Event Comment: Benefit for Cross, and Burton. Rec'd cash #36 15s., plus #116 6s. from tickets. Total #153 1s.; Paid Norton 6 Chorus #1 10s.; Paid Mr Dolmain (Embroiderer) #3 (Treasurer's Book). Tickets to be had of Mr Page at the Stage Door. Tickets deliver'd out by Grandchamps will be taken. Publish'd this day, the third edn. of Colley Cibber's Apology for his Life at 6s. With an Historical view of the stage during his own time, to which is now added A short account of the Rise and Progress of English Stage: also a dialogue on old plays and old players. Printed for R. Dodsley (General Advertiser). Receipts: #154 (Cross); charges, #63 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s, Upper Gallery 1s. No persons to be admitted behind the scenes, nor any money to be returned after the curtain is drawn up. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr Page at the stage door of the theatre. To begin exactly at Six o'clock. [Customary notice repeated for each bill this season.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these two years. [See 4 April 1749.] Miss Jane Cibber play'd Alicia-quite in old style, not lik'd at all, tho' not hiss'd-given out again and great hiss'd & so not done ($Cross). [The Author of the Midwife (No 1, final Page) reported]: Now I am speaking of Miss Cibber, I must do her the justice to observe that she play'd the part much better than cou'd be expected from one of her years and practice; and if a proper regard is paid to her modesty and Merit, I make no doubt she will become an exceeding good player. Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Ridout and Barrington. On Wednesday 24 April for the Benefit of Leveridge, The City Wives Confederacy: @To all generous Britons I sound this endeavour,@To beg that this season my play you ll promote,@By granting as usual your bountiful favour,@Which by Old Silenus shall ne'er be forgot.@Whilst Life I'm enjoying, and health do inherit,@With grateful Remembrance all thanks I'll renew@Still raising my voice to the Heighth of my Spirit,@Then swan-like will sing out my final adieu. tickets fbr the play, with the Musical note printed on them may had of Leveridge at his Lodging over against the Red Lion in Brownlow St., by Drury Lane, and of Mr Page at the Stage Door. Tickets for the 17th will be taken

Event Comment: Benefit for Froment, Gardner, Page (Housekeeper) and Mad Cointrie. Tickets deliver'd by Goodall, Rawlins, Goodwin, and the Widow Dupre will be taken

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places to be taken of Mr Page at the Stage Door of the Theatre. [A customary notice each night. It will not be repeated further here.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted in 5 years. [See 11 Dec. 1744. For further comment on Dexter, see Genest, IV, p. 341.] One Mr Dexter did Oroonoko , a Gent of Ireland--who never appear'd upon a Stage before--he had ye Greatest applause ever heard & indeed deservedly a Sweet Voice, great feeling--his name was not in ye Bills--only by a Gent (Cross). We hear that a Comedy call'd Eastward Hoe; or, The Prentices, written by Ben Johnson, Chapman, and Marston, is now reviving at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, and will be acted the 29th. [A four page double column account of the text of Oroonoko appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1752, pp. 163-67.] Receipts: #130 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Roberts, Holtham, Page (Housekeeper) and Miss Morrison. Tickets deliver'd by Rawlins, Miss Allen, Miss Davis and Mrs Griffiths will be taken

Event Comment: [This month was publish'd another pamphlet in the Woodward-Hill controversy, A Lick at Them All, or the Moderator, (16 pages) "being a candid consideration of the present controversy between the Inspector and his opposers" (Gentleman's Magazine).] Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: To begin exactly at 6:00 o'clock. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be had of Mr Varney at the Stage door. [Repeated throughout the season.] Ye Naturalizing Bill having made some Noise against the Jews, some people call'd out for ye Merchant of Venice, & a Letter was thrown upon ye Stage desiring that play instead of the Opera, but we took no Notice of it, some little hissing but it dy'd away (Cross). [Sometime in the calendar year 1753, Lacy and Garrick drew up a mortgage on the Drury Lane property for #10,000, to be amortized to James Clutterbuck over a period of twenty-one years at the rate of #4 per acting night, and permission to grant free seats in any part of the theatre (except the stage, scenes and orchestra) to forty persons. These latter to be named and seats assigned ten days prior to the opening of any season. This thirteen-page document, which describes accurately the bounds of the 13,134 square feet of land on which the ten buildings comprising Drury Lane Theatre stood, contains protective clauses for Clutterbuck, to the effect that Garrick and Lacy will exhibit nowhere else in London without the #4 nightly payment and for Garrick and Lacy, to the effect that arrears in payment could be collected solely from Drury Lane property, and not from the individual incomes of the mortgagees. It was not signed, so apprently was not executed. (See Havard, Collection of Documents dealing with affairs of Drury Lane, No 2, fMS, Thr 12.)] Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: MMacklin has built two magnificent Rooms, ground floor [one] for Coffee, the other a [meeting] Room (Winston MS 8). [The Tuner pub. at 1s. by Dr Hiffernan. Fifty-three pages touching on theatre in general but particularly on Boadicia. There is no plot in the play...Boadicia is a monster well deserving what she suffers; therefore is neither an object of Terror or Compassion: but of Detestation. Sh deserts us in the third act...Tender-hearted Venusia is introduc'd to be whined to death...There is scarce any sentiment throughout; no moral to be deduced...the Diction...favors more of the level, languid, and underepic, than of the vigorous marrowy, tragic style...Never was Author more oblig'd to Performers, they acted to the full amount of his meaning; the Matter often fail'd Mr Garrick's continued and vigorous exertion."] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: MMr Garrick better in his health (Cross). [Gray's Inn Journal contained this day two full pages of satiric comment upon pantomimes inprogress at both houses, nothing Blakes' entrance in Fortunatus with a hare and a brace of partriges, and Cook's use of a hare and a gun at Covent Garden, as encouragements to poaching and in violation of the game laws.

