Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years. Full prices. [See 10 Mar
ch 1750.]
Mr Maddox ye Ballance Master perform'd [on the rope] in it. Great Expectations not answer'd (
Cross). [See ridicule of this afterpiece at
dl 6 Nov.
and the summary account of the disturbance it produced, as recorded in the
Gentleman's Magazine (Nov. 1752, p. 535): The Town had been allured to
Covent Garden by a wire dancer
and some strange animals, whi
ch the manager brought together from
Sadler's Wells and the
Fair.
Mr Garrick ridiculed this perversion of theatrical entertainment, by exhibiting a mock entertainment of the same kind. At this the town was offened,
and a party went one evening determind to damn it; a person of some distinction [
Fitzpatrick] who was very busy in this laudable attempt threw an apple at
Woodward and hit him. Woodward resented the blow by some words, whi
ch, by the gentleman's account, implied a
challenge, but by Woodward's no su
ch thing. Woodward's account is confirm'd by the affidavits of many; that of the gentleman only by his own, though the box in whi
ch he sat was full. The
Inspector espoused the cause of the Gentleman;
and the
Covent Garden Journalist of the comedian.'