Event Comment: The Public are most respectfully informed, that, in consequence of the sudden and violent Indisposition of Mr Parsons, the second Performance of the New Comedy, called A School for Grey-Beards, is unavoidably postponed. This Evening will be presented [as above] (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill). Receipts: #182 13s. 6d. (141.9.0; 38.7.0; 2.15.0; ticket not come in: 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Parsons having relapsed, and being now dangerously ill, A School for Grey-Beards [announced on playbill of 2 Dec.] is, of Necessity, deferred 'till further Notice. Receipts: #180 17s. (134.0; 45.15; 1.2)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces the 7th night of A School for Grey-Beards (see 3 Mar. 1787), but "Parsons was in bed so ill as to make it impossible for him to play-the play was in course changed" (Morning Chronicle, 26 Dec.). Its substitute is listed in the Account-Book.] Receipts: #163 16s. 6d. (121.18.0; 39.18.0; 2.0.6)

Event Comment: A Trip to Scarborough [announced on playbill of 28 Dec.] and A School for Grey-Beards are obliged to be deferred, on Account of the Indisposition of Miss Farren. Receipts: #201 4s. 6d. (153.16.0; 45.8.6; 2.0.0)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces The School for Scandal, but it was not acted. Its substitute is listed in the Account-Book.] Receipts: #206 18s. 6d. (166.14.0; 37.15.0; 2.9.6)

Event Comment: Palmer having relapsed, and being incapable of performing, The School for Scandal [announced on playbill of 10 Feb.] is obliged to be deferred. [Afterpiece in place of The First Floor, announced as above.] Receipts: #152 2s. 6d. (118.7.0; 26.16.0; 5.9.6; tickets not come in: 1.10.0)

Event Comment: A School for Fathers [announced on playbill of 28 Apr.] is obliged to be deferred, on account of the Indisposition of Kelly. Receipts: #97 18s. (70.13; 24.7; 2.18)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Richard Cumberland. Larpent MS 779; not published; synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, Aug. 1787, p. 100. Prologue by the author; Epilogue by George Colman elder (European Magazine, July 1787, pp. 63-64). In 1789 altered as The School for Widows]

Event Comment: "Palmer and Bannister having withdrawn from the theatre, The School for Scandal and The Quaker, which were intended for the opening pieces, were changed" (Town and Country Magazine, Oct. 1787, p. 445). [These two actors thought themselves ill-used because of the refusal of the dl management to acknowledge their right to open the Royalty (see 20 June 1787). Oulton, 1796, II, 1-8, prints an exchange of letters between Palmer, Bannister, and King (the dl acting manager) relating to this situation.] "Some twenty of thirty bars of Handel, on the approach of the court to the play [in III. ii of mainpiece]...made a fine preparation for the scene which followed" (World, 19 Sept.). Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 13 Nov.]. Receipts: #186 5s. 6d. (151.0.0; 35.4.6; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: ["The Lord Ogleby of (The Clandestine Marriage) raised Mr King to the summit of comic excellence, which his more recent great character, Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal, has established him in the unrivalled possession of" (Johnson, ed. Waldron, 169).] Receipts: #245 (211.9; 33.6; 0.5)

Event Comment: The School for Scandal [advertised on playbill of 8 Dec.] is deferred on account of Kemble's Illness. Receipts: #184 14s. (132.6.0; 45.3.6; 6.19.6; tickets not come in: 0.5.0)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces the 5th night of The School for Arrogance (see 14 Feb.), but it was "set aside, on account of the indisposition of Johnstone, and The Provok'd Husband was the substitute, in which Holman and Mrs Esten represented the characters of Lord and Lady Townly." In afterpiece the playbill retains Johnstone as Edwin, but "Incledon warbled the airs allotted to the part of Edwin" (Diary, 14 Feb.).] Receipts: #205 1s. 6d. (195.16.6; 9.5.0)

