Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years [acted in place of Love Makes a Man, advertised on playbill of 15 Mar.]. Afterpiece: Loutherbourg's celebrated Pantomimev. Not acted these 3 years [acted 4 Dec. 1786]. With new Decorations, and the Scenery new painted. With a Processionv exactly representing the Dresses, Weapons, and Manners of the Inhabitants of Otaheite, New Zealand, Tanna, Marquesas, the Friendly Islands, Sandwich Islands and Easter Islands, Tschutzki, Siberia, Kamtschatka, Nootka Sound, Onalashka, Prince William's Sound, and the other Countries visited by Captain Cook. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] Receipts: #256 17s. 6d. (250.5.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: "Harley's youth and vigour so repeatedly got the better of his endeavours to conceal them under the veil of assumed debility that it was rather the grandson of Lear, who was rehearsing the part of that injured Prince and parent, than the good old King himself" (Diary, 5 Jan.). Receipts: #269 8s. 6d. (266.13.0; 2.15.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; DO 3, by Prince Hoare, based on Didone Abbandonata, by Pietro Metastasio]: The Musick is chiefly new, and composed by Storace. The Selections are made from the most celebrated works of Salieri, Paer, Rampini, Sacchini, Sarti, Giordani, Cimarosa, Schuster, Andreozzi. The Scenery and Machinery designed by Greenwood and executed by himself and his Pupils. The Dresses of the Tyrians, Trojans and Africans entirely new, and taken from the most accurate descriptions of the Habits of their respective Nations. [Both Miss Barclay and Master Welsh had 1st appeared at the king's oratorios, 24 Feb.]. "A procession was introduced in which an Ostrich, a Dromedary and an Elephant marched to slow music. The Masque, which concluded the opera, was some insipid stuff about Neptune and Nereids, with a representation of the Temple of Neptune. Young Welsh sang prettily in this said Masque" (Morning Herald, 24 May). "[Mara] retained only one song of her Didone [see king's, 14 Feb. 1786]; the brilliant bravura, Son Regina, of Sacchini" (Mount-Edgcumbe, 80). Morning Herald, 28 May 1792: This Day is published Dido (price not listed). Receipts: #244 8s. 6d(213.14.5; 28.15.0; 1.19.0)

Event Comment: [The playbill assigns the Dauphin to Barrymore but, "Benson performed the Dauphin instead of Barrymore" (Thespian Magazine, Nov. 1792, p. 125). It is not stated who acted Duke of Gloster; doubling these two parts is not likely.] Account-Book: Paid The Prince of Wales's Porter for Performances in Cymon [on 31 Dec. 1791, et seq.] #13 10s. Receipts: #169 9s. 6d. (118.6.6; 46.8.0; 4.15.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Sga Storace. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Prince Hoare]: The Musick by Storace. Morning Herald, 27 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Sga Storace, No. 36, Howland-street, Rathbone-place. Account-Book, 4 July: Paid Hoare for Prize #210. ["Sga Storace's person (is) clumsy; her face coarse and ordinary; and yet there is so much enchanting vivacity...that she always delights whenever she appears" (Candid Strictures, 41).] Receipts: #388 12s. 6d. (196.11.6; 38.5.0; 3.10.0; tickets: 150.6.0) (charge: #157 1s. 3d.)

Event Comment: By Particular Desire of the Mirza, Prince of Broach. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Charles Dibdin; music by the author. MS: Larpent 1030; not published]: The Words of the Songs, &c. will be given at the different Doors of the Theatre. Tickets delivered for THE BEGGAR'S OPERA [Account-Book: by Heathcote, Bayzand, Egan, Pitt, Masters, Dick, Hall (carpenter), Doe, Goodwin] will be admitted. Receipts: #238 14s. 6d. (26/4/0; 3/17/6; tickets: 208/13/0)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; MF 3, by Prince Hoare, Author of Prologue-unknown]: With new Scenes, Dresses, &c. The Overture and Musick composed by Storace. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Benefit for Shade, Cameron, Woollams, Wood, Wilson, Dangerfield, Irish, Edwards, Griffiths, Nix, Wooldridge, Panchaud & Cole [box-keepers]. [This was Dodd's last appearance on the stage.] "Dodd was one of the most perfect actors that I have ever seen. He was the fopling of the drama rather than the age. I mean by this, that his own times rarely shewed us anything so highly charged with the vanity of personal exhibition. He was, to be sure, the prince of pink heels, and the soul of empty eminence. As he tottered rather than walked down the stage, in all the protuberance of endless muslin and lace in his cravats and frills, he reminded you of the jutting motion of the pigeon. He took his snuff, or his bergamot, with a delight so beyond all grosser enjoyments that he left you no doubt whatever of the superior happiness of a coxcomb" (Boaden, Kemble, I, 55). Receipts: #580 17s. 6d. (25.17.0; 37.3.6; 11.0.0; tickets: 503.4.0; odd money: 3.13.0) (charge: #211 17s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for C. Kemble. [Liston is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1799 season.] A Spurious Copy of Sighs having been advertized as performing at this Theatre, the Public is respectfully in formed that the True Copy is this day published by M. Stace, Princes-street, Leicester-square