Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Frances Brooke, based on the anonymous libretto of Sarti's opera Mitridate a Sinope. Prologue by the Rev. William? Collier (see text). Epilogue by Arthur Murphy (Murphy, Works, 1786, VII, 54)]: With New Scenes, Dresses, &c. Public Advertiser, 8 Feb. 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Siege of Sinope. (1s. 6d.). Receipts:#231 5s. (228.10; 2.15)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 26 Dec. 1776. Mrs Robinson, who was from the Portsmouth theatre, is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill]. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Frances Brooke, based on Les Moissonneurs, by Charles Simon Favart]: The new Music and overture composed, and the Selected Airs compiled [from Paxton and Sacchini], by Shield. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Account-Book, 30 June 1784: Paid Shield for composing Rosina #100. Receipts: #158 18s. 6d. (154/5/6; 4/13/0)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; MF 2]: Written by the Author of Rosina [Frances Brooke]. The Music compiled and composed by Shield. With entire New Scenes painted by Richards. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Text 1st published by T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800.] Receipts: #165 9s. 6d. (162.18.0; 2.11.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Written by the Author of Rosina [Frances Brooke]. The Music by Shield. With entire new Scenes painted by Richards. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #207 9s. 6d. (197.9.0; 10.0.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. 1st piece: By Permission of the Author. 2nd piece [1st time; C 1, attributed to Frances Abington. Larpent MS 1209; not published]: From La? Somnambule; or, Sleep Walker [by Antoine deFeriol, comte de Pont-de-Veyle]. Receipts: #303 12s. (176.1.6; 4.1.0; tickets: 123.9.6)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the premiere is not known, but a licensing date of 28 March 1678 suggests a first performance not later than February 1678. One song, One night while all the village slept, with music by Louis Grabu and words by Sir Car Scroop, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 17): Major Mohun...[in] Mithridates, &c. An Eminent Poet seeing him Act this last, vented suddenly this Saying: Oh Mohun, Mohun! Thou little Man of Mettle, if I should write a 100 Plays, I'd Write a Part for thy Mouth; in short, in all his Parts, he was most Accurate and Correct. [Downes, p. 12, gives an identical cast except for omissions.] Princess Anne apparently played Ziphares and Frances Apsley played Semandra in a production of this drama, probably at St James's Palace or at Sir Allen Apsley's house in St James's Square, between January 1677@8 and August 1679. See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), p. 61

Event Comment: Apparently The Man of Mode had an amateur revival in Brussels in the autumn, possibly before the Duke and Duchess of York, when they were away from London. Princess Anne to Frances Apsley, 3 Oct. 1679: The play is practisde to night Miss Watts is to be Lady townly which part I beleeve wont much become her. [See Benjamin Bathurst, Letters of Two Queens (London, 1924), pp. 111-12]

Event Comment: A New Opera. [Music by Frances Veracini.

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)