Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of NOTORIETY, advertised on playbill of 23 Oct.] Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2 , by Mrs Burke. MS: Larpent 992; not published]: With new Music [by Tommaso Giordani (Morning Herald, 25 Oct.)). Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #228 0s. 6d. (206/10/6; 21/10/0)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [Ist time; MF 2, attributed to Mrs Rainsford, for whom see Morning Herald, 9 May; London Chronicle, 23 May, states that it was written by "A Lady," but gives no name. MS: Larpent 1025; not published]: The Music composed by Webbe. Receipts: #118 4s. (109/3; 9/1)

Event Comment: [By Mrs Aubert.] Never Acted before. In Daily Courant, 26 May: Never acted before, being unfortunately prevented on Friday last, by the unexpected Arrest of the Person who was to have played the Doctor

Event Comment: Mrs Mills, a Drury Lane actress, died on this day

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; CO 2, by Thomas Knight]: With new Music, new Scenes and Dresses. The Music composed by Mazzinghi and Reeve. The Scenes painted by Richards and Phillips. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. Account-Book, 5 Feb. 1800: Paid Knight for Turnpike Gate #125; Reeve and Mazzinghi for music in same #50. Morning Chronicle, 29 Nov. 1799: This day is published The Turnpike Gate (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #288 17s. (281.2.6; 7.14.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Thomas Knight; incidental music by William Reeve]: Partly taken from The Committee [by Sir Robert Howard]. Morning Herald, 21 June 1797: This Day is published [by G. Cawthorn] The Honest Thieves (1s.). True Briton, 25 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #434 7s. 6d. (210.4.0; 11.18.0; tickets: 212.5.6)

Event Comment: NNeville MS Diary: In ye evening read ye part of Hartop in the Knights. Went into ye Pit just as ye Beggar and Player came on and saw ye Beggar's Opera for a third time running, Mrs Dancer has more command of her eyes than any woman I ever saw, and sings very sweetly, tho' with less power than ye mere singing Pollys. Barry cannot sing well. Mrs Mahon's expression and propriety in Lucy is delightful. Mrs Jeffries does Doll Trapes better than she does Mrs P

Event Comment: A farce of Mr Foote s, formerly play'd at ye Haymarket by ye Name of the two Knights from ye Land's End. farce hiss'd--all hum (Cross). Mainpiece: By desire. Afterpiece: Never perform'd there. Receipts: #100 (Cross)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Masque (in three parts) [by George Colman] never perform'd, in which will be introduc'd the Principal Solemnities at the Installation of the Knights of the Garter. With New Music, composed by Dr Arne, Habits, Decorations and Scenes. Books of the Masque to be had at the Theatre. Receipts: #220 10s. 6d. (Account Book). The greater part is borrowed with some variation from Ben Jonson [Masque of Oberon]. The same liberty has been taken with a few passages of Shakespeare, and a Chorus of the late Gilbert West, Esq. The final chorus is from Dryden...an effort to entertain the public by the combined powers of the most eminent proficients in the arts of Music, Painting and Poetry (Adv. to Printed Edn., Colman's Dramatic Works, IV, London, 1777)

Event Comment: Benefit for Yates. Tragedy written by R. Glover. Part of Pit will be laid into Boxes. Send servants by 4 o'clock. Charges #64 19s. Balance to Yates #52 19s. plus #151 3s. from tickets (Box 589; Pit 26) (Account Book). Neville MS Diary: Having places in the Pit at Covent Garden went to see Mrs Yates do Medea in which she is inimitably great. My strong desire to see her in this character was one reason of continuing to town so long. Read her part before the play began. Her husband is truly comic in Tim in the Knights. Receipts; #117 18s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; MD 5, by George Holman, based on Die Rauber, by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Prologue by John Taylor (Poems, I, 65)]: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed by Attwood, and selected from Dr Arnold, Callcott, and Mozart. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 4 Sept. 1799;: This day is published The Red Cross Knights (2s.). Ibid, 22 Aug.: It was remarked from its extreme length and the frequent fall of the drop scene that it was a play in ten acts instead of five--indeed this method of preparing for a new scene disjoints the business, and of course tends greatly to injure the effect

Event Comment: Benefit for Quick. Public Advertiser, 8 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Quick, No. 99, High Holbourn. Mainpiece: Written by Beaumont [recte Massinger] and Fletcher. With Alterations [by Leonard Macnally (Not. Dram.)]. To conclude with a Representation of the Ceremony of receiving a Knight of the Order of Malta. The Music by Dr Arne. Afterpiece: Never performed here. Receipts: #292 13s. (197/1; tickets: 95/12) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Benefit for Costollo and Ballard (Treasurer). Last time of performing the Mainpiece this season. Tickets sold at the doors will not be taken. [See T. Wilkinson Memoirs, I, 117-19 on Mrs Woffington's illness and inability to play Gertrude.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In I a Grand Masqueradev. [For Mrs Higginson see 11 Nov.] Receipts: #293 9s. (287.6; 6.3)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Atkins, 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1]: To conclude with the Storming the City of Acre, as 7 May. Morning Chronicle, 19 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Atkins, No. 31, Bow-street, opposite the Box Door. Receipts: #236 13s. 6d. (94.17.0; 11.17.0; tickets: 129.19.6)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Turner Robinson

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Walter and Mrs Pelling. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Congreve. [Tickets of Mrs Walter at Mr Hook's, Carpenter, in Stanhope Street; of Mrs Pelling at Mr Dagley's, Silversmith, near Castle Tavern, DL.]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. General Advertiser, 16 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Wells, No. 15, Beaufort-buildings. Receipts: #337 17s. 6d. (178.3.0; 3.17.6; tickets: 155.17.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells. Mainpiece [1st time; C 4, author unknown, not in Larpent MS; not published. Epilogue by Robert Merry (World, 30 Apr.). On 11 May acted as The Female Pursuit]: Taken from Moor's Gil Blas. Public Advertiser, 27 Apr.: Mrs Wells trusts the Public will have the Candour to excuse her not appearing in the Play, as the principal Woman's Character has many changes in it, and the Fatigue of going through various and numerous Imitations would render her incapable of undertaking it. Gazetteer, 9 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Wells, No. 12, Weymouth-street, Portland-place. Receipts: #301 14s. (166.2; 10.1; tickets: 125.11)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Wells [who imitated Mrs Siddons, Mrs Crawford, Mrs Jordan, Mrs Martyr, Mrs Kennedy (World, 19 Aug.). 1st piece in place of Seeing is Believing; 2nd of Ways and Means, both advertised on playbill of 17 Aug.]

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Margarita

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Charke. By particular Desire. Tickets for Mrs Elmy, Miss Packington, Miss Jones also taken

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Mountfort. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Butler. Tickets at Mrs Butler's House in Leicester Fields