Event Comment: AA Letter to Garrick on Opening the Theatre, published at 1s. [See 1 Nov. for answer. This is Edward Purdon's 33-page criticism of Garrick, on his repertoire, his personnel and casting, and his secondary position to cg in the matter of decoration.] Receipts: #120 (Cross)

Event Comment: bout this time in the month was printed a 42-page pamphlet, Reasons why David Garrick should not appear on the Stage, in a Letter to John Rich. This is high praise of Garrick: 'I am so blinded either by prejudice of admiration that I can see nobody else" when Garrick plays.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Henry Jones. Afterpiece: [See note under cg play this night. During this year appeared An Essay Upon the Present State of the Theatre, in France, England, and Italy, a "work absolutely necessary to be read by every lover of Theatrical Exhibitions," printed for J. Pottinger. It contains twenty-two chapters on tragedy, thirteen on comedy, opera, authors, and the art of acting. Pages 147-51 discuss the obligation of English farces to French ones.] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Cape, West, Tomlinson, Robinson, Roberts, and Mortimer. Tickets delivered by Marr and Page will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for West, Cape, Mortimer, Roberts, Tomlinson. Tickets deliver'd for This Night will be taken. [The Occasional Epilogue is Larpent MS 197, wherein Tomlinson as the habitual stage mute finally speaks, after having acted in dumb show Prelate, Senator, Page, Soldier, Clown, and Lord, thanks the audience and expresses his desire to please.

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties, an Occasional Oratorio "selected from the most celebrated compositions of the late George Frederick Handel." Pit and Boxes to be put together. No person to be admitted without Tickets which will be deliver'd this day at the Office in the Theatre at half a guinea each. First Gallery 5s. Upper Gallery 3s. 6d. Galleries to be opened at half past Four. Pit and Boxes at Five. To begin at half after Six. This day Publish'd Price 1s. An Occasional Oratorio, as it is to be performed at Covent Garden...J. and R. Tonson. [The most provocative commentary on Oratorios may be found in [Robert Maddison's] An Examination of the Oratorios performed This Season at Covent Garden, (London, 1763) 63 pages, wherein he seeks to define the genre, then judge the performances in terms of his definition.

Event Comment: As frequenters of the Theatre have often complained of the interruptions in the performances occasioned by a crowded stage at the Benefits-the Performers will have no building on the stage, nor take any money behind the scenes being willing to forego that advantage, for the sake of renderin the representations more agreeable to the Publick [a front-page notice for Drury Lane Theatre in the Public Advertiser this day]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Afterpiece: Performed but once these 3 years. [See 15 Feb. 1764 and 30 Dec. 1762.] [The year (1766) first appears on playbills this season. The regular music charge each night appears as a constant charge of about #6 19s. 10d. Extra music and chorus singers for the Coronation amount each night it is presented to #5 2s. The nightly wardrobe and property charge varies but averages #8 15s. combined (Account Book). The Account Book for this year makes no weekly balance, as did earlier ones. It records a continuous cumulative list of receipts (Account No. 149), and on the page opposite records a cumulative list of payments. Comparison of the two columns can at any monent indicate the relationship between income and expenditure. The Account Book is BM ADD Egerton MSS 2272.] Receipts: #271 18s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: [C$Colman published in the Public Advertiser this day extracts from the Oxonian in Town showing what favorable things were said of the Irish in it. He apparently did so to forstall a predicted riot by Irishmen who feared their nation was slandered because the scoundrels in the play were Irish. See E. R. Page, George Colman, The Elder (New York, 1935), p. 168. Monitor No V (21 Nov. 1767) includes a letter from Timothy Calfskin requesting refund of 4 shillings since his wife was frightened by the noise of the "wild Irish" and ran from the playhouse.] Receipts: #191 4s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Characters New Dressed. [The Theatrical Monitor No X (30 Jan. 1768), gives a six-page review of the mainpiece under the usual Aristotelian topics: Fable, Characters, Moral, Sentiment, Diction, rather disapproving of the play on all of them. Praises the performers.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson and Lings. The Committee deferr'd on account of Indisposition of Mrs W. Barry. Tickets delivered by Page, Chinneau, and for The Committee will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson and Lings. Tickets deliver'd by Page, Chinnall, Roberts, and Mrs Haywood will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer Tomlinson and Lings. Tickets deliver'd by Chinnal, Page, and C. Roberts will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer Tomlinson and Lings. Tickets delivered by Page, Chinnal and Carleton Sen will be taken. Receipts: #242 9s. 6d. Charges: #84. Profits for Mortimer, Tomlinson, Lings: #158 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson and Lings. Tickets delivered by Page, Carlton, Sen, and Walton will be taken. Receipts: #236 13s. Charges: #84. Profits to Mortimer, Tomlinson, and Lings: #152 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: [Macklin dismissed after this night. See the account in The Genuine Arguments of the Council, with the Opinion of the Court of the King's Bench, &c., By a Citizen of the World, (London, 1774). Extracts in E. R. Page, George Colman, the Elder (New York, 1935). See notes for 23 and 30 Oct. and the subsequent action in note for 20 Nov. He did not return until 18 May 1775. This night was aparently, except for #4 5s. which was not recorded on the books of the theatre until 18 June well after the season closed. Macklin's suit in court against the rioters was judged 24 Feb. 1775. A column and a half account of the trial appeared in the Public Advertiser, Saturday 13 May 1775, giving the testimony of the witnesses accused of starting the riot, the lawyers, and the judge. The accused were Leigh, Miles, James, Aldus, and Clarke. The first four were convicted of a conspiracy and a riot, the last of a riot only. During the Course of the Business Lord Mansfield took Occasion to observe, that the Right of Hissing, and Applauding in a theatre was an unalterable Right, but there was a wide Distinction between expressing the natural Sensations of the Mind as they arose on what was seen and heard, and executing a pre-concerted Desagn, not only to hiss an Actor when he was playing a Part in which he was universally allowed to be excellent, but also to drive him from the theatre, and effect his utter ruin." See also William W. Appleton, Charles Macklin, An Actors Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), Chapter X.

