Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New English Burletta, never performed, by the Author of Midas [Kane O'Hara], in three parts. Books of the Burletta to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #229 14s. [The mainpiece had been censored by Licenser 5 April 1772 (Larpent MS 330) but had been passed later. The MS indicates stage directions "Curtain rising discovers a splendid Pavilion in the Clouds, Juno, Pallas and Venus at card table." Reviewed in the Westminster Magazine. Rev. Charles Jenner wrote the following "Ode to Miss Catley in the character of Juno." (Harvard Library original MSS No. 65 [1930].)] @Hail vulgar Goddess of the foul mouth'd race!@If modest Bard may hail without offence)@In whose majestic, blush-disdaining face@The steady hand of Fate wrote Impudence;@Hail to thy dauntless front, and aspect bold;@Thrice hail, magnificent, immortal scold!@ @Thee, Goddess, from the upper gallery's height@With heedful look the jealous fish-wife eyes,@Tho early train'd to urge the mouthing flight,@She hears thy bellowing powers with surprize.@Returns instructed to the realms that bore her,@Adopts thy tones and carries all before her.@ @Proceed then, Catley, in thy great career@And nightly let our maidens hear and see@The sweetest voice disgust the listning ear@The fairest face assume deformity!@So shalt thou arm them with their best defense,@And teach them Modesty by Impudence.

Event Comment: Receipts: #86 (Account Book). Charges #81 15s. Profit to Society #4 5s., plus #106 17s. from tickets (Box 242; Pit 309) (Account Book). Benefit for Use of the Society at the Thatched-House Tavern For the release and discharge of persons imprisoned for small debts. [The Epilogue was written by Cumberland. (See Folger Library Theatrical Clippings). The Curtain rises and discovers a prison; at some distance a woman, poorly habited, and in a disconsolate attitude; after standing some time montionless, in a posture of fixed attention she speaks]: @Woman: Thou loathsome dungeon in whose dreary womb@The pining Debtor finds a living tomb;@Where 'midst the Clank of Chains and Dismal yells@Of shakled felons my sad husband dwells;@From his dark cell, oh give him to my view!@Let him look forth and take a last adieu.@ [As she advances towards the prison, a person in Gentleman's apparel accosts her.] @Man: Stay, Child of Sorrow, thou whose piercing groans@Might move to pity e'en these senseless stones.@Why dost thou bend thy melancholy way@To that Drear Dungeon? Child of Sorrow stay.@Woman: Why should I stay, or my sad Griefs impart?@Can there be pity in a Human heart?@Away and let me die.@ [...The Man suggests a Human heart can have pity] @Woman: If there be such, O lead me to their sight,@And let me plead a wretched sufferer's right:@Can there be Truth, Humanity or Sense@In laws that make Misfortune an offence?@ [Her husband was a God-fearing weaver who fell ill for 10 weeks, lost his job and was seized upon by a relentless creditor.] @Steel'd to their trade, and deaf to all our cries,@Relentless ruffians seize their legal prize;@From my fond arms a dying Husband tear@And plunge their victims in a dungeon there!@Man: Enough! go speak the healing words of peace@To thy sad mate, and bear him this release;@Tell him the Muse, which on these Scenes attend@That balsam to his wounded spirit sends.@And Know this Truth thyself, 'tis not alone@The Preacher's pulpit and the Monarch's throne@That Charity frequents; but in this age,@She guides the Theatre and treads the stage;@Lo! She is present, cast your eyes around,@And here in each Spectator's heart she's found.

Event Comment: Paid Wardrobe 3 nights #4 0s. 6d. [Ward was from the Birmingham theatre.] Receipts: #302 17s. 6d. (302.10.0; 0.7.6)

Event Comment: [Trew's 1st appearance on the stage was at this theatre, 24 Nov. 1780.] Paid Properties 4s. 4d.; Wardrobe #5; Supernumeraries #1 11s. 6d.; Guard [master carpenter] for Scene Men #11 6s. 4d. Receipts: #208 8s. (207/6/6; 1/1/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. [Fifty years earlier, on 7 Dec. 1732, this theatre was opened with The Way of the World.] Receipts: #177 10s. (173/2; 4/8)

