Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Performed There. On account of the Additional Airs, contracted into 3 Acts. [Public Advertiser, 30 Dec., notes that the principal omission was the conspiracy of Alonzo, Antonio, &c., and that the Masque in Act IV was removed to the concluding scene of the play.] With New Dresses, Scenery and Decorations. The Music by Purcell, John Christopher? Smith, Dr Arne and Fisher. [In afterpiece the playbill retains Delpini as Pierrot, but "[Hull] made an apology for the illness of Delpini, telling the audience that the Signor had hurt himself so much the preceding evening in performing the part of Pierrot that he could not come out of his room; the managers therefore hoped that the audience would accept of Wewitzer in the character" (Morning Chronicle, 28 Dec.). The playbill also adds Wewitzer as the Gardener; this part was perhaps omitted.] Paid Enderby, Oil Merchant, #258 17s. Receipts: #245 18s. (244.15; 1.3)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered [by Charlotte Lennox] from [Eastward Hoe, by] Ben Johnson, and others [George Chapman and John Marston]. Receipts: #128 7s. 6d. (100.11.0; 23.8.0; 4.8.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered from [The Relapse, by] Sir John Vanbrugh [1st time; C 5, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Prologue by David Garrick (see edition of 1781)]. The Characters new dressed. Receipts: #229 7s. 6d. (217.13.0; 10.8.0; 1.6.6)

Event Comment: Ode [1st time; composed by Thomas Linley Jun. (see 18 Mar. 1778), text by John Hoadly]

Event Comment: [Nicoll, III, 280, 390, states that this was an alteration of Shakespear's play by John Lee.] Receipts: #174 5s. (173.10.6; 0.14.6)

Event Comment: Prelude [1st time;PREL I, probably by Richard Cumberland. Larpent MS 472; not published]. Mainpiece [1st time; M 3, by Richard Cumberland, based on Calypso and Telemachus, by John Hughes]: The Overture and all the Music entirely new, and composed by Butler. With new Scenery painted by Richards and Carver, and new Dresses. Books of the Masque to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 27 Mar. 1779: This Day is published Calypso (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Reddish [and his last appearance on the stage]. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Public Advertiser, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Reddish, No. 14, near the Turnpike, Tottenham Court Road. "Poor Reddish, on the 5th of May, had a benefit, and it was resolved to try whether he could not go through the character of Posthumus. He was now infirm; in common occurrences imbecile, but to be exited by his former profession, or nothing. The late John Ireland gave an affecting detail of this attempt. He met his friend an hour before the performance began. Reddish entered the room with the step of an idiot, his eye wandering, and his whole countenance vacant. Mr Ireland congratulated him, that he was sufficiently recovered to perform his favourite Posthumus. 'Yes', said he, 'and in the garden scene I shall astonish you.' 'The garden scene! I thought you were to play Posthumus?' 'No, Sir, I play Romeo.' His friend assured him that Posthumus was the part he was to act--and he walked to the theatre, reciting Romeo all the way. When dressed for Posthumus, and in the green-room, it was still hard to undeceive him--at length he was pushed upon the stage....The instant he came in sight of the audience his recollection seemed to return; his countenance resumed meaning, his eye became lighted up, he made the modest bow of respect, and played the scene as well as he had ever done. But Romeo again met him in the green-room, and it was only the stage cue that had the power to unsettle this delusion; and that never failed to do it through the whole play. Mr Ireland thought him, on this occasion, less assuming and more natural than he had seemed in the full enjoyment of his reason" (Boaden, Kemble, I, XVI-XVII; Ireland, 58-60)

Event Comment: [This was Vestris Jun.'s 1st appearance in England.] "Young Vestris astonished John Bull more by his agility than his grace, and some have been known to count the number of times he turned round like a tee-totum. This may be called les tours des jambes-not dancing' (Angelo, II, 320). "The theatre was brimful in expectation of Vestris. At the end of the second act he appeared; but with so much grace, agility, and strength, that the whole audience fell into convulsions of applause: the men thundered; the ladies, forgetting their delicacy and weakness, clapped with such vehemence, that seventeen broke their arms, sixty-nine sprained their wrists, and three cried bravo! bravissimo! so rashly, that they have not been able to utter so much as 'no' since, any more than both Houses of Parliament' (Walpole [17 Dec. 1780], XI, 340-41)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With Alterations [by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]. Paid John Dallas, painter, #11 10s. Receipts: #95 4s. 6d. (70.12.0; 23.12.6; 1.0.0)

