Event Comment: FFawkes and Pinchbeck's Booth, end of Hosier Lane, West Smithfield. Noon to 10 p.m. Boxes 2s. Pit 1s. Gallery 6d. Mainpiece: Written by Henry Fielding, Esq. Afterpiece: The Present Tense...by Punch's Company of comical Tragedians from the Haymarket [i.e., a puppet show]

Event Comment: Benefit Whittingham. This Gentleman had acted Hotspur (10 Feb.) very ill (Winston MS. from Dyer MS). Failed in Pyrrhus (Genest, IV, 37). Tickets to be had of Hobson at the Stage Door, and at Batson's and Tom's Coffee Houses in Cornhill. Tickets deliver'd out for Whittingham for Henry IV will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit the Widow and Four Small Children of the late Henry Carey. Tickets at the stage door, or at the Widow Carey's in Cross St., Hatton-Garden; at Langbourn-Ward Coffee House; and of Mrs Suertt, at the Apple Tree in Cold Bath Fields. N.B. The Unfortunate Widow humbly hopes that the Good Nature and Humanity of her Friends will admit her melancholy circumstances, and the shortness of time, as a sufficient excuse for not waiting on them, and continue the favours, formerly shown to her late Husband, to her and her Distress'd Family, being left entirely destitute of any provision

Event Comment: We hear the New Historical Play, call'd King Henry the Seventh, or the Popish Imposter, now in rehearsal at Drury Lane will be acted on Saturday next

Event Comment: [G+General Advertiser, 20 April: The Play of Henry V and the new farce which were to have been acted of Friday the 24th for Mrs Macklin's benefit are necessarily deferred until farther notice--which will be inserted in this paper.

Event Comment: Gift for ye Sufferers by ye fire in Cornhill (Cross). [A column and a half "Letter to the Author" appeared in the General Advertiser this day, laying historical background for Ford's Lover's Melancholy]. The history of the stage before the Restoration is like a Foreign Land, in which no Englishman had ever travelled; we know there were such things as Playhouses, and one Shakespear a great writer, but the historical traces of them are so imperfect, that the manner in which they existed is less known to us, than that of Eschylus or the theatres of Greece. For this reason, 'tis hoped that the following Gleaning of Theatrical History will readily obtain a place in your paper. 'Tis taken from a Pamphlet written in the reign of Charles I, with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's Melancholly Lover"; and as it contains some historical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Johnson, Ford, Shakespear, and the Lover's Melancholy it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the Public. [The substance of the remainder retails Jonson's critical cantankerousness and his wounded pride at the failure of the New Inn, quoting some epigrams made at Jonson's expense on his allegation that Ford was a plagiary. This second "puff" for the play, presumably also written by Macklin, formed the basis for a Steevens-Malone controversy late in the century, centering on the existence or nonexistence of the pamphlet referred to by Macklin as "Old Ben's Light Heart made Heavy, &c." A summary account of the evidence appears in the Dramatic Works of John Ford, by Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1811) I, Intro. XVI, XXXI.] Receipts: #210 (Cross); #208 1s. (Powel)

Event Comment: This day is publish'd written by Henry Fielding, Esq. the 4th edn. of An Old Man taught Wisdom; or the Virgin Unmask'd, a Farce, as it is now acting at Drury Lane. With the Music prefix'd to each song. Printed for I. Watts. Receipts: #170 (Cross); #171 12s. (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Quin. Mainpiece: By Command of their Royal Highnesses Prince George, Prince Edward, Prince William, Prince Henry, Lady Augusta and the Lady Elizabeth. Six rows of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Stage will be Enclosed and form'd into an Amphitheatre. Paid Quin in full of his agreement #122; Advanced Servandoni #5 5s. [The Account Book itemizes the income this night as #93 15s. in money; #99 5s. in tickets, a total of #193 without stage (i.e., presumably without counting money to Quin gained from friends invited to sit in the Amphitheatre on stage.) This was also a "Free Benefit," i.e., clear of costumary house charges.] Receipts: #193

Event Comment: Tickets taken for Miss Haughton for 2 Henry IV #42 4s. Total value of House #109 14s. Paid Servandoni #5 5s. Last time of performing till the Holidays. Receipts: #67 10s

