Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 14 Sept.: Mr Wilks, the celebrated Comedian...continues still so dangerously ill, that there is but little Hope of his Recovery

Event Comment: In a letter to the Daily Post. 4 June, the Patentees of Drury Lane-Mary Wilks, John Ellys, Hester Booth, and John Highmore-stated the cast of the Patentees. The gist of their statement is: (1) They operate under a Patent commencing 1 Sept. 1732 which, by Deaths and Legal Assignments, is the property of the four, with Highmore possessing one half, at an expence of #6,000 and upwards. (2) Several of the Players have threatened to desert the service of the Patentees and have contracted with some of the Trustees (the Sharers) to secure possession of the Theatre. (3) Drury Lane is let upon lease from the Duke of Bedford, granted to Thomas Kynaston and Francis Stanhope, Trustees for the Sharers (commonly called Renters) of Drury Lane at the rent of #50 annually upon a Fine of 1,000 guineas paid for the renewal of the lease. (4) The Players, under the Patentees, have acted at Drury Lane for twenty-one years without any interruption form the Trustees upon the sole contract that the Patentees pay the Trustees #3 12s. each acting night, besides the Liberty of seeing Plays. (5) At the beginning of this Season the manager's office received a letter from a few of the Renters demanding an Advance of Rent. Highmore, being new, was concerned, and asked the managers to take care of the matter; and thereafter the signers (the Patentees) had heard of no further discontent among the Renters. (6) To defend themselves against stories of hardship or complaint by the actors, the Patentees point out that the following weekly salaries had been paid: Colley Cibber #12 12s.; Theophilus Cibber #5; Mills Sr, #1 daily for 200 days certain, and a benefit, clear of all charges; Mills Jr #3; Johnson #5; Miller #5; Harper #4; Griffin #4; Shepard #3; Hallam, for himself and his father, the latter of little or no service, #3; Mrs Heron #5; Mrs Butler #3. For these charges and others, the Patentees stand a daily expence of #49 when the theatre is open. (7) Further, the Patentees paid Cibber Jr his wife's whole salary without her being able to act the greater part of the winter, #9 weekly for the two; Mills Jr, in the same circumstances with his wife, #5 10s. weekly for the two; Miller a salary (amounting to #40) for eight weeks before he acted, and a gratuity of ten guineas; Griffin a present of ten guineas; Harper a present, amount not specified; Mrs Heron an increase form 40s. to #5 weekly, although she refused afterward to play several parts assigned her and acted but seldom

Event Comment: Benefit Peploe, Little, Lee. By particular Desire of some Foreign Ministers. Tickets for Castles and Munro taken

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A New Farce of one Act. [By Robert Dodsley.] Prompter, 18 Feb.: This little Performance, without any Theatrical Merit whatsoever, received the loudest Applauses that I have heard this long while, only on Account of its General and Well-Adapted Satire on the Follies of Mankind

Event Comment: Benefit Topham, the English Sampson. [Tickets at Topham's, Corner of Little Bridges Street.]

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Hamilton, and the Little Chimney-Sweepers, her Sons. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality

Event Comment: Never Acted before. [By William Popple.] Grub St. Journal, 26 Feb. 1736: It was play'd the first night to about a 30l. house; three parts of which were the Author's friends, who came on purpose, right or wrong, to applaud it: notwithstanding which, little or no applause was given

Event Comment: Benefit Little [Gallery Boxkeeper, DL], who hopes to have the Honour of his Brethren the Free Masons

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve, London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 2 Oct.: Last Night in the Entertainment of Dr Faustus...when the Machine wherein were Harlequin, the Miller's Wife, the Miller and his the Miller's Man, was got up to the full Extent of its flying, one of the Wires which held up the hind part of the Car broke first, and then the other broke, and the Machine, and all the People in it fell down Upon the Stage; by which unhappy Accident the young Woman who personated the Miller's Wife had her Thigh broke, and her Kneepan shatter'd, and was otherways very much bruised, the Harlequin had his Head bruised, and his Wrist strained; the Miller broke his Arm; and the Miller's Man had his Scull so fractured that his Life in despaired of. Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 6 Oct.: Covent Garden has given me a sort of surfeit of Mr Rich and his cleverness, for I was at [cg] when the machine broke t'other night; the house was in amaze for above a minute, and I dare say a great many in the galleries thought it very desterously performed, and that they screamed as naturally as heart could wish, till they found it was no jest, by their calling for surgeons, of whom several luckily happened to be in the pit. I stayed to see the poor creatures brought out of the house, and pity poor Mrs Buchanan not a little, whom I saw put into a chair in such a fright that as she is big with child, I question whether it may not kill her.-Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, I, 113-14

