Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Comedy of 3 Acts [by George Colman] never performed. [In the Shakespearean Pageant, with figures from seventeen of his plays, the chief effectiveness lay with the Musicians who ushered in each group with appropriate music: Martial Music-The Roman Characters of Coriolanus and Julius Caesar; Soft Music-Antony and Cleopatra; Grand Music, Old English Characters-King John, Richard III, Henry VIII: Magical Music, "above, about, underneath" for Prospero; Macbeth's Music; Fairy Music-Oberon and Titania; Solemn Music for Tragic Muse accompanied by Othello, Hamlet, the Ghost, Mad Ophelia and Lear with Cordelia; Dead March in Saul-Juliet's Bier with attendants; Allegro for the Comic Muse-Falstaff, Touchstone, Launcelot, Malvolio; Andante-Florizel and Perdita, Portia Antonio and Bassanio; Flourish-for Car drawn by the muses carrying Shakespeare's Bust; Final Song by Mrs Mattocks, "Sweetest Bard that Ever Sung, Nature's glory, Fancy's Child--." The Prelude is, in print, entirely favorable to Garrick's effort at Stratford. But it could be rendered in a mercilessly ironical manner if the three participating actors so chose. Mainpiece reviewed in the Freeholder's Magazine, Oct.] Receipts: #224 10s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 27 Nov. 1765. Hogan noted the following additions from the 1770 edn.: Mortimer-Lewes; Glendower-Morris; Prince John-Miss Cockayne; Northumberland-Redman; Gadshill-P. Smith; Peto-Wild.] Receipts: #149 17s. 6d

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Paid John Doe for sticking black Bills #4 19s. (Account Book). Receipts: #101 16s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Yates. Mainpiece: Altered from Corneille [by Colley Cibber?]. Never Performed There. Pit and Boxes laid together (playbill). Charges #66 7s. 6d. Profit to Mrs Yates #39 7s. 6d., plus #179 from tickets (Box and Pit 716). Paid Younger a Bill for writing parts #5 19s. 9d. Paid John Smith for a Blue cloth suit lac'd with gold #9 9s. (Account Book). Receipts: #105 15s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Doe, Claridge and John Smith receiv'd 10s. apiece for performing 4 times in the Ass and Hog [Mother Shipton] to the 17th inst. (Account Book). Receipts: #231 6s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Paid John Doe for sticking black bills #4 19s. Paid Mr Masefield (paperhanger) as per bill #1 4s. (Account Book). Receipts: #117

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Comedy [by Richard Cumberland] never performed there. Paid John Doe for sticking Black Bills #3 12s. Paid Cooper (printer) as per bill #20 2s. (Account Book). [The Westminster Magazine held in reserve its judgment on Lewis as an actor until the reviewer could see him in another part.] Receipts: #137 4s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Oratorio by Benjamin Stillingfleet, words adapted from Milton, set to Music by John Christopher Smith (Biographia Dramatica)

