Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Tragedy [by Joseph Cradock] never performed. The Music composed by Mr Fisher. Words of the Epithalamium to be had at the Theatre. Paid Palmer (wax chandler) #140; Paid Buxton & Enderby (oyl merchants) #136 3s. (Account Book). Receipts: #220 16s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Woodward. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Afterpiece : A New Farce [by Joseph Reed] from a Story in Gil Blas, never perform'd (Larpent MS 409). Tickets deliver'd for the Double Gallant will be taken. [The Westminster Magazine for March lists Alguazil-Thompson; Alphonso-Lewis; Inis-$Mrs Willems, tells the story for the play, and concludes: "The story is professedly taken from Gil Blas, and although we cannot pay the Dramatist any great compliment either on his diction, the management of his fable, the sublimity of his allusions, or in a word, on the excellence of his tout ensemble; it would be unjust were we not to say, that the farce provok'd most hearty peals of laughter; it may therefore serve as well as any other such Bartholomew-fair-like droll for a heel-piece to the performance on a benefit night."

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer. Mainpiece [1st time; C 3, by George Colman, the elder, altered from The Mutual Deception, by Joseph Atkinson, which was based on Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard, by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, and 1st acted at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 2 Mar. 1785. Prologue by the author (.European Magazine, Sept. 1786, p. 166). Author of Epilogue unknown]. Afterpiece: Never acted at this Theatre. [Prologue and Epilogue by David Garrick.] "This play, originally French, was translated by an Officer (the plot of which may be found in The Man's the Master, as well as in many other English plays and farces) who, with some few additions, changed it into five acts, and called it The Mutual Deception (which is now in print), but was represented in Ireland with little or no success. This Comedy, however, has undergone many very masterly alterations, and received many additions by the able hand of the attentive Manager of this Theatre" (Public Advertiser, 30 Aug.). Public Advertiser, 6 May 1788: To be published May 7, Tit for Tat (1s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wild. 1st Piece: 1st Time at this Theatre, and with Permission of G. Colman, Esq. [owner of the copyright]; written by Joseph Atkinson, Esq. [i.e. altered from his The Mutual Deception (see hay, 29 Aug. 1786)]. 2nd piece: Not acted these 2 years. 3rd piece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 23 May 1783]. Receipts: #225 0s. 6d. (113.0.6; 5.5.0; tickets: 106.15.0)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; INT 1 by Francis Godolphin Waldron): Altered from THE FATAL EXTRAVAGANCE of [Joseph] Mitchell and Aaron Hill. "I went on Monday evening with Mrs Darner to the Little Haymarket, to see The Children in the Wood, having heard so much of my favourite, young Bannister, in that new piece; which, by the way, is well arranged, and near being fine. He more than answered my expectation, and all I had heard of him. It was one of the most admirable performances I ever saw: his transports of despair and joy are incomparable, and his various countenances would be adequate to the pencil of Salvator Rosa. He made me shed as many tears as I suppose the original old ballad did when I was six years old. Bannister's merit was the more striking, as, before The Children in the Wood, he had been playing the sailor in No Song No Supper, with equal nature" (Walpole [4 Dec. 1793], XV, 266-67)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Joseph Berington, altered from the same, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. MS: Larpent MS 1041; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Herald, 30 Oct. It has hitherto been assumed that this play was altered by Benjamin Thompson, but "This Tragedy was translated from the German by the Rev. Jos. Berrington [sic]" (Kemble Mem.). Dr. Berington's authorship is also referred to in London Chronicle, 30 Oct. 1794. Thompson's translation was published by Vernor and Hood in 1800. Prologue by Richard Cumberland. Epilogue by George Colman, ynger (London Chronicle, 29 Oct.)]: The Dresses, Scenes and Decorations are entirely new. The Scenery in the four first Acts is the work of Signor Barzago and of his Brother; and in the fifth of Greenwood, by whom also a new Frontispiece is designed and executed. [Miss Miller, who had appeared the previous season as a chorus singer, is identified in European Magazine, Nov. 1794, p. 363.] The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 20 Apr. 1795]. Powell: Emilia Galotti rehearsed at 10. The New Frontispiece and Stage doors were exhibited for the first Time this Evening. Receipts: #317 19s. 6d. (270.8.6; 46.5.0; 1.6.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time: CO 3, by Joseph George Holman. Text: George Cawthorn, 1796]: The new Music composed by Shield. The Selections from Gretry, Giornovichi, Jackson, and Mahon. The new Scenery painted by Richards. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Oracle, 7 Dec. 1796: Tomorrow will be published Abroad and at Home (2s.). Receipts: #220 9s. (219.2; 1.7)

