Event Comment: Account-Book, 13 Feb.: Paid Macklin for 4 Nights Performance #126. Receipts: #241 14s. (236/0; 5/14)

Event Comment: MMrs Cibber to Garrick, late Jan.: It is surprising that dl goes on acting; one night with another, to be sure, they have not received above 40 pounds; the actors are paid only three nights a week; though they play every night. But the top stroke of all was Macklin's play! It was entirely new-dressed, and no expense saved in the clothes. I shall say nothing of the piece, because you may read it; but be as vain as you will about your playing Bayes, you never made an audience laugh more than Henry VII has done. There for the first time I saw your rival, Mr Goodfellow; I should have said the rival Mr Lacy wants to make you; do not be quite dispirited about it, for Perkin Warbeck is much below anything I ever yet saw. Here I must ask Mr Stevens's pardon, to whom I have done injustice, for I think he may dispute the pass downstairs with Perkin, and as his head seems to be the heaviest of the two, I think he has the best right to it.--Boaden, Private Correspondence of Garrick, I, 49

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years. By Permission of Mr Macklin. Oracle, 28 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 10, Great Russel-Street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #285 1s. 6d. (132.1.6; 2.3.0; tickets: 150.17.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Macklin. Receipts: #223 10s. 6d. (217.15.6; 5.15.0)

Event Comment: The Boxes are to be open'd into the Pit, where none are to be admitted but by printed Tickets, not exceeding four hundred in number, at Five Shillings a Ticket. [In Daily Courant, 20 Jan., the announcement had specified singing by Signora Joanna Maria Lindebleim, accompanied by Signor Sajoni.

Event Comment: Benefit Seigniora Maria Margarita Gallia. At 8 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Seigniora Maria Margarita Gallia. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. At 8 p.m

Event Comment: Part of Pit laid into Boxes. For Miss Macklin (Cross). Receipts: #250 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Macklin. Last time of Performing the Mainpiece this season. Afterpiece: Translated from the French by Macklin. Receipts: #190 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Macklin. Last time of performing till the Holidays. Part of Pit laid into Boxes. Receipts: #330 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. As 27 Nov. 1738. Tickets at Macklin's House, No. 12, Wild-Court, lif

Event Comment: Afterpiece alter'd from Beaumont & Fletcher (Cross) being a sequel to Catherine and Petruchio; or, The Taming of the Shrew (Public Advertiser). Benefit for Pritchard. Tickets of Pritchard in Great Queen St.; Lincoln's Inn Fields; and at Pritchard's Warehouse in Tavistock St. [The Larpent MS 133 lists the characters: Sophocles, Tranio, Maria, Bianca, Jaques, Petruchio, Petronius, Pedro, Citizens, Countrymen, Doctor, Apothecary, 1st Watch, 2nd Watch.] Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: Music of Afterpiece entirely new Composed by Dibdin. [An adaptation of Goldoni's Il Filosofo di Campagna.] Book of Songs to be had at Theatre (playbill). The Wedg R. a Comic Opera of Two Acts wrote & composed by Mr Dibdin. The Music very pretty--as the Author was kept a Secret The Town fancy'd that is one of Mr Bickerstaff & call'd out to know who was the Author. Mr Garrick inform'd them that he had no power to declare who the Author was but he could assure them that it was not Mr Bickerstaffs this did not Satisfy them at last Mr Dibdin went on & declard himself to be the Author & made an Affidavit of it & then the Farce went on with Applause (Hopkins Diary). [Account of The Wedding Ring in Westminster Magazine for Feb. 1773.] Paid #4 4s. for licensing The Wedding Ring and Alonzo (Treasurer's Book). [Maria Macklin, in a MS letter to her father, 3 Feb. 1773, commented fully on this night's performance: "Written as it was suppos'd by Bickerstaffe. The music by Dibdin. I went with a party into the Gallery to see the event as there was a great riot expected, & indeed never did I see an audience more inflamed. They would not suffer them to begin the piece. At last Mr King came on with a written paper in his hand, which he said he was desir'd to read in the name of the managers. After a great noise they let him read it. He said just before the play began the managers had receiv'd a letter from Mr Dibdin in which he declared that Bickerstaff was not the author of that piece, that he had made oath of it, and was ready to do the same again, but that for very particular reasons the author could not be given up. Then they stopp'd him & roar'd out that the author should be given up then. He continued as loud as he possibly could, reading on that 'but that if Mr Dibdin did not very soon given up the author he never should be suffered to appear again on that stage or any other.' Very luckily that turn'd them as I believe the House would have come down. The piece then began. Before the end of the first act one of Bannister's songs were encor'd. The other party were against it and would not let it go on. They all stood up and insisted that the author should be known then. After some time the house being nothing but confusion, Dibdin was push'd upon the stage ready to drop with fright, and declared that he was the author himself. Then they were as noisy the other way. Made them finish the piece, but how you may guess in a storm. It is like the Padlock, but the songs not so good." (Brander Matthews, Actors and Actresses, extra illustrated, Vol. I. Harvard Theatre Collection.). Westminster Magazine this month included in parallel columns flattering "Characters of Mr Garrick and Mr Colman," the Rival managers. The article especially praised Garrick's acting.] Receipts: #252 3s. 6d

