Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Lady Sneerwell to Miss Sherry, but on the Kemble playbill a MS annotation substitutes Mrs Whitfield. Miss Sherry was ill; she died early in October.] "Sheridan has also despised the faults of another school, trap claps. Not a word in The School for Scandal is to be found in praise of Laws, Jack Tars, Innocence, an Englishman's castellum, or Liberty" (Reynolds, II, 227). Receipts: #193 13s. 6d. (155/11/0; 37/12/6; 0/10/0)

Event Comment: [The play is opened by Mrs Beverley and Charlotte, and when Mrs Siddons came on she was hissed because of a widespread report that she had refused to act for Brereton's benefit in Dublin. "A considerable period of time was lost; it might be forty minutes before the play began . . . We could perceive that the lady supported herself with a great degree of firmness under this very aweful trial--a trial which, in great measure, determined her future fame--perhaps her residence in this metropolis" (Town and Country Magazine, Oct. 1784, p. 510). "The Breretons have used her shockingly--Mrs B. was mean enough to sneak off the stage and leave her to stand the insults of a malicious party tho' she knew the whole disturbance was on her account and that her husband had at least been obliged to contradict the reports that concern'd him" (Betsy Sheridan, Journal, 1960, p. 32). Mrs Siddons explained to the audience that the stories circulated against her were "calumnies." She had, in fact, on 19 Aug., acted Jane Shore in Dublin for Brereton's benefit (Dublin Public Register, 19 Aug. 1784). "Though Mrs Siddons delivered this address with her usual judgment and articulation, and it was received with reiterated bursts of applause, yet she was so agitated when off the stage as to be very near fainting, and continued for some time much flurried" (Public Advertiser, 6 Oct.).] Receipts: #304 5s. (291/13; 12/11; 0/1)

Event Comment: [This was Miss Farren's last appearance on the stage.] "On the conclusion of the play Wroughton came forward, and, instead of uttering the usual lines [i.e. giving out the play for the next night], delivered the following Address before the curtain dropped, all the Performers remaining on the Stage, and Miss Farren herself in a state apparently of much agitation. [Here follows the address (which is not listed on the playbill).] After Wroughton had delivered these lines, Miss Farren advanced and curtsied repeatedly" (True Briton, 10 Apr.). The address "was written by Sheridan during the performance of the comedy" (Morning Herald, 12 Apr.). "[Miss Farren's] figure is considerably above the middle height, and is of that slight texture which allows and requires the use of full and flowing drapery, an advantage of which she well knows how to avail herself...She possesses ease, vivacity, spirit and humour, and her performances are so little injured by effort, that we have often experienced a delusion of the senses, and imagined, what in a theatre it is so difficult imagine, the scene of action to be identified, and Miss Farren really the character she was only attempting to sustain" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, pp. 236-37). Account-Book: Renters, Free, Orders and Private Boxes at School for Scandal #199 9s. [The tally is also entered of 3,656 spectators in the theatre.] Receipts: #728 14s. 6d. (654.18.0; 70.7.0; 3.9.6; being the largest amount taken at this theatre, on a night not devoted to a benefit, between 1794 (when it was opened) and 1800)

Event Comment: See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 117. The King's Company. The Prologue is in Thomas Jordan's A Royal Arbour of Loyal Poesie (1664). Andrew Newport to Sir Richard Leveson, 15 Dec.: Upon our stages we have women-actors, as beyond seas (HMC, 5th Report, Part I, 1876, p. 158). For a discussion of actresses who may have played Desdemona on this day, see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, pp. 6-8. Possibly Clun acted Iago. See An Elegy Upon the Most Execrable Murther of Mr Clun, 1664

