Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, By John O'Keeffe. Prologue by George Colman elder (Colman, Prose, III, 276)]. The curtain was obliged to be dropt before the piece was finished, amidst the disapprobation of a very splendid and numerous audience" (Public Advertiser, 29 Jan.). Receipts: #219 6s. 6d. (216.5.0; 3.1.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mlle Coulon. Tickets to be had of Mlle Coulon, No. 8, Great Suffolk-street, Charing-cross. "The Dance between Gardel and Vestris on Thursday is everywhere talked of, in the highest terms of admiration. Such excellence no audience ever before witnessed" (General Advertiser, 5 Apr.). Receipts not listed

Event Comment: "Recovered from an illness [see 2 Aug.]...Edwin made his appearance...So continued was the applause on his coming on, that some minutes elapsed before he could proceed" (Public Advertiser, 18 Aug.)

Event Comment: [Banks was from the Manchester theatre.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a Representation of the Repulse of the Spaniards before the Rock of Gibraltarv [on 13 Sept. 1782]. Scenes designed by Greenwood; Overture by Baumgarten. Receipts: #173 16s. (152.10; 20.13; 0.13)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. 2nd piece [1st time; F I, author unknown. In the Thespian Dictionary (under Moses Kean) this is said to be an "imitation" of Kean, who, before becoming a professional imitator, had been a tailor]. Public Advertiser, 21 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Bannister, No. 7, Suffolk-street, Charing-cross

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by James Cobb. Text 1st published (unauthorized), Dublin [1790]. Sga Storace had 1st appeared in concerts from 1774 to 1778, and at king's on 24 Apr. 1787 and thereafter]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The new Music composed by Storace, the rest compiled from Linley? Sen., Purcell, Sarti, Paisiello, Martin y Soler?, Pleyel, &c. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "In her own particular line on the stage [Sga Storace] was unrivalled, being an excellent actress, as well as a masterly singer. She settled entirely in England, and after quitting the opera (to which she was frequently recalled in times of distress, as was too often the case), she engaged at Drury Lane, where the English opera was raised to an excellence not known before, by her singing, with that of Mrs Crouch, Mrs Bland, Kelly, and Bannister, and under the direction of her brother Stephen Storace, who composed, or rather compiled, several very pretty operas, of which the Haunted Tower, and the Siege of Belgrade still remain favorites, and are frequently performed" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 65). Account-Book, 4 Jan. 1790: Paid Cobb on Acct. of the Purchase of the Copyright of the Haunted Tower #157 10s.; 27 Feb. 1790: Paid Cobb in full for Copyright #52 10s. Receipts: #219 9s. 6d. (200.13.0; 17.14.6; 1.2.0)

Event Comment: The Nobility and Gentry, Subscribers to this Theatre, are most respectfully acquainted that the engagements of the performers being now at an end, it is therefore impossible to complete, this year, the usual number of Subscription Nights; but that arrangements are at this time forming for next Season (the particulars of which will shortly be laid before them) when the deficient representations, unavoidable this year, will be made up by Extra Tickets to each Subscriber, to Entertainments which, it is hoped, that they will find more worthy of their liberality than those performances which, under the circumstances of the present season, have been permitted at this Theatre

Event Comment: On account of the great number of Ladies and Gentlemen who have not been able to obtain places for Artaxerxes, Mme Mara has very obligingly consented to appear this Present as well as To-morrow Evening, being positively the Last Nights of her performing before her depature for Italy. [Mainpiece in place of The Heiress; afterpiece of The Doctor and the Apothecary, both advertised on playbill of 19 Nov.] Receipts: #398 15s. (360.8; 35.5; 3.2)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "The crowd and the tumult at the doors of the Theatre last Wednesday [raised the question] why the Box and Pit passages, which were the same last year, are now separated. The answer is because at the Opera, the Boxes and the Pit are for the same price and company; at the Playhouse they are different in both respects. Repeated notices were sent by Kemble both to those on foot and in carriages that the house was full; and the doors were actually closed before the house was really filled in the hope of dispersing the crowd--but they were a second time forced open" (Morning Chronicle, 7 Jan.). Receipts: #582 8s. 6d. (552.15.6; 26.14.0; 2.19.0, being the largest amount received at this theatre during its occupancy by the dl company)

