Event Comment: Full Princes

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Mr Love & Mr Sanderson's Night. as Authors of ye Pantomime (Hopkins). Benefit for Compo[ser]s Panto (Cross Diary). Mr Powell played much better than the first night. Princess Augusta married to the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick (Hopkins Diary-MacMillan). Receipts: #233 8s. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: This night a new Occasional Interlude call'd Hymen was introduc'd between the Acts; but not put in the Bills (Hopkins). [For cast, see 21 Jan.] An occasional Interlude on the Marriage of Princess Augusta to Prince of Brunswick call'd Hymen (Cross Diary). This night a new occasional Interlude called Hymen, but not in the bills. Hymen was written by Mr Allen (Hopkins Diary-MacMillan). [The Larpent MS 217 lists four characters and a Chorus: Hymen, Cupid, Venus, Mars, Chorus. The words of the Songs by Cupid, Hymen and Venus were published in the Public Advertiser, 23 Jan.] Receipts: #122 5s. (MacMillan)

Event Comment: Theatres closed for death of Prince William. Died Sunday 29 Dec

Event Comment: By Desire. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for Boxes may be taken of Mr Sarjant(Only)Book-Keeper at the Stage Door. No Money to be received at the stage door, nor any money returned after the curtain is up. [Customary note at foot of each bill during season. Only significant variations will be noted.] Present the Duke of Gloucester, Prince Henry, the Princesses Brunswick, Louisa and Caroline (Account Book). Receipts: #224 3s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties, both pieces. Present their Majesties, the Prince of Wales Duke of Cumberland, Princess of Brunswick, and Lady Louisa. Gave Yeomen of the Guards #2 2s. Paid Miss Valois the balance of her salary last season #27 16s. 8d., and in full for this season to 24 Oct. 1766, #3 16s. 8d. (Account Book). Receipts: #241 3s

Event Comment: By Command of their Majesties. Present their Majesties, The Duke of Gloster, Lady Louisa, the Prince and Princess of Brunswick. Gave Yeomen of the Guard #2 2s. (Account Book). Receipts: #230 1s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Being the last time of performing it this season. Afterpiece: By Desire. The Conscious Lovers, for benefit of Weller and Lewes and Murden, oblig'd to be deferr'd to Tuesday the 26th instant. Present the Prince and Princess of Brunswick, and Lady Louisa (Account Book). Receipts: #93 1s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Doors to open at half past Four. Play to begin at half past Six. Send servants to hold places by Four o'clock. [Mrs Vincent's deficit of 1st instant received #20 3s. 6d.] Paid scavenger's rate for St Martin's due Lady Day #5 1s. Paid printer's bill #9 6s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #262 7s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Went to Drury Lane, but could not get in. Stayed from half past 4, sometime at one Pit door, sometime at the other, till past 6, and got in at the right hand side just as the play began, and was dreadfully squeezed, but rewarded by seeing Garrick play Hamlet. The expression in his features, his eyes particularly, surpasses anything I ever saw. He is a little man, but handsome and full of that fire which marks the stronger, and of the softness natural to the tender passions. It is impossible to see his greatest excellencies from ye Gallery. Baddeley and Dodd are pretty well in Polonius and Ostrick. Mrs Baddeley and Yates do Ophelia and ye Grave Digger very well. Mrs Pritchard is great, as usual in ye Queen. Gravedigger's man-Castle. Horatio-$Mr Packer. Several parts of ye play, as it is in $Shakespeare, are omitted rather improperly...The Prince Brunswick, his wife and Louisa were present (Neville MS Diary)

Event Comment: The Masque of the Fairy Prince oblig'd to be deferr'd till Tuesday. Paid Whitefield for making cloaths &c. #72 10s. 5d. (Account Book). Receipts. #129 13s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 2 years. [See 27 April 1770.] Paid Younger #2 2s. for license for Fairy Prince. Paid for 2 fifes 4s. Advanc'd Mr Bulkley as per Note #130 (Account Book). Receipts: #198 13s. (Account Book)

Event Comment: About Ten o'clock this Morning Orders came from the Lord Chamberlain to Shut up the House on Account of the Death of the Princess Dowager of Wales who died this Morn[in]g between 6 & 7 o'clock (Hopkins Diary). [Closed through Sat., Feb. 15. No record in Treasurer's Book save "The Princes Dowager of Wales died this Morning."] Theatres clos'd on 8 Feb. and reopen'd on 17th Feb. for Augusta Princess Dowager of Wales (Winston MS 10). Paid salary list, at #83 9s. 9d. per diem, #500 18s. 6d.; Mrs Abington's Cloaths acct, #2; Mr S. French, 1 1!2 days 7s. 6d.; Mr Weston's note to Mr Holman, #8 3s. (Treasurer's Book). [The cast scheduled for mainpiece was that of 4 Feb.; for afterpiece that of 30 Dec. 1771. The dance between was to have been Sailor's Revels of 8 Oct. 1771.

