Event Comment: Mainpiece: With alterations [by David Garrick]. "The managers, to our astonishment, continue to play with Garrick's alterations. [The original play] is materially injured by those which Garrick adopted in compliance to the French criticks" (Morning Chronicle, 20 Sept.). [For a summary of these alterations see my Shakespeare in the Theatre, II, 188-89.] Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Ist Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Fosbrook, at the Stage-door. No Money to be taken at the Stage-Door, nor any Money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 30 Oct.]. Receipts: #174 6s. 6d. (135.1.0; 38.17.6; 0.8.0)

Event Comment: The music was composed by Matthew Lock, and the architectural elements were created by Peter Mills, Surveyor of the City. For further details, see Robert Withington, English Pageantry (1918), I, 243

Event Comment: Edition of 1662: Being a True Relation of the Honourable the City of Londons Entertaining Their Sacred Majesties Upon the River of Thames, and Welcoming them from Hampton-Court to White-Hall. Expressed and set forth in several Shews and Pageants, the 23 day of August 1662. According to the printed version, the management of the pageant was under the care of Peter Mills, Surveyor; Malin, Water Bayliff; Thomas Whiting, Joyner; Richard Cleere, Carver. The songs were set by John Gamble, one of His Majesty's Servants. Evelyn, Diary: I this day was spectator of the most magnificent Triumph that certainly ever floted on the thames, considering the innumerable number of boates & Vessels, dressed and adorned with all imaginable Pomp: but above all, the Thrones, Arches, Pageants, & other representations, stately barges of the Lord Major, & Companies, with various Inventions, musique, & Peales of Ordnance both from the vessels & shore, going to meete & Conduct the new Queene from Hampton Court to White-hall, at the first time of her Coming to Towne.... his Majestie & the Queene, came in an antique-shaped open Vessell, convered with a State or Canopy of Cloth of Gold, made in forme of a Cupola, supported with high Corinthian Pillars, wreathd with flowers, festoones & Gyrlands: Pepys, Diary: We got into White Hall garden, and so to the Bowling-green, and up to the top of the new Banqueting House there, over the thames, which was a most pleasant place as any I could have got; and all the show consisted chiefly in the number of boats and barges; and two pageants, one of a King, and another of a Queen, with her Maydes of Honour sitting at her feet very prettily; and they tell me the Queen is Sir Richard Ford's daughter. Anon come the King and Queen in a barge under a canopy with 10,000 barges and boats, I think, for we could see no water for them, nor discern the King nor Queen. And so they landed at White Hall Bridge, and the great guns on the other side went off

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: So she [Mrs Pepys] and I to the King's playhouse, and there sat to avoid seeing Knepp in box above where Mrs Williams happened to be, and there saw The Usurper; a pretty good play, in all but what is designed to resemble Cromwell and Hugh Peters, which is mighty silly

Event Comment: Admission by ticket only at half a guinea. First Gallery 5s. Upper Gallery 2s. At 6 p.m. Letter by Peter Wentworth, 11 Jan.: Wednesday was the Opera and there he [Prince Eugene] brought a great crowd, so much that Operas are to be perform'd thrice a week whilst he stays here (Wentworth Papers, p. 246)

Event Comment: The Thirty-second Day. To begin at 6:30 p.m. [Published this month, A Catalogue of Curiosities, Chiefly Theatrical which are to be sold by Auction. Dedicated to Foote by Peter Skewball. A twenty-two-page pamphlet containing suggestive comments about certain actresses. "Lot 13 Two young Actresses of different complections, who having been two years under the care of a certain physician are warranted sound, very little the worse for use...Lot 33 a Coquet Crying by Mrs C-; Lot 34 A Venus half naked at See Saw by Mrs W-; Lot 35 A Very Stanch actress, somewhat overfed, and of great Virtue (Mrs Pritchard?)." N.B.: This is the greatest curiosity in the Catalogue.

Event Comment: At Bridges, Cross, Burton and Vaughan's Great Theatrical Booth in the George Inn Yard, will be presented an Historical Drama never acted before call'd The Northern Heroes; or, The Bloody Contest between Charles XII, King of Sweden, and Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy, with the Loves of Count Gillensternia, a Swedish General and the Fair Elimira, a Russian Princess, Containing the most remarkable Events of that Time; and concluding with the Memorable Battle of Pultowav, and Charles's Retreat into the Turkish Dominionv. Interspers'd with a Comic Interlude (never perform'd before) called The Volunteers; or, the Adventures of Roderick Random and his Friend Strap. Also the Comical Humours and Amours of Corporal Garbage and Serjeant Slim, with Mrs Vanspriggen the Swedish Sutler's Widow; the merry Pranks of her foolish son Janny, and several other diverting incidents. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 1s. 6d. First Gallery 1s. Upper Gallery 6d. To begin each Day at Twelve o'clock. [This notice repeated during "the short Time of the Fair." Notice repeated 24, 26, 27 Aug.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 Years. Afterpiece: Not acted these 20 years. Music, Dances and Other Decorations for afterpiece entirely new. [In a letter to John Gilbert-Cooper, the actor Charles Adams states that "the Prompter gave me a little Part in the Emperor of the Moon...I appear'd in it thrice." He was "paid Twenty Shilling Pr Week." See Theatre Notebook, XI (1957), p. 136. The only male parts left were Baliardo's servant Peter and the figures in the tableau of the final scene.] Receipts: #160 (Cross); #158 11s. (Powel)

