Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Cibber (Cross). And the Stage (for the better Accommodation of the Ladies) will be form'd into Front and Side Boxes, where Servants will be allow'd to keep Places, as well as in the Boxes and the Pit. Ladies are desired to send Servants to keep Places by 3 o'clock. Tickets to be had of Mrs Cibber, at her house in Thrift St, Soho, and of Hobson, at the Stage Door of the Theatre, where Places may be taken. Tomorrow The Foundling (being the 13th Night). Receipts: #250 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #81 17s.; tickets, #187 5s. 6d. (Clay MS). This charge was also set down that the principle [sic] treasurer should not know to the contrary, because it was told him that Mrs Cibber paid for her benefit, and if he had imagin'd otherwise, he perhaps would have insisted upon the same terms for his wife (Mrs Pr-h-d). I must therefore subtract it with Mr G-k's Benefit, it standing in their Books exactly in the same manner as his (Powel)

Event Comment: TThe Siege of Damascus is reviving at Covent Garden (in which Mrs Cibber is to perform the part of Eudocia , and Mr Barry that of Phocyas , it being the first time of his appearing in that character). As is also the Masque of Pyramus and Thisbe as set to Music by the late Mr Lamp; they will be performed some day this week

Event Comment: About this time Mr Theo: Cibber Mr Maddocks the wire Dancer, & several other Theatrical performers, with & number of other Passangers embark'd on board the Dublin, Captain White, in order to go to Ireland but the Ship was lost & every Soul perish'd (Cross). As Mr Sparks & others complain'd of Mr Wilkinson for taking them off, it [Diversions of ye Morning] was intended to be omitted this Night, But the Audience call'd so violently for it, that we were oblig'd to let him do it--he took off Foote & Sheridan, & wou'd have left out Sparks but ye Audience wou'd not be satisfied without it--when they first call'd Mr Foote went forward & said as some of the performers had complain'd it was to be omitted; as for being taken off himself he had no Objection to it, as he was always glad to contribute to their Entertainm[en]t &c. (Cross). Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years [see 14 Oct. 1756]. Receipts: #130 (Cross); #139 10s. (Winston MS 8)

Event Comment: Benefit Cibber. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Ben. Johnson. [Tickets at Cibber's House, at Mrs Holt's in Bow Street, cg. The play changed, by request, from The Relapse.] London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 26 March: Last Week died, in the 88th Year of his Age, Mr Boman, belonging to Drury-Lane Theatre, who had the Honour to perform several times before King Charles II. It is remarkable of him, that he was the oldest Player, the oldest Singer, and the oldest Ringer in England

Event Comment: It is Humbly desir'd that Ladies who have taken Places, will please to send for their Tickets to Mrs Cibber's Lodgings, at Mr Salt's, at Henrietta St., Covent Garden. Benefit Mrs Cibber. By Command of their Royal Highness the Prince and Princess of Wales. Stage formed into an amphitheatre, and to prevent the ladies's catching cold ciel'd after the manner of the Oratorios. Tickets sold at the door will not be admitted

Event Comment: HHandel to Jennens: I have taken the Opera House in the Hay-marketh, engaged, as Singers, Signora Francesina, Miss Robinson, Beard, Reinhold, Mr Gates with his Boyes's and several of the best Chorus Singers from the Choirs, and I have some hopes that Mrs Cibber will sing for me. She sent word from Bath (where she is now) that she would perform for me next winter with great pleasure if it did not interfere with her playing, but I think I can obtain Mr Riches's permission (with whom she is engaged to play in Covent Garden House) since so obligingly he gave leave to Mr Beard and Mr Reinhold.--Deutsch Handel, pp. 591-92

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is uncertain. The date of licensing was 3 Jan. 1678@9, but Wilson (Six Restoration Play-Dates, p. 222) has argued that it may well have been the first new play of the season. The Prologue refers to it as "The first Play bury'd since the Wollen Act," the Act going into effect on 1 Aug. 1678. For Sandford as Creon, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 131. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): Oedipus King of Thebes, Wrote by Mr Nat. Lee and Mr Dryden: The last Writing the first two Acts, and the first the 3 last. This play was Admirably well Acted; especially the Parts of Oedipus and Jocasta: One by Mr Betterton, the other by Mrs Betterton; it took prodigiously being Acted 10 Days together

Event Comment: Written Originally by Shakespear. [By Lewis Theobald.] Theophilus Cibber: [Booth's] Illness...returned soon after his playing King Henry VIII. He was then studying the Part of Julio in the Double Falsehood; he rehearsed it several times,-when the Play begin ready for acting, he was prevented appearing in it, by a Relapse into his former Indisposition.-The Part was supplied a few Nights by Mr Charles Williams (a promising Player, who died young) to whom Mr Booth had given the Part to study, as doubting the Certainty of his being able to appear in it himself: But, at Mr Theobald's Entreaty (backed by many Gentlemen and Ladies) he good-naturedly (but fatally) disregarded his Indisposition, which was then an intermitting Fever, and acted that Part from the fifth to the twelfth Night; which was alas! the last time of his Appearance on tle Stage.-Lives and Characters, pp. 82-83

Event Comment: MMrs Cibber to Garrick, late Jan.: It is surprising that dl goes on acting; one night with another, to be sure, they have not received above 40 pounds; the actors are paid only three nights a week; though they play every night. But the top stroke of all was Macklin's play! It was entirely new-dressed, and no expense saved in the clothes. I shall say nothing of the piece, because you may read it; but be as vain as you will about your playing Bayes, you never made an audience laugh more than Henry VII has done. There for the first time I saw your rival, Mr Goodfellow; I should have said the rival Mr Lacy wants to make you; do not be quite dispirited about it, for Perkin Warbeck is much below anything I ever yet saw. Here I must ask Mr Stevens's pardon, to whom I have done injustice, for I think he may dispute the pass downstairs with Perkin, and as his head seems to be the heaviest of the two, I think he has the best right to it.--Boaden, Private Correspondence of Garrick, I, 49

Event Comment: Paid Gallini in part of his Bond #50 (Account Books, Egerton 2268). Mrs Cibber, being Indisposed with a violent Fever, which renders her incapable of performing in the Distrest Mother this day for her Benefit, she is therefore oblig'd to defer it till further Notice. On Tuesday next will be publish'd (Address'd to Mr Garrick) The Pretty Gentleman, or Softness of Manners vindicated from the False Ridicule exhibited unter the character of William Fribble, Esq:...Printed for M. Cooper in Paternoster Row. We hear the Comedy of the Suspicious Husband will be performed in a few days, and the continuance of Mr Garrick's Indisposition, rendering his appearance on the Stage entirely uncertain; the part of Ranger will be attempted by Mr Chapman.--General Advertiser