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: By Command of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. Benefit Garrick. Boxes and Pit laid together at 5s. Victor to Garrick: My closest attention was never more commanded than by you last night in Othello....I was most inclined to fear for you in your address to the Senate, but there, even there, you excelled your present rival (Quin) whose merit lies chiefly in declamation-I found you had very judiciously applied your study to the great and striking passages in the character--the trance had a fine effect, your manner of falling into it, and recovery from it, was amazingly beautiful...it would be ridiculous to doubt of your ability to act this part in the utmost perfection; but to arrive at that point there are some things to be done.--Genest, IV, 147

Event Comment: AA Letter to Mr Garrick on his having purchased a Patent for Drury Lane Play-House published. [Written by one who subscribed himself the Plain Dealer, it pointed out the troubles in store for the young manager from grievances from subordinates, arrogance from other actors (all individualists, no unity) failure from joint managership, grievances from public, and extraordinary expense from costume. He suggests the reasons for Garrick's jumping from actor to manager are vanity and avarice. He indicates Garrick's challenge and sums up the late troubled years of management under Fleetwood and Highmore.

Event Comment: CCross: (Pam: publish'd). Play dislik'd. Hiss'd much. [The pamphlet referred to was "Mr Garrick's Conduct as Manager of TRDL considered in a Letter Addressed to him," by E. F. 18 Oct.: As a manager, Sir, it is your business not only to prepare the Evening's Entertainment, but to prepare it in the best manner you are able; and the manager who does otherwise uses his customers ill." The burden of the author's complaints was: (1) the theatre has been operating for a month yet Garrick has appeared in only one character; (2) that he should buy himself off with speaking a prologue only, then sell that to the public at 6d. shows vanity, avarice, and lack of managerial responsibility; (3) that plays such as Albumazar (simple and poorly cast) and Scornful Lady, (with irreligious and atheistical parts) should not have been passed off on the public, whose expectations were raised high at the thought of Garrick's management. Macklin even had to apologize to the audience as he played the part of Sir Roger in the latter play. E. F. closed by urging: "Get up the best of our English Tragedies and Comedies; encourage the rising Wits and be under no apprehesion of the want of success." If you use common sense in casting your actors, as your former managers did (with all their other faults) in casting you, you will not yourself have to play every night. Above all remember your responsibility to the public.] Receipts: #100 (Cross); #127 4s. 6d. (Powel)

Event Comment: CCross: Benefit for ye Author. Mr Garrick order'd ye foundling to be given out for Sat: & as you like it for Mon: But ye Pit rose, & insisted ye Foundling shou'd be given out again for Monday, wch was done, tho; ye Lords who oppos'd it were in ye House. [Horace Walpole's account of the affair Foundling to Sir Horace Mann, in a letter of 11 March 1748 (ed. Cunningham, II, 106) runs as follows: "There has been a new comedy call'd The Foundling; far from good, but it took. Lord Hobart and some young men made a party to damn it, merely for the love of damnation. The Templars espoused the play, and went aamed with syringes charg'd with stinking oil, and with sticking plaisters for Bubby's fair hair; but it did not come to action. Garrick was impertinent, and the pretty men gave over their plot the moment they grew to be in the right."] Receipts: #170 (Cross); house charges #63 (Powel); cash #168 10s. 6d.; tickets #18 5s. (Clay MS)

Event Comment: With proper scenes, Machines, &c. [This is the Dryden-Davenant version.] Paid G. Garrick balance of his bill #6 13s.; Christmas Box to ye Beadle 3s. 6d.; Mr Norton 5 chorus #1 5s.; Xmas Jury #1 1s.; Mr Madden for an Embroidered Coat and a velvet suit of Cloaths #12 (Treasurer's Book). [This month was published A Dissertation on Comedy (by John Hippisley, Jr) in which the Rise and Progress of that Species of the Drama is particularly considered and deduced from the earliest to the present age. By a Student of Oxford. Printed for T. Lowndes (Gentleman's Magazine, Register of Books). The "Student of Oxford" seems to have been a Garrick apologist in the extreme: "But whatever reason there may have been formerly for this complaint [the immorality of the stage] since Mr Garrick's management the Stage is become the school of manners and morality: Ribaldry and Profaneness are no longer tolerated, Sense and Nature exert their influence; Pantomime daily declines, Dancers are but little encouraged; the Burletta performs to empty benches, and the British can now vie with the Athenian Drama when in its severest state of purity" (p. 15). Also, from the same source, Reflections on that Species of Dramatic Writing which it improperly call'd Serious Comedy: from the French of M Maillet du Boulley.] Receipts: #120 (Cross); #126 3s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Nothing said abour ye prolog: (Cross). The Music of the Funeral Procession compos'd by Dr Boyce. [See "William Boyce's 'Solemn Dirge' in Garrick's Romeo and Juliet Production of 1750," by Charles Haywood, Shakespeare Quarterly, Spring, 1960.] This day is Publish'd at 1s. 6d. Romeo and Juliet a Tragedy, revised and alter'd from Shakespear by Theophilus Cibber, First revised in September 1744, at the Theatre in the Haymarket; now acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. To which is added a Serio-Comic Apology for Part of the Life of Mr Theophilus Cibber, Comedian, written by himself. Interspers'd with memoirs and anecdotes relating to the Stage Managements, Theatrical Resolutions, &c. also cursory Observations on principal Players: particularly Mr Quin, Mr Ryan, Mrs Woffington, Mrs Ward, and Miss Bellamy; Mr Garrick, Mr Barry, Mrs Cibber, Mrs Clive, Mrs Pritchard, &c. Likewise Original Letters that passed between the late Sir Thomas DeVeil and Mr Theophilus Cibber relating to the Stage Act, Concluding with a copy of Verses, call'd the Contrite Comedian's Confession. Printed for C. Corbett, the Publisher, at Addison's Head, facing St Dunstan's Church, Fleet St; G. Woodfall, at the King's Arms, the corner of Craig's Court, Charing Cross. [See 11 Oct.] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: At the Desire of several persons of Quality. At the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, on Monday April 2 will be performed Othello, for the benefit of Mr Mossop; Othello by Mossop, Iago to b reviv'd by Garrick. It is hoped that those Ladies and Gentlemen who have engag'd places will excuse its being deferr'd to the above day, as a new tragedy, and a multiplicity of other business render it impossible for Mr Garrick to revive the character of Iago in the due course of Time. Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: MMr Garrick made a Speech and so Ended the Season (Cross). Books of the Masque sold at the Theatre. Receipts: #200 (Cross)

