Event Comment: Benefit for Ryan. Afterpiece: Written by Randolph, revised and shortened. Tickets deliver'd for the Merry Wives of Windsor will be taken

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Beaumont and Fletcher, acted but once these 15 years. Afterpiece: At the particular Desire of several persons of Quality. Benefit for my Self & Wife (Cross). [See The Spouter; or, The Triple Revenge, farce in two acts attributed to Mr Murphy, satirizing John Hill, Theophilus Cibber, Samuel Foote. Discussed by Genest, IV, 459-61.] Receipts: #214 (Cross)

Event Comment: TThe Platonic Wife published at 1s. 6d. Author's Night

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Comedy of 3 Acts [by George Colman] never performed. [In the Shakespearean Pageant, with figures from seventeen of his plays, the chief effectiveness lay with the Musicians who ushered in each group with appropriate music: Martial Music-The Roman Characters of Coriolanus and Julius Caesar; Soft Music-Antony and Cleopatra; Grand Music, Old English Characters-King John, Richard III, Henry VIII: Magical Music, "above, about, underneath" for Prospero; Macbeth's Music; Fairy Music-Oberon and Titania; Solemn Music for Tragic Muse accompanied by Othello, Hamlet, the Ghost, Mad Ophelia and Lear with Cordelia; Dead March in Saul-Juliet's Bier with attendants; Allegro for the Comic Muse-Falstaff, Touchstone, Launcelot, Malvolio; Andante-Florizel and Perdita, Portia Antonio and Bassanio; Flourish-for Car drawn by the muses carrying Shakespeare's Bust; Final Song by Mrs Mattocks, "Sweetest Bard that Ever Sung, Nature's glory, Fancy's Child--." The Prelude is, in print, entirely favorable to Garrick's effort at Stratford. But it could be rendered in a mercilessly ironical manner if the three participating actors so chose. Mainpiece reviewed in the Freeholder's Magazine, Oct.] Receipts: #224 10s

Event Comment: Comedy by Mrs Griffith, never before acted. [Not well received the first night, but clarified and improved the second Victor, History of the Theatres, III, 59. Prologue and Epilogue printed in Public Advertiser, 28 Jan.

Event Comment: [The playbill assigns Mrs Page to Mrs Wilson, and Mrs Ford to Miss Younge, but on the Kemble playbill both these names are deleted. Mrs Whitfield's name is written above Mrs Wilson's, but the name of Miss Younge's substitute has been cut by the binder; she was almost certainly Mrs Mattocks (see 25 Jan. 1782).] Receipts: #155 1s. (149/18; 5/3)

Event Comment: Not Acted these Eight Years [see 24 April 1741]. Benefit Cibber, Jr. Tickets and places of Hobson at the Stage door. Tickets ddliver'd out for All's Well at Covent Garden theatre will be taken to the above mentioned play this night. [Mrs Clive's Prologue recommended the cause of Liberty to the Ladies of Great Britain. Cibber had pleaded in his advance advertisement on 5 April in the General Advertiser.] As I have in justice to my creditors assigned over so much of my salary as reduces the remainder to a very small pittance, I very much depend on the encouragement and indulgence of the town at my Benefit. [On the day of the benefit he inserted in the General Advertiser a long, double column address to the Publick puffing his Benefit, and scotching a rumor industriously and invidiously spread that he came to Drury Lane only to impede Mrs Cibber in her performance there. In this he washes in public the linen of his domestic affairs at some length, professing his virtue, forbearance, and generosity, and Mrs Cibber's unfairness and ingratitude, citing her salary as about #700 per year, not a penny of which would she afford for his relief from creditors, or to bail him out of the Fleet prison where he languished six months. He alleges that she was instrumental in forming a cartel between the rival theatrical managers with precluded his employment by either house, and that she refused to act a benefit for him when he was in debtor's prison.

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but the second edition (1700) states: The first appearance of this Play was on a Wednesday in Lent; for then (it seems) the Town look for a bad Entertainment. [As the play was advertised in the Flying Post, 2 April 1700, the first performance probably occurred in early March.] A Prologue by Sir Charles Sedley which may have been intended for this play is in Sedley's Works, ed. V. de Sola Pinto (London, 1928), I, 46-47, 288-89. A song in this play, separately printed ca. 1700, indicates that the music was composed by Daniel Purcell and that the song was sung by Mrs Erwin

