Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 20 years. [See 11 Nov. 1752.] Characters New Dressed in the Habits of the Times. This play is alter'd by
Mr Colman and receiv'd with Some Applause, but it don't seem to hit the present Taste a few hisses at the End (
Hopkins Diary). [
MacMillan's note from
Kemble differs slightly.] Paid salary list #630 1s. 6d.;
Widow Hunter #2 2s.;
King's glass bill #3 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). [Mainpiece reviewed and contrasted with the original in the
Westminster Magazine for Jan.: "Upon the whole we cannot esteem this a striking comedy, even with the assistance it has now received,--the fine manner in which it is got up, and the great expence which the managers have been at in habiting the whole dramatis personae in splendid and characteristic Old
English dresses. All the actors except
Mr King and
Mr Parsons performed but indifferently.
Bensley is the worst
Old Man we ever saw. He presents the countenace of a sickly old woman; and the uniform goggle of his eye, by which he means to express infirmity and distress is the look of a man in anguish from the colic.
Mr Palmer,
Mr Brereton, and
Mr Davis have a bloated vulgarity about them, which should ever deter the manager from assigning them the parts of cavaliers or men of fashion.
Baddeley, as usual, overdid his part, and
Mr Yates, as usual, was not very perfect in his."] Receipts: #192 11s. (Treasurer's Book)