Event Comment: Benefit for White. Charges #60. Deficit to White #31, covered by #102 19s. from tickets. Mrs Elrington who play'd Lady Froth Thursday night granted #5 5s. Receipts: #29

Event Comment: A New Comic Opera of Two Acts written by Mr Bate--Much hissing and Crying out no more no more!--Mr Reddish was desired to give out the Play as soon as Matilda was over--but he with his usual politeness ran up and undress'd himself as fast as he could so that the play was not given out till the End of the Farce as soon as the Blackamoor was given out for the next Night they kept a great Noise and call'd for another Farce to be given out--at length they began to be more appeas'd and went away vowing Vengeance on it the next Night (Hopkins Diary). The Overture and Music of the afterpiece entirely New. Books of the Songs &c. to be had at the Theatre. New Scenes, Dresses, &c. [This is Larpent MS 400. Sir Oliver Oddfish distrusts his servants and is about to replace them with blacks, giving his nephew the chance to introduce Frederick , his daughter Julia 's lover, in disguise as a blackamoor, and to effect an elopement. Act I criticizes Londoners and concludes with the comment, "O that I should ever live to see the day when white Englishmen must give place to foreign blacks." MacMillan's note from Kemble differs slightly.] Paid the late Mr Johnston's bill to his executors #44 18s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [Afterpiece reviewed in three columns in the Westminster Magazine for Feb. Reviewer thought it had been produced well in all departments, music, scenery, costume, and acting, but concluded it a theatrical trifle giving not much credit to its author.] Receipts: #166 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs White, Mrs Carter, Mrs Hanson, Mrs Pack. Tickets for Sir Walter Raleigh taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Marten and White (Treasurer). Afterpiece: A farce in Two Acts [Anonymous] never acted there before. [See 14 Jan. 1743, at lif.

Event Comment: Benefit for White & Mrs Baker

Event Comment: MMr Woodward has enter'd into partnership with Mr Barry in a new Theater in Ireland & has taken from us Mr Walker and Wife (Miss Minors that was) Mr Vernon, Mr Jefferson and Wife-from Mr Rich, Mr Arthur, Mr White, Mr Chambers, Mr Finny (his Scene-man) & others (Cross). Receipts: #120 (Cross); #128 15s. (Winston MS 8). Places for Boxes to be had of Mr Varney at the stage door. No admittance behind scenes, nor any money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. [This notice regularly occurs at foot of bill and will not be noted further this season. The box receipts recorded from Winston MS 8 seem to have been taken by him from the Huntington Library playbills (second set) annotated by J. P. Kemble from a Treasurer's Book.] Letter to Mr G@k on Opening of the Theatre, With Observations on Managers, Actors, Authors, and their Audiences and Particularly New Performers. 6d. Published by Cooke opposite Drury Lane Theatre. [It is a plea for more frequent appearances of Garrick, especially in lighter parts, now that Woodward has left; for especially good plays on Saturday nights; for striking from the repertoire all immoral, immodest and cruel plays; for being a sport about competition with Rich; for better regulation of the boxes, on a first-come, first-pay basis; for training up the most promising young actors gradually and not casting them in parts beyond their reaches; for more new plays; and for an advisory council in selecting them; for omission of personal satirical attacks in comedy.

Event Comment: Benefit for Younger. Tickets deliver'd by Miss Helme, Mrs Stephens, White, and Gardner will be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Tickets and places to be had of Sarjant at the stage door. None admitted behind the Scenes

Event Comment: Benefit White and Wilmer, Boxkeepers

Event Comment: Benefit for White, Treasurer. No building on stage. Particular care will be taken to prevent any tickets sold at the doors of the theatre being admitted

