Event Comment: Benefit for Ackman. Tickets to be had at Pond's in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden; and of Mr Johnston, at the Theatre. House charges #84. Profit to Ackman #123 10s.; Paid Mr Davies's note to Liddell, #3 3s.; Paid extra Flute and Hautboy 10s.; Chorus 2 nights (this incl.) #4 1s. Receipts: #207 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw, Mrs Millidge, Mrs Johnston. Afterpiece by Allan Ramsay, with the Original Music, New Accompanyments, and a New Medley Scotch Overture. By Particular Desire. Paid Properties #1 17s. 7d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #207 15s. Charges: #65 10s. Profits: #142 5s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Westminster New Lying in Hospital, near Westminster Bridge. N.B. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who have taken tickets, are desired to secure places immediately, of Mr Johnston at the Stage Door. [The Theatrical Monitor, No IX, asked this day for a public declaration of receipts and salary expenditures for the 1766-67 season from Garrick and Lacy. Not receiving it the war breaking out in January came to absorb his interest, and the estimate never appeared.] Receipts: #261 4s. 6d. (Winston MS 10)

Event Comment: Two glass branches added to the Stage Boxes, and look well (Hopkins MS Notes). Places may be had of Mr Johnston at the Stage Door. Doors open half past 4 o'clock. Play to begin exactly at 6 o'clock. Vivat Rex et Regina. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by Prince Hoare. Larpent MS 1126; not published; synopsis of plot in Monthly Magazine, May 1796, p. 320]: With new Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, &c. The Musick principally composed by the late Mr Storace [who had died on 19 Mar.], with a few Selections from Paisiello, Haydn and Sarti. [Grove, under Storace, states that the music was completed and prepared for the stage by Kelly and Sga Storace.] The Scenes designed and executed by Marinari and assistants. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. "It was exceedingly tedious the first night, not being over till eleven o'clock. Since, it has been prudently cut down, and yet has lost nothing. A prologue, written on the very morning of representation, deploring the loss of the composer, was spoken (perfectly) by the last unfortunate Benson [for whom see 9 June. It was written by Hoare (Universal Magazine, May 1796, p. 362), and Was perhaps spoken only on the 1st night; it is not listed on any playbill]" (Monthly Magazine, May 1796, p. 320). "In short, possessing all the science of Harrison, the melody of Incledon, and the pleasing articulation of the late Mrs Kennedy, we have no hesitation in pronouncing [Braham] the first public singer of the present day. He was three times encored. His action is indifferent, and his dialogue scarcely audible" (Morning Herald, 2 May). Receipts: #297 14s. (258.10.6; 38.19.6; 0.4.0)

Event Comment: Mrs Bradshaw & Mrs Johnston great Applause to the Farce (Hopkins Diary). Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston. Afterpiece: Written by Henry Fielding, not played for 25 years. [Actually last played there 19 May 1759.] Music compiled from the works of the most eminent composers. Rec'd from Sinking Fund (2nd) #525, from Stopages #14 2s. Paid salary list #564 16s.; J. French on acct #5 5s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #114 2s. 6d. Charges: #66 12s. 6d. Profits to Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston: #47 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by William Henry Ireland; incidental music by William Linley. Prologue by Sir James Bland Burges; Epilogue by Robert Merry (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses & Decorations. The Scenes designed and excuted by Greenwood and Capon. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay & Miss Rein. Printed slip attached to Kemble playbill: A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. [i.e. those forged by W. H. Ireland, of which this play was one] having appeared, on the Eve of representation of Vortigern, evidently intended to injure the interest of the Proprietor of the MSS., Mr Samuel? Ireland [W. H. Ireland's father] feels it impossible, within the short space of time that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in Mr Malone's enquiry [i.e. Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers attributed to Shakspeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry, Earl of Southampton, 1796]. He is therefore induced to request that Vortigern may be heard With that Candour that has ever distinguished a British Audience. The Play is now at the Press, and will in a very few days be laid before the Public. [But it was not issued until 1799 (see below). See also Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, London, 1966.] 4 Apr., states that the first three acts were listened to with patience, but beginning with the fourth act the play was damned, when "one tremendous yell of indignation from the pit burst simultaneously." "At four o'clock the doors of the theatre were besieged; and, a few minutes after they were opened, the pit was crowded solely with gentlemen. Before six not a place was to be found in the boxes, and the passages were filled...The audience betrayed symptoms of impatience early in the representation; but, finding its taste insulted by bloated terms, which heightened the general insipidity, its reason puzzled by discordant images, false ornaments, and abortive efforts to elevate and astonish, pronounced its sentence of condemnation at the conclusion of the play" (Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 346-47). "Irelands play of Vortigern I went to. Prologue spoken at 35 minutes past 6 [see 29 Mar.]: Play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near 3 acts, when some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, mixed with groans-Kemble requested the audience t o hear the play out abt. the end of 4th act and prevailed.-The Epilogue was spoken by Mrs Jordan who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeares. Barrymore attempted to give the Play out for Monday next but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on, & after some time, was permitted to say that "School for Scandal would be given," which the House approved by clapping. Sturt of Dorsetshire was in a Stage Box drunk, & exposed himself indecently to support the Play, and when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth [i.e. a carpet which, by custom, was laid on the stage during the concluding scene of a tragedy], Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges" (Joseph Farington, Diary, 1922, I, 145). Account-Book, 4 Apr.: Paid Ireland his share for the 1st Night of Vortigern #102 13s. 3d. Morning Chronicle, 29 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Vortigern and Henry the Second (4s.). Receipts: #555 6s. 6d. (528.6.0; 26.9.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Thomas Holcroft, based on Diego und Leonore, by Johann Christoph Unzer. Prologue and Epilogue by Francis Godolphin Waldron (Thomas Holcroft, Life, ed. Elbridge Colby, 1925, II, 125)]: With new Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. The Scenery by Marinari. [Johnston was from cg.] Times, 12 July 1798: This Day is published The Inquisitor (2s.)