Event Comment: DDrugger, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: KKitley, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: RRanger, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: HHastings, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: LLusignan, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: KKing Henry, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 8 May 1767.

Event Comment: AArcher, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: LLear, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Theatrical Fund. Kitely-Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). Pit and Boxes laid together. Ad[mission] to Boxes only through Boxes (Winston MS 10). Mainpiece: By Particular Desire

Event Comment: Kitely-$Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: Sir John Brute, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: Ranger, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). Tomorrow, A New Comedy, never perform'd, call'd 'Tis Well It's No Worse

Event Comment: Felix, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: Drugger, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). Cymbeline Deferr'd on account of Mrs Barry's indisposition

Event Comment: Benefit for Theatrical Fund. Afterpiece: By Desire. Pit and Boxes together. Play begins half past six. Benedick, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). No admittance into Pit or Boxes but with tickets. Ladies urged to come early to get to their places with greater Conveniency

Event Comment: Paid Mr Langford for Woman's cloaths #10 2s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Garrick?] (Hopkins Diary). Receipts: #252 4s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). The new Comedy of The Runaway is unavoidably oblig'd to be deferred till Saturday. Rec'd Mr Stanley's Oratorio Account, 11 nights, #327 5s. Paid Lawrence (paper hanger) #13 7s.; Renters (for 11 Oratorio nights) #88; Cubit (tinman) #7 14s. 6d.; Gardner (shoemaker) #25; Chettle (timber merchant) #22 14s. 6d.; Mist andCo. (brazier) #10 8s.; Thomson (smith) #5 16s. 6d. Barrow andCo. (oil) #106 5s.; Tallow Chandler's 8th Bill #26 12s.; Palmer's Bill of Bath for Spermacetti Candles #162 10s. (Treasurer's Book). [MacMillan quotes from Kemble's note on the playbill, a Garrick interpolation in Drugger 's last speech (IV, vii): "Abel: Did you never see me play the Fool? Face: Yes. Abel: But the wise ones say I have played the Fool long enough; So I am going to leave it off and grow melancholy." [This note does not appear in the Hopkins Diary in the Folger Library.] Receipts: #265 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Tallow Chandler's 4th Bill #41 6s. 5d.; Spermacetti Candles, #132 18s. Mr Tomlinson for Men's cloaths #11 11s.; Mr J. French on acct #20; Miss Hopkins, 15 nights (19th Dec. incl.) #3 15s. (Treasurer's Book). [The sixth edition of Wm. Law's Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Representations was published this year (1st. edn. 1726) This day was published the Preliminary Number of the Westminster Magazine, which, monthly, included a section called The English Theatre, which observed generally on the state of the Stage, and commented specifically on new plays. Its view of the stage in general was not as sanguine as had been that of the writer for the Town and Country Magazine (1 April 1772). "We are of opinion, that the English Theatre is now in its decline. Whether it is that the stores of Dramatic Subjects or of Dramatic Genius are exhausted, is not immediately obvious; but there is a fault somewhere....We have seen the Morning star of Wit--the Noon too is past; we have now arriv'd at its evening...There is in Arts, as in Empires, a progress which leads to Refinement; and this refinement leads to Ruin." According to the writer the meridian glory of the English stage was during the reign of Queen Anne. Reviewer damns the Irish Widow, refuses to discuss the Gamesters (revived), damns the Rose and praises the Garrick alteration of Hamlet. This year also appeard Granny's Prediction, a 53-page pamphlet attack on Mrs Barry, condemning her on moral grounds (polygamy) and on aesthetic grounds, commenting on each of her characters. By a spiteful female relative Elizabeth Franchetti.] Receipts: #142 10s. (Treasurer's Book)