Event Comment: "Among other Obligations that the Town has to the new Open is that it has, for this year, delivered the Play-goer from his periodical Endurance of Rowe's Tamerlane" (Public Advertiser, 6 Nov.). The reference is to the long established custom of performing Tamerlane either on 4 Nov. (the date of William III's birth) or 5 Nov. (the date of his landing in England). In the play the virtuous Tamerlane was held to be the portrait of an upright monarch, and the vicious Bajazet [i.e. Louis xiv] as that monarch's enemy. At DL Tamerlane was acted on either or both of these nights uninterruptedly from 1716 to 1777; at LIF and CG, with the exception of five seasons, from 1721 to 1784. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 1 May 1783]. Receipts: #155 2s. 6d. (153/4/0; 1/18/6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With the Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon. Receipts: #186 3s. 6d. (182/14/0; 3/9/6)