Event Comment: Benefit for the Voluntary Contribution now open at the Bank, for the Defence of our Country. Boxes 10s. 6d. Pit 5s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Tickets to be had and Places to be taken of Brandon, at the Stage-Door in Hart-street. Tickets also to be had at the Bar of Lloyd's Coffee-House. [Prologue by William Boscawen (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1798, p. 178. Author of Address unknown.] "A subscription was set on foot behind the scenes," to which most of the performers contributed #10 apiece (Monthly Mirror, ibid). Account-Book, 12 May: Paid into the Bank of England in aid of the Voluntary Contribution #394 15s. Receipts: #518 8s. (280.9; 12.2; tickets: 225.17) [the difference of #123 13s. appears to have been the house charge]

Event Comment: Composed by G. F. Handel. Among the Instrumental Performers: C. Ashley, Sarjant, Wm. Parke, Boyce, R. Ashley, Bridgtower, Pinto, Parkinson, Lavenu. the Flacks, Taylor, Mackintosh, Wm. Ware, Dresler, Francis, Gwilliam, Nicks, the Munros, Archer, I. Sharp, W. Sharp, M. Sharp, J. Sharp, Betts, Cobham, Jackson, Wood, Coyle, Cornish, Jones, Purney, Leffler, Woodham, Piele, the Cantelos, Skillern, &c. Organ-J. Ashley. Double Drums (used at Westminster-Abbey)-Jenkinson. The Chorusses will be numerous and complete; the whole under the direction of Ashley. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 precisely [same throughout oratorio season]. Books of the Performance (with the Imprimatur of E. Macleish) to be had at the Theatre, price 6d. Places for the Boxes to be had of Brandon, at the Stage-Door in Hart-street. Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Coats, Jackson, Townsend, Plinne, Baddock, Rye, Thompson (G[allery]), Curten, Bent, Wilkins, Warwhick, Robson (Pit), Wid. Anselmo, Wid. Linton, Purkins, Wid. Morris, Lester, Williamson, Clarke, Bishop will be admitted. Receipts: #343 2s. (13.16; 2.14; tickets: 326.12)

Event Comment: Benefit for Twaits, Ives, Hallam, Brown & Mrs Brooks. Pit 2s. Gallery 1s. Back Seats 6d. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. The above Performers, with the utmost Deference and Respect, inform the Ladies and Gentlemen of Greenwich, they have selected those Entertainments which they flatter themselves will meet their Approbation; being compelled to answer their Engagements in another Town, they jointly solicit their Patronage on this occasion, the honour of which will ever be remembered with the most lively effusions of gratitude

Event Comment: Benefit for the Four Youngest Orphans of the late Mr Palmer [see dl, 18 June]. As it is presumed that the well-known liberality of the Publick will be strongly excited on the present occasion, the Proprietor of the [Haymarket] Theatre has requested the use of the Opera-House for this Evening, that the largest number of persons who wish to patronize the undertaking may be accomodated with places. The Proprietor of the Opera-House has, with the utmost readiness, granted the request. Tickets to be had of the Miss Palmers, at Dixon's, Upholsterer, the corner of Bedford-Court, Bedford-Street, Covent-Garden; of Messrs Ransom, Morland and Co., Bankers, Pall-Mall; of Jewell, No. 26, Suffolk-Street, Charing-Cross, of whom, and of Rice, at the Box-Office, Places for the Boxes may be taken. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. "[His brother] R. Palmer attempted to deliver an address at the end of the play, but he was so much overpowered that he...left the address unrecited, and [his] part in the farce was given up to another performer" (Monthly Mirror, Aug. 1798, p. 117, which also records that the receipts were approximately #700)

