Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Henry Mackenzie; Prologue by the author (Knapp, p. 274)]: Altered from Lillo's Fatal Curiosity. Gazetteer, 29 Apr. 1784: This Day is published The Shipwreck (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #180 17s. 6d. (166/12/0; 14/5/6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Henry Knapp; music by Samuel Arnold. Author of Prologue unknown. London Chronicle, 24 Aug., states that this was based on a French comedy of the same title.]

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; ENT 2]: Consisting of Dialogue, Music [chiefly by Henry Purcell and Thomas Linley Sen. (Boaden, Kemble, I, 225)], and Machinery. Altered from [David Garrick's alteration of] King Arthur, by Dryden. With great Variety of very capital Scenery, new Dresses, and Decorations. [The alteration was probably made by John Philip Kemble.] Receipts: #148 11s. (107/13/0; 39/17/6; 1/0/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [C 5, by the Hon. Henry Seymour Conway, adapted from Les Dehors Trompeurs; ou, L'Homme du Jour, by Louis de Boissy; incidental music by Michael Kelly. Prologue by the author. Epilogue by John Burgoyne (see text)]: 1st time at a public theatre. With new Scenes and Dresses. [This was 1st acted on 31 May 1788 at the private theatre in the town house of the Duke of Richmond, which was situated on what is now Richmond Terrace, Whitehall. It was demolished in 1819.] Diary, 16 June 1789: This Day is published False Appearances (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #138 3s. (114.15.0; 22.5.6; 1.2.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Henry Mackenzie, based on La Fausse Inconstance; ou, Le Triomphe de l'Honnetete, by Fanny de Beauharnais. Larpent MS 852; text 1st published in Mackenzie's Works, Vol. VIII (Edinburgh, 1808), as False Shame; or, The White Hypocrite; it assigns no parts. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (see text)]. [Afterpiece in place of Love and War, advertised on playbill of 4 Dec.] Receipts: #202 13s. 6d. (191.3.6; 11.10.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Henry Bate]: With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music (with a few exceptions) composed entirely new by Shield. And new Scenery designed and chiefly executed by Richards. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Williamson was formely a chorus singer at this theatre; Mme Pieltain had sung at the king's in the season of 1788-89. Afterpiece in place of The Deaf Lover, advertised on playbill of 25 Feb.] "The author is very little responsible for his part of the entertainment, which he acknowledges was composed chiefly for the purpose of [the music, which] in the taste of the present day is almost the only essential part of such an entertainment" (Gazetteer, 28 Feb.). Oracle, 7 May 1791: Thas Day is published The Woodman (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #243 2s. (239.17.6; 3.4.6)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; T 3, by Henry James Pye. Authors of Prologue and Epilogue unknown]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. Morning Chronicle, IO June 1794: This day is published THE SIEGE OF MEAUX (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #125 9s. (117/2; 8/7)

Event Comment: Benefit for Middleton. [1st piece in place of NAPLES BAY, advertised on playbill of 27 May.] 3rd piece [1st time; MD 3, by Henry Siddons. Author of Prologue unknown]: Taken from the Sicilian Romance of the Author of the Romance of the Forest [Ann Radcliffe}. Overture and Music entirely new by Reeve. Morning Herald, 6 June 1794: This Day is published THE SICILIAN ROMANCE (1s.) [In 3rd piece the playbill lists Incledon, but "an apology was made on account of Incledon's indisposition, whose character in the After-piece was well supported by Townsend" (Thespian Magazine, July 1794, p. 281).] Morning Herald, 22 May: Tickets to be had of Middleton at Vint's, perfumer, No. 3, Tavistock-row, CoventGarden. Receipts: #203 13s. 6d. (92/14/0; 9/3/0; tickets: 101/16/6)

Event Comment: By Desire of his Excellency the Turkish Ambassador [see 9 May]. Benefit for Mrs Mountain. 1st piece: In Act II a Grand Procession representing the ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her deceased Husband. 2nd piece [1st time; CO 2, by Henry Heartwell]: The Overture and Music composed by Attwood. Monologue: The whole of the apparatus painted and designed by Cresswell. Morning Herald, 8 Oct. 1798: This Day is published Reformed in Time (1s.). Ibid, 16 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mountain, No. 28, Maiden-lane, Covent-garden. Receipts: #370 18s. (90.17; 4.3; tickets: 275.18)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Henry Lee. Larpent MS 1221; not published in this form, but altered by the author in 3 acts, as Caleb Quotem and His Wife!; or, Paint, Poetry, and Putty (J. Roach, 1809)]: The Musick by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "Suett was, as he always is on a first night, most shamefully imperfect" (Monthly Mirror, July 1798, p. 52). [For Lee's accusing Colman, in his The Review, of plagiarism, see Genest, VII, 387-90. And see 1 Sept. 1800.

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; D 3, by Henry Neuman, based on Der Opfertod, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Text (R. Phillips, 1799) assigns no parts]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Rice, at the Theatre. The Theatre, since the last Season, has been newly Decorated. [Beginning with 19 June the playbill: Printed by T. Woodfall, Drury Lane; on 4 Sept.: No. 104, Drury Lane.] Morning Chronicle, 27 June 1799: This Day is published Family Distress (2s.). Gentleman's Magazine, May 1800, pp. 406-8, prints a letter from "J. B." in which strong exception is taken to Kotzebue in general, and this play in particular. "Theatrical entertainments have an extensive influence upon the manners of Society. When well regulated, and the pieces for representation well selected both as to matter and manner, they may be esteemed friendly to morality, and improvers of public taste. But what shall we say when both these ends are disregarded; when moral virtue is banished from the scene, and purity of taste is destroyed by affected language and pantomimical decorations? Improvements in almost every art and science have been within a few years, rapid and important. But that is not the case with the stage; nor can it be, while Kotzebue and his friends usurp the venerable boards of Shakespeare." The writer then, in sarcastic terms, outlines the plot of Family Distress. [Pope and Miss Chapman were both from cg.

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; CO 2, by Henry Heartwell and George Colman, ynger, based on Le Prisonner; or, La Ressemblance, by Alexandre Vincent Pineu Duval]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed and selected by Attwood. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 9 Aug. 1799: This day is published The Castle of Sorrento (1s.)

Event Comment: Benefit W. Giffard and Crispe