Event Comment: Benefit for Miss George. [Monologue by Charles Stuart {.European Magazine, Sept. 1786, p. 165).] Morning Chronicle, 31 July: Tickets to be had of Miss George, No. 23, King-street, St. Ann's, Soho. Afterpiece: Never performed here

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Charles to Bannister Jun., but he "being suddenly taken ill, Barrymore was under the necessity of reading the part" (Morning Herald, 2 Oct.).] Error Smith, pit office-keeper, #2 11s. Receipts: #219 15s. (169.7; 49.15; 0.13)

Event Comment: Benefit for Kemble. Tickets delivered for The Careless Husband will be taken. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion, Ladies are desired to send their Servants at half past Four o'Clock. [Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Lady Restless was at Manchester, 17 Feb. 1777.] Public Advertiser, 12 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Kemble, No. 16, Charles-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #293 12s. 6d. (148.16.0; 15.3.0; 0.7.6; tickets: 129.10.0) (charge: #105 11s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces Isabella, with Mrs Siddons as Isabella. But she was indisposed, and "the play was changed into The Winter's Tale" (World, 4 May).] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart. Prologue by the author (Public Advertiser, 17 May)]. Receipts: #137 17s. 6d. (93.2.0; 43.7.6; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for R. Palmer and Staunton. 2nd piece [1st time; INT 1, by Charles Stuart. Larpent MS 777; not published]. Receipts: #283 3s. 6d. (44.4.0; 16.6.6; 1.11.0; tickets: 221.2.0) (charge: #109 13s. 9d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not performed these 5 years. In 3 acts; altered from Dryden. [Both Kemble and Moss were from the Edinburgh theatre. Address by George Colman elder (European Magazine, ibid).] Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Charles Dibdin. London Chronicle, 17 May, refers to it as "from the French"]: The Musick composed by Dibdin. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser. 7 July: This Day is published Harvest Home (1s.). Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice, at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Benefit for Staunton and Lamash. 2nd piece [1st time; INT I, by Charles Stuart. "A speaking Pantomime of ten minutes" (Public Advertiser, 15 May). 3rd piece: Not acted these 4 years. Public Advertiser, 12 May: Tickets to be had of Staunton, Gloucester-street, Queen-square; of Lamash, Queen-court, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Receipts: #271 11s. (37.0; 15.17; 0.14; tickets: 218.0) (charge: #108 7s.)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Miss Farren, "but on account of the sudden indisposition of Miss Farren her part in the play was read by Mrs Ward, who gave it with great effect, and having studied Miss Farren's manner, was a very tolerable substitute" (Diary, 2 May).] Afterpiece [1st time; C 3, by John Philip Kemble]: Taken from [The Country Lasses; or] The Custom of the Manor [by Charles Johnson]. Diary, 6 May 1789: This Day is published The Farm House (1s.). And see 6 May. Receipts: #165 3s. (125.12.0; 34.18.6; 4.12.6)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart, "from the Spanish"; on 2 Sept. reduced to 1 act. Prologue by the author (see text)]. "The Piece, we understand, was originally founded on some topics that have of late engrossed the conversation of much of the fashionable world...The Lord Chamberlain thought [it] too delicate a nature to appear with the allusions and title it then bore, She would be a Duchess. The consequence was that the offensive bits were expunged and the piece re-christened...It would be unfair to make any observations...in the mutilated stage it was presented" (Public Advertiser, 15 Aug.). "Some part of the plot was supposed to allude to the late occurrences in the family of General John? Gunning, who was indulged with the privilege of erasing [from the MS] that which he disliked, and who reduced it to its present feeble and unconnected form" (Gazetteer, 15 Aug.). [The reference in the original title is to the simultaneous flirtation of Miss Elizabeth Gunning, the General's daughter, with the eldest sons of the Dukes of Marlborough and Argyll (see dnb, under Susannah Gunning). She would be a Duchess: in Larpent MS 915.

