Event Comment: [Miss Arne, who is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill, had previously appeared as a chorus singer; see 27 Oct. 1794. In mainpiece the playbill assigns Mrs Peachum to Mrs Hopkins, Suky Tawdry to Mrs Maddocks, Mrs Coaxer to Miss Stageldoir, but "Mrs Hopkins being ill, Mrs Maddocks play'd Mrs Peachum; Mrs Hedges Suky Tawdry for Mrs Maddocks; Miss Stageldoir Ill, Mrs Jones play'd Mrs Coaxer. [In afterpiece] Jones Ill, Lyons Snuffle; Evans 4th Mob for Lyons [both these characters omitted from playbill]" (Powell).] Powell: Mayor of Garratt rehearsed at 12; New Ballet at 12. Receipts: #174 10s. (121.14; 51.2; 1.14)

Event Comment: Benefit Roberts and Jones. Afterpiece: A New Ballad Opera of one Act [by Edward Phillips]. [For a puff of the afterpiece, see Daily Advertiser, 25 April, and Daily Post, 2 May.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted this season. Paid Jones, coal merchant, a bill #104 15s. (Account Book). Receipts: #85 1s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Jones, Walker, Mrs Simson and Mrs Cross. Tickets deliver'd by Mas. Blanchard, Stevens, Miss Berkley will be taken. Paid Mr Loutherbourg on acct #41 13s. 4d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #187 19s. Charges: #65 2s. Profits to beneficiaries: #22 17s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpicce: Not acted these 5 years [acted 19 May 1792). Afterpiece: Not acted these 3 years [acted 24 Apr. 1792). "When next [Miss Jones, who had acted previously at Birmingham, and who is identified in Thespian Magazine, Dec. 1793, p. 359) plays the part she should endeavour to hold her person erect. The crouching attitudes that she adopted in the breeches scenes, took from the captivating impression that her figure might otherwise have produced" (Public Advertiser, 19 Nov.). [Author of Occasional Address unknown.] Receipts: #291 11s. 6d. (287/11/6; 4/0/0)

Event Comment: Powell: [In mainpiece] Jones the Doctor, Packer [retained in playbill] ill. The Jew rehearsed at 10 (for Bannister Jun.; Mrs Hopkins ill); Siege of Belgrade at 12 . Receipts: #461 15s. 6d. (390/0/0; 69/18/6; 1/5/0; tickets not come in: 0/12/0)

Event Comment: [The playbill retains Baddeley as Moses , and Mrs Heard as the Maid , but "Mr Baddeley being suddenly taken ill at the Theatre this Evening Banks play'd the part of Moses, and Evans doubled Surface's Servant with his own, Mrs Heard Ill, Mrs Jones the Maid" (Powell). Baddeley was stricken with apoplexy while still in his dressing room before the play began; he died the following day.] Powell: New Ballet [Alexander the Great] rehearsed at 10; Chorus of 1st Act of Cherokee at 12. Receipts: #174 13s. (136.4.6; 36.5.0; 2.3.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Kemble as Macbeth, Wroughton as Banquo, and Palmer as Macduff, but "The Publick are respectfully informed that Mr Kemble being confined by Indisposition...Macbeth will be performed by Palmer, Macduff by Wroughton, Banquo by Packer" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill). No mention is made of the Physician, but Jones was Packer's usual substitute in this part. See 11 Apr. 1796.] Receipts: #218 11s. 6d. (153.14.6; 61.11.6; 3.5.6)

Event Comment: Benefit Miss Jones, the Mayor's Daughter, who has so furiously espoused the Court-Interest

Event Comment: Benefit for Legg, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Jones, Miss Besford

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