Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for a Performer, thirty years a Servant of the Publick at Covent-garden and Haymarket Theatres [unidentified]. Mainpiece: Written by the ingenious Mrs Behn, with Alterations by a Gentleman well known in the Dramatick World and Republick of Letters. The Characters new dressed in the Habits of the Times. [Writers and speakers of Prologue and Epilogue unknown.] Afterpiece: Altered from Sir John Vanbrugh. The Doors to be opened at 5:00. To begin at 6:00

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull. Mainpiece: A New Alteration [by Thomas Hull], from Shakespeare and Shadwell. With characteristic Habits, Scenes and Decorations. [Mrs Duill is identified in Lyons, Collectanea.] Public Advertiser, 2 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, Duke's Court, near Dean's-yard, Westminster. Receipts: #80 10s. (77/5; 3/5; tickets: none listed) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of Daphne and Amintor, announced on playbill of 6 June.] Windham Diary (7 June 1786), p. 79: Mrs Siddons did 'Rosalind' much better than the first time, but not equal to her tragedy: there is a want of hilarity in it; it is just, but not easy. The highest praise that can be given to her comedy is, that it is the perfection of art; but her tragedy is the perfection of nature. Receipts: #219 16s. 6d. (192/1/0; 26/2/6; 1/13/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. [Miss Davies is identified in European Magazine, July 1786, p. 122. Address by William Upton (.Morning Chronicle, 29 July).]

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Berry. Afterpiece: Written by the late Samuel Foote, Esq. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Tickets to be had at Mrs Richman's@Masquerade@Warehouse, Oxford-street; of Berry, at the George in the Haymarket; and of Rice at the Theatre, where Places for the Boxes may be taken. No Money to be returned

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. [In mainpiece the playbill erroneously assigns Miss Ogle to Miss Stuart, and Kitty Willis to Mrs Fawcett.] Paid Advertisements in different Papers #62 9s. Receipts: #511 8s. (503/8; 8/0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Twaits, Ives, Hallam, Brown & Mrs Brooks. Pit 2s. Gallery 1s. Back Seats 6d. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. The above Performers, with the utmost Deference and Respect, inform the Ladies and Gentlemen of Greenwich, they have selected those Entertainments which they flatter themselves will meet their Approbation; being compelled to answer their Engagements in another Town, they jointly solicit their Patronage on this occasion, the honour of which will ever be remembered with the most lively effusions of gratitude

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act I incidental to the Tragedy, a Grand Masquerade. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] Afterpiece: With the Fantoccini, as 30 Oct. ["In the late performance of this play at Covent Garden theatre, we perceive that this objection [i.e. Romeo and Juliet in III. v standing on the stage] is removed; the principal part of the scene is spoken from a balcony...The grand funeral dirge is introduced with magnificence and ostentation. A long procession of monks, friars, &c., accompanied with music, is made to passover the stage. But what end is all this farce and shew to answer?...We must rather laugh at so much pomp and expence bestowed on Juliet. If there is any distress stirring, the candle-snuffers and scene-shifters, who assist as chief mourners, have it all to themselves" (Monthly Mirror, Nov. 1797, p. 293). Receipts: #197 3s. 6d. (193.5.6; 3.18.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Holman. Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. In IV a Grand Banquet. Morning Herald, 28 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Holman at his chambers, No. 14 John-street, Adelphi. "There is a deficiency in the length of [Holman's] upper lip that continually exposes his teeth to the audience...He has a method of hurrying over the latter part of a sentence, as if to give it more effect, but in reality destroys the intention and solemnity of the scene" (Candid Strictures,45-46). Receipts: #280 11s. 6d. (188.10.6; 3.16.0; tickets: 88.5.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: 54th time [i.e. in continuation of the reckoning for the previous season, when it had been acted 52 times]. Account-Book; Paid Music #8 17s. 4d.; Properties 5s.; Chorus Singers #1 10s. [apiece]; Wardrobe #6 1s. 9d.; Supernumeraries #5 1s.; Sloper for Scenemen #28 11s. 6d.; Hodgins and apprentice #6 5s.; Walmsley #5 5s.; Phillips #2 12s. 6d.; Dick for making Clothes to 19th Inst. #7 1s. Receipts: #312 7s. (304.14; 7.13)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. [This was the version, altered probably by Joseph George Holman, in which he appeared in Dublin on 29 July 1794, on which occasion the playbill reads, "Dressed in the Habits of the Times, and with other Alterations, adopted in its Representations 19 [recte 11] Nights last Winter, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden." It further states that the part of Ophelia would be performed "without the Airs, and with a considerable Restoration of the Text." No record of what these alterations consisted of has come to light. In III.iv Hamlet's father was represented by a life-sized portrait that hung over the chimney, and the Queen wore a large miniature of Claudius on her arm as a bracelet (London Chronicle, 10 Oct.). The words of the Dirge are printed in European Magazine, Nov. 1793, p. 393; they are stanza X of Shakespeare's Passionate Pilgrim. Miss Poole had appeared as a singer at king's and at Vauxhall in 1787 and at the cg oratories in 1791.] Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [and in place of The Prisoner at Large, advertised on playbill of 8 Oct.]. Receipts: #332 4s. (330.3; 2.1)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Sherry & Sga Crespi. Tickets delivered by Harwood will be taken. Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years [see 31 Mar.]. Public Advertiser, 17 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Sherry, at Nicholl's, Baker, Bridge's-street, Covent Garden; of Sga Crespi, Poland-street, opposite the Back Door of the Pantheon. Receipts: #257 0s. 6d. (91.14.0; 23.0.6; 0.0.0; tickets: 142.6.0) (charge: #70 17s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never acted here

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Acted There

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Younger. Afterpiece: At the Request of several Ladies of Quality. Never Acted there before. Written by the Author of the Beggar's Opera. Receipts: money #81 14s.; tickets #101 3s

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bannister. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years. The Music composed by Dr Arne. Public Advertiser, 22 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Bannister, No. 6, Great Russel-street, Covent Garden. Receipts: #233 11s. (123/6; tickets: 110/5) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years. [Bannister Jun.'s 1st appearance as Jobson was at dl, 21 May 1796.

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Mrs Bland, but "An apology was made on behalf of Mrs Bland, who was prevented from appearing in public this evening by a recent loss in her family. We understand one of her children was unfortunately burnt to death, by its clothes taking fire...Mrs Roffey undertook her plaintive air in the Fourth Act, and was favourably received" (Dramatic Censor, I, 311).] Receipts: #244 18s. 6d. (181.13.0; 62.3.6; 1.2.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Mr and Mrs Egleton. Mainpiece: Not Acted these Five Years. Receipts: money #63 6s. 6d.; tickets #83

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Horton. Davies (Dramatic Miscellanies, I, 103-4): Upon Mrs Younger's quitting Drury-lane for a more advantageous income at Lincoln's-inn-fields, [Mrs Horton] was called upon by Wilks to act the part of Phillis in the Conscious Lovers. Younger had given the public so much entertainment in that part, that Mrs Horton met with very uncandid treatment from the audience; who so far forgot what was due to merit and the handsomest woman on the stage, that they endeavoured to discourage her by frequent hissing. She bore this treatment with patience for some time. At last, she advanced to the front of the stage, and boldly addressed the pit: "Gentlemen, what do you mean?What displeases you; my acting or my person?' This shew of spirit recovered the spectators into good humor, and they cried out, as with one voice, No, no, Mrs Horton; we are not displeased; go on, go on.