Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). The new Comedy of The Runaway is unavoidably oblig'd to be deferred till Saturday. Rec'd Mr Stanley's Oratorio Account, 11 nights, #327 5s. Paid Lawrence (paper hanger) #13 7s.; Renters (for 11 Oratorio nights) #88; Cubit (tinman) #7 14s. 6d.; Gardner (shoemaker) #25; Chettle (timber merchant) #22 14s. 6d.; Mist andCo. (brazier) #10 8s.; Thomson (smith) #5 16s. 6d. Barrow andCo. (oil) #106 5s.; Tallow Chandler's 8th Bill #26 12s.; Palmer's Bill of Bath for Spermacetti Candles #162 10s. (Treasurer's Book). [MacMillan quotes from Kemble's note on the playbill, a Garrick interpolation in Drugger 's last speech (IV, vii): "Abel: Did you never see me play the Fool? Face: Yes. Abel: But the wise ones say I have played the Fool long enough; So I am going to leave it off and grow melancholy." [This note does not appear in the Hopkins Diary in the Folger Library.] Receipts: #265 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). Last time of Garrick's performing Richard . Ladies desired to send their Servants a little after Five to keep places, to prevent Confuson. It is Vanity to endeavor to describe Mr G. Merits they beggar all Descripiton, suffice it to Say he was what he represented (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble conservatively toned down.] Paid Sg Como and Crispi in full #3 8s. 3d. Mr Hurd ditto 7s. 6d. Receipts: #284 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. When the play began there was a very great Noise the performers were oblig'd to Stop and go off the Stage Mr Reddish went on and desir'd to Know their pleasure they said they wanted the Pit door be open'd to let out some of the people for so many had Crowded in that they could not Sit down-the door was open'd and in a little time after all was quiet and the Play was begun once more at a quarter after Seven. During this time the King Sent Two Messages to Mr G. to desire that he would not let this Noise disconcert him and his Majesty would take care that all should be quiet before the play began (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble: "I cannot say enough of Mr Garrick's Performance tonight." Kemble further notes that Garrick's fatigue led them to abandon further performances until Saturday 8 June.] Paid Mr Heard extra allowance #3; Ditto on note #5 5s.; Mr Carpenter's salary 15s.; Mr Martini a grautity #10 10s.; Wallis salary in full 13s. 4d. Receipts: #293 5s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. Afterpiece: A Comedy of two Acts never performed. Dr Thomas Francklin. [According to the Biographia Dramatica, "This is a poor performance, founded on Destouches' L'Amour Use, and met with no success; being nearly condemned, nothwithstanding the King and Royal family were present. Foote told his friends, that, when he lighted the King, to his chair, his Majesty asked who the piece was written by: 'It was written (says the wicked Wit) by one of your Majesty's Chaplains; but it is dull enough to have been written by a Bishop.)'"]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs West. Tickets to be had of West, at the Ship, near the Seven Houses, Rotherhithe. Mainpiece: In Act II the triumphal entry of Alexander into Babylonv; In Act IV the grand Banquet where Alexander kills his faithful soldier, old Clytus. [The playbill contains a lengthy synopsis of the plot of the mainpiece; it concludes by noting that "the many flowery passages with which this tragedy abounds does honour to the pen of its author, N. Lee, Esqr., and we may justly say with Mr Pope, 'Such plays alone shou'd please a British ear, as Cato's self had not disdain'd to hear.'"]

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces Douglas, but "Mrs Barry being suddenly taken ill yesterday Morning , The Busy Body ws substituted for Douglas...and allowing for the short Notice which the Performers had to prepare for the Representation, we must do them the Justice to say that they acquitted themselves extremely well" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct.).] Receipts: #234 5s. (233.4; 1.1)

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill retains Dodd, but he "having lost his Father, an apology was made for R. Palmer's playing his character in the Critic; and though the apology was a very handsome one, it is but justice to say it was unnecessary, R. Palmer acquitting himself in such a manner as did him infinite credit" (Morning Chronicle, 4 Feb.).] Receipts: #186 8s. (151.1; 33.19; 1.8)

Event Comment: The last Time of the Company's performing this Season. [Mainpiece acted for the 22nd time this season. The playbill states, "for the 23rd Time"; on the Kemble playbill this has been corrected in MS to 22nd. Genest, VI, 262, says that this play was also acted on both 3 and 4 June. But on those nights the theatre was dark.] Receipts: #270 11s. (260/7; 10/4; after-money not listed). Account-Book, 5 June: Paid Mrs Siddons a Present from the Proprietors #100; 6 June: Paid 100 Renters #20 4s. apiece; 23 June: Received of Their Majesties #156

