Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Afterpiece: A new Farce never performed. Altered from Sir Charles Sedley's Piece of the same title by Dr Goldsmith. Acted only this night (playbill). [The notation on the alteration is by Kemble on the playbill. The characters are: Sourby, Octavio, Wentworth, Dancing Master, Scamper, Clarissa and Jenny. See Edition by Alice I. Perry Wood (Cambridge, Mass., 1931).] Charges #66 5s. Profit to Quick #7 6d., plus #80 from tickets (Box 100; Pit 263; Gallery 156) (Account Book). [Brief review of the Grumbler in the Westminster Magazine for May 1773: "It was several years ago translated from the French, and received this night some additional touches from the pen of Dr Goldsmith. An entertainment of one act cannot be expected to contain much. The whole merit of this is centered in one character, and perhaps in one scene."] Receipts: #73 5s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Waldron and Mrs Greville. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 23 April 1772.] Mrs Greville Sir Harry Wildair very bad (Hopkins Diary). Receipts: #58 4s. Charges: #65 19s. Deficit to Waldron and Mrs Greville: #7 15s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Last time but one of the Company's performing this season. House. Mr Garrick as before Mr Vernon being hoarse Mr Davies play'd Sr. John Loverule some body in the Pit call'd for Vernon as his Name was in the Bills Mr Davies told them that Mr Vernon had been ill these two day [sic] and it was thought unnecessary to trouble them with an apology they afterwards call'd for the Early Horn Mr Davies told them he did not know of doing the part till after two therefore he was not prepar'd. they call'd out & bid him go on his own way (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble omits the comment on the afterpiece. Song The Early Horn had been traditional for the part of Sir John for over 30 years. See 10 Sept. 1741.] Paid Mr Short, Chorus, 5s.; Blurton 4 days salary in full #1 6s. 8d.; French on acct #100. Receipts: #305 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Mainpiece in place of Sir Thomas Overbury; afterpiece of Comus, both announced on playbill of 4 Feb.] Receipts: #268 2s. (267.13; 0.9)

Event Comment: Benefit for Reddish [and his last appearance on the stage]. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Public Advertiser, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Reddish, No. 14, near the Turnpike, Tottenham Court Road. "Poor Reddish, on the 5th of May, had a benefit, and it was resolved to try whether he could not go through the character of Posthumus. He was now infirm; in common occurrences imbecile, but to be exited by his former profession, or nothing. The late John Ireland gave an affecting detail of this attempt. He met his friend an hour before the performance began. Reddish entered the room with the step of an idiot, his eye wandering, and his whole countenance vacant. Mr Ireland congratulated him, that he was sufficiently recovered to perform his favourite Posthumus. 'Yes', said he, 'and in the garden scene I shall astonish you.' 'The garden scene! I thought you were to play Posthumus?' 'No, Sir, I play Romeo.' His friend assured him that Posthumus was the part he was to act--and he walked to the theatre, reciting Romeo all the way. When dressed for Posthumus, and in the green-room, it was still hard to undeceive him--at length he was pushed upon the stage....The instant he came in sight of the audience his recollection seemed to return; his countenance resumed meaning, his eye became lighted up, he made the modest bow of respect, and played the scene as well as he had ever done. But Romeo again met him in the green-room, and it was only the stage cue that had the power to unsettle this delusion; and that never failed to do it through the whole play. Mr Ireland thought him, on this occasion, less assuming and more natural than he had seemed in the full enjoyment of his reason" (Boaden, Kemble, I, XVI-XVII; Ireland, 58-60)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen. Afterpiece: To end with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. After which will be an Historical Procession of the Several Companies, with their respective Pageants, and the Chief Magistrates belonging to the City of London, from its Foundation. Books of the Songs, with an Explanation of the Procession, to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #198 8s. 6d. (195/9/0; 2/19/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Clarke. Mainpiece: With the Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time in London; co 3, 1st acted at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 30 Jan. 1784. MS: Larpent 703, not published]: Written by [Robert] Jephson [with lyrics by Sir Nathaniel Barry (Larpent MS). In 1787 abridged by John O'Keeffe as Love and War]. With new Scenes and Decorations. A new Overture by the celebrated Haydn. The Airs by David Rizzio, [J. C] Bach, Paisiello, Duni, Carolan, Shield and Tenducci [i.e. "The Music partly compiled by Tenducci; the new Airs composed by Shield" (notice on playbill of 11 May)]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Afterpiece in place of The Lying Valet, announced on playbill of 11 May.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Sir Richard Steele's Comedy. Never acted at this theatre [acted 17 Mar. 1760, and advertised for performance on 10 Apr. 1764]. Receipts: #229 8s. 6d. (213.19.6; 15.9.0)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; ball. P 3, adapted by Sir George Collier from La Mort du Capitaine Cook a son Troisieme Voyage au Nouveau Monde, by Jean Francois Mussot, dit Arnould. For a detailed synopsis of the action, see 13 Apr.]: As now representing in Paris with uncommon Applause. With the original French Music. New Dresses, Scenery, Machinery and Decorations. Books, containing a description of the Ballet [by James Byrne (World, 23 Mar.)], to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #257 16s. 6d. (247.16.0; 10.0.6)

