Event Comment: A new musical entertainment compos'd & wrote by Mr Arne--it was much hiss'd but suffer'd to be given out again (Cross). No latter account will be taken. Books of the Entertainment to be had at the theatre. [Pages covering this date missing from Treasurer's Book. Larpent MS 85 indicates the Character Capt. Sancho-Blakes, deleted.] Receipts: #100 ($Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lee. Charges #60. Balance to Lee #1 6s. plus #88 17s. from tickets. Advanced Servandoni #5 5s. Tickets to be had of Lee at Mr Christmas's in Maiden Lane; and of Page at the stage door. Both pieces by Desire. Receipts: #61 6s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted in 5 years. [See 11 Dec. 1744. For further comment on Dexter, see Genest, IV, p. 341.] One Mr Dexter did Oroonoko , a Gent of Ireland--who never appear'd upon a Stage before--he had ye Greatest applause ever heard & indeed deservedly a Sweet Voice, great feeling--his name was not in ye Bills--only by a Gent (Cross). We hear that a Comedy call'd Eastward Hoe; or, The Prentices, written by Ben Johnson, Chapman, and Marston, is now reviving at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, and will be acted the 29th. [A four page double column account of the text of Oroonoko appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1752, pp. 163-67.] Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: To begin exactly at 6:00 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Mr Varney at the Stage door. [Repeated throughout the season.] Ye Naturalizing Bill having made some Noise against the Jews, some people call'd out for ye Merchant of Venice, & a Letter was thrown upon ye Stage desiring that play instead of the Opera, but we took no Notice of it, some little hissing but it dy'd away (Cross). [Sometime in the calendar year 1753, Lacy and Garrick drew up a mortgage on the Drury Lane property for #10,000, to be amortized to James Clutterbuck over a period of twenty-one years at the rate of #4 per acting night, and permission to grant free seats in any part of the theatre (except the stage, scenes and orchestra) to forty persons. These latter to be named and seats assigned ten days prior to the opening of any season. This thirteen-page document, which describes accurately the bounds of the 13,134 square feet of land on which the ten buildings comprising Drury Lane Theatre stood, contains protective clauses for Clutterbuck, to the effect that Garrick and Lacy will exhibit nowhere else in London without the #4 nightly payment and for Garrick and Lacy, to the effect that arrears in payment could be collected solely from Drury Lane property, and not from the individual incomes of the mortgagees. It was not signed, so apprently was not executed. (See Havard, Collection of Documents dealing with affairs of Drury Lane, No 2, fMS, Thr 12.)] Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: MMacklin has built two magnificent Rooms, ground floor [one] for Coffee, the other a [meeting] Room (Winston MS 8). [The Tuner pub. at 1s. by Dr Hiffernan. Fifty-three pages touching on theatre in general but particularly on Boadicia. There is no plot in the play...Boadicia is a monster well deserving what she suffers; therefore is neither an object of Terror or Compassion: but of Detestation. Sh deserts us in the third act...Tender-hearted Venusia is introduc'd to be whined to death...There is scarce any sentiment throughout; no moral to be deduced...the Diction...favors more of the level, languid, and underepic, than of the vigorous marrowy, tragic style...Never was Author more oblig'd to Performers, they acted to the full amount of his meaning; the Matter often fail'd Mr Garrick's continued and vigorous exertion."] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Woodward he did buck in the Farce (Cross). On account of the extraordinary demand for places, Boxes and Pit will be laid together. Amphitheatre on Stage. Published Tuner No 3-31 pages, 6d. Receipts: #311 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. This Morning at Ten will be publish'd at 6d. An Epistle from Mr The. Cibber to David Garrick, Esq; to which are prefix'd some occasional verses, Petitions, &c.: @Lowliness is young Ambition's ladder,@Whereto the Climber upwards turns his face;@But when he once attains the upmost Round,@He then unto the ladder turns his back,@Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees@By which he did ascend.@Shakespeare@"Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so we would have it; let them not say, we have swallow'd him up," Ps. XXXV. v.25. Printed for R. Griffiths. [A thirty-five-page apologia, and bitter attack upon Garrick for supposed complicity in prohibiting the license of the Haymarket to him.] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: During this month was published The Case of Authors...Stated with Regard to Booksellers, the Stage, and the Public by James Ralph. Pages 23-31 condemn both Garrick and Rich for their treatment of authors: "Those who have custody of the stage claim also custody of the Muse...There is no drawback on the profit of the night in old plays....To fly from Garrick in case of any contempt or neglect to Mr Rich, is enough to deter any man in his senses from embarking a second time on such a hopeless voyage.

Event Comment: AAsh Wednesday. Publish'd this day. Price only 1s. Letters which have passed between John Beard Esq Manager of Covent Garden Theatre, and John Shebbeare, M.D. Wherefore I thus entreat with due Submission, Between the Bard and me you'd make decision, The whole now on your Approbation waits. Prologue to the Perplexities, sung by Mr Beard. Printed for G. Kearsly N.B. This Pamphlet is entered at Stationers Hall, whoever pyrates any part of it will be prosecuted. [This pamphlet of 50 pages is given a four-column review in the Gentleman's Magazine for March (p. 124). The controversy was over a play which Shebbeare submitted to Beard and which the latter finally rejected after holding it two seasons. Beard's letters are quoted. The reviewer is severe upon Shebbeare: Upon the whole for anything that has hitherto appeared, the managers of both theatre have rather been to blame for receiving some pieces that they should have rejected, than for rejecting any they should have received. No piece has yet been printed, by the rejection of which the managers have betrayed their trust, or neglected their duty to the public. There may be such pieces in manuscript, but, if there are, the most effective way of avenging the author on the manager is to print them, for the voice of the public would instantly and effecturally do justice to the writter...by compelling the representation.' Shebbeare was Joseph Pittard?]

Event Comment: Benefit for Messrs Tomlinson, Mortimer, Walton and Carlton Senr. Tickets delivered by Page will be taken. Paid Tabor & Pipe 5 nights (9th inst. incl.) #2 12s. 6d.; Mr Wrighten on note #42. Receipts: #239 16s. Charges: #84. Profits to beneficiaries: #155 16s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Edwin. 2nd piece [1st time; F 2, by George Colman, elder, based of L'Avocat Patelin, by David Augustin de Brueys. This is usually ascribed to William Macready. But on the title-page of his copy (K-D 295 in Huntington Library) J. P. Kemble has written "This Piece was not written by Mr Macready." Public Advertiser, 29 Aug. states that "Colman...presented Edwin upon this occasion with a new Farce, taken from a celebrated French Play." World, 15 Oct. 1787 refers to Colman's dislike of L'Avocat Patelin, but adds, "When [he] came to translate it himself, he found reason to alter his opinion."]. Public Advertiser, 25 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Edwin, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden

Event Comment: Benefit Nicolino Page [Nicolino's Page?]. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality