Event Comment: [In 2nd piece the playbill assigns Orlando to Kemble, but "On account of indisposition, Barrymore last night performed Orlando for Kemble" (Oracle, 4 Oct.).] 3rd piece: To conclude with the Glorious Defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a Grand Procession. "Equal to any actor I ever saw, as far as his line extends, is Mr Parsons; his conception and expression of Sir Fretful Plagiary, in Mr Sheridan's Critic, are as strong and masterly as were Garrick's in Kitely [in Every Man in his Humour]; and his 'laughing without mirth' therein equally admirable" (Jonson, ed. Waldron, 171). Receipts: #251 4s. 6d. (213.6.6; 37.0.0; 0.18.0)

Event Comment: "The performance of last night boasted some additional impression, by the fine imagination of [Kemble's] starting at the trumpet from the prayer of penitence, and springing up the Hero and the King...[In Act V] the scene with Katharine was as sportive and as easy as possible...Comus followed, vice the Critic, obliged to be postponed from [the] indisposition of Parsons (MS annotation on Kemble playbill)]. Some disapprobation attended the drawing up the curtain. Palmer explained, and then, without 'wiping his lips since he spoke last' began "The Star that bids the Shepherd fold" (Oracle, 1 Nov.). Receipts: #223 5s. 6d. (180.8.6; 41.3.0; 1.14.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [not acted since 2 Oct. 1780]. [As afterpiece the playbill announces The Sultan, but "On Account of the Sudden Indisposition of Barrymore [it] was put off and the Devil to Pay substituted in its stead" (MS annotation on Kemble playbill) "The Sultan was changed to The Devil to Pay, and as Jordan remained, the matter was rather mended" (Oracle, 8 Nov.).] Receipts: #195 14s. (168.1; 26.3; 1.10)

Event Comment: Receipts: #439 11s. 6d. (391.15.6; 45.7.0; 2.9.0). A tally sheet in BM (Burney 937. c. 10) for this night itemizes the number of spectators and the receipts as follows: 1st Account Boxes 660, #198.0.0 Pit 745, #130.7.6 Gallery 634, #63.8.0 Total 2,039, #391.15.6 Half Price Boxes 215, #32.5.0 Pit 27, #2.14.0 Gallery 208, #10.8.0 Total 450, #45.7.0 Boxes 875, #230.5.0 Pit 772, #133.1.6 Gallery 842, #73.16.0 Total 2,489, #437.2.6 The total receipts here set forth do not include the After Money of 2.9.0

Event Comment: "When [Mrs Siddons's] approach was known from the words of the play, and almost before she was within view of the audience, the applause commenced on all sides, and continued for some minutes" (London Chronicle, 23 Jan.). "The same bold, nervous articulation, with the same violent bursts of passion--bursts that confound criticism, though they harrow up the soul...There is a dignified deportment even in her shocks of surprise--her starts of horror--her agonies of death. She never descends to a superfluous motion" (Morning Chronicle, 23 Jan.). Receipts: #432 8s. 6d. (393.12.6; 35.8.0; 3.8.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [Genest, VII, 51, remarks that "The bill is rightly printed as the characters were called originally," i.e., on the playbills it had become customary to call Norval Douglas, Stranger Norval or Old Norval, and Matilda Lady Randolph.] Receipts: #308 (276.17; 26.15; 3.19; tickets not come in: 0.9)

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: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. To prevent Confusion, Ladies and Gentlemen are desired to send their Servants by Half past Four o'Clock. Mainpiece: In I The Cardinal's Banquet. In II the Court for the Trial of Queen Katharine. In V a Grand Procession to the Christening of Princess Elizabeth. Morning Herald, 7 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. Receipts: #493 16s. (258.15.6; 25.13.0; 1.16.0; tickets: 207.11.6) (charge: #159 8s. 10d.)