Event Comment: [The playbill assigns Claudius to Packer, but "Archer, on the sudden indisposition of Packer, put on the robes of majesty, which seemed to sit sufficiently easy upon him" (Monthly Mirror, Sept. 1799, p. 175.] "The agitation of Hamlet in the course of the Play which he prepares to try the King, and his violent transports on gaining the certainty of his uncle's villainy by the effect of the piece were strongly characterized" (Morning Chronicle, 20 Sept.). Receipts: #330 17s. (245.19; 84.14; 0.4)

Event Comment: "...Richard III, which I saw performed at Drury-lane theatre at the beginning of the present season...The dresses of the characters which here make their appearance are in the usual half-and-half mode, made up from portraits of Charles I's reign, and from unrestrained fancy. Richard's habit, indeed, shews a faint hint, at the costume of his day; but how modernized! A fancy cap and feather,with a milliner's white-ribband rose, sewed thereon. A deep ruff, of that make not known until the reign of James I From the neck depends a ribband With the George: this decoration never seen in paintings till about the fashions of the abovementioned monarch's court. On his legs and feet, white silk stockings, white shoes, and red roses. These latter ornaments unknown before Elizabeth or James I's modes of dress prevailed; at any rate, they should have been white ones to have accorded with the party-badge in his cap." Writer signing himself "An Artist and an Antiquary" in Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1800, p. 319. Receipts: #225 16s. 6d. (178.3.6; 47.12.0; 0.1.0)