Event Comment: CCatherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 18 April: These oratorios of Handel's are certainly (next to the hooting of owls) the most solemly striking music one can hear....In this last oratorio he has literally introduced guns, and they have a good effect.--Deutsch, Handel, p. 640, who identifies the guns as kettle-drums. But Winton Dean, Handel's Dramatic Oratorios, p. 471, identifies them as the outsize drums from the Tower of London. See Sheridan's The Critic on off-stage gun shots: This hint I took from Handel. Recced of Mr Handell for rent of his 10 Oratorio's #210.--Account Books, Egerton 2268. [Actually there were twelve nights of oratorios.

Event Comment: Benefit for Elizabeth Dove, now a widow

Event Comment: Benefit for Quin. Mainpiece: By Command of their Royal Highnesses Prince George, Prince Edward, Prince William, Prince Henry, Lady Augusta and the Lady Elizabeth. Six rows of the Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Stage will be Enclosed and form'd into an Amphitheatre. Paid Quin in full of his agreement #122; Advanced Servandoni #5 5s. [The Account Book itemizes the income this night as #93 15s. in money; #99 5s. in tickets, a total of #193 without stage (i.e., presumably without counting money to Quin gained from friends invited to sit in the Amphitheatre on stage.) This was also a "Free Benefit," i.e., clear of costumary house charges.] Receipts: #193

Event Comment: nother long letter to the author of the General Advertiser pleading attendance at the benefit performance of Comus]: Whoever then would be thought capable of Pleasure in reading the works of our Incomparable Milton, and not so destitute of Gratitude as to refuse to lay out a Trifle in a rational and elegant entertainment for the Benefit of his living remains, for the exercise of their own Virtue, the Increase of their Reputation, and the pleasing consciousness of doing good, should appear at Drury Lane theatre tomorrow April 5, when Comus will be performed for the Benefit of Mrs Elizabeth Foster, Granddaughter to the Author, and the only surviving branch of the family. N.B. There will be a new Prologue on the Occasion written by the Author of Irene, and spoken by Mr Garrick; and by particular Desire there will be added to the Masque, a dramatic Satyr call'd Lethe in which Mr Garrick will perform. Tickets to be had of Dodsley, Bookseller, Pall Mall; Messrs Payne and Boquet, Booksellers, Paternoster Row; Batson's Coffee House, near the Royal Exchange, and of Hobson at the Stage Door

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. My oath & Mrs Simson's appear'd in ye G: Advertiser, & Mr Fitzpatrick now swore (in ye Inspector) to what before he had given his Honour to--when Woodward appear'd in ye Pant: great Noise, he said gentlemen, if you think the two affidavids to-day not sufficient I will corroberate 'em on Monday with six or Seven more. quiet on Sunday Mr Fitz: waited on Lord Chamberlain, to complain of Woodward's Insolence, my Lord sent for Garrick who told ye whole Story; & upon Mr Fitz owing he threw an apple at him, my Lord said, that act put upon a Footing with ye lowest, & judg'd him the Agressor,--upon wch Fitz; desir'd all affidavids &c shoul'd cease & he wou'd drop his resentment. which was done (Cross). Receipts: #100 (Cross). [In the General Advertiser appeared (1) Letter to the Public from Woodward disclaiming any note of insolence, and accusing Fitzpatrick of having a bad memory; (2) an Affidavit from Cross that he was present and heard Woodward say distincly "Sir I thank you," without any air of menace. He heard this from his prompter's seat "next adjoining the Stage box call'd the Prince of Wale's box"; (3) an Affidavit from Mrs Elizabeth Simson, who was standing in the "First entrance next the stage door, on the Prompter's side," that she heard what Cross Heard and no more, and understood no air of Menace to be present. In the General Advertiser also appeared a letter from one T. C. explaining the approach of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane in Macbeth on the basis of a story told him by a Scots Laird of a nearby castle, to the effect that the Clans used to distinguish themselves in battle by sprays from different trees attached to their bonnets. From this T. C. developed a theory that Macbeth's experience was one of historical face rather tahn a figment of Shakespeare's imagination.

Event Comment: At Cleopatra's Cataract between the several acts of her concert, will be pour'd upon the Town a cataract of Originals and Amazing Geniusses, brought by that antient Soverign from Anamamboo, Upper Egypt, and the renown'd Kingdom of Abyssinia. These being an entire new set of performers will exhibit that evening in a new manner sever strange and surprising Feats of an Egyptian Broomstick, the Ghosts, Witches, Imps, modern Saints, Ballad Singer, Conjuror, and Elizabeth Canning. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. To begin at 6 p.m. [A cryptic "puff" in the Daily Advertiser suggests that Mrs Midnight has abdicated in favour of Cleopatra, who will now take over the Haymarket.