Event Comment: The composition of the drama with the characters of the King, Prince of Wales, Hotspur, and Falstaff will be particularly illustrated. [This is Kenrick's School of Shakespeare; repeated 9, 16, 20 (Falstaff's Wedding and Merchant of Venice), 29 (Cozeners and Falstaff's Wedding).

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Barry. Mainpiece: A Tragedy altered from Thomson [by Thomas Hull] never perform'd. Part of Pit laid into the Boxes. Servants who are to keep places are desired to be at the stage door by 4 o'clock, and those Ladies and Gentlemen who have taken seats in the Pit are requested to come early to prevent confusion in getting to their places. Epilogue by Sheridan. [This play had been refused a license on 26 March 1739, While Walpole was still Prime Minister, probably because of such speeches as: @Is there a cure on Humankind so fell@So pestilent, to Prince and People,@As the base servile vermin of a court;@Corrupt, Corrupting ministers and favourites?@How oft have such eat up the widow's morsel,@The Peasant's toil, the Merchant's far-sought gain,@And wantoned to the ruin of a nation!-Larpent MS, op. p. 65.@ Also the play equalizes Christianity and Mohammedanism before God, and gives a slight edge to the latter (Act IV, scene ii), suggesting the part politics play in Christian churches. An account of the alterations made for the present performance is given in the Westminster Magazine for March. The review concludes: The Play was got up altogether well, and reputedly acted, and is in its present state what the Ladies call "a very pretty tragedy."

Event Comment: Benefit for Massey. Tickets to be had of Massey, the Bell and Dragon, near Princes stairs

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties."The croud was so great at Drury-lane playhouse, to see the young prince William in his naval uniform, that it was found necessary to throw a kind of bridge from the stage to the pit to liberate several people, who otherwise must have perished in the throng" (Gentleman's Magazine, Mar. 1780, P. 151). Receipts: #271 14s. (259.13; 9.6; 2.15)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time at a public theatre; C 3, by Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, 1st acted privately at the Town-Hall, Newbury, 6 Apr. 1780. Text (G. Riley, 1781) assigns no parts. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Joseph Jekyll (see text)]: With new Dresses, &c. "The Prologue [the first 30 lines and the concluding couplet of which were used by Sheridan as the Prologue to Pizarro (see dl, 24 May 1799)] was so much admired that at the request of the Duchess of Devonshire and several other of the nobility it was respoken after the piece; but as King was absent from the theatre, it was delivered by Palmer" (Town and Country Magazine, May 1780, p. 23 ). "The chief singularity was that [Lady Craven] went to it herself the second night, in form; sat in the middle of the front row of the stage-box, much dressed, with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness. The Duchess of Richmond, Lady Harcourt,...Mrs Damer, Lord Craven,...and I were with her. It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself-but there is such an integrity and frankness in her consciousness of her own beauty and talents, that she speaks of them with a naivete as if she had no property in them, but only wore them as gifts of the gods. Lord Craven on the contrary was quite agitated by his fondness for her and with impatience at the bad performance of the actors, which was wretched indeed, yet the address of the plot, which is the chief merit of the piece, and some lively pencilling carried it off very well, though Parsons murdered the Scotch lord, and Mrs Robinson (who is supposed to be the favourite of the Prince of Wales) thought on nothing but her own charms, or him. There is a very good though endless prologue written by Sheridan and spoken in perfection by King, which was encored (an entire novelty) the first night: and an epilogue that I liked still better and which was full as well delivered by Mrs Abington, written by Mr. Jekyl. The audience, though very civil, missed a fair opportunity of being gallant, for in one of those ----logues, I forget which, the noble authoress was mentioned, and they did not applaud as they ought to have done, especially when she condescended to avow her pretty child and was there looking so very pretty...Yet Lady Craven's tranquillity had nothing displeasing;...and it was tempered by her infinite good nature, which made her make excuses for the actors instead of being provoked at them" (Walpole [28 May 1780], XI, 178-80). Public Advertiser, 14 July 1781: This Day at Noon will be published The Miniature Picture (price not listed). Receipts: #144 9s. (94.9; 48.3; 1.17)

Event Comment: The last Time of performing this Season. [This was Mrs Hartley's last appearance on the tstage.] Account-Book, 29 May: Paid Foulis for writing Music #101 17s.; 31 May: Received of Their Majesties for this Season #60, of Prince of Wales #30; 16 June: Paid Pattinson, tallow chandler, #332 8s. Paid Cooper, printer, #335 11s. Paid Harris, manager, #500. Paid Enderby, oil merchant, #1,061 17s. Paid Hull, salary as Acting Manager #150. Paid Mrs Hartley in lieu of a Benefit #105; 6 July: Received Stage Forfeits this season #42 3s. 6d. Receipts: #63 8s. (61.14.6; 1.13.6)