Event Comment: In Act I of mainpiece a Masquerade Scene. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] Afterpiece: Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 1 May 1786]. Receipts: #326 9s. 6d. (324/0/6; 2/9/0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I a Masquerade Scene incident to the Play. [This was included in all subsequent performances. Middleton was from the Bath theatre.] Paid Music 19th Inst. #8 6s. 6d.; Properties 6s. 10d.; Kettle Drum 5s.; Wardrobe 19s. 6d.; Supernumeraries #1 15s.; Chorus Singers #1 10s.; Cox for Sceneman #32 7s. 5d.; Hodgins [scene painter] #4 4s. Receipts: #304 13s. (302.18; 1.15)

Event Comment: The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 2 Nov.]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon at the Theatre. No Money to be returned. No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.] Mainpiece: In I a Masquerade Scene [incident to the Play. Receipts: #216 9s. 6d. (213.11.0; 2.18.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 1, by James Byrne. MS of Songs only: Larpent MS 919; synopsis of action in Universal Magazine, Oct. 1791, p. 308]: Taken from Ossian. With new Music, Airs, Chorusses, new Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Ballet composed by Byrne. The new Music composed, and the Ancient Scots Music selected and adapted by Shield. The Overture by Reeve. The Scenery by Richards, Hodgins, Pugh, &c. &c. The Dresses by Dick. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. [For Harp and Pipes see 24 Oct.] Account-Book, 22 Nov.: Paid Byrne for Oscar & Malvina #50; 8 Dec.: Paid Mad. St.Amand expenses from Paris to London #14 6s. 8d. Receipts: #182 16s. 6d. (177.13.6; 5.3.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Words of the Dirge and the Elegy to be delivered Gratis, at the Doors of the Theatre. Receipts: #299 13s. (294.17; 4.16)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I incidental to the Tragedy, a Grand Masquerade. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] Afterpiece: With the Fantoccini, as 30 Oct. ["In the late performance of this play at Covent Garden theatre, we perceive that this objection [i.e. Romeo and Juliet in III. v standing on the stage] is removed; the principal part of the scene is spoken from a balcony...The grand funeral dirge is introduced with magnificence and ostentation. A long procession of monks, friars, &c., accompanied with music, is made to passover the stage. But what end is all this farce and shew to answer?...We must rather laugh at so much pomp and expence bestowed on Juliet. If there is any distress stirring, the candle-snuffers and scene-shifters, who assist as chief mourners, have it all to themselves" (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 293). Receipts: #197 3s. 6d. (193.5.6; 3.18.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece:In I A Grand Masqueradev. Afterpiece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Thomas John Dibdin]: To conclude with a new Scenic Representation of Britannia Triumphantv. Interspersed With a Variety of favorite old Airs, popular Songs, Parodies, &c. The Overture and new Songs composed and the Music in general arranged by Moorehead. The Machinery invented and executed by Cresswell. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre, price Six-pence. Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1799: This day is published The Naval Pillar (price not listed). The afterpiece had reference to the contemplated erection of a "Naval Pillar" on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, in commemoration of the recent victbries of the English navy. A plain pillar is at the last introduced, with the names of the most celebrated admirals on a scroll, round which the sailors and their sweethearts dance with peculiar festivity. The pillar now flies open, and displays a most magnificent and appropriate spectacle--consisting of Britannia, personated by Mrs Chapman, under a rich canopy, with the figures of a sailor and a soldier for supporters, pointing to the letters G. R. over a brilliant sun, which turns on the center; shrouded in clouds above, and surrounded by angels, is a medallion of Lord Howe, and on columns on each side of the canopy are medallions of your great living naval commanders" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1799, p. 180). Receipts: #284 10s. 6d. (277.18.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, and there saw Romeo and Juliet, the first time it was ever acted; but it is a play of itself the worst that ever I heard in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do, and I am resolved to go no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them out more or less. Downes (p. 22): Note, There being a Fight and Scuffle in this Play, between the House of Capulet, and House of Paris; Mrs Holden Acting his Wife, enter'd in a Hurry, Crying, O my Dear Count! She Inadvertently left out, O, in the pronuntiation of the Word Count! giving it a Vehement Accent, put the House into such a Laughter, that London Bridge at low-water was silence to it. This Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, was made some time after into a Tragi-comedy, by Mr James Howard, he preserving Romeo and Juliet alive; so that when the Tragedy was Reviv'd again, twas Play'd Alternately, Tragical one Day, and Tragicomical another; for several Days together. [No specific notices are known which would indicate when Howard's version appeared.