Event Comment: Rosetta first time by Miss Sharp--a loud Voice a bad face and mean figure She had Applause--but it won't do (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly and adds: Miss Sharpe was a Scholar of Mr Bates's--since married to Mr William Palmer, brother to Mr John and Mr Robert Palmer."] Rec'd the late Mr Powell's bond for #200 and 9 years interest in full #290; Stopages #11 18s. Paid Barrow and Co., Oil Bill #50 3s.; Powney, (stationer) #14 11s. 6d.; Tallow Chandler's third bill #47 12s. 4d.; Evans on Wardrobe acct #10 10s.; Grist on acct #6 6s.; Machin, Chorus 13 nights, #3 5s. Receipts: #116 13s. [Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With a New Scene and New Dresses. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Charles Dibdin and Edward Thompson. Thompson's name does not appear on the title-page of the text; it has been added by J. P. Kemble on the half-title of his copy now in the Huntington Library]: The Music chiefly composed by Dibdin [Public Advertiser, 15 Nov.: Three of the airs and the finale were composed by Samuel Arnold; one air by John Abraham Fisher]. With New Scenes [ibid: by Dall, Richards, and Carver], Dresses and Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Account-Book, 7 Feb. 1777: Paid Dibdin in full for copyright of the Seraglio #20; ibid, 2 June 1777: Received of Cooper for Songs & Books sold of The Seraglio #19 10s. 9d. [Mrs Ward was from the Birmingham theatre]. Receipts: #221 11s. 6d. (219.7.0; 2.4.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin. In Act IV of mainpiece the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullenv. Paid John Doe for sticking Black Bills #6 3s. Receipts: none listed (charge: #84)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: In 2 acts, taken from Wycherley [by John Lee (Public Advertiser, 14 Dec.)]. Paid Pattinson, Tallow Chandler, #41 19s. Receipts: #167 18s. (166.9.6; 1.8.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Performed There. On account of the Additional Airs, contracted into 3 Acts. [Public Advertiser, 30 Dec., notes that the principal omission was the conspiracy of Alonzo, Antonio, &c., and that the Masque in Act IV was removed to the concluding scene of the play.] With New Dresses, Scenery and Decorations. The Music by Purcell, John Christopher? Smith, Dr Arne and Fisher. [In afterpiece the playbill retains Delpini as Pierrot, but "[Hull] made an apology for the illness of Delpini, telling the audience that the Signor had hurt himself so much the preceding evening in performing the part of Pierrot that he could not come out of his room; the managers therefore hoped that the audience would accept of Wewitzer in the character" (Morning Chronicle, 28 Dec.). The playbill also adds Wewitzer as the Gardener; this part was perhaps omitted.] Paid Enderby, Oil Merchant, #258 17s. Receipts: #245 18s. (244.15; 1.3)

Event Comment: Ode [1st time; composed by Thomas Linley Jun. (see 18 Mar. 1778), text by John Hoadly]

Event Comment: [Nicoll, III, 280, 390, states that this was an alteration of Shakespear's play by John Lee.] Receipts: #174 5s. (173.10.6; 0.14.6)

Event Comment: Prelude [1st time;PREL I, probably by Richard Cumberland. Larpent MS 472; not published]. Mainpiece [1st time; M 3, by Richard Cumberland, based on Calypso and Telemachus, by John Hughes]: The Overture and all the Music entirely new, and composed by Butler. With new Scenery painted by Richards and Carver, and new Dresses. Books of the Masque to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 27 Mar. 1779: This Day is published Calypso (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [This was Vestris Jun.'s 1st appearance in England.] "Young Vestris astonished John Bull more by his agility than his grace, and some have been known to count the number of times he turned round like a tee-totum. This may be called les tours des jambes-not dancing' (Angelo, II, 320). "The theatre was brimful in expectation of Vestris. At the end of the second act he appeared; but with so much grace, agility, and strength, that the whole audience fell into convulsions of applause: the men thundered; the ladies, forgetting their delicacy and weakness, clapped with such vehemence, that seventeen broke their arms, sixty-nine sprained their wrists, and three cried bravo! bravissimo! so rashly, that they have not been able to utter so much as 'no' since, any more than both Houses of Parliament' (Walpole [17 Dec. 1780], XI, 340-41)

Event Comment: Mainpicce [1st time; burl 3, by Charles Dibdin]: Taken from [Amphitryon, by John] Dryden. [MS: Larpent 573; not published.] With new Scenery, Dresses, &c. The Music by several eminent Composers [Charles Dibdin, William Shield, &c.]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #153 15s. 6d. (151/8/0; 2/7/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Afterpiece: As performed at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket [beginning 6 Aug. 1779]; by the Author of the Son-in-Law, the Agreeable Surprise, &c. [John O'Keeffe]. [Prologue by George Colman, the elder.] Receipts: #195 9s. 6d. (161/11/6; tickets: 33/18/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: [Miss Harper married John Bannister at Hcndon on 26 Jan. 1783.] Receipts: #217 11s. (208/2; 9/9)