Event Comment: Benefit for Widow of the late Miles. Tickets deliver'd for King Lear will be taken

Event Comment: Timon published at 1s. 6d. Tomorrow will be publish'd, Beautifully printed, The Theatres: A poetical Dissection by Sir Nicholas Nipclose, printed for John Bell. [See 17 Dec. and 1 Jan. 1772.] King's share of Bristol Theatre purchas'd by Dodd (Winston MS 10). Paid Mr Weston's Bill to Mr Best #4 5s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #136 13s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mr Garrick Bays 1st time these four years Very fine House (Hopkins Diary). Mrs King many years actress and dancer will leave the stage at her Benefit. Garrick [will] play for her (Winston MS 10). Paid Marshall & Co. (plumbers) #11 9s. 6d.; Mr Racket (taylor) #20 6d.; Mr Hatsell (mercer) #29 6d.; Mr Ireland (upholsterer) #34 7s.; Barrow & Co (oil merchants) #88 10s.; Printer's Bill #8 12s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #280 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: With alterations and additions, particularly Two Views of the Eruption of Mt Vesuviusv. [See 26 Dec. 1771.] Garrick has withdrawn his motion, King's Bench (Winston MS 10). [See 2 July 1772.] Paid Mrs Abington's cloaths, 2 weeks, #2; Paid Messrs Baddeley, Jacobs, Lings & Mrs Egerton, salary short-paid last week, 18s. 6d.; Paid Mr Weston's note to Mr Spencer #10 10s. [Mrs Abington's contract seems to have included #60 for clothes which she provided for herself. The amount was paid to her in 26 weekly payments of #2 each and 10 payments of #1 each throughout the season. No further listing of this expenditure will be made.] Paid 3 days salary list at #80 16s. 1d. per diem, #242 8s. 3d.; Mr S. French, 6 days, #1 10s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #162 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: [The preliminary number of The Westminster Magazine this date heartily condemned Colman's Comus "picked down into a skeleton," his production of King Henry VIII, and the new play Cross Purposes.] Receipts: #172 10s

Event Comment: Rec'd Stopages #29 10s. 6d.; Paid salary list #522 18s.; Mr King 29 nights additional salary (29th inst. incl.) #14 10s.; Mr Loutherbourg's draft #120. Receipts: #241 15s. 6d. (Treaurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. Rec'd Stopages #29 8s. 6d.; Paid Salary List at #88 3s. 8d. per diem--#529 2s.; Mr King's extra salary #3; Mrs Greville, 12 nights not on list #5; Mrs Canning on acct #10 10s. Receipts: #160 8s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: The Bills were posted for the School for Wives but Mr King sent word about Eleven o'clock that he was so ill he could not play & fresh bills were put up for Zara. Mrs Barry being out of Town Miss Younge play'd Zara & was very well receiv'd (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly in wording.] Paid Chorus 2 nights (this incl.) #4 1s. Receipts: #195 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: This Benefit was given to Mr Kennedy of a dreadful Fire that happened at Mr Youngers in King Street Covent Garden where Mr Kennedy was burnt out (Hopkins Diary). N.B. This night's salary given by part of the Company to the other sufferers #52 6s. 6d. Given by the Managers #6 18s. plus #3 12s. undercharged or 10 guineas. The Music gave this night's pay #7 17s. 6d. to Mr Kennedy, not having subscribed to him before (Treasurer's Book). [See 6 May.] Paid 1 yrs Poor's rate for Covt. Garden to Lady Day Last #2 16s. 8d.; Housekeeper's bills (4 weeks) #15 5s. 7d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts:#128 14s. 6d. Charges: #84. Profits to Kennedy: #44 14s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. Paid 2 extra Flutes 2 nights (21st incl.) #1; Mr King (glassman) #9 15s. Receipts: #247 7s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mr Garrick inexpressibly fine. Mrs Abington Beatrice, first time-very Great Applause (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly.] Paid Sparks and Co. Lace Bill #10 15s. Mr King (glassman) for lustres his bill #75 2s. (Treasurer's Book). [From the Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser, 7 Nov.: "The desertion of the theatres in consequence of the disease with which so many are afflicted, has been productive of one agreeable effect, that of bringing Mr Garrick forward in Benedict much earlier than was expected. It cannot be a matter of surprise that Roscius should have escaped the infection and his spirits and constitution seems proof against the attacks of age itself; after above 30 campaigns, his ardour and execution appear rather to increase. Benedict owes all its consequence to his attachment; there is a peculiar turn of humour in this soldier that none but Mr Garrick has ever been able