Event Comment: Benefit for ye Author (Cross). Tickets delivered for the third night will be taken (General Advertiser). Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: A great deal of Hissing by some Gentlemen in the Pit--at ye beginning of the 4th Act an apple thrown at Mrs Pritchard, Mr Garrick call'd for by ye pit--one Gent: got up, & said they insisted upon another play for Monday--Mr Garrick said as they had met with no obstruction since ye first Night, the Author's property was concern'd & desir'd it might be play'd Monday and Tuesday, the last being ye Author's night, & wou'd give out another play for Wednesday--Several in ye House approving this--they consented & at ye end of ye play, Mr Garrick gave out Gil Blas for Monday & Tuesday & Romeo & Juliet for Wed.:--before this at ye end of ye 1st Act, & beginning of ye Second the performance, that Night had been interrupted with Groans, Hisses etc. from ye Pit (Cross). Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for ye Author (no more Noise) (Cross). Tickets as of 5 Feb. Tickets deliver'd out for the third and sixth Nights will be taken. Receipts: #140 (Cross). Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1751, pp. 77-78, concerning Gil Blas: To animadvert upon a piece which is almost universally condemned is unneccessary, and to defend this is impossible. There is not one elegant expression or moral sentiment in the dialogue; nor indeed one character in the drama, from which either could be expected. It is however, to be wished that the Town, which opposed this play with so much zeal, would exclude from the theatre every other in which there is not more merit; for partiality and prejudice will be suspected in the treatment of new plays, while such pieces as the London Cuckolds, and the City Wives Confederacy, are suffered to waste time and debauch the morals of society....Upon the whole the Author appears to have intended rather entertainment than instruction, and to have disgusted the Pit by adapting his comedy to the taste of the Galleries....Perhaps the ill success of this comedy is chiefly the effect of the author's having so widely mistaken the character of Gil Blas whom he has degraded from a man of sense, discernment, true humor, and great knowledge of mankind...to an impertinent silly, conceited coxcomb, a mere Lying Valet, with all the affectation of a Fop, and all the insolence of a coward. [Thomas Gray wrote to Horace Walpole 3 March 1751, "Gil Blas is the Lying Valet in five acts. The fine lady has half-a-dozen good lines dispersed in it."

Event Comment: Benefit for Cross (Wilder and Mattocks had Tickets) and Mrs Cross. N.B. The tickets are printed for Jane Shore for the 18th and will be taken this night. [Note the doubling of parts by Mozeen (Don Pedro and Conrade).] Receipts: #164 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Ray, W. Vaughan, G. Burton & ye Sub-Treasurer (Cross). Tickets of Ray, at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, St Clement's Church; at the Black Swan Tavern, in Bartholomew Lane; the Old King's Head Tavern, Facing Somerset House; For Vaughan, at the One Ton Coffee House, St. James' Market; for Burton, at Pope's next the Stage Door, Russel St.; and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Tickets deliver'd for the Lady's Last Stake, or the Wife's Resentment will be taken. Receipts: #214 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit Wright, Y. Cross, Mad. Camargo & 4 more had tickets (Cross). [The four were: Sturt, Lewis, G. Bullbrick, and Loyde.] Tickets for 13 April will be taken. Receipts: #110 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for one Barry a Jeweller (Cross). A Charity Play, recommended by the City of London for Barry, Jeweller in Salisbury Court (being in great distress). Tickets at Grigsby's, Shadwell's, Janeway's and Sam's Coffee Houses by the Royal Exchange; Peele's, Nando's Anderton's and Temple Exchange in Fleet St., Marsh's Coffee House in Silver St., and at the stage door. Stage will be form'd into an Amphitheatre (General Advertiser). Mr Reinhold dy'd (Cross). A man no less admired for his private character than his publick performance. He has left behind him a Wife and Four small children in great distress; for the relief of whom the Managers of Drury Lane, and the actors have agreed to perform a play Gratis, some time next week; when it is hop'd the good nature of the publick will favour the intention of the performers. Tickets to be had of Mr Beard, at his house in North St., Red Lion Square, and at the theatre (General Advertiser, 16 May). Receipts: #60 (Cross)

Event Comment: This House had not been so good had not ye Part of Romeo , been read at ye other House by Mr Dyer--Mr Barry, being taken ill--when ye Apology was made Numbers came to us (Cross). Receipts: #90 (Cross)

Event Comment: KKing there--but not in ye Bills sent Word at 3 o'clock--Play went off well (Cross). We hear there are two more plays reviving at Drury Lane, which are intended to be played alternately, and that a new Pantomime Entertainment call'd Harlequin Ranger is preparing for the holydays. Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for ye widow of Capt. James Spencer, an Officer &c., and her small Children (Cross). An Old Officer who had been in His Majesty's Service 46 years, but dying when upon half-pay has left the Widow without pension and with several small children in greatest distress. N.B. Part of the Pit will be rail'd into the boxes and servants will be allowed to keep places on the Stage. Tickets to be had of Mrs Spencer, the uppermost house in Prince's Court, by Storey's Gate; the Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden; the Tiltyard Coffee House; St James Coffee House; Sweet's Coffee House, Bukingham Court; Bridge Street Coffee House; The Rainbow Coffee House, Ludgate Hill; the Temple Exchange, Fleet St.; the Rainbow, Cornhill; and at the Stage Door of the theatre where places may be taken. Mr Norton Amber, humbly hopes this general acknowledgment of the favour which his friends were pleas'd to confer on him by their generous appearance last Night at Drury Lane, will be accepted, instead of a more particular application, which his constant employment prevents; and begs leave to assure them, that he shall ever retain a most grateful sense of their indulgent assistance. Receipts: #252 (Cross)

