Event Comment: Benefit for Legg, Bennet, and White, Mr Barry's sudden indisposition rendering him incapable of performing, Mr Ross will do his part [i.e., Essex]

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bellamy. Tragedy reviv'd and never acted there before. Afterpiece: Written by Foote

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Henry Mackenzie, based on La Fausse Inconstance; ou, Le Triomphe de l'Honnetete, by Fanny de Beauharnais. Larpent MS 852; text 1st published in Mackenzie's Works, Vol. VIII (Edinburgh, 1808), as False Shame; or, The White Hypocrite; it assigns no parts. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (see text)]. [Afterpiece in place of Love and War, advertised on playbill of 4 Dec.] Receipts: #202 13s. 6d. (191.3.6; 11.10.0)

Event Comment: Paid to Charlotte Lane for cleaning for Mr Dyer a white cloth Suit lac'd with silver, 2s. 6d. For Altering and mending ditto, silk &c., 6s. (MS list in Folger Library, Davies Life of Garrick, II, 322)

Event Comment: Benefit Cross (Prompter), Anderson, Clarke, White. Tickets for Miss Burgess also taken. Receipts: #110 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time at a public theatre; C 3, by Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, 1st acted privately at the Town-Hall, Newbury, 6 Apr. 1780. Text (G. Riley, 1781) assigns no parts. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Joseph Jekyll (see text)]: With new Dresses, &c. "The Prologue [the first 30 lines and the concluding couplet of which were used by Sheridan as the Prologue to Pizarro (see dl, 24 May 1799)] was so much admired that at the request of the Duchess of Devonshire and several other of the nobility it was respoken after the piece; but as King was absent from the theatre, it was delivered by Palmer" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1780, p. 23 ). "The chief singularity was that [Lady Craven] went to it herself the second night, in form; sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed, with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. The Duchess of Richmond, Lady Harcourt,...Mrs Damer, Lord Craven,...and I were with her. It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself-but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naivete as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven on the contrary was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance of the actors, which was wretched indeed, yet the address of the plot, which is the chief merit of the piece, and some lively pencilling carried it off very well, though Parsons murdered the Scotch lord, and Mrs Robinson (who is supposed to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales) thought on nothing but her own charms, or him. There is a very good though endless prologue written by Sheridan and spoken in perfection by King, which was encored (an entire novelty) the first night: and an epilogue that I liked still better and which was full as well delivered by Mrs Abington, written by Mr. Jekyl. The audience, though very civil, missed a fair opportunity of being gallant, for in one of those ----logues, I forget which, the noble authoress was mentioned, and they did not applaud as they ought to have done, especially when she condescended to avow her pretty child and was there looking so very pretty...Yet Lady Craven's tranquillity had nothing displeasing;...and it was tempered by her infinite good nature, which made her make excuses for the actors instead of being provoked at them" (Walpole [28 May 1780], XI, 178-80). Public Advertiser, 14 July 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Miniature Picture (price not listed). Receipts: #144 9s. (94.9; 48.3; 1.17)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Lessingham. Mainpiece: A Tragedy altered from Dryden [Aureng-Zebe] by Mr W. Addington, never performed before. Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years. [See 16 May 1770.] Charges #71 2s. Profit to Mrs Lessingham #38 7s. 6d., plus #92 12s. from tickets (Box 186; Pit 146; Gallery 242). Paid Cooper (printer) #36 2s.; Paid Mrs Witaker for a woman's white & silver flower'd suit #10 10s.; Paid John Doe for sticking black bills #6 6s. Receipts: #109 9s. 6d. (Account Book)

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. The date of the first performance is not known, but it very probably occurred not later than May 1691, as the play was advertised in the London Gazette, 4-8 June 1691. For discussions of it, see E. W. White, Early Performances of Purcell's Operas, Theatre Notebook, XIII (1958-59), 44-45, and R. E. Moore, Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theatre, Chapter III. Downes, Roscius Anglicanus, p. 42: King Arthur an Opera, wrote by Mr Dryden: it was Excellently Adorn'd with Scenes and Machines: The Musical Part set by Famous Mr Henry Purcel; and Dances made by Mr Jo. Priest: The Play and Musick pleas'd the Court and City, and being well perform'd, twas very Gainful to the Company. Roger North: I remember in Purcell's excellent opera of King Arthur, when Mrs Butler, in the person of Cupid, was to call up Genius, she had the liberty to turne her face to the scean, and ner back to the theater. She was in no concerne for her face, but sang a recitativo of calling towards the place where Genius was to rise, and performed it admirably, even beyond any thing I ever heard upon the English stage....And I could ascribe it to nothing so much as the liberty she had of concealing her face, which she could not endure should be so contorted as is necessary to sound well, before her gallants, or at least her envious sex. There was so much of admirable musick in that opera, that it's no wonder it's lost; for the English have no care of what's good, and therefore deserve it not (Roger North on Music, ed. John Wilson [London, 1959], p. 217-18)

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 Marten and White. Mainpiece never acted there before. [See 7 July 1738. Care will be taken to prevent tickets illegitmately sold from being admitted.

