Event Comment: A New Scene was introduced at the End of the Elopement call'd the Rejoicing Night & finish'd with the Sailors Pageant...the whole receiv'd great Applause (Hopkins Diary). Mainpiece: By Deisre. Paid 2 notes of Mr Weston #9 4s. 10d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #200 2s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

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: For twentieth night the New Masque in Three Parts call'd The Institution of the Garter, or Arthur's Round Table Restor'd, Paid six day's salary list at #83 10s. 7d. per diem #501 3s. 6d.; Paid Mrs Abington on Cloaths acct #2 2s.; Paid Mr Vernon per order on note #20; Rec'd Stopages #13 5s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #142 13s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: This play is alter'd by Mr Cumberland was very well receiv'd Mr & Mrs Barry play'd very well Alcibiades was perform'd by Mr Crofts being his first appearance upon any Stage bad figure bad voice & Play'd bad (Hopkins Diary). New Scenes, Decorations &c. Mr Crofts-a stationer in the Temple (Winston MS 10). Theatrical Review, 4 Dec.: We think ourselves oblig'd to declare that this gentleman (Crofts), by no means answered the expectations we had formed, from the accounts we had heard of him.--His voice is not bad, though it is not much above the level of common conservation; --his deportment is aukward and void of grace to an extreme; and he labors under the disadvantage of having a face destitute of expression. His gestures are extremely ungraceful, and the whole of his execution is glaringly untutored, and misconceived. His persons is very ill formed, and therefore it makes greatly against him, especially as he is the representative of Alcibiades, who was the handsomest man in all Athens, and we never remember any one's attempting to set out as a capital performer with so few requisites for the support of such an undertaking as this gentleman appears to have. Paid Dr Nares & Mr Cooke's 8 boys in the Garter, 12 nights (30th ult. incl.) #36; Master Brown 7 nights (2nd inst. incl.) #2 12s 6d.; Licence for Timon, #2 2s. (Treasurer's Book). [Larpent MS 328 of Cumberland's Timon, is one of the earliest to include scenic descriptions: "A Hall in Timon's House. The Flat Scene represents stately Folding Doors. Scene two, the Back scene is hastily drawn back and discovers a magnificent Levee Room or Salon. &c."] Receipts: #243 1s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Tragedy [by Joseph Cradock] never performed. The Music composed by Mr Fisher. Words of the Epithalamium to be had at the Theatre. Paid Palmer (wax chandler) #140; Paid Buxton & Enderby (oyl merchants) #136 3s. (Account Book). Receipts: #220 16s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The Characters in Mainpiece "New Dress'd" (playbill). Rec'd Mr C. Roberts half year's rent to Mich. Last, #5; Paid Mr C. Roberts (shoemaker) #11 6s. 10d.; Mr G. Garrick on Acct #100; Master Thomson 13 nights (12th incl.) #3 5s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #211 17s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Characters in the Mainpiece New Dress'd (Public Advertiser). Paid Garter Supers 8 nights (13th inst. incl.) #39 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #161 9s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. About this time papers say inside of Foote's theatre with Dressing Room Green Room &c. is entirely pulled down to enlarge the stage which is to be nearly twice the size it was. Woodward is to exhibit two new pantomimes next summer. (Winston MS 10). Paid Printer's Bill #9 6s. (Treasurer's Book). [Treasurer's Book also indicates that this night #30 4s. of Orders were given