Event Comment: Benefit for Delpini. [Mrs Delpini's 1st appearance at this theatre was on 28 May 1789.] Public Advertiser, 26 May: Tickets to be had of Delpini, No. 17, Tavistock-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #285 2s. (153.2.6; 5.9.6; tickets: 126.10.0)

Event Comment: [The playbilll retains Bannister as Diego, but he, "whose absence from Covent-Garden Theatre on Thursday evening was represented to the audience as the effect of indispostion, appeared that night at the Ranelagh Masquerade. We can remember no instance of disrespect from a performer to the town equal to this" (Gazetteer, 14 Feb.). The name of his substitute is not given.] Receipts: #196 11s. (189.0; 7.11)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2. Larpent MS 980; not published]: By a Gentleman of the Bar [Horatio Edgar Robson]. The Story partly founded on the celebrated old Scotch Ballad of the Heir of Lynne. The Irish, Scotch, Italian and French Airs selected, and the new Music and Medley Overture composed by Reeve. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #488 9s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 1st piece: Not acted these 20 years [never previously acted at this theatre]. Morning Herald, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlet-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #349 16s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time; M. INT I; author unknown. MS: Larpent 1022; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Herald, 10 May]: Books of the Songs may be had at the Theatre. [In 4th piece Brown is identified in Thespian Magazine, June 1794, p. 226.] Morning Chronicle, 5 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #272 19s. (81/14; 5/12; tickets: 185/13)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 1st piece: with Grand Naval Review, as 20 Aug. 3rd piece: By the permission of Thomas Harris, Esq.; never acted at this Theatre. [Mrs Fawcett was from CG.] Morning Chronicle, 23 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Mainpiece: In Act II the admired Procession from the Grand Spectacle of Hercules and Omphale, with the entire Decorations, Music, Dance, Dresses, &c. adapted and introduced in the Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon. 3rd piece: Never acted at this theatre. Morning Chronicle, 26 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, No. 6, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #392 6s. 6d. (273.4.0; 13.4.0 ; tickets: 105.18.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Elizabeth Inchbald. Author of Prologue unknown]: With new Dresses, Scenery, &c. Morning Herald, 4 Apr. 1797: This Day is published Wives as they Were, and Maids as they Are (2s). "The Manager of Covent Garden Theatre gives Mrs Inchbald #500 for her new Comedy" (True Briton, 13 Mar.). Receipts: #302 13s. 6d. (295.9.0; 7.4.6)

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: "Incledon is no longer under any engagement at Covent-garden Theatre; having shewn a good deal of restiveness at being obliged to sing in the after-piece of Joan of Arc, he applied to Mr Harris on Friday [16 Feb.] to deliver him up his articles, which was instantly complied with" (Times, 19 Feb.). [On 22 Feb. and 15 Mar. Incledon acted, by Command; but not again until 14 Apr.] Receipts: #256 18s. 6d. (239.10.6; 17.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Four Youngest Orphans of the late Mr Palmer [see dl, 18 June]. As it is presumed that the well-known liberality of the Publick will be strongly excited on the present occasion, the Proprietor of the [Haymarket] Theatre has requested the use of the Opera-House for this Evening, that the largest number of persons who wish to patronize the undertaking may be accomodated with places. The Proprietor of the Opera-House has, with the utmost readiness, granted the request. Tickets to be had of the Miss Palmers, at Dixon's, Upholsterer, the corner of Bedford-Court, Bedford-Street, Covent-Garden; of Messrs Ransom, Morland and Co., Bankers, Pall-Mall; of Jewell, No. 26, Suffolk-Street, Charing-Cross, of whom, and of Rice, at the Box-Office, Places for the Boxes may be taken. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. "[His brother] R. Palmer attempted to deliver an address at the end of the play, but he was so much overpowered that he...left the address unrecited, and [his] part in the farce was given up to another performer" (Monthly Mirror, Aug. 1798, p. 117, which also records that the receipts were approximately #700)

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: To the New Theatre [Vere St], which, since the King's players are gone to the Royal one [Bridges St], is this day begun to be employed by the fencers to play prizes at

Event Comment: The King's Company. For praise of Lacy, see Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 16, or 27 Nov. 1662. Pepys, Diary: To the Royal Theatre by water, and landing, met with Captain Ferrers his friend, the little man that used to be with him, and he with us, and sat by us while we saw Love in a Maze. The play is pretty good, but the life of the play is Lacy's part, the clown, which is most admirable; but for the rest, which are counted such old and excellent actors, in my life I never heard both men and women so ill pronounce their parts, even to my making myself sick therewith

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list at Harvard. See William VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 13. The edition of 1668 states: As it was Acted (with great Applause) by the Servants of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, at the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn Fields

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216: K: & Q:. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 406. BM Add. Mss. 27, 962v, f. 312 (a transcript of a newsletter by Salvetti), 14 Dec. 1674 (translation): On last Wednesday all the royal family were present at the theatre to hear the tragedy of Hamlet, which, for their greater entertainment, was adorned and embellished with very curious dances between the acts. [I am indebted to Professor George Hilton Jones, Kansas State University, for this item.

