Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: I turned back and to Southwarke-Fair, very dirty, and there saw the puppet-show of Whittington, which was pretty to see; and how that idle thing do work upon people that see it, and even myself too! And thence to Jacob Hall's dancing on the ropes, where I saw such action as I never saw before, and mightily worth seeing; and here took acquaintance with a fellow that carried me to a tavern, whither come the musick of this booth, and by and by Jacob Hall himself, with whom I had a mind to speak, to hear whether he had ever any mischief by falls in his time. He tells me, "Yes, many; but never to the breaking of a limb:" he seems a mighty strong man

Event Comment: The Lord Mayor's Show. By Thomas Jordan. Luttrell (A Brief Relation, I, 285-86): The 29th, sir Henry Tulse...was sworn before the barons of the exchequer at Westminster, whither he went by water, accompanied by the late lord mayor, the new recorder, aldermen, and sheriffs, and attended by diverse of the companies in their barges; their majesties and the duke of York being upon the leads at Whitehall when they passed by: being come back, they passed from the place where they landed, with the usual solemnity, to Grocers Hall, where the lords of the councill, severall of the nobility, judges, and other persons of quality dined

Event Comment: Benefit Miss Evans and Miss Mountfort. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. [In Cowper MS, III, 79, James Cragg enclosed in a letter to Thomas Coke "Three small playing cards having on the back of each 'June 26th The Amorous Widow or the Wanton Wife. The Box. For the Benefitt of Miss Mountfort and Miss Evans."

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Knight. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Receipts: money #27 17s. 6d. and tickets #23 13s. The Epilogue was printed in Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 7 April, with a note: The Author of the following Epilogue would never have thought of publishing such a Trifle, but to let the Town see that scandalous Piece (as some were pleas'd to call it) not fit to be spoken. Mrs Knight's Zeal to the Government (which she has always express'd at the Worst of Times) cannot be enough applauded....It was wrote with no other Design than to do her some Service on her Benefit-Day; but has had indeed a quite contrary Effect, and kept back that Part of her Audience whose Money is as good as other Peoples, tho' their Principles (as being Tories) are the worst in the World

Event Comment: [Text by N. F. Haym. Music by G. F. Handel.] By Command Pit and Boxes at half a guinea. Gallery 5s. At 6:30 p.m. When the Tickets are dispos'd of, No Persons will be admitted for Money. The Diary of Mary Countess Cowper, p. 154: At Night, Radamistus, a fine Opera of Handel's Making. The King there with his Ladies. The Prince in the Stage-box. Great Crowd. Mainwaring, Handel, pp. 98-99: If the persons who are now living, and who were present at that performance may be credited, the applause it received was almost as extravagant as his Agrippina had excited; the crowds and tumults of the house at Venice were hardly equal to those at London. In so splendid and fashionable an assembly of Ladies (to the excellence of their taste we must impute it) there was no shadow of form, or ceremony, scarce inoeed any appearance of order or regularity, politeness, or decency. Many, who had forc'd their way into the house with an impetuosity but ill-suited to their rank and sex, actually Fainted through the heat and closeness of it. Several Gentlemen were turned back, who had offered forty shillings for a seat in the gallery, after having despaired of getting any in the pit or boxes

Event Comment: At Bullock Booth at the Back of the Greyhound

Event Comment: Benefit John Rich. Receipts: #167 18s. Daily Journal, 9 Jun.: The concourse of People to see it [The Necromancer] was so exceeding great, that many hundreds were obliged to go back again, as not being able to gain Admittance; the Entertainment was wonderful satisfactory to the Audience, as exceeding all the Legerdemain that has hitherto been performed on the Stage

