Event Comment: The Company in the Haymarket being busily employ'd in reviving several pieces, are oblig'd to defer playing till further notice (General Advertiser). [T. Cibber stated that when his troupe had a successful run of Romeo and Juliet, and when Mrs Clive arranged for a benefit performance there, the Patentees applied to the Lord Chamberlain and, in consequence, the Lord Chamberlain's Office legally stopped the performances at the Haymarket. Cibber's next move was the Academy device of 1 Nov.--Cibber, A Serio-Comic Apology, p. 10.

Event Comment: At Cibber's Academy in the Hay-Market...will be presented a Concert of Musick, Vocal and Instrumental. The Vocal Parts-Mr Brett, Mrs Hill, and others; the Instrumental by eminent Masters. The Doors to be open'd at Four, the Concert to begin at Five, and no Persons to be admitted after Seven o'clock. The Prices are Four Shillings, Half a Crown and Eighteen Pence. Places may be bespoke at the Academy. After the Concert will be exhibited Gratis, a Rehearsal, in Form, of the Play-(often acted with great Applause) call'd Romeo and Juliet. Written by Shakespear. The Characters personated by the Master of the Academy, his Assistants, Pupils, and Servants. With Proper Habits, Scenes and Decorations. [After Cibber announced his Academy, he received the following letter from the Justice of the Peace: I see by your advertisements, in regard to your Academical Performances, that they are of the same Nature as Mr L/c@y's were some Years ago, which brought him to a great deal of Trouble. Some strong Applications are making now to give you some; of which I think proper to give you Notice, in this private Manner, that you may avoid it.-Tho. de Veil. 31 Oct. Cibber, A Serio-Comic Apology. p. 12.

Event Comment: Rec'd by sundry charges made to Mr Theophilus? Cibber more than paid him last season...#58 8s. 5d. Paid Mr Finch for Mr Cibber's creditors the moneys stopp'd out of his sallary for their use #58 8s. 5d. Rec'd of Mr Finch a Bill paid to Forest June 1745 for a Habeus &c for Mr Cibber. Receipts: #91 19s. 6d

Event Comment: MMr Barry is greatly improv'd since last year in the character of Hastings , as he is indeed in every part in which I have seen him this winter. Mrs Cibber performed as she always does, to the admiration of her audience, and in my opinion she shewed a particular and new exertion of her art and abilities on those two nights. Great as I had declared my expectations for Miss Macklin, she surpassed them; particularly on the second night. On the former, indeed, in the first and in part of the second act, her embarrassment was insuperable, and I cannot sufficiently admire and applaud the Candour of the Audience on that distressed Occasion! In my judgment, never were two parts better adapted to the persons and powers of the performers, than those of Alicia and Jane Shore to Mrs Cibber and Miss Macklin (Inspector No 207, in Daily Advertiser and Literary Gazette, 30 Oct.)

Event Comment: Both pieces By Command of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. We hear that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with Prince Edward will be this night at Covent Garden, to see the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and Harlequin Skeleton. On Tuesday 3 March, will be reviv'd a Tragedy call'd Macbeth (as written by Shakespear) the part of Macbeth by Barry, and Lady Macbeth by Mrs Cibber, being the first time of her appearing in that character. To which will be added the Oracle, a new Dramatic piece (of one act) taken from the French, the Principal Part to be perform'd by Mrs Cibber. Pit and boxes laid together

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Macklin (Cross). Receipts: #180 (Cross). Ladies to send for tickets for the places they taken at Miss Macklin's, Russel St. next door to Tom's Coffee House. Part of Pit laid into Boxes and Amphitheatre on stage. Afterpiece: By Particular Desire. Last time of Performing till the Holidays. On seeing Miss Macklin in the character of the Mourning Bride: @Should Death (for Oh! what power can save Our tragic heroine from the grave)@At Cibber aim his dart:@Tears should forever speak my moan,@For oh! 'tis she, and she alone@Can melt the feeling heart.@Britannia spake, when Lo! a Voice@Britain be happy, and rejoice,@That, when your Cibber dies@The Gods have yet in store for thee,@A Macklin; and in her you'll see@Another Cibber rise.--Public Adveriser@

Event Comment: Benefit for Cibber. To begin at 6:30 p.m. Pursuant to Act of Parliament. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality for the Benefit of Mr Cibber At the New Theatre in the Haymarket, on Wednesday next, the 14th instant, will be perform'd a Concert of Musick, the Particulars whereof will be express'd in the Bills of the Day. After which (by partiuclar Desire) will be given a Dissertation in two Parts on Patentees, on Theatres, on Acting, Publick Diversions, and address'd to the Town, by Mr Cibber (Daily Advertiser, 8 & 10 Jan.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Rooker, and Saunderson (machinist). No Building on Stage. [The Theatrical Review; or, Annals of the Drama (Volunteer Manager section for 1 May 1763, p. 212) comments upon a stage tradition of having the Mouse Trap" Play presented on stage with the players' backs to Claudius and Gertrude. The author wishes Garrick and Beard to revise this absurdity and bring the whole in more accord with reality. The same paper criticises Mrs Cibber as Ophelia. "I hope you will not let so flagrant an outrage to the decorum of the stage as the following pass unnoticed. As [Mrs Cibber] sat upon the stage, with Hamlet at her feet, in the third act, she rose up three several times, and made as many courtiess, and those very low ones, to some ladies in the boxes. Pray good Sir, ask her in what part of the play it is said that the Danish Ophelia is acquainted with so many British Ladies?" See similar comment on her Belvidera, 17 March 1760.

Event Comment: The United Company. This play was in rehearsal before the death of Charles II-see 6 Feb. 1684@5-and was staged shortly after the playhouse reopened. Luttrell's date of acquisition of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue is 9 May 1685 (in possession of Pickering and Chatto, Ltd., 1938), and the play may have been first given on that date or during the week preceding Saturday 9 May 1685. For Cibber's account of Mountfort as Sir Courtly, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 129. The separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 228-30. A separately-printed Three New Songs in Sir Courtley Nice (1685) contains three songs, with the music by Samuel Ackroyde and an unknown composer. In addition, two songs, As I grazed unaware and O be kind my dear be kind, both composed by R. King, are in The Theater of Music, Second Book, 1685. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 40-41): The first new Comedy after King James came to the Crown, was Sir Courtly Nice, wrote by Mr Crown:...The Comedy being justly Acted, and the Characters in't new, Crown'd it with a general Applause: Sir Courtly was so nicely Perform'd, that not any succeeding, but Mr Cyber has Equall'd him. Note, Mr Griffin so Excell'd in Surly, Sir Edward Belfond, The Plain Dealer, none succeeding in the 2 former have Equall'd him, except his Predecessor Mr Hart in the latter. The Lover's Session; In Imitation of Sir John Suckling's Session of Poets (in Poems on Affairs of State, II [1703], 162): @Montrath was in Foppery conceiv'd another@Of Whitehall true Breed, Sir Nices Twin Brother:@None could tell, so alike all their Follies did seem,@Whether he acted Mumford, or Mumford him.