Event Comment: Benefit Mr and Mrs W. Mills

Event Comment: Benefit W. Grove, M.R. by Command of the Honourable Court of Non-Common-Pleas. The Gentlemen of the Society are desir'd to meet at their Court, at Sir John's, at 5 o'Clock exactly, from thence to proceed to the Theatre. 6 p.m. 5s., 4s., 2s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Acted before. [By James Miller.] Daily Advertiser, 6 March: We hear that Sir John Barnard has offerM a Proposal limiting the Number of Playhouses, and for putting them under the Regulation of Parliament

Event Comment: Benefit Mons Salle's Widow. N.B. Whereas it has been reported that the Box-Keepers . . . were to have their Benefit Night [Wednesday 19] ... it is false ... Witness our Hands. M. Mason. W. Cossins. J. Skinner

Event Comment: Benefit W. Bodle, a Brother [who has been ill for two years]. At the particular Desire of several Free and Accepted Masons. Written by Mr Farquhar. 4s., 2s. 6d., 1s. 6d. 6 P.M

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Alter'd from Shakespear by Sir W. Davenant and Mr Dryden. Afterpiece: Written by the Author of the Toy Shop

Event Comment: Benefit the Author of the Farce, and Miss Burgess. Mainpiece: As originally written by Shakespear. Supervised, Read over, Revised, and Unalter'd. [For a puff (signed by W. Shakespear), see Daily Advertiser, 4 March.

Event Comment: At Fawkes-Pinchbeck Booth a machine and a puppet show were staged; at W. Hallam's Booth rope dancers and tumblers performed

Event Comment: Ever studious for Public Amusement, I...strayed last Week, to a place near the Haymarket in Westminster, and Temple Bar in Middlesex, call'd James's St., where at the New Theatre, a Play called the Miser, with an Entertainment called the Old Man Bit, or Harlequin Skeleton, I saw rehears'd. J. W. Gray's Inn 12 Oct.-Theatrical Clippings, Folger Library. Benefit Julian Late of Goodman's Fields Theatre. At the New Theatre in James St., near Haymarket...a Concert. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 1s. 6d. Gallery 1s. 6 p.m. Note, Mr Julian taken this Opportunity to acquaint his Friends, that these Performances will be done with the utmost Regularity and Decoration, most of the Performers having belong'd to the Theatres. [This customary notice about the concert, time and prices will not be included unless changed.

Event Comment: During this month was publish'd The Dramatic Congress, a short state of the stage under present management, by W. R. Chetwynd. The older actors and dramatists sit in Elysium and discuss the fate of the theatre under Fleetwood and Rich. Much on cartels and the decay of the stage, and the chicanery indulged in to starve the Macklin-Garrick revolters. Probably about this time was also publish'd Tyranny Triumphant...Or Historical and critical remarks on the famous Cartel lately agreed on by the masters of the two theatres, by Patrick Fitz-Crambo. Discusses the rumor that Rich shut up Lincoln's Inn Fields for six months and for #600 gave the key to the Manager of Drury Lane, leaving the actors to starve, and the town to be satisfied with whatever nonsense Drury Lane chose to put on

Event Comment: Never acted before. After the manner of Ben Johnson [by James Ralph]. The Receipts...upon the First Night were but Twenty-One Pounds...and...when the Manager had the Generosity to Risque a Second...he was oblig'd to shut up his Doors for want of an Audience [from Preface to printed edition]

Event Comment: The Gentlemen and Ladies that had tickets for Mr W. Hallam's Benefit of Richard III [16 Dec.] and could not come in then, Mr Hallam hopes they will come this night and their Tickets will be admitted[repeated in bills for 27, 28, and 30 Dec.]

Event Comment: By Desire of the Officers of the two Regiments of the Tower Hamlets. Gentlemen and Ladies who had tickets for Mr W. Hallam's Benefit of Richard III and could not come then, Mr Hallam hopes they will come tonight, and their Tickets will be admitted

Event Comment: To the Author of the General Advertiser, Sir: Nothing but the Necessity of my Affairs could urge me to an address of this nature but having met with several unexpected and unavoidable misfortunes I beg leave to inform the Publick, through your means, that in order to extricate myself from my present difficulties, I have, by the indulgence of the Manager, obtain'd a Benefit before my Usual Time, which is to be the Careless Husband and the Devil to Pay on Saturday the 1st of March. As I have now put my Affairs into such a situation, that I think I shall never give the like trouble again, but at the proper time, I hope this notice will not be thought impertinent, or lessen those favours I have so often experienced, and which I am desirous of taking every opportunity to acknowledge, I am, Sir, &c W. Mills.--From dl Playhouse 8 Feb

Event Comment: A New Opera [a pasticcio by Gluck, chiefly from Tigrane, Sofonisbe, and Ipermestra; libretto revised by F. Vanneschi from B. Vitturi (Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, p. 104); see also W. B Squire, Musical Quarterly, I (1915).

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Being the most tragical tragedy that ever was tragedized by a company of tragedians. At the Particular Desire of Several Persons of Quality (General Advertiser). [The following unsigned statement of the financial condition of the theatre on 11 April is in the Harvard Collection of Documents dealing with affairs of Drury Lane, folio MS Thr. 12. This itemizes the outstanding liabilities to the amount of #8,808 14s. including #1,275 of arrears in actors' salaries]: I told Mr- the intended purchaser that the whole would not amount to #12,000. He said if it was more it should rest on me, for that was the utmost shilling he would give. But upon strict enquiry I find it will amount to #12,808 14s. This difference is not altogether owing to an error in calculation, but has been likewise heightened by a falling off of business, nor is it possible to ascertain the debt of a theatre for a day, it is of so fluctuating a nature. Q: whether this loss ought to light upon me, who have endeavored to get a purchaser & increased the value of the Estate to the utmost of my power? Errors excepted. [James Lacy or John Powel are the most likely authors of this statement. Whatever the authority, it is clear that settlement had not yet been made for transfer of ownership. For Powel, see G. W. Stone, Jr., The Authorship of Tit for Tat," Theatre Notebook, X (1955), 22-28.