Event Comment: Mainpiece. Not acted these 2 years. [See 13 May 1772.] Paid Strutt for suit of Blossom'd colored cloaths #4. Paid Younger for license for the Occasional Prologue and The Duellist #3 3s. Receipts: #114 8s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The Miser oblig'd to be deferr'd on account of Indisposition of Mrs Green. Paid Stedman and Bewlay (linnen drapers) #79 16s. Paid Cooper (printer) #49 18s. Receipts: #108 8s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Sixth Night. For the Author. Afterpiece: By Desire. Charges: #67 15s. Profit to Hull #139 6s. 6d. Paid Whitefield one quarter year's salary due Xmas last #25, and Sarjant, ditto #10. Paid Bibb (sword cutler's) bill #14 13s. Receipts: #207 1s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The New Comedy, The Man of Business is still deferr'd on account of Woodward's Illness. Paid Pattinson (tallow chandler) #49 13s. Paid Cooper (printer) #42 8s. (Account Book). Receipts: #202 2s

Event Comment: The Fifteenth Night. For the Author. Charges #64 5s. Profit to Hull #51 9s., plus #68 15s. from tickets (Box 151; Pit 134; Gallery 109). Paid Holme & Cooper (timber merchants) #69 8s.; Paid Evans (sawyer) #3 1s. Receipts: #115 14s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: New Scene [1st time; by Edward Thompson, with music by Dr Arne. Larpent MS 438; synopsis ("Macheath, after trial, is sentenced to work on the Thames" in London Chronicle, 18 Oct.]. Paid Hull on Acct. of salary as Acting Manager #30. Account-Book, 23 Mar. 1778: Paid Capt. Thompson for writing the new Scene in The Beggar's Opera #25. Receipts: #240 9s. (240.2.6; 0.6.6)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece: Prologue by George Colman elder.] Paid DeLoutherbourg #41 13s. 4d. [this paid monthly throughout season]. Receipts: #104 3s. 6d. (75.9.0; 27.16.0; 0.18.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [not acted since 20 Sept. 1774]. Paid DeLoutherbourg 1 Modth #41 13s. 4d. [this salary paid monthly]. Receipts: #146 16s. (114.0.0; 30.17.6; 1.18.6)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of Tom Thumb, announced on playbill of 3 Oct.] "Covent Garden Theatre. As personal allusions and party views have been attributed to the dramatic satire, called The Wishes, the author thinks he cannot so effectively disclaim them as by entirely withdrawing the piece" (Unidentified clipping, dated 5 Oct. 1782, The Tale Edition of Horace Walpoles Correspondence, cd. W. S. Lewis, 1955, xxix, 219). Paid Guard for Scene Men from 8 June to 21 Sept., on 9 occasions, approximately #900. Paid Music #7 14s.; properties 9s. [both being an average payment throughout the season per night]. Receipts: #221 8s. 6d. (218/11/0; 2/17/6)

Event Comment: The last Time of the Company's performing this Season. [Mainpiece acted for the 22nd time this season. The playbill states, "for the 23rd Time"; on the Kemble playbill this has been corrected in MS to 22nd. Genest, VI, 262, says that this play was also acted on both 3 and 4 June. But on those nights the theatre was dark.] Receipts: #270 11s. (260/7; 10/4; after-money not listed). Account-Book, 5 June: Paid Mrs Siddons a Present from the Proprietors #100; 6 June: Paid 100 Renters #20 4s. apiece; 23 June: Received of Their Majesties #156

Event Comment: The last Time of the Company's performing this Season. Receipts: #185 17s. (181/14; 4/3). Account-Book, 9 June: Received Stage Forfeits this Season #61 2s.; received of His Majesty for the Box this Season #60; paid Barlow [treasurer] in full for salary this Season #200; 20 June: Paid one yrs Land Tax #105 os. 4J

