Event Comment: By Command of
Her Majesty. [This was the first time that members of the royal family had appeared in public since the beginning of the
King's illness (his first attack of insanity) in November 1788. See also 21, 24 Apr.] The drop curtain with the
King's arms on it shown when the front curtain first rose was the "original curtain exhibited on the opening of
Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre [in 1714]...It has lain by in the scene-room of
Covent-Garden theatre nearly seventy years, but was rescued from oblivion, retouched, and the appropriate ornaments added for the occasion" (
Public Advertiser, 16 Apr.). On the
Queen's entrance "the house called for
God save the King, and the theatre being prepared, the song was immediately sung by
Bannister,
Johnstone, and
Darley, the house joining in the chorus. It was encored...At the end of the play [it] was again called for, and again sung twice. At the end of the pantomime it was again called for; and the theatre not sending forward the performers, the audience cheerfully sung it for themselves; and having sung, they encored themselves; so that altogether it was sung six times in the course of the evening. Her Majesty had a bandeau of black velvet, on which were set in diamonds the words 'Long live the king.' The
princesses had bandeaus of
white satin, and 'Long live the king' in gold" (
Universal Magazine, Apr. 1789, p. 218). Receipts: #388 16s. 6d. (385.12.0; 3.4.6)