Event Comment: [Playbill of 2 Dec. states, correctly, that mainpiece was "2nd time these 16 years." In it the playbill assigns Sir John Melvil to Farren, but "Macready was the substitute for Farren" (World, 28 Nov.).] Receipts: #192 8s. 6d. (189.12.6; 2.16.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Sir Richard Steel. Receipts: #122 6s. 6d. (112.3.6; 10.3.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 9 years. [Mrs Worthington is identified in MS list in Kemble playbills of new performers for this season.] Ballet: 1st time; composed by Giacomo? Gentili. Afterpiece [1st time: ENT 1, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; acted in place of The Prize, advertised on playbill of 4 Mar. Text (C. Lowndes, 1797)]: Altered from a Dramatick Entertainment performed 1794 [The Glorious First of June]. In the course of which will be introduced a representation of the late Glorious Engagement between the British and Spanish Fleets on the Fourteenth of February [1797, under Sir John Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent]. Receipts: #253 9s. (151.2.6; 100.17.0; 1.9.6)

Event Comment: [Extra night] By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit the Widow of a Baronet [Sir Richard Perrott] and a large Infant Family. [Address by John Taylor (True Briton, 21 Sept.).] Tickets to be had of the Widow, No. 28, Spring-street, Portman-square [and see 28 Jan. 1799]

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for the Widow of a Baronet [Sir Richard Perrott], and a large Infant Family. Tickets to be had of Lady Perrott, No. 28, Spring-street, Portman-square

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pope. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. In I a Grand Banquet Scene. A Procession from the Abbey at the Coronation of Queen Anne Bullen. The Piece to conclude with the ceremony at the Royal Christening. [Holman's 1st appearance as King Henry was at this theatre, 24 May 1793.] Morning Chronicle, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Pope, Half Moon-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #391 0s. 6d. (299.15.6; 2.9.0; tickets: 88.16.0)

Event Comment: The United Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@147, p. 361: The King at ye Mistress. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 351. There is no indication as to whether this performance was the premiere. As the play was licensed on 24 May 1687, the premiere may have been as late as 12 May, but possibly was earlier. Sir George Etherege to Will Richards, 19 May 1687: I have heard of the success of The Eunuch, and am very glad the town has so good a taste to give the same just applause to Sir Charles Sedley's writing, which his friends have always done to his conversation (Letterbook, ed. Rosenfeld, p. 212). Sir George Etherege to Middleton, 2O June 1687: I saw a play about ten years ago Called the Eunuch, so heavy a lump the players durst not charge themselves with the dead weight, but it seems Sir Charles Sedley has animated the mighty mass and now it treads the stage lightly (ibid., p. 227). [See also 26 March 1687 and season of 1676-77.] Thomas Shadwell, The Tenth Satyr of Juvenal (licensed, 25 May 1687.) Dedication to Sir Charles Sedley: Your late great obligation in giving me the advantage [presumably the third day's gain] of your comedy, call'd Bellamira, or the Mistress, has given me a fresh subject for my Thanks; and my Publishing this Translation affords me a new opportunity of owning to the world my grateful resentments to you. I am heartily glad that your Comedy (as I never doubted) found such success, that I never met with any Man of Sence but applauded it: And that there is abundance of Wit in it, your Enemies have been forced to confess....For the Judgment of some Ladies upon it that it is obscene, I must needs say they are Ladies of a very quick apprehension, and did not find their thoughts lye very much that way, they could not find more obscenity in that than there is in every other Comedy. A song, Thyrsis unjustly you complain, headed A Song in Bellamira, or, the Mistress. Set by Mr Tho. Shadwell, is in Vinculum Societatis, 1687 (licensed 8 June 1687)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Evelyn, Diary: Saw a facecious Comedy Cald Love in a Tub

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Downes (p. 29): It took well, but Inferior to Love in a Tub. Pepys, Diary: I to the Duke of York's playhouse; where a new play of Etherige's called She Would if she Could; and though I was there by two o'clock, there was 1000 people put back that could not have room in the pit: and I at last, because my wife was there, made shift to get into the 18d. box, and there saw; but, Lord! how full was the house, and how silly the play, there being nothing in the world good in it, and few people pleased in it. The King was there; but I sat mightily behind, and could see but little, and hear not all. The play being done...here was the Duke of Buckingham to-day openly sat in the pit; and there I found him with my Lord Buckhurst, and Sidly, and Etherige, the poet; the last of whom I did hear mightily find fault with the actors, that they were out of humour, and had not their parts perfect, and that Harris did do nothing, nor could so much as sing a ketch in it; and so was mightily concerned: while all the rest did, through the whole pit, blame the play as a silly, dull thing, though there was something very roguish and witty; but the design of the play, and end, mighty insipid. Thomas Shadwell, Preface to The Humorists (1671): The last (viz.) imperfect Action, had like to have destroy'd She Would if she could, which I think (and I have the Authority of some of the best Judges in England for't) is the best Comedy that has been written since the Restauration of the Stage: And even that, for the imperfect representation of it at first, received such prejudice, that, had it not ben for the favour of the Court, in all probability it had never got up again; and it suffers for it, in a great measure, to this very day

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347. Pepys, Diary, 31 May: At the play at court the other night, Mrs Davis was there; and when she was to come to dance her jigg, the Queene would not stay to see it, which people do think it was out of displeasure at her being the King's whore, that she could not bear it

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Sir George Etheridge. Afterpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh