*p1753 04 12 dl The Stratagem. ^As17521123^, but Scruch-Shuter, first time; Aimwell-Havard; Gibbet-Ackman; Foigard-Yates; Cherry-Miss Haughton.*a1753 04 12 dl Miss in Her Teens. ^As17530405^ but Fribble-Shuter; Flash-Blakes; Puff-Yates.*d1753 04 12 dl IV: <i>Country Amusements</i>-Devisse, Mlle Auretti; End: A <i>Hornpipe</i>-Mathews, the Little Swiss.*c1753 04 12 dl Benefit for $Shuter= and $Miss Haughton=. Tickets at stage door. [For criticism of Shuter and Miss Haughton, see $Genest=, IV, p. 363, from <i>The Present State of the Stage in Great Britain and Ireland, 1753</i>. Nineteen of the Fifty-five pages of this pamphlet defend the stage on classicial authority and moral grounds from attacks by the religious bigots, and present an ideal picture of a manager, laying under some contribution, it would seem, the character of a manager presented ten years earlier (1743) in <i>Queries to be Answered</i>. The author especially likes the moral of $Tate='s alteration of <i>Lear</i>. The remaining pages give a paragraph or two of criticism to the leading actors and actresses in some of their most affecting parts (sixteen pages to <i>Drury Lane</i> Performers, all of whom appear in the author's eye to be either "Excellent" or "Very Good.") The remaining space is devoted to the performers at <i>Covent Garden</i> and at the $Theatre Royal in Dublin=. All those spoken of fare well in the hands of this bound-to-be pleased critic. Shuter is here commended for ability to play an Old Man convincingly though he was but 22 years old, and to play at all considering his lack of education. He possesses a great fund of drollery, and bids fair to be as great in low comedy as it is possible for man to conceive.' Miss Haughton described as an actress of promise. Seems never to have got the better of a lisp, and a <i>Newcastle</i> manner of pronouncing the letter 'r.'] Receipts: #290 ($Cross=).