Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5]: By the celebrated Henry Fielding; and never yet performed or published. With new Scenes, Dresses, &c. [and incidental music by Michael Arne. Prologue by David Garrick. Epilogue by the same (see text)]. Public Advertiser, 12 Dec. 1778: This Day is published The Fathers (1s. 6d.). "This play was written by Mr Henry Fielding, some years before his death. Mr Garrick saw it at that time. Mr Fielding gave the only fair copy he had of it to his friend Sir Charles Williams, of whose judgment he entertained a high opinion. Sir Charles soon after went abroad, and the comedy was mislaid. Mr. Fielding communicated this circumstance to his family on his death-bed; and enquiry was made for it, but without effect. At length Mr Thomas? Johnes, Member for Cardigan, looking over Sir Charles's books, found a comedy in manuscript, which he read, and, approving, had it transcribed and sent to Mr Garrick for his opinion, who, like Archimedes, cried out, 'This is the lost sheep! This is Mr Henry Fielding's play!' Mr Garrick communicating it to Mr Johnes, Mr Johnes immediately sent the original manuscript, which was in Mr Fielding's hand-writing, to the family, with his best wishes for its success, promising to assist it to the utmost of his power" (Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1778, p.586). See also, for corroboration of the above and for other details, Wilbur L. Cross, The History of Henry Fielding, 1918, III, 99-104. Receipts: #210 11s. 6d. (186.6.0; 23.19.6; 0.6.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald. Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. [In mainpiece the playbill lists Mrs Esten, but "Previous to the play an apology was made in behalf of Mrs Davis, who had undertaken Mrs Esten's character in consequence of the indisposition of the latter lady. [After considerable objection] Mrs Davis was well received in the part" (Thespian Magazine, June 1793, p. 4).] Public Advertiser, 3 May 1793: This Day is published How to Grow Rich (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #257 17s. 6d

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. There is no certainty that this is the premiere. A song, A heart in love's empire, with music by Robert Smith, and another, Let's drink dear friends, set by Thomas? Farmer, are in Choice Songs and Ayres, The First Book, 1673. The Dedication in the edition of 1672 is to Prince Rupert and states: tho' of thirty times it has been acted, you seldom fail'd to honour it with your presence. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 32): The next new Comedy [at dg] was the Mamamouchi, or the Citizen turn'd Gentleman, Wrote by Mr Ravenscroft [cast as in edition of 1672 except French Tutor and Singing Master, by Mr Haines: (He having Affronted Mr Hart, he gave him a Discharge and then came into our House)]; This Comedy was look[ed] upon by the Criticks for a Foolish Play; yet it continu'd Acting 9 Days with a full House; upon the Sixth the House being very full: The Poet added 2 more Lines to his Epilogue, viz. @The Criticks came to Hiss, and Dam this Play,@Yet spite of themselves they can't keep away.@ However, Mr Nokes in performing the Mamomouchi pleas'd the King and Court, next Sir Martin, above all Plays

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Bellamy. Mainpiece: Never acted there. Thomas and Sally oblig'd to be deferr'd on account of Indisposition of Mrs Pinto (playbill). Charges #64 5s. balance to Mrs Bellamy #62 15s. plus #110 8s. in tickets (Box 293; Pit 231) (Account Book). Receipts: #127 (Account Book)

Event Comment: Prelude [1st time: PREL 1, by George Colman elder; incidental music by Thomas Linley Sen. and Nicola Piccinni. Prologue by David Garrick (Poetical Works, II, 327)]. The Words of the Songs in [the] Prelude will be given at the Theatre. The Doors to be opened at 5:3O. To begin at 6:30 [see 11 Nov.]. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook at the Stage Door. No Money to be taken at the Stage Door, nor any Money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. The TR opened this Season under the Management of Messrs Lacy, Sheridan, Ford and Linley. This Summer the Flys has been raised considerably--the Stage widened and heitened--the orchestra enlarged, and Iron ornaments at the Top. New Brooms written by G. Colman Esq. went off with tolerable Applause--is much too long (Hopkins Diary). Public Advertiser, 3 Oct. 1776: This Day at Noon will be published New Brooms! (1s.). [Yates had last acted Malvolio at dl on 6 Jan. 1764 and at cg on 5 May 1772.] Receipts: #269 19s. 6d

