Event Comment: Benefit for the Author of the Alterations (Hopkins Diary). [On this day Garrick wrote to Mrs Abington, relative to his practice in casting new plays: "That I may hear no more of this or that part in Mr Murphy's play, I now again tell you that every author since my management distributed his parts as he thinks will be of most service to his interest, nor have I ever interfered, or will interfere, unless I perceive that they would propose something contrary to common sense" (Harvard Theatre Collection, Autograph Letter Signed). Charges: #84 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: [MS annotation on playbill in Harvard Theatre Collection: "Mrs Cargill run away this day with Colman Jun. James? Winston?." And see 11 Sept.

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author. Receipts: #166 7s. (164/17; 1/10) (charge: #63). [A tally-sheet for this performance in the Harvard Theatre Collection lists the following details: 338 spectators in boxes at #84 10s.; 253 in pit at #37 19s.; 314 in 1st Gallery at #31 8s.; 190 in 2nd gallery at #9 10s. Total of 1,095 spectators at #164 17s. After money #1 10s. Charge #63. Owing Mrs Inchbald #101 17s.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never performed here. Public Advertiser, 26 Ma8: As it has been found impracticable to prepare a sufficient Variety of Entertainments, without the Assistance of more Performers, the Theatre is closed 'till further Notice; after which Plays will be continued as usual [see 11 June]. "Sat. May 26th 1787. When the performers assembled t[his] morning, with intent to rehearse, they were acquain[ted] that the Theatre would be shut till the close of Drury? Lane and Covent Garden" (MS annotation on Harvard playbill)

Event Comment: "Performed only four nights this week, on accou[nt] of Covent Garden being open, and employ[ing] some Performers, necessary in our most favou[red] Pieces" (MS annotation on Harvard playbill)

Event Comment: [Mrs Brown is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1790 season.

Event Comment: [This is the only occasion in the 18th century when a play was acted in London on this date. "The performance at the Haymarket on the 30th of January has been noticed by his Majesty in a manner which is still a topic of conversation in the higher circles...There will be no more theatrical performances on the 30th of January" (London Chronicle, 28 Feb.). On 3 Feb. the Lord Chamberlain wrote to Sheridan as follows: "Sir--Information has been received at this Office that Theatrical Entertainments were exhibited at the Theatre, under your direction, in St. James's Haymarket on the 30th of Last Month, contrary to all precedent, and repugnant to Decency, being the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles the First. I do not know by what Authority such a Step was taken but, as Chamberlain of His Majesty's Household, think it my Duty to desire that you will be pleased to Cause the Practice to be discontinued in future. I am, Sir, Your Obedient, Humble Servant, Salisbury" (MS Letters to Sheridan from Various Correspondents,II, 64, in Harvard Theatre Collection). The Morning Chronicle on 31 Jan. offered another opinion: "It gave us infinite pleasure that last night we happily broke through one of the most absurd fasts in the calendar. The Managers of Drury Lane, with proper regard to the public, rescued them from the common dullness of a 30th of January." But the absurd fast remained in force until 1843.] Receipts: #339 18s. (291.4; 40.0; 8.11; ticket not come in: 0.3)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: [With alterations by John Philip Kemble] Not acted these 4 years. [In his prompt copy (1808) now in Harvard Theatre Collection Kemble's annotation lists the following as needed in the opening scene: 10 principals, Captain of the Guard, 3 Knights, 2 Pages, 2 Gentlemen with Crown, 2 Gentlemen with Map, Physician, Herald, 2 Ladies with Goneril, 2 Ladies with Regan, 2 Standard Bearers, 12 Guards. Nearly every scene opens or closes with drums and trumpets. In the storm scene, "Thunder and lightning; lamps down," i.e. the footlights lowered out of sight into a shallow trough. It is not unlikely that these arrangements were adhered to in this present revival.] "Kemble said that, however singular it might be, in Lear an audience quite unsettled him; the noise of the box-doors caught his ear, and routed all his meditated effects; and he found it absolutely impossible to do that at night which he had thrown out during the rehearsal in the morning" (Boaden, Siddons, II, 376). Receipts: #350 9s. 6d. (310.9.6; 38.12.0; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: [Uncle, who had appeared at this theatre, as an amateur, 16 Apr. 1792, is identified in MS list in Harvard playbills of new performers for this season.

Event Comment: [Miss Villers is identified in MS list, in hay playbills in Harvard Theatre Collection, of new performers for 1793.

Event Comment: [As 3rd piece the playbill announces MY GRANDMOTHER, but on the Harvard (Beaufoy Collection) playbill it is deleted, and THE CHILDREN IN THE WOOD substituted in a contemporary hand.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Gibbs. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years [acted 22 June 1790. Miss Logan is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1795 season. Mrs Kemble's 1st recorded appearance as Portia was at Edinburgh, 26 Jan. 1795]

Event Comment: [Mrs Upsdell is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1797 season.] 3rd piece: Never acted here

Event Comment: [Story is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1799 season.

Event Comment: Benefit for C. Kemble. [Liston is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1799 season.] A Spurious Copy of Sighs having been advertized as performing at this Theatre, the Public is respectfully in formed that the True Copy is this day published by M. Stace, Princes-street, Leicester-square

Event Comment: [As mainpiece the playbill announces The Heir at Law (Ninth time this Season [see 29 Aug.]), but in the hay playbill now at Harvard it is deleted, and a MS annotation substitutes The Battle of Hexham. Afterpiece in place of The Jew and the Doctor, advertised on playbill of 17 Aug.

Event Comment: [The playbill announces The Point of Honour and Obi, but "The Publick is most respectfully inform'd that in consequence of the sudden indisposition of Miss DeCamp, The Point of Honour, and Obi cannot be acted. This Evening will be presented [as above]" (printed slip attached to Harvard playbill).

Event Comment: [The playbill announces phe 1st night of What a Blunder!, but "In consequence of a severe accident C. Kemble met with yesterday evening by a fall in the last scene of Obi, the new opera of What a Blunder! cannot be acted. This evening will be presented The London Hermit" (MS annotation on hay playbill now at Harvard). "In making his leap from the precipice, the needful precautions to break his fall were not employed With sufficient promptitude. The consequence was that Kemble received several violent contusions, and sprained his back in a dangerous manner...The New Opera, in which that actor was to have performed a principal part, was necessarily postponed, and the above Entertainments substituted in its place. A proper apology was made to the audience, as well on account of the unavoidable disappointment, as the incorrectness which might naturally be expected to occur, from the suddenness of the change, and the absence of some of the regular performers" (Dramatic Censor, III, 83).

Event Comment: [Mrs Leach is identified by MS annotation on hay playbill now at Harvard.

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. [Forster is identified by MS annotation on hay playbill now at Harvard.] Morning Chronicle, 25 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent Garden