Event Comment: Benefit Mines, Gallant, Verhuyck, Naylor. Mainpiece: Written by C. Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by N. Rowe, Esq</a>. Afterpiece: Altered from the French of Moliere

Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality.Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat. Afterpiece: Taken from Moliere and Intermingled with Songs. At Common Prices. 6 p.m

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh, and Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat

Event Comment: Benefit Michael Lally. At the Desire of several Ladies of Qualit(. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat. [Two Rows of Pit and part of Stage formed into Side-Boxes. Tickets at Lally's House in Southampton-Row, Bloomsbury.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh( and Colley Cibber Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat. At Common Prices. 6 p.m. Receipts: #62 13s. (Account Book); #80 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat. Receipts: #54 16s. 6d. (Account Book); #70 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet Laureat. Receipts: #61 18s. (Account Book); #80 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet-Laureat. Admission: 5s., 3s., 2s., 1s. Receipts: #47 3s. (Account Book); #50 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>; Poet Laureate

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: Not acted in seven years [see 7 May 47]. Altered from Dryden by Colley Cibber, Esq</a>. Part of Pit laid into boxes. Amphitheatre on Stage. Receipts: #220 (Cross)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. [Author of Address unknown.] 1st piece: By the Author of Love in a Village, &c. [Isaac Bickerstaffe]; not acted these 16 years [1st acted at DL, 24 Nov. 1770], by Veterans of the Stage. 2nd piece: By the late Samuel Foote, Esq. 3rd piece: By Garrick; not acted these 12 years. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Written by Samuel Foote, Esq

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Being the most tragical tragedy that ever was tragedized by a company of tragedians. At the Particular Desire of Several Persons of Quality (General Advertiser). [The following unsigned statement of the financial condition of the theatre on 11 April is in the Harvard Collection of Documents dealing with affairs of Drury Lane, folio MS Thr. 12. This itemizes the outstanding liabilities to the amount of #8,808 14s. including #1,275 of arrears in actors' salaries]: I told Mr- the intended purchaser that the whole would not amount to #12,000. He said if it was more it should rest on me, for that was the utmost shilling he would give. But upon strict enquiry I find it will amount to #12,808 14s. This difference is not altogether owing to an error in calculation, but has been likewise heightened by a falling off of business, nor is it possible to ascertain the debt of a theatre for a day, it is of so fluctuating a nature. Q: whether this loss ought to light upon me, who have endeavored to get a purchaser & increased the value of the Estate to the utmost of my power? Errors excepted. [James Lacy or John Powel are the most likely authors of this statement. Whatever the authority, it is clear that settlement had not yet been made for transfer of ownership. For Powel, see G. W. Stone, Jr., The Authorship of Tit for Tat," Theatre Notebook, X (1955), 22-28.

Event Comment: The King's Company. See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 118. This was a new play, but it is not clear that this day was the premiere. BM Add. Mss. 34217, in Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @For the surprizall it was a good proofe@By its getting them mony it took well enough@Without which Divell take the Play@Be it never so good the Actors say@But they may thanke God with all their hart@That Lacy plaid Brankadoros part.

Event Comment: The King's Company. This is the first known performance of the comedy, but it may not be the premiere. Evelyn, Diary: At night saw acted the Committe, a ridiculous play of Sir R. Howards where that Mimic Lacy acted the Irish-footeman to admiration: a very Satyrus or Roscius. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 16: @For his Just Acting, all gave him due Praise,@His Part in the Cheats, Jony Thump, Teg and Bayes,@In these Four Excelling; The Court gave him the Bays.

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: And there took up my wife and Ashwell to the Theatre Royall, being the second day of its being opened. The house is made with extraordinary good contrivance, and yet hath some faults, as the narrowness of the passages in and out of the pitt, and the distance from the stage to the boxes, which I am confident cannot hear; but for all other things it is well, only, above all, the musique being below, and most of it sounding under the very stage, there is no hearing of the bases at all, nor very well of the trebles, which sure must be mended. The play was The Humerous Lieutenant, a play that hath little good in it, nor much in the very part which, by the King's command, Lacy now acts instead of Clun. In the dance, the tall devil's actions was very pretty....I am resolved to deny myself the liberty of two plays at court, which are in arreare to me for the months of March and April, which will more than countervail this excess, so that this month of May is the first that I must claim a liberty of going to a Court play according to my oath

Event Comment: The King's Company. For an edition of this play from the MS prompt copy, see The Change of Crownes, ed. F. S. Boas (Oxford University Press, 1949). For the consequences of Lacy's ad libbing, see 16, 20, and 22 April, and 1 May. Pepys, Diary: I to the King's house by chance, where a new play: so full as I never saw it; I forced to stand all the while close to the very till I took cold, and many people went away for want of room. The King and Queene, and Duke of York and Duchesse of York there, and all the Court, and Sir W. Coventry. The play called The Change of Crownes; a play of Ned Howard's the best that ever I saw at that house, being a great play and serious; only Lacy did act the country-gentleman come up to Court, who do abuse the Court with all the imaginable wit and plainness about selling of places, and doing every thing for money. The play took very much.... Gervase Jaquis to the Earl of Huntington, 16 April: Here is another play house erected in Hatton buildings called the Duke of Cambridgs play-house, and yester-day his Matie the Duke & many more were at the King's Playe house to see some new thing Acted (Hastings MSS, HA 7654, Huntington Library)

Event Comment: uthor unknown.] Benefit Morgan and Lacy. Receipts: money #10 5s.; tickets #93 13s. Probable attendance: boxes, 10 by money and 118 by tickets; stage, 3 by money; pit, 11 by money and 259 by tickets; first gallery, 14 by money and 253 by tickets; second gallery, 57 by money

Event Comment: Benefit Lacy, Pitt, Mrs Rice. Written by Mr Farquhar. Receipts: money #4 10s.; tickets #87 11s. Probable attendance: boxes, 3 by money and 76 by tickets; stage, 4 by money; pit, 4 by money and 261 by tickets; first gallery, 4 by money and 294 by tickets; second gallery, 18 by money

Event Comment: Benefit Theo. Lacy. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality

Event Comment: Benefit of Prompter (Steed). Receipts: money #20 19s. 16d.; ticekts #62. Tickets for Lacy and Miss Horsington taken

Event Comment: RRylands: Lacy play'd. Receipts: #40