Event Comment: Benefit John Liege, Boxkeeper. Afterpiece: Written by Moliere

Event Comment: Benefit John Festin. 6 P.M

Event Comment: Benefit John Aewood. 7 P.M. 5s

Event Comment: By John Lockman. Set to Music by Mr Boyce. By the Apollo Society in the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar. [See Deutsch, Handel, p. 404.]

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never Acted before, By the Author of...Hurlothrumbo [Samuel Johnson]. The Musick and Epilogue compos'd by Lord Flame [Johnson]. John Byrom, 1 Feb.: They [two Londoners] said the first night Johnson was for fighting with somebody in the pit.-Byrom, Private Journals and Literary Remains, XI, 88

Event Comment: For Occasional Prompter XXI (on Cibber and King John), see Daily Journal, 11 Feb

Event Comment: Benefit the Author. At the particular Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Founded on Shakespear's Much Ado About Nothing. By the Author of the Man of Taste. [For an Epilogue designed to be spoken to King John, as amended by Colley Cibber, see Grub St. Journal, 3 March.

Event Comment: Benefit John Festin. 7 p.m. Tickets Five Shillings each: Money to be taken at the Door

Event Comment: Never Acted before. Alter'd from Milton's Masque perform'd (upwards of a Hundred Years since) at Ludlow-Castle, and now adapted to the Stage. [By John Dalton.

Event Comment: LLondon Daily Post and General Advertiser, 7 Feb.: Last Night as one John Sommerford, a Sawyer (who came into the Upper Gallery at [cg] at the latter End of the Play), was pressing forward, in order to get a better Place, he was push'd by a Person, who took disgust at his standing before him, which occasion'd the Sawyer to lose his Footing, and he tumbled over into the Pit (the depth of 30 Feet) between two Rows of the Audience, without receiving any Damage

Event Comment: A Pastoral Opera. [Composed by John Baptist Pescetti.] Pit and Boxes at half a guinea. First Gallery 5s. Upper Gallery 2s. 6d. 7 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit John Peele, A West-India Merchant, reduc'd by Great Losses in Trade. By particular Desire of several Eminent Merchants

Event Comment: LLondon Daily Post and General Advertiser, 6 Feb., contains a letter: To Mr John Hill, on his Answer to Mr Rich's Defence

Event Comment: By Command of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. For the Benefit of the Brave and Unfortunate Capt John Peddie, of the Prince of Orange, who, after defending his Ship, and saving her by the most Gallant Behaviour, against a Spanish Privateer, had the Misfortune to lose her, and all he had on Board, in the late Storm. Mainpiece: Written by the late Mr Addison. Pit and Boxes 5s. Galleries 2s. and 1s. Receipts: money #52 1s.; tickets #295 (Account Book); #350 (Rylands MS.)

Event Comment: Benefit John Lyne. 7 p.m. 5s

Event Comment: Benefit a Gentleman who has wrote for the Stage. [Professor John B. Shipley of the University of Colorado has called to my attention a letter written by James Ralph to Thomas Birch, dated 14 February 1741, in which he states that this benefit is to be for Ralph. See B.M. Add. MSS. 4317, fol. 94.

Event Comment: Benefit Laguerre, Prisoner in the King's Bench. [Tickets of Laguerre at John's Coffee-House, next door the King's-Bench, Southwark. In the London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 22 April, Laguerre expressed his thanks to Giffard for giving him this benefit and added that, it being term-time, he had "by the common Licence of a Day Rule," liberty to act on 23 April.

Event Comment: A New Opera [a pasticcio, Metastasio text altered by Rolli, form Pergolesi's Olimpiade, 1735 (Loewenberg, Annals of Opera, I, 183)]. Music by Pergolesi, Scarlatti, Lampugnani. L. Leo, F. Leo [libretto in L. C.]. Two of the principal Performers being greatly indispos'd, the Dancers are oblig'd to be deferr'd. Thomas Gray to John Chute, 24 May: Our fifth Opera was the Olimpiade, in which they retain'd most of Pergolesi's Songs & yet 'tis gone already, as if it had been a poor thing of Galuppi's. Two nights did I enjoy it all alone, snugg in a Nook in the Gallery, but found no one in those regions had ever heard of Pergolesi, nay, I heard several affirm it was a Composition of Pescetti's.-Gray, Correspondence, I, 203

