Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; c 5,by Richard Griffith. Prologue by Richard Tickell (see text). Author of Epilogue unknown]: With new Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 27 Mar. 1782: This Day is published Variety (1s 6d.). Receipts: #226 9s. 6d. (218/5/0; 7/14/6; 0/10/0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by John Burgoyne, based in part on Le Pere de Famille, by Denis Diderot. Prologue by the Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick; Epilogue by the author (see text)]: With a Variety of new Scenes [by Greenwood (Daily Universal Register, 16 Jan.)], Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 4 Feb. 1786: This Day is published The Heiress (1s. 6d.). "It rarely happens that all the characters of a piece are so well sustained" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Jan.). "We never saw a play more admirably performed in all its parts" (Gazetteer, 16 Jan.). "In point of performance the comedy had every advantage" (Morning Herald, 16 Jan.). Receipts: #226 2s. (205/10; 20/7; 0/5)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; PREL I, by George Colman, the elder]. "The ground-work was the apologies received from the great actors, who all preferred their suburban shades to the temperature of the Haymarket...The prompter enters to apologize to the audience and return the money, but his plea is rendered nugatory by certain oratorical and mimetic personages stationed in the pit and boxes, who not at first being recognized by the house as professional people, a great confusion was produced. When Mrs Webb arose to address the audience, the joke became apparent, and a prodigious interest was excited' (Boaden, Siddons, 1,208). [In 2nd piece the playbill lists Baddeley, but "Previous to the beginning of the Play, Palmer came forward...and acquainted [the audience] that Baddeley then lay speechless [as the result of a stroke], and Hitchcock, the prompter, would, with their permission, read Baddeley's Part" (London Chronicle, 31 May). The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice at the Theatre. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Public Advertiser, 6 July 1780: This Day is published The Manager in Distress (1s.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2]: Written by the Author of Tony Lumpkin in Town [John O'Keeffe. Text (1st authorized) published in Cumberland's British Theatre, Vol. XXXI]. The Music and Overture composed by Dr Arnold [with airs adapted from Philidor and Guglielmi (Public Advertiser, 17 Aug.)]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 1 Jan. 1781]. A Dramatic Entertainment of Singing, Dancing, and Dialogue, in Honour of Shakespeare. In which will be introduced a Pageant, the music by Dibdin. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "The Jubilee is now worn out and of no repute" (Public Advertiser, 21 Nov.). [For a complete account of the original production in 1769 see Christian Deelman, The Great Shakespeare Jubilee, 1964, pp. 280-86.] Receipts: #241 9s. (199/16/0; 39/8/6; 2/4/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Williames and Bates. Public Advertiser, 9 May: Tickets to be had of Williames, No. 2, Duke's-court, Bow-street; of Bates, No. 12, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #193 18s. 6d. (20.6.0; 10.8.0; 1.3.6; tickets: 162.1.0) (charge: #109 5s. 3d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Mainpiece: With (1st time) Alterations and Additions by the Author [John O'Keeffe]. The Overture, Airs, &c. by Dr Arnold. The selected [music] by Handel, Vento, Giordani, Bertoni, Dr Arne, and Carolan. The new additional Songs by Shield. Public Advertiser, 22 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Quick, Broad-court, Bow-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #325 8s. 6d. (164.6.6; 3.19.0; tickets: 157.3.0)

Event Comment: [Macklin dismissed after this night. See the account in The Genuine Arguments of the Council, with the Opinion of the Court of the King's Bench, &c., By a Citizen of the World, (London, 1774). Extracts in E. R. Page, George Colman, the Elder (New York, 1935). See notes for 23 and 30 Oct. and the subsequent action in note for 20 Nov. He did not return until 18 May 1775. This night was aparently, except for #4 5s. which was not recorded on the books of the theatre until 18 June well after the season closed. Macklin's suit in court against the rioters was judged 24 Feb. 1775. A column and a half account of the trial appeared in the Public Advertiser, Saturday 13 May 1775, giving the testimony of the witnesses accused of starting the riot, the lawyers, and the judge. The accused were Leigh, Miles, James, Aldus, and Clarke. The first four were convicted of a conspiracy and a riot, the last of a riot only. During the Course of the Business Lord Mansfield took Occasion to observe, that the Right of Hissing, and Applauding in a theatre was an unalterable Right, but there was a wide Distinction between expressing the natural Sensations of the Mind as they arose on what was seen and heard, and executing a pre-concerted Desagn, not only to hiss an Actor when he was playing a Part in which he was universally allowed to be excellent, but also to drive him from the theatre, and effect his utter ruin." See also William W. Appleton, Charles Macklin, An Actors Life (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), Chapter X.