Event Comment: The Maid of the Mill [advertised in Public Advertiser, 19 Sept.] is obliged to be deferred on account of the Indisposition of Mrs Crouch. Paid Booth tailor, #4 6s. 6d.; Scenemen #5 4s.; Carpenters #3 16s.; Renters' Income #30 [this last paid daily]. Receipts: #111 8s. 6d. (71.11.0; 39.4.0; 0.13.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: In Three Acts. Paid Macleish, Printer [of playbills] #9 6s. [this sum paid weekly]. Receipts: #233 17s. 6d. (226.15.0; 7.2.6)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Divorce, advertised on playbill of 15 Sept.] Paid Renters' Interest #34 [this paid daily]; Supernumeraries #3 4s. 6d.; Tailor #8 16s. 6d.; Scenemen #5 4s.; Daglish copying music #6 16s. 9d. Receipts: #113 1s. (69.16.0; 41.13.6; 1.11.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 1, by James Byrne. MS of Songs only: Larpent MS 919; synopsis of action in Universal Magazine, Oct. 1791, p. 308]: Taken from Ossian. With new Music, Airs, Chorusses, new Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Ballet composed by Byrne. The new Music composed, and the Ancient Scots Music selected and adapted by Shield. The Overture by Reeve. The Scenery by Richards, Hodgins, Pugh, &c. &c. The Dresses by Dick. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. [For Harp and Pipes see 24 Oct.] Account-Book, 22 Nov.: Paid Byrne for Oscar & Malvina #50; 8 Dec.: Paid Mad. St.Amand expenses from Paris to London #14 6s. 8d. Receipts: #182 16s. 6d. (177.13.6; 5.3.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, adapted from Die Spanier in Peru, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (consisting of the 1st 30 lines and the concluding couplet of his Prologue to The Miniature Picture); Epilogue by the Hon. William Lamb (see text). For publication see 1 July]: The Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick, Airs and Chorusses incidental to the Piece composed and selected [from Gluck, Sacchini, &c. (Morning Chronicle, 25 May)] by Kelly. The Symphony preceding the Play, and those between the Acts, composed for the occasion by Dussek. The Scenery designed and executed by Marinari, Greenwood? Jun, Demaria, Banks, Blackmore, &c. [See Theatre Notebook, XX, 30-32, for suggestion that one scene was designed by DeLoutherbourg.] The Machinery, Decorations, and Dresses under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood, and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Account-Book, 14 May: Paid Miss Anne? Plumtree [i.e. Plumptree] for Spaniards in Peru #25. [It was this translation of Kotzebue's play that Sheridan adapted for the stage as Pizarro. For an account of the relationship between the translation and its adaptation see Marcella Gosch, "'Translators' of Kotzebue in England," Monatshefte fur deutschen Unterricht, XXXI, 178-83.] Paid Johnston [on this and other days] for sundries for Pizarro #135 14s. "It requires certainly more than English patience and spirits to sustain any Play of five hours in length. It is not one of the worst features of Pizarro that it contains a great deal which may be spared, without injury to the piece [see 25, 27 May]" (Morning Chronicle, 25 May). Receipts: #540 3s. 6d. (406.0.6; 17.5.0; 0.4.0; tickets sold by Fosbrook's Office: 116.14.0)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This date marks the opening of the new theatre in Dorset Garden. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31): The new Theatre in Dorset-Garden being Finish'd, and our Company after Sir William's Death, being under the Rule and Dominion of his Widow the Lady Davenant, Mr Betterton and Mr Harris, (Mr Charles Davenant her Son Acting for her) they remov'd from Lincolns-Inn-Fields thither. And on the Ninth Day of November 1671, they open'd their new Theatre with Sir Martin Marral, which continu'd Acting 3 Days together, with a full Audience each Day; notwithstanding it had been Acted 30 Days before in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, and above 4 times at court. [This play is also on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 18: Sir Martin.

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but as the play was entered in the Stationers' Register, 26 June 1673, it was probably acted in May 1673 or earlier. For a discussion of its possible dates, see Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 403. A song, The day is come, I see it rise, set by Robert Smith, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673. Dedication to the edition of 1673:...though it succeeded on the Stage

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 116. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 345. There is no certainty that this is the premiere, but the frequency of performance of The Tempest during September-October-November would make November 1674 a suitable time for a burlesque of this sort. A small quarto, The Songs & Masque in the New Tempest (in the Huntington Library, 122925), without a title page, contains what are apparently the songs and concluding masque of the play. It may have been issued during the run of the play and sold at the theatre. It does not name any performers. Langbaine (English Dramatick Poets, p. 177): This Play was to draw the Town from the Duke's Theatre, who for a considerable time had frequented that admirable reviv'd Comedy call'd The Tempest