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 7 Jan.: We are inform'd, that a certain Author, Tir'd With the vain Attempts he has often made in the Political Way, has taken it into his Head, as unwilling to lay down the Character of a Reformer, to explode the reigning Taste for dumb Shew and Machinery, and has declar'd open War against Harlequin, Punch, Pierot, and all the Modern Poets, viz. Joiners, Dancing-Masters, and Scene-Painters. 'Tis said, that he has dispos'd every Thing in such a manner, and is so forward in his Preparations, that he will open the Campaign next Week, having three new Pieces in Rehearsal on the Stage of the little Theatre in the Hay-Market. The Design is, no doubt, laudable, but the Chance of War is doubtful; he makes head against a powerful Alliance; and we do not hear that he is strengthen'd by any of the Auxiliaries of Parnassus

Event Comment: Benefit Haughton. Tickets at Haughton's, at the Wheatsheaf in Little Russel Street, cg. Daily Advertiser, 24 March: An Order having been sent to Mr Giffard, forbidding all Performances on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, Mr Haughton was oblig'd to defer his Benefit to this Day

Event Comment: Benefit the Author of the Farce. Afterpiece: a Farce. [Author not known.] Preface to edition of 1737: The Misrepresentation of this little Piece upon the Stage, and the proper Indifference with which it was received by the Audience, made it necessary, for my Reputation sake, to publish it with all convenient Expedition. My Friends, who had read the Thing, did not know it again, it was in so disastrous a Plight; and they that had not read it (from a Prepossession in my Favour) imputed its Aukwardness to the Mismanagement, or Incapacity of the Players

Event Comment: As 17 May. The Usefulness of the Stage (1738) stated (p. 18) that The Dragon of Wantley was acted at hay with little success and that the audience was dismissed on the third night [this night, presumably]

Event Comment: Benefit Allen, Gallery Officekeeper. Tickets for Walker, Rumbal, Hewett, Little, Fuller taken

Event Comment: DDaily Advertiser, 4 Oct.: The French Company of Comedians newly arriv'd from Paris, it's said, consists of seventy Persons. It seems to be a little unnatural that French Strollers should have a Superior Privilege to those of our own Country

Event Comment: LLondon Daily Post and General Advertiser, 13 April. Letter: Upon my Arrival in Town three Days ago, I was not a little surpriz'd, to find that Mr Handel's last Oratorio, (Israel in Egypt) which had been performed but once, was advertis'd to be for the last time on Wednesday....I was indeed concern'd, that so excellent a Work of so great a Genius was neglected, for tho' it was a Polite and attentive Audience, it was not large enough I doubt to encourage him in any future Attempt

Event Comment: Benefit Short. Mainpiece: Written by Colley Cibber, Esq; Poet Laureat. Afterpiece: Alter'd from Hob; or, The Country Wake. [Tickets at Short's House, Little Ormond Street, near Bedford-Row, Holborn.

Event Comment: A New Serenata. [Music by Giovanni Battista Pescetti.] Tickets half a guinea. 6 p.m. Mrs Pendarves to Lady Throckmorton, 28 Nov.: The concerts begin next Saturday at the Haymarket. Caristini sings, Peschetti composes; the house is made up into little boxes, like the playhouses abroad; Lord Middlesex is the chief undertaker, and I believe it will prove to his cost, for concerts will not do. --Delany, Autobiography, II, 66

Event Comment: At Hippisley's and Chapman's Great Theatrical Booth in the George-Inn Yard. Afterpiece: A new Comic Interlude. While the Booth is filling the Company will be entertained by the surprising little Posture-Boy, a Scholar of Mr Ferguson's, lately arrived from Paris. Books of the Droll will be sold in the Booth