Event Comment: The Words by Mrs Elizabeth Rowe. The Musick by Chas. Barbandt. Pit and Boxes 5s. Gallery 3s. To begin at Seven o'Clock. Books of the Oratorio to be had at the Theatre 6d

Event Comment: ctually no play. Death of George II closed theatres three weeks.] Mainpiece: Not acted in 2 years. [See 28 April 1759. There was no income this night, but the play list had to be met. The house carried a profitable balance of #318 16s. 5d. The payroll plus other expenses came to #284 12s. 9d., leaving a thin balance of #34 3s. 8d. (Account Book). Other bills included #14 17s. to Luppino for making dancing dresses; Robertson 10s. for attendance four nights in The Rape; Miss Ibbott #5 5s. for performing the part of Queen Elizabeth in the Earl of Essex; Marenesi and wife advanced weekly #2 2s. till the Theatre opened again (Account Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular Desire. Rec'd stopages #1 8s.; from John Palmer in part of his bond #70; Paid 5 days salary list #367 13s. 4d. Receipts: #173 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Went to the 2 shilling Gallery to see the new tragedy, with its musical entertainment The Cunning Man, a sort of translation of Rousseau's Devin du Village. Holland, Powell and Bensley played Warwick, Edward and Pembroke very well. Mrs Yates did great justice to Queen Margaret. Mrs Palmer did Elizabeth. The Prologue was spoken by Bensley, the Epilogue by Mrs Yates. The characters were very richly dressed in the dresses of the time. The improper use of ridiculous modern dresses on the stage often offends me (Diary of Sylas Neville, unpublished MS portion)

Event Comment: Paid Tallow Chandler's 4th Bill #41 6s. 5d.; Spermacetti Candles, #132 18s. Mr Tomlinson for Men's cloaths #11 11s.; Mr J. French on acct #20; Miss Hopkins, 15 nights (19th Dec. incl.) #3 15s. (Treasurer's Book). [The sixth edition of Wm. Law's Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage Representations was published this year (1st. edn. 1726) This day was published the Preliminary Number of the Westminster Magazine, which, monthly, included a section called The English Theatre, which observed generally on the state of the Stage, and commented specifically on new plays. Its view of the stage in general was not as sanguine as had been that of the writer for the Town and Country Magazine (1 April 1772). "We are of opinion, that the English Theatre is now in its decline. Whether it is that the stores of Dramatic Subjects or of Dramatic Genius are exhausted, is not immediately obvious; but there is a fault somewhere....We have seen the Morning star of Wit--the Noon too is past; we have now arriv'd at its evening...There is in Arts, as in Empires, a progress which leads to Refinement; and this refinement leads to Ruin." According to the writer the meridian glory of the English stage was during the reign of Queen Anne. Reviewer damns the Irish Widow, refuses to discuss the Gamesters (revived), damns the Rose and praises the Garrick alteration of Hamlet. This year also appeard Granny's Prediction, a 53-page pamphlet attack on Mrs Barry, condemning her on moral grounds (polygamy) and on aesthetic grounds, commenting on each of her characters. By a spiteful female relative Elizabeth Franchetti.] Receipts: #142 10s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Opera, music by Sacchini &c. [not performed, according to Public Advertiser, 8 Nov., because of illness of two singers, one being Sga Sestini. A Letter by William Lee in The Public Advertiser (7 Nov.) notes that beginning in 1772 he had served refreshments in a room which served also as a passage to the boxes; alterations made to enclose the passage were made in 1773; Lee was charged #60 a year for the room (with the fire and light at his own expense). Then Elizabeth Smith, who had had charge of concessions died. In 1774 Lee was charged #160 plus #80 for coals and light. Hence Lee lost #130 and was saved only by a benefit by the graciousness of the Nobility and Gentry.

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: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Elizabeth, Baroness Craven, later Margravine of Anspach. Larpent MS 564; not published. Author of Prologue unknown]: After the Prologue, a Naval Overture. The Airs from the most eminent Composers [with new music by Dr Arnold, Lady Craven, and Tommaso Giordani]. The Scenes new painted by Rooker. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Public Advertiser, 19 July 1781: This Day is published the Songs in The Silver Tankard (6d.)

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; C 3, by Elizabeth Inchbald, based on L'Indigent, by Louis Sebastien Mercier, and on Le Dissipateur; ou, L'Honnete Friponne, by Philippe Nericault, dit Destouches. Prologue and Epilogue by Thomas Vaughan (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 21 July 1791: This Day is published Next Door Neighbours (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart, "from the Spanish"; on 2 Sept. reduced to 1 act. Prologue by the author (see text)]. "The Piece, we understand, was originally founded on some topics that have of late engrossed the conversation of much of the fashionable world...The Lord Chamberlain thought [it] too delicate a nature to appear with the allusions and title it then bore, She would be a Duchess. The consequence was that the offensive bits were expunged and the piece re-christened...It would be unfair to make any observations...in the mutilated stage it was presented" (Public Advertiser, 15 Aug.). "Some part of the plot was supposed to allude to the late occurrences in the family of General John? Gunning, who was indulged with the privilege of erasing [from the MS] that which he disliked, and who reduced it to its present feeble and unconnected form" (Gazetteer, 15 Aug.). [The reference in the original title is to the simultaneous flirtation of Miss Elizabeth Gunning, the General's daughter, with the eldest sons of the Dukes of Marlborough and Argyll (see dnb, under Susannah Gunning). She would be a Duchess: in Larpent MS 915.

