Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. To prevent Confusion Ladies and Gentlemen are requested to send their Servants to keep Places by Half past Four o'Clock. God save the King was sung "by the performers and by the audience five times: twice on the entrance of the King and Queen, once after the Play, twice after the Farce" (World, 19 Dec.). And see 23 Apr. 1790. Account-Book: In the Pit of this Night 525 Persons, this is the greatest Number ever remembered to be in at any One Time. R. P. [i.e. Richard Peake, sub-treasurer]. Receipts: #290 11s. 6d. (279.13.0; 9.18.6; 1.0.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Storace. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Ladies and Gentlemen are desired to send their Servants by Half past Four o'Clock. Public Advertiser, 26 Jan.: Tickets to be had of Sga Storace, No. 23, Howland-street, Rathbone-place. Receipts: #328 5s. 6d. (177.14.0; 18.6.0; 3.0.6; tickets: 129.5.0) (charge: #112 0s. 10d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit [9 rows (London Chronicle, 5 Apr.)] will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four. Morning Chronicle, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No 49, Marlborough-street. Receipts: #412 11s. (212.2.0; 10.18.6; 0.0.6; tickets: 189.10.0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Ladies and Gentlemen are respectfully informed that no Places can be kept after their Majesties are seated; in order to prevent confusion they are likewise requested to send their Servants to the Theatre by half past four o'Clock. Receipts: #292 2s. (264.17; 22.12; 4.13)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. To prevent Confusion, Ladies and Gentlemen are desired to send their Servants by Half past Four o'Clock. Mainpiece: In I The Cardinal's Banquet. In II the Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine. In V a Grand Procession to the Christening of Princess Elizabeth. Morning Herald, 7 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. Receipts: #493 16s. (258.15.6; 25.13.0; 1.16.0; tickets: 207.11.6) (charge: #159 8s. 10d.)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Force of Ridicule; afterpiece of Richard Coeur de Lion, both advertised on playbill of 28 Nov.] "The new Comedy last night was deferred upon the pretext of Miss Farren's illness...The Manager sent after Mrs Siddons, who was found at Covent-Garden Theatre, seeing Abroad and at Home. Brandon, however, ordered her a chair, and she kindly performed Isabella. Wroughton read the Father" (Oracle, 30 Nov.). "For near an hour the audience waited patiently...At half past seven Palmer addressed the audience" He said that Miss Farren was ill, that to those who preferred to leave the theatre their money would be returned, and that instead of the new play Mrs Siddons would act Isabella, "as soon as the dresses could be prepared for that purpose. This address was by no means favourably received, and hundreds of persons immediately left the house. A few minutes after eight, the Curtain drew up to the tragedy, which was well performed, and much applauded by the few who remained to witness it" (Morning Herald, 30 Nov.). "November 30. Miss Farren last night refused to appear in a new Play at Drury Lane which made much confusion in the House. The cause assigned was indisposition but that was not believed by the audience; and the fact Lysons says is, that as she cannot obtain payment from the Theatre, she resolutely told them she wd. not appear unless her demands were paid...Such is the unprincipled conduct of Sheridan" (Diary of Joseph Farington, 1922, I, 174). [On 1 Dec. Morning Herald prints a letter from Miss Farren, from Green-street, Grosvenor-square. saying that she really was ill. The editor of the paper adds a note in which he affirms his positive knowledge that rumours about a dispute as to Miss Farren's unpaid salary were without foundation.] Receipts: #134 2s. (82.2; 50.18; 1.2)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Benjamin Thompson, altered from Menschenhass und Reue, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by William Linley; Epilogue by Matthew Gregory Lewis (European Magazine, Mar. 1798, p. 260)]: With new Scenes, Dresses, &c. With Musick [by Thomas Shaw]. "Mrs Siddons was succesful in all the impassioned parts; but she cannot sustain a mixed character. She is the Muse of Tragedy herself, and when she descends from her lofty state to the level of familiar dialogue, she instantly ceases to astonish and we to admire" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1798, p. 234). "The dialogue must be considerably abridged, as well for the purpose of preserving the interest of the piece, as for shortening the time of representation, which is at least an hour too long, it being half past ten before the curtain dropt" [see 26 Mar.] (Morning Herald, 26 Mar.). Receipts: #420 7s. 6d. (378.11.6; 40.18.0; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: "We suggest the necessity of curtailing the entertainments...The Purse ought to have been entirely omitted. There is a want of alertness between the acts which is much better managed at the Winter Theatres. Rosina did not begin till half past eleven o'clock. We advise the Female Performers not to disguise their faces with so much rouge. If it is in some measure necessary at the Winter Theatres, where the chief part of the audience are at a distance from the Stage, we conceive in this small House it is less necessary" (Times, 30 Aug.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Townsend and Mrs Johnson. 3rd piece [1st time in London; F 1, by William Dunlap]: Performed with distinguished Applause at the John St.? Theatre, New York [on 9 Jan. 1797]; compressed into one act [from two], and adapted for the English Stage by a Gentleman [perhaps the author]. "Commencing at half past eleven o'clock, and after a tiresome variety of other entertainments, the audience thought they had had enough for their money, and demanded the fall of the curtain before the conclusion of [Tell Truth and Shame the Devil]" (Monthly Mirror, June 1799, p. 367). Morning Chronicle, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Townsend, No. 9, Leicester-place. [Mrs Johnson not listed.] Receipts: #442 17s. 6d. (108.1.0; 1.11.0; tickets: 333.5.6, of which Townsend sold 218.2.0; Mrs Johnson 115.3.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by George Colman, ynger]: The Scenery and Dresses are entirely new. The Musick composed by Storace.The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood and Capon [the Gothic library was painted by Capon (Oracle, 21 Mar. 1796)]. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. [When Colman published his play he prefaced it with an acrimonious attack on Kemble, in which he accused him of deliberately trying to make the play a failure. But almost without exception the contemporary reviews excused Kemble's performance on the grounds of his obvious indisposition, and agreed that the play itself was unsatisfactory. "The play failed, and we are sorry to say did not merit to succeed...Kemble, who was tormented With an incessant cough, said he could not but be sensible that much of the displeasure of the house proceeded from his deficiency in a principal character...The whole audience with one voice cried out, 'No, no, Kemble-it is not your fault'" (Oracle, 14 Mar.). "The dialogue is extremely heavy, and there is little or no incident to relieve the tedium of more than four hours representation...Sir Edward Mortimer is a being distracted, with no adequate cause; a prey to remorse, which he of all men was the last to feel from the principles that make up his being. This therefore is the radical moral defect of the piece. But there is another which, though not equally strong, is equally fatal: there is no progression of interest, there is no involution of plot, there is no development of character" (Star, 14 Mar.). Other notices of the opening night were much in the same vein. Subsequently Colman revised the play, and it held the stage for many years. "The curtailments which have been made shorten the representation near an hour and a half, and the alterations are many and judicious" (Morning Herald, 21 Mar. 1796). Morning Herald, 23 July 1796: This Day is published The Iron Chest (2s.). Receipts: #471 9s. (468.13; 2.16)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. 3rd piece [1st time: INT 1. Larpent MS 1218; not published]: A Sequel [to Sylvester Daggerwood], written by John? O'Keeffe. Times, 24 May: Tickets to be had of Bannister, No. 7, Suffolk-street, Haymarket. Receipts: #318 17s. (86.6.0; 44.4.6; 2.0.6; tickets: 186.6.0, of which Bannister to pay for half over #100) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Miss Linley still continuing so ill [see 7 Mar.] as not to be able to perform this Evening, Mrs Bannister has been so kind as to undertake to supply her Place. Tickets to be had and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook at the Stage Door of the Theatre, at half a guinea each. Pit 5s. 1st Gallery 3s. 6d. 2nd Gallery 2s. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [same throughout oratorio season]