Event Comment: [Mrs H. Johnston's 1st appearance as Ophelia was at the hay, 3 Sept. 1798.] Afterpiece: 5th Time i.e. in continuation of the reckoning for the previous season]. Boxes 6s. Second Price 3s. Pit 3s. 6d. Second Price 2s. Gallery 2s. Second Price 1s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Brandon(only) at the Office in Hart-Street. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 19 Nov.]. No Money to be returned. Receipts: #242 5s. 6d. (240.17.6; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: A new Serious Opera; the music by Sarti. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin exactly at 7:30 [see 29 Dec.]. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for the Choral Fund, instituted for the Relief of their decayed Members, Widows and Orphans, under the Patronage of his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. The Band and Chorus will be select, and the Young Gentlemen of the Westminster Choir will assist. A New Organ, built by Lincoln, will be opened on this occasion. Boxes #S. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Tickets and Places for the Boxes to be had of Rice, at the Theatre

Event Comment: 2nd ballet: 1st time; composed by Barre; the Music by Bossi. "Mme Hilligsberg, who possesses the first rank among the dancers of London, is a woman of distinguished merit: she succeeds with peculiar happiness in sportive and jocose expressions, and she is bewitchingly graceful as a Welch or Scotch country girl. Her figure is very handsome; but her arms are somewhat long and thin. The third dancer is Mme Laborie; she possesses an agreeable figure, much animation and native gracefulness. She might become a first-rate dancer [if] she did not trust too much to her natural talents, and bestowed more attention on the art" (Goede, 265). "Les Deux Jumelles, ou la Meprise, pouvoient tres bien faire le sujet d'unjoli divertissement; mais pour un grand ballet, il a fallu y appeller le secours des dieux, & faire descendre ce que nous appelons une gloire de nuages qui se developpent assez mal: c'est la faute du machiniste ou du charpentier. D'ailleurs, cette gloire ne sert a rien, puisque l'Amour vient dans un assez mauvais cabriolet, pousse par des hommes qu'on voit un peu trop distinctement, & s'en retourne de meme a reculons. Nous avons vu souvent le char de l'Amour aller en avant; mais il est rare qu'on le voie reculer, & cette meme gloire eprouve autant de difficulte pour remonter qu'elle en avout eue pour descendre, laissant le spectateur tres convaincu de son inutilite" (Anthony LeTexier, L'Ami des Meres, 1799, I, 192-93). The subscribers are most respectfully intreated to be careful to whom they give their Tickets, as many improper persons have lately presented themselves for admission into the Theatre with those Tickets; and the subscribers are requested to observe that, in future, persons of this description will be conducted directly to the identical Boxes to which such Tickets belong, instead of being admitted into any other part of the Theatre. And the public are intreated to understand that neither Ladies in Undress Hats or Bonnets, nor Gentlemen in Boots will be admitted into the Pit of the Opera

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Oratorio, in Two Parts, the only one composed in this Country nearly these 30 years. Afterpiece: An Ode, in One Part. The Band will wholly consist of Professors of the first eminence, and the Chorusses will be numerously supported by the best Performers in London, assisted by the young Gentlemen of his Majesty's Chapels, and of Westminster Abbey. The music entirely new, composed by Thomas? Busby, who will take the Piano Forte. Boxes 7s. Pit 4s. 1st Gallery 3s. 2nd Gallery 2s. Grove: [Busby] worked at a setting of Pope's 'Messiah' for some years, and it was produced in 1799 with considerable success as 'The Prophecy.

Event Comment: [Prologue to Douglas by John Home.] Tickets to be had of Frimbley at the Old Crown. Pit 2s. Doors to open at 6:00; to begin at 7:00. Nights of playing: Monday, Wednesday & Friday

Event Comment: Boxes 2s. Pit 1s. Gallyry 6d. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00

Event Comment: Benefit for Hill, Rees and Miss Sims. Morning Chronicle, 6 June: Tickets to be had of Hill, No. 24, Bow-street, opposite the Pit Door. [Others not listed.] 2nd piece [1st time: M. INT 1]. Receipts: #287 7s. (50.17.6; 4.0.6; tickets: 232.9.0)

