Event Comment: By Permission [of the Lord Chamberlain]. By Desire of the Most Noble Order of Bucks. Benefit for Griffith. [Author of Epilogue unknown.] Tickets delivered for November 22 and for The West Indian will be admitted. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15

Event Comment: ["The Lord Ogleby of (The Clandestine Marriage) raised Mr King to the summit of comic excellence, which his more recent great character, Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal, has established him in the unrivalled possession of" (Johnson, ed. Waldron, 169).] Receipts: #245 (211.9; 33.6; 0.5)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Everard. 1st piece [1st time; PREL 1, by Sarah Gardner. Larpent MS 1101; not published]. 2nd piece: Never acted here [acted 19 Aug. 1784]. [3rd piece: Prologue by Samuel Foote.] Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:15. Tickets to be had at No. 21, Carey-street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields; New Slaughter's Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane; of Adams, the Duke of Clarence Coffee-house, Haymarket; and of Everard, at Mr Shade's, Woburn-street, near Drury Lane Theatre

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I alone out and to the Duke of York's play-house, where unexpectedly I come to see only the young men and women of the house act; they having liberty to act for their own profit on Wednesdays and Fridays this Lent; and the play they did yesterday, being Wednesday, was so well-taken, that they thought fit to venture it publickly to-day; a play of my Lord Falkland's called The Wedding Night, a kind of tragedy, and some things very good in it, but the whole together, I thought, not so. I confess I was well enough pleased with my seeing it: and the people did do better, without the great actors, than I did expect, but yet far short of what they do when they are there, which I was glad to find the difference of

Event Comment: Benefit for Vernon. 2nd piece [1st time; INT I, author unknown. Larpent MS 552; not published. It had reference to the surrender of St. Eustatius by the Dutch to Admiral Rodney, 4 Feb. 1781]. Receipts: #233 19s. (106.18.0; 27.2.6; 0.3.6; tickets: 99.15.0) (charge: #108 0s. 2d.)

Event Comment: See Boswell (Restoration Court Stage, p. 280), who identifies the company as the King's Company. Evelyn, Diary: Saw the Young Admiral acted coram Rege &c

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time: CO 3, by John Burgoyne, based on Silvain, by Jean Francois Marmontel]: With entirely new Music [by William Jackson], Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Scenery designed by DeLoutherbourg, and executed under his direction. Public Advertiser, 3 Apr. 1781: This Day is published The Lord of the Manor (price not listed). Receipts: #226 19s. (216.15; 9.16; 0.8)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. [Author of Address unknown.] 1st piece: By the Author of Love in a Village, &c. [Isaac Bickerstaffe]; not acted these 16 years [1st acted at DL, 24 Nov. 1770], by Veterans of the Stage. 2nd piece: By the late Samuel Foote, Esq. 3rd piece: By Garrick; not acted these 12 years. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00

Event Comment: [By George Granville, Lord Lansdowne. Date of premiere unknown. Published by 19-23 Jan.

Event Comment: As alter'd from Shakespear by the Lord Lansdown. Receipts: #14 8s. 6d

Event Comment: Boswell (Restoration Court Stage, pp. 180-81) believes that a performance occurred on this day, as well as on 16 Feb. 1674@5, Shrove Tuesday, the date often specified in advance statements. For previous notices, see 2 Feb. 1674@5, 15 and 22 Dec. 1674. Edition of 1675:....followed at innumerable Rehearsals, and all the Representations by throngs of Persons of the greatest Quality...at the 20th or 30th, for near so often it had been Rehearsed and Acted....And the Composer of all the Musick both Vocal and Instrumental Mr Staggins. Langbaine. (English Dramatick Poets, p. 92): a Masque at court, frequently presented there by Persons of great Quality, with the Prologue, and the Songs between the Acts: printed in quarto Lond. 1675....This Masque was writ at the Command of her present Majesty: and was rehearsed near Thirty times, all the Representations being follow'd by throngs of Persons of the greatest Quality, and very often grac'd with their Majesties and Royal Highnesses Presence. John Evelyn (The Life of Mrs Godolphin): [Mrs Blagge] had on her that day near twenty thousand pounds value of Jewells, which were more sett off with her native beauty and luster then any they contributed of their own to hers; in a word, she seemed to me a Saint in Glory, abstracting her from the Stage. For I must tell you, that amidst all this pomp and serious impertinence, whilst the rest were acting, and that her part was sometymes to goe off, as the scenes required, into the tireing roome, where severall Ladyes her companions were railing with the Gallants trifleingly enough till they were called to reenter, she, under pretence of conning her next part, was retired into a Corner, reading a booke of devotion, without att all concerning herself or mingling with the young Company; as if she had no farther part to act, who was the principall person of the Comedy...[With] what a surprizeing and admirable aire she trode the Stage, and performed her Part, because she could doe nothing of this sort, or any thing else she undertooke, indifferently....Thus ended the Play, butt soe did not her affliction, for a disaster happened which extreamly concern'd her, and that was the loss of a Diamond of considerable vallue, which had been lent her by the Countess of Suffolke; the Stage was immediately swept, and dilligent search made to find it, butt without success, soe as probably it had been taken from her, as she was oft inviron'd with that infinite crowd which tis impossible to avoid upon such occasion. Butt the lost was soon repair'd, for his Royall Highness understanding the trouble she was in, generousely sent her the wherewithall to make my Lady Suffolke a present of soe good a Jewell. For the rest of that days triumph I have a particular account still by me of the rich Apparell she had on her, amounting, besides the Pearles and Pretious Stones, to above three hundred pounds (ed. Samuel Lord Bishop of Oxford [London, 1847], pp. 97-100). See also 15 Dec. 1674

