Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Ballad Opera. [By Robert Drury.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Farce of one Act. [By Robert Dodsley.] Prompter, 18 Feb.: This little Performance, without any Theatrical Merit whatsoever, received the loudest Applauses that I have heard this long while, only on Account of its General and Well-Adapted Satire on the Follies of Mankind

Event Comment: Benefit a Person in Distress. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. Afterpiece: Written by the Author of the Toy Shop. [Tickets for Janno, Roberts, and Hough also taken.

Event Comment: Never acted before. By Robert Dodsley

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the Author of Braganza [1st time; T 5, by Robert Jephson. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (see text)]. With new Scenes and Dresses. Public Advertiser, 15 Feb. 1779: This Day is published The Law of Lombardy (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #221 (196.19.0; 23.13.6; 0.7.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion, Ladies are desired to send their Servants by Half past Four o'Clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years. [Epilogue by Robert Jephson.] Afterpiece: Written by D. Garrick, Esq. Public Advertiser, 31 Jan.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, Gower-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #340 5s. 6d. (166.10.0; 11.0.0; 1.4.6; tickets: 161.11.0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. 3rd piece [1st time; INT I, probably by Robert Baddeley. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Taken from [The Lame Lover, by] the late Samuel Foote, Esq. Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 10, New Store-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #297 16s. (74.14; 8.12; 0.19; tickets: 213.11) (charge: #117 16s. 4d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. 2nd piece [1st time; INT 1, probably by Robert Baddeley. Larpent MS 865; not published]. Public Advertiser, 20 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 10, New Store-street, Bedford Square. Receipts: #320 9s. 6d. (94.18.0; 16.5.0; 0.12.6; tickets: 208.14.0) (charge: #117 10s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Robert Merry. Larpent MS 933; not published]: With entire new Music, Scenery, and Dresses. The Overture and the whole of the Music composed new by Mazzinghi. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #284 1s. (281.14; 2.7)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wild. 2nd piece [1st time; F 1, by Robert Woodbridge]. Morning Herald, 4 June 1793: This day is published The Pad (price not listed). 3rd piece [1st time; BALL. P 2 (?), by James Byrn, altered from his The Provocation!]: The Incidents partly new, and partly selected from the much admired Pantomime called Provocation. In the course of the Pantomime a representation of an Engagement between an English and French Man of War; A Ship-wreck; The original Allegoric Scene from Provocation: A View of an English Camp; A Naval and Military Procession. Morning Herald, 9 May: Tickets to be had of Wild, No. 46, Drury-lane. Receipts: #335 1s. 6d

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Townsend, Williamson, Robson (music porter), Smart, Walker, Strahan, Anselmo, Sturgeon, Furkins, Bazely, Simmons, Roberts, Barnes, Steer will be admitted. Receipts: #409 10s. (34.11.0; 7.0.6; tickets: 367.18.6)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. L. C. 5@139, p. 125, lists it for 3 March, but as this date falls on Sunday, it is probably an error in dating. The play was licensed on 22 May 1667. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's playhouse...and I in and find my wife and Mrs Hewer, and sat by them and saw The English Princesse, or Richard the Third; a most sad, melancholy play, and pretty good; but nothing eminent in it, as some tragedys are; only little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play, and there telling the next day's play; so that it come in by force only to please the company to see her dance in boy's clothes; and, the truth is, there is no comparison between Nell's dancing the other day at the King's house in boy's clothes and this, this being infinitely beyond the other. Downes (p. 27): Wrote by Mr Carrol, was Excellently well Acted in every Part;...Gain'd them an Additional Estimation, and the Applause from the Town, as well as profit to the whole Company

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@149, p. 368: The Queene a Box, and a Box for the Maids Honor at Don Sebastian King of Portugal. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 352. There is no certainly that this is the first performance. The play was entered in the Stationers' Register, 15 Dec. 1689. See also Charles E. Ward, The Life of John Dryden (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1961), pp. 242-46. Preface, Edition of 1690: I am...to acknowledge, with all manner of gratitude, their civility; who were pleas'd to endure it with so much patience....Above twelve hundred lines have been cut off from this tragedy since it was first deliver'd to the actors. They were indeed so judiciously lopt by Mr Betterton, to whose care and excellent action I am equall y oblig'd, that the connexion of the story was not lost. Does a cryptic remark by Huygens, 3 Dec. 1689 OS, refer to this play: Dat dat geklap met de handen in comedie, onlanxgebeurt, als er gesproken wierd van een Coning, die wederom quam in sign rijck, van seer quade consequentie was. Dat voorseker de Con. too mercifull was, en dat er mosten exempelen gestatueert werden (Journal van Constantijn Huygens, Dutch Historical Society Transactions, New Series, XXIII [Utrecht, 18-212)

Event Comment: Note, That Subscribers' Tickets pass this Day, and every Day during Mr Penkethman's stay at Greenwich, unless it be some particular Actor's Benefit-Day

Event Comment: Benefit John and Ch. Rich. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Mr Estcourt. Receipts: #36 8s. 6d

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twelve Years [but see 2 May 1709]. Written by the late Mr Dryden. All the Habits being entirely new. With Decorations proper to the Play. Steele wrote a Prologue for this play, possibly for this run; it was not used but appeared in The Theatre, 2 Feb. 1720. See also The Works of John Dennis, Hooker, ed., II, 162-65. Cibber states that #600 was expended on the habits, scenes, and decorations

Event Comment: Benefit John Rich. At the Desire of several Persons of Qulaity. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Addison. Receipts: money #92 12s. 6d.; tickets #37 10s

Event Comment: [By John Williams] At Mr Penkethman's Theatre. Benefit Author. At 6:30 p.m

Event Comment: Mainpiece: [By John Breval.] Alter'd from a Comdey call'd The Play is the Plot. Afterpiece: The entire Masque (not perform'd these Fifteen Years). Set to Musick by Mr Eccles. With Scenes, Machines, Dances, and all proper Decorations

Event Comment: Benefit Mr and Mrs Egleton. Mainpiece: Not Acted these Five Years. Receipts: money #63 6s. 6d.; tickets #83

Event Comment: Benefit John Rich. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Mr Otway. Receipts: #126 7s

Event Comment: Benefit Rochetti. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Compos'd by Mr Handel. [Text by John Gay. See also Deutsch, Handel, pp. 272-73.] Receipts: money #34 10s. 6d.; tickets #34 4s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Alter'd form Shakespear by Sir William Davenant and Mr Dryden