Event Comment: At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. And the principal Characters new Dress'd

Event Comment: According to Sir Edward Smith's bill--see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 308-the regular company at Drury Lane resumed acting (after the summer vacation) on 11 Oct. 1696 and acted 200 times to 7 July 1697, after which the young actors played 58 days to 7 Oct. 1697

Event Comment: According to Sir Edward Smith's bill--see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 308--Rich's Company acted 161 days from 6 Oct. 1697 to 19 May 1698, 41 days from that date to 10 July 1698, and the young actors played 24 days from 10 July 1698 to 10 Oct. 1698

Event Comment: According to Sir Edward Smith's bill (see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 308) Rich's Company acted 209 times from 9 Oct. 1698 to 9 July 1699, after which the young actors performed 27 times from 9 July 1699 to 10 Oct. 1699

Event Comment: According to Sir Edward Smith's bill (see Hotson, Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 308) Rich's company acted 218 times between 6 Oct. 1699 and 26 July 1700, and the young actors played 15 times from 26 July 1700 to 12 Oct. 1700

Event Comment: Afterpiece With the Scene of the Drawing. [William Hint in a Letter on Managers (Daily Gazetteer 26 Oct.) laments that Dunstall was cast as Sir William Belfond in the mainpiece and that Hippisley was cast in an inferior part. He thought Hippisley would have done better as Sir William.

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Powell. 2nd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, author unknown. MS not in Larpent MS; not published]: Founded on a recent fortunate Event [the escape of Sir William Sidney Smith from The Temple, Paris, on 24 Apr. 1798 (European Magazine, June 1798, p. 395)]. With appropriate Scenery, and Machinery. [3rd piece in place of The Children in the Wood, advertised on playbill of 19 May.] Times, 15 May: Tickets to be had of Mrs Powell, No. 43, Craven-street, Strand. Receipts: #548 17s. (233.4.6; 61.4.6; 0.17.0; tickets: 253.11.0) (charge: #214 12s. 1d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 3, by George Colman, ynger]: The Scenery and Dresses are entirely new. The Musick composed by Storace.The Scenes designed and executed by Greenwood and Capon [the Gothic library was painted by Capon (Oracle, 21 Mar. 1796)]. The Dresses by Johnston, Gay and Miss Rein. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. [When Colman published his play he prefaced it with an acrimonious attack on Kemble, in which he accused him of deliberately trying to make the play a failure. But almost without exception the contemporary reviews excused Kemble's performance on the grounds of his obvious indisposition, and agreed that the play itself was unsatisfactory. "The play failed, and we are sorry to say did not merit to succeed...Kemble, who was tormented With an incessant cough, said he could not but be sensible that much of the displeasure of the house proceeded from his deficiency in a principal character...The whole audience with one voice cried out, 'No, no, Kemble-it is not your fault'" (Oracle, 14 Mar.). "The dialogue is extremely heavy, and there is little or no incident to relieve the tedium of more than four hours representation...Sir Edward Mortimer is a being distracted, with no adequate cause; a prey to remorse, which he of all men was the last to feel from the principles that make up his being. This therefore is the radical moral defect of the piece. But there is another which, though not equally strong, is equally fatal: there is no progression of interest, there is no involution of plot, there is no development of character" (Star, 14 Mar.). Other notices of the opening night were much in the same vein. Subsequently Colman revised the play, and it held the stage for many years. "The curtailments which have been made shorten the representation near an hour and a half, and the alterations are many and judicious" (Morning Herald, 21 Mar. 1796). Morning Herald, 23 July 1796: This Day is published The Iron Chest (2s.). Receipts: #471 9s. (468.13; 2.16)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 3rd piece [1st time; M. INT 1, by John Cartwright Cross. Larpent MS 1124; not published]: Founded on the recent and glorious Achievement, at the above French Fort, of Sir Sydney Smith. [On 17 Mar. 1796 a force under Sir William Sydney Smith had destroyed six French vessels in the Bay of Herqui.] To conclude with the British striking the French Colours on the Fort, burning their Corvettes in the Harbour. The new Music by Shield. Oracle, 29 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Martyr at her house, No. 16, Martlett-court, Bow-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #384 11s. 6d. (192.14.0; 10.1.0; tickets: 181.16.6)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 2. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 347. This performance may well be the premiere. In the Preface the author states that the play was asked for on Shrove Tuesday and he wrote it within a week; a premiere, then, before this date would allow very little time for rehearsal. This play is certainly a "Lenten" performance, for it was acted on a Wednesday in Lent and was referred to in the Prologue as a "Lenten Play." See the discussion under The Spanish Rogue (March 1673) and Gray, pp. 785-86. See also J. G. McManaway, The Copy for The Careless Lovers," MLN, XLVI (1931), 406-9. Preface to the edition of 1673: [This play] was written at the Desire of the Young Men of the Stage, and given them for a Lenten-Play, they ask't it not above a Week before Shrove-Tuesday

Event Comment: Receipts: #212 7s. Paid Kemp for lamps #6 8s.; Meares, 5s. I slept in at the Play Houses but did not see him [his brother George] there. I met Miss Smith going into the Gallery at Covent Garden. I think it is a fortnight tomorrow that her sister has been buried (Hailey Brietzcke Diary, p. 147)