Event Comment: Benefit for
Mrs Barry. Mainpiece: A Tragedy altered from
Thomson [by
Thomas Hull] never perform'd. Part of Pit laid into the Boxes. Servants who are to keep places are desired to be at the stage door by 4 o'clock,
and those Ladies
and Gentlemen who have taken seats in the Pit are requested to come early to prevent confusion in getting to their places.
Epilogue by
Sheridan. [This play had been refused a license on 26 March 1739, While
Walpole was still Prime Minister, probably because of such speeches as: @Is there a cure on Humankind so fell@So pestilent, to Prince
and People,@As the base servile vermin of a court;@Corrupt, Corrupting ministers
and favourites?@How oft have such eat up the widow's morsel,@The Peasant's toil, the Merchant's far-sought gain,@
And wantoned to the ruin of a nation!-
Larpent MS, op. p. 65.@ Also the play equalizes
Christianity and Mohammedanism before
God,
and gives a slight edge to the latter (Act IV, scene ii), suggesting the part politics play in
Christian churches. An account of the alterations made for the present performance is given in the
Westminster Magazine for March. The review concludes: The Play was got up altogether well,
and reputedly acted,
and is in its present state what the Ladies call "a very pretty tragedy."