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."

Event Comment: Benefit for Brereton. Music of the Afterpiece (entirely new) composed by Dibdin. Mr Brereton-Jaffier, Much Applause. The Quaker is Mr Dibdins Production he has sold it to Mr Brereton. The Music is pretty & Novel it was very badly perform'd--when it is properly Cast & got up with care it will do very well (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly in wording.] [The Reviewer for the Westminster Magazine for May gave a paragraph to Dibdin's afterpiece: "The words will not add to Mr Dibdin's reputation as a writer, nor Will the music increase his fame as a composer, the latter, however, possessed more merit than the former. The Finale was in new stile and pleased. Upon the whole this piece, like the rest of Mr Dibdin's performances, proves that this would-be author, is resolv'd in spite. Of Nature and the Stars, to write."] Receipts: #105 19s. 6d. Charges: #69 18s. Profits to Brereton: #36 1s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: [Munden was from the Chester theatre. "His person is rather under the middle size, his figure good, his features more expressive than anything we have seen for many years, his voice powerful and melodious, and his articulation the clearest and most rapid we ever witnessed" (World, 3 Dec.). "Without the aid of grimace or buffoonery, he gave all the effect to the part that the author intended, and in his general stile of playing he seems to have studied nature more than any living model" (Gazetteer, 3 Dec.).] Receipts: #238 17s. 6d. (228.14.6; 10.3.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clendining. The Poetry of the additional Songs [in 1st piece] by Peter Pindar, Esq. [pseud. for John Wolcot]. Morning Herald, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Clendining, No. 19, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent-garden. "Mrs Clendining's endeavours to entertain were successful, and Fitzroy by Incledon gave a rich feast to the musical amateur. The air beginning, 'Dear Tom, this brown jug,' had a fine effect by the music being omitted" (Diary, 18 May). Receipts: #273 17s

Event Comment: [This was Mrs Abington's 1st appearance on the stage since 12 Feb. 1790, except for 14 June 1797, when she spoke an epilogue at a charity benefit.] "Her former Beatrice was a chaste, animated, unaffected and captivating performance; but her Beatrice of this night was, for the greater part, languid and unattractive. Her deportment, however, is easy and graceful; but her person is too big and heavy to give any effect to the more gay and sprightly scenes. We conceive it to be the height of folly and imprudence in her to come forward in the present advanced period of her existence; and that too, with a person so ill calculated for the department, and attempt characters which demand all the vigour and activity of youth" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1797, p. 352). [Address by George Colman, ynger (London Chronicle, 7 Oct.).] Receipts: #348 2s. (336.18; 11.14)

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the fact that the play was advertised in the London Gazette, No. 3151, 20-23 Jan. 1695@6, and entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1695@6, suggests that it was probably acted not later than December 1695. According to the Edition of 1696, the music was set by John Eccles: Come, Thyrsis, come was sung by Reading and Mrs Hodgson; the other songs in the edition lack the names of the singers. In addition, Rich mines of hot love are rooted here, sung by Bowman, was in Deliciae Musicae, The First Book of the Second Volume, 1696; and Let us revel and roar, set by John Eccles and sung by Curco and Reading, was published in Thesaurus Musicus, The Fifth Book, 1696. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 44: Lovers Luck, a Comedy, Wrote by Captain Dilks, which fill'd the House 6 Days together, and above 50# the 8th, the Day it was left off. A Comparison Between the Two Stages (1702), p. 20, lists it among the plays under the heading: Damn'd

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. Miss Sherry made her first appearance upon this Stage in Lady Macbeth, a Sensible Speaker pretty good voice Short Clumsy Figure met with Applause--The Farce very well receiv'd (Hopkins Diary). Afterpiece: A Farce by George Downing. Paid 6 day's salary at #82 19s. 9d., #497 18s. 6d.; Mrs Abington on Cloaths acct, #2; Mr S. French 6 days #1 10s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #135 1s. 6d. Charges: #68 12s. Profits to Baddeley: #66 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twelve Years [but see 2 May 1709]. Written by the late Mr Dryden. All the Habits being entirely new. With Decorations proper to the Play. Steele wrote a Prologue for this play, possibly for this run; it was not used but appeared in The Theatre, 2 Feb. 1720. See also The Works of John Dennis, Hooker, ed., II, 162-65. Cibber states that #600 was expended on the habits, scenes, and decorations

Event Comment: Benefit Cibber. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late N. Rowe, Esq; Poet Laureat. Afterpiece: Taken from the French by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the play was entered in the Stationers' Register, 18 Nov. 1670, and was probably performed not long before that date. Preface: The misfortune it had in having some of the Parts ill and imperfectly performed, as also the laying down of it, the sixth day of its being presented, when the Audience was very near as considerable, as the first day it was Acted, as also an intermission hitherto occasioned by the long absence of some principal Actresses, could not but prejudice the esteem it gain'd