Event Comment: Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 3 Jan.: I went to King Arthur last night, which is exceeding fine; they have a new man to supply Delane's place, one Johnson, with ye finest person & face in the world to all appearance; but as awkward, as a Button-maker; in short, if he knew how to manage his Beauties to advantage, I should not wonder, if all the Women run mad for him: the inchanted part of the play, is not Machinery, but actual magick: the second scene is a British temple enough to make one go back a thousand years, & really be in ancient Britain: the Songs are all Church-musick, & in every one of ye Chorus's Mrs Chambers sung ye chief part, accompanied with Roarings, Squawlings & Squeakations dire. Mrs Giffard is by way of Emmeline, & should be blind, but, heaven knows! I would not wish to see better than she does, & seems to do; for when Philidel restores her to sight, her eyes are not at all better than before; she is led in at first, by a Creature, yet was more like a Devil by half, than Grimbald himself; she took herself for Madame la Confidente, but every body else took her to be in the Circumstances of Damnation: when Emmeline comes to her sight, she beholds this Mrs Matilda first, & cries out Are Women all like thee? such glorious Creatures! which set the people into such a laugh, as lasted the whole Act: the Frost Scene is excessive fine; the first Scene of it is only a Cascade, that seems frozen: with the Genius of Winter asleep & wrapt in furs, who upon the approach of Cupid, after much quivering, & shaKing sings the finest song in the Play: just after, the Scene opens, & shows a view of arched rocks covered with Ice & Snow to ye end of ye Stage; between the arches are upon pedestals of Snow eight Images of old men & women, that seem frozen into Statues, with Icicles hanging about them & almost hid in frost, & from ye end come Singers, viz: Mrs Chambers, &: & Dancers all rubbing their hands & chattering with cold with fur gowns & worsted gloves in abundance. Gray, Correspondence, I, 36-37

Event Comment: By Desire of Mrs Mapp, the Famous Bone-Setter of Epsom. Daily Journal, 18 Oct.: On Saturday Evening there was such a Concourse of People at [lif] to see the famous Mrs Mapp, that several Gentlemen and Ladies were obliged to return back for want of Room. She came there about eight o'Clock in her Coach and Four....The Confusion at going out was so great, that several Gentlemen and Ladies had their Pocket picked

Event Comment: Benefit a Gentlewoman in Distress [Concert formula]. Tickets and Places to be had of Mrs Careless in Hart St., near the Back-Passage of Covent Garden. The Gentlemen and Ladies who intend to honour her with their Company, are desir'd to come as early as possible, she being determin'd to begin punctually at six

Event Comment: By particular Desire [Dance had been ill since 14 Jan. Prices back to normal, as 26 Dec. 1744]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Part of Pit laid into the Boxes [as on 7 March]. Tickets and places to be had of Mrs Clive in Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the stage door. [According to the Larpent MS, No. 77 additions were made to the afterpiece of some fifty lines to bring Lettice back into the picture, and enable her to resolve the plot, and to sing The Life of a Beau as a take-off.] Receipts: #206 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel)

Event Comment: This day is publish'd a Guide to the Stage; or Select Instructions and Precedents from the best Authorities towards forming a polite Audience; with some account of the Players, &c. Printed and sold by D. Job, at the Spread Eagle in King St. [An ironical post-Addisonian quip at theatrical behavior]: I boldly enter the lists as the first champion for theatric decorum. The next thing to be consider'd is disapprobation, which I think may be sufficiently shewn, by an attention to something else, by loud discourse, profuse laughter, and the like. I cannot help thinking it a little out of character, for a polite audience to distort their features by a hiss: however for the sake of some ambitious youths, who thus love to signalize themselves, I shall leave a new play to their mercy. They then are at liberty to exercise their several talents whether they hiss or groan most successfully, or have a greater genius for the cat-call. If you desire to know when you are to shew your dislike, my answer is, when anything displeases you, or in fine when you will provided you have a strong party to second you; for the best hiss or groan in the universe may be drown'd in a general applause. [Never laugh at what passes on stage save it be an error, blunder, or accident. In tragic scenes avoid being visibly moved by humming a tune, regarding the audience, engaging in conservation, or turning your back to the stage. When a female social rival calls attention to herself and away from the stage, let fall your handkerchief into the pit, or call out to an acquaintance in the opposite box, or burst into loud and unexpected laughter. You'll know when to applaud, for the actors will tell you.] On these occasions Cato looks more than unusually big, Hamlet stares with great emphasis, Othello has a most languishing aspect, Monimia is all sighs and softness, Beatrice will bridle, and pretty Peggy Wildair leers you into a clap. Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: At the Large Commodious Room at the lower end of the Swan Inn Yard, West Smithfield, during the short time of Bartholemew Fair, which begins this day. The Characters dressed in the Italian manner. Scenes, Cloaths, Machinery, and other Decorations entirely New. To began each day at 12:00 noon. A very extraordinary band of musick is provided, and the Room decorated in an elegant Manner, for the better reception of the Nobility and Gentry. There is a back door to Hosier Lane for the conveniency of those who don't chose to be crowded...The passages will be elegantly illuminated