Event Comment: [Miss Harper married John Bannister at Hcndon on 26 Jan. 1783.] Receipts: #217 11s. (208/2; 9/9)

Event Comment: [Holman is identified on playbill of 5 Nov. Address by John Barwis (European Magazine, Oct. 1784, p. 336, which also lists name of speaker).] Mainpiece: With new Dresses, Scenery and Decorations. In Act I a Masquerade Scene. [This notice is included in all subsequent playbills.] "This easy and natural performance of Holman . . . will prove a fatal blow to the cause of the Attitudinarians and Face-makers; to those who think dramatic excellence consists in . . . finding out meanings that were never meant ... in stretching out their fingers like monkies dying in convulsions ... in uttering their words like minute-guns at royal funerals" (Public Advertiser, 1 Nov.). "Why does Romeo wear black in the last Act? Is it on account of his banishment? He has not heard of Juliet's death" (Gazetteer, 28 Oct.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5]: Altered from Massinger [by John Philip Kemble. Prologue by the Hon. Henry Phipps (London Chronicle, 28 Jan.). Epilogue by George Colman, the elder (ibid). MS: Larpent 687; not published]. "This piece is considerably altered from the original; passages are expunged, and others added, in every scene; and several incidents transposed from the order in which they formerly stood. Some scenes are also introduced from the Maid's Tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcher" (London Magazine, Feb. 1785, p. 137). Receipts: #269 9s. (240/10/0; 27/6/6; 1/12/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Opera: The Music by Sir Christopher Gluck; with the additons of John Christ. Bach, and with the choice of several pieces of Handel. The Whole under the direction of Anfossi. Director of and 1st singer in the Chorus-Webb. The Scenes invented and painted by Novosielski. The Dresses entirely new, executed by Sestini. [Libretto (J. Jarvis, 1785): SER 3.]

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for a Performer, thirty years a Servant of the Publick at Covent-garden and Haymarket Theatres [unidentified]. Mainpiece: Written by the ingenious Mrs Behn, with Alterations by a Gentleman well known in the Dramatick World and Republick of Letters. The Characters new dressed in the Habits of the Times. [Writers and speakers of Prologue and Epilogue unknown.] Afterpiece: Altered from Sir John Vanbrugh. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:00

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by John Burgoyne, based in part on Le Pere de Famille, by Denis Diderot. Prologue by the Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick; Epilogue by the author (see text)]: With a Variety of new Scenes [by Greenwood (Daily Universal Register, 16 Jan.)], Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 4 Feb. 1786: This Day is published The Heiress (1s. 6d.). "It rarely happens that all the characters of a piece are so well sustained" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Jan.). "We never saw a play more admirably performed in all its parts" (Gazetteer, 16 Jan.). "In point of performance the comedy had every advantage" (Morning Herald, 16 Jan.). Receipts: #226 2s. (205/10; 20/7; 0/5)

Event Comment: Benefit for Pope. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years [acted 22 Jan. 1784. Epilogue by John Wolcot (European Magazine, May 1786, p. 369)]. Afterpiece: With Additional Songs, &c., as 28 Apr. Morning Herald, 18 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Pope at his house, Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly. "There is a mellow richness in [Pope's] voice superior to any other performer on the stage" (Candid Strictures, p. 47). Receipts: #255 16s. 6d. (156/13/0; 2/14/6; tickets: 96/9/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 3, by John Burgoyne]: From the French of Michel Jean? Sedaine. With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Music by the celebrated Gretry [adapted by Linley Sen.]; and the Paintings by Greenwood. Books of the Dialogue & also of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 25 Oct 1786: This Day is published Richard Coeur de Lion (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #226 (191.3; 32.14; 2.3)