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. With a Procession and Sacrificev. [These were included in both subsequent performances.] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Thomas Sheridan. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of plot in London Chronicle, 21 Dec.]: Taken from the comedy of that name by Sir John Vanburghi [sic]. Receipts: #151 2s. 6d. (115.4.0; 35.16.0; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for the Author. Play [1st time; T 5]: Written by the Rev. [Thomas] Stratford. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. Tickets to be had of Dr Stratford, No. 5, Cecil-street, Strand, and of Fosbrook at the Theatre. Dr Stratford, in the overflowing of a grateful heart, is happy indeed in returning thanks to the Ladies and Gentlemen who, with equal benignity and humanity, have so generously exerted themselves in bringing forward his tragedy of Russel. Above the mean manoeuvres that have been practised by persons he had the least reason to expect such a conduct from, and which have detained him almost three years in London, at a ruinous expense, he went with a party of his friends, on Wednesday last, to the Hay-market, in support of the other Lord Russel, penned by superior genius. As he never injured an individual, he trusts every intention to defeat the success of his play will be disappointed by a generous London audience who, he still presumes to hope, will be actuated by the same noble spirit and principle that first induced the Lady and Gentleman to undertake so arduous a task as appearing on a public theatre. As many parts of the play will be expunged and altered, he begs leave to mention that it cannot be again represented till Wednesday next, when the characters of Lord Howard and Hubert will be performed by two other Gentlemen, who have generously undertaken their parts, and an entire new address will be spoken by the Gentleman who performs Lord Russel, wrote by himself. "The performers ... rendered the Doctor's Tragedy one of the most laughable farces at which we were ever present. [It] has much Calimanco in it, and where we could hear a sentence compleat (which was seldom indeed) it abounded with Fustian" (Public Advertiser, 21 Aug.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Frederick Reynolds. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald. Epilogue by Miles Peter Andrews (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. The Scenes painted by Richards and Phillips. Oracle, 29 Nov. 1796: This Day is published Fortune's Fool (2s.). Receipts: #229 2s. 6d. (226.0.6; 3.2.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Lewis. 1st piece [1st time; C 3, by Thomas John Dibdin. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (London Chronicle, 18 Mar.)]. Morning Chronicle, 12 Apr. 1799: This Day is published Five Thousand a Year (price not listed). Ibid, 8 Mar.: Tickets to be had of Lewis, Bow-street. Receipts: #542 0s. 6d. (383.9.0; 2.19.0; tickets: 155.12.6)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Walter. Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh. [Tickets at Mrs Walter's House, near the Baker's, in Bridges-Street, cg. Tickets for Pelling, Rector, Woodburn taken also.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: By Particular desire. Afterpiece: Never Acted Before. [The Farce by Fielding is a sequel to The Virgin Unmasked.] Forbidden soon by the Lord Chamberlain. It being supposed that a particular man of quality was pointed at in one of the characters. The prohibition short of duration (Genest, III, 652). See A Letter to a Noble Lord to whom it alone belongs, occasioned by a representation at Drury Lane of a Farce call'd Miss Lucy in Town (1742), [a 20 page pamphlet criticizing the Lord Chamberlain for allowing this farce. Author gives a scene by scene account emphasizing the bawdry and discounting the pious conclusion. He concludes with remarks on theatrical dancing]: As to Dances, I think your province of prohibition does not extend; so the Public cannot owe their gratitude to you for several. I appeal to those who have been on the coast of Malabar and the banks of the Ganges whether we have not had some that have exceeded on posture, or anything of that kind so common amongst the polite Indians of Indostan. Afterpiece: Mrs Clive mimics the Muscovita admirably, and Beard Amorevoli intolerably (H. Walpole to H. Mann, 26 May).-Horace Walpole Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, I, 435. Receipts: #70

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Written by the late Sir Richard Steele

Event Comment: Tickets deliver'd out by Mr Davis will be taken. [Bransby doubled in Oxford and Tyrrel. The General Advertiser quoted a long Epilogue on the Birthday of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland Written by the Farmer (who had taken over the role of Swift's Drapier) and spoken by Garrick in Dublin. It also quoted the following long puff for Ray's Benefit to come]: Sir, As long acquaintance best entitles us to friendly good natured offices, and as no more proper time can be found to confer them than when the person is in the Decline of life, give me leave to recommend (thro' your means) Mr Ray of Drury Lane Theatre, the oldest actor now belonging to that House, to the Favour of the Town, at his ensuing Benefit next Saturday. A person who once agreeably entertained the Public, should always feel the warmth of their Indulgence, tho' the Infirmities of Old age may have render'd him less pleasing than formerly. This Application is therefore meant to those friends of his, whom Distance of time, and change of Situation may have made it impossible any other way to acquaint them, that The Merchant of Venice is to be acted for his Benefit on Saturday next; therefore 'tis hoped they will be so kind as to send for his Tickets to Mr Hobson, in the Playhouse Passage, or to Mr Ray's lodgings, the second Door in Queen's Court, Great Queen St., Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the Favour will ever be greatly acknowledged by him

