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)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Kemble as The Stranger, but "The Publick are most respectfully informed that Kemble being suddenly taken so ill as to preclude the possiblity of his having the honour of appearing before them this Evening, to prevent disappointment of the Play, Raymond at a very short notice has undertaken the Part of The Stranger, and hopes to experience their usual indulgence" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #356 12s. (242.11.6; 111.17.6; 2.3.0)

Event Comment: [Following the 2nd piece the playbill lists The Scotch Ghost, but "The Public is most respectfully informed that in consequence of the very sudden and violent indisposition of Signora Bossi DelCaro it is not in her power to have the honour of appearing before them this Evening, and there being no other person who can supply her place, The Scotch Ghost...is unavoidably obliged to be omitted" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #188 7s. (127.14; 59.18; 0.15)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Andrew Franklin]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations entirely new. The Overture and Musick composed by Florio. The Scenes, designed by Greenwood, and painted by him, Banks, and assistants. The Machinery, Dresses and Decorations designed by Johnston, and executed by him, Gay, and Underwood. The Female Dresses designed and made under the direction of Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "With thy exception of Pizarro, this is one of the most magnificent spectacles the stage has for some time produced. The dresses...are attended with particular accuracy to the costume of the country...and the scenery is locally correct" (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1800, p. 173). "As a singer [Mme Mara's] powers are indisputable; but as a performer she exhibits herself in a light which alternately provokes our ridicule and pity. Her delivery is an absolute libel on the profession. To the defects of a foreign pronunciation she joins a natural impediment of speech, which partakes too strongly of a lisp to warrant her bearing part in the prose dialogue of a play. What could possibly induce her to appear before the public under such disadvantages, unless she did it in compliment to the composer, we are at a loss to conjecture; nor less are we puzzled to account for the supineness of an audience which can patiently tolerate such puny efforts" (Dramatic Censor, I, 347-48). Morning Chronicle, 14 June 1800: This day is published The Egyptian Festival (2s.). Receipts: #320 18s. 6d. (277.6.6; 42.8.0; 1.4.0)

Event Comment: [The playbill assigns Albina Mandeville to Mrs Jordan, but "The Public are most respectfully informed that Mrs Jordan, being unable to have the honour of appearing before them this Evening, to prevent a Change of the Play Miss DeCamp has undertaken to perform Albina...and humbly hopes to experience the usual indulgence" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #166 6s. (99.1; 63.3; 4.2)

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So my wife and I out of doors thinking to have gone to have seen a play, but when we came to take coach, they tell us there are none this week, being the first of Lent. But, Lord! to see how impatient I found myself within to see a play, being at liberty once a month to see one. [This is a puzzling statement. Ash Wednesday fell on 24 Feb. 1663@4, and the customary practice seems to have been not to act on Fridays in Lent (a custom not universally followed), sometimes not to act on Wednesdays, and, of course, not to act at all in Passion Week.

Event Comment: The Kings' Company. The play was probably acted through 11 Oct. Pepys, Diary, 4 Oct.: To-morrow they told us should be acted, or the day after, a new play, called The Parson's Dreame, acted all by women

Event Comment: Henry Muddiman, 29 Nov. 1666: The Players have upon great proffers of disposing a large share to charitable uses prevailed to have liberty to act at Both Houses, which they begin this day (CSPD, Charles II, clxxcii, 6, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 250). A manuscript prologue for the opening of the theatre in Bridges Street is in J. Payne Collier's MS Restoration Stage History, Part I, p. 106, in the Houghton Library, Harvard. The Diary of John Milward, Esq., ed. Caroline Robbins (Cambridge, 1938), p. 49: This day at my coming to the House [of Commons] it moved that plays might be tolerated and acted in the common theatres, and whether any members of the House of Commons should be admitted to go to acts of the playhouses, but it was not resolved

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is not known, but it was probably acted much earlier than November 1682, when it was entered in the Term Catalogues. The fact that the Epilogue refers to the Duke of York's "second Exile into Flanders" points to the possibility that it may have been acted near that time, i.e., between 24 Sept. 1679 and 14 Oct. 1679. It may have been first acted early as March 1679, when the political flights of the Duke of York were also a matter of public concern

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of this revival is not precisely known but that it occurred in mid-March is indicated by Luttrell's date of 21 March 1683@4 on his copy of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library). It should be noted, however, that Friday 21 March is a Friday in Lent, a day on which the companies sometimes did not act. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 202-6. When this play was advertised to be acted on 8 Nov. 1704, the bill bore the heading: "Not Acted these 20 Years." Langbaine (English Dramatic Poets, p. 37): This Play was reviv'd by the Players, since the Union of the Two Houses, and reprinted in quarto Lond. 1684 with a new Prologue and Epilogue, the former written by Jo. Haynes the Comedian

Event Comment: The data in Langhans, New Restoration Theatre Accounts, pp. 130-31, leave the acting days uncertain. Between 13 May 1689 and 7 Dec. 1689 the company acted on 91 days. It then played regularly through 8 Feb. 1689@90, and acted on 83 days (out of a possible 84) between 10 Feb. and 7 June, on 8 days from 13 June through 4 July 1690. In Poems on Affairs of State= (Fifth Edition, 1703), I, ii, 238, is A Prologue spoken by Mr Mountfort, after he came from the Army, and Acted on the Stage (see also A. S. Borgman, The Life and Death of William Mountfort [Cambridge, Mass., 1935], p. 55). The date at which Mountfort spoke this Prologue is not certain, but he was certainly in London ca. Tuesday 15 Oct. 1689 when he was involved in a disagreement within the United Company. See L. C. 5@192, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 334n

Event Comment: Thomas Shadwell to Earl of Dorset, 19 Jan. 1691@2 (summary): Asks that he will order The Innocent Impostors to be the next new play to be acted. He would have had it acted in Roman Habits and then, with a mantle to have covered her hips, [if] Mrs Barry would have acted the part; but Thomas Davenant has with a great slight turned him off, and says he will trouble himself no more about the Play. Asks Dorset to favour the author and him. Complains of priority being given to Durfey's play and a play by Dryden (HMC, 4th Report, Appendix [1874], pp. 280-81)