Event Comment: The last Night of the Company's performing this Season. [As 2nd and 3rd pieces the playbill announces, respectively, The Maid of the Oaks and The Farmer, but they were not acted. Their substitutes are listed in the Account-Book, and both are reviewed in Morning Chronicle, 10 June.] Account-Book, 13 June: Received [stage] Forfeits #42; 20 June: Received from Their Majesties for the Box #60, from the Princess Royal for the Box #30; 10 July: Paid Lewis for Management from Lady Day 1785 to Midsummer 1788 #650. Receipts: #147 19s. 6d. (141.18.6; 6.1.0)

Event Comment: "This degradation of a theatre royal was properly reprobated by the audience in general" (Town and Country Magazine, Jan. 1789, p. 15). Receipts: #264 (252.3; 11.17)

Event Comment: By Command of Her Majesty. [This was the first time that members of the royal family had appeared in public since the beginning of the King's illness (his first attack of insanity) in November 1788. See also 21, 24 Apr.] The drop curtain with the King's arms on it shown when the front curtain first rose was the "original curtain exhibited on the opening of Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre [in 1714]...It has lain by in the scene-room of Covent-Garden theatre nearly seventy years, but was rescued from oblivion, retouched, and the appropriate ornaments added for the occasion" (Public Advertiser, 16 Apr.). On the Queen's entrance "the house called for God save the King, and the theatre being prepared, the song was immediately sung by Bannister, Johnstone, and Darley, the house joining in the chorus. It was encored...At the end of the play [it] was again called for, and again sung twice. At the end of the pantomime it was again called for; and the theatre not sending forward the performers, the audience cheerfully sung it for themselves; and having sung, they encored themselves; so that altogether it was sung six times in the course of the evening. Her Majesty had a bandeau of black velvet, on which were set in diamonds the words 'Long live the king.' The princesses had bandeaus of white satin, and 'Long live the king' in gold" (Universal Magazine, Apr. 1789, p. 218). Receipts: #388 16s. 6d. (385.12.0; 3.4.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In I a Masquerade Scene incident to the Play. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] No Money to be returned. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 2 Nov.]. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.] Receipts: #255 6s. (253.11.6; 1.14.6)

Event Comment: Ballet: 1st Time [at this theatre. The two Miss Simonets were from the king's.]. With new Scenes and Dresses. Receipts: #119 9s. 6d. (113.6.6; 6.3.0)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "There were not an hundred persons in the Pit when their Majesties entered, and there were not double the number at any part of the evening. The Royal box being in the centre, fronting the stage, their Majesties were invisible to the Gallery; and on their entrance solemn stillness prevailed, until the Orchestra, for the first time in an Opera-house, for the first time by the Professional Band, Struck up God save the King. Never, we will venture to say, in any Theatre during the present reign, was there so thin an audience when their Majesties were present; and we pretend not to divine the cause. Whether it is the failure of the Theatre as a musical room--the general poverty of the performance--the little notice that was given of their Majesties' intention to be present we know not" (Morning Chronicle, 23 Feb.)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Follett, Warrell, A Gentleman, Miss Leserve will be admitted. Received of Their Majesties for the Box #80; for the Princess Royal's Box #40; for Her Majesty's Servants #6 6s. Receipts: #226 10s. 6d. (104.5.0; 4.3.6; tickets: 118.2.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In 5 Acts, altered from the Dramatic Romance by David Garrick, Esq. With a new Overture and new additional Musick by Storace [on 2 Jan. 1792 and thereafter, added: Shaw] and other Eminent Masters. Entirely new Scenery by Greenwood, and new Dresses, Decorations and Machinery. To conclude with a Grand Procession of the Hundred Knights of Chivalry, and the Representation of an Ancient Tournament. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Post, 3 Jan. 1792, prints a full description of the Procession of over 100 persons: 1st, Anglo-Saxon Knights and banners; then ancient British knights, Norman knights, Indians, Turks, Scythians, Romans, a dwarf, a giant; at end, "soldiers drawing a superb picture of St. George, knights in chain mail, a cupid leading a knight covered with a silver net, Hymen, piping fauns, bands of cupids drawing an altar--flame burning, cupids hovering over it, and others feeding doves below, a troop of Arcadian shepherds drawing the car of Cymon and Sylvia, characters of the drama, and chorus." "At the conclusion of the procession, a tournament took place of both horse and foot, between several combatants in armour, who fought with lances, swords and battle-axes: three of Hughes' horses [from the Royal Circus] were introduced, and managed with much dexterity; the Prince of Wales' Highlander made one of the procession, and entered the lists as a champion, fighting with an enormous club; against him a small female warrior was opposed, by whom he was subdued. It was by far the grandest spectacle ever seen upon the stage. Many of the characters were taken from Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, in which the scene of the piece was laid; and the dresses of the knights, armour, &c. from the drawings and descriptions of the best antiquarians" (Oulton, 1796, II, 215). [This was Edmund Kean's 1st appearance on the stage; he was about four years old. He personated a cupid lying in Cymon and Sylvia's car (Kelly, Reminiscences, II, 21-22).] Account-Book, 13 Jan. 1792: Paid Hughes for his Horses #16 19s. 10d.; 23 Jan.: Paid Gough for his Greyhounds in Cymon #5 19s. 6d. Receipts: #420 6s. (385.0; 35.5; 0.1)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Present Their Majesties. [Their attendance this night is not indicated on the playbill, but "Though the Royal Command was not communicated to this Theatre till late yesterday morning, and consequently but a small part of the public could have notice of the public could have notice of the intention of Their Majesties to honour the house with their presence, yet it was crouded in all parts" (Morning Herald, 16 Mar.).] Receipts: #347 12s. (344.3.6; 3.8.6)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "God save the King was sung by the audience, standing up, twice before the piece commenced, and twice after it was finished. At the end of the Divertisement, Rule Britannia was sung, the whole Royal Family joining" (London Chronicle, 17 Jan.). Receipts: #477 10s

