Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2: Charles 8. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Gentlemen and Ladies. Benefit Charles the Merry Trumpeter, a Batchelor, who used to Sound with Mr Bullock. At Lee's Booth on the Bowling Green. The Doors will be open'd at Five, and begin pricisely at Six

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Gentlemen and Ladies. Benefit Charles, the Merry Trumpeter of Oxford. At Fielding's Great Booth. 6 P.M. And tis well if it takes@If not the Trumpeter breaks

Event Comment: Benefit Charles, the Merry Trumpeter of Oxford. At Lee's Great Booth on the Bowling Green. ...and tis well if it takes If not, the Trumpet breaks; And they that are my Friends, that come to see my Play, If it happens to rain, shall have a Coach to carry 'em away

Event Comment: Benefit Mr Charles, Master of the French Horn. 51. 6 P.M

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: It being almost twelve o'clock, or a little more, and carried [Mercer, Mrs Horsfield, and Mrs Gayet] to the King's playhouse, where the doors were not then open; but presently they did open; and we in, and find many people already come in, by private ways, into the pit, it being the first day of Sir Charles Sidly's new play, so long expected, The Mulberry Garden, of whom, being so reputed a wit, all the world do expect great matters. I having sat here awhile, and eat nothing to-day, did slip out, getting a boy to keep my place...And so to the play again, where the King and Queen, by and by, come, and all the Court; and the house infinitely full. But the play, when it come, though there was, here and there, a pretty saying, and that not very many neither, yet the whole of the play had nothing extraordinary in it, at all, neither of language nor design; insomuch that the King I did not see laugh, nor pleased the whole play from the beginning to the end, nor the company; insomuch that I have not been less pleased at a new play in my life, I think. And which made it the worse was, that there never was worse musick played--that is, worse things composed, which made me and Captain Rolt, who happened to sit near me, mad. So away thence, very little satisfied with the play, but pleased with my company. [For Bannister's setting a song for Mrs Knepp for this play, see 7 May 1668.

Event Comment: By particular Desire. ["We have in Rehearsal a new Tragedy call'd Irene--Author, as yet, unknown."--Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, Theatre Notebook, XI (1957), pp. 138-39.] Receipts: #130 (Cross); #143 16s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: HHallam's New Theatre. A new Droll. One to ten p.m. [Notice repeated 4, 5, 7 (with Jockey Dance by Adams, just arriv'd from Epsom), 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 (with singing Blogg) May.

Event Comment: At the Old Theatre, Bowling Green, Southwark. A concert, etc. Benefit for Adams and Daniel. Prices: 2s. 6d., 1s. 6d., 1s., 6d

Event Comment: [G$Garrick] promised me the Part of Tressel; when the Play was given out, and I prepar'd for it, I saw in the Bills next Morn, another Person's Name [Blakes].-Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, quodet in Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 136. Receipts: #180 (Cross); #182 9s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 Years. Afterpiece: Not acted these 20 years. Music, Dances and Other Decorations for afterpiece entirely new. [In a letter to John Gilbert-Cooper, the actor Charles Adams states that "the Prompter gave me a little Part in the Emperor of the Moon...I appear'd in it thrice." He was "paid Twenty Shilling Pr Week." See Theatre Notebook, XI (1957), p. 136. The only male parts left were Baliardo's servant Peter and the figures in the tableau of the final scene.] Receipts: #160 (Cross); #158 11s. (Powel)

Event Comment: This farce of Lethe was wrote some years ago and play'd with Success, & was reviv'd this Night with great Alterations, & was but indifferently receiv'd by the Audience (Cross). The Poet, Frenchman, & Sot Mr Garrick perform'd most inimitably (Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 138). No After Money will be taken, and no Persons will be Admitted behind the Scenes (General Advertiser). Receipts: #180 (Cross); #186 7s. (Powel). N.B.: Mr G-k is the author of Lethe and did receive #36 8s. 6d. for this night which is the overplus after the charge of #63 for the House is paid, and which I must subtract from the rest (Powel). [A letter appeared in the General Advertiser this day giving advance notice and approval of a performance of Cato to be put on at Leicester House 7 Jan. by members of the Royal Family. The author noted that "proper Habits are absolutely in the making," and that the Princes would learn the principles of liberty from the lines of the play.

Event Comment: To be seen a Person who performs the most surprizing Things...he presents you with a common Wine bottle, which any of the Spectators may first examine; this Bottle is plac'd on a Table in the Middle of the Stage, and he (without any Equivocation) goes into it in Sight of all the Spectators, and sings in it; during his Stay in the Bottle, any Person may handle it, and see plainly that it does not exceed a common Tavern Bottle. The Performance continues about Two Hours and a Half. These Performances have been seen by most of the Crowned Heads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and never appear'd anywhere Public but once. Stage 7s. 6d. where Masks may be worn. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. [The famous Bottle Conjurer hoax.] Theatre was crowded...by five o'clock; at seven the house was lighted up [but not music]...a Person came before the Curtain, and, bowing, promis'd if Mr Conjurer did not arrive in half an Hour, their Money should be return'd...after near an Hour...a Gentleman in the Box snatch'd a Candle lighted, and in Violence threw it on the Stage; this was the Signal for the Onset of Battle...the Boxes, Seats, Glasses, Scenes, Chairs, Machinery, and all the Furniture of the Play House, were in less than ten Minutes carried into the Street...an excellent Bonfire was made of Mr Foote's Auction Room...it may put a [pe]riod to the Auction, till the Theatre can be refitted.--Charles Adams to John Gilbert-Cooper, Theatre Notebook, XI (1957) p. 139. [Potter was still owner of this theatre.] Those opposed to a recent late book would have been gratified had the Conjurer jumped into the bottle and proved that miracles had not yet ceased."--Daily Advertiser, 17 Jan. Last Night a numerous Audience, among whom were several Persons of Quality, was at the New Theatre in the Haymarket, in wonderful Expectation of seeing the Miraculous Man creep into a Bottle, and do several other Miracles; but the only one he perform'd was, that he render'd himself invisible (without any Equivocation) to the no small Disappointment of the gaping Multitude; who, being told from behind the Curtain that the Performer had not yet appear'd, but that if they would stay until the next Night, instead of a Quart Bottle he should creep into a Pint, immediately grew outrageous, and in a Quarter of an Hour's Time broke to Pieces all the Boxes, Benches, Scenes, and everything that was in their power to destroy, leaving only the Shell of the House remaining. Surely this will deter anyone from venturing to impose on the public in the like manner for the future.--General Advertiser, 17 Jan. [See also dl Comment 18, 19, 20, 27 Jan.

