Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Ward. The Country Mad-Cap [announced on playbill of 5 May] is obliged to be set aside on account of Mrs Pitt's indisposition. Tickets delivered for Alexander the Great, for Saturday, May 3, will be admitted. Public Advertiser, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Ward at Stacy's, No. 76, the Corner of Long-acre, Drury-lane. Receipts: #197 18s. (82.10; tickets: 115.8) (charge: #66 1s.)

Event Comment: By Authority [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for Silvester and Rae. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years.Afterpiece: Never performed here. Tickets delivered for The Earl of Essex will be admitted. Tickets to be had of Silvester at Mrs Hobbe's, Stanhope-street, Clare Market; at Iver's Wine Vaults, No. 384, Oxford-street; of Rae, No. 35, Great Pultney-street, Golden-square

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. Morning Chronicle, 25 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, Russel-street, Covent-garden. 2nd piece: Founded on Nancy; or, The Parting Lovers [by Henry Carey]. Books of the Interlude to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #203 1s. (179.11; tickets: 23.10) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Branson and Mrs Wilson. Receipts: #185 12s. (108.14; tickets: 76.18) (charge: #52 10s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. Receipts: #196 6s. (73.13; tickets: 119.13) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Roope. Morning Herald, 13 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Roope, No. 14, Eaton-street, Pimlico. Receipts: #122 11s. (58/4; tickets: 64/7) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: To prevent Disappointment . . . Mrs Bulkley has obligingly undertaken the part of Portia, on account of Mrs Yates's sudden Indisposition [Mrs Yates having been announced as Portia on playbill of 12 Feb.]. Receipts: #264 15s. 6d. (261/9/0; 3/6/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Webb. Receipts: #111 10s. 6d. (70/5/6; tickets: 41/5/0) (charge: #105)

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: 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: "The great powers of Mrs Jordan cannot be better displayed than in the wonderful contrast of her Country Girl and Viola. In one all archness and vivacity; in the other serious, gentle, tender and sentimental" (Public Advertiser, 16 Nov.). [In afterpiece the playbill retains Parsons as Sir Anthony Halfwit, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted and a MS annotation substitutes Wilson's. "Parsons was taken suddenly ill & J. Wilson read his part" (MS annotation on British Museum playbill, in Harris, 11).] Receipts: #108 12s. (79/11/0; 28/13/6; 0/7/6)

Event Comment: Account-Book, 28 Nov.: Paid Mrs Abington by check dated 5th Dec. #100. Receipts: #179 17s. (173/9; 6/8)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Henderson. 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. [Prologue by Arthur Murphy {Works, 1786, VII, 369).] Morning Herald, 14 Feb.: Tickets to be had at the house of the late Mr Henderson [see 8 Nov. 1785], Buckingham-street, York Buildings. "The poetical address delivered by Mrs Siddons before the play was written by Murphy, and was so very dull that we will charitably suppose his feelings obstructed the operation of his fancy" (General Advertiser, 27 Feb.). Receipts: #141 9s. 6d. (140/15/0; 0/14/6; tickets: none listed) (charge: free)

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)