Event Comment: Benefit Widow Harper. See Daily Advertiser, 30 April: The case of the Widow of the late John Harper, Comedian: Mr Harper, having been seiz'd about four years since with a Paralitic Disorder, which not only rendered him incapable of acting, but depriv'd him of the use of his limbs, and in some degree affected his senses so as to make him an object of great compassion; during which long and dreadful Indisposition of near four years all possible means were tried (tho' in vain) to recover him, which impair'd and hurt his Circumstances, so greatly, as not to permit him to leave a sufficent Support for his widow, who is in years and unprovided for. Mr Harper dying in January last, according to a custom in the theatre his widow is entitled to a Benefit, and the Comedy of The Miser is to be acted to-morrow night for her Benefit, at Drury Lane; but as she is incapable of making a proper interest for it, without applying to the Compassion and Generosity of the Publick, she hopes to be excused in giving them the Trouble of this her case. Tickets deliver'd out by Roger will be taken.See Garrick's Additional Benefit for her on 11 May.] Receipts: #50

Event Comment: JJohn Branson, Steward, to John, Duke of Bedford: The Opera is a bankrupt. The Directors have run out #1600 and called this General Meeting to get the consent of the subscribers to take this debt upon themselves. This I opposed.--Deutsch, Handel, pp. 569-70

Event Comment: [This Pastoral Serenata first appeared 21 March 1744 at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, qv. At that time Beard, Savage, Mrs Clive and Miss Edwards sang in it.] By Subscription for three nights will be performed an English Pastoral Serenata, set to Music by Mr DeFesch. Pit and Boxes laid together at 5s. First Gallery 2s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s. 6d. On the 20th of March and 3rd of April will be performed a New Oratorio call'd Joseph, also set to Music by Mr DeFesch. For the encouragement of such persons as shall please to favour Mr Defesch by subscribing one Guinea, they shall be entitled to six tickets, each of which will admit one into the boxes, or Two into the Gallery. Nobody to be admitted into the boxes without printed tickets, which will be deliver'd at the theatre. Subscriptions to be taken till the 5th of March, at Mr DeFesch's at the sign of the Angel and Trumpet, in St. Martin's Lane, at the Bedford Coffee House, Covent Garden; and at Mr Page's Stage Door-keeper. To begin at half an hour after six. This day is publish'd Papal Tyranny in the Reign of King John. [No price given, but the 1st edition lists it as 1s. 6d. Watts would have had to sell about two thousand copies to cover his investment in copyright and printing costs.

Event Comment: Benefit Leviez, Desse, and Powell (Deputy Treasurer). [The latter was probably John Powell, who later ingratiated himself with Lord Holland, became an accountant in the office of Paymaster General of His Majesties Forces and in 1783 was accused with Mr Bembridge of concealing a large sum in Accounts chargeable to Lord Holland, 1757-65. He committed suicide 26 May 1783, under the stress of the investigation, and the verdict of death as a result of Lunacy was issued. See account in Gentlemen's Magazine (1783) pp. 454, 539, 613. He is there described as having been a Teller in Drury Lane Theatre, a person who acts as a check upon the door keepers of the playhouse, by counting the number of people in the house, which he does from a small box, conveniently situated for that purpose.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: At the Desire of Several Persons of Quality. Benefit John Hippisley. [Receipts: #72 17s. 6d. plus #93 1s. from tickets without Stage (Account Books, Egerton 2268)]. Receipts: #165 18s. 6d. We hear Mr Hippisley is so far recover'd from his late illness, that, tho' considerably alter'd in his physiognomy, and lower'd in spirits, he persuades himself a crowded house on Thursday next, at the Stratagem for his benefit, will create a smile on his countenance, raise his spirits, and make him appear as much a Scrub as ever

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Being the most tragical tragedy that ever was tragedized by a company of tragedians. At the Particular Desire of Several Persons of Quality (General Advertiser). [The following unsigned statement of the financial condition of the theatre on 11 April is in the Harvard Collection of Documents dealing with affairs of Drury Lane, folio MS Thr. 12. This itemizes the outstanding liabilities to the amount of #8,808 14s. including #1,275 of arrears in actors' salaries]: I told Mr- the intended purchaser that the whole would not amount to #12,000. He said if it was more it should rest on me, for that was the utmost shilling he would give. But upon strict enquiry I find it will amount to #12,808 14s. This difference is not altogether owing to an error in calculation, but has been likewise heightened by a falling off of business, nor is it possible to ascertain the debt of a theatre for a day, it is of so fluctuating a nature. Q: whether this loss ought to light upon me, who have endeavored to get a purchaser & increased the value of the Estate to the utmost of my power? Errors excepted. [James Lacy or John Powel are the most likely authors of this statement. Whatever the authority, it is clear that settlement had not yet been made for transfer of ownership. For Powel, see G. W. Stone, Jr., The Authorship of Tit for Tat," Theatre Notebook, X (1955), 22-28.

Event Comment: A Concert etc. Pit and Upp?r Boxes 2s. Gallery 1s. 6 p.m. Afterpiece: The new farce now performingG in Dublin, [by John Cunningham]