Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Reading, Wife of Mr Thomas Reading, Attorney at Law, of New Inn. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Afterpiece: A Farce (never perform'd before). Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Stage Half a Guinea. N.B. Mrs Reading is credibly informed, that a Hackney Writer, who has lately turn'd Author, and Player in his own Farce, has maliciously spread a Report about the Town, that she does not intend to have any Play perform'd: this is to assure the Publick, that she has taken a great deal of Pains to have the Play and Farce perform'd with all the Decency possible

Event Comment: Written by the late Mr Dryden. Set to Musick by Mr Handel. Pit and Boxes half a Guinea. Galleries 4s. and 2s. 6d. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 20 Feb.: Last Night his Royal Highness the Duke, and her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia were at. . . Mr Dryden's Ode, set to Musick by Mr Handel. Never was upon the like Occasion so numerous and splendid an Audience at any Theatre in London, there being at least 1300 Persons present; and it is judg'd that the Receipt of the House could not amount to less than 450l. It met with general Applause, tho attended with the Inconvenience of having the Performers placed at too great a distance from the Audience, which we hear will be rectified the next Time of Performance. [Egmont also present.]

Event Comment: Benefit Cibber. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Taken from Racine by Mr Philips. [Tickets at Cibber's House in Great Queen Street.]

Event Comment: Benefit Poet Trapwit. By his own particular Desire. N.B. The Spectators are desir'd to take no Notice of the Tragedy, but attend very closely to the Comedy, there being several fresh Jokes new cloath'd at Second Hand for the Use of that Night. As there is little Hope of a great Demand of Tickets, or Places for that Evening, the Doors will be open'd by Six o'Clock in the Morning, and constant Attendance the whole Day given, for fear any Application shou'd be made for either. [The Daily Advertiser also carries a notice to the effect that "Copper-Plate Tickets representing the Murder of Common Sense" will be available.]

Event Comment: Benefit A. Hallam. Tickets at Hallam's, next door to the Chapel in Great Queen Street. Receipts: money #21 10s.; tickets #80 16s

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Cibber. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. [Tickets at Mrs Cibber's, Great Queen Street.] N.B. Mrs Cibber's present Condition not permitting her to play on her Benefit Night, as she purpos'd, she is oblig'd to change the Play; and Tickets deliver'd out for The Conscious Lovers will then be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Miss Norsa. Tickets at her Lodgings, Nassau Street, near Gerrard Street. Receipts: money #12 14s. 6d.; tickets #101 9s. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 29 April: We hear Mr Handel has compos'd a new Opera, on the Occasion of his Royal Highness's Marriage to the Prince[S] of Saxe Gotha, and as the Wedding was solemnized sooner than was expected, great Numbers of Artificers, as Carpenters, Painters, Engineers, &c. are employed to forward the same

Event Comment: Benefit a Family, which hath been very unfortunate in Trade, and is in Great Distress. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality

Event Comment: Benefit Mlle Anne Roland. By Command of Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia. [Tickets at Mrs Anne Roland's, Golden Ball and Dove, Great Newport Street.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Being a True Story in Common Life, and the Incidents extremely affecting. Written by the Author of George Barnwell [George Lillo]. N.B. This is much the coolest House in Town. At Common Prices, viz. Boxes 5s. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s. 6d. [For a puff, see Daily Advertiser, 25 May.] Daily Advertiser, 28 May: Last Night . . . Guilt its own Punishment . . . was acted . . . with the greatest Applause that has been shewn to any Tragedy for many Years. The Scenes of Distress were so artfully work'd up, and so well perform'd, that there scarce remain'd a dry Eye among the Spectators at the Representation; and during the Scene preceding the Catastrophe, an attentive Silence possess'd the whole House, more expressive of an universal Approbation than the loudest Applauses

