Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Mattocks. Tickets delivered for The Double Gallant will be taken. Morning Chronicle, 16 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Mattocks, No. 8, Great Russel-street, Covent-garden. Receipts: #288 5s. 6d. (119.6.0; 17.18.0; tickets: 151.1.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: For this Night only. By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Hay Market. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Julia to Mrs Jordan, and as afterpiece announces The Wedding Day, but "Mrs Jordan being suddenly taken ill, the Pubick are respectfully informed that Mrs Powell will, with their permission, attempt the Character of Julia in the Surrender of Calais; to which will be added The Adopted Child [with cast listed as above]" (printed slip attached to Kemble playbill).] Receipts: #238 7s. (166.0.6; 66.19.0; 5.7.6)

Event Comment: "The represention announced for last night at this Theatre was Twelfth Night; but as Mrs Jordan found herself too ill to perform, new bills were issued, and the substitute was to be The Siege of Belgrade. About the middle of the day, however, Mrs Jordan found herself well enough to perform, and the other bills were circulated, importing that the play was to be Twelfth Night. But, in the afternoon, Mrs Jordan found herself too ill to perform, and a message was sent again to the theatre, signifying the melancholy disappointment. It was then too late to make any other change, and Twelfth Night was represented, Mrs Goodall reading the part of Viola. There was considerable difficulty in collecting the performers, after these repeated changes. Barrymore could not be found, and Caulfield dressed for Orsino; but when he was ready to appear Barrymore arrived, and took the part. It was then discovered that Phillimore was absent, and Caulfield was doomed to dress once more, for Phillimore's character; but soon after Phillimore came to the house. Mrs Kemble being indisposed, Miss Mellon undertook her part of Maria ...The Audience (a large one) indeed grumbled a little at this kind of dramatic hocus pocus, but on the whole, were not churlish in their testimonies of satisfaction" (True Briton, 13 Jan.). Receipts: #222 19s. (160.4.0; 58.11.6; 4.3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Munden. [Mrs Litchfield is identified in Thespian Dictionary, 1805; as Miss Hay she had acted at cg on 27 May 1796.] 2nd piece [1st time; MF 1, by John O'Keeffe. MS not in Larpent MS; not published]: Altered [by the author] from Sprigs of Laurel. True Briton, 1 May: Tickets to be had of Munden, No. 16, Clement's-Inn. Receipts: #418 8s. 6d. (122.8.6; 9.19.6; tickets: 286.0.6)

Event Comment: Account-Book: Tickets delivered by Mrs Hall (b[ox-keeper]), Warwhick, Robson (p[it door-keeper]), W. Ansell, W. Linton, West, Purkins, Standen, Ashwin, Hill, Morris will be admitted. Receipts: #334 0s. 6d. (35.18.0; 3.13.0; tickets: 294.9.6)

Event Comment: [Murray's 1st appearance as King Lear was at Bath, 21 Feb. 1788; when Miss Campion, Mrs Spencer's as Cordelia was at Dublin, 23 Mar. 1790] Receipts: #192 16s. (190.10; 2.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Follett. Receipts: #309 6s. (66.3.6; 5.13.6; tickets: 237.9.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Gibbs. 1st piece: Never acted here. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1. In it the playbill lists Dicky Gossip by Suett, but "Fawcett came forward with an apology, stating that Suett had been suddenly taken ill, and was unable to attend the theatre. The galleries...insisted on Fawcett's singing the song in Suett's stead. Fawcett pleaded his incapacity, and at length, by dint of a little buffoonery and grimace (talents essentially necessary on such occasions) succeeded in a appeasing the tumult" (Dramatic Censor, III, 127)]

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: And my wife, and by coach to the King's playhouse, and meeting Creed took him up, and there saw The Scornfull Lady well acted; Doll Common [Mrs Corey] doing Abigail most excellently, and Knipp the widow very well, and will be an excellent actor, I think. In other parts the play not so well done as used to be, by the old actors. Anon to White Hall by coach, thinking to have seen a play there to-night, but found it a mistake, so back again

Event Comment: The United Company. As 9 Nov. 1692 is known to be the second day, it is assumed that 8 Nov. 1692 represents the first performance. (See entry for 9 Nov. 1692.) The authorship is uncertain; William Mountfort signed tne Dedication, but its authorship is linked with that of Edward III (November 1690), which may have been by Bancroft. Gentleman's Journal, October 1692 (not issued until November): Henry the Second, King of England, A new Play, by the Author of that call'd Edward the Third, which gave such universal satisfaction, hath been acted several times with applause. It is a Tragedy with a mixture of Comedy....Had you seen it acted, you would own that an Evening is pass'd very agreeably, when at a Representation of that pleasing Piece. [Alfred Harbage, Elizabethan-Restoration Palimpsest, Modern Language Review, XXXV (1940), 312-18, argues that this play is the Elizabethan Henry II once in the possession of Moseley. A song, In vain 'gainst Love I strove, composed by Henry Purcell and sung by Mrs Dyer, not in the printed play, is in Comes Amoris, 1693, and Joyful Cuckoldom 1695. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XX (1916), vii

Event Comment: Betterton's Company. The date of the first performance is not known, but the fact that the play was advertised in the Post Boy, 18-21 Dec. 1697, suggests that the premiere occurred not later than late November. This play was originally given to the company in Drury Lane, but withdrawn. See G. Thorn-Drury, An Unrecorded Play Title, Review of English Studies, VI (1930), 316-18. Edition of 1698: A Dialogue in the fourth Act, between Mr Bowman and Mrs Bracegirdle; The words by Mr Durfey and set by Mr Eccles: When will Stella kind and tendre. A Dialogue in the fifth Act, between a Boy and a Girl, and an Old Man, Written by Mr Motteux, set to the Musick by Mr J. Eccles. Preface: I look upon those that endeavour'd to discountenance this Play as Enemys to me

Event Comment: [[By William Congreve. Premiere.] Congreve wrote on 26 March: I wished particularly for you on Friday last, when Eccles his music for the prize was performed in Dorset Garden, and universally admired. Mr Finger's is to be to-morrow; and Russel and Weldon's follow in their turn....The number of performers, besides the verse-singers, was 85. The front of the stage was all built into a concave with deal boards; all which was faced with tin, to increase and throw forwards the sound. It was all hung with sconces of wax-candles, besides the common branches of lights usual in the playhouses. The boxes and pit were all thrown into one; so that all sat in common; and the whole was crammed with beauties and beaux, not one scrub being admitted. The place where formerly the music used to play, between the pit and the stage, was turned into White's chocolate-housev....Our friend Venus performed to a miracle; so did Mrs Hodgson Juno. Mrs Boman was not quite so well approved in Pallas.-Congreve to Keally, in Congreve, I, 71-72

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Knight

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Bradshaw

Event Comment: Benefit Corey and Mrs Mills. At the Desire of several Laides of Quality. Wirtten by Sir George Etheridge

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Finch and Mrs Kent. See also Tatler, 24 May

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Moore. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Mountfort

Event Comment: [By Mrs Mary Manley.] Never Acted before

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Mills. Written by Ben. Johnson

Event Comment: Benefit Weller, Higginson, Hilton, Mrs Boman

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twenty Years. Written by the late Ingenious Mrs Behn