Event Comment: [Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Wells, Thompson (stage door keeper), Thomas, Clarke, Robson (pit door keeper), Ansell, Little, Bagley, Noble, Bonsor, Walls (constable), Townsend, Linton, Morris, Klanert, Ward, Coombs will be admitted.] Receipts: #329 16s. (18.3.0; 2.13.6; tickets: 308.19.6)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; D 3, by Henry Neuman, based on Der Opfertod, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Text (R. Phillips, 1799) assigns no parts]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. 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. The Theatre, since the last Season, has been newly Decorated. [Beginning with 19 June the playbill: Printed by T. Woodfall, Drury Lane; on 4 Sept.: No. 104, Drury Lane.] Morning Chronicle, 27 June 1799: This Day is published Family Distress (2s.). Gentleman's Magazine, May 1800, pp. 406-8, prints a letter from "J. B." in which strong exception is taken to Kotzebue in general, and this play in particular. "Theatrical entertainments have an extensive influence upon the manners of Society. When well regulated, and the pieces for representation well selected both as to matter and manner, they may be esteemed friendly to morality, and improvers of public taste. But what shall we say when both these ends are disregarded; when moral virtue is banished from the scene, and purity of taste is destroyed by affected language and pantomimical decorations? Improvements in almost every art and science have been within a few years, rapid and important. But that is not the case with the stage; nor can it be, while Kotzebue and his friends usurp the venerable boards of Shakespeare." The writer then, in sarcastic terms, outlines the plot of Family Distress. [Pope and Miss Chapman were both from cg.

Event Comment: [Address by Thomas John Dibdin (T. J. Dibdin, Reminiscences, 1, 256).] Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 9 Dec.]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon at the Box office in Hart-street. No Money to be returned. [On playbill of 6 May 1800: Printed by E. Macleish, 2, Bow-street, Covent-Garden.] Receipts: #290 3s. 6d. (279.12.0; 10.11.6)

Event Comment: By Authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Hunter, late of Covent-Garden Theatre. [Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Tickets to be had of Mrs Hunter, No. 12, Leicester-street, Leicester-square; and of Rice at the Theatre, where Places for the Boxes may be taken. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: 32nd Night [i.e, in continuation of the reckoning for the previous season]. The Scenery, Dresses and Decorations entirely New. The Musick, Airs and Chorusses incidental to the Piece composed by Kelly. The Symphony preceding the Play, and those between the Acts, composed for the occasion by Dussek. The Scenery designed and executed by Marinari, Greenwood, Demaria, Banks, Blackmore, &c. The Machinery, Decorations and Dresses under the Direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Account-Book lists the attendance as follows:@1st Account Spectators Receipts@Boxes Pit 1st Gallery Upper Gallery@1162 348!12@706 123!11@583 58!6@312 15!12@Total 2763 546!1@2nd Account Spectators Receipts@300 45!0@13 1!6@23 1!3@14 0!7@Total 350 47!16@. Total of spectators 3113. Receipts: #595 5s. (546.1; 47.16; 1.8)

Event Comment: p Comic Opera; the music by Paisiello. 2nd ballet: Originally composed by D'Auberval, and brought out with new Episodes and Dances by D'Egville [with music by Bossi], The Doors to be opened at 6:15. To begin at 7:15 [same throughout opera season]. Single tickets for the night, for pit or gallery, to be had at the office of the Theatre. [Sga Bolla was from the opera, Milan. Sga Clara's name is not in the playbill, but "The second comic opera singer, Sga Clara, was also new...There is much sweetness and delicacy in her voice, and perhaps it may be owing to her evident timidity that it did not seem to possess strength and compass in proportion" (Monthly Visitor, Jan. 1800, p. 71). Deshayes was from the Opera, Madrid.