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. It is not certain that this play was given at this time, but Vanbrugh, writing on 25 Dec. 1699, states that Thomas Dogget, who had been acting in Norwich, was in London "last Week," and acted six times, presumably on 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Dec. 1699. The Amorous Widow is a likely play for this week, as Barnaby Brittle was one of Dogget's best roles. In addition, the Inner Temple, which usually requested popular plays, selected it for its revels on 3 Feb. 1699@1700. Nearly all the individuals in the cast in the 1710 edition acted in London during this season, with two exceptions: Fieldhouse and Mrs Hunt. Their roles may have been played by them or by other performers if they were not in the company at this time. I owe the suggestion that this was the play in which Dogget appeared to Professor Lucyle Hook

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Walter and Mrs Pelling. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve. [Tickets of Mrs Walter at Mr Hook's, Carpenter, in Stanhope Street; of Mrs Pelling at Mr Dagley's, Silversmith, near Castle Tavern, DL.]

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. As 10 March. Tickets at Mrs Clive's House, Cecil Street, the Strand

Event Comment: Benefit for Dunstall and Mrs Dunstall. Mainpiece: Not acted these two years. [See 25 Jan. 1751.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: not acted 6 years. [See 21 April 1752.] Afterpiece: By Desire. Benefit for Mrs Hamilton. Receipts: #87 15s. 6d. Plus Tickets #167 13s. [box 229; pit 514; gallery 333). Charges #63 Mrs Pudsey entered as a New Renter for 1 share (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Redman, Lewis, Dibdin. Hussey, Miss Cokayne. Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. [See 18 May 1757.] Tickets deliver'd by Rawlins, Dufour, and Mrs Gwinn, and others will be accepted

Event Comment: "The after-piece-that old obsolete Trash, the Country Madcap, by the aid of Quick and Mrs Mattocks' good Acting, was endured. Reinhold's imitation of Italian Singing . . . got three Peals of Applause" (Public Advertiser, 13 Oct.). Receipts: #150 4s. 6d. (147/1/6; 3/3/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. Mrs Billington's severe Illness rendering it impossible to perform Fontainbleau [advertised on playbill of 13 Mar.], Lewis hopes the above Comedy will prove acceptable to those Ladies and Gentlemen who have Places, and to the Public in general. Public Advertiser, 11 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, Bow-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #242 16s. 6d. (156.12.6; 5.10.0; tickets: 80.14.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pope. Public Advertiser, 23 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Pope at her house, Half-moon-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #267 12s. (178.4.6; 3.13.6; tickets: 85.14.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. Receipts: #210 8s. 6d. (138.2.0; 7.10.6; tickets: 64.16.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Eversman and Mrs Benson. Afterpiece: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Receipts: money #11 15s. 6d.; tickets #114 6s

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: At the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Never acted there before. [Amphitheatre on stage as described 11 March.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Horton. [A "puff" for Leveridge's forthcoming benefit (31 March) in a letter to the General Advertiser, followed by 3 stanzas of verse]: Sir, The Remembrance of the pleasure I have often receiv'd, in a series of years, by hearing Mr Leveridge's Performances on the stage, occasion'd the following Lines: which however artless they are wrote, will I dare say give no offense to the good natur'd part of Mankind. I am your constant reader. T.H.: @I Whilst Garrick justly claims applause,@Old Leveridge humbly sues,@That you'll not quite neglect his cause@Nor now his suit refuse.@Whilst youthful vigor tun'd his voice@With song he rais'd the heart;@To cheer that voice, now chilled with Age@Becomes a noble part.@Then shew that faithful service past@Your thoughts does still employ;@And by your num'rous Presence grac'd@Revive old age with joy.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber. [The Old Maid for 8 May 1756 reviewed this performance of Lethe, or possibly the one with the same cast on 30 April. The reviewer was 'particularly diverted with Mrs Clive's Italian Song, in which this truly humorous actress parodys the Air of the Opera, and takes off the action, of the present favorite female at the Hay-Market, with such exquisite ridicule, that the most zealous partisans of both, I think, must have applauded the comic genius of Mrs Clive, however they might be displeased with this application of it." The reviewer is lukewarm in praise of the "New Character"..."What is there new in a Lord's having Gout, loving a bottle, pretending to taste, or being follow'd by a flatterer?"] Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister and Mrs Dorman

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Lessingham. Mainpiece: (Never Perform'd) alter'd from Gay [The Distress'd Wife].Afterpiece: (By Particular desire and for the last time this season). Part of Pit will be laid into Boxes. Ladies send servants by half past 4 o'clock. [See afterpiece again on 6 May.

Event Comment: Benefit for Kear, Booth, Jacobs. Tickets deliver'd by Watkins, Costin, Miss Berkeley, and Mrs Hayward will be taken