Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Sestini. Public Advertiser, 13 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Sga Sestini, No. 52, Margaret-street, Cavendish Square. Afterpiece [1st time; burl 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 616; not published]: Taken from the Italian of La Serva Padrona [by Gennaro Antonio Federico]. The Music chiefly the Original of Parosasi [i.e. Pergolesi, and so spelled on playbill of 17 Feb.]. The new Music composed by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #256 5s. 6d. (198/12/0; 7/3/6; tickets: 50/10/0) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: "The after-piece-that old obsolete Trash, the Country Madcap, by the aid of Quick and Mrs Mattocks' good Acting, was endured. Reinhold's imitation of Italian Singing . . . got three Peals of Applause" (Public Advertiser, 13 Oct.). Receipts: #150 4s. 6d. (147/1/6; 3/3/0)

Event Comment: [Kemble's 1st appearance as Osman was in Dublin (Genest, VI, 295).] Afterpiece [1st time; P 2 (?), by James Cobb and Thomas King]: Partly formed on the Plan of the Italian Comedy, and embellished with Music and Machinery. The paintings by Greenwood. The Music compiled and composed by Linley [Sen.]. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. Books of the Songs [which assign no parts], Introduction, &c. to be had at the Theatre. [Synopsis of action in Universal Magazine, Dec. 1785, p. 335.] Account-Book, 31 Jan. 1786: Paid King for Hurly-Burly #165. Receipts: #181 2s. (174/17; 6/5)

Event Comment: A Serious Opera in 2 acts; the music entirely by Handel, and selected from the various Operas set by that admirable composer, under the direction of [i.e. arranged and added to by] Dr Arnold. Benefit for Carnevale, deputy manager. No receipts listed. "In order to induce the king to visit the theatre called his own [see 17 Mar.], but which he seldom frequented, the Giulio Cesare of Handel was revived, or rather a medley from his Italian works, for little of the original music was retained, and many of his most favorite songs from other operas were introduced, Verdi prati [from Alcina], Dove sei [from Rodelinda], Rendi sereno il ciglio [from Sosarme], and others. This ancient music was particularly suited to Rubinelli, and was familiar to Mara, both of whom sung it incomparably well" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 61)

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera; the music by Paisiello. Under the direction of Storace. [Sga Storace was from the Opera, Vienna.] Morelli "was an actor such as the Italian stage has seldom witnessed. He was, I used to think, in his prime, quite upon a par with King of Drury Lane Theatre. Like him, he was distinguished for neat articulation, and an unremitting attention to the business of the whole stage" (Boaden, Kemble, I, 449). Receipts: #165 19s. 6d. [non-subscription]

Event Comment: The Nobility and Gentry are most respectfully informed that, in consequence of the calamity that has befallen the Pantheon [see 14 Jan.], the Italian Operas are necessarily removed for the remainder of the present season to this Theatre, where preparations are now making to accomodate the Subscribers; and of the first Representation notice will be given in a few days [see 14 Feb.]

Event Comment: The King's Theatre having been rented to the Proprietors of Drury-Lane House, with a reserve of the Nights for the Italian Opera to be carried on there for the Opera Trust, the Drury-Land Patent will in future be moved on Tuesdays and Saturdays to the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market, where all old and new Renters, claiming under the Drury-Lane Patent, will be entitled to Free Admission, and to their Rights for each Night of Performance. Half Price not being taken at this Theatre, the Performances will be reduced to the old established Prices. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes in the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market, to be taken at Fosbrook's Office at the King's Theatre as usual. [Mainpiece in place of Cymon; afterpiece of The Patron, both advertised on playbill of 25 Jan.] Receipts: #140 11s. (139.0; 1.11)

Event Comment: A new Comic Opera; the music by Cimarosa, under the direction of Federici. The music of both dances by Miller. With entirely new Dresses, Scenes and Decorations, both in the Theatre itself, and in the Representations. Pit 10s. 6d. 1st Gallery 5s. 2nd Gallery 3s. No Money to be returned. The Subscribers are respectfully entreated to observe that they are to produce their Tickets at the doors. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout season, except on 15 May). The Ladies at the Head of the Boxes arc respectfully reminded that such Boxes as shall not be paid for at the opening of the Theatre become then vacant, and may be claimed by any of the old Subscribers. No one to be admitted behind the scenes. For the greater Safety of the Company in coming and going out of the Theatre Mr Townsend has taken charge of the Peace Officers, and will himself attend every night of Performance. [Morning Herald, 12 Jan., notes than the original gallery is now divided into two, a lower and an upper, and that the chief colors used in the repainting of the auditorium are blue, white and gold. Ibid, 13 Jan.: The scenes [in the opera], which were entirely new, have never been exceeded in splendour of general effect...One, representing the hall of an Italian villa, shews a ceiling designed like that of the theatre itself [which the same newspaper, 4 Jan., describes as being Apollo and the Muses, in a cove enriched with allegorical figures, flowers, and medals, in chiaroscuro].]