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: Afterpiece [1st time; burl 2, by Charles Dibdin, based on The Loves of Mars and Venus, by Peter Anthony Motteux]: With New Scenes and Dresses. The Music chiefly composed by Dibdin. [Dr Arne and Dr Arnold each wrote one air.] Books of the Burletta to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 5 Feb. 1778: This Day at Noon is published Poor Vulcan! (1s.). [The playbill lists Reinhold in place of Mahon, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted and a MS annotation substitutes Mahon's.] Receipts: #232 5s. 6d. (230.2.6; 2.3.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [not acted since 30 Oct. 1771]. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Edward Topham. Prologue by Miles Peter Andrews (Public Advertiser, 7 Dec.). Larpent MS 539; not published]. Receipts: #207 11s. 6d. (158.18.0; 48.12.6; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Humane Society. [Prologue by Miles Peter Andrews (European Magazine, Dec. 1784, p. 467).]

Event Comment: [Mrs Wells was from the HAY.] Afterpiece: Never performed here. [Prologue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Receipts: #204 2s. (197/13; 6/9)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Mrs Wells, but she "was so ill last night that she could not perform the part of Jane Shore. It was undertaken by Mrs T. Kennedy" (Public Advertiser, 21 Dec.).] Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe]: The Pantomime, and the whole of the Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, &c. designed and invented by Loutherbourg, and executed under his superintendance and direction by Richards, Carver, Hodgins, Catton Jun., Turner, assisted by two other celebrated artists [all subsequent playbills have "a celebrated artist"; he was the Rev. Matthew William Peters (Public Advertiser, 16 Dec.)]. The Music entirely new, composed by Shield. Books containing a short account of the Pantomime, as well as the Recitatives, Airs, Duets, Trios and Chorusses, and a Description of the Procession, to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. [This was the last theatrical piece for which De Loutherbourg designed the scenery. For a detailed account of it see "De Loutherbourg and Captain Cook", by Ralph G. Allen, Theatre Research, IV, 195-211.] Account-Book, 17 Oct.: Paid De Loutherbourg on acct. #120; 20 Dec.: Paid Goodwin for copying Music #10 14s.; 14 Feb. 1786: Paid O'Keeffe in full for Omai #40. Receipts: #309 19s. (302/7; 7/12)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Larpent MS 750; not published; synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, Dec. 1786, pp. 333-34. Prologue by the author (London Chronicle, 23 Dec.). Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (World, 4 Jan. 1787); and see Epilogue to Such Things Are, 10 Feb. 1787]. Receipts: #165 14s. (156.1; 9.13)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Holcroft. Prologue by the author (Public Advertiser, 19 Mar.). Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (Knapp, 81)]: With new Scenery, Dresses, &c. Public Advertiser, 31 Mar. 1787: This Day is published Seduction (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #187 15. (162.14.0; 24.1.6; 0.17.0; ticket not come in: 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 4, by Elizabeth Inchbald, adapted from Zelie; ou, L'Ingenue, by Stephanie Felicite Ducrest de Saint Aubin, Comtesse de Genlis. Beginning with 6 Dec. this was reduced to an afterpiece of 3 acts. Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]. Public Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1788: This Day is published The Child of Nature (price not listed). Afterpiece: Reduced [from 5] into 3 acts. Receipts: #150 15s 6d. (139.10.0; 11.5.6),

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. [Mainpiece: Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Public Advertiser, 21 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 31, Bow-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #172 16s. 6d. (100.8.0; 9.0.6; tickets: 63.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Seven Orphan Children of Peter? Harris, late Ballet-Master of this Theatre, who a short time since [on 23 Mar.] was unfortunately killed. Receipts: #311 1s. (73.12; 11.5; tickets: 226.4)

Event Comment: [2nd piece: Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Receipts: #185 19s. 6d. (180.11.0; 5.8.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. [Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews. Monody by Robert Merry (European Magazine, May 1790, p. 390).] Gazetteer, 11 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 31, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #168 6s. (87.8; 7.9; tickets: 73.9)

Event Comment: [2nd piece: Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Receipts: #152 2s. (142.2; 10.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. [Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (Oracle, 5 May).] Public Advertiser, 28 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 7, King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #272 18s. 6d. (170.11.6; 4.3.0; tickets: 98.4.0)