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; c 3, by Denis O'Bryen. Prologue by the author; Palmer was obliged to read it, he "not having received it in due time". Epilogue by George Colman, the elder, with name of speaker (Town and Country Magazine, July 1783, p. 339). MS: Larpent 626; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 7 July]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [on playbill of 23 Apr.]. 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. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Sigismunda was at Manchester, 10 Jan. 1778.] Public Advertiser, 20 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 7, Leicester-fields. Receipts: #324 1s. (146/2/0; 8/1/6; 0/2/6; tickets: 169/15/0)(charge: #106 10s. 1d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 3, by John Rose, based on Raoul Sire De Crequi, by Jaques Marie Boutet de Monvel]: With new Scenes [by Greenwood (Public Advertiser, 19 Oct.)], Dresses and Decorations. The Music composed principally by Attwood; the rest selected from Mozart and Sarti. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 20 Dec. 1792: This Day is published The Prisoner (1s.). Receipts: #217 10s. (128.12; 86.10; 2.8)

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: The Duke's Company. Although this performance is not certainly the premiere, it is the earliest known acting of the play. This performance is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, "Plays on the English Stage", p. 14. John Boyle, Fifth Earl of Orrery: Master Anthony too the sequel of Guzman was after Lord Orrery's Death brought upon the Stage, but being disrelish'd by the Audience appear'd only one Night. It is probable The Author had not supervis'd and corrected It sufficiently before he died (The Dramatic Works of Roger Boyle, ed. W. S. Clark II, II, 950). If these private notes, written some fifty years after the premiere, are correct, this performance may have been the premiere and the only day of acting it

Event Comment: Books of the Opera sold at Theatre. This Night Mr Grimaldi Sprain'd his Leg (Hopkins). Mr Grimaldi had the misfortune to hurt himself so much in dancing, as to render him incapable of Performing for Some time (Public Advertiser, 19 March). Receipts: #112 2s. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: A Serious Opera [1st time; SER 3, author unknown; a pasticcio]. The Music by several celebrated Composers, and conducted [i.e. arranged] by Bianchi. Public Advertiser, 4 Dec.: Roncaglia was welcomed with merited and very flattering Applause, yet he seemed hurt at sharing with Ansani those marks of public Favour. We exhort them both to remember that Persons of their superior Talents ought to lay aside every petty Prejudice and personal Animosity. "[Ansani] had a finely toned, full, and commanding voice, was a spirited actor, and in the first opera, called Ricimero, sustained the most prominent and important part. But he was unfortunately of a most peevish, quarrelsome temper; Roncaglia was saucy and conceited, and neither could brook the superiority claimed by the other. Their mutual jealousy, and the importance assumed by the tenor soon produced an irreconcilable breach, Ansani threw up his engagement, and the season went on heavily to its close for want of him"(Mount-Edgcumbe, p. 29)

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer. The Absent Man published at 1s. [During the Easter Week holidays the text of the afterpiece had been changed. The advance bill in the Public Advertiser (31 March) notes "With Additions" and omits Mrs Hopkins from the list of characters.

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years. 3rd piece [1st time; F 3, author unknown. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Taken from Dryden's Spanish Fryar. Public Advertiser, 20 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #246 18s. (164.3; tickets: 82.15) (charge: #66 10s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Sherry & Sga Crespi. Tickets delivered by Harwood will be taken. Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [see 31 Mar.]. Public Advertiser, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Sherry, at Nicholl's, Baker, Bridge's-street, Covent Garden; of Sga Crespi, Poland-street, opposite the Back Door of the Pantheon. Receipts: #257 0s. 6d. (91.14.0; 23.0.6; 0.0.0; tickets: 142.6.0) (charge: #70 17s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Vernon. Public Advertiser, 29 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Vernon, at Jones's, No. 7, Catherine Street, Strand. Receipts: #173 13s. 6d. (86.14.0; 21.10.0; 0.12.6; tickets: 64.17.0) (charge: #74 14s.)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Elopement, announced in Public Advertiser, 21 Oct.] The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 16 May 1781]. Receipts: #110 7s. (80.1.0; 29.18.6; 0.7.6)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; prel i,by Leonard Macnally. MS:Larpent 601; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 24 Sept.]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage-door. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors will open at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 4 Nov.]. The Only Entrance to the Upper Gallery is in the Passage which leads from the Piazza to Hart-street, and the Two Shilling Gallery communicates with the Passage in Bow-street, as well as with that from the Piazza. The Passages to the Pit and Boxes remain as before. Receipts: #314 18s. (313/18; 1/0)

Event Comment: "The company [of spectators] was so numerous that there was hardly room on the stage for the performers to go through their pans . . . Mme Simonet displayed all that power of acting for which she has been so justly celebrated since the first introduction of the ballets called 0?Action when first Vestris held the sceptre of Terpsychore at the King's Theatre [in 1780-81]" (Public Advertiser, 18 Feb., which also has a synopsis of the action)

Event Comment: "[Kemble's] 'Did not you speak to it?' is an Emphasis not at all justified by the Context... Palmer should not have worn in the Farce the Breeches which but a little before were on Ostrick's thigh" (.Public Advertiser, 6 Oct.). Receipts: #242 16s. (211/3/0; 31/0/6; 0/12/6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2(?), by Ralph Wewitzer. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of action in Public Advertiser, 28 Dec.]: With new Music, Scenery, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The Music composed by Walter? Clagget. The Scenes designed and executed by Richards, Carver, Hodgins and others. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Receipts: #192 2s. (188.12; 3.10)

Event Comment: Paid Mr Johnston's bill for the Garter #56 15s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #230 10s. (Treasurer's Book)