Event Comment: Written by
Shakespear. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for
the Boxes to be taken of
Mr Hobson at
the Stage-Door of
the Theatre. As
the Admittance of Persons behind
the Scenes has occasioned a general Complaint on Account of
the frequent Interruptions in
the Performance, tis hop'd Gentlemen won't be offended, that no Money will be taken
there for
the future. [This notice appears on succeeding bills for
the season and will hence not be repeated. See note on public objection to nonadmittance behind scenes 22 Feb. 1748.] Receipts: #150 (
Cross); #I26 12s. (
Clay MS).
Nichols Literary Anecdotes, II, 319-20:
There is one part of
theatrical conduct which ought unquestionably to be recorded to
Mr Garrick's honour, since
the cause of virtue and morality and
the formation of public manners are very considerably dependent upon it, and that is
the zeal with which he ever aimed to banish from
the stage all those plays which carry with
them an immoral tendency, and to prune from those which do not absolutely on
the whole promote
the interests of vice such scenes of licentiousness and libertinism as a redundency of wit and too great liveliness of imagination have induced some of our comic writers to indulge
themselves in, and to which
the sympa
thetic disposition of an age of gallantry and intrigue had given a sanction.
The purity of
the English stage was certainly much more fully establish'd during
the administration of this
theatrical minister than it had ever been during preceding managements; for, what
the publick taste had itself to some measure begun, he, by keeping that taste within its proper channel, and feeding it with a pure and untainted stream, seems to have completed; and to have endeavoured as much as possible to adhere to
the promise made in
the prologue which was spoken at
the first opening of that
theatre under his direction, @Bade scenic virtue form
the rising age@And truth diffuse her radiance from
the stage.