Event Comment: Wrote by one Mr Crisp. A Gentlewoman, who never appear'd upon ye Stage before did Marcia (Mrs Graham) & had deservidly great applause, the whole play went off, with General Approbation. Mr Carey had his fiddle broke by an apple playing the first Music--the Prologue & Epilogue much lik'd--both wrote by Garrick (Cross). Gentlewoman-Mrs Graham, afterwards Mrs Yates (Winston MS 8). Tuner Letter the 2nd pub. at 6d.--29 pages

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr Woodward he did buck in the Farce (Cross). On account of the extraordinary demand for places, Boxes and Pit will be laid together. Amphitheatre on Stage. Published Tuner No 3-31 pages, 6d. Receipts: #311 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Desire. This Morning at Ten will be publish'd at 6d. An Epistle from Mr The. Cibber to David Garrick, Esq; to which are prefix'd some occasional verses, Petitions, &c.: @Lowliness is young Ambition's ladder,@Whereto the Climber upwards turns his face;@But when he once attains the upmost Round,@He then unto the ladder turns his back,@Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees@By which he did ascend.@Shakespeare@"Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so we would have it; let them not say, we have swallow'd him up," Ps. XXXV. v.25. Printed for R. Griffiths. [A thirty-five-page apologia, and bitter attack upon Garrick for supposed complicity in prohibiting the license of the Haymarket to him.] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Afterpiece By Particular Desire. [In this year was published a twenty-two-page pamphlet, An Address to the Ladies on the Indecency of appearing at Immodest Plays. A plea for boycotting.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: This is ye same farce that was play'd for Woodward's Benefit last Years, & call'd Ye Modern fine Gent: (Cross). Receipts: #200 (Cross). [See Theatrical Review, 1757 and Beginning of 1758 for comment on Male Coquette: 'On the whole the beauties of this little comedy exceed the faults in number and importance." The reviewer gives a nine-page review, cannot guess who wrote the piece, suggests Murphy.

Event Comment: During this month was published The Case of Authors...Stated with Regard to Booksellers, the Stage, and the Public by James Ralph. Pages 23-31 condemn both Garrick and Rich for their treatment of authors: "Those who have custody of the stage claim also custody of the Muse...There is no drawback on the profit of the night in old plays....To fly from Garrick in case of any contempt or neglect to Mr Rich, is enough to deter any man in his senses from embarking a second time on such a hopeless voyage.

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer (Pit-door-keeper). Tickets deliver'd by Denny, Humphrey, Page, Spilsbury, and Roberts will be taken. Receipts: #150 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Morris, Gray, West, Mortimer, and Cape. Tickets deliver'd out by Mr Page and Mr Roberts will be taken. Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: AA Letter to Garrick on Opening the Theatre, published at 1s. [See 1 Nov. for answer. This is Edward Purdon's 33-page criticism of Garrick, on his repertoire, his personnel and casting, and his secondary position to cg in the matter of decoration.] Receipts: #120 (Cross)

Event Comment: bout this time in the month was printed a 42-page pamphlet, Reasons why David Garrick should not appear on the Stage, in a Letter to John Rich. This is high praise of Garrick: 'I am so blinded either by prejudice of admiration that I can see nobody else" when Garrick plays.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Henry Jones. Afterpiece: [See note under cg play this night. During this year appeared An Essay Upon the Present State of the Theatre, in France, England, and Italy, a "work absolutely necessary to be read by every lover of Theatrical Exhibitions," printed for J. Pottinger. It contains twenty-two chapters on tragedy, thirteen on comedy, opera, authors, and the art of acting. Pages 147-51 discuss the obligation of English farces to French ones.] Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Cape, West, Tomlinson, Robinson, Roberts, and Mortimer. Tickets delivered by Marr and Page will be taken