Event Comment: Salary list #300 5s. [increased to #50 11d. per day. Pay raised 5d., and Mrs Lowe added at 15s.]; Paid for 1000 cards for tickets #1 10s.; Paid for 28 extra supers for Macbeth, Richard and Dancers #1 8s.; Paid Mrs Hobson a bill 19s. 9d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #200 (Cross); #169 9s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit Leonardo Pescatore...a Serenata. Music entirely new and composed by himself, 7 p.m., 5s. Tickets at the Mews Coffee House, Charing Cross; at Pescatore's, No 2, Meard's Court, Dean St., Soho. [And a long letter by Pescatore offering to give lessons on the harsichord and wounded by public suspicion of his loyalty.

Event Comment: CCross: Benefit for ye Author. Mr Garrick order'd ye foundling to be given out for Sat: & as you like it for Mon: But ye Pit rose, & insisted ye Foundling shou'd be given out again for Monday, wch was done, tho; ye Lords who oppos'd it were in ye House. [Horace Walpole's account of the affair Foundling to Sir Horace Mann, in a letter of 11 March 1748 (ed. Cunningham, II, 106) runs as follows: "There has been a new comedy call'd The Foundling; far from good, but it took. Lord Hobart and some young men made a party to damn it, merely for the love of damnation. The Templars espoused the play, and went aamed with syringes charg'd with stinking oil, and with sticking plaisters for Bubby's fair hair; but it did not come to action. Garrick was impertinent, and the pretty men gave over their plot the moment they grew to be in the right."] Receipts: #170 (Cross); house charges #63 (Powel); cash #168 10s. 6d.; tickets #18 5s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: At the Particular Desire of Several Persons of Quality. N.B.: [This bill] was put up, but Mr Garrick was seiz'd with an ague, & there was no play, nor the Doors open'd (Cross). The Managers of Drury Lane Playhouse paid the sum of #208 1s. [Being the whole money taken at the play of King Lear, for the benefit of the Sufferers by the late Fire] into the hands of Mt Knight and Mt Jackson; and not as mentioned by Mistake in yesterday's paper; and the whole company gave their night's pay for the said benefit. The last new Reviv'd Play, call'd The Lover's Melancholy, will be acted by particular desire next Thursday, at Drury Lane, to which will be added, Miss in her Teens, being the last time of performing it this season (General Advertiser)

Event Comment: Last night the Play of the Tempest, as alter'd from Shakespear by Dryden, was performed at Drury Lane, when the Music, Dances, and whole performance met with uncommon applause. By particular desire again tonight (General Advertiser). Paid Blandford (Tallow Chandler) #18 17s. 3d.; Gave Xmas Box to King's Footmen #2 2s.; to his Chairmen #2 2s.; and to Smith's man 2s. 6d.; Norton 5 chorus #1 5s. (Treasurer's Book). The Play of Hamlet is oblig'd to be deferr'd till tomorrow. Receipts: #100 (Cross); #99 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Lent (Cross). We hear the managers of Drury Lane intend to give a Benefit to a granddaughter of Milton; the Masque of Comus will be perform'd that night, with an Occasional Prologue by Mr Garrick (General Advertiser)

Event Comment: For a Public Benefaction. [Perhaps for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, to which Young gave #1,000 on 14 March, according to the Public Advertiser.] Tickets for the Benefaction to be had of Mr Dodsley, in Pall Mall; Mr Miller in the Strand and at the Stage Door. Receipts: #160 (Cross)

Event Comment: An Italian Comic Opera by some performers just arriv'd from Paris. Went off pretty well, -a Girl greatly admir'd (Cross). [The girl seems to have been Sga Spiletta.] She plays off with inexhaustible spirits all muscular evolutions of the face and brows; while in her eye wantons a studied archness, and pleasing malignity. Her voice has strength and scope sufficient; has neither too much of the feminine, nor an inclining to the male. Her gestures are ever varying; her transitions quick and easy. Some over-nice critics, forgetting, or not knowing the meaning of the word Burletta, cry that her manner is outre. Wou'd she not be faulty were it otherwise? The thing chargeable to her is (perhaps) too great a luxurience of comic tricks; which (an austere censor would say) border on unlaced lasciviousness, and extravagant petulance of action (Paul Hiffernan, The Tuner, No 1). [Spiletta was the name of the character to whom Sga Nicolina Giordani gave such life that the name stuck to her. See Saxe Wyndham, Annals of Covent Garden Theatre.] [A Comic Opera by G. Giordani, Music by G. Cocchi-Nicoll, English Drama, III, p. 349.] Nothing less than the full price will be taken during the Performance. Printed books of the opera sold at the theatre. Tomorrow, Venice Preserved. [Murphy commented in Gray's Inn Journal (22 Dec.): "A great deal of whatever humour this production may contain, is certainly lost to an English audience; and the manner of acting, being a burlesque upon what people here are not very well acquainted with, is not universally felt. But notwithstanding these disadvantages, there is one among them, Sga Nicolina Giordani, who displayed such lively traces of Humour in her countenance, and such pleasing variety of action, and such variety of graceful deportment, that she is generally acknowledged to be, in that Cast of playing, an excellent comic actress."

