Event Comment: Benefit for Burton and Harwood, prompter. Tickets sold at the Doors will not be admitted. Receipts: #160 6s. 6d. (18/7/0; 10/13/6; 0/0/0; tickets: 131/6/0) (charge: #106 17s. 11d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by Ben Jonson. Afterpiece: With a New Overture by Dr Arnold. With Italian, French, Irish, Scotch, Welsh and English

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Part of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. To prevent confusion Ladies are desired to send their Servants by half past Four o'clock. Mainpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 15 May 1782]. Afterpiece: Not acted these 5 years [not acted since 25 Mar. 1775]. [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Banquo to Bensley, but "Poor Bensley's illness last night took him off; but on another night he will give and take in the triumph" {Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). In afterpiece he is assigned to The Guardian. On the Kemble playbill in both cases his name is deleted and MS annotations substitute Hull's.] "Macbeth at Drury-lane will. . . gag the drivellers who, on the failure of Constance [in King John], ventured a sweeping prophecy of condemnation that 'the Siddons never could play Shakespeare.' Would it not have been better to have borrowed Farren, rather than Hull, for Banquo?" (Public Advertiser, 4 Feb.). "'Why,'say some of the critics, 'should Mrs Siddons wear a white dress in her last scene of Lady Macbeth? She is supposed to be asleep, not mad.' What reason except custom can be given for a mad heroine appearing in white we know not [and see DL, 20 Dec. 1782]. Yet there is an obvious reason why a person walking in their sleep should wear a white dress of the loose kind worn by Mrs Siddons ... It [is] the nearest resemblance which theatrical effect will admit, to the common sort of night-dresses" (Public Advertiser, 7 Feb.). Receipts: #346 16s. (198/10/0; 7/2/6; 0/8/6; tickets: 140/15/0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Mainpiece: 1st time [i.e. at this theatre]. Receipts: #242 7s. 6d. (226/18/0; 14/18/0; 0/11/6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Staunton and Wright. Morning Chronicle, 3 May: Tickets to be had of Staunton, No. 54, Drury-Lane; or Wright, Bennet-street, Westminster. Receipts: #227 (49/3; 25/8; 0/0; tickets: 152/9) (charge: #105 15s. 2d.)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; M 3, by--Francis. Perhaps the same as a piece performed under this title at Bath, 20 Nov. 1785]: With new Musick, Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The new Musick and Overture by Dr Arnold. The Scenery by Rooker. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Benefit for Wrighten, prompter. 3rd piece [1st time; M I, author unknown. Music selected from Dr Arne. MS: Larpent 833 (which notes, "The words partly new and partly compiled. In Commemoration of the Restoration of His Majesty's Health"); not published]. Public Advertiser, 18 May: Tickets to be had of Wrighten, No. 6, Little Russel Street. Tickets delivered for the 20th will be admitted. Receipts: #278 17s. 6d. (48.2.0; 13.17.0; 0.17.6; tickets: 216.1.0) (charge: #106 13s. 7d.)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Merry Wives of Windsor, advertised on playbill of 10 Feb.] Afterpiece [1st time; BALL. P 1 (?), by John Cartwright Cross. Airs (T. Woodfall, 1798)]: The Scenery, Machinery, Dresses and Decorations entirely new. The Music by Reeve. The Scenery painted by Richards, Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, and Blackmore. The Machinery by Cresswell, Sloper, Goostree, &c. The Dresses by Dick, Mrs Egan, &c. Receipts: #294 0s. 6d. (270.16.6; 23.4.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A masque in 3 parts with Music by Dibdin. New Scenes, Machines, Habits, and Decorations. This Entertainment is got up at vast Expence both in Scenery & Dresses very great applause (Hopkins Diary). But I wish it may answer the expence (Hopkins MS Notes). Book of Chorusses & Songs may be had at the Theatre. [The afterpiece thoroughly reviewed and excoriated by Theatrical Review for 28 Oct.] Paid Mr Dorman for coals #45 10s.; Mr Booth over stop'd last season 10s. 6d.; Supernumerary Soldiers #1 11s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #259 12s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Rich's Company. The date of the premiere is not knwon, but the Dedication is dated February 1699@1700, the play was entered in the Term Catalogues in February 1699@1700, and advertised in the Flying Post, 16 March 1699@1700. The latest likely date for the first production is January 1700, but the play may have appeared in late December as a rival to lif's production of I Henry IV early in January 1700. Cibber, Apology, I, 275: But the Master of the Revels, who then licens'd all Plays for the Stage, assisted this Reformation [of the morality of the stage] with a more zealous Severity than ever. He would strike out whole Scenes of a vicious or immoral Character, tho' it were visibly shewn to be reform'd or punish'd; a severe Instance of this kind falling upon my self may be an Excuse for my relating it: When Richard the Third (as I alter'd it from Shakespear) came from his Hands to the Stage, he expung'd the whole first Act without sparing a Line of it. This extraordinary Stroke of a Sic volo occasion'd my applying to him for the small Indulgence of a Speech or two, that the other four Acts might limp on with a little less Absurdity! no! he had no leisure to consider what might be separately inoffensive. [Cibber continues with an explanation of the censor's argument for cutting the act.] Preface to Cibber's Ximena, 1719: Richard the Third, which I alter'd from Shakespear, did not raise me Five Pounds on Third Day

Event Comment: Benefit Roberts. Particular Care is taken to perform the Play with Decency and Regularity, to the best Capacity of the Company. [Advertised in Craftsman, 19 Dec., and notice exists also in a clipping in BM, 11791 dd 18, Volume 5.