Event Comment: The School for Scandal [advertised on playbill of 22 Sept., as was No Song No Supper for 3rd piece], intended for this Evening's Representation, is deferred till Tuesday, the Stage having been so constantly occupied by the Workmen preparing and adapting the various Scenes for this Theatre that the usual course of Rehearsals has been necessarily impeded. The Public are most respectfully informed that every Endeavour is exerting to remove all cause of Complaints respecting the Entrances and Passages to the different Doors of Admission. The large Hall below Stairs will be opened at Five o'Clock, for the accomodation of the Company frequenting the Pit previous to the opening the Office Doors. Receipts: #347 4s. (303.19; 43.2; 0.3)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Inkle and Yarico, advertised on playbill of 7 June. In it the playbill retains Gray as Anthonio , but he "being ill, his part of Anthonio was read by Macready"(Thespian Magazine, July 1793, p. 52).] Tickets delivered for The School for Wives will be admitted. Receipts: #213 9s. 5d

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of Fontainbleau; afterpiece of The School for Arrogance, both advertised on playbill of 4 Oct.] Receipts: #163 6s. (158.1; 5.5)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Palmer as Stukely, and in afterpiece retains Trueman, but "Palmer being ill Barrymore play'd Stukely. Trueman being Ill, Banks play'd the Servant in The Wedding Day" (Powell).] Powell: School for Scandal rehearsed at 11. Receipts: #288 12s. (222.5.6; 61.4.6; 5.2.0)

Event Comment: [Trueman's name is omitted from afterpiece, but "Trueman continuing Ill, Webb Servant in The Wedding Day" (Powell).] Powell: School for Scandal rehearsed at 10; Roman Father at 12. Receipts: #249 14s. 6d. (201.7.0; 46.8.0; 1.19.6)

Event Comment: Powell: School for Lovers rehearsed at 10; Cherokee at 11; Grecian Daughter at 12. Receipts: #169 (123.1.6; 43.19.0; 1.19.6)