Event Comment: The Journal of Sir Richard Bulstrode (p. 19): This evening is repeated in the great Hall by foure persons of quality the Indian Emper, but the Company is made very private, soe as few attempt to gett in. Jean Chappuzeau, Le Theatre Francois (Paris, 1675), p. 55, states that in 1668 he saw a revival of The Indian Emperor in London. Pepys, Diary: 14 Jan.: They fell to discourse of last night's work at court, where the ladies and Duke of Monmouth and others acted The IndianEmperour; wherein they told me these things most remarkable: that not any woman but the Duchesse of Monmouth and Mrs Cornwallis did any thing but like fools and stocks, but that these two did do most extraordinary well: that not any man did any thing well but Captain O'Bryan, who spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably. That she did sit near the players of the Duke's house; among the rest, Mis Davis, who is the most impertinent slut, she says, in the world; and the more, now the King do show her countenance; and is reckoned his mistress, even to the scorne of the whole world; the King gazing on her, and my Lady Castlemayne being melancholy and out of humour, all the play, not smiling once. The King, it seems, hath given her a ring of #700, which she shews to every body, and owns that the King did give it her; and he hath furnished a house for her in Suffolke Street most richly, which is a most infinite shame. It seems she is bastard of Colonell Howard, my Lord Berkshire, and that he do pimp to her for the King, and hath got her for him; but Pierce says that she is a most homely jade as ever she saw, though she dances beyond any thing in the world

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Jean Chappuzeau, Le Theatre Francois (Paris, 1675), states that he saw a revival of this play in 1668. Pepys, Diary: Sent my wife and Deb. to see Mustapha acted...and so to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there saw the last act for nothing. Where I never saw such good acting of any creature as Smith's part of Zanger; and I do also, though it was excellently acted by [...], do yet want Betterton mightily

Event Comment: Afterpiece: an Act of Extraordinary Entertainment. For the last Time of Acting at the King's Theatre in the Hay-Market

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill retains Incledon as Paris. but "An apology was made for Incledon, and his part was sustained by Mrs Lee" (Morning Herald, 11 Nov.).] Receipts: #211 9s. 6d. (202.10.6; 8.19.0)

Event Comment: A Serious Opera in 2 acts [1st time; altered by Carlo Francesco Badini from Demetrio, by Metastasio]; the music by Gresnick. By their Majesties' Command no person can be admitted behind the scenes. Pit 10s. 6d. 1st Gallery 5s. 2nd Gallery 3s. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin exactly at 7:30 [see 2 June 1787]. Subscriptions are received at Messrs Ransom, Morland and Hammersley's, Bankers, No. 57, Pall-mall, who will deliver the subscription tickets. The Nobility and Gentry, subscribers to the Opera-house, are respectfully intreated to send for them, in order to prevent future mistakes, as nobody can be admitted without producing a ticket. To prevent inconvenience to the Nobility and Gentry in getting to their carriages, they are most respectfully intreated to give positive orders to their servants to set down and take up with their horses' heads towards Pall-mall. The doors in Market-lane for chairs only. [Synopsis of opera in Morning Post, 25 Dec. Mme Perignon and Goyon were from the Opera, Paris.] Receipts: #86 11s. 6d. [These receipts, and those on all other nights throughout the opera season, represent the sale of non-subscription tickets. On this night 400 tickets were delivered to Prendergrass, office-keeper at the Haymarket pit entrance; of these he sold 84 at 10s. 6d. (i.e. #44 2s.). 100 were delivered to Reynolds, office-keeper at the King's Door pit entrance; he sold 6 at 10s. 6d. (i.e. #3 3s.). 300 were delivered to Butler, office-keeper of the 1st Gallery; he sold 112 at 5s. (i.e. #28). 200 were delivered to Snelson, office-keeper of the 2nd Gallery; he sold 70 at 3s. (i.e. #10 10s.). "Difference from Gallery to Pit" (i.e. money received from persons who changed their seats from gallery to pit, 16s. 6d.). The delivery of 1,000 non-subscription tickets to be disposed of was almost invariably the case on every night of the season. If a subscriber's box was released for sale it could be had for 2 guineas (see 6 Feb. 1787).

