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 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: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by George Colman, ynger, based on Raoul Barbe Bleue, by Michel Jean Sedaine (although, in the 1st edition of the play, this denied by Colman). Text (Cadell and Davies, 1798)]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick composed and selected [from Paisiello] by Kelly. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood? Jun, Chalmers, and others. The Machinery, Decorations, and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood, Gay, and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Times, 8 Feb. 1798: This Day is published Blue Beard (1s. 6d.). "In the course of the representation, many blunders in working the scenery, which are unavoidable in a first representation of this nature, occurred, and the delays which took place were frequently very great...It was twelve o'-clock before the curtain dropped...The Expense of getting it up is said to be not less than #2,000" (London Chronicle, 18 Jan.). Proud swells the tide, with loads of capering heels, And vacant Folly shouts applause in peals; Hoards, even beyond th miser's wish, are thrown, To deck some sham farago for the town...Money for dresses, money for new scenes, New music, decorations, and machines; The cost of these, including every freak, Would pay ten decent players four pounds a week. Anthony Pasquin (pseud. for John Williams), "Innovation," in The Devil [1787], II, no. 2, 46. Receipts: #319 14s. 6d. (216.17.6; 102.2.0; 0.15.0)

Event Comment: Paid Housekeeper's Bill #5 1s. 5d.: Mr J. Johnston's Music Bill for Deserter &c. #19 11s. 6d. Receipts: #178 9s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnston (Box-book and Housekeeper)

Event Comment: In Saluting Cherry . She tumbled down upon the Stage--and Miss Jaratt being in certain condition Mr G. could not very easily raise her (Hopkins Diary). [MacMillan's note from Kemble suggests this as Miss Jarratt's first appearance in Cherry, but she first appeared in the character 20 Oct.] Paid Mr Griffith on note #10 10s.; Mr J. Johnston, Music Bill #19 3s. Rec'd stopages #12. Receipts: #259 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Joanna Baillie. "Adapted to the stage by J. P. Kemble" (note in his hand on Kemble playbill), Text in the author's A Series of Plays (T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1798). Prologue by the Hon. Francis North; Epilogue by Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (Larpent MS 1287)]: The Scenery, Musick, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick of the Third Act composed by Shaw [and sung by Sedgwick (Dramatic Censor, II, 162)] and of the Second and Fourth Acts by Kelly. The Scenes designed by Greenwood? Jun and Capon, and executed by them, Banks, &c. The Dresses and Decorations designed by Johnston, and executed under his direction by Gay and Underwood. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Receipts: #308 12s. 6d. (264.3.0; 43.15.6; 0.14.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Johnston & Miss Williams. Mainpiece: Written by R. Cumberland, Esq., and perform'd at the Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane, with great Applause. Never acted there. Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Johnston & Miss Williams at the Windsor Castle [Inn], Plough and Harrow, Angel, Cock and Magpie, Salutation; and of Waldron, No. 17, Dorville's Row, where places for the Boxes may be taken

Event Comment: [For Johnston as Hamlet see cg, 28 Apr. Mr Johnston was from the Dublin theatre.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw, Mrs Love & Mrs Johnston. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. Public Advertiser, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Bradshaw, at Nichol's, baker, Bridge Street, Covent Garden; of Mrs Love, No. 36, Gerrard Street, Soho; of Mrs Johnston, No. 97, near Craven Buildings, Drury-lane. Receipts: #120 1s. 6d. (31.10.0; 20.13.0; 0.7.6; tickets: 67.11.0) (charge: #66 7s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston. Paid Mr Parsons in lieu of Benefit #105. Receipts: #73 17s. Charges: #64 15s. Profits to Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston: #9 1s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MD 2, by George Colman, ynger]: With new Musick, Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick entirely new, composed by Kelly with an overture by Dussek]. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood? Jun, with the assistance of Chalmers and Banks. The Machinery, Decorations and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. "We have to congratulate the town on the acquisition of three admirable dramatic writers, in the persons of Johnston, Greenwood, and Miss Rein, who have here exhibited a specimen of the Sublime and Beautiful which it will be difficult, indedd, to surpass" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1799, p. 47). [This piece is "an exhibition of music and dialogue, pantomime and dancing, painting and machinery, antique dresses and armour, thunder and lightning, fire and water, illumination, processions, banquets, battles, sieges, explosions, and everything that can surprize, enchant or terrify the spectators" (Morning Chronicle, 21 Jan.). Morning Chronicle, 16 Feb. 1799: This Day is published Feudal Times (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #483 15s. 6d. (381.10.6; 100.6.6; 1.18.6)