Event Comment: [Playbill of 5 June says mainpiece "Not acted here these 7 years." It was acted 17 Aug. 1780.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Leonard Macnally. Prologue by ---- Chalmers. Epilogue by ---- Norris (see text, but London Chronicle, 4 Apr., says by Thomas Morris). In 1792 this was acted at this theatre reduced to 3 acts]. Public Advertiser, 30 Apr. 1785: This Day is published Fashionable Levities (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for a Fund for the Relief of those who from their Infirmities shall be obliged to retire from the Stage. [Ernst Brandes quoted in J. A. Kelly, p. 109: Brandes has much to say on the subject of Shakespeare ... He regrets that the role of Ophelia is assigned in both theaters on the strength of the candidate's accomplishments as a singer, which he considers relatively unimportant; and that the mania for operettas has been allowed to disfigure several of Shakespeare's plays. The Tempest had been debased to an opera, and a whole army of witches had been added to the cast of Macbeth, so that witches' arias and witches' choruses might be introduced.] Receipts: #241 10s. (131/16/0; 12/17/6; 1/1/6; tickets: 95/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: "Of the low comedy of Mrs Jordan ... we cannot say too much in its praise. Let her avoid an indulgence, however, in too much buffoonery" (Public Advertiser, 5 Dec). Receipts: #259 11s. (221/17/0; 36/11/6; 0/12/6; tickets not come in: 0/10/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author [of mainpiece, who is named in the Account-Book, but not on the playbill]. "The Captives were set at liberty last night, amidst roars of laughter. I see the doctor [i.e. the author] publishes it this week . . . Cadell bought this sublime piece before it appeared, for fifty pounds, agreeing to make it a hundred on its third representation. It has been played three times, and I dare say old Sanctimony will have no remorse in taking the other fifty." J. P. Kemble to Edmond Malone (Life of Edmond Malone, by Sir James Prior, i860, p. 126). Receipts: #138 13s. 6d. (91/19/0; 40/18/0; 5/16/6; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Grecian Daughter, advertised on playbill of 12 Oct.] Afterpiece: As originally Performed. With new Dresses, the Original Music, Scenery and Decorations. "When the hissing began there was an attempt by the Clown to put the audience in humour, by rolling over and over across the stage with a woman, or a man dressed in women's clothes. If this were a coup d'oeil for the Galleries, it was certainly an insult to the Boxes...We are glad to say that obscenity failed to rescue folly" (World, 16 Oct.). Receipts: #262 4s. (261.3; 1.1)

Event Comment: The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 3 May 1790]. Paid Say for Tallow Candles last Season #88 6s. 3d. "That beautiful and best drawn character that the world ever saw, Sir John Falstaff, was mangled by Ryder. He substitutes savageness to jollity, and stiff mimicry to the natural debauchery that should hang as easily on Sir John as the Roomy mantle he moves in...Lewis gave us more the manner of the pretty man of fashion than of a dissipated hero" (Prompter, 4 Nov.). Receipts: #168 1s. 6d. (164.12.6; 3.9.0)

Event Comment: By Desiire of the Cherokee Chiefs [see 12 Nov.]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years. [European Magazine, Dec. 1790, p. 468, says that this was Mrs Ferguson's 1st appearance in London; she was from the Richmond theatre.] Receipts: #205 5s. (202.8.6; 2.16.6)

Event Comment: A Grand Serious Opera; the music by Sacchini, with additions and alterations [by Andreozzi and Mazzinghi]. Under the direction of Mazzinghi. The dresses executed from original drawings of Bartolozzi and Tresham, by Lupino. With dances analogous to the Opera. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout season]. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s. There are a number of green boxes which may be taken on application to Lee, at the Theatre; the entrance to which, and to the Gallery, will be in Oxford-street. Subscriptions will be received by Messrs Wright and Co., Henrietta-street, Covent-garden (only) where tickets are delivering daily; and such Ladies as have not compleated their subscriptions to their boxes are intreated to send their names to the office, in order to have the tickets prepared, as no person can be admitted without producing a ticket. The Nobility and Gentry are intreated to give particular orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses' heads towards Hyde-park. The Doors in Blenheim-mews for chairs only. By Command of His Majesty no person can be admitted behind the scenes during the performance. "We fear that [the Pantheon as converted into a theatre] will gratify only the eye. It must undergo still more changes before the ear will be satisfied. Whether it is that the dome is too high and disproportioned to the breadth, or that the orchestra is sunk too low beneath the audience we cannot tell, but the sound does not swell and spread in equal volume; and it is the most inaudible in the best parts of the Theatre: the Pit and the first and second tier of Boxes hear very indistincly...We found this to be the complaint of every judge of music in the place" (Morning Chronicle, 18 Feb.). "The Pantheon has opened, and is small, they say, but pretty and simple; all the rest ill-conducted, and from the singers to the scene-shifters imperfect; the dances long and bad, and the whole performance so dilatory and tedious, that it lasted from eight to half an hour past twelve" (Walpole [18 Feb. 1791], XIV, 377) [and see 19 Feb.]

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "There were not an hundred persons in the Pit when their Majesties entered, and there were not double the number at any part of the evening. The Royal box being in the centre, fronting the stage, their Majesties were invisible to the Gallery; and on their entrance solemn stillness prevailed, until the Orchestra, for the first time in an Opera-house, for the first time by the Professional Band, Struck up God save the King. Never, we will venture to say, in any Theatre during the present reign, was there so thin an audience when their Majesties were present; and we pretend not to divine the cause. Whether it is the failure of the Theatre as a musical room--the general poverty of the performance--the little notice that was given of their Majesties' intention to be present we know not" (Morning Chronicle, 23 Feb.)