Event Comment: Benefit for the Widow Jona and her Five Children. Tickets to be had at Arthur's Chocolate House, St James's St.; Prince of Orange's Coffee House, Haymarket; Forrest's Coffee House, Charing Cross; the Rainbow Coffee House in Cornhill; and Places for Boxes to be taken of Mrs Jona in Little Warwick St., Charing Cross, and of Mr Crudge at the stage Door

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is known through a document summarized in The Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror, July 1816, p. 25, and summarized in Fitzgerald, A New History, I, 145. Although this performance is the first certainly known, it is probably not the premiere, for the attendance (see below) was too small for the premiere of a new work by John Dryden. Since the play was entered in the Stationers' Register, January 1678, the first production was probably not long before this performance. The document in The Theatrical Inquisitor gives this information: The King's Box, no receipts; Mr Hayles' boxes, #3 (probably 15 spectators); Mr Mohun's boxes, #1 12s. (probably 8 spectators); Mr Yeats' boxes, 12s. (probably 3 spectators); James' boxes, #2 (probably 10 spectators). Mr Kent's pitt, 82 spectators, and Mr Britan's pitt, 35 spectators, a total of 117, paying #14 12s. 6d. Mr Bracy's gallery, 42 spectators; and Mr Johnson's gallery, 21 spectators; a total of 63 spectators, who paid #4 14s. 6d. Mr Thomson's gallery, 33 spectators, paying #1 13s. The total attendance appears to have been 249; the receipts were #28 4s. The house rent came to #5 14s. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 11) gives a cast which is identical except for omissions

Event Comment: Not Acted these Thirty Years. Written originally in French by Moliere. Original Weekly Journal, 28 June: On Friday 7-Night one Mr Kelley, an Irish Gentleman, was kill'd by Mr Ryan, one of the Actors of Lincolns-Inn-Fields Theatre; the Accident happen'd thus: Mr Ryan being at the Sun-Eating House in Long Acre at Supper; Mr Kelley, who before had terrified several Companions by drawing his Sword upon Persons whom he did not know, came up into the Room drunk, and abused Mr Ryan, who returned him very civil Usage, and desired his Absence: This did not satisfie Mr Kelley, who drew his Sword, made three Passes at Mr Ryan, before he could get his own Sword, which lay by in the Window; at last finding his own Life in Danger, He drew and ran Mr Kelley in the left Side, who fell down and immediately died

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve, London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 2 Oct.: Last Night in the Entertainment of Dr Faustus...when the Machine wherein were Harlequin, the Miller's Wife, the Miller and his the Miller's Man, was got up to the full Extent of its flying, one of the Wires which held up the hind part of the Car broke first, and then the other broke, and the Machine, and all the People in it fell down Upon the Stage; by which unhappy Accident the young Woman who personated the Miller's Wife had her Thigh broke, and her Kneepan shatter'd, and was otherways very much bruised, the Harlequin had his Head bruised, and his Wrist strained; the Miller broke his Arm; and the Miller's Man had his Scull so fractured that his Life in despaired of. Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole, 6 Oct.: Covent Garden has given me a sort of surfeit of Mr Rich and his cleverness, for I was at [cg] when the machine broke t'other night; the house was in amaze for above a minute, and I dare say a great many in the galleries thought it very desterously performed, and that they screamed as naturally as heart could wish, till they found it was no jest, by their calling for surgeons, of whom several luckily happened to be in the pit. I stayed to see the poor creatures brought out of the house, and pity poor Mrs Buchanan not a little, whom I saw put into a chair in such a fright that as she is big with child, I question whether it may not kill her.-Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Thomas Gray, I, 113-14

Event Comment: Benefit Galliard. Set to music by Galliard. Pit and Boxes together at 5s., First Gallery 2s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. 6d. Tickets at Mr Galliard's in Rathbone Place, near Soho Square. Books of the Opera and Interlude at Mr Theobald's the author's house, in Wyan's Court, Great Russel St. Note, Care will be taken to have the House well air'd. [See 16 April 1741, hay.

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Stage form'd into Front and Side Boxes. N.B. As Mr Macklin has reason to believe that several of his tickets are counterfeited, and will be offer'd for sale in the streets and passages leading to the theatre, he begs leave to give this publick caution of the fraud; and humbly desires that Gentlemen and Ladies who have taken places, to send for tickets to the Theatre, or to Mr Macklin at his House in Bow Street.--Daily Advertiser. Winston MS.: In 1743 Macklin, Mrs Woffington, and Garrick took house No. 6 Bow St.--a joint establishment

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Saunders, many years a Comedian, by Command of his Royal Highness the Duke. Tickets to be had of Mrs Saunders at her house, No 7, in Duke's Court, in the Great Almonry, Westminster, of Mr Morrison, at the Two Golden Balls in Long Acre; and of Mr Page at the stage door of the theatre. N.B.: Mrs Saunders humbly hopes those Gentlemen and Ladies who intend to favour her of their company, will excuse her not waiting on them, she not having been able to go out of her House these eighteen months

Event Comment: The Rebellion, is so far from being a disadvantage to the play-houses that, I assure you, it brings them very good houses; and the masters receive so much profit from the Nonjuror, that I wish it does not give them a respect for the name the rest of their lives.-Mrs Cibber to Garrick, 24 Oct. in Boaden, Private Correspondence of Garrick, I, 37. She continues: There will be no operas this year, so if you, Mr Quin and I, agree to play without any salary, and pick up some of the best actors and actresses that are disengaged, at what salary you both think proper, I make no doubt we shall get a licence to play there for fifty, sixty, or any number of nights you agree upon. Mr Heidigger shall pay scenes, & pay those that receive wages; and deliver the overplus to some proper person to enlist men to serve in any of the regiments of Guards, at five pounds per man;--this is the service St. Martin's Parish puts the money to that they collect,--and I mention it, because it is thought the most serviceable to the Government, of any scheme yet proposed

Event Comment: CCross: Benefit for ye Author. Mr Garrick order'd ye foundling to be given out for Sat: & as you like it for Mon: But ye Pit rose, & insisted ye Foundling shou'd be given out again for Monday, wch was done, tho; ye Lords who oppos'd it were in ye House. [Horace Walpole's account of the affair Foundling to Sir Horace Mann, in a letter of 11 March 1748 (ed. Cunningham, II, 106) runs as follows: "There has been a new comedy call'd The Foundling; far from good, but it took. Lord Hobart and some young men made a party to damn it, merely for the love of damnation. The Templars espoused the play, and went aamed with syringes charg'd with stinking oil, and with sticking plaisters for Bubby's fair hair; but it did not come to action. Garrick was impertinent, and the pretty men gave over their plot the moment they grew to be in the right."] Receipts: #170 (Cross); house charges #63 (Powel); cash #168 10s. 6d.; tickets #18 5s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Luke? Sparks. Tickets and places to be had of Hobson at the stage door, and of Sparks at Courteen's Coffee-House in Bow St., Covent Garden. Dramatic Censor, I, 34-35: The whole part of the King, except his soliloquy, is truly wretched for an actor: and, to say truth, I never saw one who did not make a very insipid figure in it, the late Mr Sparks excepted; he was great in the formentioned soliloquy, respectable in every passage of the least regard, and so peculiarly happy in falling, when stabled, from the throne, that we may truly say, a good end apologized for a very bad character. Receipts: #150 (Cross); house charges, #63 (Powel); cash, #80 7s. 6d.; tickets, #91 5s. (Clay MS)