Event Comment: 2nd ballet: With entirely new Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The Music entirely new, composed by Millerd, composer for the ballets at the Opera at Paris. In the course of the performance the Grand Procession of Iphiginia into Aulide. The Scenery, Machinery, &c. designed by Marinari, and executed by him and his assistants. The decorations by Johnston, the dresses by Sestini. [Scenario published by J. Hammond [1793].] The Managers beg leave particularly to request that no Gentleman will come behind the Scenes, as the number of people engaged in the ballet, and the variety of scenery and machinery, render such admission highly inconvenient. Morning Herald, 24 Apr,: The story [of the ballet] is perhaps not very intelligibly told; but the shew and the dance are admirable. It begins and concludes with magnificent processions, the last of which brings Iphiginia to the altar, where she is saved just as the holy knife is raised for the sacrifice. At this instant the chariot of the Sun, the brilliancy of which is much beyond any former representation of the sort, passes over the stage, and is, for some time, suspended over the altar, while the whole corps de ballet offer their adorations

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2. Larpent MS 980; not published]: By a Gentleman of the Bar [Horatio Edgar Robson]. The Story partly founded on the celebrated old Scotch Ballad of the Heir of Lynne. The Irish, Scotch, Italian and French Airs selected, and the new Music and Medley Overture composed by Reeve. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #488 9s. 6d

Event Comment: [As afterpiece the playbill announces the 1st night of The Magic Oak, but see 25 and 29 Jan. Robin Hood is listed in Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1799, p. 86.] Receipts: #337 3s. (327.9; 9.14)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; D 3, by Henry Neuman, based on Der Opfertod, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Text (R. Phillips, 1799) assigns no parts]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice, at the Theatre. The Theatre, since the last Season, has been newly Decorated. [Beginning with 19 June the playbill: Printed by T. Woodfall, Drury Lane; on 4 Sept.: No. 104, Drury Lane.] Morning Chronicle, 27 June 1799: This Day is published Family Distress (2s.). Gentleman's Magazine, May 1800, pp. 406-8, prints a letter from "J. B." in which strong exception is taken to Kotzebue in general, and this play in particular. "Theatrical entertainments have an extensive influence upon the manners of Society. When well regulated, and the pieces for representation well selected both as to matter and manner, they may be esteemed friendly to morality, and improvers of public taste. But what shall we say when both these ends are disregarded; when moral virtue is banished from the scene, and purity of taste is destroyed by affected language and pantomimical decorations? Improvements in almost every art and science have been within a few years, rapid and important. But that is not the case with the stage; nor can it be, while Kotzebue and his friends usurp the venerable boards of Shakespeare." The writer then, in sarcastic terms, outlines the plot of Family Distress. [Pope and Miss Chapman were both from cg.

Event Comment: "...Richard III, which I saw performed at Drury-lane theatre at the beginning of the present season...The dresses of the characters which here make their appearance are in the usual half-and-half mode, made up from portraits of Charles I's reign, and from unrestrained fancy. Richard's habit, indeed, shews a faint hint, at the costume of his day; but how modernized! A fancy cap and feather,with a milliner's white-ribband rose, sewed thereon. A deep ruff, of that make not known until the reign of James I From the neck depends a ribband With the George: this decoration never seen in paintings till about the fashions of the abovementioned monarch's court. On his legs and feet, white silk stockings, white shoes, and red roses. These latter ornaments unknown before Elizabeth or James I's modes of dress prevailed; at any rate, they should have been white ones to have accorded with the party-badge in his cap." Writer signing himself "An Artist and an Antiquary" in Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1800, p. 319. Receipts: #225 16s. 6d. (178.3.6; 47.12.0; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Pope as Charles Stanley, but "The part of Charles Stanley this night devolved upon Claremont. It were to be wised that this gentleman would suffer the austerity of his features to relax, when he acts the lover. A continual frown ill accords with the soft workings of the tender passion" (Dramatic Censor, I, 78).] Receipts: #207 15s. (197.5; 10.10)