Event Comment: Read ye parts of Alexander, Clytus, and Statire before going into Pit (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pope. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years. Oracle, 25 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Pope at her house in Half Moon-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #498 5s. (319.2; 8.12; tickets: 170.11)

Event Comment: Comedy from Moliere and Cibber. Hopkins Diary: This comedy [Hypocrite] is the Non Juror altered, and two new characters introduced,--went off very well,--some few hisses,--but the play will do.--The alterations are by Mr Bickerstaffe. [Full account of the mainpiece, but without critical observation, appeared in the Lloyd's Evening Post, Nov. 18-21.

Event Comment: Benefit for Author of Zingis. Damon and Phillida was altered into a Comic opera of two acts, and new musick with the addition of some new songs and choruses--the Musick composed by Mr Dibdin,--went off very dull, and some hisses--the muscik not vastly liked (Hopkins Diary). New Overture. Both Zingis and Damon and Phillida published at 1s. 6d. and 1s

Event Comment: Venice Preserv'd deff'd on account of Barry's illness. Paid half year's Cleansing &c. to Lady Day last (St Martin's) #11; a Tow Bill 10s. [This tow bill came to this amount monthly for nine months, amounting to #4 10s. for the season. No further note will be taken of it this season.] Paid for Properties #1 7s. 10d. Receipts: #174 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; B 3, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Prologue by the Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick (Public Advertiser, 3 Aug. 1781)]: With a Procession. [This was included in all subsequent performances. For the Sea Fight see 20 Nov.] With New Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The Scenery designed by DeLoutherbourg, and executed under his direction. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [same for rest of season, except on 1 May 1780]. "The House was so crowded that there were many disturbances, one so great that Smith when he had nearly finished 'To be or not to be' was obliged to leave the Stage, and when the noise subsided, to return and begin the soliloquy again... As The Critic took up two hours and a half in performance, it must of necessity be considerably shortened" (Morning Chronicle, 1 Nov.). "The scene of the battle with the Armadav [was] executed in the most masterly manner. The Motion of the sea, the engaging of the ships, and the destruction occasioned by the fire-ships were happily contrived and accurately represented" (London Chronicle, 1 Nov.). Account-Book, 9 Nov.: Paid R. B. Sheridan on Acct. of Critic #320. Receipts: #241 19s. 6d. (222.11.0; 19.3.6; 0.5.0)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Ut Pictura Poesis!, Half an Hour after Supper, and The Romp; afterpiece of The Swop, all advertised on playbill of 17 June.

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by John Grubb. Larpent MS 1132; not published. Author of Prologue unknown]. Morning Herald, 16 May: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 19, Martlet-court, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #403 13s. 6d. (152.10.0; 57.5.0; 4.16.0; tickets: 187.10.0; odd money: 1.2.6) (charge: none listed). [Account-Book: Suett to have #100 of Tickets and half those above that sum which he brings in; of which due him #43 15s.

Event Comment: A concert, etc. Benefit for a Person under Misfortune. By Desire of several Persons of Distinction. To begin at six o'clock. Prices: 4s., 2s. 6d., 1s. 6d