Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these two years. [See 13 April 1771.] Paid Mr Cropley (linnen draper) #14 16s.; Sandys & Co. (colourmen) #50 3s.; Mr Chettel (timbermerchant) #52 4s.; Mr Cole (turner) #46 3s.; Mr Barrow & Co. for Oil, #46 6s. 6d.; Mrs Vaughan (haberdasher) #22 18s.; Mr Callon for men's cloaths #30 (Treasurer's book). Receipts: #217 4s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Brereton. Music of the Afterpiece (entirely new) composed by Dibdin. Mr Brereton-Jaffier, Much Applause. The Quaker is Mr Dibdins Production he has sold it to Mr Brereton. The Music is pretty & Novel it was very badly perform'd--when it is properly Cast & got up with care it will do very well (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly in wording.] [The Reviewer for the Westminster Magazine for May gave a paragraph to Dibdin's afterpiece: "The words will not add to Mr Dibdin's reputation as a writer, nor Will the music increase his fame as a composer, the latter, however, possessed more merit than the former. The Finale was in new stile and pleased. Upon the whole this piece, like the rest of Mr Dibdin's performances, proves that this would-be author, is resolv'd in spite. Of Nature and the Stars, to write."] Receipts: #105 19s. 6d. Charges: #69 18s. Profits to Brereton: #36 1s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for King. [This was Smith's last appearance on the stage, from which he had officially retired on 9 June 1788.] Broadside in Kemble playbills announcing this benefit: Mr King most respectfully informs the Public that his Night is fixed for Friday the 18th of May, when will be presented The School for Scandal. Mr King has the pleasure to add that Mr Smith, who was so long and so worthily applauded by the Public, and was the original performer of Charles Surface in the above, distinguished Comedy, at the particular request of Mr King, backed by a strong assurance from many admirers and encouragers of the Drama that it will not only add to Mr King's emolument but highly gratify the Town, has kindly consented to return to the Theatre for one night, and resume his favourite Character. "We had been told that Smith pourtrayed the Manners of a finished gentleman with more delicacy and characteristic propriety than any actor of his day; but this did not appear to us to be his particular excellence; he stands too wide to be graceful, and his deportment gains no advantage from a perpetual application of his hand to the lower part of the waist. These habits are far from elegant. His Charles, however, is a favourable specimen of that sort of acting which commonly falls under the denomination of the old school: light, airy, and natural; which excites applause without any anxious endeavour to produce it; which suffers the points to tell of themselves, and does not place them as so many traps to ensnare the injudicious part of the audience" (Monthly Mirror, May 1798, p. 299). "He was received with the most heart-felt gratulations by an audience who did not expect any apology for such acting, though he saw fit to deliver one at the conclusion of the play" (Monthly Visitor, May 1798, p. 72). Times, 4 May: Tickets to be had of King at his house, New Store-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #674 6s. (388.0.6; 55.17.6; 2.0.0); tickets: 228.8.0) (charge: #212 5s. 6d.)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is most uncertain. The play was apparently finished in July 1671-see C. E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1961), p. 83-and the play may have been acted before April 1672. For the possibilities see Macdonald, Bibliography of Dryden, p. 110, and Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 404-5. The Prologue and Epilogue are in Covent Garden Drollery, 1672. The song, Whilst Alexas lay prest, the music by Nicholas Staggins, was printed in Westminster Drollery (entered in the Stationers' Register, 3 June 1672) and in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673. Another song, Why should a foolish Marriage Vow, set by Robert Smith, is also in Choice Songs and Ayres, 1673

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard (Cross). Mainpiece: Not acted these 30 years. This day publish'd. Price 1s. Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy. [By Roger Pickering. This is a defense of the theatrical profession, "which in all countries is considered low and contemptible." Author's thesis: "A master of theatrical expression in all its extensive significancy must be possess'd of such accomplishments, as to set the profession above all contempt." Garrick is mentioned as best example. True tragic expression "requires Genius, Education, Reading, Experience...and a solidity of thought which never accompanies abject morals" (p. 11). Includes an interesting treatise on acting-sections on figure, voice, ear, memory, management of feet and legs. Comments on costume: "Taste in dress demands that an actor be conversant in the mode of dress ancient and modern, in other countries as well as in our own...Alexander and Cato were not masters of the snuff box, nor Greek women of French heels." The appendix asks why all our plays are not dressed in character in point of time and place, and why they do not contain at least one "scene" proper to the country. The author (p. 61) sees need for variety in acting same role, especially when a play has a continuous run of several nights. He calls (p. 77) for creation of appropriate mood for the play by selection of proper music between the acts. Wants a softening of the prompter's bell. Concludes by damning contemporary audience manners, especially those of the stage loungers (pp. 79-81).] Receipts: #314 (Cross)