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Griffiths, formerly of Drury-Lane Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:00. Tickets delivered by Griffiths for the 27th of February will be taken. Tickets and Places to be had of Griffiths, at the Theatre, every Morning from 10 till 12. Fires are kept to keep the Theatre warm

Event Comment: Written by Shakespear. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Hobson at the Stage-Door of the Theatre. As the Admittance of Persons behind the Scenes has occasioned a general Complaint on Account of the frequent Interruptions in the Performance, tis hop'd Gentlemen won't be offended, that no Money will be taken there for the future. [This notice appears on succeeding bills for the season and will hence not be repeated. See note on public objection to nonadmittance behind scenes 22 Feb. 1748.] Receipts: #150 (Cross); #I26 12s. (Clay MS). Nichols Literary Anecdotes, II, 319-20: There is one part of theatrical conduct which ought unquestionably to be recorded to Mr Garrick's honour, since the cause of virtue and morality and the formation of public manners are very considerably dependent upon it, and that is the zeal with which he ever aimed to banish from the stage all those plays which carry with them an immoral tendency, and to prune from those which do not absolutely on the whole promote the interests of vice such scenes of licentiousness and libertinism as a redundency of wit and too great liveliness of imagination have induced some of our comic writers to indulge themselves in, and to which the sympathetic disposition of an age of gallantry and intrigue had given a sanction. The purity of the English stage was certainly much more fully establish'd during the administration of this theatrical minister than it had ever been during preceding managements; for, what the publick taste had itself to some measure begun, he, by keeping that taste within its proper channel, and feeding it with a pure and untainted stream, seems to have completed; and to have endeavoured as much as possible to adhere to the promise made in the prologue which was spoken at the first opening of that theatre under his direction, @Bade scenic virtue form the rising age@And truth diffuse her radiance from the stage.

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Mainpiece: Written by the celebrated Mrs Eliza Haywood. Not acted these 6 years. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2 (?)]: Written by a Comedian [unidentified. not in Larpent MS; not published]. The above Pieces have been a long Time in Rehearsal, and as no Expense has been spared in procuring respectable Performers from capital Theatres, there is no doubt (as the Comedies have sterling Merit) of their giving Satisfaction to the Audience. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15

Event Comment: [Prologue by George Colman, the elder (Colman, Prose, 10,239).] Afterpiece: Written by the Author of The Son-in-Law [John O'Keeffe]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice at the Theatre. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s.] The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. On 24 May Colman inserted the following in Public Advertiser: The Theatre Royal in the Haymarket will open next Saturday. In order to avoid unnecessary' Repetitions during the Season, the Public are desired, once for all, to take Notice that every Performance at this Theatre will be exhibited to most brilliant, crouded and OVERFLOWING audiences; and received with loud and universal Bursts of most UNBOUNDED and UNCOMMON Applause

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Ferdinand to Johnstone, but "The sudden illness of Johnstone gave much dissatisfaction, though Cubitt did all in his power to supply his place" (Town and Country Magazine, Sept. 1785, p. 451). William Palmer was from the Norwich theatre; Meadows from the HAY.] The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 14 Nov.]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon, at the Stage-Door. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.] The Alterations and Improvements in the Theatre this Season are made by Richards, and executed under his Superintendance by Catton and others. [Public Advertiser, 22 Sept., notes that these improvements consisted of the enlargement of the boxes, in which "the seats are formed into recesses which communicate with the other boxes"; all the pillars, "even those of iron in the back boxes [being] capped, cased, fluted and gilt"; the front of the boxes and galleries being newly painted a "warm lilac"; the back of the boxes being wainscotted and painted crimson.] Paid Charewomen for cleaning Theatre #13 0s. 6d. Receipts: #214 2s. 6d. (210/10/0; 3/12/6)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Everard. 1st piece [1st time; PREL 1, by Sarah Gardner. Larpent MS 1101; not published]. 2nd piece: Never acted here [acted 19 Aug. 1784]. [3rd piece: Prologue by Samuel Foote.] Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:15. Tickets to be had at No. 21, Carey-street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields; New Slaughter's Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane; of Adams, the Duke of Clarence Coffee-house, Haymarket; and of Everard, at Mr Shade's, Woburn-street, near Drury Lane Theatre