Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bulkley. Mainpiece: A New Comedy [by a Lady] never perform'd in this Kingdom. As performed with Universal Applause at the Theatre Royal in Dublin. [The Edition of 1774 lists the Irish Actors. The characters are: Mowbray, Sir Thomas O'Shaughnesy; Admiral Swivel; Leslie; Egerton; Capt. Egerton; Issacher; Donald M'Pherson; Strap; Elfrida Audley; Henrietta Egerton; Mrs Ornel; Mrs Issacher; Jenny, a Mantua Maker, a Maid; French servants and porters. Genest suggests a casting for ten of the characters.] Charges: #66 6s. 6d. Profit to Mrs Bulkley #33 17s., plus #93 13s. from tickets Box 232; Pit 177; Gallery 91). Paid Mrs Carne half year' salary due Lady day last #15. Paid half year's water rent due Xmas last #4. Receipts: #100 3s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Paid 3 day's salary at #100 12s. 6d. per diem #301 17s. 6d. Salaries short-paid last week #168 8s. 6d.; Tabor and Pipe #3 13s. 6d. Louchre [Lauchery] #8 8s. Mr Abington #2; Mr King #3; (Treasurer's Book). [The payment to King was the first of 37 similar ones for extra salary amounting to #111. That to Mrs Abington was the first of weekly payments for her clothes account, amounting to #60 for the season. No further mention will be made of these items.] Receipts: #265 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [From the Middlesex Journal (7-9 Oct.) quoted by Hampden, Eighteenth Century Journal: "The Way of the World, though confessedly replete with wit and character, is not the most entertaining play in representation. It is so full of plot and intrigue, that it demands an Unusual degree of attention in the performers and audience to excite admiration. On Saturday they seemed averse to assist the author. Mr King in Witwou'd was as entertaining and full of spirits as usual. Mr Jefferson in the gay admired Mirabel (independent of the antique mode of his wig, and formal cut of his clothes, which surely were both uncharacteristic) seemed in attempting to be quite natural, to keep the entire plot of the play in his own bosom, looked more like the father than the Mirabel of Congreve. Mr Reddish was a contrast to his friend Mirabel; he seemed attentive nervous, and played the latter part of his character well....Mrs Abington's person, manner and dress were fashionable and elegant; but though the character was certainly a fine one, there was a want of that spirit best calculated to call her powers into action: her delivery was tediously formal; and had the audience been deprived of their sight they would conclude that Capt. Bobadill had got into petticoats. Her dress was no more decent than Madam Hidou's was on her first appearance last year; stays so low cut before puts modesty to the blush; and will not be countenanced by an English audience, though made after the French fashion....Mrs Greville, to convince the town that she could keep a secret, whispered it to only a few friends in the Pit....her indifference is intolerable, and should be noticed by her employer."