Event Comment: Charles II to Madame, 10 Dec. 1663: I am just now going to see a new play (C. H. Hartmann, Charles II and Madame[1934], p. 89). The Duke's Company. W. J. Lawrence, in a review of Boswell, The Restoration Court Stage, in Modern Language Review, XXVIII (1933), 103, suggests that it was The Step-Mother which was given on this occasion. The edition of 1664 lists: The Prologue to the King at the Cockpit at White-Hall. The Epilogue to the King

Event Comment: Receipts: #59 14s. Paid Dall [Scene painter] on acct of his salary, #1 10s.; Paid Austin [Dall's assistant] six days salary 12s.; Paid Besford (porter) a week's salary 12s.; Paid Mr Warring in full for assisting to examine Mr White's acct #10 10s. [Dall and Austin received the amounts recorded here each week. No further records of these payments will be made except for special variations.

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Mrs Greville and Williams. Mainpiece: Not acted these 5 years. Tickets delivered for the 17th of December will be admitted. Tickets and places to be had of Williams at Mr Spoke's, Tottenham Court; Mr White, Auctioneer, Queen street, Westminster; Messrs Ellis and Scott, Old Bond-street; Mr Hewitt, New Bond-street; Mr Cowcieroy, Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury; and at the Excise Office Coffee-House, Old Bond-street

Event Comment: Benefit White, Vaughan, Evans (Boxkeepers)

Event Comment: Benefit Marten and White

Event Comment: Paid Mrs Coleman for a white and gold brocaded robe #12 12s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #110 (Cross); #111 3s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: For the Benefit of the Wid. Kraus & her children whose Husband was murder'd by Robbers near Chelsea (Cross). Tickets to be had at White's Chocolate House, and the St James Coffee House, St James St.; at Allmack's Coffee House, Halfmoon St.; The Mount Coffee House, Grosvenor St.; Sam's Coffee House and The Jerusalem Coffee House, Exchange Alley; of Mrs Kraus, at her house in Halfmoon St., Picadilly, and of Mr Varney at the stage Door, where places may be taken. Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: About this time Mr Theo: Cibber Mr Maddocks the wire Dancer, & several other Theatrical performers, with & number of other Passangers embark'd on board the Dublin, Captain White, in order to go to Ireland but the Ship was lost & every Soul perish'd (Cross). As Mr Sparks & others complain'd of Mr Wilkinson for taking them off, it [Diversions of ye Morning] was intended to be omitted this Night, But the Audience call'd so violently for it, that we were oblig'd to let him do it--he took off Foote & Sheridan, & wou'd have left out Sparks but ye Audience wou'd not be satisfied without it--when they first call'd Mr Foote went forward & said as some of the performers had complain'd it was to be omitted; as for being taken off himself he had no Objection to it, as he was always glad to contribute to their Entertainm[en]t &c. (Cross). Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years [see 14 Oct. 1756]. Receipts: #130 (Cross); #139 10s. (Winston MS 8)

Event Comment: Receipts: #151 15s. 6d. Sent Mrs Ward by order of Rich #10. Paid Messrs Powell & Co for Miss White #3 12s

Event Comment: Benefit for Shuter. Mainpiece: Not acted in 10 years. Receipts: #194 10s. in cash, plus #147 18s. from tickets (Boxes 378; Pit 356). Charges #64 5s. Advanced to Mrs Ward #30. [Shuter called for imaginative participation of his audience in his Medley Skit (see Larpent MS 171): @"Suppose my dress alter'd with each exhibition....@If I speak like a Dutchman, or Brogue it like Paddy,@Or mimic Monsieur, or lisp like a Lady"@ Parts for The English Sailors in America (by G. A. Steevens) are listed in Larpent MS 172: Indian King , English Captain , Irishman , Sailor Ned and Sailor Ben , a Black Messenger , Guards , White Savage Lady , Black Woman , Image .