to enter into the true spirit of. Last night he supported the character with undiminished excellence, and in the speech where he meditates and then resolves on marriage, he soared beyond himself. Beatrice is Shakespeare's Benedict in petticoats, and very happily has got into the hands of Mrs Abington" (Quoted in Hampden, Eighteenth Century Journal).] Receipts: #264 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command. [No mention of the King and Queen in Treasurer's Book.] Paid Mr Grist on act by order #10. Receipts: #280 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: House (Hopkins Diary). Garrick's last time of performing Benedict . In the Farce the whole set of Clouds fell down upon the Stage but did no Damage (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly.] King was hoarse. Spleen deferr'd. Receipts: #270 10s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Public Advertiser, 3 Mar.: "A new Prologue was spoken by King on Saturday Evening, and received with uncommon Applause." [Mrs Sherborn is identified in Lysons, Collectanea.] Receipts: #215 16s. 6d. (187.12.0; 25.17.0; 2.7.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Younge. Interlude [1st time; M. INT I, by Edward Jerningham]: Interspersed with Music [by James Hook. Text 1st published in Jerningham's Poems, vol. I (J. Robson, 1786)]. Public Advertiser, 20 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Miss Younge at Thelwall's, Silk Mercer, King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #222 9s. (80.14; 18.10; 1.19; tickets: 121.6) (charge: #65 17s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Robinson. Morning Chronicle, 6 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Robinson, at Parviso's, No. 114, Long acre. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Mary Robinson. Larpent MS 447; not published]: The Music chiefly compiled. Tickets delivered for King Lear will be taken. Books of the Performances to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #153 17s. 6d. (57.8.0; 21.3.6; 0.10.0: tickets: 74.16.0) (charge: #78 11s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [These performances were held in a temporary booth erected following the destruction of the theatre by fire (see 26 June). In August King Lear, with Everard as Lear and Cooke as Edgar, was acted here three times [Edward Cape Everard, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Son of Thespis [Edinburgh, 1018], p.78). Everard states that the booth was kept open for about six weeks, but no further records of what was acted have survived.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Green. Tickets delivered for the 31st of March will be taken. Public Advertiser, 15 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Green at her house in King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #262 9s. (199.4; tickets: 63.5) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of King Lear, announced on playbill of 10 Nov.] Receipts: #112 5s. 6d. (110/15/0; 1/10/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by John O'Keeffe, altered from his The Banditti (see 28 Nov. 1781). Text in his Dramatic Works, Vol. 1 (T. Woodfall, 1798)]: With new Scenes [by Carver (O'Keeffe, u, 38)], Dresses, and a new Overture. The Selected Airs by Handel, Vento, Giordani, Giardini, Bertoni, Dr Arne, and Carolan, the Irish Bard. The Overture and New Airs composed by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [This was Sga Sestini's 1st appearance on the English-speaking stage. For several preceding seasons she had been a member of the Italian opera company performing at the King's.] "Sestini . . . was handsome, sprightly, and a good actress, if great exuberance of gesticulation, activity of motion, and affected Italian smorfie could make her one; but her voice was gritty and sharp (something like singing through a comb), and she was nothing of a singer, except for lively comic airs. Yet she was . . . long a favourite with the mass of the public, though not with the connoisseurs" (Mount-Edgcumbe, p. 33). Account-Book, 30 June 1783: Paid O'Keeffe in full for The Castle of Andalusia #368 18s. 6d. Receipts: #166 2s. 6d. (165/9/0; 0/13/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett and Chapman. Public Advertiser, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 24, King Street, Holbourn; of Chapman, No. 49, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years. The Music by Barthelemon. Receipts: #160 15s. (39/5; 10/4; 0/4; tickets: 111/2) (charge: #108 18s. 8d.)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Staunton as King John, but on the Kemble playbill a MS annotation substitutes L'Estrange.] Receipts: #223 13s. (211/18; 11/15)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)