Event Comment: Receipts: #200 7s. 6d. (Account Book). Mainpiece: With New Dresses and Decorations. [The first of a series of five performances (the last, Merchant of Venice, 18 Nov.) which got Macklin dismissed from the theatre until 1775, when his lawsuit against six persons whom he claimed formed a conspiracy to hiss him from the stage and ruin his livlihood was concluded favorably for him. His performance of Macbeth was favorably treated but with certain misgivings in the Morning Chronicle (25 Oct.), but he was mercilessly criticized in the London Evening Post and St James Chronicle: "In Act II, Sc. i, Shakespeare has made Macbeth murder Duncan; Now Mr Macklin, being determined to copy from no man, reversed this incident, and in the very first act, scene the second, murdered Macbeth." The favorable review (Morning Chronicle) thought he did well in first and last acts, but gave way to stage rant and "vehemence of energetic expression" wanting any variation in tone in between. It also pointed out a certain faulty memory of his lines. His novel stage effects came in for a paragraph of comment: The alterations in the jeux de theatre respecting the representation of this tragedy do Mr Macklin great credit. His change of the scenery is peculiarly characteristical. The Quadrangle of Macbeth's castle, and the door which is supposed to lead to Duncan's apartment (both of which are entirely new) are additions of consequence to the exhibition of the play. The door also through which Macbeth comes to the Weird Sisters, in the 4th act, is a better and more probable entrance than through the common stage portal. The dresses are new, elegant, and of a sort hitherto unknown to a London audience, but exceedingly proper. The Banquet was superbly set out, and it must be confessed that the managers seem to have spared neither cost nor assiduity to ornament and add to the effect of the representation." A favorable letter from a correspondent to the London Evening Post adds: "I must observe, Mr Printer, that from the graceful and characteristic manner in which Macbeth was introduced by the martial music and military procession, from the manner of M. Macklin's acting, from his judicious alteration of the dresses, the disposition of the scene where the King is killed, the cave of the witches in the 4th act, from the improvement of Mrs Hartley's thinking in Lady Macbeth and from her manner of speaking, which seemed plainly to be the effects of some intelligence she had received from Mr Macklin...I thought Mr Macklin deserv'd great praise." See the newspaper comments all gathered and reprinted in an Apology for the Conduct of Charles Macklin, (London, 1773). See also note to 30 Oct. See also London Chronicle, Oct. 23-26 (cf. Odell, I, 453). The Westminster Magazine suggests the performance was pitiable. "Macklin knew what he ought to do, but could not do it." The Scenemen's pay this week was about double the normal cost. (Account Book).] Verse Squibs from St James Chronicle (Oct. 1773) against Macklin: @Macbeth@"Eight Kings appear and pass over in order, and Banquo the last"@Old Quin, ere Fate suppressed his lab'ring breath@In studied accents grumbled out Macbeth:--@Next Garrick came, whose utt'rance truth impressed,@While ev'ry look the tyrant's guilt confess'd:--@Then the cold Sheridan half froze the part,@Yet what he lost by nature sav'd by art.@Tall Barry now advanc'd toward Birnam Woodv@Nor ill performed the scenes--he understood--@Grave Mossop next to Foris shaped his march@His words were minute guns, his action starch.@Rough Holland too--but pass his errors o'er@Nor blame the actor when the man's no more.@Then heavy Ross, assay'd the tragic frown,@But beef and pudding kept all meaning down:--@Next careless Smith, try'd on the Murd'rer's mask,@While o'er his tongue light tripp'd the hurried task:--@Hard Macklin, late, guilt's feelings strove to speak,@While sweats infernal drench'd his iron cheek;@Like Fielding's Kings [in Tom Thumb] his fancy'd triumphs past,@And all be boasts is, that he falls the last.@ Also from St James Chronicle:@The Witches, while living deluded Macbeth@And the Devil laid hold of his soul after death;@But to punish the Tyrant this would not content him,@So Macklin he sent on the stage to present him.

Event Comment: Benefit for Macklin. Afterpiece: A Comedy in 2 acts written by Foote, with Prologue and Epilogue by him. Miss Macklin did Calista and a part in the farce,-all went well (Cross). A Comedy in answer to the French Farce A Frenchman in London, with a Dialogue Prologue, spoken by Macklin & his wife. Epilogue spoken by Miss Macklin. All by Foote. Part of Pit laid into the boxes, with an amphitheatre on stage, all at 5s. Full Prices (Winston MS 8). The Englishman at Paris has been better recev'd that I expected. Garrick, &c., &c....say kinder things of it than modesty will permit me to repeat. Upon the whole it was damnably acted, Macklin miserably imperfect in the words and in the character (a stain to Comedy). You might have seen what I meant,--an English Buck, by the power of dulness instantaneously transformed into an Irish chairman. Miss Roach, accompany'd by some frippery French woman occupy'd, to the no small scandal of the whole house, the Prince's box, whilst the duchess of Bedford &c., &c. were oblig'd to take up with seats upon the stage. The piece will be printed the 25th instant, which I will enclose to you (Samuel Foote to Mr Delaval, MS in Folger Shakespeare Library, written either 24 March, or, perhaps more likely, 24 April, since Foote states later in the letter he is leaving for foreign parts the first of May)