Event Comment: Benefit for Holman. 2nd piece [1st time; D 5, by Joseph Trapp, adapted from Siri Brahe; oder, Die Neugierigen, by J. A. Gruttschreiber, itself a translation of Siri Brahe, by Gustavus III. Larpent MS 1206; not published. Prologue and Epilogue by John Taylor (Poems, I, 56-57)]: Written by the Late King of Sweden. Times, 28 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Holman, No. 73, New-street, Hanover-square. Receipts: #231 16s. (138.12.0; 4.10.6; tickets: 88.13.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Joseph George Holman. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald; Epilogue by John Taylor (see text)]: With new Dresses, Scenery, &c. [Afterpiece in place of The Farmer, advertised on playbill of 11 Jan.] Morning Chronicle, 26 Mar. 1799: This Day is published The Votary of Wealth (2s.). Receipts: #326 10s. 6d. (321.2.6; 5.8.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Joseph George Holman]: The Overture and the whold of the Musick by Davy. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Miss Wheatley was from cg.] Morning Chronicle, 20 Aug. 1800: This day at twelve o'clock is published What a Blunder! (2s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 2nd piece [1st time; O 1, by John Wolcot. Larpent MS 770; not published]: Being a Translation from the French Opera of that name [Nina; ou, La Folle par Amour, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres], now performing at Paris with universal applause. With the original Music [by Nicolas Dalayrac, adapted by William Shield and William Thomas Parke. Two other versions of this opera, both unacted, were published this year: one anonymous, and one by George Monck Berkeley]. Receipts: #300 8s. 6d. (150.0.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 147.10.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by Prince Hoare, adapted from Camille; ou, Le Souterrain, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres]: The Musick entirely new by Dussek [and Kelly]. With new Scenery [by Marinari (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1798, p. 309)], Dresses, and Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 7 May 1799: On May 9 will be published The Captive of Spilburg (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #209 6s. 6d. (108.10.6; 99.19.6; 0.16.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Samuel Birch, adapted from Camille; ou, Le Souterrain, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres, and from Les Victimes Cloitrees, by Jacques Marie Boutet de Monvel; the songs written by Thomas John Dibdin. Larpent MS 1236; not published. The playbill states that this was "Taken from the German," but London Chronicle, 12 Dec., says that its source is the same as that of The Captive of Spilburg (see dl, 14 Nov.). An examination of the MSS of these two pieces (Larpent 1230 and 1236) proves that such is unmistakably the case]: With entire new Scenes, Machinery, Dresses & Decorations. The Music composed and selected by Steibelt and Attwood. The Action of the Chorusaes, Finales, &c. under the Direction of Farley, and the Action of the Overture by Bologna Jun. A new Descriptive Overture, composed by Steibelt, on a Plan never before introduced on the English Stage, accompanied by Action. "The overture is...nothing more than music adapted to pantomime; and, in the present instance, the dumb shew is an unnecessary anticipation of the procession with which the piece opens" (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1798, p. 369). The Scenery painted by Richards, Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, Blackmore, &c. The Dresses by Dick and Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #338 17s. 6d. (325.14.6; 13.3.0)

Event Comment: A New Comedy never acted Before. [By John Stevens.] Formula as 15 April. Prices 2s., 1s. [Published in 1745 by John Stevens, with the announcement As it was acted Gratis, at the New Theatre at the Haymarket, By a Company of Gentlemen for Diversion. No record of such a production has been found.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: a new Comic Sketch [by G. A. Stevens], music by Dibdin

Event Comment: [The Singing, a Musical Interlude by G. A. Stevens, comprising a song and dance of sailors. Popular on Declaration of war with Spain (Biographia Dramatica).] Mainpiece: Not performed in two years. [See 29 April 1760.

Event Comment: Benefit for Sedgwick. 3rd piece: Not acted these 20 years [never previously acted at this theatre]. Written and composed by Harry Carey, with Alterations and new Accompaniments to the original Music, and several new Airs composed by Shield, Reeve and Stevens. Receipts: #123 2s. 6d. (31.3.0; 11.13.0; 0.14.6; tickets: 76.12.0) (charge: #106 18s. 5d.)