Event Comment: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. [Tickets for Charles Coffey taken.]

Event Comment: Prologue written by Macklin: (Cooke, Memoirs of Charles Macklin, pp. 150-51.) From scheming, pelting, famine, and despair, Behold to grace restored an exil'd Play'r: Your Sanction yet his fortune must compleat, And give him privilege to laugh and eat. No revolution plots are mine again; You see, thank Heaven, the quietest of men. I pray that all domestic feuds might cease; And beggar'd by the war, solicit peace; When urg'd by wrongs, and prompted to rebel; I sought for freedom, and for freedom fell; What could support me in the sevenfold dame? I was no Shadrak and no angel came. Once warn'd, I meddle not with state affairs; But play my part, retire and say my pray'rs. Let nobler spirits plan the vast design, Our green-room swarms with longer heads than mine; I take no part-no private jars foment, But hasten from disputes I can't prevent; Attack no rival brother's fame, or ease; And raise no struggle, but who most shall please. United in oursdlves, by you approv'd. Tis ours to make the slightest muse belov'd; So may the stage again its use impart, And ripen Virtue, as it warms the heart. May discord, with her horrid trump, retreat, Nor drive the frighted Beauty from her seat; May no contending parties strive for sway, But judgmemt govern, and the stage obey

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. The Farce never before acted. Tickets to be had of Macklin at his House in Bow St; and of Hobson at the stage door where places may be taken for the Boxes.--General Advertiser. [Afterpiece by Charles Macklin.

Event Comment: [G$Garrick] promised me the Part of Tressel; when the Play was given out, and I prepar'd for it, I saw in the Bills next Morn, another Person's Name [Blakes].-Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, quodet in Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 136. Receipts: #180 (Cross); #182 9s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Tindal and Charles Sarjant (book and housekeeper). Not acted this season

Event Comment: Paid Charles Sarjant for the Like sum advanc'd towards the repairs of the Houses in Bow St... #11 (Account Book). Receipts: #170 10s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Afterpiece: A new Farce never performed. Altered from Sir Charles Sedley's Piece of the same title by Dr Goldsmith. Acted only this night (playbill). [The notation on the alteration is by Kemble on the playbill. The characters are: Sourby, Octavio, Wentworth, Dancing Master, Scamper, Clarissa and Jenny. See Edition by Alice I. Perry Wood (Cambridge, Mass., 1931).] Charges #66 5s. Profit to Quick #7 6d., plus #80 from tickets (Box 100; Pit 263; Gallery 156) (Account Book). [Brief review of the Grumbler in the Westminster Magazine for May 1773: "It was several years ago translated from the French, and received this night some additional touches from the pen of Dr Goldsmith. An entertainment of one act cannot be expected to contain much. The whole merit of this is centered in one character, and perhaps in one scene."] Receipts: #73 5s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Wilson. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. 3rd piece: Written by D. Garrick, Esq., with Additions. 4th piece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Stuart]: The Overture and Music chiefly new, by Gehot, and Shield, who composed the music to The Flitch of Bacon. Public Advertiser, 3 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Wilson, No. 2, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden. Ibid, 29 Apr. 1779: This Day is published The Cobler of Castlebury (1s.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: To conclude with a Procession of the principal Grand Masters, from the Creation to the present Century, dressed in the Habits of their respective Ages and Countries. With new Music [by Charles Dibdin], Scenes, Dresses, Pageants, and Decorations. The Paintings by Richards, Carver, Hodgins. The Pantomime by Messink. Books of the Songs, with an Explanation of the Pageants, to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #224 0s. 6d. (223/5/6; 0/15/0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe and Charles Bonnor; later (see 29 Jan. 1784) altered as Harlequin Rambler. MS: Larpent 642; not published; synopsis of action in Public Advertiser, 24 Dec]: The Overture and all the Music new, with entire new Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, Decorations and New Performers. The Pantomime invented by O'Keeffe, the Music composed by Shield, the Scenery designed by Richards and Carver, and executed by them, Hodgins, and others. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Books of the Songs (T. Cadell, 1783) [which list no cast] to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #288 1s. (277/18; 10/3)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by A Lady [unidentified], based partly on L'Amitie A l'epreuve, by Charles Simon Favart and Claude Henri de Fusee de Voisenon]: The Overture and the new Music composed by Hook. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 30 Mar. 1786: This Day at Noon is published The Peruvian (1s. 6d.). [The music was printed under the title of The Fair Peruvian (S. A. & P. Thompson [1786]), which was the original title as given in the MS (Larpent 727).] Receipts: #246 8s. (242/16/6; 3/11/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Kemble. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. "Mrs Siddons spoke the speech on mercy as it certainly should be spoken--but as in truth we never heard it spoken--as a reply to 'On what compulsion must I?' From every other Portia it has always appeared as a recitation, prepared for the occasion" (Morning Chronicle, 8 Apr.). Morning Chronicle, 20 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Kemble, No. 19, Charles-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #284 2s. 6d. (160/19/0; 20/17/6; 1/1/0; tickets: 101/5/0) (charge: #107 0s. 5d.)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces Isabella, with Mrs Siddons as Isabella. But she was indisposed, and "the play was changed into The Winter's Tale" (World, 4 May).] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart. Prologue by the author (Public Advertiser, 17 May)]. Receipts: #137 17s. 6d. (93.2.0; 43.7.6; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Staunton and Lamash. 2nd piece [1st time; INT I, by Charles Stuart. "A speaking Pantomime of ten minutes" (Public Advertiser, 15 May). 3rd piece: Not acted these 4 years. Public Advertiser, 12 May: Tickets to be had of Staunton, Gloucester-street, Queen-square; of Lamash, Queen-court, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Receipts: #271 11s. (37.0; 15.17; 0.14; tickets: 218.0) (charge: #108 7s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull and Macready. 1st piece: In Act I a Grand Banquet. With the Procession [in Act IV] from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen . To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christening. [In 2nd piece the scenes, as listed on 10 May, are indicated.] Morning Herald, 20 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 7, Duke's-court, Westminster; Diary, 21 May: of Macready, No. 3, Mary-street, Charles-street, Tottenham-Court-Road. Receipts: #282 14s