Event Comment: More noise against the Dancers, wch so enrag'd My Ld that with a Number of Gents. he went into the upper Galleries & took out a very noisy person-who prov'd to be Cap. Venor's Brother; he resisted & was not brought behind the scenes without much Difficulty, sadly beat, yet still obstinate, they went with Garrick & Lacy into Mrs Clive's room, where he behav'd very boldly, but all was adjusted without farther Mischief (Cross). This day publish'd: The Mirror: a Poetical Essay in the manner of Spencer. Price 1s. Ridiculum acii fortissime & optime Secatrem. Anon. To David Garrick, Esq: by C. Arnold. Sold by Woodfall. Receipts: #180 (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: Speedily will be publish'd at 1s. 6d. Dedicated to David Garrick Esq a New Edition of the Orphan of China...acted at Paris with great applause. [A weekly writer says of this performance: "I could wish that our modern Play-wrights would endeavor to imitate this author in the judicious choice and dispositions of their Fable; and further think this very piece not unworthy the notice of our managers. The Translator has indeed, with great propriety, laid his version at Mr Garrick's door, since there is nobody so well qualified to take the orphan under their protection."] Printed for R. Baldwin in Paternoster Row. Receipts: #220 (Cross)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Pritchard. Part of Pit laid into Boxes. This day publish'd, Price 1s. Brief Remarks on the Original and Present State of the Drama. To which is added Hecate's Prophecy, being a characteristic Dialogue between future Mangers and their Dependents. [William Shirley? A most virulent attack on Garrick's management as well as Rich's Quotes from the Herald No. XX, a denunciatory article on the managers, deplores the pamphleteering attempt to praise Garrick, asks "Shall he shine the God of our Idolatry, merely for excluding every other emulous and aspiring candidate?"] Receipts: #170 (Cross)

Event Comment: This is a farce of Macklin's Writing, it went off very greatly-he play'd Shylock too (Cross). Receipts: #190 (Cross). [Garrick and Lacy had contracted with Macklin for this Farce two weeks before this performance, according to the following document (BM Add. MS 27925): Memorandum of an Agreement relating to Mr Macklin's Farce and his Playing & performing in the said Farce, with such plays as shall be performed on which the said Farce shall be acted as aforesaid as follows: Imprimis: The said Farce to be publicly performed before Christmas, otherwise not this season on account of the Managers other engagements. Item: Mr Macklin to have for his performing in the said plays and Farce a Fifth part of the profits of the first five nights after deducting sixty-three pounds for the charges of each night during the said five nights-and the sixth night to be for the Benefit of Mr Macklin, he paying the usual charges of sixty-three pounds. Item: The Managers to have it in their power to stop the performances of the said Farce at the end of Six nights on account of their other engagements,-and in case the Receipt of any one night of the said nights on which the said Farce shall be performed as aforesaid shall fall short of One Hundred pounds. Then the Managers to have it in their power to stop the performance of said Farce as the Receipt does not amount to One Hundred pounds. Item: The said Six nights for the said Farce & plays in which Mr Macklin shall perform as aforesaid not to be played immediately succeeding one another, but alternately with such plays as the Managers shall think Convenient. Lastly: That if the said Farce shall meet with the disapprobation of the Publick, that then it shall be in the Power of Discretion of the Managers to stop the performance thereof. Dated this 28th day of November, 1759. S@ James Lacy, D. Garrick. Witness: R. Cross, Geo. Garrick.