Event Comment: Whereas Doctor John Francis Croza, late Master of the Company of Comedians at the Opera House in the Haymarket, escaped fro me on Tuesday Evening last: whoever will secure or cause him to be secured, so that I may re-take him, shall have a reward of thirty pounds immediately, paid by me Henry Gibbs, one of the Tipstaffs attending the court of Common Pleas, Southampton St., Covent Garden, Tea Merchant. N.B. The said John Francis Croza is a thin man, about Five feet five inches high, of a swarthy Complexion, with dark brown eyebrows, pitted with the small pox, stoops a little in the Shoulders, is about 50 Years of age, and takes a remarkable deal of Snuff, talks Italian and French, but speaks very little English (General Advertiser)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Ward. Tickets to be had of Mrs Ward, next door to the Chapel, in Little Wild St., and of Hobson at the stage door. Tickets deliver'd out for Jane Shore will be taken. A Pamphlet having lately appeared in Ridicule of the late performance of Othello at Drury Lane, to which was subjoined an Advertisement in my name,from whence Occasion has been taken to assert, that I was the publisher, the Publick may be assured that advertisement was inserted without my knowledge or consent, that I am entirely ignorant of the Author, nor am the least concerned in that mean invidious affair. F. Stamper (General Advertiser). [Stamper possibly refers to A satirical Dialogue Humbly address'd to the Gentlemen who deformed the play of Othello; with a Prologue and Epilogue, much more suitable to the occasion than their own. London: River, 1751, listed in the Register of Books, Gentleman's Magazine, March 1751, p. 142. Stamper may also be alluding in some way to a Modern Character introduced in the Scenes of Vanbrugh's Aesop as it was acted at a late private representation of King Henry IV, performed gratis at the Little Opera House in the Haymarket, 3rd edn. 1751, written by F. Stamper. It was published because the farce was hissed off the stage. The Character is a Spouter who tries to instruct Aesop in heroics.] Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: [Letter to Woodward from Samson Edwards, The Merry Cobler of Haymarket. Answer to Henry Woodward's reply on Hill's Letter, 6d. Ironical defense of Hill casting further opprobrium upon him.] Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: By Command of the Prince of Wales. We hear their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, Prince William, Prince Henry, Princess Augusta, and Princess Elizabeth will be this evening at Covent Garden to see the Siege of Damascus and the Italian Dancers

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Elmy. [The Public Advertiser included a full-column quotation from Henry VIII, Act V, scene iii, as a "true and lively image of Conscious Virtue' injuriously attacked." Cranmer: I humbly thank your highness...along with a paragraph of praise of Shakespeare.

Event Comment: Benefit for Henry Smith. Concert divided into five parts. To begin at 6:30 p.m. Boxes 4s. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery 1s. 6d

Event Comment: Last night the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, Prince Henry, Prince Frederick, and Princess Augusta were at Covent Garden to see The Merry Wives of Windsor and The What D'ye Call It (Public Advertiser)

Event Comment: Benefit for increasing the Fund for Support of Decay'd Musicians, or their Families. Pit and Boxes to be put together at Half a Guinea each. Gallery 5s. Doors open at Five. Gallery at Four, to begin at Half an Hour after Six. None to be admitted without tickets. Tickets delivered to Subscribers to this Charity will admit one person into any part of the House. Subscribers tickets may be had of Richard Dawson at his house near Henry the VII's Chapel, Westminster, who is empower'd by the Society to deliver them, and to receive the subscriptions. The Governors beg leave to inform the Nobility and Gentry to whom this Charity is so much oblig'd, that from June 1756 to June 1757 they have necessarily laid out for decay'd musicians and their families, widows of decay'd musicians, and in maintaining and educating orphans who are left in distress, and in putting them Apprentice, and for Physic, Burials, and other incidental charges #532 13s. 7d. The Books are open and may be inspected by subscribers the first Sunday in every month at a meeting of the Governors, at the Turk's Head in Greek Street, Soho. All expenses attending the meetings of the Governors, Court of Affidavits Committee for managing of this Concert, are defrayed by themselves

Event Comment: By Command of the Prince of Wales. Tickets deliver'd for Henry VIII will be taken Tuesday next. Prince & 4 (Cross). Receipts: #150 (Cross). Full Prices

Event Comment: KKing Henry VIII is obliged to be deferred till Wednesday

Event Comment: CCoronation By desire. As it is introduc'd in King Henry VIII, the Coronation will be represented after other plays. Full prices

Event Comment: Tomorrow (acted but once these 5 years) King Henry IV, Part II. New Dress'd in the characters of the times, to which be added, not acted this season, The Genii

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnston [housekeeper]. Tickets deliver'd for 2 Henry IV, and by Miss Berkley will be taken. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Afterpiece: By Desire