Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Poitier. Afterpiece: Alter'd from Addison. The Music entirely new set by Mr Arnold. [Original three acts reduced to two.] To be performed for this night only. Charges #75 14s. [Profit to Mrs Thompson #59 7s. 6d. plus #48 9s. from tickets (Box 135; Pit 98) (Account Book). As indicated by the name Mrs Thompson in the Account Book, Miss Poitier was already married by this time, although she does not appear in the Bills under the name Mrs Thompson until 16 Sept. 1767. She was first married to Vernon, the singer at Drury Lane.] Receipts: #135 1s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Gibson. Mainpiece: Not acted these 25 years. Written originally by Shakespeare, and reviv'd and adapted to the stage by Mr Theobald. Charges #66 5s. [Profit to Gibson #37 18s. 6d. plus #30 15s. from Tickets (Box 79; Pit 74).] Paid one year's Rector's Rate for the Theatre #8 6s. 8d., and for House in Bow Passage, due at Lady Day 8s. 4d. (Account Book). [Neville attended, noted the information contained in the playbill, but could not hear well from his 2s. seat in the Gallery.] Receipts: #104 3s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for King. House charges #76 10s. [Profit to King #55 14s.] Paid Master Burney 15 nights #3 2s. 6d. Printer's bill #9 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #132 4s. (Treasurer's Book). At 5 went to the Pit at Drury Lane to see the Clandestine Marriage...I could see this play, as it is now performed, every night, but J. Palmer was not so good in Brush as the other Mr Palmer whose character it is. Plym did not please tonight. The scene between the lawyers was omitted. We had the Irish Lilt by Mrs King, Giorgi, &c., and a comic scene by her and M Dugermay, with Linco's Travels...Mrs King is certainly a very fine dancer and has the best legs I ever saw. Past eleven ere we got out. A little girl of 7 or 8 years old danced very prettily (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Widow Vincent. House charges #64 15s. 6d. [Deficit Mrs Vincent #20 3s. 6d.] Rec'd by draft on Mr Clutterbuck #200, and from Sinking Fund #287; Paid Blandford (tallow chandler) #27 18s. 11d.; and French on account #12 12s. (Treasurer's Book). Fifteen minutes past 5 went to the 2s. gallery...(Widow Vincent's voice pleases me much. Holland did Oakly,-he imitates Garrick, but is very inferior to him (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #44 12s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Grimaldi (ballet master) and Moody. House charges #64 17s. [Profits to Moody and Grimaldi #5 9s. plus tickets.] Farce not acted in 3 years. [See 12 April 1764.] At 9 got to Drury Lane, could not get in at ye left side of ye Pit or first Gallery. After waiting till the play was over at the other door of ye Pit, got in and saw the Vintage, by Mrs King and Sg Grimaldi (whose benefit and Mr Moody's it was). He dances much better than the fellow who usually dances that dance. My intention in going was to see the F, of the Register Office, not acted these 3 years. [All characters done well] such characters are ye effects of our ill-cemented union (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #70 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. Paid printer's bill #9 6s (Treasurer's Book). The New Tragedy of Dido, for Benefit of the author, is oblig'd to be deferr'd till Thursday next. Receipts: #229 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Had no intention of going to the play, but seeing Garrick was to play Lord Chalkstone, I (after hearing Mr Romaine's Lecture on the chapter which contains ye Destruction of Sodom) went before 9 to ye right-side door of ye Pit. The doorkeepers said, --No Room. Saw that ye Canopy, Yeomen, &c. would prevent my seeing. They desired me if I could not get in at ye other door to come back. Found a number of people waiting there and at ye door of the First Gallery; so went back, entered and stood in ye same disagreeable situation I did last night. But I saw the inimitable Garrick very well. [Comments on excellence of whole cast.] Scarcely cool now past eleven o'clock. Ye King and Queen, Princess of Brunswick, Louisa, and all that Tribe were at dl tonight (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Benefit for Legg, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Jones. Afterpiece: For the last time this season. Tickets deliver'd for Hamlet will be taken. The Dragon of Wantly cannot be perform'd on account of indisposition of Mrs Pinto. Charges #67 9s. 6d. [Profit to each beneficiary #2 19s. 6d. plus income from tickets: Legg #84 2s. (Box 129; Pit 251; Gallery 142); Mrs Lampe and Mrs Jones combined #74 15s. (Box 102; Pit 219; Gallery 164).] Paid Bryan a bill for writing parts #1 1s. 6d. Paid Cooper (printer) #27 2s. Paid Condell for Coach hire, the last command by order of Mr Beard 2s. (Account Book). Before 5 went to ye Play...It was played tolerably well; Cleopatra very well by Mrs Bellamy, Octavia (for ye 1st time) by Mrs Mattocks, Antony by Smith, Vent. by Gibson not badly. We had ye Dances, Rural Love and ye Wapping Landlady (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #76 8s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mortimer, Tomlinson, West, Lings. House charges #84. [Deficit to actors #60 4s.] Received Mr Evans and Miss Roger's deficiency #28 18s. 6d. Paid Ann Collett for a gold brocaided silk #10 10s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #23 16s. (Treasurer's Book). Went into ye Pit...Vernon is an excellent MacHeath. I don't like Yates as Peachum so well as Shuter, and Parsons is not so good a Filch as Holborn. Bransby ye Lockit and Mrs Abington Lucy pretty well...Polly-$Mrs Vincent, who is now too old for ye character, and I think wants feeling...One Tomlinson, who had a 4th of the Benefit, spoke an Epilogue in the character of a Beggar, but by one party hissing and a greater clapping, could not hear it.--At Covent Garden a Hurdy-Gurdy man and girl play in the whore's scene, and as the Highwaymen march out, one returns and kisses MacHeath, and Shuter says some things Yates did not, but perhaps they are additions of his own (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Doors to open at half past Four. Play to begin at half past Six. Send servants to hold places by Four o'clock. [Mrs Vincent's deficit of 1st instant received #20 3s. 6d.] Paid scavenger's rate for St Martin's due Lady Day #5 1s. Paid printer's bill #9 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #262 7s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Went to Drury Lane, but could not get in. Stayed from half past 4, sometime at one Pit door, sometime at the other, till past 6, and got in at the right hand side just as the play began, and was dreadfully squeezed, but rewarded by seeing Garrick play Hamlet. The expression in his features, his eyes particularly, surpasses anything I ever saw. He is a little man, but handsome and full of that fire which marks the stronger, and of the softness natural to the tender passions. It is impossible to see his greatest excellencies from ye Gallery. Baddeley and Dodd are pretty well in Polonius and Ostrick. Mrs Baddeley and Yates do Ophelia and ye Grave Digger very well. Mrs Pritchard is great, as usual in ye Queen. Gravedigger's man-Castle. Horatio-$Mr Packer. Several parts of ye play, as it is in $Shakespeare, are omitted rather improperly...The Prince Brunswick, his wife and Louisa were present (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: By His Majesty's Company. At the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket [repeated in all bills] will be performed, by particular Desire, a Comedy...Places to be taken of Mr Jewel, at the Theatre. 7 p.m. [Repeated in the bills.] The house has been altered, as there was formerly but one gallery. [Miss Ogilvie was the young gentlewoman.] Went at 5:30 (before ye doors were open) to Foote's new Theatre in ye Haymarket which was open for ye first time tonight, and is very neatly fitted up. Got a good place in ye Pit...a very humorous Prologue in Prose by J. Palmer as Snarl a writer of Political Letters for the newspapers. Weston as Laconic a newspaper poet--Foote as Manager and Scaffold ye Builder (ye real one of ye house as some said)...in Smirk (Foote) took off Langford to a hair, not forgetting his son's affair with Dr Chauncey. Shift and ye Epilogue as Dr Squintum by Bannister, who took off Holland, Dodd, Moody, and Champneys surprisingly well...The house pretty full. York there awhile (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: Read their parts before ye play began....When the curtain was drawn up, ye Gods and even some in the pit (where I was) called for ye occasional prologue, which was not advertised. A fellow who played Gregory answered insolently The Prologue will not be played tonight." This provoked them more and an excuse sent by Davis not being admitted, Mr Foote was obliged to appear and promised that if they would wait till between ye play and ye farce, ye Prologue should be given....All this was not over till past 11 p.m

