Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these two years. [See 4 April 1749.] Miss Jane Cibber play'd Alicia-quite in old style, not lik'd at all, tho' not hiss'd-given out again and great hiss'd & so not done ($Cross). [The Author of the Midwife (No 1, final Page) reported]: Now I am speaking of Miss Cibber, I must do her the justice to observe that she play'd the part much better than cou'd be expected from one of her years and practice; and if a proper regard is paid to her modesty and Merit, I make no doubt she will become an exceeding good player. Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for a Widow Gentlewoman under great Misfortunes (Cross). Tickets to be had of Mr Harrache, Jeweller, at the Golden Ball and Pearl, in Pall Mall; Mrs Brooksry@Milliner, at the Lace Lappet in Pall Mall; or Mr Ridler, Hosier, at the Crown in Suffolk St., near the Hay-Market, and at the stage Door. Receipts: #160 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Scrase & Mathews (Cross). Tickets of Scrase at Tauranac's Wine Vault, in James St., Covent Garden, and at the Stage Door. Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Stage form'd into Front and Side Boxes. N.B. As Mr Macklin has reason to believe that several of his tickets are counterfeited, and will be offer'd for sale in the streets and passages leading to the theatre, he begs leave to give this publick caution of the fraud; and humbly desires that Gentlemen and Ladies who have taken places, to send for tickets to the Theatre, or to Mr Macklin at his House in Bow Street.--Daily Advertiser. Winston MS.: In 1743 Macklin, Mrs Woffington, and Garrick took house No. 6 Bow St.--a joint establishment

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: (FFast Day) (Cross)

Event Comment: Receiv'd stoppages [i.e., fines from salaries] #11 4s. (Treasurer's Book). Paid Chorus 2 nights (this incl.) #4 11s. (Treasurer's Book). Chorus singers' payments averaged #6 8s. per week, amounting to some #230 for the season. [Item will not be listed further.] Receipts: #119 18s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Altered from Dryden by Colley Cibber....a Man who was in the Upper Gallery...threw an apple from thence, with an intent, as is suppos'd to hit some person who was looking through the Curtain, but struck a Lady of Quality in the face, who sat in the stage box; upon which the manager order'd the Constable attending the House to make inquiry after the person who did it, and he was immediately apprehended, on the information of several people who sat near him, and was, by the Lady's desire carried before a Justice, who would have committed him for the assault; but on his begging Pardon, and promising never to offend in the like manner, she was pleas'd to forgive him, and he was discharg'd.--As it was a Publick Affront some Gentlemen would have had him brought on the stage to make a Public acknowledgment of his folly;--and tis hop'd that will be the punishment hereafter, for those who offend in the like manner.--General Advertiser, 3 Nov

Event Comment: Their Majesties present. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 11 Feb.: On Saturday Night a Disturbance happen'd at the Opera House . . . occasion'd by the Footmen's coming into the Passages with their lighted Flambeaux, which gave Offence to the Ladies, &c. in the House; whereupon the Footmen were order'd out, but they refus'd to go, and attack'd the Centinels, but a stronger Guard coming to their Assistance, with their Bayonets fix'd, drove them out; in the Fray one of the Footmen was stabb'd in the Groin, and in the Body, and its thought will die of the Wounds

Event Comment: During this month was publish'd The Dramatic Congress, a short state of the stage under present management, by W. R. Chetwynd. The older actors and dramatists sit in Elysium and discuss the fate of the theatre under Fleetwood and Rich. Much on cartels and the decay of the stage, and the chicanery indulged in to starve the Macklin-Garrick revolters. Probably about this time was also publish'd Tyranny Triumphant...Or Historical and critical remarks on the famous Cartel lately agreed on by the masters of the two theatres, by Patrick Fitz-Crambo. Discusses the rumor that Rich shut up Lincoln's Inn Fields for six months and for #600 gave the key to the Manager of Drury Lane, leaving the actors to starve, and the town to be satisfied with whatever nonsense Drury Lane chose to put on