Event Comment: Powell: Kemble being indisposed from a violent Bruise in his Arm (during the several times of his playing the Part of Macbeth) so as to render him incapable of attending the Theatre this evening, an Apology was made by Wroughton, and the Prologue was omitted. [The playbill retains Miss Menage in afterpiece, but she] being at the Italian Opera this Evening, Master Chatterley play'd her part in the Children in the Wood. Henry VIII rehearsed at 10 (for Banks and Dignum; Packer ill); The Jew at 12 (for Miss Farren and Miss Tidswell). Receipts: #322 5s. 6d. (248/0/0; 67/15/0; 6/14/6; tickets not come in: 0/6/0)

Event Comment: [In afterpiece the playbill retains Miss Menage, but she "being at the Italian Opera this Evening, Master Chatterley play'd her part" (Powell).] Receipts: #361 1s. 6d. (298/8/6; 55/12/0; 7/1/0)

Event Comment: A New Opera; the music by Paisiello. [On 8 Dec. 1787 this was performed under its original title of Il re Teodoro in Venezia.] "Whatever we may pretend, we are too ignorant of musical science as a nation to find pleasure in what produces rapture on an Italian stage. The operas that have been successively produced this season would each have been more popular if much shorter" (Morning Chronicle, 15 Apr.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. 1st piece [1st time; INT 1, by John Cartwright Cross. Larpent MS 1213; not published]. Genest, VII 365, states that the Epilogue Address "was in all probability the Epilogue to Alonzo [by David Garrick]." 3rd piece: conclude with a Rural Procession: Four Lads bearing Streamers-Plough decorated with Flowers-Four Countrymen bearing a May-day Garland-Four Lasses Bearing Implements of Husbandry-Country Girls leading a Lamb, decorated with Flowers-Four Lasses bearing a Garland-a Chorus and Finale. Tickets delivered for Every One has His Fault will be admitted. Times, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 8, Great Russell-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #259 16s. 6d. (124.7.0; 2.13.0; tickets: 132.16.6)

Event Comment: A New Grand Serious Opera (1st time in this Country [1st performed at Parma, 1782]); the Music by Sarti [with additions by Federici]. With entirely new Scenes, Machinery and Decorations, designed by Marinari, and executed under his direction; and new Dresses, invented by Sestini. "The Opera...is founded upon the story of Dryden's Alexander's Feast, of which, indeed, it is merely a literal, and, of course, an elegant and tasteful translation into Italian by Count Gaston di Brizzonie [recte Rezzonico]

Event Comment: According to A Calendar of the Middle Temple Records, ed. Hopwood (p. 168) the charges came to #11 and the receipt was signed by Will Burgon. The Diary and Will of Elias Ashmole: This day was kept solemnly at the Middle Temple and after the auncient manner. The Lord Chancellor, Judges and Sergeants that were of the Society dined in the Hall, after dinner they had a play, viz. Witt without Money [ed. R. T. Gunter, 1927, p. 76]. Ashmole lists the performance for 1 Nov. 1660, but the records of the Middle Temple point to 2 Nov. 1660 as the proper date

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: So back to the Cockpitt [Whitehall], and there, by the favour of one Mr Bowman, he [Creed] and I got in, and there saw the King, and Duke of York and his Duchess (which is a plain woman, and like her mother, my Lady Chancellor). And so saw The Humersome Lieutenant acted before the King, but not very well done. But my pleasure was great to see the manner of it, and so many great beauties, but above all Mrs Palmer, with whom the King do discover a great deal of familiarity. Sometime before the Coronation of Charles II, on 23 April 1661, there may have been acted The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver. An edition of 1661 refers to its being "often publikely acted by some of his Majesties Comedians" and the Dedication suggests that it would make a good entertainment at the mirthful time of the Coronation. The edition lists no actors' names, no prologue, no epilogue

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: And so carried her [Mrs Pepys] to the fayre [bf], and showed her the monkeys dancing on the ropes, which was strange, but such dirty sport that I was not pleased with it. There was also a horse with hoofs like rams hornes, a goose with four feet, and a cock with three. Thence to another place, and saw some German Clocke works, the Salutation of the Virgin Maryv, and several Scriptural stories; but above all there was at last represented the sea, with Neptune, Venus, mermaids, and Ayrid on a dolphin, the sea rocking, so well done, that had it been in a gaudy manner and place, and at a little distance, it had been admirable

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The play apparently was never printed. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 26: Made out of Spanish, by the Earl of Bristol. Pepys, Diary: Went to a play, only a piece of it, which was at the Duke's house, Worse and Worse; just the same manner of play, and writ, I believe, by the same man as The Adventures of Five Hours; very pleasant it was, and I begin to admire Harris more than ever

Event Comment: Evelyn, Diary: Saw a fine Mask at court perform'd by 6 Gent: & 6 Ladys surprizing his Majestie, it being Candlemas day. Pepys, Diary, 3 Feb.: Then Mrs Pickering...did, at my Lady's command, tell me the manner of a masquerade before the King and Court the other day. Where six women (my Lady Castlemayne and Duchesse of Monmouth being two of them) and six men (the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Arran and Monsieur Blanfort, being three of them) in vizards, but most rich and antique dresses, did dance admirably and most gloriously. God give us cause to continue the mirthe!