Event Comment: Double Drums by Ashbridge. Trombones by Flack, Dressler, Zwingham, Schubert. The Chorusses, which will be far more numerous than on any former occasion, will be supported by the Young Gentlemen of His Majesty's Chapel Royal, and the Choristers of St. Paul's. A Subscription of Two Guineas and a Half will receive Eleven Tickets for the Boxes, transferable either to a Lady or a Gentleman; any number of Tickets may be used nightly at the pleasure of the Subscriber. Books of the performance to be had at the Theatre, price #6d. Boxes 6s. Pit 3s. 6d. Gallery 2s. No Money to be returned. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [same throughout oratorio season]

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister Jun. 2nd piece: By Permission of the Proprietors of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Morning Herald, 23 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Bannister Jun., No. 2, Frith-street, Soho

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. [This was the version, altered probably by Joseph George Holman, in which he appeared in Dublin on 29 July 1794, on which occasion the playbill reads, "Dressed in the Habits of the Times, and with other Alterations, adopted in its Representations 19 [recte 11] Nights last Winter, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden." It further states that the part of Ophelia would be performed "without the Airs, and with a considerable Restoration of the Text." No record of what these alterations consisted of has come to light. In III.iv Hamlet's father was represented by a life-sized portrait that hung over the chimney, and the Queen wore a large miniature of Claudius on her arm as a bracelet (London Chronicle, 10 Oct.). The words of the Dirge are printed in European Magazine, Nov. 1793, p. 393; they are stanza X of Shakespeare's Passionate Pilgrim. Miss Poole had appeared as a singer at king's and at Vauxhall in 1787 and at the cg oratories in 1791.] Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [and in place of The Prisoner at Large, advertised on playbill of 8 Oct.]. Receipts: #332 4s. (330.3; 2.1)

Event Comment: [The playbill announces the performances for this evening as by command of Their Majesties, but "The melancholy tidings of the death of the Queen of France prevented the royal visit" (Thespian Magazine, Dec. 1793, p. 357).) Receipts: #392 13s. (383/11; 9/2)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. "God save the King was several times repeated, and other songs suitable to the circumstances of the night" (World, 21 Nov.). " As the taste of the Royal Family is well known to be equal to the delight they take in encouraging genius, it is, we presume, the Lord Chamberlain that so frequently orders, for their entertainment, a hash of old Pantomimes, which even children cannot relish more than once" (Morning Chronicle, 21 Nov.). Receipts: #521 11s. (514/17; 6/14)