Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry, who humbly requests those ladies and gentlemen who have taken places in the Pit, will be pleased to come early to prevent confusion in getting to their seats. Tickets deliver'd for Thursday March 24, will be taken. Mainpiece: Not acted these 16 years. [See 8 Dec. 1757.] [Hopkins MS Notes identifies Ismena as Mrs I. Barry.] Pit and boxes laid together. Paid Properties #1 15s. 2d. Housekeeper's bill #6 10s. 6d.; 1 yrs Watch for St Martin's to 14 Feb. last #10 16s. 9d. Receipts: #273 13s. Charges: #65 2s. Profits to Mrs Barry: #208 11s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Rec'd Stopages #1 3s. Paid 4 days salary list #289 5s. 8d. at #72 6s. 5d. per diem; Mrs Abington in full of #60, for cloaths #1; Mr S. French #1 10s.; Mr S. Barry and Wife 1 days salary in full #8 6s. 8d.; Sieur Daigville and Wife ditto #1 (Treasurer's Book)

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: By Particular Desire. [The BM Playbill lists Mercury-Barry">Bannister.] Half past six went into ye Pit to see $Barry do Hastings and Mrs Dancer Jane Shore. Before ye play began, ended reading ye parts of Hastings, Jane Shore and Dumont. When ye Gods called for ye Prologue, York beckoned to be quiet. What authority these fellows assume! T. Barry did Dumont, but he will never be equal to his father. The Entertainment was Lethe. Old Man and Lord Chalkstone by Shuter. Garrick, who sat near me, laughed at his understanding ye character of Lord Chalkstone so little, as to say--"She married for money, and I for a title." Drunken man pretty well by Weston (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: Read ye parts of Varanes and Athenais before I went into ye Pit to see ye Play of Theodosius. Barry and Mrs Dancer are excellent in Varanes and Athenais. Young Barry did Theodosius, and Sowdon Marcian, who, tho' ugly, has a pretty good person and is a tolerably good player. Liontine by Bannister

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: Barry played Lear very well. His broken voice is appropriate in that character; tho' I am apt to imagine that certain nice inflections of voice in expressing ye language of passion, are mistaken for a failure of ye voice itself...[partial cast]. Young Barry was tolerable in some parts of Edgar, but very inanimate in ye last scenes...The House very full

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry. Part of pit laid into boxes. ["On 25 March Mrs Baddeley set off for Dublin, induced by her husband's behaviour" (Winston MS 10, from Dr Burney's News Clippings). But she was advertised as singing the part of Rhodope in the afterpiece the night of the twenty-sixth.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. [See 10 May 1771.] Benefit for J. Bannister and W. Barry. Paid Easter Offering for St Martin's one year 10s. 6d.; Chorus 2 nights (this incl.) #3 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Tickets delivered by Kear will be taken. Receipts: #135 11s. Charges: #84. Profits to J. Bannister and W. Barry: #51 11s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The date of the premiere is not known. Pepys saw it on 6 March 1679@80, calling it a "New Play," and that may have been the first day. The Prologue alludes also to the Duke of York's triumphant return from Scotland on 24 Feb. 1679@80, and the play was entered in the Term Catalogues, May 1680. For Mrs Bracegirdle as the "little Girl," see Edmund Curll, History of the English Stage (1741), p. 26, and Lucyle Hook, Anne Bracegirdle's First Appearance, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1959), 134. For Betterton as Castalio and Mrs Barry as Monimia, probably as they performed in the next decade, see Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, I, 116, 160. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 37) gives the same cast except for omissions and except for Serina-Barry">Mrs Mountfort, who acted it later. Downes (pp. 37-38) adds: [Monimia, Belvidera in Venice Preserved, and Isabella in The Fatal Marriage] These three Parts, gain'd her the Name of Famous $Mrs Barry, both at court and City; for when ever She Acted any of these three Parts, she forc'd Tears from the Eyes of her Auditory, especially those who have any Sense of Pity for the Distress't. These 3 Plays, by their Excellent Performances, took above all the Modern Plays that succeeded. A song for this play, Come all the youths whose hearts have bled, the music by Forcer, is in Choice Ayres and Songs, The Third Book, 1681

Event Comment: Benefit for Barry. [Afterpiece a Comedy in two Acts by MacNamara Morgan from Shakespeare.] Shuter did fine in the farce (Cross). Music composed by Arne. Part of Pit will be laid into the boxes, where and upon stage servants will be allowed to keep Places

Event Comment: Benefit for Barry. Afterpiece: By MacNamara Morgan. Receipts: #133 14s. 6d. plus Tickets #163 3s. (boxes 479; pit 230; gallery 89). Charges #63. Total value of House: #296 17s. 6d. Profit to Barry #233 17s. 6d. Paid Samuel Wale for painting figures Boys & other decorations in a scene designed by Servandoni #5 5s. Paid Matthew Pearce, Bricklayer, #230, on account of the New Building. Paid Thomas Pervil for sundry cloaths as specified below, #112, 17s.: A Bloom Colored Brocade coat & Breeches with silver flowers & a Gold & Silver Brocaded Waistcoat & Coffs, #8; A Pompador Velvet Coat, Waistcoat & 2 pr. Breeches shot with silver, #11 11s.; A Blue cut and uncut Velvet Suit, Flower'd and Gold Ground, #10 10s.; A Dove colored Brocade Coat & Breeches, Gold & Flowers & a Gold & Silver Brocade waistcoat & Cuffs, #10 10s.; A Blue & Silver Brocade Coat & Breeches & Silver Brocade waistcoat & Cuffs, #10; a light color'd coat & Breeches & a blue silk waistcoat with gold lace, #14; A copper color'd velvet coat & breeches, and yellow waistcoat, embroider'd with gold, #20; A blue velvet suit, plain, #4 10s.; A crimson velvet Roab Surcoat, belt sword & Bonnet worn by a Peer in Parliament, & a Green velvet Roab, purple velvet surcoat & hood-a Knight of the Thistle's dress, #17 16s.; a plain crimson velvet suit, #6 (Account Book)

Event Comment: At 5 went into the Pit to see Barry do Lear, being his first appearance on that stage these 10 years (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry. Mrs Barry hopes that those Ladies and Gentlemen who have taken places will be so good as to excuse the Alteration of the Play; as she has given the earliest notice in her power. N.B. Tickets deliver'd for the Countess of Salisbury will be taken

Event Comment: JJane Shore for the 1st time by Miss Younge--so, so--spoke much too low.--Mrs Barry was very well in Alicia (Hopkins Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Afterpiece: By Desire. Last time of performing till the Holidays. Tickets for Isabella will be taken. Part of pit laid into boxes

Event Comment: Benefit for Barry. Mainpiece: By Elijah Fenton (Genest, V, 269). By Samuel Pordage (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Mrs Barry--Imogen (first time) not so well as was expected (Hopkins Diary). Mrs Barry, Imogen (Cross Diary)