out.] Paid 2 Clarinets 6 nights (18th incl.) #9 9s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #173 2s. 6d. Ordinary charges #84. Extra for Invasion #10 10s. Profit for Author #78 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Alterations and additions to the afterpiece in form of a Trip to Naplesv. Includes two views of the eruption of Vesuviusv [a display used afterwards in Harlequin's Invasionv 19 March]. Theatrical Review, 26 Dec.: The Witches; or a Trip to Naples,...one of those Mummeries, in which the carpenters, painters and taylors belong1ng to the theatre are the principal projectors; who torture dull brains to furnish out most contemptible pieces of entertainment...the disgrace of the English stage. This what-shall-we-call-it...now reviv'd with alterations and the addition of two new scenes, viz. two views of Mount Vesuviusv: the first of which represents a Vulcano burning at a distance, and is reflected by the water in the bay of Naplesv. The second is a nearer land view of the Mounts, and represents the manner in which the Lava is thrown out whenever an eruption happens; the torrents of the lava, like a river of liquid fire, falling into a cascade from a rock. As far as carpenters and painters are concerned, these additional scenes seem to be well executed, but whether the resemblance is exact, we cannot pretend to say; though we suppose it is. Be this as it may we cannot help thinking, the terrific ideas these scenes naturally raise in the mind, must defeat every intention of giving pleasure, and consequently afford less satisfaction to curiosity than a written account of that Vulcano, or any descriptive drawing of it. Paid Printer's Bill #9 6d. Receipts: #235 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: This Comedy was written by Mr Cumberland was very well receiv'd & great Applause but it will not be so Successful as the West Indian was (Hopkins Diary). New Scenes and Dresses for the Mainpiece. [See Theatrical Review, 20 Jan. See also account in Town and Country Magazine (Theatre No. XXXIII). Larpent MS 329 again includes scene description by the author: "Hall in Lord Abberville's Housev with a staircase seen through an arch in the Flat."] Receipts: #248 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. Play not acted: theatres closed for death of Augusta Princess Dowager of Wales. [For comment Theatrical Review, II, p. 93 attaches to the evening of 7 Feb.]: Another additional scene was introduc'd this evening, for the first time in which Mr Dunstall, in the character of a Female Ballad Singer, entertained the audience with the following new song, relative to the tricks of the Stockwell Conjuror, which it exposes with some degree fo humour, and which has a good effect, from the manner in which it is introduc'd; but from such poetry, Heaven delvier us!@The Stockwell Wonder@Ye beaux, belles and flirts, who the Pantheon stock well,@Come and see the renown'd Pandemonium at Stockwell.@Where the house and the furniture's all in bon ton@And the pewter and crockery dance cottillon. Derry Down, down, down Derry Down.@A pickling-pan first, which exceeds all belief,@Jumps and skips to the tune of old English Roast Beef;@While a barrel so lively, it cannot be said,@That the beer that is in it can ever be dead, Derry Down &c.@ @The tables, chairs, jars, frisk about too, and soon@The pestle and warming-pan move to some tune;@The clock too chimes in, and we very well know@That a clock that don't stand must undoubtedly go, Derry down, &c.@But let not amazement your fancies perplex@The enchantment arose from th'enchanting fair sex;@A sweet girl was the cause, and girls wonders are rich in@For we all know sweet girls-are extremely bewitching.@Derry down, &c.