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Jameson. Hull is to succeed Colman in the management of Covent Garden (Winston MS 10). Colman sold his share of the patent to Harris in the spring of this year, this departure to take place in June (Page, George Colman, The Elder). Michel Dyer Died (Genest, V, 424). Miss Jameson's charges #77 13s. 6d. Profit to her #59 10s., plus #66 7s. from tickets. (Box 127; Pit 138; Gallery 139). Receipts: #137 3s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By desire. Last time of the company's performing this season. [The Epilogue recites the mock burial of this King of Brentford reviewing certain high points of his management. A mock heroic written by Colman and printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for June 1774 (p. 280). He sold his share for #20,000, which was #5,000 more than he paid for it. (See Page, George Colman, The Elder.) Rec'd half value of ticket returns from 13 servants amounting to #98 3s. 6d. Receipts: #124 8s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Gallery 3s. Pit 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Doors open at half past five. Play begin at half past six. [Repeated.] Before the Play a new Overture and New Occasional Prelude (Public Advertiser). The House has been quite alter'd since last Season and is now fitted up in the most elegant manner Possible by the Adam's etc. and is the most Compleat of any Theater in Europe. Great applause to the House before the Curtain. The Theatrical Candidates is wrote by D. G. Esq and was received with great Applause (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly in wording. In Judging the popularity of a play in terms of box receipts for this season one must be aware of the fact that the treasurer's account books here differ from those of the five preceding years in not recording the income from the tickets delivered out for benefit nights. Hence on those nights the stated income reflects only the money taken at the door the night of the performance, and does not indicate the larger amounts which the actors received for their tickets. Deficits to various actors listed on the following pages were all paid up, presumably from the ticket receipts. Each actor doubtless at least broke even on his benefit.] Ceiling rais'd 12 feet. Old side Boxes top and bottom remov'd. New passages to Boxes. Entrance Bridges St. Light pillars to support Boxes inlaid with plate glass on green and crimson ground. Old chandeliers remov'd. Gilt branches with two candles each on pillars. Four new chandeliers in front. No slit i Curtain. Adam architects. 4,000 guineas. Persons not employed in the night's amusement ordered not to come behind the scenes--performers by that means go cross stage (Winston MS 11, from Dr Burney's News Cuttings). Paid Renters #8; Supernumeraries and Drum #1 16s.; taylor's Bill #10 11s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [For the 188 acting nights of the season and for 11 Oratorio nights the Renters were paid a total of #1,692. The Supernumeraries were paid an average of #5 per night or #940 for the season. No further account of these items will be made. Full account of the new look given to Drury Lane by the Adam's brothers in the Westminster Magazine for Sept. along with an approving review of the Meeting of the Company.] From Lloyd's Evening Post, 25 Sept., "On the New Front of Drury Lane Theatre": @Garrick asham'd to poke his nose@Too sheepishly beneath the Rose:@And fearing, poor man, what were Worse,@His bashfulness might hurt his purse;@Resolves this year to push a front,@And put a better face upon't.@Not surely meaning to give o'er@His Art, and make no faces more.@Yet, fair as tis, I'd have him know@If tis the last he means to show.@This face will never make amends,@For turning tail upon his friends;@Who own, by general consent,@His face the best Stage ornament.@ (In Folger Library, David Garrick Verses, Prologues and Epilogues, MS, p. 86.) Receipts: #208 11s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With a New Scene and New Dresses. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Charles Dibdin and Edward Thompson. Thompson's name does not appear on the title-page of the text; it has been added by J. P. Kemble on the half-title of his copy now in the Huntington Library]: The Music chiefly composed by Dibdin [Public Advertiser, 15 Nov.: Three of the airs and the finale were composed by Samuel Arnold; one air by John Abraham Fisher]. With New Scenes [ibid: by Dall, Richards, and Carver], Dresses and Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Account-Book, 7 Feb. 1777: Paid Dibdin in full for copyright of the Seraglio #20; ibid, 2 June 1777: Received of Cooper for Songs & Books sold of The Seraglio #19 10s. 9d. [Mrs Ward was from the Birmingham theatre]. Receipts: #221 11s. 6d. (219.7.0; 2.4.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson, Carleton Sen. & Walton. Tickets delivered by Page, Barthrope and Whittey will be admitted. Receipts: #235 4s. (20.1; 3.18; 0.0; tickets: 211.5) (charge: #84)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson, Carleton Sen. & Woollams. Tickets delivered by Page, Whittey, Barthrope, Finney and the Widow Eddleston will be taken. Receipts: #278 16s. (26.17.0; 4.7.6; 0.8.6; tickets: 247.3.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson, Carleton Sen. & Woollams. Tickets delivered by Bayne, Page, Finney, Barthrope and Whittey will be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Receipts: #243 3s. (15.3; 3.11; 0.5; tickets: 224.4) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson, Carleton Sen., Woollams & Bayne. Tickets delivered by Devoto, Page, Finney and Barthrope will be taken. [Afterpiece in place of Who's the Dupe?, announced on playbill of 22 May.] Receipts: #24 13s. 6d. (19.1.0; 5.2.6; 0.10.0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)