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 Mrs Woffington. Six rows of the pit will be laid into the Boxes, and Boxes will be built on stage. Tickets of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Mainpiece written by the late Lord Lansdown. With the Original Songs, new set by Mr Arne, and to be sung by Mr Lowe and Mrs Clive. Never acted there before. Afterpiece wirtten by the late Mr Pope, Mr Gay, and Dr Arbuthnot. Servants will be allowed to keep places on the stage; and those ladies who have taken places are humbly desired to send for tickets to prevent mistakes. Tickets to be had of Macklin at his house in Bow St., and of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Macklin. Mainpiece [by John Ford]: Reviv'd not acted these Hundred years. Afterpiece: A New Farce never acted before by Charles Macklin. Note: Tickets deliver'd out for 22 April will be taken. Tickets to be had of Mrs Macklin in Bow St., and of Hobson at the Stage door. Cross: The play lik'd--farce not. Receipts: #93 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #80 19s. 6d.; tickets, #12 15s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: Benefit Plummer (Box-Keeper). Tickets to be had of Plummer, a Cheesemonger in King's Gate St., near Red Lion Square, Holborn; at Temple Exchange Coffee House, Fleet St.; and of Hobson at the stage door. Tickets deliver'd for the 15th will be taken

Event Comment: Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Hobson, at the Stage Door of the Theatre. By His Majesty's Command, no person to be admitted behind the scenes, nor any money to be return'd after the curtain is drawn up. To begin exactly at Six o'clock

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece alter'd from Dryden by Colley Cibber. Not acted these 30 years [see 27 April 1722]. Servants will be admitted to keep places on the stage, which will be inclos'd and form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Tickets and places to be had of Mrs Clive, at her House in Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields; and of Hobson at the Stage Door

Event Comment: Benefit Pierson, Treasurer. Garrick refused to act. So he got Bridges from Dublin to play for him. (Winston MS. from Dyer MS.). Tickets and places to be had at Pierson's House, the Green Door, the Upper End of Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the Stage Door

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard. Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years [see 2 May 1744]. Tickets and places of Mrs Pritchard, at her house next the chapel in Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Five rows of Pit will be rail'd into the Boxes. [Stage as of 10 March.] Paid Blandford (Tallow Chandler) #18 17s. 3d.; Paid Blakes for 2 wiggs #3 3s.; Paid Mrs Pritchard for a ticket as per agreement #10 10s.; Norton 1 chorus 5s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #220 (Cross); charges, #60 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Elmy. Ladies are desired to send Servants to keep Places at 3 o'clock. Tickets and places to be had of Mrs Elmy at the corner of Tavistock St., in Southampton St., and of Hobson at the stage door. Cash receipts #63 6s., plus #74 6s. from tickets. Total #137 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Mr Delane dy'd Sun: ye 1st of Ap. (Cross). The Masque of Comus, design'd to be perform'd at Drury Lane Wednesday next, the 4th of Apl, for the Benefit of Mrs Foster, Granddaughter of Milton, and his only surviving descendant, is, by particular desire of several persons of Quality, on account of Handel's Oratorio deferr'd till Thursday the 5th instant (General Advertiser). Receipts. #150 (Cross); charges #63 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. Mainpiece written by Beaumont and Fletcher, never acted there. Servants allow'd to keep places on the stage which will be form'd into front and side boxes, and so commodiously enclos'd as to prevent the Ladies from taking cold. Ladies send servants by three. Tickets of Mrs Clive at her House in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit Delane. Mainpiece: As written by Shakespear. Tickets deliver'd for Monday the 9th will be taken. Tickets to be had of Delane at his lodgings at the Unicorn in New Exchange Row in the Strand. Places of Hobson at the stage door. There is now in rehearsal at the Theatre Royal [dl] and speedily will be acted, a new Petit Piece in imitation of that species of writing on the French Theatre call'd The Suspicious Husband Criticiz'd; or the Plague of Envy (General Advertiser). [A Folger edition of 1750 entitled Chorus for Shakespear's Tragedy of King John lists songs by Sullivan, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Storer, and Mrs Mozeen; the play had no other performance at a London theatre in the interim between 1747 and 1750.

Event Comment: Benefit Macklin. Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. The Farce never before acted. Tickets to be had of Macklin at his House in Bow St; and of Hobson at the stage door where places may be taken for the Boxes.--General Advertiser. [Afterpiece by Charles Macklin.