Event Comment: [La Pastorella Nobile, with La Fontaine d'Amour and La Fete Villageoise announced, in place of La Discordia Conjugale, "unavoidably postponed," but not performed. "On Saturday last [the Pantheon] was burnt to the ground. The fire broke out about two o'clock in the Painter's room...The building before seven in the morning was a mere shell" (Morning Herald, 18 Jan.). For continuation of opera season see hay, 14 Feb.

Event Comment: A Comic Opera, composed by Paisiello; direction of Mazzinghi. "The original score of this beautiful opera was destroyed in the conflagration at the Pantheon [see 14 Jan.]. Mazzinghi and Cramer have been able, from recollection, to bring it again before the public" (Morning Herald, 5 Mar.)

Event Comment: The Last Opera this Season. "La Bella Pescatrice terminated the season at this place, on Saturday last, before an audience which fully occupied the house in all parts. The stage overflowed with nobility" (Morning Herald, 11 June)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "God save the King was sung by the audience, standing up, twice before the piece commenced, and twice after it was finished. At the end of the Divertisement, Rule Britannia was sung, the whole Royal Family joining" (London Chronicle, 17 Jan.). Receipts: #477 10s

Event Comment: A Comic Opera; the music chiefly composed by Paisiello. Under the direction of Storace. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s. No Money to be returned. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout season]. The subscriptions are received at Messrs Ransoms, Morland and Hammersley's only, upon whose receipt the tickets will be immediately made out, and delivered at the office of Jewell, treasurer. And the subscribers at the head of Boxes are intreated to observe that if the subscription money is not paid into the hands of the Bankers, before the opening of the Theatre, his Box will be considered as relinquished. N.B. The seats of the Pit and the Boxes will be entirely new furnished on the Opera Nights; and Gentlemen are most respectively [sic] informed that they cannot be admitted, either into the Boxes or the Pit on those Nights, unless they are in Afternoon dress. The Nobility are intreated to give directions to their servants to set down and take up the at Theatre with the horses' heads towards Pall Mall. The door in Market-lane for Chairs only

Event Comment: Powell: This Evening the Band beginning the Overture to the Farce without any notice by Bell or otherwise, caus'd a considerabledelay, it being over before the stage could be got in readiness for beginning the Farce. God save the King was call'd for, and sung. The Jew rehearsed at 10. Receipts: #396 5s. 6d. (338/9/6; 53/19/0; 2/7/0; tickets not come in: 1/10/0)

Event Comment: [A broadside bound with Kemble playbills, dated 10 May, repeats the statement found under 12 Mar. beginning "The Box Office, for the present," and adds: "Proper persons will announce to the Company in the Upper Saloons, and from thence to the Lobbies and Boxes, the Carriages and Chairs drawn up before the Colonnades."] Receipts: #376 4s. 6d. (315/8/6; 50/19/0; 8/1/0; tickets not come in: 1/16/0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of The Town before You, advertised on playbill of 9 Dec.] Receipts: #446 5s. (439.1; 7.4)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Mrs Jordan as Corinna, but "The Public are respectfully informed that Mrs Jordan being suddenly taken ill, she cannot have the honour of appearing before them this Evening. The Part of Corinna will be performed by Miss Collins" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Powell: New Ballet rehearsed at 12. Receipts: #214 18s. (156.1; 50.19; 7.18)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Town before You, advertised on playbill of 21 Jan.] Receipts: #111 17s. 6d. (105.15.6; 6.2.0)

