Event Comment: Benefit for the Fund, established for the Relief of those Performers who, through Infirmity, shall be obliged to retire from the Stage. State of the Theatrical Fund, instituted at
Covent Garden in the year 1765,
and confirmed by Act of
Parliament, 1776. This Institution, calculated to provide for,
and relieve aged
and infirm Performers
and their Families, has not been successful enough during the course of 33 years, to acquire any particular Patronage, but has been raised
and supported (some few private Donations
and Bequests excepted) merely through the liberal Contributions of its Members. Several aged Persons are now,
and have been for many years, oeconomically maintained by it, although the Interest arising from the general Sum already amassed is not equal to one half of the Claims of its Annuitants. The other Portion is entirely supplied from the weekly Contributions of the Performers. Applications to the Public in behalf of this salutary Institution have rarely been made,
and sometimes very ineffectually. On these Considerations therefore the Lovers of Dramatic Entertainments are respectfully addressed for their Encouragement at This Evening's Performance. (See
Genest, VII, 365-66.) Receipts: #131 7s. (122.13; 1.16; tickets: 6.18)