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Chapman. Tickets delivered for The Toy will be admitted. 3rd piece [1st time; D 1, author unknown. Larpent MS 950; not published. Songs by John Collins and Charles Dibdin (MacMillan, Larpent Catalogue, 157-58)]. Morning Herald, 14 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Chapman, No. 16, Henrietta-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #244 18s. (122.10; 13.5; tickets: 109.3) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Poole. 3rd piece: Not acted these 6 years [acted 5 May 1790). Morning Chronicle, 7 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Poole, No. 18, Charles-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #206 12s. (102/8/0; 4/17/6; tickets: 99/6/6)

Event Comment: By Particular Desire of the Mirza, Prince of Broach. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Charles Dibdin; music by the author. MS: Larpent 1030; not published]: The Words of the Songs, &c. will be given at the different Doors of the Theatre. Tickets delivered for THE BEGGAR'S OPERA [Account-Book: by Heathcote, Bayzand, Egan, Pitt, Masters, Dick, Hall (carpenter), Doe, Goodwin] will be admitted. Receipts: #238 14s. 6d. (26/4/0; 3/17/6; tickets: 208/13/0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 2]: Composed by Charles? Farley; Founded chiefly on a principal Episode ["The History of Don Raymond," Vol. I, chaps. III, IV] in the Romance of The Monk [by Matthew Gregory Lewis]. With entire new Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music by Reeve. The Scenery designed by Phillips, and executed by him, the assistance of Hollogan, Blackmore, Thorne, Byrn, &c. The Machinery by Cresswell and Sloper. The Dresses and Decorations by Dick, Goostree and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs and Chorusses [T. N. Longman, 1797] to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #377 17s. (364.3.6; 13.13.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister Jun. 1st piece [1st time; MF 2. Larpent MS 1210; not published]: Written by Charles? Dibdin, Founded on his Popular Novel under that Title, and enriched with a Selection of his most recent and favourite Songs. Do conclude with a new Finale by Dibdin. The Overture by Dibdin. "[It is a] wretched inanity; without interest, without humour, without character, original only in its dullness and unmatchable absurdity" (Monthly Mirror, May 1798, p. 306). 2nd piece: Compressed into Three Acts. 3rd piece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal Hay-Market. Morning Herald, 18 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Bannister Jun., No. 65, Gower-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #511 13s. 6d. (251.7.6; 68.7.0; 1.13.0; tickets: 190.6.0) (charge: #212 19s.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Elizabeth Inchbald, adapted from Das Kind der Liebe, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by John Taylor; Epilogue by Thomas Palmer (see text)]. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Smith]: The Music composed by Attwood. The Overture accompanied on the Harp by Weippert. Morning Herald, 28 Nov. 1798: This Day is published Lovers' Vows [sic] (2s.). Times, 26 Oct. 1798: This Day is published A Day at Rome (1s.). Receipts: #197 15s. 6d. (194.3.6; 3.12.0)

Event Comment: 1st piece: In one Act; 1st time at this Theatre [acted 19 June 1784]. 2nd piece [1st time; D 3, by Charles Kemble, based on Le Deserteur, by Louis Sebastien Mercier. Authors of Prougue and Ephlogue unknown]. Morning Chronicle, 1 Aug. 1800: This day is published The Point of Honour (2s.)

Event Comment: At Bridges, Cross, Burton, and Vaughan's Great Theatrical Booth on the Bowling Green, Southwark, (with a company from the theatres) during the short time of the Fair will be presented an Historical Drama (lately acted in Bartholemew Fair with universal applause) the Northern Heroes with the Loves of Count Gillensternia, a Swedish General, and the fair Ellimira a Russian Princess, containing the most remarkable events of that time; and concluding with the memorable battle of Putlowav, and Charles's retreat into the Turkish dominionsv. Interspersed with a comic interlude, The Volunteers. Also the comical humours and amours of Corporal Garbage and Serjeant Slim, with Mrs Vanspriggen the Swedish Sutler's widow, the merry pranks of her foolish son Janny, and several other diverting incidents. As the Fair will be of so short continuance, we shall begin very early each day (General Advertiser). [See 24 Aug. 1748, bf]

