Event Comment: Benefit Denoyer. By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq; Poet-Laureat. Tickets at Denoyer's House in St. James's-Street, over-against Park-Place. Daily Advertiser, 7 March: On Saturday Night the Mob attempted to force into Drury-Lane Playhouse, and were so insolent, that Justice Deveil was oblig'd to go out and read the Proclamation concerning Rioters; the Guard was order'd to his Assistance, and some of the Offenders were apprehended and sent to Newgate. [For Occasional Prompter XXIV (on the alteration of Much Ado About Nothing), see Daily Journal, 5 March.

Event Comment: EEgmont, Diary, II, 364: I went to the new play called 'King Charles the First,' acted with approbation at [lif]. The Characters are as the historians represent them, the language good and the sentiments fine, but the players are bad, he who represented General Fairfax and Cromwell excepted

Event Comment: LLord Wentworth to the Earl of Strafford, 19 Jan.: We was at Covent Garden Play House last night, my mother was so good as to treat us with it, and the Dragon of Wantcliff was the farce. I like it vastly and the musick is excessive pretty, and tho it is a burlesque on the operas yet Mr Handel owns he thinks the tunes very well composed....and it has been acted 36 times already and they are always pretty full. The poor operas I doubt go on but badly, for tho every body praises both Cafferielli and the opera yet it has never been full, and if it is not now at first it will be very empty towards the latter end of the winter.--Wentworth Papers, p. 539

Event Comment: EEgmont, Diary, III, 5: I went at night to a public meeting of the vocal music club at the Crown Tavern, where the famous oratorio of Hendel, called 'The Feast of Alexander," was performed by the gentlemen of our club

Event Comment: As 27 Nov. 1738. Mainpiece: Alter'd from Shakespear. Victor, History of the Theatres, II, 48: In the Year 1738, having, as he [Colley Cibber] said, Health and Strength enough to be as useful as ever, he came to Terms with Mr Fleetwood for his performing Richard, Fondlewife, Sir John Brute, &c. All his Comedy Parts he was right in, but in Richard he found his Mistake; his usual Strength and Spirit failed him most unhappily. I went behind the Scenes in the third Act, and asking him how he fared? He whispered me in the Ear, "That he wou'd give fifty Guineas to be then sitting in his easy Chair by his own Fireside.

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. Egmont, Diary, III, 23: In the evening I went to...Mustapha...the language of it is lofty but not bombast, the sentiments fine and justly expressed, the characters kept up to, and the principles of honour and virtue inculcated; in a word, to one of our best modern tragedies

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness the Duke. Egmont, Diary, III, 83: I went with my wife to the play entitled 'Sir Walter Raleigh,' revived by the comedians on occasion of the now differences with Spain. They choose one to represent Count Gundemar, who in all things is like Mr Giraldini, the Spanish minister at our Court lately recalled, and whenever any severe things were said which bore a resemblance to our ministry's transactions, or our backwardness to resent the insults of Spain, the audience clapped all over the house

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. Daily Advertiser, 25 Jan.: On Wednesday night last a Disturbance happen'd at Drury-Lane Playhouse, occasion'd by one of the principal Dancers not being there to dance at the end of the Entertainment, and after most of the People in the Pit and Galleries were gone, several Gentlemen in the Boxes pull'd up the Seats and Flooring of the same, tore down the Hangings, broke down the Partitions, all the Glasses and Sconces, the King's Arm over the middle front Box was pull'd down and broke to Pieces; they also destroy'd the Harpsichord, Bass Viol, and other Instruments in the Orchestra; the Curtain they cut to pieces with their Swords, forc'd their way into the lesser Green-Room, where they broke the Glasses, &c. and after destroying every thing they could well get asunder, to the amount of about three or four hundred Pounds Damage, left the House in a very ruinous Condition. [See also London Magazine, IX (1740), 47-48, 100.

Event Comment: By partiuclar Desire. Benefit Chapman. Tickets at Chapman's House, Corner of Bow Street. [in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 7 April, Chapman published a letter regretting that this benefit will be on the night Handel has a performance at lif. Chapman states that he owes much to Handel and wishes him success. Because, he states, some 20,000 will want to attend lif, which cannot hold above twenty hundred, Chapman remarks that, if those who cannot get into lif will go to dl, he will be happy.

Event Comment: A New Opera [a pasticcio, Metastasio text altered by Rolli, form Pergolesi's Olimpiade, 1735 (Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, I, 183)]. Music by Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Lampugnani. L. Leo, F. Leo [libretto in L. C.]. Two of the principal Performers being greatly indispos'd, the Dancers are oblig'd to be deferr'd. Thomas Gray to John Chute, 24 May: Our fifth Opera was the Olimpiade, in which they retain'd most of Pergolesi's Songs & yet 'tis gone already, as if it had been a poor thing of Galuppi's. Two nights did I enjoy it all alone, snugg in a Nook in the Gallery, but found no one in those regions had ever heard of Pergolesi, nay, I heard several affirm it was a Composition of Pescetti's.-Gray, Correspondence, I, 203

Event Comment: Benefit Raftor, Mrs Clive's brother (Winston MS.). Bayes attempted by Mrs Clive, instigated to it by Cibber (as an) act of envy to Garrick, but he missed his aim, for she did it most wretchedly. It was believed she would not have gone through the part. A great house. If she had succeeded she meant to repeat it for her own Benefit. (Winston MS. from Dyer MS.) Mrs Clive did Bayes at the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Three rows of the Pit rail'd into the Boxes, where servants may keep places as well as on the stage. To prevent Mistakes in places already taken, it is desir'd that those Gentleman and Ladies, in whose names they are set down, would please to send for Tickets to Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Whereas Great Disorders were committed on Tuesday Night at the Theatre, by Numbers of persons violently forcing their way into the House, particularly into the Boxes, knocking down the door-keepers, and obliging the servants who kept places to go out, to the great prejudice of the Manager, who lost all the Money for the said Places, as they not only refus'd to pay for the Boxes, but likewise forc'd into the Pit without paying, he thinks it incumbent on him to gide Public notice That an Office will for the Future be kept at the Boxes, to prevent persons from going in the same tumultuous manner, and hopes no Gentlemen will be displeas'd in being first desir'd to take a ticket at the said Office. Last night the Play of the Rehearsal was perform'd at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane; when, upon Mr Garrick's making a proper apology to the Town he was receiv'd with the greatest marks of Approbation; and the Play was acted with the utmost Decency and Order