Event Comment: Benefit Johnson. Written by Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Written by Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Benefit William Mills and the Prompter. Mainpiece: As it was alter'd by the late Duke of Buckingham

Event Comment: [By John Gay.] True Briton, 22 Jan.: I was a Spectator, the first Night, at...The Captives; when I was Witness to a Ceremony, which I can never judge to be either beneficial to the Author, or contribute much to the Entertainment of the Town. There were large Quantities of Brandy distributed amongst the Footmen in the Boxes, and that in so plentiful a manner, that several of them were carried out of the House dead drunk. This, it seems, is call'd, Christening a Play

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Horton. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Benefit Griffin. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. [Prince of Wales and Princess Caroline present.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Horton. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: The Play of Hamlet is oblig'd to be deferr'd. [An extra notice appeared in the General Advertiser: This evening the Play of the Provok'd Wife will be perform'd at Drury Lane, the parts of Sir John and Lady Brute to be performed by Garrick and Mrs Pritchard."] Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Ward. Afterpiece: Never acted there before. Mainpiece: Not acted this season. Mrs Ward having been defrauded of a number of Tickets for the above play, those sold at the door will not be admitted. [Afterpiece is John Lee's alteration of Wycherley's play into two acts. See dl 26 April 1765.] @Receipts #74 2s. 6d.@House charges #63@Candles #1 5s.@Extra: Kettle drum 5s.@Side Drum 2s.@Wardrobe #1 9s.@Total #66 1s.@Balance due Mrs Ward #8 1s. 6d.@Tickets 115 129 179 #66@Money #74 2s. 6d.@Total value of House #140 2s. 6d. (Account Book). [Mrs Ward seems to have profited only to the extent of #74 1s. 6d.

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; F 1, by John Rose; in Town and Country Magazine, Aug. 1788, p. 374, said to be translated from a French farce]. "Edwin was too ill to sing, but went through the part [in Peeping Tom; see 16 Aug.]" (Public Advertiser, 4 Aug.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Joseph Richardson, based on The Coxcomb, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Prologue by Richard Tickell. Epilogue by John Burgoyne (see text)]: With new Dresses, Decorations, &c. Morning Herald, 1 May 1792: This Day is published The Fugitive (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #315 7s. 6d. (275.0.0; 39.2.0; 1.5.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Farley, Mrs Chapman & Mrs Mills. 1st piece: Not acted these 3 years. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1]. 3rd piece: With Alterations and Additions. Not acted these 20 years [acted 29 Oct. 1781.] Receipts: #313 12s. 6d. (95.13.0; 3.1.6; tickets: 214.18.0)

Event Comment: SSir John Brute, Mr Garrick (Cross Diary). The Fair Penitent was advertised for Wednesday the 11th: a Rehearsal was call'd on Tuesday the 10. About nine o'clock in the morning Mr Barry sent for & told me he was so ill that would be impossible for him to play for sometime & that he would give up his salary till he was able to play (Hopkins MS Memorandum Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Love--Sir John Brute. A fat performance (and as Mr L--- says) he wanted breath to blow the Jokes out (Hopkins Diary). On 1 April 4 n[umbers] of Dramatic Censor published (Winston MS 10)