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin exactly at 6:30

Event Comment: Receipts: #200 7s. 6d. (Account Book). Mainpiece: With New Dresses and Decorations. [The first of a series of five performances (the last, Merchant of Venice, 18 Nov.) which got Macklin dismissed from the theatre until 1775, when his lawsuit against six persons whom he claimed formed a conspiracy to hiss him from the stage and ruin his livlihood was concluded favorably for him. His performance of Macbeth was favorably treated but with certain misgivings in the Morning Chronicle (25 Oct.), but he was mercilessly criticized in the London Evening Post and St James Chronicle: "In Act II, Sc. i, Shakespeare has made Macbeth murder Duncan; Now Mr Macklin, being determined to copy from no man, reversed this incident, and in the very first act, scene the second, murdered Macbeth." The favorable review (Morning Chronicle) thought he did well in first and last acts, but gave way to stage rant and "vehemence of energetic expression" wanting any variation in tone in between. It also pointed out a certain faulty memory of his lines. His novel stage effects came in for a paragraph of comment: The alterations in the jeux de theatre respecting the representation of this tragedy do Mr Macklin great credit. His change of the scenery is peculiarly characteristical. The Quadrangle of Macbeth's castle, and the door which is supposed to lead to Duncan's apartment (both of which are entirely new) are additions of consequence to the exhibition of the play. The door also through which Macbeth comes to the Weird Sisters, in the 4th act, is a better and more probable entrance than through the common stage portal. The dresses are new, elegant, and of a sort hitherto unknown to a London audience, but exceedingly proper. The Banquet was superbly set out, and it must be confessed that the managers seem to have spared neither cost nor assiduity to ornament and add to the effect of the representation." A favorable letter from a correspondent to the London Evening Post adds: "I must observe, Mr Printer, that from the graceful and characteristic manner in which Macbeth was introduced by the martial music and military procession, from the manner of M. Macklin's acting, from his judicious alteration of the dresses, the disposition of the scene where the King is killed, the cave of the witches in the 4th act, from the improvement of Mrs Hartley's thinking in Lady Macbeth and from her manner of speaking, which seemed plainly to be the effects of some intelligence she had received from Mr Macklin...I thought Mr Macklin deserv'd great praise." See the newspaper comments all gathered and reprinted in an Apology for the Conduct of Charles Macklin, (London, 1773). See also note to 30 Oct. See also London Chronicle, Oct. 23-26 (cf. Odell, I, 453). The Westminster Magazine suggests the performance was pitiable. "Macklin knew what he ought to do, but could not do it." The Scenemen's pay this week was about double the normal cost. (Account Book).] Verse Squibs from St James Chronicle (Oct. 1773) against Macklin: @Macbeth@"Eight Kings appear and pass over in order, and Banquo the last"@Old Quin, ere Fate suppressed his lab'ring breath@In studied accents grumbled out Macbeth:--@Next Garrick came, whose utt'rance truth impressed,@While ev'ry look the tyrant's guilt confess'd:--@Then the cold Sheridan half froze the part,@Yet what he lost by nature sav'd by art.@Tall Barry now advanc'd toward Birnam Woodv@Nor ill performed the scenes--he understood--@Grave Mossop next to Foris shaped his march@His words were minute guns, his action starch.@Rough Holland too--but pass his errors o'er@Nor blame the actor when the man's no more.@Then heavy Ross, assay'd the tragic frown,@But beef and pudding kept all meaning down:--@Next careless Smith, try'd on the Murd'rer's mask,@While o'er his tongue light tripp'd the hurried task:--@Hard Macklin, late, guilt's feelings strove to speak,@While sweats infernal drench'd his iron cheek;@Like Fielding's Kings [in Tom Thumb] his fancy'd triumphs past,@And all be boasts is, that he falls the last.@ Also from St James Chronicle:@The Witches, while living deluded Macbeth@And the Devil laid hold of his soul after death;@But to punish the Tyrant this would not content him,@So Macklin he sent on the stage to present him.

