Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Oratorio: Composed by the late Dr Arne. At Playhouse Prices [see 10 Mar.]. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Tickets for the Boxes to be had at Messrs Longman and Broderip's, in Cheapside and the Haymarket; and at the Stage Door of the Theatre, in Suffolk-street, where Places may be taken

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Cuyler. [Kean is identified on HAY playbill of 26 Aug. 1784.] 1st and 2nd pieces: Both written by George Colman, Esq. 3rd piece: Written by the late David Garrick. Not acted these 12 years. Tickets to be had of Mrs Cuyler, No. 7, St. Alban's-street; at the bar of George's Coffee-house; and of Rice, at the Theatre, where places for the boxes may be taken. Tickets delivered for the 15th will be admitted

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Kennedy. Public Advertiser, 26 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Kennedy at her house in Great Queen-street. [The Jubilee anticipated the official Handel Commemoration held at Westminster Abbey on 26 May.] Receipts: #320 9s. 6d. (213/4/6; tickets: 107/5/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: "[Mrs Siddons's] Impatience, her impassioned Gestures, during the Narrative of Old Norval--the Towering of her Transports after it--the Transports of Tenderness maternal... were given with an enthusiastic Grace of Truth" (Public Advertiser, 7 May). Receipts: #242 17s. (225/5; 16/13; 0/9; tickets not come in: 0/10)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces Tancred and Sigismunda, but "[Mrs Siddons] again appeared in Lady Randolph, for on the sudden illness of Kemble, Tancred was thus forced to be changed" (Public Advertiser, 10 May).] Receipts: #225 18s. (207/18/0; 16/10/0; 0/12/6; tickets not come in: 0/17/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. Public Advertiser, 7 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 32, St. Martin's-strcet, Leicester-fields. 1st piece [1st time; CO 2, by Horatio Edgar Robson. MS: Larpent 657; not published. Composer of music unknown]: The Music partly new and partly compiled. With a New Overture. Receipts: #181 i5s. (99/16; tickets: 81/19) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wright and Chapman. Gazetteer, 10 May: Tickets to be had of Chapman, No. 49, Carey-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields [Wright not listed]. Receipts: #210 5s. (56/13; 1/19; tickets: 151/13) (charge: #115 10s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Kemble. Public Advertiser, 14 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Kemble, No. 22, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields. Tickets delivered for Friday the 14th Inst, will be admitted. Receipts: #142 13s. (63/14; tickets: 78/19) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Staunton and Mrs Hedges. Gazetteer, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Staunton, No. 9, St. Martin's-street, Leicester-fields; of Mrs Hedges, opposite Old Bond-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #208 1s. 6d. (15/13/0; 19/15/6; 0/16/0; tickets: 171/17/0) (charge: #106 0s. 11d

Event Comment: Benefit for Macklin. Gazetteer, 7 May: Tickets to be had of Macklin, Tavistock-row, Covent-garden. Receipts: #194 11s. (116/4; tickets: 78/7) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Harris, ballet master and principal dancer. Public Advertiser, 15 May: Tickets to be had of Harris at his house, No. 43, Wells-street, Cavendish-Square. Receipts: #179 4s. 6d. (42/14/6; tickets: 136/10/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Wilson, Darley, Thompson, Helme, Mrs Hamilton, and the Orchestra will be admitted (Account-Book). [Afterpiece in place of The Positive Man, announced on playbill of 22 May.] Receipts: #254 7s. 6d. (89/16/6; 1/2/0; tickets: 163/9/0)

Event Comment: The last Subscription Night [but see 29 May]

Event Comment: Tuesday [25 May] was, by mistake, advertised as the last Subscription, which closes only This Evening

Event Comment: [Extra night] Benefit for Wild. Wild respectfully informs the Public, on account of the Loss he sustained by his former Night [see 17 May], the Managers of Covent Garden and Hay-market Theatres, as well as the several Performers, have granted him their free Assistance. Receipts: none listed

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time in London; T 3, by William Hayley, 1st acted at Chichester, late in May 1784. Text in his Plays . . . for a Private Theatre (T. Cadell, 1784). Prologue by George Colman, the elder (European Magazine, Aug. 1784, p. 165). Contrary to the usual custom on the 1st night of a new play, the parts on this occasion are assigned]. "Palmer had done with Lord Russel as he did with many other characters, that is, totally neglected to study the words of the part . . . Whenever he felt himself at a loss he dexterously introduced some passages from The Earl of Essex, which he contrived to fit into the cues received by Lord Russel." His brother, R. Palmer, who told this anecdote to Boaden, said that the audience suspected nothing amiss (Boaden, Kemble, I, 193)

Event Comment: [Mrs Gordon is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill. Her 1st appearance on the stage was at the HAY, 30 May 1781, as Miss Lyon.]

Event Comment: The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin exactly at 6:15 [see 2 May 1785]

Event Comment: The Doors will be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 2 May 1785]. Receipts: #216 13s. 6d. (193/4/0; 22/19/6; 0/10/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)