Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. Daily Advertiser, 4 Oct.: Yesterday Morning Mr James Todd, who represented the Miller's Man on Friday Night...and fell in one of the flying Machines from the very top of the Stage by the breaking of the Wires, by which accident his Skull was fractur'd, died in a miserable manner. Susan Warwick, who represented the Miller's Wife, lies at the point of Death at the Infirmary at Hyde-Park Corner: The two other Persons who fell in the same Machine are like to recover, [In London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 2 Oct.: All these unhappy People were Servants belonging to the Theatre, and only Representatives in the different Characters of Mr Lun, Mr Nivelon, Mr Salway, and Mrs Moreau.

Event Comment: Mrs Barry was not in Spirits--not much applause (Hopkins Diary). Mrs Barry Failed greatly tonight from what she did the first night (MacMillan). Rec'd Mr Condill's 2nd payment for Fruit Office #20; Mr Burges one yrs rent to Xmas last with #4 4s. King's tax deducted, #16 16s.; Paid Mr Burges, Bricklayer #53 14s. 6d; Barrow & Co. for Oil #96 1s.; Mr Lawrence, paperhanger, #24 4s. 6d.; Mrs Lowe and Co., glaziers, #13 2s. 6d.; Mr Cropley, linen draper, #17 18s.; Mr Hatsell, mercer, #112 17s.; Hewetson & Co., lacemen, #28 19s. 6d.; Mr Scott, copper laceman, #37 6s. 6d.; Spermacetti Candles' Bill #286 8s.; Mr R. Johnston's Bill #124 5s. (Treasurer's Book). [The Westminster Magazine this month printed a counterblast to the flattering Picture of Garrick given 1 Feb. This article damned him as a manager, and quoted Smollett from Roderick Random, II, 260.] Receipts: #176 18s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard (Cross). Mainpiece: Not acted these 30 years. This day publish'd. Price 1s. Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy. [By Roger Pickering. This is a defense of the theatrical profession, "which in all countries is considered low and contemptible." Author's thesis: "A master of theatrical expression in all its extensive significancy must be possess'd of such accomplishments, as to set the profession above all contempt." Garrick is mentioned as best example. True tragic expression "requires Genius, Education, Reading, Experience...and a solidity of thought which never accompanies abject morals" (p. 11). Includes an interesting treatise on acting-sections on figure, voice, ear, memory, management of feet and legs. Comments on costume: "Taste in dress demands that an actor be conversant in the mode of dress ancient and modern, in other countries as well as in our own...Alexander and Cato were not masters of the snuff box, nor Greek women of French heels." The appendix asks why all our plays are not dressed in character in point of time and place, and why they do not contain at least one "scene" proper to the country. The author (p. 61) sees need for variety in acting same role, especially when a play has a continuous run of several nights. He calls (p. 77) for creation of appropriate mood for the play by selection of proper music between the acts. Wants a softening of the prompter's bell. Concludes by damning contemporary audience manners, especially those of the stage loungers (pp. 79-81).] Receipts: #314 (Cross)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Palmer, but "Last night previous to the new play R. Palmer came forward to make an apology for his brother not being able to make his appearance, having met with an accident in returning from the country in his professional pursuit. His place was supplied by Williamson" (Morning Post, 15 July). He "was thrown out of a chaise on Wednesday evening, by which accident his collar bone was broken" (Gazetteer, 16 July)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; PREL 1, by George Colman, ynger. Larpent MS 951; synopsis of plot in Diary, 16 June. This piece is stated to have been published in 1792]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. 2nd Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Rice, at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00 [same throughout season]. In 1st piece "Parsons was highly entertaining in affecting to speak in an under tone scarcely audible, that the feebleness of his voice might correspond with the smallness of the House, compared with the enormous [new] Theatre over the way; and his broken, unintelligible mode of announcing the Performance to the Audience as a specimen, was truly whimsical" (Morning Herald, 16 June)

Event Comment: [Miss Palmer, a daughter of John Palmer, was from the Edinburgh theatre.]

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains R. Palmer as Pacha, and in afterpiece Palmer as Baron Lovinski, but "R. Palmer being Ill, Benson play'd the Pacha. Palmer continuing Ill, Whitfield play'd the Baron Lovinski' (Powell).] Powell: Roman Father rehearsed at 10; Nobody at 12. Receipts: #352 15s. (279.17.6; 70.15.6; 2.2.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for R. Palmer and Russell. [Miss Dorell is identified in MS list in Kemble playbill of new performers for this season.] True Briton, 31 May: Tickets to be had of R. Palmer, No. 28, Lower Eaton-street, Pimlico; of Russell, No. 46, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury. Receipts: #290 13s. (65.13.0; 52.7.6; 4.3.0; tickets: 168.9.6, of which R. Palmer sold 107.9.6, and Russell 61.0.0) (charge: #225 9s. 3d.)

