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: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Sherry and Miss Wright. Tickets delivered by Daglish will be taken. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Public Advertiser, 22 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Sherry, No. 2, Little Russel Street, Covent Garden; of Miss Wright, No. 54, Drury-lane. Receipts: #257 15s. (48.9.0; 10.8.6; 0.11.6; tickets: 198.6.0) (charge: #89 5s. 6d.)

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:In I A Grand Masqueradev. Afterpiece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Thomas John Dibdin]: To conclude with a new Scenic Representation of Britannia Triumphantv. Interspersed With a Variety of favorite old Airs, popular Songs, Parodies, &c. The Overture and new Songs composed and the Music in general arranged by Moorehead. The Machinery invented and executed by Cresswell. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre, price Six-pence. Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1799: This day is published The Naval Pillar (price not listed). The afterpiece had reference to the contemplated erection of a "Naval Pillar" on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, in commemoration of the recent victbries of the English navy. A plain pillar is at the last introduced, with the names of the most celebrated admirals on a scroll, round which the sailors and their sweethearts dance with peculiar festivity. The pillar now flies open, and displays a most magnificent and appropriate spectacle--consisting of Britannia, personated by Mrs Chapman, under a rich canopy, with the figures of a sailor and a soldier for supporters, pointing to the letters G. R. over a brilliant sun, which turns on the center; shrouded in clouds above, and surrounded by angels, is a medallion of Lord Howe, and on columns on each side of the canopy are medallions of your great living naval commanders" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1799, p. 180). Receipts: #284 10s. 6d. (277.18.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Baker

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

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Garnet

Event Comment: Benefit Miss Tenoe

Event Comment: Benefit Smith, Cook, Mrs Scot. [At this performance] a Gentleman sitting in a Side-Box pointed at a young Gentlewoman, which another Gentleman perceiving, and she being one of his Acquaintance, he went to him and challenged him: They made some passes at each other, which put the Play-House in an Uproar, but they were parted, and neither was killed.-Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, 3 May

Event Comment: Not Acted these Seven Years [but see 12 Oct. 1714]. Weekly Packet, 8 Aug.: We hear that the celebrated Tragedian, Mr Booth, was Yesterday Se'nnight marry'd to Mrs Santlow

Event Comment: Not Acted these Twenty Years. Written by the late Ingenious Mrs Behn. Receipts: #12 11s

Event Comment: Benefit Knapp and Mrs Kent. Receipts: money #8 9s.; tickets #49 19s

Event Comment: Afterpiece [in place of THREE WEEKS AFTER MARRIAGE, advertised on playbill of 18 Nov.]: Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Occasional Address by Miles Peter Andrews (see 23 Mar. 1793).] THE SIEGE OF BERWICK [advertised on playbill of 18 Nov.] is unavoidably postponed till Thursday next on account of Mrs Pope's sudden Indisposition. Receipts: #233 2s. (216/19/6; 16/2/6)

Event Comment: Benefit Smith. Receipts: money #13; tickets #44 4s

Event Comment: Benefit Morgan and Mrs Morgan. N.B. The Night will be illuminated with the Silver Rays of Cynthia

Event Comment: Boxes #28 2s. 6d. Rec'd of Rev'd Mr Smith in full for his share of Tickets ye 9th Inst. #2 12s. 6d. (Account Book). Receipts: #117. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [altered by John Philip Kemble]: With new Scenes, Dresses, Decorations, and Machinery. In Act I, at the opening will be introduced, for the First Time a Battle between the Macedonians and the Persians. In Act IV, the Royal Banquet. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] The Scenes designed and painted by Marinari. The Dresses and Decorations by Johnston and Miss Rein. The Machinery by Cabanel. "[In the last scene] the expiring tone with which [Kemble] pronounces 'Cover me'; his shivering, when wrapt round in the imperial robes; his wan and wasted countenance; the manner of his labouriously drawing his legs together, and their aguish knocking when they meet, surpass all description" (Monthly Mirror, Jan. 1796, p. 180). Receipts: #375 2s. 6d. (306.14.6; 67.3.0; 1.5.0)

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)