Event Comment: [The playbill retains
Mrs Jordan as
Matilda and Mrs Crouch as
Laurette, but Mrs Jordan "sent word she was too ill to perform this Evening. The audience called for Crouch to act Matilda" (
Kemble Mem.). "She instantly complied...
and was received with the most marked respect" (
Morning Chronicle, 28 Nov.). The audience refused to believe that Mrs Jordan's illness was genuine,
and for several days she was treated harshly by letters to
and paragraphs in the newspapers. For her letter explaining her "real inability from illness to sustain her part in the entertainment" see
Oulton, 1796, II, 103-6; see also 10 Dec. "
Richard Coeur de Lion was advertised as the afterpiece; but on account of the sudden illness of Mrs Jordan,
High Life below Stairs was proposed to be substituted; the house, however, seeming to disapprove of this change, Mrs Crouch kindly undertook the part of Matilda;
Miss Hagley took hers of Laurette" (
Public Advertiser, 28 Nov.).] Receipts: #285 10s. (220.3; 64.10; 0.17)