Event Comment: Powell: School for Lovers rehearsed at 10; Cherokee at 11:30. Receipts: #225 7s. 6d. (171.13.6; 46.1.6; 7.12.6)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Cherokee; afterpiece of All the World's a Stage, both announced on playbill of 20 Jan. In mainpiece the playbill retains C. Kemble as Jaques de Bois and Barrymore as Orlando, but "Orlando C. Kemble, Barrymore Ill; Jaques de Bois Benson for C. Kemble"; in afterpiece the playbill retains Barrymore as Kera Khan and C. Kemble as Kajah, but "Kera Khan C. Kemble for Barrymore Ill, Kajah Cooke for C. Kemble. Miss Leak, Miss Redhead, Miss Gawdry absent from this Evening's Performance" (Powell).] Powell: School for Scandal rehearsed at 10; Miss in her Teens at 11; New Ballet at 12. Receipts: #149 12s. (95.7.0; 42.1.6; 12.3.6)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The School for Scandal, advertised on playbill of 30 Mar.] Receipts: #230 1s. 6d. (158.9.0; 63.19.6; 7.13.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by William Henry Ireland; incidental music by William Linley. Prologue by Sir James Bland Burges; Epilogue by Robert Merry (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses & Decorations. The Scenes designed and excuted by Greenwood and Capon. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay & Miss Rein. Printed slip attached to Kemble playbill: A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. [i.e. those forged by W. H. Ireland, of which this play was one] having appeared, on the Eve of representation of Vortigern, evidently intended to injure the interest of the Proprietor of the MSS., Mr Samuel? Ireland [W. H. Ireland's father] feels it impossible, within the short space of time that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in Mr Malone's enquiry [i.e. Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers attributed to Shakspeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry, Earl of Southampton, 1796]. He is therefore induced to request that Vortigern may be heard With that Candour that has ever distinguished a British Audience. The Play is now at the Press, and will in a very few days be laid before the Public. [But it was not issued until 1799 (see below). See also Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, London, 1966.] 4 Apr., states that the first three acts were listened to with patience, but beginning with the fourth act the play was damned, when "one tremendous yell of indignation from the pit burst simultaneously." "At four o'clock the doors of the theatre were besieged; and, a few minutes after they were opened, the pit was crowded solely with gentlemen. Before six not a place was to be found in the boxes, and the passages were filled...The audience betrayed symptoms of impatience early in the representation; but, finding its taste insulted by bloated terms, which heightened the general insipidity, its reason puzzled by discordant images, false ornaments, and abortive efforts to elevate and astonish, pronounced its sentence of condemnation at the conclusion of the play" (Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 346-47). "Irelands play of Vortigern I went to. Prologue spoken at 35 minutes past 6 [see 29 Mar.]: Play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near 3 acts, when some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, mixed with groans-Kemble requested the audience t o hear the play out abt. the end of 4th act and prevailed.-The Epilogue was spoken by Mrs Jordan who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeares. Barrymore attempted to give the Play out for Monday next but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on, & after some time, was permitted to say that "School for Scandal would be given," which the House approved by clapping. Sturt of Dorsetshire was in a Stage Box drunk, & exposed himself indecently to support the Play, and when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth [i.e. a carpet which, by custom, was laid on the stage during the concluding scene of a tragedy], Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges" (Joseph Farington, Diary, 1922, I, 145). Account-Book, 4 Apr.: Paid Ireland his share for the 1st Night of Vortigern #102 13s. 3d. Morning Chronicle, 29 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Vortigern and Henry the Second (4s.). Receipts: #555 6s. 6d. (528.6.0; 26.9.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: Among the Principal Instrumental Performers are G. Ashley, Leader of the Band; C. Ashley, Principal Violoncello; Wm. Parke, Sarjant, J. Mahon, Boyce, Bridgtower, Parkinson, Lavenu, Taylor, W. Ware, Flack, Dressler, Gwilliam, Nicks, [the] Munros, I. Sharp, W. Sharp, M. Sharp, J. Sharp, Archer, Cobham, Jackson, Wood, Coyle, Cornish, Purney, Leffler, Woodham, Piele, [the] Cantelos, Skillern, Beale, Lloyd, Franki, Simpson, Jenkinson, &c.; J. Ashley, Organ; R. Ashley, Double Drums (used at Westminster Abbey). The Chorusses will be numerous and complete. The whole under the Direction of Ashley. Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon at the Office in Hart-street. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout oratorio season]. Books of the Performance (with the imprimatur of E. Macleish) to be had at the Theatre. [Sga Galli did not sing in The Messiah when it was originally performed in Dublin in 1742, or in London in 1743, in which year the cg oratories under Handel were established.] "I had the curiosity to go, and heard [Sga Galli] sing, 'He was despised and rejected of men' in the Messiah. Of course her voice was cracked and trembling, but it was easy to see her school was good; and it was pleasing to observe the kindness with which she was received, and listened to; and to mark the animation and delight with which she seemed to hear again the music in which she had formerly been a distinguished performer. The poor old woman had been in the habit of coming to me annually for a trifling present; and she told me on that occasion that nothing but the severest distress should have compelled her so to expose herself, which after all did not answer its end, as she was not paid according to her agreement" (Mount-Edgcumbe, pp. 19-20). [At the rehearsal, 1 Mar., I know that my Redeemer liveth sung by Mme Mara; Comfort ye my people by Braham; But@thou didst not leave by Miss Poole (Morning Herald, 2 Mar.).] "The chorusses are not such as would give satisfaction to a musical amateur: in this department we must endeavour to be content with noise and bawling, instead of sense and science:--they are not, however, worse than usual" (Monthly Visitor, Mar.1797, p. 262)

Event Comment: The School for Scandal [advertised on playbill of 2 June] is obliged to be deferred on account of Mrs Jordan's Indisposition. Receipts: #125 10s. 6d. (75.7.0; 46.11.6; 3.12.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Delpini. [1st piece in place of The School for Arrogance, advertised on playbill of 8 June.] 2nd piece [1st time; BALL. P 1, author unknown]. 4th piece: To conclude with a View of the Temple of Magic. True Briton, 2 June: Tickets to be had of Delpini, No. 27, Maiden-lane, Southampton-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #211 0s. 6d. (105.5.6; 13.11.6; tickets: 92.3.6)