Event Comment: Benefit for Edwin. Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Edwin, No. 2, Piazza., Covent Garden. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. Miss Younge having refused performing the Part of Viola, Mrs Robinson has kindly undertaken that Character at a short Notice; and Mr Edwin humbly hopes she will be honoured by the Indulgence of the Public. Receipts: #304 0s. 6d. (211/3/6; tickets: 92/17/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Darley, Jones, Painter, Besford, Mrs Davenett, Mrs Sharpe, the Widow of the late Dr Arne, and Mrs Dalrymple will be admitted. Tickets delivered for The Maid of the Mill will be taken. [Afterpiece in place of THE Devil upon Two Sticks, announced on playbill of 27 May.] Receipts: #286 14s. 6d.(93/6/6; 3/1/0; tickets: 190/7/0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. [Bonnor and Miss Scrase were from the Bath theatre; Mrs Chalmers from the York theatre.] Receipts: #201 18s. (200/5; 1/13)

Event Comment: "With respect to Mrs Siddons, in [Act v of Douglas], there was no question about her superiority [to Mrs Crawford]; and her passions were displayed in the tones of harmony; her great rival seemed to me the first of a school, in latter periods much admired, which deemed discordance the natural ally of anguish, and tortured the ear to overpower the heart" (Boaden, Siddons, 11,76). Receipts: #289 9s. (284/0/6; 5/8/6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Kemble's 1st appearance as King John was at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 18 Apr. 1782; Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Constance was at Bath on, by coincidence, the same day.] Receipts: #300 9s. (289/8/0; 10/3/6; 0/5/0; tickets not come in: 0/12/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [on playbill of 23 Apr.]. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Sigismunda was at Manchester, 10 Jan. 1778.] Public Advertiser, 20 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 7, Leicester-fields. Receipts: #324 1s. (146/2/0; 8/1/6; 0/2/6; tickets: 169/15/0)(charge: #106 10s. 1d.)

Event Comment: "Being possessed of an excellent understanding, and under the general impression of elegant manners, there appears to be no study [in Mrs Abington], no imitation--all is the result of the moment--natural, well-bred, and easy" (Public Advertiser, 25 Nov. 1784). Mainpiece: Altered from Cibber's Non-Jour, and the Tartuffe of Moliere. Not acted these 12 years [acted 12 Oct. 1773]

Event Comment: "Nothing could be more affecting than [Mrs Crawford's] expression of the sorrows in the character; nor anything more languid and undecorous than her level recitation . . . Discharge the fire, and she sinks into a tasteless disregard of the business, which injures, if it does not destroy the illusion. It is in this that Mrs Siddons triumphs over her... But she cannot, so powerfully as Mrs Crawford, assail at intervals the heart" (Gazetteer, 30 Nov.)

Event Comment: Windham Diary (30 Jan. 1784), 41: On the Wednesday 1 went to see Mrs Crawford in 'Belvidera', and found her much as I expected, though her disparity was very great. I can perhaps better conceive the delusion that, aided by a little prejudice [in favor of Mrs Siddons] and the recollection of Mrs C. in better times, could hesitate about the preference. The chief faults that I should find would be, that her articulation was cramped and timid, her tones sometimes colloquial and vulgar, her action confined, and her countenance inexpressive. A new man of the name of Pope performed; I pronounced him in my own judgment as inferior, upon the whole, to Brereton. [Henderson's 1st appearance as Pierre was at Bath, 14 Oct. 1773.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Wellman. Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Wellman, No. 20, and of Williams, Hair-Dresser, Dorville's Row

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 12 years [acted 16 Dec. 1774]. [Mrs Jordan was from the York theatre.] Receipts: #195 14s. (155/1; 39/13; 1/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Kemble. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. "Mrs Siddons spoke the speech on mercy as it certainly should be spoken--but as in truth we never heard it spoken--as a reply to 'On what compulsion must I?' From every other Portia it has always appeared as a recitation, prepared for the occasion" (Morning Chronicle, 8 Apr.). Morning Chronicle, 20 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Kemble, No. 19, Charles-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #284 2s. 6d. (160/19/0; 20/17/6; 1/1/0; tickets: 101/5/0) (charge: #107 0s. 5d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Crouch. Morning Chronicle, 6 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Crouch, No. 3, Adam-street, Adelphi. Afterpiece: Not acted these 9 years [acted 24 Jan. 1778]. Receipts: #314 9s. 6d. (117/11/0; 10/18/6; 1/7/0; tickets: 184/13/0) (charge: #108 0s. 10d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Forster. Tickets to be had of Mrs Forster, No. 8, Broad-court, Long Acre. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [same for rest of season]. Receipts: #215 2s. 6d. (92/4/0; 36/8/0; 0/7/6; tickets: 86/3/0) (charge: #105 I7».)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Mainpiece: A New Alteration [by Thomas Hull], from Shakespeare and Shadwell. With characteristic Habits, Scenes and Decorations. [Mrs Duill is identified in Lyons, Collectanea.] Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, Duke's Court, near Dean's-yard, Westminster. Receipts: #80 10s. (77/5; 3/5; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: "The Greybeards have certainly been chastised, for we did not find them at all gross. The piece is farcical and improbable, but has some good things, and is admirably acted. Coeur de Lion did not answer; nor was I much charmed with the music; but my ear is too bad to judge at first hearing. The scenes are excellent; Mrs Jordan is quite out of her character, and makes nothing of the part; and the turning the ferocious Richard into a tender husband is intolerable...It only makes a confusion in one's ideas, to maim a known story" (Walpole [15 Dec. 1786], XIII, 429)

Event Comment: Account-Book, 14 Feb.: Paid Mrs Abington for 4 Nights Performance #120. Afterpiece: Taken from Solyman the Magnificent of Marmontel. Receipts: #127 13s. (119.8.6; 8.4.6)