Event Comment: "It was with extreme regret that we perceived the ravages of time in the person of [Mrs Crawford, who had not acted in London since 12 Apr. 1785], tho' we were much consoled in observing that his influence is not equally apparent in her abilities...The blaze is gone, but there is a richness in the setting lustre...Kemble is evidently [Johnston's] model, and he followed him so closely, as even to the crossing of the legs in dying; so that where he was best, his efforts seemed to be the effect of imitation" (True Briton, 24 Oct.). "Mrs Crawford has had her day; but the sun of her genius has long sunk beneath the horizon...Many parts of her performance, we were sorry to observe, evinced the most evident decline of powers, and her tremulous accents, the debility of which was rendered the more striking from the want of several teeth, proclaimed that her days of play and action were nearly brought to a close...She was received with reiterated plaudits throughout...Nature has been very bountiful in supplying [Johnston] with a voice of much compass and melody, but he does not appear to have paid much attention to the cultivation of her favours. His transitions are often abrupt, and sometimes discordant; and the management of his tones is of so strange a nature that it appears more like two distinct voices than a judicious modulation of his natural accents" (Morning Herald, 24 Oct.). Receipts: #260 9s. (253.4.6; 7.4.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: The Scenery re-painted, and the Dresses and Decorations entirely new. The Musick composed by Kelly. The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood, Chalmers, and others. The Machinery, Decorations and Dresses designed and under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood and Gay. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay and Miss Rein. Account-Book: Paid Hatton, sword cutler, #5 10s; Chorus #11 16s. 6d. Receipts: #370 2s. (254.6.6; 114.3.0; 1.12.6)

Event Comment: MMrs W. Barry very bad in Almeria-imagine she was in Liquor (Hopkins Diary)

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 Harlowe

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston. Paid Tallow Chandler's 8th bill #36 18s. 7d.; Mr Dibdin's 2 clarinets overcharged 1st inst. #1 11s. 6d. Receipts: #133. Charges: #74 14s. Profits to Mrs Bradshaw and Mrs Johnston: #58 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. [See 30 April 1773. See, for afterpiece, the Regatta attached to Queen Mab, 11 Nov.] Mr Moody very bad in Maj. Oldfox , &c. Mrs Greville not much better in Olivia (Hopkins Diary). Rec'd from the late Mrs Johnston for Old Women's Cloaths #10 10s.; By ditto from Mr Garrick for wax candles #1 12s. Receipts: #150 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull, Mrs Litchfield & Waddy. 1st piece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Hull. Larpent MS 1215; not published]: Altered from [The Bashful Lover, by] Massinger. [In it the playbill assigns Hortensio to Pope, but he was ill, and in his "stead Johnston read the part of Hortensio" (European Magazine, June 1798, p. 396). Prologue by John Taylor Poems (I, 60).] Morning Herald, 29 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, Duke's Court, Dean's-yard, Westminster; of Mrs Litchfield, James-street, Covent-Garden; of Waddy, No. 214, opposite Southampton-street, High Holborn. Receipts: #261 2s. 6d. (53.9.6; 4.16.6; tickets: 202.16.6; of which Hull took #72 7s.; Mrs Litchfield #60 17s., Waddy #69 12s. 6d.)