Event Comment: At Bence's Room, Swan Yard, West Smithfield. The Scenes Cloaths, Machinery and other Decorations entirely New. To begin each day at 12 Noon. Pit 2s. 3d. First Gallery 1s. Upper Gallery 6d. There is a back door in Hosier Lane for the Conveniency of those Gentlemen and Ladies who don't chuse to be crouded. Mainpiece: A new Dramatic Piece. [Really the subplot of Betterton's Amorous Widow, 1670.] Afterpiece: A New Pantomime Entertainment

Event Comment: Benefit for Rooker, and Saunderson (machinist). No Building on Stage. [The Theatrical Review; or, Annals of the Drama (Volunteer Manager section for 1 May 1763, p. 212) comments upon a stage tradition of having the Mouse Trap" Play presented on stage with the players' backs to Claudius and Gertrude. The author wishes Garrick and Beard to revise this absurdity and bring the whole in more accord with reality. The same paper criticises Mrs Cibber as Ophelia. "I hope you will not let so flagrant an outrage to the decorum of the stage as the following pass unnoticed. As [Mrs Cibber] sat upon the stage, with Hamlet at her feet, in the third act, she rose up three several times, and made as many courtiess, and those very low ones, to some ladies in the boxes. Pray good Sir, ask her in what part of the play it is said that the Danish Ophelia is acquainted with so many British Ladies?" See similar comment on her Belvidera, 17 March 1760.

Event Comment: A drunken man and a livery servant were both very troublesome in the first gallery [according to an account in the Morning Chronicle, 11 Dec., which continued]: It is a very great insult to respectable citizens and gentlemen of moderate fortunes, who from principles of economy choose to sit in the first gallery, that they admit too men in liveries. Their prices of admission have been raised within these thirty years, and every art practised for interest of the managers; and in these times, when every necessary and convenience of life is considerably enhanced, it is a matter of prudence in persons of the middle rank of life to prefer the gallery to the pit. But this is no reason why livery servants should be allowed to place themselves by the wives and daughters of private gentlemen and reputable tradesmen, to whom they often behave with great insolence and indecency. [It is desirable] to know why a constable does not make his appearance in the back row of the first, as well as the second, gallery, being frequently as much wanted in the one as the other (John Hampden Diary, p. 122)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Sherry & Sga Crespi. Tickets delivered by Harwood will be taken. Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [see 31 Mar.]. Public Advertiser, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Sherry, at Nicholl's, Baker, Bridge's-street, Covent Garden; of Sga Crespi, Poland-street, opposite the Back Door of the Pantheon. Receipts: #257 0s. 6d. (91.14.0; 23.0.6; 0.0.0; tickets: 142.6.0) (charge: #70 17s. 6d.)

