Event Comment: At Cushing's Booth, facing the King's Head, Smithfield. The tragedy contains the barbarous contrivances of King John against his nephew Prince Arthur; his method of persuading Hubert to undertake the cruel murder of that youth; the sufferings of Arthur in his confinement, where Hubert attempts to put out eyes with a red-hot iron, til moved to compassion by the tender entreating of the young prince, he quits his horrid purpose. The manner of Arthur's leaping from the battlements of the tower where he was imprisoned, when by attempting to escape his severe treatment he loses his life. The terrors that attended the villainous Uncle King John, and at length his dreadful death, who is poisoned in the midst of all his glory, and in terrible anguish and distraction, pays his nephew's blood with the price of his own. The comic contains the exquisite drolleries of Sir Lubberly and his man, their whimsical journey from Cumberland, and no less whimsical exploits in London; the odd reception they met with from their three faithful friends, Tom Rash the Porter, Jeffrey Holdfast the Constable, and Moll Tatter the Beggar Woman, the one getting a wife, the other a bastard

Event Comment: [By John Dennis. Date of premiere unknown. Published 19 May.] Dedication: Falstaffe 's part...was by no means acted to the satisfaction of the Audience, upon which several fell from disliking the Action to disapproving the Play

Event Comment: Benefit Delane. Mainpiece: As written by Shakespear. Tickets deliver'd for Monday the 9th will be taken. Tickets to be had of Delane at his lodgings at the Unicorn in New Exchange Row in the Strand. Places of Hobson at the stage door. There is now in rehearsal at the Theatre Royal [dl] and speedily will be acted, a new Petit Piece in imitation of that species of writing on the French Theatre call'd The Suspicious Husband Criticiz'd; or the Plague of Envy (General Advertiser). [A Folger edition of 1750 entitled Chorus for Shakespear's Tragedy of King John lists songs by Sullivan, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Storer, and Mrs Mozeen; the play had no other performance at a London theatre in the interim between 1747 and 1750.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time: F 2, by Edmund John Eyre. Text (Shrewsbury: P. Sandford, 1791) correctly assigns Prolix to Wilson. Prologue by John Wolcot (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 29 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #318 4s. (153.3; 2.5; tickets: 162.16)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece "English Herald [omitted from playbill] Trueman; Cooke Ill." In afterpiece the playbill retains Aumer as Hephestion, but "Hephestion C. Kemble, Aumer at the Opera House. Miss Redhead, Miss Leak absent, Ill" (Powell).] Powell, 13 Mar.: King John rehearsed at 10; Edwy and Elgiva at 12; Jack of Newbury read at 2; 14 Mar.: Jack of Newbury rehearsed at 11. Receipts: #255 3s. (204.14.0; 48.8.6; 2.0.6)

Event Comment: Benefit Houghton and Harrington. N.B. Mr Quin's late Indisposition having render'd him incapable of performing the Part of Falstaff, without a manifest Hazard of his Health, we are oblig'd to alter the Play

Event Comment: Benefit Harrington, Master Gillier, Miss Allen, and others

Event Comment: Benefit for Anderson; Harrington (Prompter); Miss Ferguson; and Miss Morrison. Tickets deliver'd out by Messing, Plummer, and Mrs Dupre will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Wilford, Ross, (pit door-keepers); Slater; and Trott, (lobby door-keeper). Mainpiece: Acted but once these 10 years. [See 15 Jan. 1753.] Tickets deliver'd by Besford, Clark, Darby, Toten, Dimmock, &c. will be taken. [Besford a mistake for Joseph Besworth (porter).] Receipts: #15 15s. plus #100 14s. 2d. as 1!2 value of the tickets deliver'd. @Names Bow Pit Gallery Balue 1!2 Value@Wilford 2 62 18 #11 12s. #5 16s.@Ross 5 162 83 #33 17s. #16 18s. 6d.@Trott 144 53 .. #43 19s. #18 12s. 9d.@Slater 2 57 110 #20 1s. #10 6d.@Derby 4 79 105 #23 7s. #11 13s. 6d.@Toten .. 32 43 #9 2s. #4 11s.@Clingo .. 55 47 #12 19s. #6 9s. 6d.@Clarke .. 40 44 #10 8s. #5 4s.@Besworth .. 24 20 #5 12s. #2 16s.@Dymuck .. 12 53 #7 2s. #3 11s.@Jos. Smith 8 29 25 #8 17s. #4 8s. 6d.@Cole 4 61 83 #18 9s. #9 4s. 6d.@S. Griffiths .. 11 12 #2 17s. #1 8s. 6d.@Total 169 677 643 #208 2s. #100 14s. 2d. [1!2 of #208 2s. would seem to be #104 1s.]@ Rec'd of John Crane for the ends of the wax candles sold last season #6 4s., and for those sold this season #23 19s. 4d. (Account Book)