Event Comment: MMr Reddish played Lord Townly, being his first appearance in London, --was well received and met with Applause, --but an indifferent figure, --will be useful (Hopkins MS Notes)

Event Comment: At 5 went into the Pit at Covent Garden to see Mrs Yates do Lady Townly. Yates is an excellent Sir Francis, but Powell does not shine in Lord Townly....The Entertainment was the new comedy in two acts called the Oxonian in Town, with a prologue by Woodward in the character of a student....It being suspected that a number of sharpers whose characters and practices are laid open in this piece, would attempt to damn it tonight (the 3rd of its being Performed) under pretence of its casting odium on the Irish, bills were dispersed in the House during the play vindicating it from any such intention. Woodward was allowed to speak the prologue, but as soon as the curtain drew up catcalls began. When the performers retired, Powell spoke several times, but was not heard. I was told that the author (Mr Colman) desires to know whom he has offended. The Pros were a very great majority, and at last after a contest of better than 1!2 an hour, the victory was over and the piece was performed. I think it contains many good sentiments, and excellent instruction to young men and is not unworthy of Mr Colman. If vice must not be exposed to hatred and contempt, the usefulness of our theatres is at an end. Only I think the Covent Garden pleasures are represented in too favourable a light. When all was over Powell came on the stage and thanked the audience for their generous protection (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #212 12s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: By Authority [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for the Westminster New Lying-In Hospital

Event Comment: By Permission [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for Mrs Jewell. The out-standing Tickets of Jewell's, for September the 2d, will be admitted

Event Comment: By Permission [of the Lord Chamberlain]. By Desire of the Most Noble Order of Bucks. Benefit for Griffith. [Author of Epilogue unknown.] Tickets delivered for November 22 and for The West Indian will be admitted. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15

Event Comment: ["The Lord Ogleby of (The Clandestine Marriage) raised Mr King to the summit of comic excellence, which his more recent great character, Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal, has established him in the unrivalled possession of" (Johnson, ed. Waldron, 169).] Receipts: #245 (211.9; 33.6; 0.5)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Everard. 1st piece [1st time; PREL 1, by Sarah Gardner. Larpent MS 1101; not published]. 2nd piece: Never acted here [acted 19 Aug. 1784]. [3rd piece: Prologue by Samuel Foote.] Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:15. Tickets to be had at No. 21, Carey-street, Lincoln's-Inn Fields; New Slaughter's Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane; of Adams, the Duke of Clarence Coffee-house, Haymarket; and of Everard, at Mr Shade's, Woburn-street, near Drury Lane Theatre

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; MD 3, by James Boaden]: With new Musick, Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Overture and Musick by Dr Arnold. The Scenery by Marinari, Rooker, &c. Morning Herald, 26 Aug. 1797: This Day is published The Italian Monk (2s.)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain, and also under the Patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Clarence. Benefit for Lee Lewes. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15. Tickets and Places for the Boxes to be had of Lee Lewes, at Mr Brough's, No. 18, Portland-street, Soho. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by James Fennell. Larpent MS 924; not published. Synopsis of plot in Morning Post, 8 Mar.]

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's house, and there saw The General revived--a good play, that pleases me well. The Travels of Cosmo the Third [4 May 1669 NS; 24 April 1699 OS]: [On 4 May and the two subsequent days His Highness received callers] and many of them remained to dine with his highness, who continued on each of these days his visits to the ladies, appearing at Hyde Park, at the comedies, sometimes at the king's theatre, sometimes at that of the duke's theatre (p. 195)

Event Comment: Nusquam hodie effugies, veniam quocumque vocaris. Rare Words. I wonder where he stole 'em. Swift. To begin at 7 p.m. Boxes 3s. Pit 2s. Gallery 1s. [A contest was in the making. This night Macklin advertised at his Great Room in Hart St.; At the request of most of the Wits, Witlings, Scorners, Laughers, Jokers, Sneers, and other Choice Spirits of this Metropolis...will come on before the Inquisitor General, the Trial of the egregius Sam. Smatter, alias Woud'be, alias Mimic, alias Buffon, alias Critt, alias Wit, alias Beau, alias fine Gentleman, and vulgarly call'd Esquire, for a public cheat and Imposter. The whole public are summoned to be on the Jury. Common Sense their Forman. Nusquam hodie effugies, veniam quocumque vagaris. Rare words, I wonder where he stole 'em. Swift. Out of Mr--'s Portmanteau; the particulars of which Sam Smatter can inform any person of who shall ask him that favour."

