Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never performed at this Theatre. [In afterpiece the playbill assigns Valentine to Johnstone, but "Johnstone's indisposition produced an apology:--his character was undertaken by Incledon" (Morning Herald, 22 Sept.).] Receipts: #280 10s. 6d. (254.12.6; 25.18.0)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Wilson, widow of Richard Wilson, lately of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden and Haymarket [whose 1st appearance on the stage was at Manchester, 26 Feb. 1796]. Tickets to be had of Mrs Wilson, No. 239, Piccadilly, near the Haymarket

Event Comment: 2nd piece: Compressed for First Time into two acts, with several new Airs, &c. [Miss Sims was from the Theatre, Sadler's Wells.] Receipts: #259 17s. (253.15; 6.2)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years. Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal Hay-Market. Receipts: #259 0s. 6d. (181.11.6; 76.18.0; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: [Mrs Johnson was from the Park Theatre NewYork.] Afterpiece: Compressed into Two Acts. "Munden's Sir Francis Wronghead was a very pleasing display of comicality; but he should have contented himself with what was set down by the author, without introducing his own common place allusions to the fashions of the present day" (Morning Herald, 29 Sept.). Receipts: #200 17s. 6d. (195.19.6; 4.18.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 1st piece: By permission of G. Colman, Esq.; never performed here. [Bannister Jun.'s 1st appearance at this theatre was on 2 Feb. 1779.] 3rd piece: Not performed here these 3 years. [No play of this title had been hitherto acted anywhere. But it appears to be the same as The Sailor's Prize, for which see cg, 1 May 1795.] Morning Chronicle, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden. Receipts: #478 (208.6.6; 13.17.6; tickets: 255.16.0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "Towards the conclusion [of afterpiece, Miss DeCamp] fell with Kelly, while in the act of running down the stage; her head striking with so much violence against the boards that she fainted away [having received a severe contusion that necessitated surgery]" (Morning Herald, 8 Feb.). It is to be hoped that the events of Thursday Evening will prove a wholesome warning to the servants of the Theatre, and enforce the necessity of sweeping the stage with greater care. The disaster, it seems, originated in the peel of an orange, which the Copper Captain [in mainpiece] throws away" (Dramatic Censor, I, 210). Receipts: #591 19s. (525.13.6; 63.5.6; 3.0.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Andrew Franklin]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations entirely new. The Overture and Musick composed by Florio. The Scenes, designed by Greenwood, and painted by him, Banks, and assistants. The Machinery, Dresses and Decorations designed by Johnston, and executed by him, Gay, and Underwood. The Female Dresses designed and made under the direction of Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "With thy exception of Pizarro, this is one of the most magnificent spectacles the stage has for some time produced. The dresses...are attended with particular accuracy to the costume of the country...and the scenery is locally correct" (Monthly Mirror, Mar. 1800, p. 173). "As a singer [Mme Mara's] powers are indisputable; but as a performer she exhibits herself in a light which alternately provokes our ridicule and pity. Her delivery is an absolute libel on the profession. To the defects of a foreign pronunciation she joins a natural impediment of speech, which partakes too strongly of a lisp to warrant her bearing part in the prose dialogue of a play. What could possibly induce her to appear before the public under such disadvantages, unless she did it in compliment to the composer, we are at a loss to conjecture; nor less are we puzzled to account for the supineness of an audience which can patiently tolerate such puny efforts" (Dramatic Censor, I, 347-48). Morning Chronicle, 14 June 1800: This day is published The Egyptian Festival (2s.). Receipts: #320 18s. 6d. (277.6.6; 42.8.0; 1.4.0)

Event Comment: Street Ballad, The Duenna or the Double Elopement, a new song to an old Tune: @In the days of Gay, they sing and say,@The town was full of folly:@For all day long, its sole sing-song@Was pretty, pretty Polly.@So now-a-days, as it was in Gay's,@The world's run mad again-a@From morn to night its whole delight@To cry up the Duenna.@One half the town still talks of Brown@The other of Leoni,@While those sly curs, the managers,@Keep pocketing the money... [Brown was the original Clara in the opera. See 16 Dec. 1775 (Hampden, Journal).

Event Comment: Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Company being oblig'd, by Particular Desire, to get up the Play of All's Well that Ends Well, Written by Shakespear, by Wednesday next (and being employed in reviving several other Plays) are under a Necessity of deferring acting till then

Event Comment: Theatres closed for death of Prince William. Died Sunday 29 Dec

Event Comment: Theatres closed, also Sadlers Wells and all the public gardens for the death of the Duke of York (Winston MS 10)

Event Comment: Theatre opens at 5 o'clock. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Paid half year's River Water to Mids. Last #3 2s.; Tallow Chandler's bill #36 19s. 10d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #263 6s

Event Comment: Benefit Mills. Tickets and places of Bradshaw, &c, and at Mills' House in Nassau St., near Soho Square. Servants may keep places on stage, which will (for the better accommodation of the Ladies) will be enclosed to form an amphitheatre. Rylands MS.: Cibber elop'd. Receipts: #188