Event Comment: The Late Wells, the bottom of Lemon St., Goodman's Fields. A Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick. Divided into two Parts. The Concert to conclude with the Chorus of Long Live the King. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit or First Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. Between the two Parts of the Concert will be exhibited Gratis, and not acted these 50 years, an Historical Play...written by the celebrated Mr Lee. And founded on Facts which happened in France, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Shewing the unparalleled Dissimulations, Imprecations, and Perjuries of Charles the 9th of France, the Queen Mother, and Cardinal Lorrain, to draw the Hugonot Party into their snares, by which means the Death of the Queen Navarre was effected by Poison, and most of the Protestant Princes of the Blood destroyed. Chastillon, the famous Admiral of France, with his Wife, Children, Commanders, and Followers, all put to Death, with the King's Consent, bx the cruel and Revengeful Duke of Guise, and his Adherents. After which the Massacre becoming general over the Kingdom, near near 100,000 Protestants were destroyed in the most barbarous and inhuman manner. The Concert will begin every Evening Positively at Six of the Clock, and the Whole be concluded by Half an Hour after Nine, the Wdlls being appointed (after the Entertainment is over) for the Main Guard of the Militia of the Tower Hamlets

Event Comment: At Bridges, Cross, Burton and Vaughan's Great Theatrical Booth in the George Inn Yard, will be presented an Historical Drama never acted before call'd The Northern Heroes; or, The Bloody Contest between Charles XII, King of Sweden, and Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy, with the Loves of Count Gillensternia, a Swedish General and the Fair Elimira, a Russian Princess, Containing the most remarkable Events of that Time; and concluding with the Memorable Battle of Pultowav, and Charles's Retreat into the Turkish Dominionv. Interspers'd with a Comic Interlude (never perform'd before) called The Volunteers; or, the Adventures of Roderick Random and his Friend Strap. Also the Comical Humours and Amours of Corporal Garbage and Serjeant Slim, with Mrs Vanspriggen the Swedish Sutler's Widow; the merry Pranks of her foolish son Janny, and several other diverting incidents. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 1s. 6d. First Gallery 1s. Upper Gallery 6d. To begin each Day at Twelve o'clock. [This notice repeated during "the short Time of the Fair." Notice repeated 24, 26, 27 Aug.

Event Comment: Benefit for Tindal and Charles Sarjant (book and housekeeper). Not acted this season