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: At 6 took my place in ye Pit. I expected ye Taylors would have been damned; but with certain alterations and additions it went off better than it did last night. It is a sort of burlesque tragedy. If there is any wit in it, it is very low and unlike that in Mr Foote's other pieces. The Prologue, spoken by him, is more diverting than any part of ye play. Some Masters and leading Journeymen are taken off. [Cast listed.] The Citizen was vilely performed, except Old Philpot by Weston. Palmer is not equal to ye young one. They went off without concluding it. We had ye Builders Prologue before ye farce, by ye same means we had it last night. Foote wished for ye Builder, as ye person who supplied his place did his part vilely

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: The last three he [Foote] has not done for some time. I like Woodward better in young Philpot. Both add some crochets of their own. I don't think he took off Mr Whitefield well. Cole, Shift and Smirk he does inimitably. He has a great command of features in the ludicrous way, not such as that of Garrick

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No money taken at Stage Door. No Money returned after Curtain is drawn up. [Customary note on subsequent bills.] Yates and Mrs Yates not engag'd. They went to Covent Garden Theatre. Mr Barry and Mrs Dancer engag'd (Winston MS 10). For performances at HAY and MARLY, 12-21 September, see close of Season 1766-1767, pp. 1264-65

Event Comment: By Permission. Benefit for Thomas Barry. Neville MS Diary: Mr Barry having obtained permission to play 3 nights after the time at which Foote by his patent is obliged to shut his house

Event Comment: MMrs Jeffries made her first appearance on this stage in Belinda.--not perfect.--was pretty well received.--is a little smart figure (Hopkins MS Notes). At 15 minutes past 4, took my place in the Pit at Drury Lane to see the Provok'd Wife. Mr Garrick is inimitable as Sir John Brute, Palmer does Heartfree, and Mrs Abington Lady Fanciful (with a song not printed in the play) very well. Constant by Cautherly, whose figure and manner I do not like, Vernon in Col. Bully sings a song (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: First time in 2 years. [See 17 Jan. 1766.] Harlequin's Invasion revived with alterations, particularly a Patagonian Man and Woman, executed by Mr Johnston, are very fine Figures, and gave great satisfaction to the Audience (Hopkins MS Notes)

Event Comment: [T+The Theatrical Monitor, No. V (21 Nov.) includes a letter from Bathyllus: As Dancing has ever been receiv'd by the greatest of dramatic writers, with encomiums suitable to its distinguished merit; you will be pleased through the channel of your justly spirited paper, to express the satisfaction I met with from Mr Aldridge in the Merry Sailor: his stature, strength, agility, and swiftness, are beyond anything I ever saw on Covent Garden theatre: he stands tip-toe on the pinnacle of perfection, and gives us an idea of Homer's pyrrhick dance delineated on the shield of Achilles"] Receipts: #74 17s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: At 5 went into the Pit...Mrs Yates is the Callista Mr Rowe drew; Powell did Scioto well, nor is Bensley a bad Horatio. A new Comic Dance by LaRiviere and Miss Vallois in wooden shoes, with Harlequin Skeleton to which is now added a new scene (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #123 15s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. Music [to afterpiece] by Barthelemon. I often go to both theatres, have seen Garrick and Mrs Yates, who are the first in this theatrical sphere. The former has hitherto [i.e., this season] appeared only in comedy, --his manner, his humour, and his judgment are not to be equall'd. The adoration he meets with from the English is equal to his merit. His every motion they attend to, and every turn of his eye seems to transport them. Mrs Yates [at Covent Garden] has much tragic merit. Her low voice is very tuneful, her feeling great, her action peculiarly graceful and her figure uncommonly fine. She has more power than Mrs Dancer (at Drury Lane] and more variety than Mrs Fitz-Henry, tho' less strength and compass. On the whole she is superior to the former and inferior to the latter. Barry and Mrs Dancer are engag'd here (MS Letter from Henry Grattan to Cornet Broome giving his first impressions of living in London, 27 Oct. 1767, in Folger Library). Neville MS Diary: Went into the Pit to see As You Like It a second time. Reddish did Orlando for the 1st time. He is a pretty good player. End Act I, Hearts of Oak. The Entertainment was the new Farce called a Peep Behind the Curtain. Glib by King who is the author. The piece is not unentertaining, whatever other merit it may have. The Prologue and an Address to the Town by way of Epilogue, are spoken by Mr King, the music by Barthelemon