Event Comment: By Desire of his Excellency the Turkish Ambassador [see 9 May]. Benefit for Mrs Mountain. 1st piece: In Act II a Grand Procession representing the ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her deceased Husband. 2nd piece [1st time; CO 2, by Henry Heartwell]: The Overture and Music composed by Attwood. Monologue: The whole of the apparatus painted and designed by Cresswell. Morning Herald, 8 Oct. 1798: This Day is published Reformed in Time (1s.). Ibid, 16 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mountain, No. 28, Maiden-lane, Covent-garden. Receipts: #370 18s. (90.17; 4.3; tickets: 275.18)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; CO 2, by Henry Heartwell and George Colman, ynger, based on Le Prisonner; or, La Ressemblance, by Alexandre Vincent Pineu Duval]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed and selected by Attwood. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 9 Aug. 1799: This day is published The Castle of Sorrento (1s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Farren. 2nd piece: Altered [by Henry Bate] from Prior's Nut Brown Maid, with new Airs and Chorusses composed by Shield. Receipts: #226 5s. (105.1.0; 29.3.6; 1.2.6; tickets: 90.18.0) (charge: #108.14)

Event Comment: The United Company. As 9 Nov. 1692 is known to be the second day, it is assumed that 8 Nov. 1692 represents the first performance. (See entry for 9 Nov. 1692.) The authorship is uncertain; William Mountfort signed tne Dedication, but its authorship is linked with that of Edward III (November 1690), which may have been by Bancroft. Gentleman's Journal, October 1692 (not issued until November): Henry the Second, King of England, A new Play, by the Author of that call'd Edward the Third, which gave such universal satisfaction, hath been acted several times with applause. It is a Tragedy with a mixture of Comedy....Had you seen it acted, you would own that an Evening is pass'd very agreeably, when at a Representation of that pleasing Piece. [Alfred Harbage, Elizabethan-Restoration Palimpsest, Modern Language Review, XXXV (1940), 312-18, argues that this play is the Elizabethan Henry II once in the possession of Moseley. A song, In vain 'gainst Love I strove, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Mrs Dyer, not in the printed play, is in Comes Amoris, 1693, and Joyful Cuckoldom 1695. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), vii

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Here comes Harris, and first told us how Betterton is come again upon the stage: whereupon my wife and company to the [Duke's] house to see Henry the Fifth.... Thence I to the playhouse, and saw a piece of the play, and glad to see Betterton

Event Comment: By the Great Mogul's Company of English Comedians, Newly Imported. [By Henry Fielding.] N.B. Mr Pasquin intending to lay about him with great Impartiality, hopes the Town will all attend, and very civilly give their Neighbours what they find belong to 'em. N.B. The Cloaths are old, but the Jokes intirely new. N.B. All Ladies that intend to be present during the first Run, cannot take Places too early. To prevent any Interruption in the Movement of the Persons in the Drama (some of whom are Machines) no Person whatever can possibly be admitted behind the Scenes. Boxes 4s. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Henry James Pye. Prologue by William Sotheby; Epilogue by John Taylor (see text)]: With new Dresses and Decorations. "From the first drawing up of the curtain, till its final fall, we could not discover one single flight of fancy, one solitary scene of woe...It is but justice to add that for a first night the performers, with the exception of Barrymore, were very perfect in their respective parts [and see 27 Jan.]" (Dramatic Censor, I, 175, 181). Receipts: #309 13s. (246.4.6; 61.0.6; 2.8.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years. [See 16 April 1751.] With the Decorations prescribed by Shakespeare. The Characters new Dressed in the Haibts of the Times. [The reviewer for Town and Country Magazine preferred Mrs Hartley's acting in Jane Shore to that in Henry VIII, where she frequently sunk into a whining monotony which from the length of some of the speeches became very disagreeable.' She did, however, he thought, do the last scene well.] Receipts: #223 13s. 6d. (Account Book)