reviveing of the old stock of Plays, so ingrost the study of the House, that the Poets lay dorment; and a new Play cou'd hardly get admittance, amongst the more precious pieces of Antiquity, that then waited to walk the Stage. Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 95-96): I shall content myself with telling you that Mohun and Hart now growing old [for, above thirty Years before this Time, they had severally born the King's Commission of Major and Captain in the Civil Wars), and the younger Actors, as Goodman, Clark, and others, being impatient to get into their Parts, and growing intractable, the Audiences too of both Houses then falling off, the Patentees of each, by the King's Advice, which perhaps amounted to a Command, united their Interests and both Companies into one, exclusive of all others in the Year 1682. This Union was, however, so much in favour of the Duke's Company, that Hart left the Stage upon it, and Mohun survived not long after

Event Comment: Mrs Abington continuing ill, The Maid of the Oaks oblig'd to be deferr'd. Soon after the Farce began off off--no, more, no more, was the General Cry with much hissing--Mr King went on Two or three times to know their pleasure but they would not hear him. They Call'd for Mr Garrick he attended--but they would not hear him for a long time tho' Attempted Several times to speak--at last Somebody said hear him! hear him!--Mr G. told them that he would wait their [sic] all Night with pleasUre if they requir'd it--hear him! again was bellow'd out--he told them he waited to know their pleasure--whether they would have the Blackamoor go on or if they would have any other Farce then a great Noise ensued; as soon as they were quiet Mr G. told them that his Theatrical Life would be very Short and he should be glad to end it in peace--A man in the Pit said if you have a mind to die in Peace don't let this Farce be play'd again Mr Garrick was on and off the Stage several times nothing would content them--at Length Mr King told them that the Author had taken the Copy from the Prompter and was gone away with it.--Soon after this they withdrew So ended this troublesome Affair (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble is considerably lengthened.] Paid Mr Rowland's bill for dinners #8 9s. 3d. Receipts: #284 18s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Duke, and the Princesses Amelia, Caroline, and Louisa. Rylands MS.: Garrick Play'd, Duke Attended. Died 31 July, aged 77, Ben Johnson (Winston MS. from Burney's Actors MSS). [See benefit for his daughter 15 Dec.] Receipts: #171