Event Comment: uthor of the Theatrical Review, 1757-58, pp. 47-48 comments on the afterpiece: "Nothing but my promise to give some observations on all new dramatic productions could have prevailed on me to wade through this farce...I hear the author himself is come over to the public opinion and acknowledges it to be a very indifferent performance."] Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: PPublic Advertiser: Mr Vanneschi begs leave to inform the Nobility and Gentry, that a Licence being granted to him from the Lord Chamberlain's office, with his Majesty's most gracious Approbation, for exhibiting Italian operas at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, Subscriptions for the ensuing Season will be taken in by Mess. Drummond and Co., Bankers at Charing Cross. He humbly desires his Protectors and Subscribers, to oblige him with an early Payment of their Subscription Money, in order that he may be able to give the necessary Securities to Sga Colomba Mattei, and to Sg Pasquale Potenza, as also to the Rest of his Singers and Dancers. It being given out that Mr Vanneschi hath not engaged the Use of the Opera House for the ensuing Season of Operas, it is hereby certified, that the Proprietor thereof hath agreed with Mr Vanneschi for the same. Sign'd by order of the Proprietor. Peter Crawford, Treasurer of said Theatre

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. King & Queen (Cross Diary). The play and Farce went off extremely well--The King and Queen seemed vastly pleased--after the play the King sent the Lord Huntington to return Mr Powell thanks in his name for the entertainment he gave them, and his good wishes for his success (Hopkins Diary--MacMillan). Receipts: #240 15s. 6d. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: This Night the passages that seem'd to give offence were omitted. A little hissing but not so much as the first Night (Hopkins). [Identical in Hopkins Diary-MacMillan.] went off pretty well, tho' 'twas expected the audience would not suffer it to be Acted. The Company ready to play the Stratagem (Cross Diary). The Characters New Dress'd. Play Publish'd at 1s. 6d. Receipts: #160 5s. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer and Shuter. Last time of acting mainpiece this season. Tickets of Hobson at the stage Door. At Sadler's Wells near Islington will this day be opened a Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music, divided into two parts; the vocal parts to be perform'd by Hemskirk, Bell, Mrs Yates, and Mrs Hooper. Between the two parts of the concert will be introduced several curious Performances, among which will be a fine representation of the Italian Shadows, which have not been performed in England these 30 years. The whole to conclude with a Grand piece of Fireworks, decorated with machinery and paintings entirely new, Each person to be admitted for a pint of Wine. To begin at 5 o'clock (General Advertiser). Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: By His Royal Highness's Command. According to the Original Weekly Journal 26 April the Prince was present, but Edward Harley Jr writing to Abigail Harley on 6 May stated: The P..., not long ago, bespoke at the Old Playhouse, a play called the Indian Emperor. The K...hearing of it, sent to the players to tell them that if the P...came, and they acted that play, he would turn them out of his service, which message they sent to the P..., who had the good sense not to come, so the Indian Emperor was acted.-Portland MS, V, 560

Event Comment: Benefit Dance and Nicholson. Tom's Coffee House, Cornhill, Wednesday four o'Clock. Mr Bayes: By the unanimous Desire of a number of your Friends here assenbled, who intend to sit in judgment upon you on Friday, I take upon me to advise you in some Particulars, as to your present Undertaking. Let not any Success you might meet with at one End of the Town where the Audience must be composed of a different Class of People from what you may expect at Covent Garden, tempt you to think of mimicking an Actress whom the Town doats upon; and particularly avoid Puffing; a Scheme long ago worn threadbare, but lately quite demolish'd by an enterprizing Genius. Not even an Epilogue from the Gods would be of any Service now; and therefore if you have anything that's new, any fiery Flights of Fancy, and all that, let them lie dormant till the Time of Action, and then endeavour to elevate and surprize. Value these Hints.--Daily Advertiser

Event Comment: Letter in the Public Advertiser from one ag who signed herself a 'Constant Reader': "Sir: As your correspondents sometimes favour us with Theatrical Observations, permit me, though a woman, to throw in my mite, not that I aspire to the character of a Critic...the reason I take up my pen is merely for the sake of information. A few evenings ago I was at the New Comedy of the Clandestine Marriage, where, I assure you I was greatly entertained; but at the conclusion of the last act, must own was not a little surprised to find Miss Sterling so much neglected, as I was at that instant wondering what kind of Apology Sir John would make her, when behold he stands close by her without saying a word; which in my opinion concludes the play too abruptly. The author indeed has not placed her in the most excellent light; yet as a Lady, and of Character, shall I say of Fortune too, some Apology on the Gentleman's side seems naturally to arise from the incidents of the piece. But perhaps I am mistaken, which I am the more willing to imagine from the known abilities of the ingenious authors. If any of your critical correspondents should think it worth their while to set me right in that Particular, it will be esteemed a favour." (Frances Street, March 5.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. At 5 went into the Pit to see Love do Kite--like him better than Bransby in that character. End Act II a Pantomime dance by children called the Lilliputian Camp: Adjutant by Miss Rogers. J. Palmer did Bounce in Harlequin's Invasion, but not as well as Bransby. When King runs off in the Dancer's scene, Rooker comes on, jumps, King not being able, having had his thigh-bone broken 2 years ago (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Afterpiece: A new Farce never performed. Altered from Sir Charles Sedley's Piece of the same title by Dr Goldsmith. Acted only this night (playbill). [The notation on the alteration is by Kemble on the playbill. The characters are: Sourby, Octavio, Wentworth, Dancing Master, Scamper, Clarissa and Jenny. See Edition by Alice I. Perry Wood (Cambridge, Mass., 1931).] Charges #66 5s. Profit to Quick #7 6d., plus #80 from tickets (Box 100; Pit 263; Gallery 156) (Account Book). [Brief review of the Grumbler in the Westminster Magazine for May 1773: "It was several years ago translated from the French, and received this night some additional touches from the pen of Dr Goldsmith. An entertainment of one act cannot be expected to contain much. The whole merit of this is centered in one character, and perhaps in one scene."] Receipts: #73 5s. 6d