Event Comment: Benefit for the Use of the Marine Society. Towards collecting clothing and equipping the distressed (both men and boys) who are inclined to serve in the Navy. Boxes 10s. 6d. Pit 5s. First Gallery 3s. Upper Gallery 2s. Tickets to be had of Mr John Stephens, Secretary to the society, in Princes St., near the Bank; Batson's Coffee House, Cornhill; and of Mr Varney at the Stage Door, where Places may be taken. As this is the Entertainment exhibited this season for this most beneficial undertaking, by which so many distressed Persons as well as Vagabonds have been preserved and rendered useful in the highest degree, it is hoped the polite, the brave and humane, of both sexes, will shew their approbation of this design, by interesting themselves in the promotion of it

Event Comment: Benefit for Pritchard, Treasurer. At the Desire of the African Prince the Farce of Catharine and Petruchio is changed to the above pantomime. Tickets of Pritchard at his house in Queen St., and at Stage Door. Receipts: #140 (Cross)

Event Comment: & a new P a new +Prologue upon the Prince Wales's birth-day, being now 21. So ended the Season. Receipts: #180 (Cross)

Event Comment: [No analysis of Box income.] Expenses #46 16s. 5d. Paid Bill for velvet and White sattin for their Majesties' and the Prince of Wales's Box #138 10s. Bill for Crimson Duchess Velvet & White Sattin used in Coronation #107 16s. Paid Linen Draper's Bill [for 11 April 1759-14 Nov. 1761) #106. Receipts: #231 6s. (Winston Theatrical Record)

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. 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: 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)