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Elizabeth Inchbald, based on Le Mechant, by Jean Baptiste Louis Gresset. Larpent MS 952; not published; synopsis of plot in Universal Magazine, July 1792, p. 61]

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, ascribed variously to Elizabeth Inchbald and to Miss Griffiths, based on L'Amour Use, by Philippe Nericault, dit Destouches. Prologue and Epilogue by George Colman, ynger (see text)]. Morning Herald, 4 Sept. 1792: This Day is published Cross Partners (1s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Elizabeth Inchbald. Prologue by Thomas Vaughan (see text)]: The Dresses and Scenery are new. Morning Chronicle, 26 Nov. 1794: This Day is published The Wedding Day (1s.). Powell: Wedding Day rehearsed at 10; Siege of Belgrade at 11. Receipts: #295 2s. 6d. (207.7.6; 76.7.0; 11.8.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by William Henry Ireland; incidental music by William Linley. Prologue by Sir James Bland Burges; Epilogue by Robert Merry (see text)]: With new Scenes, Dresses & Decorations. The Scenes designed and excuted by Greenwood and Capon. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay & Miss Rein. Printed slip attached to Kemble playbill: A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. [i.e. those forged by W. H. Ireland, of which this play was one] having appeared, on the Eve of representation of Vortigern, evidently intended to injure the interest of the Proprietor of the MSS., Mr Samuel? Ireland [W. H. Ireland's father] feels it impossible, within the short space of time that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in Mr Malone's enquiry [i.e. Edmond Malone, An Inquiry into the Authenticity of certain Papers attributed to Shakspeare, Queen Elizabeth, and Henry, Earl of Southampton, 1796]. He is therefore induced to request that Vortigern may be heard With that Candour that has ever distinguished a British Audience. The Play is now at the Press, and will in a very few days be laid before the Public. [But it was not issued until 1799 (see below). See also Bernard Grebanier, The Great Shakespeare Forgery, London, 1966.] 4 Apr., states that the first three acts were listened to with patience, but beginning with the fourth act the play was damned, when "one tremendous yell of indignation from the pit burst simultaneously." "At four o'clock the doors of the theatre were besieged; and, a few minutes after they were opened, the pit was crowded solely with gentlemen. Before six not a place was to be found in the boxes, and the passages were filled...The audience betrayed symptoms of impatience early in the representation; but, finding its taste insulted by bloated terms, which heightened the general insipidity, its reason puzzled by discordant images, false ornaments, and abortive efforts to elevate and astonish, pronounced its sentence of condemnation at the conclusion of the play" (Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 346-47). "Irelands play of Vortigern I went to. Prologue spoken at 35 minutes past 6 [see 29 Mar.]: Play over at 10. A strong party was evidently made to support it, which clapped without opposition frequently through near 3 acts, when some ridiculous passages caused a laugh, mixed with groans-Kemble requested the audience t o hear the play out abt. the end of 4th act and prevailed.-The Epilogue was spoken by Mrs Jordan who skipped over some lines which claimed the play as Shakespeares. Barrymore attempted to give the Play out for Monday next but was hooted off the stage. Kemble then came on, & after some time, was permitted to say that "School for Scandal would be given," which the House approved by clapping. Sturt of Dorsetshire was in a Stage Box drunk, & exposed himself indecently to support the Play, and when one of the stage attendants attempted to take up the green cloth [i.e. a carpet which, by custom, was laid on the stage during the concluding scene of a tragedy], Sturt seized him roughly by the head. He was slightly pelted with oranges" (Joseph Farington, Diary, 1922, I, 145). Account-Book, 4 Apr.: Paid Ireland his share for the 1st Night of Vortigern #102 13s. 3d. Morning Chronicle, 29 Mar. 1799: This Day is published Vortigern and Henry the Second (4s.). Receipts: #555 6s. 6d. (528.6.0; 26.9.6; 0.11.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Elizabeth Inchbald, adapted from Das Kind der Liebe, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by John Taylor; Epilogue by Thomas Palmer (see text)]. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Smith]: The Music composed by Attwood. The Overture accompanied on the Harp by Weippert. Morning Herald, 28 Nov. 1798: This Day is published Lovers' Vows [sic] (2s.). Times, 26 Oct. 1798: This Day is published A Day at Rome (1s.). Receipts: #197 15s. 6d. (194.3.6; 3.12.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the Author of The Castle-Spectre [Matthew Gregory Lewis, also the author of Prologue and Epilogue (see text)]. "The Epilogue was spoken by Bannister Jun. in the character of Queen Elizabeth, who ascends from a trap in the middle of the stage, and who is supposed to have obtained the permission of Pluto to revisit her kingdom, in order to witness the representation of the East Indianv" (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1799, p. 367). Receipts: #200 13s. 6d. (131.11.0; 67.9.6; 1.13.0)