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361: The King at ye Mistress. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. There is no indication as to whether this performance was the premiere. As the play was licensed on 24 May 1687, the premiere may have been as late as 12 May, but possibly was earlier. Sir George Etherege to Will Richards, 19 May 1687: I have heard of the success of The Eunuch, and am very glad the town has so good a taste to give the same just applause to Sir Charles Sedley's writing, which his friends have always done to his conversation (Letterbook, ed. Rosenfeld, p. 212). Sir George Etherege to Middleton, 2O June 1687: I saw a play about ten years ago Called the Eunuch, so heavy a lump the players durst not charge themselves with the dead weight, but it seems Sir Charles Sedley has animated the mighty mass and now it treads the stage lightly (ibid., p. 227). [See also 26 March 1687 and season of 1676-77.] Thomas Shadwell, The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal (licensed, 25 May 1687.) Dedication to Sir Charles Sedley: Your late great obligation in giving me the advantage [presumably the third day's gain] of your comedy, call'd Bellamira, or the Mistress, has given me a fresh subject for my Thanks; and my Publishing this Translation affords me a new opportunity of owning to the world my grateful resentments to you. I am heartily glad that your Comedy (as I never doubted) found such success, that I never met with any Man of Sence but applauded it: And that there is abundance of Wit in it, your Enemies have been forced to confess....For the Judgment of some Ladies upon it that it is obscene, I must needs say they are Ladies of a very quick apprehension, and did not find their thoughts lye very much that way, they could not find more obscenity in that than there is in every other Comedy. A song, Thyrsis unjustly you complain, headed A Song in Bellamira, or, the Mistress. Set by Mr Tho. Shadwell, is in Vinculum Societatis, 1687 (licensed 8 June 1687)

Event Comment: Benefit Leveridge. Afterpiece: [By Richard Leveridge.] A Comic Masque, compos'd in the high Style of Italy. N.B. The Books of the Masque are just printed for W. Mears...and sold by him, and at Mr Leveridge's in Tavistock-street. Receipts: #37 10s. 6d. and tickets #75 4s

Event Comment: A New English Opera. [Text by Thomas Lediard.] Set to Musick after the Italian Manner by Mr John Frederick Lampe. The Scenes and Cloaths are entirely New. With the Representation of a Transparent Theatre. Curiously Illuminated, and adorn'd with a great Number of Emblems, Mottos, Devices, and Inscriptions; and embellish'd with Machines, in a Manner entirely new. N.B. The Illuminations and other Preparations for this Opera are such, that no Person whatever can be admitted to the Stage. Pit and Boxes put together at 6s. Gallery 3s. 6 p.m. [For a discussion of Lediard and this work, see a series of articles by Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, Sybil Rosenfeld, and Richard Southern in Theatre Notebook, II (1948), 42-54.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years. [See 31 Dec. 1744.] The Tragedy of the Siege of Damascus is now in rehearsal at Covent Garden, in which Mr Barry will perform the part of Phocyas , being his first appearance in that character. And a Gentleman who never performed on any stage, will soon appear in the Character of Richard III

Event Comment: On Saturday 6 January will be performed for the benefit of Joseph Lowe, citizen of London under Misfortunes, the tragedy of King Richard III. The part of Richmond by Mr Joseph Lowe

Event Comment: For the Benefit and Increase of a Fund established for the support of Decayed Musicians, or their Families. Boxes and Pit put together at Half a Guinea. Gallery 5s. To begin at 6:30 p.m. Tickets delivered to Subscribers to this Charity will admit one Person to any part of the House. Subscribers tickets may be had of Richard Dawson, near Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, who is empower'd by the Society to deliver them and receive Subscriptions. Tickets for the Performance are delivered by Mr Rash at the Prince of Orange Coffee-House, in the Haymarket. The tickets delivered for the 17th will be taken. (General Advertiser, 28 April, advance notice)

Event Comment: Receipts: #184 7s. Paid Kemp #6 8s.; Meares 15s.; Richards (painter) a bill #5s; Mr Bedcot (wax chandler) #5; Hewetson (laceman) #65 7s

Event Comment: Benefit for Sparks. Tickets to be had of Mrs Sparks, at her house in Crown Court. Tickets deliver'd out for the Distress'd Mother will be taken. N.B. Mr Sparks having been very long indisposed and rendered incapable of attending the theatre, with the greatest deference persuades himself that Circumstance will readily plead his Apology, and induce his friends to dispense with his personal appearance, and favor him with their commands; and that they will excuse the changing of his play, to which he is oblig'd by the illness of a principal performer; of which and his former obligations, he shall always retain the most gratful sense. [Sparks had been ill since 14 Jan. when Hull took over his part of Buckingham in King Richard III.

