Event Comment: Paid Mr Johnston's bill for the Garter #56 15s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #230 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)

Event Comment: The Tragedy of Zara, Made English [by Aaron Hill]. Applauded Thirty-Six Nights running at Paris. The Characters, by a Sett of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, who never acted before. None will be admitted but by Tickets into the Room that Night, which (by Reason of the Smallness of the Place) will be all commodiously made into Boxes, for the easy Reception of those many Great Personages, who have read and perus'd this Play with Approbation, and desir'd a long Time to see it acted; and charitably agreed to favour and encourage this Design, for the Benefit of [Mr William Bond, the Proprietor], who brings it on at a great Expence (tho' all that act in it, are so good to appear Gratis for him) who has lain ill of the Gout, and Rheumatism, upwards of Four Years. [This bill, in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser, differs considerably in phraseology, though not in basic fact, from that in the Daily Advertiser.]

Event Comment: Benefit Ray, alias Little John. At Lee-Harper Great Booth, on the Bowling-Green, Southwark. At 6:30 p.m