Event Comment: Mainpiece: Music by Arne

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Music by Dr Arne. Receipts: #90 (Cross); #92 3s. (Powel)

Event Comment: fterpiece]: A Masque by Mr Dodsley. Went off Toll (Cross). New Dresses, Scenes, Decorations, &c. Music compos'd by Mr Arne. Nothing under Full prices will be taken. [Customary note for all subsequent performances this season. Will not be repeated.] Receipts: #170 (Cross); #161 19s. (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lowe. Afterpiece: A New Musical Drama, never performed, taken from Prior. The Music by Mr Arne. Stage will be formed into an amphitheatre where servants may keep places. This day publish'd at 10s. 6d. Susanna, an Oratorio in score by Handel. Printed for J. Walsh

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Dramatic Masque reviv'd. With proper Decorations, particularly a Grand Scene of Comus's Palace. The Music composed by Mr Arne. Receipts: #90 (Cross)

Event Comment: A new musical entertainment compos'd & wrote by Mr Arne--it was much hiss'd but suffer'd to be given out again (Cross). No latter account will be taken. Books of the Entertainment to be had at the theatre. [Pages covering this date missing from Treasurer's Book. Larpent MS 85 indicates the Character Capt. Sancho-Blakes, deleted.] Receipts: #100 ($Cross)

Event Comment: The Conscious Lovers was given out, & in the Bills for this Night, but Mr Barry being ill, Mr Garrick made an Apology & ye Audience took ye P; Wife in its stead. Mr Barry over night said he wou'd not play, so that his sickness was doubted--the Farce was ill receiv'd that in ye middle I went on & said--Gent: we must beg yr Indulgence in permitting this piece to be perform'd once more, for the benefit of Mr Arne who has taken great pains in composing the Music & it shall be play'd no more--Applause (Cross). Bill alter'd from the Conscious Lovers, Mr Barry saying he was ill (Treasurer's Book). No latter account. Books of the Entertainment to be had at the theatre. Receipts: #90 (Cross); #78 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: At the Crown Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange. Composed by Dr Arne. Tickets by Subscription. To begin at 6 p.m. A Caecilian concert

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Arne the composer of it (Cross). [Cross omits receipts for this night.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Reduc'd to two acts. After which (being particularly desired) will be performed the New Serenata, composed by Dr Arne in honour of the late Royal Nuptials

Event Comment: Books of the Opera to be sold at the Theatre. Never acted before. Comic opera, Music composed by Dr Arne

Event Comment: A New Opera, the Musick by Dr Arne. [A general rehearsal had been put on for subscribers on Friday.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Farce with songs in character, and a new Overture composed by Dr Arne

Event Comment: The Rose is a New Musical performance of Two Acts by Dr Arne a very dull insipid piece. Mr G. protested against its being perform'd its being perform'd it was hiss'd from the beginning & wd not Suffer it to be given out again, therefore Mr King went on & told them it Should not be perform'd again until it be alter'd (Hopkins Diary). [Macmillan's note from Kemble differs slightly. See critical damnation of The Rose in British Theatre Article in The London Magazine, Dec. 1772.] Book of the Entertainment to be had at the Theatre (playbill). Paid Mr Petit for men's cloaths, #8 8s. CTreasurer's Book). [Reviewer for Town and Country Magazine (Theatre, No. XLI) disappointed with the Rose: "We are told that this precious piece of stuff is the production of an Oxford student; it may be so, of this every auditor is certain, that the collegian who penned it was so entirely lost in the pursuit of some abstruse study, that he has totally forgot grammar, common sense, and even his mother tongue...it was unanimously damn'd."] Receipts: #172 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Tragedy [by Arthur Murphy] never performed The Music by Dr Arne. The Characters New Dress'd. [Long account and generally unfavorable review of Alzuma in the Westminster Magazine for March.] Receipts: #206 18s. 6d