Event Comment: Benefit for ye Middlesex Hospital. Part of Pit laid into Boxes. Tickets to be had at Mr John Horne's, Treasurer of the Hospital, in Market St., near Newport Market; At Tom's Coffee House, Cornhill; The White Hart Tavern, Holborn; The Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden; Berkeley Square Coffee House; at the Hospital, and of Varney at the Theatre, where places may be taken. Receipts: #280 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Roberts. Receipts: #33 17s. 6d. Charges: #80. Deficiency covered by income from tickets, #115 9s. Two New Renters came in a 1 share each: Mrs Tabitha Mendez, and Mrs Susan White. [This addition brought the total of New Renters' shares to 50, which equalled the holdings of the Old Renters] (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [altered by John Philip Kemble]: With new Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, and Machinery. In Act I, at the opening will be introduced, for the First Time a Battle between the Macedonians and the Persians. In Act IV, the Royal Banquet. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] The Scenes designed and painted by Marinari. The Dresses and Decorations by Johnston and Miss Rein. The Machinery by Cabanel. "[In the last scene] the expiring tone with which [Kemble] pronounces 'Cover me'; his shivering, when wrapt round in the imperial robes; his wan and wasted countenance; the manner of his labouriously drawing his legs together, and their aguish knocking when they meet, surpass all description" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1796, p. 180). Receipts: #375 2s. 6d. (306.14.6; 67.3.0; 1.5.0)

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 Ray, F. Shepard, Rogers, Green, Master Brooks, Miss Morrison. Tickets for the Misses Scott also taken

Event Comment: Tickets delivered for this Evening [Account-Book: by Brady, Dale, the D'Egvilles, Jones, Lyons, Powell, Sherratt, Smith, Whittow, Mrs Heard, Mrs Haskey, Mrs Mills, Miss Palmer, Mrs Shaw] will be admitted. [Miss Davies's 1st appearance, billed as "A Young Lady," was at the hay, 28 July 1786.] Receipts: #279 12s. 6d. (16.1.0; 10.8.6; 0.6.0; tickets: 252.17.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Hilliard. Tickets of Miss Hilliard at Mr Pervil's, Auctioneer, upper end of Bow St., Covent Garden; and of Sarjant at the Stage Door of the Theatre, where places for Boxes may be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Receipts: #24 2s. 6d. in cash. Charges #64 5s. Deficit to Miss Hilliard #40 0s. 6d., coverd by income from tickets #79 17s. (Boxes 101; Pit 278; Gallery 129). Paid for 7 doz. wax candles at 24s. per dozen #8 8s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. Tickets delivered by the young D'Egvilles, Jones, Newbold, Shaw, Dale, Purser Sen., Smith, Aberdein, Mills, Miss Tidswell, Mrs Heard, Miss Dancer, Miss Bradshaw, Mrs Haskey, will be admitted. Receipts: #241 8s. 6d. (23.4.0; 15.3.6; 0.15.0; tickets: 202.6.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. [This was the version, altered probably by Joseph George Holman, in which he appeared in Dublin on 29 July 1794, on which occasion the playbill reads, "Dressed in the Habits of the Times, and with other Alterations, adopted in its Representations 19 [recte 11] Nights last Winter, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden." It further states that the part of Ophelia would be performed "without the Airs, and with a considerable Restoration of the Text." No record of what these alterations consisted of has come to light. In III.iv Hamlet's father was represented by a life-sized portrait that hung over the chimney, and the Queen wore a large miniature of Claudius on her arm as a bracelet (London Chronicle, 10 Oct.). The words of the Dirge are printed in European Magazine, Nov. 1793, p. 393; they are stanza X of Shakespeare's Passionate Pilgrim. Miss Poole had appeared as a singer at king's and at Vauxhall in 1787 and at the cg oratories in 1791.] Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [and in place of The Prisoner at Large, advertised on playbill of 8 Oct.]. Receipts: #332 4s. (330.3; 2.1)

Event Comment: Benefit the Two Sisters, Miss Robinson the Dancer, and Miss Robinson, Captain of the Lilliputians. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality