Event Comment: Benefit Muilment. Mr Garrick's Indisposition not suffering him to play, I have prevail'd upon Mr Mills to endeavour to play his part, as well as the shortness of the time will permit, which I hope will be more agreeable to my Friends than changing the Play. Being the last time of performing till the Holidays. [Craftsman No. 580 this day, quoted in the Gentlemen's Magazine, included a brief plea for the present ministry to get the Play-house Act repealed.

Event Comment: Gift for ye Sufferers by ye fire in Cornhill (Cross). [A column and a half "Letter to the Author" appeared in the General Advertiser this day, laying historical background for Ford's Lover's Melancholy]. The history of the stage before the Restoration is like a Foreign Land, in which no Englishman had ever travelled; we know there were such things as Playhouses, and one Shakespear a great writer, but the historical traces of them are so imperfect, that the manner in which they existed is less known to us, than that of Eschylus or the theatres of Greece. For this reason, 'tis hoped that the following Gleaning of Theatrical History will readily obtain a place in your paper. 'Tis taken from a Pamphlet written in the reign of Charles I, with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's Melancholly Lover"; and as it contains some historical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Johnson, Ford, Shakespear, and the Lover's Melancholy it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the Public. [The substance of the remainder retails Jonson's critical cantankerousness and his wounded pride at the failure of the New Inn, quoting some epigrams made at Jonson's expense on his allegation that Ford was a plagiary. This second "puff" for the play, presumably also written by Macklin, formed the basis for a Steevens-Malone controversy late in the century, centering on the existence or nonexistence of the pamphlet referred to by Macklin as "Old Ben's Light Heart made Heavy, &c." A summary account of the evidence appears in the Dramatic Works of John Ford, by Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1811) I, Intro. XVI, XXXI.] Receipts: #210 (Cross); #208 1s. (Powel)

Event Comment: A Dramatick Satire call'd Lethe is now in Rehearsal at Drury Lane and will be acted in a few days (by Desire). Receipts: #130 (Cross); #127 14s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: Not acted in 5 years. [See 4 Feb. 1758.] The Drummer was revived at this period at both theatres...to take advantage of the reigning weakness of the people, who went in crowds many days and nights to an Haunted House, by what was called the Cock-Lane Ghost-a delusion set on foot, and very ingeniously carried on by a girl of 12 years of age, daughter of a clerk of St Sepulchre's Church, who resided in Cock Lane near Smithfield. [The Ghost was supposed to be that of one Fanny, a gentleman's mistress buried in the church. By knockings and scratchings she supposedly haunted the girl intimating foul practices concerning her death.] It would be incredible to relate the numbers of persons of distinction that attended this delusion! many of whom treated it as a serious and most important affair...at last the girl's father and three or four others were tried in the King's Bench, found guilty' Pillioried and imprisoned. This most effectively laid the Ghost; and is the best and properest cure for every ghost that may arise hereafter. (Victor, History of the Theatres, III, 18 ff). [The theme exploited again by Garrick in The Farmer's Return from London, dl 20 March.

Event Comment: [R+Rich's Register lists The Hermit as afterpiece.] Paid salary list 5 days at #72 6s. 8d. per diem, #361 13s. 4d.; Atkins not on list #1 7s. 6d.; Rollet on note #7 7s.; Vernon on note per order Mr L, #12 12s.; Bill for 2 suit Men's cloathes #15 15s. (Treasurer's Book). [See engagement contract for Guidetti (Private Correspondence of David Garrick, II, 454) arranged for in Paris by Jean Monnet in early August 1766. He was engaged as Premier Danseur and composer of Ballets at 150 Guineas a year plus "300 Livres argent de France" for travelling expenses. He was to dance for no other theatre without explicit permission from Garrick.] Receipts: #130 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)