Event Comment: The natural grandeur and commanding air of [Mrs Yate's] deportment contradicts the whole idea of the part...We cannot help thinking that [the two characters] would be much better play'd throughout, if they were exchanged; the haughty Alicia would sit much more characteristically on Mrs Yates, and Mrs Crawford would give a degree of plaintive softness to Jane Shore which seems to have been intended by the author (Gazetteer, 3 Nov.)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by J. Wilson, Jackson, Prosser, Eves, Rowson, S. Besford, Mrs Lampe, Miss Francis, Mrs Wise, Mrs Dalrymple, Miss Ellington, Mrs Hamilton will be admitted. Receipts: #260 (81/17; 5/9; tickets: 172/14)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Crawford. Mrs Crawford, imprest with the deepest Sense of Gratitude for the many Favours conferred on her by her Friends and the Public, is sincerely concerned that a violent Indisposition renders it impracticable for her to perform for her Benefit this Night. Mrs Crawford, fearing a second Disappointment would inconvenience those who have had the Goodness to interest themselves in her Support, has fixed on the Comedy of The Chances, instead of the Play advertised [Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, announced on playbill of 14 Apr.]. Tickets delivered for Isabella [the original play chosen for this night] will be taken. Public Advertiser, 4 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Crawford, No. 22, Bridges-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #168 2s. (99/3; tickets: 68/19) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Jones, Painter, Bates, Goodwin, Atkins, Mrs Davenett, Miss Francis, Mrs Branson, Mrs Sharpe, and the Widow of the late Dr Arne will be admitted this Evening. Receipts: #229 3s. 6d. (46/11/6; 2/7/0; tickets: 180/5/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. Pit and Boxes will be laid together. Ladies and Gentlemen are most earnestly requested to come early, to prevent Inconvenience in getting to their Places, and to send their Servants to keep them by Four o'clock. "At the close of the entertainment Mrs Abington came forward, and delivered a short poetical address to her fashionable auditory [written by Maurice Morgann (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 263)], apposite to her feelings on the present occasion" (Morning Herald, 11 Feb.). "The character [of Scrub] throughout was well conceived, and executed with a sprightliness and degree of humour that kept the house in a continual roar of laughter" (Public Advertiser, 11 Feb.) "Mrs Abington's voice was in its usual tone; her manners and deportment were inattentive and torpid, rather than active and interesting" (Morning Post, 11 Feb.). "With all her endeavours to give new points to the character, she entirely failed. Her appearance en culottes, so preposterously padded, exceeded nature. Her gestures to look comical could not get the least hold of the audience, though they had seen her before in men's clothes, when playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, where her figure, dressed as a lawyer in his gown, gave effect to her excellent delivery on mercy, and the audience had been always delighted. But this leu de benefice, comparatively speaking, was disgusting and absurd as she dressed the character ... However, I have heard it originated in a bet she had previously made" (Henry Angelo, Reminiscenes, 11, 281-82). Receipts: #406 13s. 6d. (249/9/6; 1/9/0; tickets: 155/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Mrs Pitt, Miss Bassan, Miss Green, Mrs Sharpe, R.? Smith, Ledger, Garland and the Performers in the Orchestra will be admitted