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance, the premiere, is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216: first Acting. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance; see VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p406. The title page states: The English Opera; or The Vocal Musick in Psyche, with the Instrumental Therein Intermix'd...By Matthew Lock. Preface: All the Instrumental Musick (which is not mingled with the Vocal) was Composed by that Great Master, Seignior Gio. Baptista Draghi, Master of the Italian Musick to the King. The Dances were made by the most famous Master of France, Monsieur St.Andree. The Scenes were Painted by the Ingenious Artist, Mr Stephenson. In those things that concern the Ornament or Decoration of the Play, the great industry and care of Mr Betterton ought to be remember'd, at whose desire I wrote upon this Subject. Roger North Upon Music: I am sure the musick in the Psyche was composed by Mr M. Lock, of whom wee may say, as the Greeks sayd of Cleomenes, that he was ultimus Heroum. This masque is also in print, and begins 'Great Psyche,' &c. and the book containing the whole musick of that entertainment is not unworthy of a place in a vertuoso's cabanet (ed. John Wilson [1959], pp. 306-7). Preface to Settle's Ibrahim (licensed 4 May 1676): I have often heard the Players cursing at their oversight in laying out so much on so disliked a play [Psyche]; and swearing that they thought they had lost more by making choice of such an Opera: writer than they had gained by all his Comedies; considering how much more they might have expected, had such an Entertainment had that scence in it, that it deserved: and that for the future they expect the Tempest, which cost not one Third of Psyche, will be in request when the other is forgotten. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 35-36): In February 1672. The long expected Opera of Psyche, came forth in all her Ornaments; new Scenes, new Machines, new Cloaths, new French Dances: This Opera was Splendidly set out, especially in Scenes; the Charge of which amounted to above 800l. It had a Continuance of Performance about 8 Days together it prov'd very Beneficial to the Company; yet the Tempest got them more Money

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 81. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. There is no certainty as to whether this is the date of the first performance. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 35): Then the Conquest of China by the Tartars, by Mr Settle; in this Play Mr Jevon Acting a Chinese Prince and Commander in it, and being in the Battle, Vanquisht by the Tartars; he was by his Part to fall upon the point of his Sword and Kill himself, rather than be a Prisoner by the Tartars: Mr Jevon instead of falling on the point of his Sword, laid it in the Scabbard at length upon the Ground and fell upon't, saying, now I am Dead; which put the Author into such a Fret, it made him speak Treble instead of Double Jevons answer was; did not you bid me fall upon my Sword

Event Comment: The King's Company. There is no indication of the date of the first performance, but a licensing date of 6 April 1677 and the large number of minor actors in the cast suggest a Lenten performance. Preface to edition of 1677: I think (without Ostentation) never was House more throng'd;...The first, second, and other times it was Acted, I think lost me no Credit, but...Fortune...Jaded me, robbing me of the Honour of my Plays continuance for that time; by a Mischance which hapned to one, whose Part was too considerable to be quickly studied

Event Comment: L. C. 5@142, p. 38 (see also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 355): Order to Mr Staggins, Master of his Majesty's Musick, and in his absence to Mr Lock, who officiates for him:--That all His Majesty's musitians doe attend to practise in the theatre at Whitehall at such tymes as Madam Le Roch and Mr Paisible shall appoint for ye practiceing of such musick as is to be in ye French comedy to be acted before His Matie [the 29 May]

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first production is not known. As the licensing date for this play was 30 April 1678, it probably was acted before Easter, but it may have had its first production immediately after Easter, Sunday 31 March 1678

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first production is uncertain. The date of licensing was 3 Jan. 1678@9, but Wilson (Six Restoration Play-Dates, p. 222) has argued that it may well have been the first new play of the season. The Prologue refers to it as "The first Play bury'd since the Wollen Act," the Act going into effect on 1 Aug. 1678. For Sandford as Creon, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 131. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37): Oedipus King of Thebes, Wrote by Mr Nat. Lee and Mr Dryden: The last Writing the first two Acts, and the first the 3 last. This play was Admirably well Acted; especially the Parts of Oedipus and Jocasta: One by Mr Betterton, the other by Mrs Betterton; it took prodigiously being Acted 10 Days together