Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Mills. Mainpiece at the desire of several Ladies of Quality. [For Mrs Woffington in this role, see 12 Dec. and 18 Feb. 1747.] Tickets to be had of Mrs Mills at her Lodgings at Mr Long's in Bow Street, and at the stage Door of the Theatre

Event Comment: Original Weekly Journal, 2 Aug.: On Wednesday last, the Deceas'd Mr Keene was carried from his House in Cook's Court, by Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, to the Parish Church of St. Clement Danes; the Pall was held up by 3 Gentlemen from each Theatre, viz. Mr Booth, Mr Mills, and Mr Johnson, from the Old House; and Mr Bullock, Sen. Mr Spiller, and Mr Corey: Mr Charles Bullock appear'd as chief Mourner, the rest of the Actors from both Houses follow'd the Corpse to the Church, where was sung a very fine Anthem. 'Tis said Mr Walker, a Gentleman of that Profession, has made a very Pretty Elegy in Blank Verse upon the Occasion

Event Comment: At the New Wells near the London Spa Clerkenwell. By Desire. For one night only. Benefit for Yeates Jun</a>. A Concert, etc. Prices: 2s., 1s. 6d., 1s. To begin exactly at 6 p.m. There will be fires in proper Places to keep the Wells warm. It will be moonlight. Mr Yeates entreats the favor of those Gentlemen and Ladies who intend to honour him...that they will please to come at the time prefix'd on account of the length of the Performances; and they may depend on the whole being conducted with the utmost Decorum (General Advertiser)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. With new Dresses and Decorations. The Characters dressed in the Habits of the Times. [Palmer Jun. was from the hay.] "It is necessary to remind both Macbeth and his Lady that there is a measured declamation, of which the natural utterance of passion knows nothing, and that words and syllables may be divided and subdivided till the fatigue of the ear overcome every other feeling...Between the first and second acts Ca ira was loudly called for from the pit and gallery. The clamour, after preventing the first part of the second act from being heard, subsided as unaccountably as it rose. The performers, in compliance with an admonition from the pit, began the act again, and proceeded without further interruption" (Morning Chronicle, 20 Feb.). "In Macbeth there was too much that was not Shakespeare, too much bad taste and shabbiness in the costumes of the witches, and all in all too much claptrap. He found it insufferable that Banquo should take the part of his own ghost and felt that the audience should behold the specter only in Macbeth's terror, as was the case with the banquet guests. 'Mr Kemble has desired on several occasions to suppress the ghost,' Meister says, 'but has never had the courage to do so.'" (J. H. Meister quoted in J. A. Kelly, 134). For Kemble's eventual courage in this matter see dl, 21 Apr. 1794.] Receipts: #425 6s. (383.2; 40.4; 2.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mills. Tickets deliver'd out by Taswell, Wilder, Morris, and Mrs Addison will be taken. Tickets to be had of Mrs Mills at Mr Gardyner's, Printer, in Russel St., Covent Garden, and at the Stage Door. Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Lacy, formerly of the Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane. Tickets to be had of Fosbrook, at the Box Office of the Drury Lane Theatre, and Rice, at the Box Office of the Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, where Places for the Boxes may be taken. [Address by John Taylor (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 370). On this night the following appeared both at dl and at the hay: Hollingsworth, Caulfield, Bannister Jun., Suett, Miss Pope, Mrs Bland.

Event Comment: Hamlet [announced on playbill of 18 Feb.] is obliged to be deferred on account of the Indisposition of a principal Performer. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Abraham Portal. Larpent MS 445; not published]: The Overture and Music [by Thomas Linley Jun</a>.] entirely new. With New Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Words of the Songs, Chorusses, &c. to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 19 Feb. 1778: This Day at Three will be published the Songs in The Cady of Bagdad (6d.). Receipts: #180 0s. 6d. (130.9.0; 49.7.6; 0.4.0)