Event Comment: [Newdigate newsletters (Folger Shakespeare Library), 4 Feb. 1674@5: Tuesday night after Counsell their Maties & Court were present at the Rehearsal of the great Maske wch is to be publiquely acted on Shrove Tuesday; by wch tyme her Royall Highness will be able to be present at it, being already very well after her Lying in, as is also ye young princess (Wilson, Theatre Notes, p. 79). The Bulstrode Papers (1, 277): 8 Feb. 1674@5: On Wed night after Councell their Maties and Royal Highnesses were present at the rehearsall of the Great Maske wch will be publiquely acted on Tuesday 7 night next. [The two sources agree on the intended date of the performance but disagree upon the date of the rehearsal.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is known by the separately printed Prologue and Epilogue: Prologue. By Mr Otway to his Play call'd Venice preserv'd or the Plot discover'd. Acted at His Royal Highness the Duke of Yorks Theatre, the 9th of February, 1681. [These have been reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 61-66.] Luttrell dated his copy of the Prologue and Epilogue 11 Feb. 1681@2 (Huntington Library). It is not certain that 9 Feb. 1681@2 represents the first performance, but it may well be. For a comment by Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, on Mrs Barry, see The Orphan, February 1679@80

Event Comment: On this day Charles II died. Although the order to close the theatres was not issued until 20 Feb. 1684@5 (L. C. 5@145, p. 153), acting Probably ceased on Thursday 5 Feb. 1684@5. At this time John Crowne's Sir Courtly Nice was in rehearsal. John Dennis gives a dramatic account of the last day of rehearsing: The Play was now just ready to appear to the World; and as every one that had seen it rehears'd was highly pleas'd with it; every one who had heard of it was big with the Expectation of it; and Mr Crown was delighted with the flattering Hope of being made happy for the rest of his Life, by the Performance of the King's Promise; when, upon the very last Day of the Rehearsal, he met Cave Underhill coming from the Play-House as he himself was going towards it; Upon which the Poet reprimanding the Player for neglecting so considerable a Part as he had in the Comedy, and neglecting it on a Day of so much Consequence, as the very last Day of Rehearsal: Oh Lord, Sir, says Underhill, we are all undone. Wherefore, says Mr Crown, is the Play-House on Fire? The whole Nation, replys the Player, will quickly be so, for the King is dead. At the hearing which dismal Words, the Author was little better; for he who but the Moment before was ravish'd with the Thought of the Pleasure, which he was about to give to his King, and of the Favours which he was afterwards to receive from him, this Moment found, to his unspeakable Sorrow, that his Royal Patron was gone for ever, and with him all his Hopes. The King indeed reviv'd from his Apoplectick Fit, but three Days after dyed, and Mr Crown by his Death was replung'd in the deepest Melancholy (John Dennis, Original Letters, 1721, I, 53-54). [It is not clear whether the last sentence refers to the day on which Crowne had seen the King and had assurances from His Majesty, the King dying three days later, or whether there was a false rumor of the King's death on 3 Feb. 1684@5.

Event Comment: By His Royal Highnesses' Command. By the Company of Comedians from both Theatres. The Pit and Boxes to be laid together

Event Comment: By His Royal Highness's Command at the Opening of Mr Penkethman's New Theatre at Richmond. At 6 p.m. [The Prologue was printed in the Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 13 June.

Event Comment: At Mr Penkethman's Theatre, before their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess

Event Comment: Daily Journal, 15 April: Paris April 2. The Company belonging to the Italian Opera at London are to come and Act here during the Month of July, and to oblige the Publick with 12 several Representations at the Theatre of the Palace Royal: In Consideration of which 35000 Livres will be given to the five Principal Actors and their Charges defray's

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 28 March: Their Majesties, together with his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Princesses were again...to see Deborah...at which was likewise present one of the most numerous Audiences of Nobility and Persons of Distinction that has been ever seen in any Theatre. Egmont, Diary, I, 345: It was very magnificent, near a hundred performers, among whom about twenty-five singers. [See also Lady A. Irwin to Lord Carlisle, in Deutsch, Handel, pp. 309-10.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Taken from Moliere by the late Mr Betterton. Afterpiece: As 8 Nov. [HAY also announces it intends to perform a new masque, Love and Glory, in honor of the approaching Royal Nuptials, but, the time being short, the theatre will first bring on an Impromptu Revel Masque]

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Text by Metastasio. Music by J. A. Hasse and R. Broschi.] Pit and Boxes by Tickets at a half guinea. Gallery 5s. 6 P.M. Daily Advertiser, 30 Oct.: All the Royal Family were at the Opera, when Signior Farinelli perform'd . . . with prodigious Applause. The Theatre was exceedingly crowded