Event Comment: Benefit for Waldron and Mrs Greville. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 23 April 1772.] Mrs Greville Sir Harry Wildair very bad (Hopkins Diary). Receipts: #58 4s. Charges: #65 19s. Deficit to Waldron and Mrs Greville: #7 15s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Waldron & Mrs Greville. Public Advertiser, 19 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Waldron, No. 16, Glanville-street, Rathbone Place; of Mrs Greville at the Orange Warehouse, the Corner of King-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #178 15s. (69.0; 15.1; 0.0; tickets: 94.14) (charge: #74 14s.)

Event Comment: By Permission [of the Lord Chamberlain]. Benefit for Mrs Jewell. The out-standing Tickets of Jewell's, for September the 2d, will be admitted

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Sharp and Mrs Brereton. Public Advertiser, 27 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Sharp, No. 10, Bow-street; of Mrs Brereton, No. 11, Tavistock-street. Receipts: #133 9s. 6d. (79.13.0; 25.0.0; 0.8.6; tickets: 28.8.0) (charge: #75 9s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Walker. Mainpiece: Not acted these 30 years [not acted since 4 Oct. 1722], wrote by Mrs Ccntlivre. Afterpiece: Never performed there. The doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Ladies are requested to send their servants by five o'clock to keep places. Tickets to be had of Walker, the Globe, Pall-mall

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Lefevre. [Author ofPrologue unknown.] Afterpiece: Never performed here [acted 5 Apr. 1734]. Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15. Tickets and places to be had of Mrs Lefevre, No. 25, Frith Street, Soho, and of Rice at the Theatre. Tickets delivered by Holland will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. Morning Herald, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Wells, No. 417, Strand. Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years [not acted since 24 Apr. 1779]. Receipts: #172 2s. 6d. (64/16/0; 26/7/6; 0/6/0; rickets: 80/13/0) (charge: #108 4s. 2d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barnes. Morning Herald, 15 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Barnes, No. 21, Crown-street, Westminster. Receipts: #134 11s. 6d. (69/3/6; tickets: 65/8/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Watts. Mainpiece: Written by Mrs Centlivre; Not acted these 40 years [not acted since 27 Apr. 1731, at Goodman's Fields]. Prologue written by a Gentleman [unidentified; printed in Town and Country Magazine, Apr. 1784, p. 214. The playbill for this performance is as printed in Morning Chronicle, 8 Mar. Gazetteer, 8 Mar., assigns Captain Constant to Reynolds, Laura to Miss Beaufield, Maria to Mrs Green, Belinda to Miss Johnson]. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:30. Tickets to be had of Connolly, at the King's Head Tavern, Fenchurch-street; of Watts, No. 2, Upper James-street, Golden-square

Event Comment: Benefit for Staunton and Mrs Hedges. Gazetteer, 8 May: Tickets to be had of Staunton, No. 9, St. Martin's-street, Leicester-fields; of Mrs Hedges, opposite Old Bond-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #208 1s. 6d. (15/13/0; 19/15/6; 0/16/0; tickets: 171/17/0) (charge: #106 0s. 11d

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bellamy. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. "Mrs Bellamy was too much frightened to speak the address [written by Charles Stuart (European Magazine, May 1785, p. 354)], and Miss Farren spoke it--Mrs Bellamy herself added some few words in prose" (Genest, VI, 342). But Stuart's address was abandoned, and in its place Miss Farren spoke one written by Alexander Bicknell (Gentleman's Magazine, June 1785, pp. 449-50). This occurred at the end of the play; following the address the curtain rose, and Mrs Bellamy "succeeded in muttering a few words, expressive of her gratitude" (Reynolds, I, 282-83). [This was Mrs Yates's last appearance in London. In July of this year she was acting in Birmingham (Morning Chronicle, 18 July). Mrs Bellamy's last appearance on the stage was at CG, 1 June 1780.] Receipts: #306 4s. (188/1/0; 13/3/6; 0/14/6; tickets: 104/5/0) (charge: #113 8s. 10d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Abington. Pit and Boxes will be laid together. Ladies and Gentlemen are most earnestly requested to come early, to prevent Inconvenience in getting to their Places, and to send their Servants to keep them by Four o'clock. "At the close of the entertainment Mrs Abington came forward, and delivered a short poetical address to her fashionable auditory [written by Maurice Morgann (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 263)], apposite to her feelings on the present occasion" (Morning Herald, 11 Feb.). "The character [of Scrub] throughout was well conceived, and executed with a sprightliness and degree of humour that kept the house in a continual roar of laughter" (Public Advertiser, 11 Feb.) "Mrs Abington's voice was in its usual tone; her manners and deportment were inattentive and torpid, rather than active and interesting" (Morning Post, 11 Feb.). "With all her endeavours to give new points to the character, she entirely failed. Her appearance en culottes, so preposterously padded, exceeded nature. Her gestures to look comical could not get the least hold of the audience, though they had seen her before in men's clothes, when playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, where her figure, dressed as a lawyer in his gown, gave effect to her excellent delivery on mercy, and the audience had been always delighted. But this leu de benefice, comparatively speaking, was disgusting and absurd as she dressed the character ... However, I have heard it originated in a bet she had previously made" (Henry Angelo, Reminiscenes, 11, 281-82). Receipts: #406 13s. 6d. (249/9/6; 1/9/0; tickets: 155/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: "The simple melody of 'Cease your funning' need alone be adverted to in proof of the pathos of Mrs Billington's manner; and when it was encored, the repetition had every mark of variety" (Morning Herald, 22 Feb.). Receipts: #218 7s. (217/0; 1/7)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Waldron. Mainpiece: Written by the celebrated General Burgoyne (Tam Marti quam Mercurio), and performed near Forty Nights last season at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane, with unprecedented Applause. 2nd piece: Written by O'Keeffe, set to music by Shield, and performed with unceasing Applause at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Edward Topham. Larpent MS 772; not published; synopsis of plot in Public Advertiser, 3 May. Prologue by George Monck Berkeley (European Magazine, June 1787, p. 411)]. Public Advertiser, 24 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Wells, No. 417, Strand. Receipts: #257 3s. 6d. (160.4.6; 5.7.0; tickets: 91.12.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Kennedy and King. Public Advertiser, 9 May: Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Kennedy, No. 49, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields; and of King, No. 54, Fleet-street. Receipts: #222 14s. (64.18.6; 4.19.6; tickets: 152.16.0)