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time: CO 3, by John Burgoyne, based on Silvain, by Jean Francois Marmontel]: With entirely new Music [by William Jackson], Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Scenery designed by DeLoutherbourg, and executed under his direction. Public Advertiser, 3 Apr. 1781: This Day is published The Lord of the Manor (price not listed). Receipts: #226 19s. (216.15; 9.16; 0.8)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. [Author of Address unknown.] 1st piece: By the Author of Love in a Village, &c. [Isaac Bickerstaffe]; not acted these 16 years [1st acted at DL, 24 Nov. 1770], by Veterans of the Stage. 2nd piece: By the late Samuel Foote, Esq. 3rd piece: By Garrick; not acted these 12 years. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00

Event Comment: [By George Granville, Lord Lansdowne. Date of premiere unknown. Published by 19-23 Jan.

Event Comment: As alter'd from Shakespear by the Lord Lansdown. Receipts: #14 8s. 6d

Event Comment: Edward Gower to Sir R. Leveson, 20 Nov. 1660: Yesternight the King, Queen, Princess, &c. supped at the Duke of Albemarle's, where they had the Silent Woman acted in the cockpit (HMC, 5th Report, 1876, p. 200). The King's Company. Pepys, Diary, 20 Nov. 1660: This morning I found my Lord in bed late, he having been with the King, Queen, and Princess, at the cockpit all night, where General Monk treated them; and after supper a play, where the King did put a great affront upon John? Singleton's musique, he bidding them stop and bade the French musique play, which, my Lord says, do much outdo all ours. The prologue was printed in 1660: The Prologue to His Majesty at the first Play presented at the cock-pit in Whitehall, Being part of that Noble Entertainment which Their Majesties received Novemb. 19. from his Grace the Duke of Albemarle. [The Prologue has been reprinted by Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 11-12. Bodleian Wood 398 has a MS note: By Sir Jo. Denham.

Event Comment: On this date General Monk and the Council of State issued an order forbidding stage plays. (See Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 196, and The Diurnal of Thomas Rugg, ed. Sachse, pp. 61, 67.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular desire. Afterpiece: Never Acted Before. [The Farce by Fielding is a sequel to The Virgin Unmasked.] Forbidden soon by the Lord Chamberlain. It being supposed that a particular man of quality was pointed at in one of the characters. The prohibition short of duration (Genest, III, 652). See A Letter to a Noble Lord to whom it alone belongs, occasioned by a representation at Drury Lane of a Farce call'd Miss Lucy in Town (1742), [a 20 page pamphlet criticizing the Lord Chamberlain for allowing this farce. Author gives a scene by scene account emphasizing the bawdry and discounting the pious conclusion. He concludes with remarks on theatrical dancing]: As to Dances, I think your province of prohibition does not extend; so the Public cannot owe their gratitude to you for several. I appeal to those who have been on the coast of Malabar and the banks of the Ganges whether we have not had some that have exceeded on posture, or anything of that kind so common amongst the polite Indians of Indostan. Afterpiece: Mrs Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard Amorevoli intolerably (H. Walpole to H. Mann, 26 May).-Horace Walpole Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, I, 435. Receipts: #70

Event Comment: Tragedy never acted. By James Thomson. Characters New Dress'd. But as it is rather more fashionable to run mad about Mr Thomsons's play, I will change my theme and talk to you of Tancred. I want much to know how you like it, at this distance I would lay any wager you do not like it so well as your sister does, who certainly cannot be your sister and not have been to see it long ago. Everybody agrees that no play was ever so much improved in acting, at least since the Booths and Bettertons. That first scene expecially, where Siffredi discovers to Tancred who he is, pleased me almost beyond anything I ever saw, indeed even before I saw it, that scene was my favourite. But what do you think of the story, and what of the style?-A Series of Letters between Mrs Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot, I, 60 (dated strangely 2 March). [On 26 April, the Daily Post published a letter by Bellario on Tancred and Sigismunda, discussing the kind of support it received]: A very remarkable new Lord of the Treasury was proud of appearing its Foster Father, and attended at the public rehearsals; the first night of the performance this celebrated person and his friends in the Box with him (all very lately most flaming Patriots) were seen clapping their hands at the following remarkable speech: First of You All...To Quit Mistakes. [The letter also discussed political aspects of the play, then the poetry of the lines. The author heard that three hundred lines were cut out after the first performance, and was of opinion that double that amount would have been beneficial.