Event Comment: Benefit of the New Building of the City of London Lying In Hospital, in the City Road, Old Street. Paid Weston's note to Mr Curtis #5; Mrs Bolter for 25 yds. white and silver silk, #28 15s.; 8 extra Trumpets 4 nights (13th inst. incl.) #12 (Treasurer's Book). This day published The Theatres; a poetical dissection by Sir Nicholas Nipclose (Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser). [It is packed with embittered comments on managerial policy and upon theatrical personalities.] Receipts: #228 18s. 6d. Charges: #84; Profit to Hospital #144 18s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: The Lord Mayor's Show. By Thomas Jordan. Luttrell (A Brief Relation, I, 285-86): The 29th, sir Henry Tulse...was sworn before the barons of the exchequer at Westminster, whither he went by water, accompanied by the late lord mayor, the new recorder, aldermen, and sheriffs, and attended by diverse of the companies in their barges; their majesties and the duke of York being upon the leads at Whitehall when they passed by: being come back, they passed from the place where they landed, with the usual solemnity, to Grocers Hall, where the lords of the councill, severall of the nobility, judges, and other persons of quality dined

Event Comment: The United Company. The date of the first performance is not known. The January issue of the Gentleman's Journal, wnich did not appear until some time in February, stated: Mr Congreve...hath written a Comedy, which will be acted in a little time, and is to be call'd, The Old Batchelor (p. 28). The Gentleman's Journal, February 1692@3 (issued in March 1693): The success of Mr Congreve's Old Batchelor has been so extraordinary, that I can tell you nothing new of that Comedy; you have doubtless read it before this, since it has been already printed thrice. And indeed the Wit which is diffus'd through it, makes it lose but few of those Charms in the Perusal, which yield such pleasure in the Representation. Mr Congreve will in some time give us another play; you may judge by this how acceptable it will be (p. 61). In addition, a reference in the Epilogue indicates that it was produced during Lent, ano since the third edition was advertized in the London Gazette, No. 2856, 23-27 March 1693, early March seems the most likely date for the premiere. According to The Female Wits (ca. 1696), The Old Batchelor was acted fourteen days successively. John Barnard of Yale University states that Narcissus Luttrell's copy of The Old Batchelor in the Newberry Library bears the notation: "10d Mar. 16 1692@3." BM Add. Mss. 4221 (341) Memoirs Relating to Mr Congreve Written by Mr Thomas Southern (in Macdonald, Bibliography of Dryden, p. 54n): When he began his Play the Old Batchelor haveing little Acquaintance with the traders in that way, his Cozens recommended him to a friend of theirs, who was very usefull to him in the whole course of his play, he engag'd Mr Dryden in its favour, who upon reading it sayd he never saw such a first play in his life, but the Author not being acquainted with the stage or the town, it woud be pity to have it miscarry for want of a little Assistance: the stuff was rich indeed, it wanted only the fashionable cutt of the town. To help that Mr Dryden, Mr Arthur Manwayring, and Mr Southern red it with great care, and Mr Dryden putt it in the order it was playd, Mr Southerne obtained of Mr Thos. Davenant who then governd the Playhouse, that Mr Congreve should have the privilege of the Playhouse half a year before his play was playd, wh. I never knew allowd any one before. The music for the play was composed by Henry Purcell. See Purcell's Works, Purcell Society, XXI (1917), iii-v

Event Comment: Benefit the Author [Nicholas Rowe]. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. [Announced as the last new farce, it had been originally scheduled for the week of 6-11 Nov. (Diverting Post, 4 Nov.), but postponed. It probably was acted before 25 Nov., for the Diverting Post of that date published the Prologue.] Thomas Davies: Did not the tragic Rowe write The Biter, a comedy; and was he not the only person of the audience that laughed during the acting of it [Dramatic Miscellanies, I, 94]

Event Comment: [By Thomas Baker.] Never Acted before

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Reading, Wife of Mr Thomas Reading, Attorney at Law, of New Inn. At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. Afterpiece: A Farce (never perform'd before). Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. Gallery 2s. Stage Half a Guinea. N.B. Mrs Reading is credibly informed, that a Hackney Writer, who has lately turn'd Author, and Player in his own Farce, has maliciously spread a Report about the Town, that she does not intend to have any Play perform'd: this is to assure the Publick, that she has taken a great deal of Pains to have the Play and Farce perform'd with all the Decency possible

