Event Comment: At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Benefit Mrs Clive, formerly Miss Raftor. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. As 10 March. Tickets at Mrs Clive's House, Cecil Street, the Strand

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive.--At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve. [The Stage] will be properly inclos'd, and form'd into Boxes, to prevent the Ladies taking Cold. [Tickets at Mrs Clive's House, Cecil Street, the Strand.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: At the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Never acted there before. [Amphitheatre on stage as described 11 March.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Part of the Pit railed into Boxes and Stage will be formed into Amphitheatre, where servants will be admitted to keep places. Afterpiece: Farce of Two Acts never before acted. [MacMillan lists the characters from the Larpent MS and points out that no indication of assignment appeared: Sir John Bayfield , Sir Charles Freelove , Sir James Trueman , Mr Lovenight , Captain Squander , Lady Bayfield , Miss Croston , Lady Di Clatter , Miss Gibberish , Mrs Lovenight , Miss Prue , Mrs Goodfellow , and servants . Two deputy licensers seem to have been operating at this time, for Garrick sends his plays to Edward Capel, and Rich his to Chetwyn.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Part of Pit laid into Boxes

Event Comment: Benefit for Hopkins (prompter) and Mrs Hopkins. Charges #64 17s. [Profit to the Hopkins family #30 19s. plus Tickets.] Tickets delivered by Philips will be taken. Paid B. Johnson's Head bill #1 2s. 3d.; Paid Mr J. Johnston, by order #21; Rec'd Mr Pope's rent 1 year at #30 minus King's Tax of #3 8s.: Total #26 12s. receiv'd. Paid Mr Pope's bill #13 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Before 4 dined behind St Clements, and went to ye First Gallery to see the Distressed Mother....We had the Capricious Lovers, Lisetta by Mrs Clive, who took off the ridiculous sing-song at ye Opera House charmingly (Neville MS Diary). Receipts: #95 16s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Part of [the Stage], for the better Accommodation of the Ladies, will be formed into Side boxes

Event Comment: By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: Alter'd from Shakespear. [Tickets at Mrs Clive's, at Mr Dandrige's in Great Queen Street.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular desire. Afterpiece: Never Acted Before. [The Farce by Fielding is a sequel to The Virgin Unmasked.] Forbidden soon by the Lord Chamberlain. It being supposed that a particular man of quality was pointed at in one of the characters. The prohibition short of duration (Genest, III, 652). See A Letter to a Noble Lord to whom it alone belongs, occasioned by a representation at Drury Lane of a Farce call'd Miss Lucy in Town (1742), [a 20 page pamphlet criticizing the Lord Chamberlain for allowing this farce. Author gives a scene by scene account emphasizing the bawdry and discounting the pious conclusion. He concludes with remarks on theatrical dancing]: As to Dances, I think your province of prohibition does not extend; so the Public cannot owe their gratitude to you for several. I appeal to those who have been on the coast of Malabar and the banks of the Ganges whether we have not had some that have exceeded on posture, or anything of that kind so common amongst the polite Indians of Indostan. Afterpiece: Mrs Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard Amorevoli intolerably (H. Walpole to H. Mann, 26 May).-Horace Walpole Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, I, 435. Receipts: #70

Event Comment: OOccasional Prologue call'd for. Mr Griffith (Son of Griffith an Actor in Ireland) play'd Barnwell: Toll: [erable] (Cross). This day at Noon will be publish'd and sold by the proprietor and the print shops, two portraits of those celebrated Comedians, Mr Woodward and Mrs Clive, in the characters of the Fine Gentleman and Lady in Lethe (as they are to perform them tonight, at Drury Lane) curiously engraved (in Miniature) from Original drawings of the same size. By J. Brooks, Engraver of Silver and Copper plate. N.B. The above prints may be had together or separate (General Advertiser).Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: Each of these 3 acts apiece, Alter'd by Garrick, from Shakespear-Applauded. Mrs Clive fell down in ye Farce, and accus'd Woodward wth doing it on purpose (Cross). [The Bill lists neither cast nor characters for either piece, but advertises them with proper music, songs, dances, and decorations. Beginning with 23 Jan. the Bill lists actors names. Casts here taken from the 1756 ed.] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality

Event Comment: By Desire. Afterpiece: a Dramatic Fable. [By James Miller.] Edition of 1739: The Musick by Mr Arne. Sung by Mrs Clive

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. We hear Mrs Clive, by Desire, and in imitation of the late celebrated Mrs Verbruggen, who perform'd the Part of Bayes in the Rehearsal, is to appear in that character at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for the benefit of her brother. (Daily Advertiser) Note. Tickets deliver'd out for the Benefit of a Gentleman under Misfortunes, for Friday the 22nd instant for the Play As You Like It will be taken on Thursday next the 21st to the Comedy call'd The Alchemist

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: Written by Sir Richard Steele

