Event Comment: Benefit Este and Wright. Mainpiece: Written by Mr Farquhar. [Tickets for Cross, Raftor, and Arne taken.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With Additions from Dryden; the Musick by Purcell and Dr Arne, and the new Airs and Chorusses by the late Mr Linley Jun. Receipts: #142 7s. 6d. (79.17.6; 60.10.0; 2.0.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Baddeley. House charges #67 9s. 6d. [Profits to Baddeley family 16s. plus tickets.] Tickets deliver'd for this night will be taken. Paid Palmer of Bath for Spermecetti candles #128 4s. Paid Mr Deeble (chorus singer) omitted 3 nights 15s.; Chorus singers 1 night #2 10s. 6d.; Salary list #435 19s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #68 5s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). I find ye corner of ye orchestra is ye best place to stand in...Holland played Iago very well, and Mrs Baddeley Desdemona pretty well, being her 1st appearance in that character...End of ye play Baddeley spoke a composition of his own, called "Search after Scrubs," to hear which Garrick came into ye orchestra. He looks healthy and strong, and should oftener entertain ye Public to which he owes so much. Entertainment Daphne and Amintor. Daphne (for ye first time) Mrs Baddeley, who does not shine in the singing part, as Mrs Arne does (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit Arne. The demand for Places being more than Double what the Boxes will contain, Mrs Arne is oblig'd to lay the Pit and Boxes together, at 5s., where servants will be allow'd to keep places, as likewise on the stage, which will be form'd into front and side boxes. Ladies send servants by 3 o'clock. Tickets to be had, and places for the boxes to be taken of Arne next door to the Crown and Cushion in Great Queen St., by Lincoln's Inn Fields; and of Hobson at the stage door.--General Advertiser. Tom Arne sends his service; He is forced to put his Pit and Boxes together, which I reckon will be no advantage to him, ladies hoops taking up more room than the difference of price.--Mrs Cibber to Garrick, 8 April (Boaden, Private Correspondence of Garrick, I, 40)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Comic Opera altered [by Colman] from Gay. The Music entirely new by Dr Arne. Now acted for the first time in 2 Acts. [The 1776 Edition in Bell's British Theatre lists: Achilles-Mattocks; Peripas-$Reinhold; Lycomedes-$DuBellamy; Diphilus-$Dyer; Ajax-$Dunstall; Ulysses-$Owenson; Diomedes-$Fox; Argytes-$Baker; Deidamia-$Mrs Mattocks; Artemona-$Miss Brown; Philoe-$Miss Valois; Thetis-$Miss Catley. [$Miss Pearce may have played Lesbia).] Paid Banks for the Head of a Figure used in The Fair #1 1s.; Paid Mr Gard for performing 5 nights in the Fair and 3 in the Sorcerer #1. Paid Joseph Besford for performing 5 nights in the Fair 12s. 6d. (Account Book). [Afterpiece unfavorably reviewed in the Westminster Magazine.] Receipts: #149 18s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time in London; DR. POEM 5, by William Mason, 1st acted at Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, 30 Mar. 1764]: Written on the Model of the ancient Greek Tragedy. The Overture and all the Music composed New by Dr Arne. With a New Scene designed and executed by Dahl [recte Dall]. The Dresses, Decorations, &c. all entirely New. Books of the Lyrical Part of the Drama to be had at the Theatre. 'But I had rather talk of Caractacus; I agree that he will not suffer by not being sputtered by Barry, who has lost all his teeth. Covent Garden is rather above Drury Lane in actors, but both sets are exceedingly bad, so bad-that I almost wish Caractacus was not to appear. Very seldom do I go to the play, for there is no bearing such strollers" (Walpole [to the author, 8 Oct. 1776], IX, 419-20). "I attended Caractacus last winter, and was greatly interested, both from my friendship for Mr Mason and from the excellence of the poetry. I was out of all patience; for though a young Lewis played a subordinate part very well, and Mrs Hartley looked her part charmingly, the Druids were so massacred, and Caractacus so much worse, that I never saw a more barbarous exhibition" (Walpole [13 July 1777], X, 81-82). Public Advertiser, 7 Dec. 1776: This Day is published the Lyrical Part of Caractacus (6d.). [The publisher, J. Wilkie, states that he also has the "whole Drama, as altered by the Author, 18d." Ibid., 9 Dec., contains an advertisement from Mason stating that this version is unauthorized.] Ibid., 12 Dec.: This Day is published [by A. Ward of York] a new Edition of Caractacus, now altered for Representation at the Theatre-Royal in Covent Garden (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #163 10s. (163.6; 0.4)