Event Comment: The King's Company. The date of the first performance is not known. Wilson (Six Restoration Play-Dates, pp. 222-23) argues from a number of references (principally in the Epilogue) to events of early 1681 which point to a premiere near May 1681: to the dissolution of Parliament, 28 March 1681; to the comet which appeared in November 1680 and disappeared in January 1680@1; to the Hatfield Maid; to William Lilly, the astrologer, who is referred to as though alive, thus suggesting a premiere before his death, 9 June 1681. It is possible that the premiere may have been earlier than this. In 1681 was published Poeta de Tristibus; or, The Poet's Complaint, whose author had obviously read the Prologue and Epilogue to The Unhappy Favourite. He represents himself as a disappointed dramatist whose tragedy has been rejected by both houses because "their Summer-store@Will all this Winter last." With the work entered in the Term Catalogues in 1682 and a copy purchased by Narcissus Luttrell with his note "4d 1681 12 Nov" (see A Bibliography of John Dryden, ed. Macdonald, pp. 235-36), his quotations from the Epilogue to The Unhappy Favourite and references to the Prologue would offer no difficulties if it were not that the "Author's Epistle" in which the references are made is dated "at Dover the Tenth day of January 1680@1," thus suggesting that he had seen the Prologue and Epilogue before that date. Nevertheless, some of the references in the Epilogue (to Heraclitus Ridens, beginning on 1 Feb. 1680@1, and Democritus Ridens, beginning on 14 March 1680@1) preclude a January premiere for the Prologue and Epilogue. Possibly the dating of the "Author's Epistle" is in error

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not certain, but Luttrell acquired his copy of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue on 18 Aug. 1684. (Bindley Collection, William Andrews Clark@Jr@Library), and the play was probably first performed on that day or in the preceding week. The Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 221-23. In the broadside the speaker of the Prologue is identified as Jevon. A sofg, Ah poor Oliver never boast, the verse by a Lady, and the music by R. King, is in A Collection of Twenty-Four Songs, 1685. Another, Damon if you wilt believe me, the verse by a Person of Quality and the music by Alexander Damascene, is in The Banquet of Musick, The Fifth Book, 1691. Two songs, Tell me no more I am deceived, the verse by Sir George Etherege and the music by J. B. Draghi, and Who can resist my Celia's charms, the music by J. B. Drahgi, and the verse by A Person of Quality, are in the printed play. This cast contains the last new role certainly assigned to John Wiltshire, who, according to (Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 84-85), entered the army and was killed in action

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Sestini. Public Advertiser, 13 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Sga Sestini, No. 52, Margaret-street, Cavendish Square. Afterpiece [1st time; burl 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 616; not published]: Taken from the Italian of La Serva Padrona [by Gennaro Antonio Federico]. The Music chiefly the Original of Parosasi [i.e. Pergolesi, and so spelled on playbill of 17 Feb.]. The new Music composed by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #256 5s. 6d. (198/12/0; 7/3/6; tickets: 50/10/0) (charge: none listed)

Event Comment: Benefit for Wilson. 1st piece: Taken from Beaumont and Fletcher. 2nd piece [1st time; F 2, by John Dent. Prologue by Turner (see text)]. 4th piece: A Tragical, Comical, Operatical, Pastorical, Pantomimical, Farcical, Burlettical, Preludical, Interludical, Whimsical, Rhetorical, Diabolical, Oratorical Representation, being the most Comical Tragedy that ever was Tragedized by any Comical Company of Tragedians. With the Triumphal Entry of Chrononhotonthologos into Queerumania, attended with Drums, Trumpets, Fiddles, Flutes, Fifes, Flagelcts, Lutes, Bag-Pipes, Tabours and Pipes, Marrowbones and Cleavers, Post-Horns, French-Horns, Salt Box, Broomstickados, &c

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but it followed The Gordian Knot Unty'd, which is mentioned in the Prologue. Edward III was advertised in the London Gazette, No. 2629, 19-22 Jan. 1690@1, and entered in the Term Catalogues, February 1690@1. The authorship is uncertain. The title page bears no author's name, but the Dedication is signed by Will. Mountfort. In addition, on 10 Oct. 1691 Mountfort received a grant of #10 when Edward III was played before the Queen (L. C. 5@150, p. 306, in Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 357). On tne other hand, the Gentleman's Journal, October 1692, stated that it was written by the author of Henry the Second, which has been attributed to John Bancroft. See Nicoll, Restoration Drama, pp. 388-89, for a summation of the evidence on this problem. Alfred Harbage, Elizabethan-Restoration Palimpsest, Modern Language Review, XXXV (1940), 319, thinks that this is a revision of Robert Davenport's The Politic Queen