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; CO 3, author unknown. Music selected from Dr Arnold, Storace, et al. MS: Larpent 996; not published]: Altered from THE COQUET of [Charles] Molloy. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I The Cardinal's Banquet. In Act II The Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine. In Act V a Grand Procession to the Christening of Princess Elizabeth. Paid Charles Smith on Acct. of Upholders Work at Drury Lane Theatre #400. Powell: Henry VIII rehearsed at 10 (for Packer, lame, and Mrs Siddons); Siege of Belgrade music at 12 (for Storace, Bannister Jun., Crouch, Davis, Danby). The Iron Curtain being finish'd was this Evening exhibited for the first Time with the Epilogue [and see 21 Apr.]. "On the 24th February, 1809, this theatre was burnt down . . . Every care had been taken to guard against such a calamity. Two large reservoirs for water, on the top of the house, happened, unfortunately, at this crisis to be empty; and an iron curtain, intended to separate the auditory from the stage, for the purpose of saving a part of the edifice in case of conflagration, was, with its machinery, so much out of order as to be useless; it was, in fact, utterly immoveable" (Brayley, p. 8). Receipts: #451 8s. 6d. (389/4/0; 56/5/0; 4/6/6; tickets not come in: 1/13/0)

Event Comment: By Particular Desire of the Mirza, Prince of Broach. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Charles Dibdin; music by the author. MS: Larpent 1030; not published]: The Words of the Songs, &c. will be given at the different Doors of the Theatre. Tickets delivered for THE BEGGAR'S OPERA [Account-Book: by Heathcote, Bayzand, Egan, Pitt, Masters, Dick, Hall (carpenter), Doe, Goodwin] will be admitted. Receipts: #238 14s. 6d. (26/4/0; 3/17/6; tickets: 208/13/0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 2]: Composed by Charles? Farley; Founded chiefly on a principal Episode ["The History of Don Raymond," Vol. I, chaps. III, IV] in the Romance of The Monk [by Matthew Gregory Lewis]. With entire new Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music by Reeve. The Scenery designed by Phillips, and executed by him, the assistance of Hollogan, Blackmore, Thorne, Byrn, &c. The Machinery by Cresswell and Sloper. The Dresses and Decorations by Dick, Goostree and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs and Chorusses [T. N. Longman, 1797] to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #377 17s. (364.3.6; 13.13.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Cassio to Barrymore, but "Charles Kemble undertook Cassio at a short notice, and sustained it very creditably" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, p. 250).] Afterpiece: Engagement as 6 Mar. Receipts: #219 6s. 6d. (158.19.6; 59.6.6; 1.0.6)

Event Comment: [Extra night] Benefit for the Widows and Orphans of those brave Men who perished, and those who were wounded, in the Glorious Action of the 14th February last [see king's, 18 May.] Patrons: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness Duke of York, His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. Stewards: Duke of Leeds, Duke of Bedford, Earl of Chesterfield, Earl Spencer, Lord Kinnaird, Charles Grey Esq., Thomas Tyrwhitt Esq., Wm. Lushington Esq., Wm. Manning Esq., John Thomson Esq., John Julius Angerstein Esq. Boxes to be taken, and Tickets had at the Office of the Theatre, and at the Bar of Lloyd's Coffee-House. Receipts: none listed