Event Comment: "[Mrs Siddons's] dress was a French grey satin gown, trimmed with dark sage coloured ribbon, edged with steel, white satin petticoat covered With tiffany, and trimmed With the same as the gown, a girdle of the same colour, a dark sage coloured cane hat ornamented with feathers and edges with gold, with a band of gauze and large bows, the ends fastened to the waist" (Daily Universal Register, 4 Oct.). Receipts: #302 2s. (281.18.0; 19.6.6; 0.17.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for the London Hospital. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken at the Stage Door of the Theatre; the Doors of which will be opened at 5:30, and the Performance to begin precisely at 6:30. No Money to be returned after the Curtain is drawn up, nor will any Person be admitted behind the Scenes. [Master Braham is identified in Grove. Address by Arthur Murphy (Town and Country Magazine, July 1787, p. 324).] This was the opening night of this theatre, which had been built by and was under the management of John Palmer. Following the afterpiece he explained to the audience the objections of the proprietors of dl, cg and hay to his opening the theatre. He said that he had from the Lieutenant of the Tower of London what he considered to be sufficient permission, but that he would nevertheless close the theatre temporarily. Palmer's difficulty was that he had no really legal permission from anybody for the performance of actual plays. See 3 July, and for further details the head-note to this season. World, 18 July, prints an official accoudting for this night from the theatre's treasurer: Receipts were #273 12s.; paid for music, advertisements, servants, &c. #37 10s.; lost in bad silver #1 19s.; paid the London Hospital #234 4s.; the players acted without salary

Event Comment: "When Priuli was relating to the Senators the impending and immediate destruction of their wives and families, the Senators, without discovering any emotion, were very pleasantly surveying the house, and laughing with their friends in the Upper Gallery. These gross enormities, that yet hang about our stage and are its disgrace, call aloud for the correcting hand of an intelligent Manager, to weed them out. Thanks to their own genius the Principals take care of themselves-the Subalterns are a disgrace. Is not King responsible for this part at one house, and Lewis at the other?" (World, 8 Oct.). Receipts: #302 2s. 6d. (274.4.0; 27.3.0; 0.15.6)

Event Comment: [Cambray was the stage name of James Fennell; he was from the Edinburgh theatre (and see 16 Oct. 1789). Ryder's 1st appearance as Iago was at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 14 Jan. 1767.] "Ryder wore his villainy on his sleeve, and evinced nothing of the insidiousness ordinarily expressed by other representatives of the part" (Public Advertiser, 13 Oct.). Receipts: #196 7s. (195.16; 0.11)

Event Comment: "In his first scenes [Kemble] was judicious, but too studiously so; and though most critically correct in his address to the Senate, evidenced he was more anxious to do justice to the text of his author than the feelings of Othello. But in the subsequent scenes he made ample recompense, and most successfully combined accuracy of expression with spirit of character...We much approve his dressing Othello in the Moorish habit...[but] is it necessary the Moor should be as black as a native of Guiney?" (Public Advertiser, 29 Oct.). Receipts: #117 16s. (102.6; 15.5; 0.5)

Event Comment: Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook, at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5.30. To begin at 6:30 [see 3 Nov.]. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a Grand Representation of Regattav. Kemble Mem.: No Manager [i.e. King had resigned as acting manager; but see 23 Sept.]. Ivory Tickets introduced. [These tickets, also called "bones," were for the use of actors and other members of the company in gaining admission for themselves or their friends to the front of the house. They replaced paper orders (World, 18 Oct. 1788).] Receipts: #112 3s. 6d. (75.6.0; 35.10.0; 1.7.6)