Event Comment: Benefit for Woodward. With two New Scenes in the Afterpiece painted by Richards and Dahl. Mr Woodward, at the particular request of several persons of Quality has changed from the Fair Quaker to The Busy Body. Tickets deliver'd for Fair Quaker will be admitted. House charges with candles and extras #65 15s. Balance to Woodward #102 7s. plus #58 5s. for 233 Box tickets (Account Book). [Public Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1767: "Speedily will be published the Battle of the Wigs, an additional canto to Dr Garth's poem The Dispensary. Occasioned by the Disputes between the Fellows and licentiates of the College of Physicians in London. By B. T. and M. B."] Receipts: #168 2s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The Afterpiece a New Pantomime [by Henry Woodward, satirizing Garrick's Jubilee] with New Music by Fisher. New Scenes painted by Messrs Dahl and Richards. Nothing under Full Prices will be taken. [Full Prices notice throughout the run of the pantomime this season. Town and Country Magazine (from Theatre No XIII) comments: "In the Pageant scene several of the characters that walk at Drury Lane are highly ridiculed, particularly Mark Antony and Cleopatra, who dance off with their black retinue to the playing of casquets." The scene closes with the descent of the statue of the late Mr Rich under the name of Lun, and the Harlequins all pay him honour.] Receipts: #250 6s

Event Comment: [Extra night] By Permission [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for Mrs Jewell. The Out-standing Tickets of Mr Jewell [from his benefit on 3 Sept.], and those issued for King Richard III will be admitted

Event Comment: Benefit for Wilson. 1st piece [1st time; PREL I, probably by Richard Wilson, altered from Illumination, by Frederick Pilin. Author of Epilogue unknown]. 2nd piece: Not acted these 28 years [acted 9 May 1763]. 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Henry Man. Text 1st published in his Miscellaneous Works, 1802, Vol. II, which does not assign the parts, and also lists Mr Carlton, Ralph, Butler. Prologue by the author (London Chronicle, 3 May)]. Public Advertiser, 15 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Wilson, at Stars Acres, upper end of Bow Street. Receipts: #277 19s. 6d. (13.4.6; tickets: 140.15.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; past 2, by Richard Tickell]: Altered from [the same, by] Allan Ramsay. [MS not in Larpent; not published.] With the original Airs, new Accompaniments, and a new Overture [by Thomas Linley, Sen.]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "The above Opera, written by Allen Ramsay, has been long and justly admired, but by those only whose knowledge of the Scottish dialect has enabled them to judge of its excellencies. That an English audience might become partakers of this entertainment seems to have been the laudable design of the Dramatist, Mr Tickel, in now divesting it of its numerous provincialities, grown almost obsolete, even in Scotland, at this distant period . . . The characters were drest with a rustic simplicity, which, tho' not exactly characteristic of the Highland manner, were perfectly Pastoral" (Universal Magazine, Nov. 1781, p. 237). Receipts: #202 9s. 6d. (167/18/0; 33/3/0; 1/8/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Jordan. Part of the Pit [9 rows (World, 23 Mar.)] to be laid into the Boxes. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, probably by Isaac Bickerstaffe, but also ascribed to Mrs Jordan and to Richard Ford. Text 1st published (unauthorized), Dublin, 1799]. Kemble Mem.: The Farce is written by Mr Bickerstaffe. World, 29 Apr. 1790: The Spoil'd Child was sent to Mrs Jordan from Bickerstaffe in Italy, where her fame had reached. Public Advertiser, 13 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Jordan at her house, No. 14, Somerset-street, Portman-square. Receipts: #352 18s. 6d. (137.13.0; 12.4.6; 1.7.0; tickets: 201.14.0) (charge: #111 6s. 11d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 5, by Thomas Morton. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald. Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: The Scenes, principally new, designed and painted by Richards, Hodgins, Pugh, Walmsley, and assistants. With entire new Dresses and Decorations. "The management of the earthquake in which the Temple of the Sun is destroyed was a very fine piece of stage mechanism; the effect of which was considerably heightened by the improved performance of the Bold Thunder, and that also of his Electrical Harbinger. The gradations and cadences of the first were superior to anything of the kind we remember within the walls of the theatre...The scene of the rising sun was uncommonly dingy" (Public Advertiser, 3 Dec.). "Mr Morton in full for Columbus #214 10s. 6d." [MS annotation on BM playbill, 26 Dec. 1792 (cg, Vol. VIII)]. Morning Herald, 14 Dec. 1792: This day at noon will be published Columbus (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #301 8s