Event Comment: Paid 3 day's salary at #100 12s. 6d. per diem #301 17s. 6d. Salaries short-paid last week #168 8s. 6d.; Tabor
and Pipe #3 13s. 6d.
Louchre [
Lauchery] #8 8s.
Mr Abington #2;
Mr King #3; (Treasurer's Book). [The payment to King was the first of 37 similar ones for extra salary amounting to #111. That to Mrs Abington was the first of weekly payments for her clothes account, amounting to #60 for the season. No further mention will be made of these items.] Receipts: #265 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [From the
Middlesex Journal (7-9 Oct.) quoted by
Hampden,
Eighteenth Century Journal: "
The Way of the World, though confessedly replete with wit
and char
acter, is not the most entertaining play in representation. It is so full of plot
and intrigue, that it dem
ands an Unusual degree of attention in the performers
and audience to excite admiration. On Saturday they seemed averse to assist the author. Mr King in
Witwou'd was as entertaining
and full of spirits as usual.
Mr Jefferson in the gay admired
Mirabel (independent of the antique mode of his wig,
and formal cut of his clothes, which surely were both unchar
acteristic) seemed in attempting to be quite natural, to keep the entire plot of the play in his own bosom, looked more like the father than the Mirabel of
Congreve.
Mr Reddish was a contrast to his friend Mirabel; he seemed attentive nervous,
and played the latter part of his char
acter well....Mrs Abington's person, manner
and dress were fashionable
and elegant; but though the char
acter was certainly a fine one, there was a want of that spirit best calculated to call her powers into
action: her delivery was tediously formal;
and had the audience been deprived of their sight they would conclude that
Capt. Bobadill had got into petticoats. Her dress was no more decent than
Madam Hidou's was on her first appearance last year; stays so low cut
before puts modesty to the blush;
and will not be countenanced by an
English audience, though made after the
French fashion....
Mrs Greville, to convince the town that she could keep a secret, whispered it to only a few friends in the Pit....her indifference is intolerable,
and should be noticed by her employer."