Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Particular Desire. Mrs Arne being ill, Miss Radley made her First appearance on this stage in Leonora in the Padlock, and was well received (Hopkins Diary)

Event Comment: JJane Shore for the 1st time by Miss Younge--so, so--spoke much too low.--Mrs Barry was very well in Alicia (Hopkins Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pope

Event Comment: Benefit for Smith. Part of Pit laid into Boxes. To prevent confusion Servants are desired to be at the theatre by 4 o'clock. Charges #73 19s. Balance to Smith #62 3s. plus income from tickets #141 9s. (Box 413; Pit 162; Gallery 139). Paid Miss Potts for walking 12 nights in Man and Wife #1 10s. and Mrs Morris for walking 26 nights in Harlequin's Jubilee #3 5s. (Account Book). Receipts: #136 2s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Younge. Tickets deliver'd for The Double Gallant will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Hartry and Miss Burton

Event Comment: Benefit for House. Tickets Miss Platt, &c. (Cross Diary)

Event Comment: [Duke of York-$Miss Besford in Public Advertiser.] Afterpiece: By Particular Desire

Event Comment: Several of the songs dew-set by Mr Fisher. [The Tete-a-Tete in the Town and Country Magazine for this month (pp. 569-70) tells of Miss Catley's affair with Col. Lascelles. Her father a hackney coachman, her mother a washerwoman. She met Lascelles in Dublin where she was playing in Mossop's theatre, and condescended to live with him.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Ballad Farce, never performed there, written by Fielding. New Music by Dr Arne. [This is Fielding's Miss Lucy in Town under a new title (Biographica Dramatica).

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss D'Arcy

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Cantrell. Price 2s

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Drury Lane--New Painted and Decorated. Miss Pope's good acting is said to have made up for her deficiency in singing (Genest, V, 314). On Sept. 19 Fisher, Musician, married the widow of the late Powell, Patentee of cg (Winston MS 10). Rec'd Mrs Johnston's 1 year's rent to Lady Day Last #6; Paid Mr French on Acct per order Mr G. G. #20. Paid Renters #8. [This payment occurs each playing night throughout the season, and is not noted further.] The total amounted to #1576 (Drury Lane Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #188 15s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mr Barry being Ill Mr Reddish play'd Bajazet (not the thing) Miss Hayward Shamefully imperfect in Selima (Hopkins). Paid 8 extra trumpets 6 nights (this incl.) #18 (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #241 18s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Jacobs, Griffith, Mrs Cross and Mrs Millidge. Paid Master Thomson 11 nights (23rd Inst. incl.) #2 15s.; Black Lyon Bill #3 19s. 2d. (Treasurer's Book). Tickets deliver'd for Benefit of Follett, Mas. Cape, Costin and Miss Berkly will be taken. Receipts: #233 18s. 6d. Charges: #74 14s. Profits to Jacobs, Griffith, Mrs Cross, Mrs Millage: #159 4s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 20 Dec. 1769.] Paid half year's Land Tax for theatre due Mich. last #35; ditto for Widow Lights #6 10s. 6d.; ditto for House in Bow Passage #1 5s., and for its window lights 15s. (Account Book). [The reviewer for The Town and Country Magazine the following month was disappointed with Miss Barsanti as Estifania.] Receipts: #134 7s. 6d

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Rec'd stopages #20 8s. 6d. N.B. The [authors] charges should have been put #73 10s. [this night] instead of #84, vide. 27 Nov. next; Paid salary list #513 17s. 6d.; Messrs Clinch and Dimon 5 guineas each, #10 10s. as per order; Miss Mansell per order #3 3s.; Mr French on acct #10 (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #168 19s. Charges: #84. Profits to Author of Irish Widow: #84 19s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Paid Tallow Chandler's 4th Bill #41 6s. 5d.; Spermacetti Candles, #132 18s. Mr Tomlinson for Men's cloaths #11 11s.; Mr J. French on acct #20; Miss Hopkins, 15 nights (19th Dec. incl.) #3 15s. (Treasurer's Book). [The sixth edition of Wm. Law's Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Representations was published this year (1st. edn. 1726) This day was published the Preliminary Number of the Westminster Magazine, which, monthly, included a section called The English Theatre, which observed generally on the state of the Stage, and commented specifically on new plays. Its view of the stage in general was not as sanguine as had been that of the writer for the Town and Country Magazine (1 April 1772). "We are of opinion, that the English Theatre is now in its decline. Whether it is that the stores of Dramatic Subjects or of Dramatic Genius are exhausted, is not immediately obvious; but there is a fault somewhere....We have seen the Morning star of Wit--the Noon too is past; we have now arriv'd at its evening...There is in Arts, as in Empires, a progress which leads to Refinement; and this refinement leads to Ruin." According to the writer the meridian glory of the English stage was during the reign of Queen Anne. Reviewer damns the Irish Widow, refuses to discuss the Gamesters (revived), damns the Rose and praises the Garrick alteration of Hamlet. This year also appeard Granny's Prediction, a 53-page pamphlet attack on Mrs Barry, condemning her on moral grounds (polygamy) and on aesthetic grounds, commenting on each of her characters. By a spiteful female relative Elizabeth Franchetti.] Receipts: #142 10s. (Treasurer's Book)