Event Comment: On Account of the numerous Complaints [etc., exactly as on dl playbill, 16 Sept.] [Mr and Mrs Duncan were from the Chester theatre.] Receipts: #193 10s. 6d. (190.11.6; 2.19.0)

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Being full of my desire of seeing my Lord Orrery's new play this afternoon at the King's house, The Black Prince, the first time it is acted; where though we come by two o'clock, yet there was no room in the pit, but we were forced to go into one of the upper boxes, at 4s. a piece, which is the first time I ever sat in a box in my life. And in the same box come, by and by, behind me, my Lord Barkeley and his lady; but I did not turn my face to them to be known, so that I was excused from giving them my seat; and this pleasure I had, that from this place the scenes do appear very fine indeed, and much better than in the pit. The house infinite full, and the King and Duke of York was there. By and by the play begun, and in it nothing Particular but a very fine dance for variety of figures, but a little too long. But, as to the contrivance, and all that was witty (which, indeed, was much, and very witty), was almost the same that had been in his two former plays of Henry the 5th and Mustapha, and the same points and turns of wit in both, and in this very same play often repeated, but in excellent language, and were so excellent that the whole house was mightily pleased with it all along till towards the end he comes to discover the chief of the plot of the play by the reading of a long letter, which was so long and some things (the people being set already to think too long) so unnecessary that they frequently begun to laugh, and to hiss twenty times, that, had it not been for the King's being there, they had certainly hissed it off the stage. But I must confess that, as my Lord Barkeley says behind me, the having of that long letter was a thing so absurd, that he could not imagine how a man of his parts could possibly fall into it; or, if he did, if he had but let any friend read it, the friend would have told him of it; and, I must confess, it is one of the most remarkable instances that ever I did or expect to meet with in my life of a wise man's not being wise at all times, and in all things, for nothing could be more ridiculous than this, though the letter of itself at another time would be thought an excellent letter, and indeed an excellent Romance, but at the end of the play, when every body was weary of sitting, and were already possessed with the effect of the whole letter, to trouble them with a letter a quarter of an hour long was a most absurd thing. After the play done, and nothing pleasing them from the time of the letter to the end of the play, people being put into a bad humour of disliking (which is another thing worth the noting), I home by coach, and could not forbear laughing almost all the way home, and all the evening to my going to bed, at the ridiculousness of the letter, and the more because my wife was angry with me, and the world, for laughing, because the King was there, though she cannot defend the length of the letter

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular desire. Afterpiece: Never Acted Before. [The Farce by Fielding is a sequel to The Virgin Unmasked.] Forbidden soon by the Lord Chamberlain. It being supposed that a particular man of quality was pointed at in one of the characters. The prohibition short of duration (Genest, III, 652). See A Letter to a Noble Lord to whom it alone belongs, occasioned by a representation at Drury Lane of a Farce call'd Miss Lucy in Town (1742), [a 20 page pamphlet criticizing the Lord Chamberlain for allowing this farce. Author gives a scene by scene account emphasizing the bawdry and discounting the pious conclusion. He concludes with remarks on theatrical dancing]: As to Dances, I think your province of prohibition does not extend; so the Public cannot owe their gratitude to you for several. I appeal to those who have been on the coast of Malabar and the banks of the Ganges whether we have not had some that have exceeded on posture, or anything of that kind so common amongst the polite Indians of Indostan. Afterpiece: Mrs Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard Amorevoli intolerably (H. Walpole to H. Mann, 26 May).-Horace Walpole Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, I, 435. Receipts: #70

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time at a public theatre; C 3, by Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, 1st acted privately at the Town-Hall, Newbury, 6 Apr. 1780. Text (G. Riley, 1781) assigns no parts. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Joseph Jekyll (see text)]: With new Dresses, &c. "The Prologue [the first 30 lines and the concluding couplet of which were used by Sheridan as the Prologue to Pizarro (see dl, 24 May 1799)] was so much admired that at the request of the Duchess of Devonshire and several other of the nobility it was respoken after the piece; but as King was absent from the theatre, it was delivered by Palmer" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1780, p. 23 ). "The chief singularity was that [Lady Craven] went to it herself the second night, in form; sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed, with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. The Duchess of Richmond, Lady Harcourt,...Mrs Damer, Lord Craven,...and I were with her. It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself-but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naivete as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven on the contrary was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance of the actors, which was wretched indeed, yet the address of the plot, which is the chief merit of the piece, and some lively pencilling carried it off very well, though Parsons murdered the Scotch lord, and Mrs Robinson (who is supposed to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales) thought on nothing but her own charms, or him. There is a very good though endless prologue written by Sheridan and spoken in perfection by King, which was encored (an entire novelty) the first night: and an epilogue that I liked still better and which was full as well delivered by Mrs Abington, written by Mr. Jekyl. The audience, though very civil, missed a fair opportunity of being gallant, for in one of those ----logues, I forget which, the noble authoress was mentioned, and they did not applaud as they ought to have done, especially when she condescended to avow her pretty child and was there looking so very pretty...Yet Lady Craven's tranquillity had nothing displeasing;...and it was tempered by her infinite good nature, which made her make excuses for the actors instead of being provoked at them" (Walpole [28 May 1780], XI, 178-80). Public Advertiser, 14 July 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Miniature Picture (price not listed). Receipts: #144 9s. (94.9; 48.3; 1.17)

Event Comment: Principal Violoncello by C. Ashley. Double Drums by R. Ashley. Trumpets by Sariant, Cantelo, Purney. Among the other Principal Instrumental Performers are Foster, Mahon, Boyce, Flack, Lavenu, John Sharp, Simpson, Gwilliam, Monro, Mich. Sharp, Wood, Warren, Wm. Sharp, Cobham, Cornish, Jenkinson, F. Sharp, Shutze, Lord, Woodham, J. Sharp, Franks, &c. With a Complete Set of Chorus Singers. The Whole under the Direction of Ashley. Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No Money to be returned. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [same throughout oratorio season]. Places to be had of Brandon at the Box Office in Hart-street. Books of the Performance, 6d. each, may be had at the Theatre. The Directors' Books have these words at the bottom of each title-page: "Printed by H. Madeish, Recorder-Office, Duke's-Court, Drury-lane."

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. On Thursday 10 Dec. 1663, Pepys reported that this play was to be acted the following week, but the date of the first performance is uncertain. But--except for the holidays--it was probably acted on consecutive days until 1 Jan. 1663@4, when Pepys saw it. The play is also in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 138, as a "Revived Play." Pepys, Diary: I perceive the King and Duke and the Court was going to the Duke's playhouse to see Henry VIII. acted, which is said to be an admirable play. But, Lord! to see now near I was to have broken my oathe, or run the hazard of 20s. losse, so much my nature was hot to have gone thither; but I did not go. Downes (p.24): King Henry the 8th, This Play, by Order of Sir William Davenant, was all new Cloath'd in proper Habits: The King's was new, all the Lords, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the Doctors, Proctors, Lawyers, Tip-staves, new Scenes: The part of the King was so right and justly done by Mr Betterton, he being Instructed in it by Sir William, who had it from Old Mr Lowen, that had his Instructions from Mr Shakespear himself, that I dare and will aver, none can, or will come near him in this Age, in the performance of that part: Mr Harris's performance of Cardinal Wolsey, was little Inferior to that, he doing it with such just State, Port, and Mein, that I dare affirm, none hitherto has Equall'd him:...Every part by the great Care of Sir William, being exactly perform'd; it being all new Scenes; it continu'd Acting 15 Days together with general Applause

Event Comment: The Lord Mayor's Show. By Thomas Jordan. Luttrell (A Brief Relation, I, 285-86): The 29th, sir Henry Tulse...was sworn before the barons of the exchequer at Westminster, whither he went by water, accompanied by the late lord mayor, the new recorder, aldermen, and sheriffs, and attended by diverse of the companies in their barges; their majesties and the duke of York being upon the leads at Whitehall when they passed by: being come back, they passed from the place where they landed, with the usual solemnity, to Grocers Hall, where the lords of the councill, severall of the nobility, judges, and other persons of quality dined