Event Comment: Powell: [In afterpiece] Sir John Buck Cooke, Phillimore Ill; Classic Benson, Packer Ill. Beggar's Opera rehearsed at 10; New Ballet at 10 and at 12. Receipts: #148 3s. 6d. (103.5.0; 40.6.6; 4.12.0)

Event Comment: Powell: All's Well rehearsed at 10; Nobody at 12. Receipts: #157 13s. (135.15.6; 21.2.0; 0.15.6)

Event Comment: Powell: Deaf Lover rehearsed at 10; New Ballet at 11 (dismissed). Receipts: #230 (182.14.6; 42.14.6; 3.16.0; 6.1.2 tks.: 0.15.0)

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of this production is not certain. The Dedication, signed by George Powell and John Verbruggen, is dated Monday, 16 Oct. 1696, but this date is in error, for the sixteenth fell on Friday in October; however, 16 Nov. 1696 fell on Monday. In addition, the Dedication implies that the two men hope to have visitors (i.e., spectators at performances) on "Wednesday, and Saturday next, the Visiting Days of, Your Friends and Servants, George Powell, John Verbruggen." It is possible that the text and the songs were printed in advance of performance and were available at the theatre, but it is still uncertain whether the opera first appeared in October or November 1696. The Single Songs, With the Dialogue, was published separately in 1696, with Daniel Purcel named as the composer. The songs to which performers' names are listed are as follows: Cease, Cynthia, cease your fruitless tears, sung by Mrs Cross. I courted and writ, the verse by Jo Hanes and sung by Church. How happy I am the fair sex can defy, the verse by Jo Hanes and sung by Leveridge. 'Tis in vain to tell me I am deceived, sung by Freeman. Great queen of Hymen's hallowed fires, sung by Mrs Willis. Why, Chloe, will you not perceive, the verse by John Robens and sung by Church. Why dost thou fly me, sung by Edwards and Mrs Cross. If mortals laugh and sing, sung by Freeman. The Songs were entered in the Term Catalogues, November 1696

Event Comment: Benefit for Holman. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. In IV a Grand Banquet. Morning Herald, 28 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Holman at his chambers, No. 14 John-street, Adelphi. "There is a deficiency in the length of [Holman's] upper lip that continually exposes his teeth to the audience...He has a method of hurrying over the latter part of a sentence, as if to give it more effect, but in reality destroys the intention and solemnity of the scene" (Candid Strictures,45-46). Receipts: #280 11s. 6d. (188.10.6; 3.16.0; tickets: 88.5.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Samuel Birch, based on James Powell's unacted play, The Narcotic, 1787; incidental music by Thomas Attwood (see 28 Nov.). Larpent MS 1182; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Chronicle, 30 Oct.]. Receipts: #309 19s. 6d. (222.7.6; 86.1.0; 1.11.0)