Event Comment: Benefit Garrick. By particular desire 5 rows of the pit will be railed into boxes--Servants will be admitted to keep places on the stage, which for the better accomodation of the ladies will be formed into boxes--the ladies are desired to send their servants by three o'clock--to begin at 6 o'clock. Tickets to be had of Garrick at his lodgings, the last house in James St., joining the Great Piazza; at the Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden; Mr Vaillant's, Bookseller at the Strand; Mr Harrache's, Toyman in Long Acre; and of Mr Hobson at the stage door of the theatre where places for the Boxes may be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Pritchard. Mainpiece: Written by Shakespear. Servants admitted to keep places on the stage, which will be fram'd into Front and side boxes, and entirely enclosed after the manner of an Oratorio. Ladies are desired to send servants to keep places to prevent mistakes. Tickets and places to be had at Mrs Pritchard's in Duke's late Earl's Court, Bow St.; At Mr Vaughan's, the Royal Exchange, Cornhill, and at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit for Havard. By Particular Desire. Ode written by Havard, and set to music by Mr Bates. Tickets to be had at Mr Havard's in Broad Court, Bow-Street; at Tom's and the Bedford Coffee Houses; and of Mr Varney at the Stage Door, where places for the Boxes may be taken. Ode deliver'd Gratis

Event Comment: [Song and Chorus] Written over our late Victory over the French Fleet (General Advertiser). (bad) upon beat F: fleet (Cross). [The battle was fought on 25 Oct. off Cape Finisterre. Accounts, both French and English, appeared in the General Advertiser by 16 Nov.] Receipts: 120 (Cross); #114 16s. (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive, Mainpiece: At the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Part of Pit rail'd into Boxes. Stage form'd into front and side Boxes. Send servants by 3. Tickets and places of Mrs Clive in Great Queen St., Lincolns Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Cross: Ned Thompson dy'd. Receipts: #220 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash #78; tickets, #94 10s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Dance by Signor Grimaldi (Cross). Receipts: #170 (Cross); #154 12s. (Winston MS 8)

Event Comment: Mainpiece:In I A Grand Masqueradev. Afterpiece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Thomas John Dibdin]: To conclude with a new Scenic Representation of Britannia Triumphantv. Interspersed With a Variety of favorite old Airs, popular Songs, Parodies, &c. The Overture and new Songs composed and the Music in general arranged by Moorehead. The Machinery invented and executed by Cresswell. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre, price Six-pence. Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1799: This day is published The Naval Pillar (price not listed). The afterpiece had reference to the contemplated erection of a "Naval Pillar" on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, in commemoration of the recent victbries of the English navy. A plain pillar is at the last introduced, with the names of the most celebrated admirals on a scroll, round which the sailors and their sweethearts dance with peculiar festivity. The pillar now flies open, and displays a most magnificent and appropriate spectacle--consisting of Britannia, personated by Mrs Chapman, under a rich canopy, with the figures of a sailor and a soldier for supporters, pointing to the letters G. R. over a brilliant sun, which turns on the center; shrouded in clouds above, and surrounded by angels, is a medallion of Lord Howe, and on columns on each side of the canopy are medallions of your great living naval commanders" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1799, p. 180). Receipts: #284 10s. 6d. (277.18.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Walter and Pelling. Mainpiece: Taken from Plautus and Moliere. [Tickets of Mrs Walter at her House in back of Mr Acton's, Fishmonger, in Bridge Street, and of Pelling at Mr Dailey's, Jeweller, in dl.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Woffington. As ye Curtain was rising for ye farce a Gentleman's sword was taken out of ye Scabbard & carry'd up with ye Curtain & there Hung to ye terror of those under it (least it shou'd fall) & ye Mirth of ye rest of ye Audience--a Scene man fetch'd it down (Cross). Four rows of the Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes; and the stage form'd into front and side boxes. Tickets and places of Hobson at the stage door. Receipts: #240 (Cross); house charges, #50 (Powel).This was also in her agreement to pay no more than the above sum (Powel). Cash, #84 19s. 6d.; tickets, #100 3s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit for Jefferson, Phebe, Dennison, and Morris (Cross); for Jefferson, Dennison, Mrs Toogood, Miss Hippisley (Public Advertiser). [Cross's Phebe seems to refer to Miss Hippisley who played the part in As You Like It.] Receipts: #104 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Egerson [formerly Mrs Higginson]. Morning Chronicle, 24 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Egerson, No. 79, Lower Gower-street, Bedford-square. Receipts: #263 5s. (125.9.6; 5.18.6; tickets: 131.17.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Muilment. Tickets to be had at his lodgings, next door to Old Slaughter's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane; and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Those Gentlemen and Ladies who intend to honour Mr Muilment with their company, are desired to send their commands to Mr Hobson as above; and to prevent Mistakes, are requested to take tickets for the places they order to be kept for 'em

