Event Comment: By Command of Their Majesties. Paid Kirk Housekeeper's bills to October 12 #102 19s. 4d.; Chorus Singers #6 15s. They called for the Epilogue (to the Runaway) and made a great Noise for it all through the first Scene of the Farce, but it was not spoken. Miss Younge was not down ready to begin [the mainpiece], Sheridan ordered the Curtain to be drawn up, it was two Minutes before she came to begin (Hopkins Diary). Receipts: #219 16s. 6d

Event Comment: Powell: Lodoiska rehearsed at 1 (third act) by order of Mr Sheridan. Receipts: #366 13s. 6d. (286.0.0; 79.4.0; 1.9.6)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Cherokee, advertised on playbill of 24 Feb. In it the playbill retains Mrs Booth as Mrs Over-done, but "Mrs Over-done Mrs Maddocks, Mrs Booth ill" (Powell).] Powell, 25 Feb.: New Comedy, viz. The Wheel of Fortune, rehearsed at 11; Alexander the Great (by order of Mr Sheridan) at 1; 26 Feb.: Wheel of Fortune rehearsed at 12. Receipts: #406 19s. (337.10.6; 63.18.0; 5.10.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Widow and Three Orphan Children of the late Mr Benson. [Address by John Taylor, Poems, I, 62.] "Benson [who committed suicide on 19 May] was remarkable for a very retentive memory, which enabled him on the slightest notice to become a substitute for almost any performer who might be suddenly disabled from appearing" (European Magazine, June 1796, p. 397). The house was a very good one, but it has been said that Sheridan went to the Treasury and carried off the money, so that Benson's widow and children never got a sixpence" (Genest, VII, 245). Receipts: #678 10s. 6d. (319.8.0; 66.3.6; 2.19.0; tickets: 276.6.0; odd money: 13.14.0) (charge: #212 15s.)

Event Comment: [This was Miss Farren's last appearance on the stage.] "On the conclusion of the play Wroughton came forward, and, instead of uttering the usual lines [i.e. giving out the play for the next night], delivered the following Address before the curtain dropped, all the Performers remaining on the Stage, and Miss Farren herself in a state apparently of much agitation. [Here follows the address (which is not listed on the playbill).] After Wroughton had delivered these lines, Miss Farren advanced and curtsied repeatedly" (True Briton, 10 Apr.). The address "was written by Sheridan during the performance of the comedy" (Morning Herald, 12 Apr.). "[Miss Farren's] figure is considerably above the middle height, and is of that slight texture which allows and requires the use of full and flowing drapery, an advantage of which she well knows how to avail herself...She possesses ease, vivacity, spirit and humour, and her performances are so little injured by effort, that we have often experienced a delusion of the senses, and imagined, what in a theatre it is so difficult imagine, the scene of action to be identified, and Miss Farren really the character she was only attempting to sustain" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, pp. 236-37). Account-Book: Renters, Free, Orders and Private Boxes at School for Scandal #199 9s. [The tally is also entered of 3,656 spectators in the theatre.] Receipts: #728 14s. 6d. (654.18.0; 70.7.0; 3.9.6; being the largest amount taken at this theatre, on a night not devoted to a benefit, between 1794 (when it was opened) and 1800)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2, by John O'Keeffe. MS: Larpent 608; not published. CG playbill of 16 Nov. 1795 has a detailed synopsis of the action]: Intermixed with Songs and Dialogue. With new Music, Scenes, Dresses, Machinery, and Decorations. The new Music composed by Shield. The new Scenes designed by Richards, and executed by Richards, Hodgins, and assistants. To conclude with a Representation of the Lord Mayor's Show on the Water. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under Full Price will be taken. "As to the Pantomime it wanted nothing on the first Night but Abbreviations . . . [which should be] omission of the Doctors, the two Women of the Town, and the whole of Edwin's Character" (Public Advertiser, 27 Nov.). Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1783, pp. 29-31, contains a detailed synopsis of the procession, and adds, "The personages of this procession were all dressed in the characters of the time in which they lived, and before each of them a label, a scroll, or a pageant was carried, bearing their name, or some allusion of the poets to their occupation. The figures in transparency were all painted as large as the life, and had a most grand and beautiful effect . . . The idea of the paintings was furnished by Mr Richards and Mr Smirk [sic], and all of them executed by the latter in a style of so much taste and excellence that it is a matter of some wonder to us, where an artist of Mr Smirk's abilities has been so long concealed . . . The glee introduced with so much applause is the composition of the late Dr Rogers (who lived in 1600); the other airs in the pantomime and procession arc by Handel, Lord Kelly, Abel, Stamitz and Shield, and have very great merit. The expense of preparing this splendid spectacle must have been very great, and the cost of continuing its representation cannot be inconsiderable, since more than 200 supernumeraries are employed to walk in the procession." Receipts: #215 3s. (206/3; 9/0)