Event Comment: Three Brothers of ye Delavals play'd ye Eldest Othello, ye next Iago, ye next Cassio--+Brabantio & Lodovico Mr Pine Roderigo-Cap. Stevens and Wife Emelia $Mrs Quan did Desdemona, the performance was very decent & met with great applause the Audience from ye Boxes to the upper Gallery were fill'd with people of ye first rank & make a most brilliant appearance. & ye greatest Crowd at ye Doors I ever saw. their Agreement for ye House was a receipt of one of the Alfred Houses upon an Averidge. they had all new cloaths, & very nicely ornamented with Diamonds (Cross). [See eulogy and criticism in some detail concerning the acting, by John Hill, Inspector No 3.] All Gentlemen and Ladies who intend going in coaches this evening to Drury Lane Theatre, are desired to order their coachmen to drive thro' Covent Garden, and stop at Bridges St. Door, and as soon as they have set down the company to drive off directly towards the Strand.--Those who go in chairs, are requested to order the men to the New Door in Russel St., and to prevent the avenues being stopt up no person will be admitted to either passage without first showing their tickets at the outward door (General Advertiser). Tickets Lost. If any person has found three tickets (numbers forgot) for the private play this night at Drury Lane, and will be so kind as to bring them to the Bar of the Rainbow Coffee House, Ironmonger Lane, shall receive 15s. for the whole, or in proportion for one or two of them (General Advertiser). Tomorrow Morning at 8 o'clock will be published' (price 6d.) by Thomas Carnan, at Mr Newberry's, at the Bible and Sun in St Paul's Churchyard; An Occasional Prologue and Epilogue to Othello, as it will this night be acted at the theatre-Royal in Drury Lane, by Persons of distinction, for their diversion. Written by Christopher Smart, A.M., Fellow of Pembroke Hall in the University of Cambridge. To be had at the place above mentioned, and at the pamphlet shops at the Royal Exchange and Charing Cross. This Prologue and Epilogue will be entered in the Hall Book of the Company of Stationers, and whoever presumes to pyrate them, or any part of them, will be persecuted as the Law directs (General Advertiser). [Both pieces by Christopher Smart, according to the Daily Advertiser. See two exceedingly favorable critical comments and one derogatory reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine, March 1751 (pp. 119-22): "The greatest part of the play was much better performed than it ever was on any stage before. In the whole, there was a face of nature that no theatrical piece, acted by common players ever came up to." Macklin was Delaval's dramatic coach, according to one of these articles.

Event Comment: Benefit for Sparks. Afterpiece: A farce never perform'd before. [Possibly Thomas Sheridan's The Brave Irishman, but see Ten English Farces, Leo Hughes and A. H. Scouten (Austin, Texas, 1948), pp. 221 ff.] Last time of the company's performing till the holidays

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted this season. Benefit for Johnston (housekeeper). No Building on Stage. Tickets deliver'd for This Night will be taken. [The playbill lists this night as the first appearance of Vernon and Champness in the characters of Squire and Thomas, but see 9 April, where they had appeared in them.

Event Comment: DDialogue-Epilogue, an Address to the Town-Sparks and Keen, as Lord Chief Justice Joker and his Attorney General. Benefit for Sparks. Afterpiece: By Thomas Sheridan. [The Dialogue-Epilogue is Larpent MS 309.

Event Comment: Benefit for Sg Daigville & Signa Vidini. [24 April letter signed Ned Shuter dated from his Majesty's Bench of Justice, St Georges Fields: "Theatrical Memoirs giving circumstantial account of my family-Admit my father was a chairman, my mother sold oysters in winter and cucumbers in summer. I was not born in a cellar but in a two pair of stairs front room at one Mrs Merit's an eminent Chimney Sweeper, Vine Street, St Giles" (Winston MS 10). Thomas Weston's apology for the delay of his Benefit. It was owing to his distressed affairs which he had new laid open to the managers. See comment form Edinburg Evening Courant, 29 April.] Paid Renters #88 for Oratorio nights; Mr Dibdin's draft on managers #50; Master Brown 5 nights, #1 17s. 6d.; Rec'd from Messrs Smith and Stanley charges for 11 Oratorio nights at 28# per night, plus candles &c . #342 4s.; Rec'd stopages #9 16s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #151 4s. Charges: #65 11s. Profits to Daigville & Sga Vidini: #85 13s. (Treasurer's Book)