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Younger. By Command of His Royal Highness. Written by Mr Farquhar. Receipts: money #75 17s.; tickets #119 6s. Daily Journal, 21 March: After the Play...the Prince of Wales and a great Number of the Nobility being Present, Mr Leveridge (whose Benefit is also to come very shortly) advanced upon the Stage, and after paying his Honours to the Audience, invited them to his Benefit, by a humorous Song set to the merry Tune of the Black Joke; which was receiv'd by the whole House with a universal Encore

Event Comment: Benefit Rochetti and Mrs Wright. Mainpiece: Written by Mr Wycherley. Afterpiece: Written by Mr Farquhar. Receipts: money #34 4s.; tickets #146 13s

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: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Tickets deliver'd by Mrs Lampe, and Mrs Jones, Mrs Masters (formerly Miss Lalauze), Besford, Miss Cranfield, Bates, Widow Wise, Widow Emery, and Ledger, and those deliver'd for She Stoops to Conquer will be taken. Doors open half past 5. To begin at half past 6 o'clock

Event Comment: Benefit Estcourt. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. London in 1710 (pp. 138-39): On this occasion the actors represented a prodigiously satirical Interscenium, which was not to be found in the printed copy of the play....In this interlude a troop of soldiers came on, singing at the top of their voices an English song which had been made by the army in Flanders about the Duke of Marlborough. In it Prince Eugene is praised for his open-handedness, while Marlborough, on the other hand, is blamed for his avarice, so that every verse ended: 'but Marlborough not a penny.' The people, who are very bitter against the whole family, even the Duke himself, laughed prodigiously, and bandied about monstrous insults, although Marlborough's daughter, the Duchess of Montagu, was herself at the play and was so greatly shamed that she was covered with blushes....When the song was at an end, there was such a clapping and yelling that the actors were unable to proceed for nearly a quarter of an hour

Event Comment: Benefit for myself & Wife (Cross). Last time of performing the afterpiece this season. Tickets of Cross at Crown-Court, Russel St., Covent Garden, &c. Receipts: #256 (Cross)

Event Comment: Not Acted these Fourteen Years. Written by the late Mr Farquhar. N.B. In Consideration of the Diversion the French Children have given the Town, Mr Rich has engag'd their Stay in England for some time longer, and on Thursday next they will perform again. Receipts: #25 1s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: At the Particular Desire of some Persons of Quality. [The song, apparently by Cibber, upon the victory off Cape Finisterre displeased Cross the night before, but met with sufficient popular appeal to have a run.] Receipts: #82 (Cross); #88 14s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness. King etc. (Cross). Receipts: #190 (Cross); #171 8s. (Powel)

Event Comment: Gift for ye Sufferers by ye fire in Cornhill (Cross). [A column and a half "Letter to the Author" appeared in the General Advertiser this day, laying historical background for Ford's Lover's Melancholy]. The history of the stage before the Restoration is like a Foreign Land, in which no Englishman had ever travelled; we know there were such things as Playhouses, and one Shakespear a great writer, but the historical traces of them are so imperfect, that the manner in which they existed is less known to us, than that of Eschylus or the theatres of Greece. For this reason, 'tis hoped that the following Gleaning of Theatrical History will readily obtain a place in your paper. 'Tis taken from a Pamphlet written in the reign of Charles I, with this quaint title, "Old Ben's Light Heart made heavy by young John's Melancholly Lover"; and as it contains some historical anecdotes and altercations concerning Ben Johnson, Ford, Shakespear, and the Lover's Melancholy it is imagined that a few extracts from it at this juncture, will not be unentertaining to the Public. [The substance of the remainder retails Jonson's critical cantankerousness and his wounded pride at the failure of the New Inn, quoting some epigrams made at Jonson's expense on his allegation that Ford was a plagiary. This second "puff" for the play, presumably also written by Macklin, formed the basis for a Steevens-Malone controversy late in the century, centering on the existence or nonexistence of the pamphlet referred to by Macklin as "Old Ben's Light Heart made Heavy, &c." A summary account of the evidence appears in the Dramatic Works of John Ford, by Henry Weber (Edinburgh, 1811) I, Intro. XVI, XXXI.] Receipts: #210 (Cross); #208 1s. (Powel)

Event Comment: Peace Proclaim'd (Cross). Yesterday most of the Foreign Ministers had a very grand entertainment at Pontack's, on Account of the Peace being proclaimed yesterday at Paris. This morning the Peace is to be proclaim'd, pursuant to his majesty's royal warrant, signed for that purpose, the ceremony of which is to be in the following manner (General Advertiser). [Follows an account of the five places and times of reading the proclamation throughout the city.] Receipts: #120 (Cross); #116 15s. (Powel)