Event Comment: Sun: 29th Dr Barrowby dy'd suddenly a good friend to ye Actors in Sickness (Cross). [Inspector No 259 appears in Daily Advertiser and London Gazette with a long comparison between actors and various styles of famous painters, Garrick, Barry, Miss Bellamy, Mrs Cibber, Mrs Pritchard, Woodward and Macklin are treated.] Receipts: #160 (Cross)

Event Comment: No alterations were made in the farce, but cutting out a little, & it was play'd with great Applause, & given out again with great Clapping. Benefit for Mr Worsdale (Cross). Tickets to be had at the Bedford Coffee House. Part of Pit laid into boxes. We hear that Miss Bellamy, belonging to Drury Lane Theatre, was taken ill on Sunday last, and continues very much indispos'd. Receipts: #230 (Cross)

Event Comment: A little hissing at ye farce (Cross). Mainpiece: Acted but once this season. Publish'd, Miscellaneous Observations on Hamlet, &c. 1s. [Contains a thoroughly Neo-Classical Preface and twenty-seven notes on passages in the play. Concerning the Gravedigger's Scene: This incoherent absurdity will forever remain an indelible blot in the character of our poet; and warn us no more to expect perfection in the work of a mortal, than sincerity in the breast of a female.] Receipts: #110 (Cross)

Event Comment: A little hissing during the farce, & at the End ye Audience call'd, no more &c.--& insisted upon another farce being given out wch Mr Blakes did--farewell Taste (Cross). The Book of the Entertainment will be sold in the theatre, and at R. Francklin's in Russel Street, Covent Garden (playbill). [The publication of Taste was dedicated to Francis Delaval, and includes in prefatory remarks Foote's distinction between Comedy and Farce: As the follies and absurdities of men are the sole objects of Comedy, so the powers of Imagination (Plot and Incident expected) are in this kind of writing greatly restrainded. No unnatural assemblages, no creatures of the fancy can procure the protection of the Comic Muse; men and things must appear as they are. To Farce greater liberties are permitted. I look upon Farce to hold the same rank in drama that Burlesque does in other poetry. It is employed either in debasing lofty subjects, or in raising humble ones.'] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Ye King keeps his birth Day (Cross). Mainpiece: By Desire. Receipts: #190 (Cross)

Event Comment: [TThe Silent Woman a little Hiss'd (Cross). Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: Both pieces by Command of The Prince of Wales. A new Scene was introduc'd of Beasts in Mr Rich's Entertainment as an Ostrich a Lyon, Dog, Monkey, 2 small Ostrichs & A Figure like Maddox upon ye Wire & writ up ye new Company of Comedians Hiss'd a good Deal (Cross). [See cg 2 Nov.] Receipts: #190 (Cross)

Event Comment: Noise still (Cross). Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: [Noise, & some fighting in ye pit Mr Woodward when ye Entertainment was over each Night gave it out again, which the opposite Party look'd upon as Impudent--ye Inspector wrote against it--the fool, against the Silent Woman, as Indecent, & this Night whatever passages he had mark'd out were hiss'd by two or 3 people (Cross). [The Inspector edited by Dr John Hill.] Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: A great Noise when they appear'd occasion'd, I believe, by a Paragraph in the Papers, saying, a piece of Machinery, of Fountain will soon come out at Covent Garden--so it was concluded we had stole ye design from Mr Rich--but not true, for they were design'd & made by Mr Johnson Property maker to our House--during ye Storm one Mr Bramstone, being Drunk ran cross the stage twice--fell down, & was taken off, like a dead Hero.--however the Pantomine ended quiet (Cross). Receipts: #120 (Cross). [See note to cg 13 Jan. 1753.

Event Comment: MMr Woodward's Night for Making ye Genii (Cross). There was such a Prodigious crowd to get into the Pit and Galleries at Drury Lane, being Mr Woodward's Night, that many of the females who came there with aprons, Handkerchiefs, caps and Capuchins, returned home without them; it was the most numerous and brilliant Audience that has been seen for some time(Public Advertiser, 16 Jan.). Receipts: #206 (Cross)

Event Comment: This play was wrote by Mr Moor but as he had some Enemies, came out under ye Name of Mr Spence--went off well, except some few Words & a Song wch are since omitted--Mr Havard not being able to play the part design'd for him The following advertisement was put at ye Bottom of ye Bills for he first 2 Days: N.B. The Managers being engag'd to act two New Plays this Winter, cou'd not longer defer this Tragedy in waiting for Mr Havard's Recovery; Mr Davies at a very short Warning, has willingly undertaken the Character which Mr Havard was to have acted, and humbly hopes for the Indulgence of the Public (Cross). [This N.B. note from the Cross Diary is printed verbatim on the playbill]. Never Acted before. Tis hoped no Gentlemen will desire to be admitted behind the Scenes, this night. Receipts: #217 (Cross)

Event Comment: MMiss Thomas sung for ye first time in ye Chaplet-very well (Cross). Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: For Mad Auretti (Cross). In order to accomodate the Quality and Gentry with places, the Pit and Boxes will be laid together, and the Stage will be formed into an Amphitheatre for the conveniency of Ladies and Gentlemen. Ladies are desired to send servants by 3 o'clock. Receipts: #240 (Cross)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Particular Desire. Benefit for Mr Dexter (Cross). No building on Stage. Tickets to be had of Dexter at his lodgings in James St., Covent Garden, at the Grecian Coffee House, and at the stage dobr. Receipts: #170 (Cross)