Event Comment: [As Miss P. Farren Mrs Knight had 1st appaared in London on 15 May 1777 at the hay.] "[Knight's] simplicity is the type of nature, untainted With buffoonery; and what we very rarely meet with, his attention was so wholly engrossed by the business of the scene as to make him appear unconscious of being before an audience" (Morning Chronicle, 26 Sept.). Receipts: #248 3s. 6d. (240.2.6; 8.1.0)

Event Comment: [This was Miss Farren's last appearance on the stage.] "On the conclusion of the play Wroughton came forward, and, instead of uttering the usual lines [i.e. giving out the play for the next night], delivered the following Address before the curtain dropped, all the Performers remaining on the Stage, and Miss Farren herself in a state apparently of much agitation. [Here follows the address (which is not listed on the playbill).] After Wroughton had delivered these lines, Miss Farren advanced and curtsied repeatedly" (True Briton, 10 Apr.). The address "was written by Sheridan during the performance of the comedy" (Morning Herald, 12 Apr.). "[Miss Farren's] figure is considerably above the middle height, and is of that slight texture which allows and requires the use of full and flowing drapery, an advantage of which she well knows how to avail herself...She possesses ease, vivacity, spirit and humour, and her performances are so little injured by effort, that we have often experienced a delusion of the senses, and imagined, what in a theatre it is so difficult imagine, the scene of action to be identified, and Miss Farren really the character she was only attempting to sustain" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, pp. 236-37). Account-Book: Renters, Free, Orders and Private Boxes at School for Scandal #199 9s. [The tally is also entered of 3,656 spectators in the theatre.] Receipts: #728 14s. 6d. (654.18.0; 70.7.0; 3.9.6; being the largest amount taken at this theatre, on a night not devoted to a benefit, between 1794 (when it was opened) and 1800)

Event Comment: [Miss Humphries, who was from the Private Theatre, Tottenham Court Road, is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill. In afterpiece the playbill retains Barrymore as Sir Rowland, and Bannister Jun. as Walter, but "The Public are respectfully informed that Bannister being suddenly afflicted with a Hoarseness, and Barrymore having met with an unfortunate Accident, are both rendered incapable of the honour of appearing before them this Evening. To prevent a disappointment of The Children in the Wood Dowton will perform...Walter, and C. Kemble Sir Rowland, presuming humbly upon the usual kind indulgence experienced upon such emergencies" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #259 18s. (160.0.6; 98.12.6; 1.5.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Benjamin Thompson, altered from Menschenhass und Reue, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by William Linley; Epilogue by Matthew Gregory Lewis (European Magazine, Mar. 1798, p. 260)]: With new Scenes, Dresses, &c. With Musick [by Thomas Shaw]. "Mrs Siddons was succesful in all the impassioned parts; but she cannot sustain a mixed character. She is the Muse of Tragedy herself, and when she descends from her lofty state to the level of familiar dialogue, she instantly ceases to astonish and we to admire" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1798, p. 234). "The dialogue must be considerably abridged, as well for the purpose of preserving the interest of the piece, as for shortening the time of representation, which is at least an hour too long, it being half past ten before the curtain dropt" [see 26 Mar.] (Morning Herald, 26 Mar.). Receipts: #420 7s. 6d. (378.11.6; 40.18.0; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "George? Dance, @R. A., was at Covent Garden on Wednesday evening when his musical Composition of One and All [for a band] was performed before his Majesty, with much applause" (Joseph Farington,@Diary [26 Cct.], 1922, I, 243). Receipts: #628 8s. 6d. (620.17.6; 7.11.0)

Event Comment: "Barrymore was more imperfect in his part than on the first night of representation [see 25 Jan.]. When he attempted to announce the Play for repetition a violent opposition arose, which lasted upwards of a quarter of an hour, before he was permitted to speak: (Dramatic Censor, I, 182). Receipts: #370 13s. 6d. (246.10.0; 121.13.6; 2.10.0)