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: The Characters in the Mainpiece New Dress'd. Neville MS Diary: At 6, went into the Pit...House not very full. King John was performed with new Dresses and Decorations. Powell and Smith are good in York and the Bastard, and Mrs Bellamy in Constance....The entertainment was the procession of the Coronation, with the ceremony of the Champion. Every truly free soul, on seeing a representation of such extravagant pageantry, must abhor that form of Government, of the superfluous trappings of which it is but a small specimen. Receipts: #91s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [Kemble's 1st appearance as King John was at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 18 Apr. 1782; Mrs Siddons's 1st appearance as Constance was at Bath on, by coincidence, the same day.] Receipts: #300 9s. (289/8/0; 10/3/6; 0/5/0; tickets not come in: 0/12/6)

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 Wm. Mills and Mrs Mills. For the Entertainment of the Grand Master, and the Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons. Mainpiece: As it was alter'd by the late Duke of Buckingham

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Sir John VanBrugh. For the Entertainment of the Grand Master, and the brethren of the Honourable and Antient Society of Free and Accepted Masons, for the Benefit of a Brother, who has had great misfortunes. None to be admitted Without printed Tickets (Daily Advertiser). The Brethren are desired to meet the Right Honourable the Grand Master, at Mr Filkes, at the Bedford Arms in the Piazza in Covent Garden, at Four o'clock in the afternoon, in order to accompany him to the play. Stage form'd into an amphitheatre. Servants allowed to keep places

Event Comment: At the Desire of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons

Event Comment: Benefit Walker, a Brother. For the Entertainment of the Grand Master and the Worthy Brothers and Sisters of the Honourable Community of Modern Free-Masons. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Gay. Afterpiece: Taken from Moliere, and Intermixed with Songs. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. 6:30 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Salway. For the Entertainment of the Grand Master and the Rest of the Brethren of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons. Afterpiece: With several Additions by the Author

Event Comment: Benefit Cunningham. At the Desire of the Hon. Bell Ara Moleck, and the worshipful Fraternity of Free-Masons. A Concert, etc. [customary notice]. Prices 3s., 2s., 1s. Although there was such ill Decorum the last time the Beggar's Opera was exhibited there, particular care will be taken to have it now in the most regular manner

Event Comment: Benefit for Lowe. Music by Handel. Tickets 3s. By Particular Desire of the Right Hon. Earl of Ferrars, Grand Master of the Antient and Hon. Society of Free Masons. Mr Lowe's constant attendance at Marybone Gardens renders it impossible for him to wait on all his friends in person, he therefore hopes they will take tickets, in order to prevent mistakes at changing money at the doors

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Halley, Brereton, Walker, Mason, Clarridge, Simmons, Pemberton, Mrs Harris, Mrs Linton, Mrs Egan will be admitted (Account Book). Receipts: #175 13s. (54/2; 3/10; tickets: 118/1)

Event Comment: [Extra night] Benefit for the Widow and three youngest Children of the late Dr Glover. [Dr William Frederick Glover, a surgeon, had died on 25 Feb. in straitened circumstances. A subscription--in behalf of which this Benefit was organized--had been set on foot for the relief of his family (see Gentleman's Magazine, Mar. 1787, p. 276). In the 1760's he was for some years an actor on the Dublin stage (see Tate Wilkinson, Memoirs, III, 198).] Tickets to be had at the Thatched-House Tavern, St. James's Street; at Free-Mason's Tavern, Great Queen Street; the Antigallican Coffee House, Royal Exchange; the Globe Tavern, Fleet Street; at Messrs Robinsons, booksellers, Paternoster Row; and of the Printer of the Morning Chronicle, Dorset Street, Salisbury Square. Received from Their Majesties for Box [for season] #70; from the Princess Royal for Box #35. Receipts: #127 11s. (125.5; 2.6; tickets: none listed)

Event Comment: [The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but a letter--see 2 Jan. 1670@1--indicates that the first part had been acted before that date and that Part II was to be shortly staged. The point of the Prologue spoken by Ellen Gwyn seems to have derived from an incident at Dover (see Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 20) in May 1670, when James Nokes attired himself in a ridiculous fashion, including "Broad wast Belts." The speakers of the Epilogue and the Prologue to the Second Part are mentioned in Sir William Haward's MS (Bodl. MS Don. b., pp. 248-49); see The Poems of John Dryden, ed. James Kinsley (Oxford, 1958), IV, 1848-49. In Part I a song Beneath a myrtle shade, with music by John Bannister, is in Choice Songs and Ayres, First Book, 1673. Another, Wherever I am, with music by Alphonso Marsh, is in the same collection, as is also How unhappy a lover am I, the music by Nicholas Staggins. Mrs John Evelyn to Mr Bohun, ca. Jan. 1670@1: Since my last to you I have seen The Siege of Grenada, a play so full of ideas that the most refined romance I ever read is not to compare with it; love is made so pure, and valour so nice, that one would image it designed for an Utopia rather than our stage. I do not quarrel with the poet, but admire one born in the decline of morality should be able to feign such exact virtue; and as poetic fiction has been instructive in former ages, I wish this the same event in ours. As to the strict law of comedy I dare not pretend to judge: some think the division of the story is not so well if it could all have been comprehended in the day's actions (The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray, IV, 25). According to John Evelyn--see 9 Feb. 1670@1--Robert Streeter did some of the scenes for this play. In the Preface to The Fatal Discovery, ca. February 1697@8, George Powell, in discussing revivals of Dryden's plays, stated: In relation to our reviving his Almanzor...very hard crutching up what Hart and Mohun could not prop

Event Comment: Receipts: #157 15s. [The Account Book lists the payment of 2s. per acting night to each shareholder: @Shareholder Mrs Martha Bedwell No. Share 1@No. Nights 36@Payment #3 12s.@Shareholder Mrs Creighton No. Shares 1@No. Nights 36@Payment #3 12s.@Shareholder Mr Francis Bedwell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 37@Payment #3 14s.@Shareholder Mr Robert Griffin No. Share 1@No. Nights 37@Payment #3 14s.@Shareholder Mr John Mitchell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 87@Payment #8 14s.@Shareholder Mrs Mary Michell No. Shares 1@No. Nights 87@Payment #8 14s.@Shareholder Mr John Walsh No. Shares 1@No. Nights 86@Payment #8 12s.@Shareholder Mr Lucuss No. Shares 1@No. Nights 54@Payment #5 8s.@Shareholder Col. Wade No. Shares 1@No. Nights 8@Payment 16s.@Shareholder Sir Arthur Croft No Shares 1@No. Nights 8@Payment 16s.@Shareholder Mr John White No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr John Croft, Esq No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr Rubin Adolphus No. Shares 1@No. Nights 5@Payment 10s.@Shareholder Mr Henry Woodfall No. Shares 1@No. Nights 3@Payment 6s.@Total No. Shares 14@No. Nights 494@Payment #49 8s.@ Winston MS 8 notes that on 1 Feb. dl had only 20 renters at 2s. a night.

Event Comment: Benefit John Roberts, now Confin'd in the Fleet Prison. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh