Event Comment: Benefit Baker, Pit-Doorkeeper, late Linen draper in Wood Street. [Failed in business, now in the theatre.] Receipts: #80

Event Comment: Benefit for daughter of the late Mr Ben Johnson. [Fleetwood let Johnson's Daughter have this Benefit for the money he owed to her father who died just after the last season and acted to the last (Winston MS.).] The Play with entertainments of singing and dancing Servants will be admitted to keep places on the stage, which for the better accommodation of the ladies will be form'd into side boxes. To prevent mistakes, the Ladies who have taken places are desir'd to send for tickets. Tickets to be had and places taken of Mr Johnson's daughter, at the third Door on the right hand in Beaufort buildings in the Strand; and of Mr Hobson at the stage door of the theatre

Event Comment: At the Great Theatrical Booth, Bowling Green. By Permission. Benefit Laguerre and Boaman. By a Company from the Theatres-Royal, for their Diversion, a Concert...gratis, etc. Boxes 3s. 6d. First Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. 6 p.m. Daily Advertiser lists Miss Hippisley for Miss Prue in mainpiece and for Kitty in afterpiece, and Mrs Yates for Melissa. In the London Daily Post and General Advertiser bill Mrs Dunstall doubles two roles

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A burlesque tragedy. Benefit Mrs Daniel. [Customary concert formula.] Boxes 2s. 6d. Pit 1s. 6d. First Gallery 1s. Upper Gallery 6d. Note, The performance will be carried on by Persons used to the Stage, and not by People unacquainted with it, as has been too often practiced in Benefits at the same theatre

Event Comment: HHorace Walpole to Horace Mann, 24 Feb.: Handel has set up an Oratorio against the Operas and succeeds. He has hired all the goddesses from farces [i.e., Kitty Clive] and the singers of Roast Beef [i.e., Lowe] from between the acts at both theatres, with a man with one note in his voice [i.e., Beard] and a girl without ever a one [i.e., Mrs Cibber]; and so they sing.-Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, II, 180

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Clive. By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Servants will be admitted to keep places on the stage, which for the better accommodation of the Ladies, will then be form'd into an Amphitheatre. Ladies are desir'd to send their servants by 3 o'clock. Tickets and Places to be had of Mrs Clive, at her house in Great Queen St, Lincoln's Inn Fields; and of Hobson at the stage door of the theatre

Event Comment: Benefit Miss Cole, who lately belong's to the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. A Concert, etc. Prices 4s., 2s. 6d. Tickets at the Peacock, opposite Exeter Exchange in the Strand

Event Comment: Benefit a Family in Distress. [Concert formula.] Great Theatrical Booth, Bowling Green. Boxes and Stage 3s. Pit 2s. Gallery 1s. By the Company of Comedians from the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, & who perform gratis. To begin positively at Six and conclude about Nine. By Permission

Event Comment: The Universal Spectator today carried an even harsher attack on the theatres as a place to represent oratorios; see Deutsch, Handel, pp. 567-68

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. We hear Mrs Clive, by Desire, and in imitation of the late celebrated Mrs Verbruggen, who perform'd the Part of Bayes in the Rehearsal, is to appear in that character at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane for the benefit of her brother. (Daily Advertiser) Note. Tickets deliver'd out for the Benefit of a Gentleman under Misfortunes, for Friday the 22nd instant for the Play As You Like It will be taken on Thursday next the 21st to the Comedy call'd The Alchemist

Event Comment: We hear his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has fitted up a Theatre near Cliefden, for a Company of French Comedians, who play there three times a week (Daily Advertiser)

Event Comment: We hear that the Lord Chamberlain has refus'd granting a License to the seceding players to act in the Theatre in the Haymarket. (Daily Advertiser) To the Author of the London Daily Post, Sir: As I have engag'd myself for this winter to perform in Dublin, by an Invitation of Several Persons of Distinction in Ireland, I think it my duty before I leave London, by your paper, to return my sincere and hearty thanks to the Town for the many favours I have receiv'd during the Time of my Performing in Publick, which I hope they will Candidly accept from their most of Oblig'd, humble Servants, Thomas Lowe

Event Comment: Mainpiece, not acted in 10 years. [The British Champion, or Impartial Advertiser, No. 109, gives a four column comment upon the players versus the managers at Drury Lane. It appears to be written by a citizen appalled at the large salaries of the players as well as at the reputed high living of Fleetwood. Concludes by suggesting that theatre prices be much reduced.

Event Comment: No Money will be taken behind the scenes, nor any money to be return'd after the Curtain is drawn up. The following Letter, signed A By-Stander was inserted in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser: As I am absolutely unconcerned in all the now subsiding Theatrical Disputes, I hope the following observations upon what happened last Tuesday Night at Drury Lane will not be thought unworthy the Publick attention. The Manager of a theatre is to regard the General sense of the Town, and not any Faction form'd thru pique or resentment; Such a Faction may be Noisy, it may be Insolent, but never can be Considerable enough to force either the Manager or the Publick into their terms. Their outrages are equally insults upon the Understanding of the Town, as they are injuries to the Property of the Manager. Therefore if the Manager shall at any time give way to such proceedings, Then and not till Then, the Publick has a right ot find fault with him. The stage Then becomes a property to the insolence of a few misled people; and all theatrical diversions, which in this and other countries used to be directed by Decency and Publick Approbation are sacrificed to a pitiful Personal Resentment. If the above propositions are undeniable, the following Queries are submitted to the Publick, and the answer to them will determine the Reasonableness of the Tuesday Night Riot: I. Whether the Rioters were not Inconsiderable in their numbers and Circumstances? II: Whether any Gentleman can answer to himself, for doing in a Body, a thing which no Gentleman can justify for doing by himself? III. Whether the Rioters can justify their breaking into the Boxes, and taking possession of the seats, which were taken by many persons of Quality and Distinction, at the same time refusing to pay anything; thereby robbing the Manager of all the money of the Boxes, and most part of the Pit? IV. Whether the Manager ought to suffer in his property for the private quarrel between any two actors, as was the case...? V: Whether if such insolences are not discountenanced in the most effectual manner by the Town, any publick diversion can continue longer than a noisy inconsiderable Cabal pleases? VI. Whether any other motive than a regard to Public Decency would have hindered the Manager and Mr. Garrick's friends (who were treble the number) from treating the rioters as they deserved? I should be glad to see the above questions fairly and impartially answered

Event Comment: At the Temple Punch House, Tony Aston, the oldest approv'd Actor in the three Kingdoms, being deni'd his bread in both Theatres, this Day exhibits his learned comic demonstrative Oratory on the Face, with English, Irish, Scotch, and Negroe Songs, in proper habits, Prologue and Epilogue, and all his own Pasquin Invention. 6 p.m. 1s. He is under Misfortunes, and desires the Company of the Ingenious and Humorous. [Repeated 29, 31 Dec.; and with some changes in wording on 2, 5, 9, 25 Jan., 6, 15 Feb. 1744.

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Saunders, many years a Comedian, by Command of his Royal Highness the Duke. Tickets to be had of Mrs Saunders at her house, No 7, in Duke's Court, in the Great Almonry, Westminster, of Mr Morrison, at the Two Golden Balls in Long Acre; and of Mr Page at the stage door of the theatre. N.B.: Mrs Saunders humbly hopes those Gentlemen and Ladies who intend to favour her of their company, will excuse her not waiting on them, she not having been able to go out of her House these eighteen months

Event Comment: Written by Sir John VanBrugh. Last night their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince George and Prince Edward were at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden to see the Comedy of Aesop and the Rape of Proserpine.-London Daily Post and General Advertiser

Event Comment: Performance After the manner of an Oratorio Set by Mr Handel. Tickets will be deliver'd to subscribers on paying their subscription money, this day and every day following at Mr Handel's House in Brook Street, near Hanover Square, where attendance will be given from nine o'clock in the Morning till three in the afternoon. Pit and Boxes to be put together, and no person to be admitted without tickets, which will be deliver'd at the Office in the theatre at Half a Guinea each, First Gallery 5s.; Upper Gallery 3s. 6d. [Customary notice which will not be repeated.] Gallery opened at Four o'clock, Pit and Boxes at Five. To begin at Six. Mrs Delany to Mrs Dewes: There is a four-part song that is delightfully pretty...there was no disturbance at the playhouse. -Delany, Autobiography, II, 262. [Libretto by Congreve.

Event Comment: Benefit the Author [Havard]. Tickets to be had at his lodgings, the Corner of the Great Piazza, in James St, Covent Garden; at the Bedford Coffee House, and of Mr Hobson at the stage door of the theatre

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. Tickets as before. Regulus publish'd. As it is acted by his Majesties Servants at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, by Mr Havard, Author of King Charles the First. Inter omnes suos laudabiles & Virtutum insignibus illustres Viros, non preferunt Romani meliorem; quem neque Felicitas corruperit, nam in tanta Victoria, mansit pauperrimus; Nec Infelicitas fregerit, nam ad tanta Exitia revertit intrepidus. (St. Aust. de Regulo. Lib I. de Civitat. Dei.) Printed for H. Woodfall, Jr. in Little Britain, by Paul Vaillant facing Southampton Street in the Strand. J. Watts and B. Dodd also advertised King Charles the First, an Historical Tragedy, written in imitation of Shakespear, and Scanderbeg, a Tragedy. Both written by Mr Havard, author of Regulus

Event Comment: Benefit Garrick. By particular desire 5 rows of the pit will be railed into boxes--Servants will be admitted to keep places on the stage, which for the better accomodation of the ladies will be formed into boxes--the ladies are desired to send their servants by three o'clock--to begin at 6 o'clock. Tickets to be had of Garrick at his lodgings, the last house in James St., joining the Great Piazza; at the Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden; Mr Vaillant's, Bookseller at the Strand; Mr Harrache's, Toyman in Long Acre; and of Mr Hobson at the stage door of the theatre where places for the Boxes may be taken

Event Comment: Benefit Delane. Tickets at his lodgings in Queen's Court, in King St., Covent Garden; and at the Bedford Coffee House in the Great Piazza. Places for the Boxes to be Taken at the stage door of the theatre