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [On this night an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate the King. As he entered his box he was shot at by James Hadfield, who was in the pit. The royal family remained in the theatre throughout the performance, during which God save the King was sung on four different occasions. Hadfield was subsequently adjudged insane. See Gentleman's Magazine, May 1800, pp. 478-80.] Receipts: #438 13s. 6d. (345.15.6; 87.9.0; 5.9.0)

Event Comment: [Emery was from cg. Mainpiece: Epilogue by the younger George Colman.] Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin precisely at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice, at the Theatre. Printed by T. Woodfall, No. 1, Cross Court, Russel Court, Drury Lane

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Thence called Knepp from the King's house, where going in for her, the play being done, I did see Beck Marshall come dressed, off of the stage, and looks mighty fine, and pretty, and noble: and also Nell Gwyn?, in her boy's clothes, mighty pretty. But, Lord! their confidence! and how many men do hover about them as soon as they come off the stage, and how confident they are in their talk! Here I did kiss the pretty woman newly come, called Pegg Hughes?, that was Sir Charles Sidly's mistress, a mighty pretty woman, and seems, but is not, modest. Here took up Knepp into our coach, and all of us with her to her lodgings, and thither comes Bannister with a song of her's, that he hath set in Sir Charles Sidly's play [The Mulberry Garden] for her, which is, I think, but very meanly set; but this he did, before us, teach her, and it being but a slight, silly, short ayre, she learnt it presently. But I did get him to prick me down the notes of the Echo in The Tempest, which pleases me mightily. Here was also Haynes, the incomparable dancer of the King's house, and a seeming civil man, and sings pretty well

Event Comment: [The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but a letter--see 2 Jan. 1670@1--indicates that the first part had been acted before that date and that Part II was to be shortly staged. The point of the Prologue spoken by Ellen Gwyn seems to have derived from an incident at Dover (see Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 20) in May 1670, when James Nokes attired himself in a ridiculous fashion, including "Broad wast Belts." The speakers of the Epilogue and the Prologue to the Second Part are mentioned in Sir William Haward's MS (Bodl. MS Don. b., pp. 248-49); see The Poems of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley (Oxford, 1958), IV, 1848-49. In Part I a song Beneath a myrtle shade, with music by John Bannister, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, First Book, 1673. Another, Wherever I am, with music by Alphonso Marsh, is in the same collection, as is also How unhappy a lover am I, the music by Nicholas Staggins. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Bohun, ca. Jan. 1670@1: Since my last to you I have seen The Siege of Grenada, a play so full of ideas that the most refined romance I ever read is not to compare with it; love is made so pure, and valour so nice, that one would image it designed for an Utopia rather than our stage. I do not quarrel with the poet, but admire one born in the decline of morality should be able to feign such exact virtue; and as poetic fiction has been instructive in former ages, I wish this the same event in ours. As to the strict law of comedy I dare not pretend to judge: some think the division of the story is not so well if it could all have been comprehended in the day's actions (The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 25). According to John Evelyn--see 9 Feb. 1670@1--Robert Streeter did some of the scenes for this play. In the Preface to The Fatal Discovery, ca. February 1697@8, George Powell, in discussing revivals of Dryden's plays, stated: In relation to our reviving his Almanzor...very hard crutching up what Hart and Mohun could not prop

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the Preface suggests that it was given first in the summer; the fact that part of the Duke's Company was at Oxford in July makes June a probable time. Preface: It had the misfortune to be brought into the world in a time, when the Dog-star was near his Reign, and my Judges sat in a hot Bath, rather than a Theatre, and were doubly persecuted by the heat of the weather, and the Impertinence of the Poet; and which was the worst mishap, when the most candid, as well as the most Illustrious Judges (I mean the Court) were absent. A song, Lo behold a sea of tears, with music by John Bannister, for this play, is Choice Ayres and Songs, The First Book, 1673

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. There is no indication as to whether this is the premiere. This performance is on the L. C. lists at Harvard. See VanLennep, Plays on the English Stage, p. 19. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 32): The third new Play Acted there [dg] was the Gentleman Dancing-Master, Wrote by Mr Witcherly, it lasted but 6 Days, being like't but indifferently, it was laid by to make Room for other new ones. A song, with music by John Bannister, for this play is in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673