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive (Cross). Music of Afterpiece by DeFesch. Tickets at her lodgings at the Wheatsheaf in Henrietta St., and at the Stage Door. Afterpiece: Never performed but twice. Part of Pit to be laid into the boxes. Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: Nothing said abour ye prolog: (Cross). The Music of the Funeral Procession compos'd by Dr Boyce. [See "William Boyce's 'Solemn Dirge' in Garrick's Romeo and Juliet Production of 1750," by Charles Haywood, Shakespeare Quarterly, Spring, 1960.] This day is Publish'd at 1s. 6d. Romeo and Juliet a Tragedy, revised and alter'd from Shakespear by Theophilus Cibber, First revised in September 1744, at the Theatre in the Haymarket; now acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. To which is added a Serio-Comic Apology for Part of the Life of Mr Theophilus Cibber, Comedian, written by himself. Interspers'd with memoirs and anecdotes relating to the Stage Managements, Theatrical Resolutions, &c. also cursory Observations on principal Players: particularly Mr Quin, Mr Ryan, Mrs Woffington, Mrs Ward, and Miss Bellamy; Mr Garrick, Mr Barry, Mrs Cibber, Mrs Clive, Mrs Pritchard, &c. Likewise Original Letters that passed between the late Sir Thomas DeVeil and Mr Theophilus Cibber relating to the Stage Act, Concluding with a copy of Verses, call'd the Contrite Comedian's Confession. Printed for C. Corbett, the Publisher, at Addison's Head, facing St Dunstan's Church, Fleet St; G. Woodfall, at the King's Arms, the corner of Craig's Court, Charing Cross. [See 11 Oct.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire.Afterpiece: Never perform'd before. Ladies and Servants by 3 o'clock. Part of Pit laid into boxes; No Building on Stage. [See Theatrical Review; or, Annals of the Drama, 1763, 1 April, pp. 142-46, for critique of the Sketch of a Fine Lady's Return from a Rout. Rather damns the writing and the performance on all counts, Moody's part being so bad, to save his face he commenced Hibernian in his dialogue" to amuse the ears of his audience. The parts are listed in Larpent MS 220: Sir Gregory Jenkings, Mr Nettle (a Lawyer), 1st Clerk, 2nd Clerk, Porter, Footmen, Lady Jenkings, Nancy Jenkings, Fanny Jenkings, Jane (Lady's Maid).

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Clive. Part of Pit laid into Boxes. Send Servants to keep places by 3 O'clock

Event Comment: A New Comedy Written by Mrs Sheridan. This play was well Acted, but the subject seem'd to displease. The three first Acts pass'd off tolerably; in 4 Act they begun to hiss, & continued it to the End of the play. When Mr Havard went forward & Address'd the Audience &c. as follows Ladies & Gentn as Some passages in the play had given offence, they should be omitted the Next Night. Much hissing, & many Cry'd out No more! no more &c. (Hopkins). Much Hiss'd (Cross Diary). A new Comedy (The Dupe) wrote by Mrs Sheridan.--This play was very well acted,--but the subject much displeased.--in 4th act much hissing, and so on to the end. When Mr Havard told the audience as some passages in the play had given offence, they should be omitted the next night, much hissing and many cried out, "No more, No more." (Hopkins Diary-MacMillan). Receipts: #167 18s. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Comedy by Mrs Griffith, never before acted. [Not well received the first night, but clarified and improved the second Victor, History of the Theatres, III, 59. Prologue and Epilogue printed in Public Advertiser, 28 Jan.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A Comedy by Mrs E. Griffith, acted for first time. New Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, etc. Neville MS Diary: While I stood at the Pit door of Drury Lane Playhouse, took occasion to say that now they (meaning the present venal House of Commons) had expelled Mr Wilkes they would proceed to do everything that is bad. For which one present (I suppose a friend of the Court) said they would proceed to send me to Newgate if it should come to their ears

Event Comment: Not Acted these Eight Years [see 24 April 1741]. Benefit Cibber, Jr. Tickets and places of Hobson at the Stage door. Tickets ddliver'd out for All's Well at Covent Garden theatre will be taken to the above mentioned play this night. [Mrs Clive's Prologue recommended the cause of Liberty to the Ladies of Great Britain. Cibber had pleaded in his advance advertisement on 5 April in the General Advertiser.] As I have in justice to my creditors assigned over so much of my salary as reduces the remainder to a very small pittance, I very much depend on the encouragement and indulgence of the town at my Benefit. [On the day of the benefit he inserted in the General Advertiser a long, double column address to the Publick puffing his Benefit, and scotching a rumor industriously and invidiously spread that he came to Drury Lane only to impede Mrs Cibber in her performance there. In this he washes in public the linen of his domestic affairs at some length, professing his virtue, forbearance, and generosity, and Mrs Cibber's unfairness and ingratitude, citing her salary as about #700 per year, not a penny of which would she afford for his relief from creditors, or to bail him out of the Fleet prison where he languished six months. He alleges that she was instrumental in forming a cartel between the rival theatrical managers with precluded his employment by either house, and that she refused to act a benefit for him when he was in debtor's prison.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard (Cross). Mainpiece: Not acted these 30 years. This day publish'd. Price 1s. Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy. [By Roger Pickering. This is a defense of the theatrical profession, "which in all countries is considered low and contemptible." Author's thesis: "A master of theatrical expression in all its extensive significancy must be possess'd of such accomplishments, as to set the profession above all contempt." Garrick is mentioned as best example. True tragic expression "requires Genius, Education, Reading, Experience...and a solidity of thought which never accompanies abject morals" (p. 11). Includes an interesting treatise on acting-sections on figure, voice, ear, memory, management of feet and legs. Comments on costume: "Taste in dress demands that an actor be conversant in the mode of dress ancient and modern, in other countries as well as in our own...Alexander and Cato were not masters of the snuff box, nor Greek women of French heels." The appendix asks why all our plays are not dressed in character in point of time and place, and why they do not contain at least one "scene" proper to the country. The author (p. 61) sees need for variety in acting same role, especially when a play has a continuous run of several nights. He calls (p. 77) for creation of appropriate mood for the play by selection of proper music between the acts. Wants a softening of the prompter's bell. Concludes by damning contemporary audience manners, especially those of the stage loungers (pp. 79-81).] Receipts: #314 (Cross)