Event Comment: Written by the Famous Ben. Johnson

Event Comment: Benefit Turbutt and Leviez. N.B. There having been a Parcel of Tickets lost or Mislaid, to prevent Impositions on the Publick, notice is hereby given, that proper persons are appointed to attend the Passages of the Theatre, and stop the Admission of Tickets sold by Orange Woman, and others. Tickets deliver'd out by a Gentleman will be taken. Tickets and places to be had of Bradshaw, &c; and at Ben Johnson's Head, in Little Britain; and of Leviez at the Blue Door in Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields. Receipts: #150

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

Event Comment: Never acted before. After the manner of Ben Johnson [by James Ralph]. The Receipts...upon the First Night were but Twenty-One Pounds...and...when the Manager had the Generosity to Risque a Second...he was oblig'd to shut up his Doors for want of an Audience [from Preface to printed edition]

Event Comment: MMr Beard ill (Cross). Robin Hood Defer'd. Love's Last Shift deferr'd till Wednesday next. The Comedy of All's Well that Ends Well (written by Shakespear); and the Comedy of Every Man in his Humour (written by Ben Johnson) are now reviving at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane (General Advertiser). Receipts: #60 (Cross)

Event Comment: The Tragedy of Phaedra and Hippolitus, written by Smith; and the Comedy call'd Every Man in his Humour written by Ben Johnson, are now reviving at the theatre Royal in Drury Lane. and will be acted there alternately next week. Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: Suppos'd Garrick's Benefit (Cross). This day publish'd at 1s. Every Man in his Humour, a Comedy written by Ben Johnson [sic] with alterations and additions, as it was perform'd at Drury Lane (General Advertiser). [Inspector No 298 comments on a blemish in the performance of Richard III, where the character of the Lord Mayor has Buffoonry in the handling." Taswell frequently acts it thus, but perhaps is not to blame, the decision as to the manner of the part probably having been made by the Manager (Daily Advertiser and Literary Gazette, 13 Feb.)] Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 15 years. Written by Ben Johnson. The characters New Dress'd after the Manner of the Times. Receipts: #14O (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By particular Desire. Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #1 6s. 11d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #192 4s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Ben Johnson's Head [a local Tavern, for food and drink] a bill 15s. 1d.; Paid Baker for concerto #2 2s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #139 7s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #1 15s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #103 15s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #1 9s 5d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #150 10s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: paid Baid +Ben Johnson's Head a bill #1 9s. 10d. Paid for coffeepot #2 15s. 6d. and for Mrs Abington's cloaths #27 7s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #128 17s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #1 10s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #164 6s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #4 14s. 1d.; Frederick for Rose colour and blew sattin, 120 yds. #42 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #228 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #3 10s. 11d. (Treasurer's Book).Receipts: #146 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #4 11s. 9d.; Paid Rollett on his note #10. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #242 19s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Particular Desire. For the Author. House Charges #73 10s. [Profit to Dr Franklin #98 8s.] Paid Ben Johnson's Head a bill #3 11s.; Barrow & Co., for oil, #56 13s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #171 18s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Ben Johnson's Head #2 12s. 9d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #172 12s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In three acts altered from Shakespeare. Afterpiece, a New Pastoral Masque and Pantomime interspersed. The Music composed by Fisher. The scenes painted by Messrs Dahl, Richards and Carver. Nothing under Full Prices will be taken. Books of Songs, &c. sold in Theatre. The words of the Masque taken chiefly from Ben Johnson (playbill). [DNB s.v. "Jonson," suggests The Haddington Masque, 1608, with the "Hue and Cry after Cupid" material as the source. The reviewer for the Westminster Magazine commented on the performance of 25 November, after outlining the story: "Such are the outlines of The Druids, whick is a hetereogeneous jumble of monstrous absurdities; and if considered merely as a vehicle for music, dances, and decorations, is, in our opinion, far inferior to the dramatic monstrum horrendum of the other House [The Maid of the Oaks]. Both pieces, however, are equally an insult on the understanding and judgments of the Public, and exhibit striking proofs of the miserably depraved state of the English theatre, whose entertainments are at present conducted by Managers either destitute of taste and abilities or actuated by no other than the paltry, despicable motives of vanity, prejudice, and avarice,"]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered [by Charlotte Lennox] from [Eastward Hoe, by] Ben Johnson, and others [George Chapman and John Marston]. Receipts: #128 7s. 6d. (100.11.0; 23.8.0; 4.8.6)

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the premiere is not known, although a reference in the text to 1690 suggests that the play may have been produced in that year; but the fact that it was not advertised in the London Gazette until 6-9 April and not entered in the Term Catalogues until May 1691 suggest that it posaibly appeared early in 1691. This play was discussed in Wit for Money, or Poet Stutter; A Dialogue between Smith, Johnson, and Poet Stutter; containing Reflections on some late Plays, and particularly on Love for Money, or The Boarding School. The British Museum copy of this pamphlet has a manuscript date of 23 April 1691. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42: The Boarding School; Wrote by Mr Durfy, it took well being justly Acted. Earl of Ailesbury, mid-January 1690@1: My Lady Fenwick was a great intriguer, and had always castles in the air in her imagination to that degree, that I was present at a play where she was brought in. If I mistake not it was The Boarding School, and the famous comic, Mr Lee, in woman's clothes represented her to the life, and so exactly had her features and complexion that one could hardly have distinguished one from the other (Memoirs, [London, 1890], II, 390-91)