Event Comment: The composition of the drama with the characters of the King, Prince of Wales, Hotspur, and Falstaff will be particularly illustrated. [This is Kenrick's School of Shakespeare; repeated 9, 16, 20 (Falstaff's Wedding and Merchant of Venice), 29 (Cozeners and Falstaff's Wedding).

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera. The Music by Traetta. [This was 1st performed at Venice, 1766, as Le Serve Rivali. And see 19 Dec. 1780.

Event Comment: Benefit for Reinhold. Morning Post, 6 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Reinhold, No. 90, Charlotte-street, Rathbone-Place. Tickets delivered for The Merchant of Venice will be taken. Receipts: #184 18s. (85.16; tickets: 99.2) (charge #69 15s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for the New General Lying-in-Hospital, in Store-street, Tottenham-Court-Road. Tickets delivered for Venice Preserv'd will be taken. Receipts: #149 1s. 6d. (66.4.6; tickets: 82.17.0) (charge: #115)

Event Comment: Macklin being taken ill, The Merchant of Venice and Love a-la-Mode [both announced on playbill of 23 Feb.] are obliged to be postponed

Event Comment: The Merchant Of Venice and Love a-la-Mode [both announced on playbill of 26 Nov.] are obliged to be deferred on account of Macklin's Indisposition. Receipts: #57 8s. (55.7; 2.1)

Event Comment: On playbill of 15 Mar.: On Saturday Evening next will be presented Othello, Moor of Venice

Event Comment: The Carnival of Venice [announced on playbill of 31 Dec] is obliged to be deferred on account of the Indisposition of Dodd. Receipts: #104 3s. 6d. (70/5/0; 33/6/0; 0/12/6)

Event Comment: The Carnival of Venice [announced on playbill of 1 Apr.] is obliged to be deferred on account of the Indisposition of a principal Performer. Receipts: #103 10s. (81/7; 21/18; 0/5)

Event Comment: An entirely new Comic Opera in 2 Acts [1st performed at Venice, 1776; and see 1 Feb. 1794]. The Music by Sarti; under the direction of Rauzzini. With new Scenes and Decorations, designed and painted by Novosielski

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of The Merchant of Venice; afterpiece of Love a-la-Mode, both announced on playbill of 2 Nov. In afterpiece the playbill assigns Young Wilding to Bonnor, but on the Kemble playbill a MS annotation substitutes Palmer.]

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1780]); the Music by Anfossi

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: A Comic Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1778]); the music entirely new by Salieri [with additions by Anfossi, Sacchini, Paisiello, Mazzoni, J. Mazzinghi]

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Venice Preserv'd, announced on playbill of 30 Dec. 1786.] Receipts: #222 4s. (220.0; 2.4)

Event Comment: The Merchant of Venice and Love a-la-Mode [both advertised on playbill of 19 Dec.] are obliged to be deferred on Account of the Indisposition of Macklin. Receipts: #145 5s. 6d. (139.17.0; 5.8.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of The Merchant of Venice; afterpiece of Love a-la-Mode, both advertised on playbill of 12 Feb.] Receipts: #315 15s. (304.2; 1.13)

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1781]); the music by Sarti, under the direction of Mazzinghi. "At length in the spring arrived the celebrated Marchesi, whose fame had long reached this country, and who had been extolled to such a degree that impatience and expectation were raised to the highest pitch; and on the first night of his appearance the theatre was not only crowed to the utmost in every part, but on the rising of the curtain, the stage was so full of spectators that it was some time before order and silence could be obtained, and with some difficulty that Marchesi, who was to open the opera, could make his way before the audience. Marchesi was at this time a very well-looking young man, of good figure, and graceful deportment. His acting was spirited and expressive: his vocal powers were very great, his voice of extensive compass, but a little inclined to be thick (Mount-Edgcumbe, 66-67). Receipts: #437 15s. 6d., i.e. 560 tickets delivered to Prendergrass [see 8 Dec. 1787], who sold 558; 110 to Toosey, who sold 86; 400 to Butler, who sold 285; 236 to Snelson, who sold 204. Total non-subscription tickets sold: 1133

Event Comment: A New Comic Opera composed by Paisiello [but not recorded in any list of his operatic works]; under the direction of Mazzinghi. [Originally ententitled Le Vane Gelosie, this was 1st performed at Naples in 1790. Its libretto, by G. B. Lorenzi, was re-set in 1793 by G. Astarita, and performed at Venice as Le Fallaci Apparenze. The characters in all these versions are identical. See E. Faustini-Fasini, Opere Teatrali di Paisiello, 1940, 137-38, and Morning Herald, 2 Apr. 1792.

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1790]); the music by Anfossi, with 2 additional songs in the 2nd act by Mme Banti, the 1st composed by Piccinni, the last by Naumann. With entire new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations

Event Comment: A New Opera (1st time [in London; 1st performed at Venice, 1792]), accompanied with Chorusses; the music entirely new, composed [i.e. revised] here by Bianchi. With entirely new Scenes, designed by Hamilton and executed by Walmsley, Dresses and Decorations

Event Comment: A Serious Opera (1st time at this Theatre [1st performed at Venice, 1783]); the Music by Bianchi. "The splendour of the Opera this year in point of crowd and fashion surpasses every thing within our memory. It used to be only full on the Saturday evening...Mlle Parisot, a new dancer from Paris, is a most beautiful figure, about 18 years of age...Her balance is postively magical, for her person was almost horizontal while turning as on a pivot on her toe" (Morning Chronicle, 10 Feb.). "[Mlle Parisot's] acting proves what art may effect by beautiful simplicity. She never makes use of those tours de force with which the best female dancers at Paris still endeavour to shine. Every step of Mlle Parisot is marked by the greatest truth and dignity of nature. Every one of her movements is expressive, spirited and harmonious" (Goede, pp. 264-65)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years [not acted since 29 Apr. 1774]. "In the scene where Varanes kills himself, Kemble...was peculiarly striking. His manner of sheathing the sword in his body, after he has exclaimed, 'I feel the art'ry where the life-blood lies! It heaves against the point!-Now-Oh ye gods!' astonished us; and we turned, with horror, from the sight" (Monthly Visitor, Feb. 1797, p. 161). "I asked [Mrs Siddons] in which part she would most wish me to see her? She named Portia in the Merchant of Venice; but I begged to be excused...Mrs Siddons's warmest devotes do not hold her above a demigoddess in comedy. I have chosen Athenais;...her scorn is admirable" (Walpole [15 Jan. 1788], XIV, 42). Receipts: #231 9s. (175.2; 54.14; 1.13)