Event Comment: The Duenna [advertised on playbill of 10 Oct.] is obliged to be deferred on Account of Mrs Billington's Indisposition. Receipts: #126 16s. 6d. (124.8.6; 2.8.0)

Event Comment: Books of the Songs [in mainpiece] to be had at the Theatre. [London Chronicle, 19 Oct. lists the new songs: in Act I Charming Clorinda by Bowden; in Act II When spring has chac'd the winter's snow by Mrs Wells and When generous wine by Bowden; in Act III The morn, who night adorning and Bright Sol now darts by Mrs Billington.] Receipts: #284 18s. 6d. (283.7.6; 1.11.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered from Beaumont and Fletcher. Not acted these 3 years. [The playbill assigns Abigail to Mrs Webb, but "an apology being made for Mrs Webb, who was indisposed, Mrs Platt undertook to read the part" (Public Advertiser, 26 Feb.). Afterpiece in place of The Farmer, advertised on playbill of 23 Feb.] Receipts: #162 15s. (155.17; 6.18)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Bernard. 1st piece: Not acted these 8 years [acted 7 May 1784]. 3rd piece: In 2 acts [i.e. abridged from the original 5]. Receipts: #243 3s. 6d. (99.4.0; 4.4.6; tickets: 139.15.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [Kemble Mem.: Miss Farren refused to act this night because she didn't like her Dress. Mrs Goodall play[ed] the Widow Bellmour for her.] Receipts: #118 18s. (73.17.0; 40.3.0; 3.5.6; tickets not come in: 1.12.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit [9 rows (London Chronicle, 5 Apr.)] will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent Confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four. Morning Chronicle, 4 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No 49, Marlborough-street. Receipts: #412 11s. (212.2.0; 10.18.6; 0.0.6; tickets: 189.10.0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Bernard. Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, author unknown. Larpent MS 909; not published]: With proper Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations. The Music entirely new, composed by M. P. King. Morning Chronicle, 20 May: Tickets to be had of Bernard, No. 35, Bow-street. Receipts: #299 2s. 6d. (120.10.6; 11.8.0; tickets: 167.4.0)

Event Comment: [The playbill retains Mrs Jordan as Matilda and Mrs Crouch as Laurette, but Mrs Jordan "sent word she was too ill to perform this Evening. The audience called for Crouch to act Matilda" (Kemble Mem.). "She instantly complied...and was received with the most marked respect" (Morning Chronicle, 28 Nov.). The audience refused to believe that Mrs Jordan's illness was genuine, and for several days she was treated harshly by letters to and paragraphs in the newspapers. For her letter explaining her "real inability from illness to sustain her part in the entertainment" see Oulton, 1796, II, 103-6; see also 10 Dec. "Richard Coeur de Lion was advertised as the afterpiece; but on account of the sudden illness of Mrs Jordan, High Life below Stairs was proposed to be substituted; the house, however, seeming to disapprove of this change, Mrs Crouch kindly undertook the part of Matilda; Miss Hagley took hers of Laurette" (Public Advertiser, 28 Nov.).] Receipts: #285 10s. (220.3; 64.10; 0.17)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pope. 1st piece: Not acted these 5 years. Morning Chronicle, 15 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Pope at her house, Half Moon-street, Piccadilly. Receipts: #412 14s. (255/19; 6/18; tickets: 149/17)