Event Comment: A Favourite Comic opera. Music by Galuppi, with new dances and decorations. N.B. Mlle Heinel will dance every night performance when the public have not previous indication to the contrary. [Probably cancelled on account of the death of the Princess Dowager of Wales.

Event Comment: [This New Comedy (by Mrs Elizabeth Griffith) seems not to have been performed this night, according to the author's Preface to her Edition of 1772. Shuter had been unattentive and absent from many rehearsals]: At length though late [in the season] a day was appointed for the representation, and on that morning Mr Shuter appeared at rehearsal, pretty much in the same state as before, and confessed himself incapable of performing his part, that night. Upon which the play was oblig'd to be further postponed, and handbills were sent about at noon, to advertise town of the disappointment....A further final day was afterwards determined on, but the audience being out of humour at their former disappointment, called Mr Shuter to account for it, on his first appearance; which threw him into such confusion, that he was not able to get the better of it, throughtout the whole performance...in the hurry of his spirits the actor not only forgot his part, the deficiency of which he endeavoured to supply with his own dialect, but also seemed to lose all idea of the character he was to perform; and made the Governor appear in a light which the author never intended: that of a mean, ridiculous buffoon. [Mrs Griffith concluded her preface by relating how her friends stood by the piece, but two or three in the gallery, when it was given out again objected and threw an apple at the chandeliers, which so perturbed the management that the play was withdrawn. She therefore published it by subscription, prefixing the names of about 440 subscribers, persons of the first quality, including James Boswell, Edmund Burke, Col. Burgoyne, the Duke of Devonshire, David Garrick, Mrs Montague, William Richardson, and a host of writers, players, and people of fashion. This list provides a pretty good roster of those who filled the boxes and part of the pit of both theatres at the time.] Paid Younger #2 2s. for the license for A Wife in the Right (Account Book). Receipts: #218 12s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: N.B. The sixth night of the New Tragedy of The Grecian Daughter is oblig'd to be deferred till Monday. Paid 2 Clarinets 3 nights (22 Feb. incl.) #4 14s. 6d.; Paid 4 Days' salary at #83 9s. 9d.; #333 19s.; Mrs Abington's cloaths acct, #1; Mr S. French 6 days, #1 10s.; Extra soldiers, #1 4s.; Rec'd Mr Condill's 2nd payment for fruit office #20 (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #156 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: A solo on the Violincello as 11 March; and Cirri's New Concerto on the Violin as 20 March. Charges: #35 (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sg Daigville & Signa Vidini. [24 April letter signed Ned Shuter dated from his Majesty's Bench of Justice, St Georges Fields: "Theatrical Memoirs giving circumstantial account of my family-Admit my father was a chairman, my mother sold oysters in winter and cucumbers in summer. I was not born in a cellar but in a two pair of stairs front room at one Mrs Merit's an eminent Chimney Sweeper, Vine Street, St Giles" (Winston MS 10). Thomas Weston's apology for the delay of his Benefit. It was owing to his distressed affairs which he had new laid open to the managers. See comment form Edinburg Evening Courant, 29 April.] Paid Renters #88 for Oratorio nights; Mr Dibdin's draft on managers #50; Master Brown 5 nights, #1 17s. 6d.; Rec'd from Messrs Smith and Stanley charges for 11 Oratorio nights at 28# per night, plus candles &c . #342 4s.; Rec'd stopages #9 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #151 4s. Charges: #65 11s. Profits to Daigville & Sga Vidini: #85 13s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Egerton. Afterpiece: Not acted in 3 years. [See 3 April 1769.] [Genest in Volume of News Clippings (Harvard Library) quotes Edinburg Evening Courant of 29 April: Last night between the play and the farce at Drury Lane Theatre, a disturbance arose which continued for a full hour. Mr Weston it appeared was in debt to the managers a considerable sum of money, on which account they had impounded all the cash received on his benefit night. This the comedian did not like, and therefore yesterday evening sent word that he could not play, that he was arrested and detained in a springing house, but desired that no apology should be made of his being 'suddenly ill' (the usual stage plea) as it would be an egregious falsehood. After the play Mr Vernon came forward and inform'd the audience that Mr Weston 'was suddenly taken ill' and could not perform. Weston instantly started up in the front of the upper Gallery, and inform'd the house that he was not ill, but in the custody of an officer, and if the audience would have patience he'd inform them of the whole affair. A long altercation ensued. The Managers sent on Mr Vernon repeatedly; and after much pro and con Weston came down and played his part of Sneak." The article must have referred to the 24th of April, when Weston play'd Sneak in The Mayor of Garratt. The Managers promis'd the Town a publication of the whole affair."] Paid Mr Brathwait for men's cloaths #33s. Receipts: #200 8s. Charges: #70 12s. Profit to Mrs Egerton: #129 16s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: The last night of the Subscription of this Season. N.B. By particular desire many of the Nobility and Gentry who are engag'd to Drury Lane Theatre on Tuesday next for the benefit of decay'd actors, the last serious opera of Demetrio (Music entirely new, Composed by Guglielmi) is deferred till Wednesday next when Mlle Heinel is to dance for the last time of her engagement in England

Event Comment: Mainpiece: A New Comedy in three Acts written by Foote

Event Comment: Proprietor of Marlebone Gardens, Mr Arnold, summoned to Bow St. to pay penalty of #5 for causing Fireworks to be made contrary to the Act of 9th and 10th of William III. Opinion of the Bench he was not fineable (Public Advertiser). Letter to Garrick in consequence of his moving the Court of the King's Bench for leave to file an information against author of Love in the Suds &c. will shortly be publish'd by D. Kendk. Was publish'd 7 July Folio 2s. 6d. an quarto 1s. 6d. 2nd edn. (Winston MS 10, from Burney News Clippings.