Event Comment: Receipts: #200 7s. 6d. (Account Book). Mainpiece: With New Dresses and Decorations. [The first of a series of five performances (the last, Merchant of Venice, 18 Nov.) which got Macklin dismissed from the theatre until 1775, when his lawsuit against six persons whom he claimed formed a conspiracy to hiss him from the stage and ruin his livlihood was concluded favorably for him. His performance of Macbeth was favorably treated but with certain misgivings in the Morning Chronicle (25 Oct.), but he was mercilessly criticized in the London Evening Post and St James Chronicle: "In Act II, Sc. i, Shakespeare has made Macbeth murder Duncan; Now Mr Macklin, being determined to copy from no man, reversed this incident, and in the very first act, scene the second, murdered Macbeth." The favorable review (Morning Chronicle) thought he did well in first and last acts, but gave way to stage rant and "vehemence of energetic expression" wanting any variation in tone in between. It also pointed out a certain faulty memory of his lines. His novel stage effects came in for a paragraph of comment: The alterations in the jeux de theatre respecting the representation of this tragedy do Mr Macklin great credit. His change of the scenery is peculiarly characteristical. The Quadrangle of Macbeth's castle, and the door which is supposed to lead to Duncan's apartment (both of which are entirely new) are additions of consequence to the exhibition of the play. The door also through which Macbeth comes to the Weird Sisters, in the 4th act, is a better and more probable entrance than through the common stage portal. The dresses are new, elegant, and of a sort hitherto unknown to a London audience, but exceedingly proper. The Banquet was superbly set out, and it must be confessed that the managers seem to have spared neither cost nor assiduity to ornament and add to the effect of the representation." A favorable letter from a correspondent to the London Evening Post adds: "I must observe, Mr Printer, that from the graceful and characteristic manner in which Macbeth was introduced by the martial music and military procession, from the manner of M. Macklin's acting, from his judicious alteration of the dresses, the disposition of the scene where the King is killed, the cave of the witches in the 4th act, from the improvement of Mrs Hartley's thinking in Lady Macbeth and from her manner of speaking, which seemed plainly to be the effects of some intelligence she had received from Mr Macklin...I thought Mr Macklin deserv'd great praise." See the newspaper comments all gathered and reprinted in an Apology for the Conduct of Charles Macklin, (London, 1773). See also note to 30 Oct. See also London Chronicle, Oct. 23-26 (cf. Odell, I, 453). The Westminster Magazine suggests the performance was pitiable. "Macklin knew what he ought to do, but could not do it." The Scenemen's pay this week was about double the normal cost. (Account Book).] Verse Squibs from St James Chronicle (Oct. 1773) against Macklin: @Macbeth@"Eight Kings appear and pass over in order, and Banquo the last"@Old Quin, ere Fate suppressed his lab'ring breath@In studied accents grumbled out Macbeth:--@Next Garrick came, whose utt'rance truth impressed,@While ev'ry look the tyrant's guilt confess'd:--@Then the cold Sheridan half froze the part,@Yet what he lost by nature sav'd by art.@Tall Barry now advanc'd toward Birnam Woodv@Nor ill performed the scenes--he understood--@Grave Mossop next to Foris shaped his march@His words were minute guns, his action starch.@Rough Holland too--but pass his errors o'er@Nor blame the actor when the man's no more.@Then heavy Ross, assay'd the tragic frown,@But beef and pudding kept all meaning down:--@Next careless Smith, try'd on the Murd'rer's mask,@While o'er his tongue light tripp'd the hurried task:--@Hard Macklin, late, guilt's feelings strove to speak,@While sweats infernal drench'd his iron cheek;@Like Fielding's Kings [in Tom Thumb] his fancy'd triumphs past,@And all be boasts is, that he falls the last.@ Also from St James Chronicle:@The Witches, while living deluded Macbeth@And the Devil laid hold of his soul after death;@But to punish the Tyrant this would not content him,@So Macklin he sent on the stage to present him.

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Kemble as Faulkland, but "Charles acted Faulkland for me" (Kemble Mem.).] Receipts: #134 5s. (82.11.0; 50.10.6; 1.3.6)

Event Comment: The date of the first performance is not certainly known, but Pepys, on 2 July, saw Part II, stating that 2 July was the premiere of Part I and the opening of the Duke's Company's new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 20-21): His [Davenant's] Company Rehears'd the First and Second Part of the Siege of Rhodes...at Pothecaries-Hall: And in Spring 1662 [1661], Open'd his House with the said Plays, having new Scenes and Decorations, being the first that e're were Introduc'd in England....All Parts being Justly and Excellently Perform'd; it continu'd Acting 12 Days without Interruption with great Applause. Downes, p. 34: I must not forget my self, being Listed for an Acotr in Sir William Davenant's Company in Lincolns-Inn-Fields: The very first Day of opening the House there, with the Siege of Rhodes, being to Act Haly; (The King, Duke of York, and all the Nobility in the House, and the first time the King was in a Publick Theatre). The sight of that August presence, spoil'd me for an Actor too. HMC, 10th Report, Appendix, Part IV, p. 21: @For the Siege of Rhodes all say@It is an everlasting play@Though they wonder now Roxalana is gon@What shift it makes to hold out so long@For when the second part took, butt for Bully@The first did not satisfie so fully.@ [Presumably this verse was written after Mrs Davenport left the stage, in 1662(?).

Event Comment: See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 116. The King's Company. It is surprising to see a Davenant play acted by the King's Company. Edward Gower to Sir R. Leveson, 20 Nov. 1660: Yesternight at the Fleece Tavern...The gentlemen were discussing the play which they then came from, by name The Unfortunate Lover; at the latter end of the play there was a duel upon the stage; which, they, discounting upon, drew their swords in jest to show wherein they failed (HMC, 5th Report, 1876, p. 200)