Event Comment: Benefit for Hopkins, prompter, and Mrs Hopkins. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Afterpiece: A Dramatic Entertainment (in two parts) of Singing, Dancing and Dialogue in Honour of Shakespeare. In which a Pageant. The Music by Dibdin. Public Advertiser, 10 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Hopkins, No. 7, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #280 7s. (169.5; 21.0; 1.2; tickets: 89.0) (charge: #64 4s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dunstall. Morning Chronicle, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Dunstall, Little Queen-street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Receipts: #237 3s. 6d. (79.15.6; tickets: 157.8.0) [charge: #64 5s.)

Event Comment: Tickets delivered by Messink and Miss Reynolds for The Orphan will be admitted this Evening. [Afterpiece in place of The Little French Lawyer, announced on playbill of 29 Apr.] Receipts: #139 2s. (121.0; 3.0; tickets: 15.2)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Miss Hopkins'. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2 (?), by Thomas Holcroft. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: The Music [by William Shield (European Magazine, Jan. 1782, p.59)] entirely new. Public Advertiser, 15 Apr. Tickets to be had of the Miss Hopkins', No. 7, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #129 8s. 6d. (61.15.0; 24.5.6; 0.1.0; tickets: 43.7.0) (charge: #66 11s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Waldron and Miss Abrams. Public Advertiser, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Waldron, No. 16, Glanville-street, Rathbone Place; of Miss Abrams, Little Bridges-street, Drury-lane. Receipts: #182 0s. 6d. [63.6.0; 23.15.0; 0.2.6; tickets: 94.17.0) (charge: #74 3s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wright, Carpenter & Butler. Public Advertiser, 5 May: Tickets to be had of Carpenter at Sutton's, No. 11, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden; of Butler, next Door to the Theatre. Receipts: #283 15s. 6d. (42.2.0; 7.2.6; 0.2.0; tickets: 234.9.0) (charge: #74 14s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw, Mrs Love & Mrs Johnston. Tickets delivered for The Plain Dealer will be taken. Public Advertiser, 13 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Bradshaw at Mrs Norolk's, Glazier, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden; of Mrs Love, Gerrard-street, Soho; of Mrs Johnston, No. 97, Drury-lane. Receipts: #132 16s. (32.3; 20.13; 1.4; tickets: 78.16) (charge: #65 15s.)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; CO I, by Charles Dibdin, based on Rose et Colas, by Michel Jean Sedaine]. 3rd piece [1st time; CO I, by Charles Dibdin, based on Les Femmes Vengees, by Michel Jean Sedaine]: With new Scenery [Public Advertiser, 19 Sept.: by Richards] and Decorations. Both the Musical Pieces, with new Overtures, composed by Dibdin. Books of the new Musical Pieces to be had at the Theatre. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage Door. No Money to be taken at the Stage Door, nor any Money to be returned after the Curtain is drawn up. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 21 Sept.]. Public Advertiser, 18 Sept.: This Afternoon at Three will be published Rose and Colin and The Wives Revenged (each 6d.). "At this season of the year the little company upon the Ton, who are in town, seldom rise from the table till after the beginning of the play; in order, therefore, to obviate the disturbance that the fracas in the boxes usually makes towards the close of the first act, or the beginning of the second, this comic opera [Rose and Colin] was prefaced. It at the same time affords these late comers an opportunity of seeing the play [i.e. the mainpiece] complete" (Town and Country Magazine, Sept. 1778, p.453)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pope. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by James Cobb, based on La Fausse Suivante; ou, Le Fourbe Puni, by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux. Prologue by the author (Knapp, 117). Larpent MS 476; not published. In 1780 this was acted at the hay as The Female Captain]. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Public Advertiser, 15 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Miss Pope, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #202 10s. (54.14; 17.6; 1.12; tickets: 128.18) (charge: #65 17s. 2d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hopkins, prompter, and Mrs Hopkins. Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years [acted 18 Feb. 1773]. Afterpiece: A Dramatic Entertainment (in 2 parts) of Singing, Dancing and Dialogue. In Honour of Shakespeare. In which will be introduced a Pageant. The Music by Dibdin. Public Advertiser, 27 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Hopkins, No. 7, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #229 9s. (129.14; 30.18; 2.10; tickets: 66.7) (charge: #64 4s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Farren and Miss Sherry. Tickets delivered by Bidwell, Mrs Pulley, and for The Way of the World will be taken. Public Advertiser, 29 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Farren, No. 14, Catherine Street, Strand; of Miss Sherry, No. 2, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #214 13s. (39.8.0; 15.17.6; 0.12.6; tickets: 158.15.0) (charge: #69 3s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Waldron and Miss Abrams. Morning Chronicle, 6 May: Tickets to be had of Waldron, No. 16, Glanville-street, Rathbone Place; of Miss Abrams, Little Bridges-street. Receipts: #138 5s. (50.10; 22.17; 0.9; tickets: 64.9) (charge: #71 4s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pope. Public Advertiser, II Mar.: Tickets to be had of Miss Pope, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #276 13s. (110.10.0; 12.4.6; 0.17.6; tickets: 153.1.0) (charge: #74 14s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hopkins, prompter, and Mrs Hopkins. Afterpiece: In honour of Shakespeare; in which will be introduced a grand Pageant, the music by Dibdin. Public Advertiser, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Hopkins, No. 7, Little Russel Street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #205 9s. 6d. (122.5.0; 34.17.6; 1.16.0; tickets: 46.11.0) (charge: #64 4s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. Mainpiece: With the Grand Triumphal Entry. 2nd piece [1st time; INT I, probably by Robert Baddeley]: Baddeley, in the character of Moses in The School For Scandal, will present the Audience with a specimen of Jewish Education in a series of Instructions to his son Shadrach. Public Advertiser, 13 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 4, Little Russel Street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #246 13s. (178.10; 30.11; 0.17; tickets: 36.15) (charge: #79 4s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Sherry and Miss Wright. Tickets delivered by Daglish will be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Public Advertiser, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Sherry, No. 2, Little Russel Street, Covent Garden; of Miss Wright, No. 54, Drury-lane. Receipts: #257 15s. (48.9.0; 10.8.6; 0.11.6; tickets: 198.6.0) (charge: #89 5s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Colles, Miss Abrams & Miss Kirby. Public Advertiser, 4 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Colles at Smith's No. 10, Bow-street, the corner of Martlet Court, Covent Garden; of Miss Abrams, Little Bridges Street, Covent Garden; of Miss Kirby at Andrews's, No. 70, Long Acre. Receipts: #203 7s. (28.1; 14.16; 1.11; tickets: 158.19) (charge: #90 2s. 6d.)