Event Comment: Benefit for Macklin. Afterpiece: A Farce in 2 Acts taken [by Macklin] from Le Legataire Universel of Mons Regnard. Tickets of Macklin at his house in Bow Street, and of Hobson at the Stage Door. Stage will be form'd into front and side boxes. Receipts: #200 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Pritchard (Treasurer). Tickets delivered for the London Merchant will be taken. On April 12 that play was advertised for this evening--the part of George Barnwell to be performed (by particular desire) by Mrs Pritchard, Millwood by Mrs Furnival, and Lucy by Mrs Clive. Tickets to be had of Pritchard at his House in Duke's late Earl's Court, Bow St., Covent Garden; and of Hobson at the stage door. Tomorrow Lover's Melancholy, and a New Farce call'd The Club of Fortune Hunters for the Benefit of Mrs Macklin. Receipts: #180 (Cross); house charges, #63 (Powel); cash #85 6s. 6d.; tickets, #81 9s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: House open'd Sept 16th. Mrs Ward engag'd from Covent Garden-Mrs Cibber not intending to play this Season. The first time I ever remember ye Company to play every Day so soon in ye Season (Cross). Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places to be had of Hobson at the stage door be repeated here.] Receitps: #120 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Ward. Tickets to be had of Mrs Ward, next door to the Chapel, in Little Wild St., and of Hobson at the stage door. Tickets deliver'd out for Jane Shore will be taken. A Pamphlet having lately appeared in Ridicule of the late performance of Othello at Drury Lane, to which was subjoined an Advertisement in my name,from whence Occasion has been taken to assert, that I was the publisher, the Publick may be assured that advertisement was inserted without my knowledge or consent, that I am entirely ignorant of the Author, nor am the least concerned in that mean invidious affair. F. Stamper (General Advertiser). [Stamper possibly refers to A satirical Dialogue Humbly address'd to the Gentlemen who deformed the play of Othello; with a Prologue and Epilogue, much more suitable to the occasion than their own. London: River, 1751, listed in the Register of Books, Gentleman's Magazine, March 1751, p. 142. Stamper may also be alluding in some way to a Modern Character introduced in the Scenes of Vanbrugh's Aesop as it was acted at a late private representation of King Henry IV, performed gratis at the Little Opera House in the Haymarket, 3rd edn. 1751, written by F. Stamper. It was published because the farce was hissed off the stage. The Character is a Spouter who tries to instruct Aesop in heroics.] Receipts: #210 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit Whittingham. This Gentleman had acted Hotspur (10 Feb.) very ill (Winston MS. from Dyer MS). Failed in Pyrrhus (Genest, IV, 37). Tickets to be had of Hobson at the Stage Door, and at Batson's and Tom's Coffee Houses in Cornhill. Tickets deliver'd out for Whittingham for Henry IV will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Raftor, Mrs Clive's brother (Winston MS.). Bayes attempted by Mrs Clive, instigated to it by Cibber (as an) act of envy to Garrick, but he missed his aim, for she did it most wretchedly. It was believed she would not have gone through the part. A great house. If she had succeeded she meant to repeat it for her own Benefit. (Winston MS. from Dyer MS.) Mrs Clive did Bayes at the Desire of Several Ladies of Quality. Three rows of the Pit rail'd into the Boxes, where servants may keep places as well as on the stage. To prevent Mistakes in places already taken, it is desir'd that those Gentleman and Ladies, in whose names they are set down, would please to send for Tickets to Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit Giffard. Mainpiece not acted these 7 years. Amphitheatre on the stage, so enclosed as to Prevent the Ladies from taking cold. Tickets of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Benefit Shepard. For the Entertainment of the Grand Master and the rest of the Fraternity of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons. None to be admitted into the Boxes, or behind the Scenes, but by Box tickets, which are to be had of Shepherd at his house on Mill Bank, and of Hobson at the stage door. Those Brethren who intend to honour the Grand Master to the Play, are desir'd to meet his Lordship, cloth'd, at the Rose Tavern, the Corner of Bridges St. at five o'clock

Event Comment: Benefit Mr Mills and Mrs Mills. Servants will be allowed to keep places upon the stage, which will be form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Tickets and places to be had of Hobson at the stage door

Event Comment: Written by Shakespear. Play to begin at 6 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Hobson at the Stage-Door of the Theatre. As the Admittance of Persons behind the Scenes has occasioned a general Complaint on Account of the frequent Interruptions in the Performance, tis hop'd Gentlemen won't be offended, that no Money will be taken there for the future. [This notice appears on succeeding bills for the season and will hence not be repeated. See note on public objection to nonadmittance behind scenes 22 Feb. 1748.] Receipts: #150 (Cross); #I26 12s. (Clay MS). Nichols Literary Anecdotes, II, 319-20: There is one part of theatrical conduct which ought unquestionably to be recorded to Mr Garrick's honour, since the cause of virtue and morality and the formation of public manners are very considerably dependent upon it, and that is the zeal with which he ever aimed to banish from the stage all those plays which carry with them an immoral tendency, and to prune from those which do not absolutely on the whole promote the interests of vice such scenes of licentiousness and libertinism as a redundency of wit and too great liveliness of imagination have induced some of our comic writers to indulge themselves in, and to which the sympathetic disposition of an age of gallantry and intrigue had given a sanction. The purity of the English stage was certainly much more fully establish'd during the administration of this theatrical minister than it had ever been during preceding managements; for, what the publick taste had itself to some measure begun, he, by keeping that taste within its proper channel, and feeding it with a pure and untainted stream, seems to have completed; and to have endeavoured as much as possible to adhere to the promise made in the prologue which was spoken at the first opening of that theatre under his direction, @Bade scenic virtue form the rising age@And truth diffuse her radiance from the stage.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Pritchard. Part of Pit laid into Boxes, and stage form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Tickets and Places to be had at Mrs Pritchard's in Duke's late Earl's Court, (Bow Street), at Mr Vaughan's at the Golden Fan, next the Royal Exchange, Cornhill; and of Hobson at the stage door. Receipts: #220 (Cross); house charges, #60 (Powel); cash, #63 10s. 6d.; tickets, #118 17s. (Clay MS). By her agreement she has ten Guineas return'd her out of this charge, and therefore I shall subtract that out of the rest (Powel)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Cibber. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years.[See 2 April 1745]. Pit and Boxes laid together, where servants will be allowed to keep Places, and on the stage; which for the better Accommodation of the Ladies will be inclos'd and form'd into Front and Side Boxes. Ladies send servants by 3 o'clock. Tickets of Mrs Cibber at New Street, Spring Garden, and of Hobson. Receipts: #275 (Cross); house charges, #60. This must be subtracted as before (Powel)