Event Comment: By Pasquin's Company of Comedians. At the Great Theatrical Booth in the Half-Moon Yard. The Company will continue playing till the 22d. Noon to Ten P.M. [Advertised 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 Sept. The Duke expected to attend on 14 Sept.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve, London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 2 Oct.: Last Night in the Entertainment of Dr Faustus...when the Machine wherein were Harlequin, the Miller's Wife, the Miller and his the Miller's Man, was got up to the full Extent of its flying, one of the Wires which held up the hind part of the Car broke first, and then the other broke, and the Machine, and all the People in it fell down Upon the Stage; by which unhappy Accident the young Woman who personated the Miller's Wife had her Thigh broke, and her Kneepan shatter'd, and was otherways very much bruised, the Harlequin had his Head bruised, and his Wrist strained; the Miller broke his Arm; and the Miller's Man had his Scull so fractured that his Life in despaired of. Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 6 Oct.: Covent Garden has given me a sort of surfeit of Mr Rich and his cleverness, for I was at [cg] when the machine broke t'other night; the house was in amaze for above a minute, and I dare say a great many in the galleries thought it very desterously performed, and that they screamed as naturally as heart could wish, till they found it was no jest, by their calling for surgeons, of whom several luckily happened to be in the pit. I stayed to see the poor creatures brought out of the house, and pity poor Mrs Buchanan not a little, whom I saw put into a chair in such a fright that as she is big with child, I question whether it may not kill her.-Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, I, 113-14

Event Comment: By Desire of Mrs Mapp, the Famous Bone-Setter of Epsom. Daily Journal, 18 Oct.: On Saturday Evening there was such a Concourse of People at [lif] to see the famous Mrs Mapp, that several Gentlemen and Ladies were obliged to return back for want of Room. She came there about eight o'Clock in her Coach and Four....The Confusion at going out was so great, that several Gentlemen and Ladies had their Pocket picked

Event Comment: Benefit a Widow, who has met with great Losses in Trade

Event Comment: Benefit a Person in Great Distress

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 24 Jan.: We hear that the new grand Pantomime Entertainment, design'd to be perform'd in a few Days at [lif], was practis'd there on Saturday last before a great many People of Quality and Distinction, who gave particular Marks of their Approbation to every Change, and were highly pleas'd with the Musick, compos'd b Mr Jones

Event Comment: [P$Prince and Princess of Wales present.] London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 1 Feb. A great Disturbance made on Saturday last at Covent Garden

Event Comment: Benefit a Decay'd Merchant and his Family, in Great Distress. Mainpiece: Written by the late $J. Addison, Esq.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Lowe, from Openshaw near Manchester in Lancashire, who lately kept the Gray's Inn Coffeehouse, near Gray's-Inn-Gate, in Holbourn, and is now in great Distress. At the Desire of several Worthy Gentlemen

Event Comment: By Command of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales [who were present]. Mainpiece: Written by Beaumont and Fletcher. Afterpiece: Written by the Author of the Toy Shop. [For a letter on the disputes between the footmen and the gentlemen, see Grub St. Journal, 17 March.] [There is in the Bennett Collection, I, 93, in the Birmingham Library, an exceptionally curious advance notice for a performance to be given at Drury Lane soon after Easter of The Conscious Lovers and The Devil to Pay, with no cast for either play in the bill. The announcement appears to refer to the spring of 1737 and presumably appeared around the middle of March. It is intended for the benefit of a Widow under Misfortunes and the bill bears the heading: Gift and Pleasure. According to the announcement, the widow has been left Italian pictures, antiqees, jewels, and precious stones; and she intends, for the encouragement of her benefactors, to make a gift of all the objects, which will be placed in three hundred parcels. Tickets for the performance are advertised at five shillings, and no one is to be admitted without a ticket. The pit and boxes are to be put together at two tickets for each person, and the first and second galleries are placed together at one ticket for each spectator. The tickets are not to be left with the door-keepers as usual, but only shewn and kept. On the day following the benefit a raffle will be held, by Mr Foubert's Patent Mathematical Machine, at Hickford's Great Room in Brewers Street, Golden Square, and only holders of tickets will be admitted to the raffle, After this entry was set, an advertisement was found in the Daily Advertiser, 18 April 1738, announcing this performance for 13 May 1738. The Daily Advertiser on 5 May 1738, however, announced that the proposed performance had been cancelled.

Event Comment: By the Great Mogul's Company of Comedians. At Common Prices

Event Comment: Benefit Arne. Tickets to be had only at Mr Arnes's, in Great Queen Street. 5s. 6:30 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit A. Hallam. Tickets at Hallam's, next the Chapel in Great Queen Street.Tickets for Mrs Forrester taken also

Event Comment: Benefit Handel. Pit and Boxes half a guinea. Gallery 5s. London Evening Post, 30 March: Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales were present; there was the greatest and most polite Audience ever seen there, and it's thought Mr Handel cou'd not get less that Night than 15001. Egmont, Diary, II, 474: In the evening I went to Hendel's Oratorio, where I counted near 1,300 persons besides the gallery and upper gallery. I suppose he got this night 1,000 1. [For further details, see Deutsch, Handel, p. 455.