Event Comment: "Henderson's Iago was perhaps the crown of all his serious achievements. It was all profoundly intellectual like the character. Any thing near this, I have never seen...The most perplexing difficulty in the [character] is to turn the inside of design outward to the spectators, and yet externally seem to be cordial and sincere and interesting among the victims-it demands an instant versatility, that yet must not savour of trick. You must hear his insinuations with curses, and yet confess that you also would have been deceived. Other Iagos were to be seen through at once...Though a studious man, there was no discipline apparent in the art of Henderson; he moved and looked as humour or passion required...[He] cared little about the measure of the line; he would not consider the fame of the versifier while the heart was to be struck' (Boaden, Siddons, II, 28-29, 49). Receipts: #149 18s. (146.9; 3.9)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. Public Advertiser, 21 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 2, Little Russell-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #165 14s. 6d. (85.14.0; 25.10.0; 0.3.6; tickets: 54.7.0) (charge: #108 14s. 11d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. Public Advertiser, 13 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 2, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Mainpiece: The Music composed by Michael Arne. With a Grand Procession of the different Orders of the Knights of Chivalry. Receipts: #217 5s. (113/9; 35/8; 0/1; tickets: 68/7) (charge: #115 9s. 4d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Fawcett and Butler. Morning Herald, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Fawcett, Craven-buildings, Drury-lane; of Butler, next door to the stage-door, Little Russel-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #281 16s. 6d. (43/0/0; 8/1/6; 0/8/0; tickets: 230/7/0) (charge: #109 2s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Zuchelli, Delpini & the Miss Stageldoirs. Mainpiece: With Alterations [by Richard Brinsley Sheridan]. Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, author unknown]: The whole under the direction of Delpini and Zuchelli. The Music by the celebrated Chevalier Clough. An Historical Account of the Pantomime, with the Songs, may be had at the Theatre. Morning Herald, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Zuchelli, No. 81, Hay-market; Ibid, 30 Apr.: of the Miss Stageldoirs at their house, No. 26, Crown-street, Little Russel-street, Covent-garden [Delpini not listed]. Receipts: #226 13s. (67/7; 28/12; 0/3; tickets: 130/11) (charge: #120 16s. 9d.)

Event Comment: "I have been for two days in town, and seen Mrs Siddons . . . She is a good figure, handsome enough, though neither nose nor chin according to the Greek standard, beyond which both advance a good deal. Her hair is either red, or she has no objection to its being thought so, and had used red powder. Her voice is clear and good; but I thought she did not vary its modulations enough, nor ever approach enough to the familiar--but this may come when more habituated to the awe of the audience of the capital. Her action is proper, but with little variety; when without motion, her arms are not genteel ... I treated my eyes, not only with Mrs Siddons but a harlequin farce. But there again my ancient prejudices operated: how unlike the pantomimes of Rich, which were full of wit, and coherent, and carried on a story! What I now saw was Robinson Crusoe: how Aristotle and Bossu, had they ever written on pantomimes, would swear! It was a heap of contradictions and violations of the costume. Friday is turned into Harlequin, and falls down at an old man's feet that I took for Pantaloon, but they told me it was Friday's father. I said, 'Then it must be Thursday'" (Walpole [3 Nov. 1782], XII, 356-57, 359). Receipts: #241 6s. (222/4/0; 18/15/6; 0/6/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Hannah Cowley. Author of Prologue unknown. Epilogue by John O'Keeffe (O'KeefFe, II, 301); it included a song, music by Carter, When I was a little baby, written by Hannah Cowley]: New Scenes and Dresses. Public Advertiser, 26 Jan. 1784: This Day is published A Bold Stroke for A Husband (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #199 5s. 6d. (194/13/0; 4/12/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Baddeley. Public Advertiser, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Baddeley, No. 2, Little Russel-street, Covent Garden. Mainpiece: Written by Massinger. Receipts: #143 18s. 6d. (56/15/0; 21/6/6; 0/7/0; tickets: 65/10/0) (charge: #108 11s. 8d.)