Event Comment: For the Author of the Cunning Man. House charges #84. [Profit to author #92 2s.] Paid chorus singers 2 nights #5 1s. (Treasprer's Book). Receipts: #176 2s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Rec'd stopages #1 8s.; from John Palmer in part of his bond #70; Paid 5 days salary list #367 13s. 4d. Receipts: #173 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Went to the 2 shilling Gallery to see the new tragedy, with its musical entertainment The Cunning Man, a sort of translation of Rousseau's Devin du Village. Holland, Powell and Bensley played Warwick, Edward and Pembroke very well. Mrs Yates did great justice to Queen Margaret. Mrs Palmer did Elizabeth. The Prologue was spoken by Bensley, the Epilogue by Mrs Yates. The characters were very richly dressed in the dresses of the time. The improper use of ridiculous modern dresses on the stage often offends me (Diary of Sylas Neville, unpublished MS portion)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Neville MS Diary: I got a seat before the play began, which was the Jealous Wife, with the musical entertainment the Cunning Man. Oakly by Garrick...Never saw Garrick, Pritchard and Clive in Perfection before, & I think none of the characters were ill performed. Receipts: #246 11s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: An extra benefit for author of The Choleric Man (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #190 5s. 6d.; Charges: #84; Profits to author The Choleric Man: #106 5s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Watts. Mainpiece: Written by Mrs Centlivre; Not acted these 40 years [not acted since 27 Apr. 1731, at Goodman's Fields]. Prologue written by a Gentleman [unidentified; printed in Town and Country Magazine, Apr. 1784, p. 214. The playbill for this performance is as printed in Morning Chronicle, 8 Mar. Gazetteer, 8 Mar., assigns Captain Constant to Reynolds, Laura to Miss Beaufield, Maria to Mrs Green, Belinda to Miss Johnson]. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:30. Tickets to be had of Connolly, at the King's Head Tavern, Fenchurch-street; of Watts, No. 2, Upper James-street, Golden-square

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: My Lord Brouncker and I to the Duke of the York's playhouse, and there saw the latter part of The Master and the Man

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I carried [Mercer and Mrs Turner] to the Duke of York's house, and there saw The Man's the Master, which proves, upon my seeing it again, a very good play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This play is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 216. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. The date on the list seems to be "3," but as this is a Sunday, it is more likely "9." This performance may well be the one to which Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 31) refers: Note, Mr Cademan in this Play [The Man's the Master], not long after our Company began in Dorset-Garden; his Part being to Fight with Mr Harris, was Unfortunately, with a sharp Foil pierc'd near the Eye, which so Maim'd both the Hand and his Speech, that he can make little use of either; for which Mischance, he has receiv'd a Pension ever since 1673, being 35 Years a goe. [For a discussion of this accident, see William VanLennep, Henry Harris, Actor, Friend of Pepys, Studies in English Theatre History (London, 1952), p. 16, and the entry under 20 Aug. 1673.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Man of Mode. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348. Nell Gwyn also attended this performance. See VanLennep, Nell Gwyn's Playgoing, p. 407. It is uncertain whether this is the premiere, but the licensing date of 3 June 1676 suggests that the first production may have occurred at this time. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 36): This Comedy being well Cloath'd and well Acted, got a great deal of Money. One song, As Amoret with Phyllis sat, the words by Sir Car Scroope and the music by Nicholas Staggins, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Second Book, 1679; another, When first Amintas charmed my heart, the music by Staggins, is in the same collection, Fifth Book, 1684. John Dennis: I remember very well that upon the first acting this Comedy, it was generally believed to be an agreeable Representation of the Persons of Condition of both both Sexes, both in Court and Town; and that all the World was charm'd with Dorimont (A Defence of Sir Fopling Flutter, 1722, p. 18). For the full text of Dennis' discussion of this play, see The Critical Works of John Dennis, ed. E. N. Hooker (Baltimore, 1943), II, 241-50

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@142, p. 81: At the Man of Mode and Box for the Mayds of Honor. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 348

Event Comment: The Orphan announced, but by special Command Love Makes a Man was played. His Majesty present

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Porter. By Their Royal Highnesses' Command. [Theodosius advertized, but Booth's illness deferred it. Daily Courant lists The Man of Mode, but Rich's Register lists The Earl of Essex.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A new Burlesque Entertainment of Dancing. Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, 30 March: The Managers of Drury-lane Theatre observing how successful Lincoln's-Inn-Fields has been in several Entertainments, in which the Character of a Harlequin has the principal Part, were resolv'd to cut them out, and therefore prepared...Blind Man's Bluff, to be perform'd by no less than eight Harlequins; for, in their Way of Reasoning, eight Harlequins must divert much better than one; the Thing was so ridiculous there was no Musick to be heard but Hissing. [For an essay on the improvement of the stage, see Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, 16 March.

Event Comment: For a letter on The Man of Taste, see Daily Advertiser, 8 March

Event Comment: Benefit Mr DeVoto, Painter. Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 2s. First Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. At the particular Desire of several Gentlemen and Ladies we were obliged to change the play of the Orphan to Love Makes a Man. Tickets delivered out for the Orphan will be admitted tonight. [On 25 Jan. Devoto had announced The Orphan with the part of Monimia to be attempted by Mr. Devoto's Daughter, being the first Time of Her appearing on any Stage.

Event Comment: Benefit for Cibber. Mainpiece. Reviv'd, not acted these 4 years [see 1 March 1746]. Afterpiece: Taken from the French of Dancourt, a Ballad Opera, performed by particular desire. Tomorrow, The Jubilee, for Benefit of Mrs Horton. [Baker, Biographia Dramatica, lists the afterpiece as written by James Wilder, taken from Dancourt. Cibber had announced (General Advertiser, 27 Feb.) for his benefit The Man of Mode, with Pasquin, with Alterations. In which would be performed The Rehearsal of a Comedy call'd The Election; or, Bribes on Both Sides, by the Author of Tom Jones.

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: Some Hissing, tho' play'd Well-Garrick Kiteley &c. (Cross). Mainpiece: Written by Ben Johnson, never acted there. Characters Dress'd in the Old English@Manner. Receipts: #200 (Cross). We hear that His Majesty intended to go to the theatre Royal in Drury Lane this evening, to see the Comedy of Every Man in his Humour, wrote by Ben Johnson in 1598, acted the same year by the Lord Chamberlain's Servants, and dedicated to the great Mr Camden; and was reviv'd since the Revolution with Great Applause, having a new Epilogue spoken by Ben Johnson's Ghost , written by the late Earl of Dorset (Daily Advertiser)

Event Comment: This day is publish'd Every Man in His Humour, a Comedy written by Ben Johnson, with Alterations and Additions (as it was performed at Drury Lane). Printed for J. and R. Tonson in the Strand. Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: Dined at Dolly's, Saw Every Man in His Humour...I see as well with my glass in the 1st Gallery, as in the Pit without it, particularly when only one or two principal characters appear at a time (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #111 7s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Ninth Day. For the Author. Charges #67 15s. Balance to Goldsmith #98. Paid Dr Goldsmith the balances of his 1st and 2nd nights for The Good Natured Man #145 12s. 6d. #96 15s. (Account Book). Receipts: #165 15s. (Account Book)