Event Comment: Benefit for King. [This was Smith's last appearance on the stage, from which he had officially retired on 9 June 1788.] Broadside in Kemble playbills announcing this benefit: Mr King most respectfully informs the Public that his Night is fixed for Friday the 18th of May, when will be presented The School for Scandal. Mr King has the pleasure to add that Mr Smith, who was so long and so worthily applauded by the Public, and was the original performer of Charles Surface in the above, distinguished Comedy, at the particular request of Mr King, backed by a strong assurance from many admirers and encouragers of the Drama that it will not only add to Mr King's emolument but highly gratify the Town, has kindly consented to return to the Theatre for one night, and resume his favourite Character. "We had been told that Smith pourtrayed the Manners of a finished gentleman with more delicacy and characteristic propriety than any actor of his day; but this did not appear to us to be his particular excellence; he stands too wide to be graceful, and his deportment gains no advantage from a perpetual application of his hand to the lower part of the waist. These habits are far from elegant. His Charles, however, is a favourable specimen of that sort of acting which commonly falls under the denomination of the old school: light, airy, and natural; which excites applause without any anxious endeavour to produce it; which suffers the points to tell of themselves, and does not place them as so many traps to ensnare the injudicious part of the audience" (Monthly Mirror, May 1798, p. 299). "He was received with the most heart-felt gratulations by an audience who did not expect any apology for such acting, though he saw fit to deliver one at the conclusion of the play" (Monthly Visitor, May 1798, p. 72). Times, 4 May: Tickets to be had of King at his house, New Store-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #674 6s. (388.0.6; 55.17.6; 2.0.0); tickets: 228.8.0) (charge: #212 5s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Pope as Charles Stanley, but "The part of Charles Stanley this night devolved upon Claremont. It were to be wised that this gentleman would suffer the austerity of his features to relax, when he acts the lover. A continual frown ill accords with the soft workings of the tender passion" (Dramatic Censor, I, 78).] Receipts: #207 15s. (197.5; 10.10)

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first production is not known, but the Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March) makes clear that it followed Congreve's play: We have had since a Comedy, call'd, The Wary Widow, or Sir Noisy Parrot, by Henry Higden Esq; I send by here the Prologue to it by Sir Charles Sedley, and you are too great an Admirer of Shakespeare, not to assent to the Praises given to the Fruits of his rare Genius (p. 61). The play was announced in the London Gazette, No. 2875, 29 May-June 1693. The music for one song, All hands up aloft, was by Berenclow, and the song appears in D'Urfey, Wit and Mirth, 1699. Dedication, edition of 1693: But now it is forced to beg for your Protection from the malice and severe usage it received from some of my Ill natured Friends, who with a Justice peculiar to themselves, passed sentence upon it unseen or heard and at the representation made it their business to persecute it with a barbarous variety of Noise and Tumult. Gildon, The Life of Mr Thomas Betterton (p. 20): The actors were completely drunk before the end of the third act, and being therefore unable to proceed with this "Pleasant Comedy," they very properly dismissed the audience

Event Comment: [By Charles Shadwell.] Never Acted before. [Tickets given out for this day for Tamerlane as a benefit for Corey and Elrington will be taken on 7 March.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: [By Charles Johnson.] A New Farce of Two Acts only

Event Comment: By Command of his Royal Highness. [The Prince, accompanied by the Duke of Manchester, Lord Charles Cavendish, and Colonel Schutz, present.

Event Comment: Benefit Brothers and Sisters of Charles Williams, deceas'd. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality. 7 p.m

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Wroughton as Lord Morelove and Henderson as Sir Charles Easy, but "an apology was made for the Illness of [Henderson], and Wroughton became his substitute, Wroughton's Place in Lord Morelove being supplied by Williamson from the Haymarket" {Public Advertiser 13 Feb.). Afterpiece in place of Rosina, announced on playbill of 10 Feb.] Receipts: #277 6s. (269/9; 7/17)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Barrymore as Careless, but "Barrymore came too late to play Careless, in consequence of which Dignum did the part and sang Sedgwick's song, who came in time to the theatre [Powell's italics, see 7 Feb.], but begged to be excused going on from the violent pain he was in, occasioned by a swelling upon his finger. Dignum not in time to be discovered at Lady Sneerwell's rout, but came on after the Scene opened. Fisher, one of the waiters in the above Scene, was absent. Caulfield absent from the scene with Charles, and Kelly Jr. not being in time to be discovered With the rest, walked on after the Scene opened." [In afterpiece] the playbill retains Aumer as Hephestion, "Hephestion C. Kemble, Aumer at the Opera House" (Powell).] Receipts: #349 7s. (264.16; 81.10; 3.1)