Event Comment: [Miss Harper was taken ill; The Irish Widow was thereupon substituted and begun, but the audience was clamorous, and insisted on The Son-in-Law. A long delay ensued until the proper acters had been brought back to the theatre and until they were dressed. Mrs Jewell read Miss Harper's part. While trying to find out what the audience wanted, Bannister retorted sharply from the stage to one of the noisiest of the objectors. This action caused several letters to be written to various newspapers debating the right of a "servant of the public" to reprimand a member of the audience even when that member might be in the wrong (Morning Chronicle, 16 Sept., et seq.).] The last Night of the Season

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 28 May 1784]. "We see the present rising theatrical generation swinging back with a vengeance to rant and mouthing. The natural and just medium introduced by Garrick seems already forgotten, and speaking no longer deemed a requisite for the stage . . . But last night in Richard Holman was not more violent than the character required him to be" (Public Advertiser, 6 Dec). Receipts: #147 1s. 6d. (143/14/6; 3/7/0)

Event Comment: "Friday night, about 20 minutes before eight o'clock, on the conclusion of the third act, a very serious alarm took place at Drury Lane Theatre. A fire broke out at an oil-shop, the corner of Little Brydges-street. The flames appearing through the windows at the back of the upper gallery, the alarm of fire spread through many parts of the house. [The audience was dismissed, those in the boxes] passing over the stage into Russel-street...Some of the box and pit company continued for a time on the stage with the performers, some of whom were dressed in character, others half dressed, and the appearance [was] truly motley" (Public Advertiser, 5 Feb.). Receipts: #133 12s. (129.10; "An Alarm of Fire prevented the 2nd Acct."; 3.12; tickets not come in: 0.10)

Event Comment: Benefit for Blandford and Randall. 3rd piece: A Pantomimical Interlude, from Don Juan. First Scene opens with a Tempestuous Sea, and Shipwreck of Don Juan and his man Scaramouch, who is cast on shore from off the Back of a Dolphin on the Island of Martinico. Scene from the pantomimes of The Enchanted Island, Wizard of the Silver Rock, The Witches Frolic, &c. The whole to conclude with a View of the Inside of the Bastille, with the different Gratings, Railings, and Instruments of Death and Torture by which the unfortunate Victims suffered, and the Grand Chorus of God save the King. The Curtain will rise precisely at 6:45

Event Comment: The Company will be apprised at the doors as soon as the audience part of the Theatre is full. "When the curtain drew up for the new ballet, ladies [were] at the wings sitting...[and] several hundred gentlemen occupied the back of the stage, so that the beautiful scenery which had been prepared for the ballet lost all its effect" (Oracle, 22 Feb., which also states that the part of Roxalana was danced by Mme Hilligsberg). [Didelot and 1st appeared at the former king's theatre on 8 Dec. 1787.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years [acted 7 Oct. 1791]. Middleton, after performing the first scene of Nerestan, retired abruptly into the wardrobe, pulled off his coat, and telling the dresser he should be back in ten minutes, left the theatre; he did not return, however, according to his appointment, and Davenport read the remainder of the character: a fit of insanity is supposed to have seized him" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1797, p. 55). [Middleton did not appear on the stage again until 27 Feb. 1797.] Afterpiece [1st time: P 2 (?), by James Wild and John Follett. MS of Songs only: Larpent MS 1148; synopsis of action in Pocket Magazine, Dec. 1796, p. 412]: With entire new Scenery, Machinery, Music, Dresses. The Overture and Music by Reeve. The Scenery painted by Phillips, Blackmore, Hollogan, Thorne, Byrn. The Machinery, Trick and Changes of Scenery invented and executed by Cresswell and Sloper. The Dresses by Dick, Mrs Egan. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "Among the changes are a trunk into a gingerbread nut-man's wheel-barrow--a poor man's hut into an old oak, with a group of Gypsies boiling their kettle under it--one of the clowns into a thick candle, and the candle afterwards into a green-house tub, with a large shrub in it" (Oracle, 20 Dec.). Receipts: #193 5s. 6d. (183.4.6; 10.1.0)