Event Comment: Music for Afterpiece composed by Dr Arne

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Comic Opera altered [by Colman] from Gay. The Music entirely new by Dr Arne. Now acted for the first time in 2 Acts. [The 1776 Edition in Bell's British Theatre lists: Achilles-Mattocks; Peripas-$Reinhold; Lycomedes-$DuBellamy; Diphilus-$Dyer; Ajax-$Dunstall; Ulysses-$Owenson; Diomedes-$Fox; Argytes-$Baker; Deidamia-$Mrs Mattocks; Artemona-$Miss Brown; Philoe-$Miss Valois; Thetis-$Miss Catley. [$Miss Pearce may have played Lesbia).] Paid Banks for the Head of a Figure used in The Fair #1 1s.; Paid Mr Gard for performing 5 nights in the Fair and 3 in the Sorcerer #1. Paid Joseph Besford for performing 5 nights in the Fair 12s. 6d. (Account Book). [Afterpiece unfavorably reviewed in the Westminster Magazine.] Receipts: #149 18s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: An Operetta of Two Acts. Music entirely New by Dr Arne. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. To begin at 7:00 p.m. Being desired by many persons of quality

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time in London; DR. POEM 5, by William Mason, 1st acted at Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, 30 Mar. 1764]: Written on the Model of the ancient Greek Tragedy. The Overture and all the Music composed New by Dr Arne. With a New Scene designed and executed by Dahl [recte Dall]. The Dresses, Decorations, &c. all entirely New. Books of the Lyrical Part of the Drama to be had at the Theatre. 'But I had rather talk of Caractacus; I agree that he will not suffer by not being sputtered by Barry, who has lost all his teeth. Covent Garden is rather above Drury Lane in actors, but both sets are exceedingly bad, so bad-that I almost wish Caractacus was not to appear. Very seldom do I go to the play, for there is no bearing such strollers" (Walpole [to the author, 8 Oct. 1776], IX, 419-20). "I attended Caractacus last winter, and was greatly interested, both from my friendship for Mr Mason and from the excellence of the poetry. I was out of all patience; for though a young Lewis played a subordinate part very well, and Mrs Hartley looked her part charmingly, the Druids were so massacred, and Caractacus so much worse, that I never saw a more barbarous exhibition" (Walpole [13 July 1777], X, 81-82). Public Advertiser, 7 Dec. 1776: This Day is published the Lyrical Part of Caractacus (6d.). [The publisher, J. Wilkie, states that he also has the "whole Drama, as altered by the Author, 18d." Ibid., 9 Dec., contains an advertisement from Mason stating that this version is unauthorized.] Ibid., 12 Dec.: This Day is published [by A. Ward of York] a new Edition of Caractacus, now altered for Representation at the Theatre-Royal in Covent Garden (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #163 10s. (163.6; 0.4)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; PAST 3]: Taken from [The Winter's Tale, by] Shakespeare [altered by George Colman elder]. Afterpiece: Likewise taken from [A Midsummer-Night's Dream, by] Shakespeare. Books of both pieces to be had at the Theatre. The Musick of both pieces by the most eminent Composers [i.e. Michael Arne, Dibdin, Dr Burney, Hook, Theodore Smith, Dr Arnold]. The Characters new dressed

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Morton. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald; Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. True Briton, 19 Jan.: Morton was paid #400, and #150 "for the Copy-right, which Harris has purchased." Ibid., 27 Mar.: This Day was published A Cure for the Heart Ache (2s.). Receipts: #237 15s. (236.0; 1.15)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hill, Rees and Miss Sims. Morning Chronicle, 6 June: Tickets to be had of Hill, No. 24, Bow-street, opposite the Pit Door. [Others not listed.] 2nd piece [1st time: M. INT 1]. Receipts: #287 7s. (50.17.6; 4.0.6; tickets: 232.9.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; music by Thomas Linley Sen.]: With entire new Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Scenery designed by DeLoutherbourg, and executed under his Direction. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Receipts: #257 19s. (249.16; 8.3)