Event Comment: Mainpiece: With Alterations [by Thomas Hull]. Afterpiece: Compressed into 3 Acts by the author of the Road to Ruin [Thomas Holcroft]. Receipts: #232 6s. (204.16; 27.10)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry. Mainpiece: A Tragedy altered from Thomson [by Thomas Hull] never perform'd. Part of Pit laid into the Boxes. Servants who are to keep places are desired to be at the stage door by 4 o'clock, and those Ladies and Gentlemen who have taken seats in the Pit are requested to come early to prevent confusion in getting to their places. Epilogue by Sheridan. [This play had been refused a license on 26 March 1739, While Walpole was still Prime Minister, probably because of such speeches as: @Is there a cure on Humankind so fell@So pestilent, to Prince and People,@As the base servile vermin of a court;@Corrupt, Corrupting ministers and favourites?@How oft have such eat up the widow's morsel,@The Peasant's toil, the Merchant's far-sought gain,@And wantoned to the ruin of a nation!-Larpent MS, op. p. 65.@ Also the play equalizes Christianity and Mohammedanism before God, and gives a slight edge to the latter (Act IV, scene ii), suggesting the part politics play in Christian churches. An account of the alterations made for the present performance is given in the Westminster Magazine for March. The review concludes: The Play was got up altogether well, and reputedly acted, and is in its present state what the Ladies call "a very pretty tragedy."

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Mainpiece: Reviv'd not acted for 30 years [see 21 Jan. 1742]. [Bell's Shakespeare, 1773 (probably revised by Hull) has same cast plus some additions. See Hogan.

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire, and for the only time this season, acted but once these 30 years. [See 24 April 1771.] Charges #65 15s. 6d. Deficit to Hull 9s. 6d., covered by #64 from tickets (Box 118; Pit 154; Gallery 114). Paid Mrs Carne half year's salary to Lady Day last #15 (Account Book). Receipts: #65 6s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Mainpiece: A New Alteration [by Thomas Hull], from Shakespeare and Shadwell. With characteristic Habits, Scenes and Decorations. [Mrs Duill is identified in Lyons, Collectanea.] Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, Duke's Court, near Dean's-yard, Westminster. Receipts: #80 10s. (77/5; 3/5; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull and Macready. 1st piece: In Act IV a Martial Procession with the Body of Marcus. 2nd piece [1st time: M. INT 1, author unknown. Larpent MS 1173; not published]: With appropriate Scenery and Dresses. The Music selected from Boyce, Purcell, Reeve and Shield. Morning Herald, 31 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 7, Duke's-court, near Dean's-yard, Westminster; of Macready, No. 22, Charles-street, Tottenham-court-road. Receipts: #314 3s. (112.9.0; 4.14.6; tickets: 196.19.6, of which Hull sold 70.12.6, and Macready 126.7.0)

Event Comment: Benefit of Mattocks and Hull. Tickets deliver'd for The Busy Body will be taken. No Building on Stage. [Playbill suggests Beard and Mattocks took the parts of Sailor and Squire for the 1st time this night. According to Genest they had performed them since 28 Nov. 1760, i.e., for 23 times this season. Possibly their parts were originally reversed.] Receipts: #79 17s. 6d. plus income from tickets: Mattocks #40 6s. (Box 37; Pit 159; Gallery 72); Hull #42 1s. (Box 80; Pit 111; Gallery 54) (Account Book). Charges: #64 6s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Jackson. Mainpiece [1st time in London; T 5, by John Jackson, 1st acted at Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, 13 Jan. 1777, as Gerilda. Larpent MS 448, which also lists the following unassigned parts: Halard, Bragances, Setoc, Bruno, Grindal, Clara. Authors of Prologue and Epilogue unknown]. [Robinson, who is identified in Morning Chronicle, 6 May, was from the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.] Account-Book, 4 May: Paid Hull in lieu of a Benefit #100. Public Advertiser, 18 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Jackson, Great Piazza, Covent Garden. Receipts: #188 15s. 6d. (99.19.6; tickets: 88.16.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Public Advertiser, 12 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Hull at his house in Duke's Court, near Dean's Yard, Westminster

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. [Monologue by Thomas Hull (Moral Tales, 1797, I, 5-12).] Receipts: #164 5s. (82.9; 9.1; tickets: 72.15)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. [Mainpiece: Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews.] Public Advertiser, 21 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 31, Bow-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #172 16s. 6d. (100.8.0; 9.0.6; tickets: 63.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. [Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews. Monody by Robert Merry (European Magazine, May 1790, p. 390).] Gazetteer, 11 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 31, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #168 6s. (87.8; 7.9; tickets: 73.9)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Paid Macleish for Printing [playbills] to 28th Inst. #92 2s. 6d. Oracle, 14 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 31, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #186 2s. 6d. (89.3.6; 4.10.0; tickets: 92.9.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull and Macready. 1st piece: In Act I a Grand Banquet. With the Procession [in Act IV] from the Abbey at the Coronation of Anne Bullen . To conclude with the Ceremonial of a Royal Christening. [In 2nd piece the scenes, as listed on 10 May, are indicated.] Morning Herald, 20 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, No. 7, Duke's-court, Westminster; Diary, 21 May: of Macready, No. 3, Mary-street, Charles-street, Tottenham-Court-Road. Receipts: #282 14s

Event Comment: Benefit for Macready and Hull. 1st piece: Not acted these 14 years, and compressed into 3 Acts. Receipts: #313 16s. (81.19; 3.9; tickets: 228.8, of which Macready sold 139.15, and Hull 88.13)

Event Comment: Paid from treasurer's funds #16 12s. for a Lottery Tickett No. 5,603. Paid for playing the Organ 9 nights in the Oxonian in Town #2 5s. (Account Book). [Colman seems to have been dissatisfied with Mrs Lessingham's performance, for the Harvard Extra Illustrated Vol. of Genest (opposite p. 185) contains a MS note dated Tuesday Morning: "Mrs Bulkley's compliments to Mr Hull, as she is ready in the part of Mrs Sullen he need not call any rehearsal on her account." Presumably this note was written to the prompter the following Tuesday (24 Nov.). The next performance this season of the Stratagem did not occur, however, until 22 April 1768, at which time Mrs Bulkley played Mrs Sullen, for the 1st time.] Receipts: #155 15s. 6d. (Account Book)