Event Comment: The United Company. This play was in rehearsal before the death of Charles II-see 6 Feb. 1684@5-and was staged shortly after the playhouse reopened. Luttrell's date of acquisition of the separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue is 9 May 1685 (in possession of Pickering and Chatto, Ltd., 1938), and the play may have been first given on that date or during the week preceding Saturday 9 May 1685. For Cibber's account of Mountfort as Sir Courtly, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 129. The separately-printed Prologue and Epilogue are reprinted in Wiley, Rare Prologues and Epilogues, pp. 228-30. A separately-printed Three New Songs in Sir Courtley Nice (1685) contains three songs, with the music by Samuel Ackroyde and an unknown composer. In addition, two songs, As I grazed unaware and O be kind my dear be kind, both composed by R. King, are in The Theater of Music, Second Book, 1685. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp. 40-41): The first new Comedy after King James came to the Crown, was Sir Courtly Nice, wrote by Mr Crown:...The Comedy being justly Acted, and the Characters in't new, Crown'd it with a general Applause: Sir Courtly was so nicely Perform'd, that not any succeeding, but Mr Cyber has Equall'd him. Note, Mr Griffin so Excell'd in Surly, Sir Edward Belfond, The Plain Dealer, none succeeding in the 2 former have Equall'd him, except his Predecessor Mr Hart in the latter. The Lover's Session; In Imitation of Sir John Suckling's Session of Poets (in Poems on Affairs of State, II [1703], 162): @Montrath was in Foppery conceiv'd another@Of Whitehall true Breed, Sir Nices Twin Brother:@None could tell, so alike all their Follies did seem,@Whether he acted Mumford, or Mumford him.

Event Comment: [See note for 9 Jan. 1770 of a mild riot this night during best scene of The Orphan.] Afterpiece: A New Opera [by George Alexander Stevens] the Music composed by Mr Fisher. Books of the entertainment to be had at the theatre. Gave Duke of Glocester's Footmen #2 2s. (Account Book). [Afterpiece a roaring burlesque of Lee's Rival Queens. Larpent MS 302 includes Semi Chorus, Grand Chorus, and Perdiccas, not listed in the Playbill. The Court awakes with total hangover. Alexander orders a pot of coffee to clear his head. Thais begs him to leave the gout giving juice-Retire with me @ In my Chinese pavilion, drink some Tea." Afterpiece reviewed inthe Freeholder's Magazine for Jan.] Mr Shuter and Mrs Mattocks gave great satisfaction in their different characters; the words of the songs were written by Mr George Alexander Stephens, author of the celebrated Lecture upon Heads, and several other whimsical productions; and the airs which had Uncommon merit, were composed by Mr Fisher, a young genius, who has hitherto been but little known in the musical world. Receipts: #215 8s. 6d

Event Comment: Benefit John Roberts, now Confin'd in the Fleet Prison. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook, at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5.30. To begin at 6:30 [see 3 Nov.]. [No playbill this season lists the various prices of admission; they were probably, as usual: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s.] Afterpiece: To conclude with a Grand Representation of Regattav. Kemble Mem.: No Manager [i.e. King had resigned as acting manager; but see 23 Sept.]. Ivory Tickets introduced. [These tickets, also called "bones," were for the use of actors and other members of the company in gaining admission for themselves or their friends to the front of the house. They replaced paper orders (World, 18 Oct. 1788).] Receipts: #112 3s. 6d. (75.6.0; 35.10.0; 1.7.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. Receipts: #30 5s. 6d. Daily Journal, 11 Jan.: [On Sunday] Night the Corpse of Mr Boheme...was interr'd at Greenwich. The Pall was supported by Mr Quin, Mr Ryan, and 4 other Comedians

Event Comment: Benefit for King. [This was Smith's last appearance on the stage, from which he had officially retired on 9 June 1788.] Broadside in Kemble playbills announcing this benefit: Mr King most respectfully informs the Public that his Night is fixed for Friday the 18th of May, when will be presented The School for Scandal. Mr King has the pleasure to add that Mr Smith, who was so long and so worthily applauded by the Public, and was the original performer of Charles Surface in the above, distinguished Comedy, at the particular request of Mr King, backed by a strong assurance from many admirers and encouragers of the Drama that it will not only add to Mr King's emolument but highly gratify the Town, has kindly consented to return to the Theatre for one night, and resume his favourite Character. "We had been told that Smith pourtrayed the Manners of a finished gentleman with more delicacy and characteristic propriety than any actor of his day; but this did not appear to us to be his particular excellence; he stands too wide to be graceful, and his deportment gains no advantage from a perpetual application of his hand to the lower part of the waist. These habits are far from elegant. His Charles, however, is a favourable specimen of that sort of acting which commonly falls under the denomination of the old school: light, airy, and natural; which excites applause without any anxious endeavour to produce it; which suffers the points to tell of themselves, and does not place them as so many traps to ensnare the injudicious part of the audience" (Monthly Mirror, May 1798, p. 299). "He was received with the most heart-felt gratulations by an audience who did not expect any apology for such acting, though he saw fit to deliver one at the conclusion of the play" (Monthly Visitor, May 1798, p. 72). Times, 4 May: Tickets to be had of King at his house, New Store-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #674 6s. (388.0.6; 55.17.6; 2.0.0); tickets: 228.8.0) (charge: #212 5s. 6d.)