Event Comment: This Farce was wrote on purpose to Shew Mrs Barry in an Irish part. She did not succeed so well in it as was expected but upon the Whole the Farce was well perform'd & met with great Applause (Hopkins Diary). [Macmillan note from Kemble differs slightly. See Account of the Irish Widow" in British Theatre article, London Magazine, Oct. 1772.] Paid Mr Rochfort for men's cloaths #7 7s. (Treasurer's Book). [The account in Town and Country Magazine of the afterpiece: "Upon the whole it is very indifferent production and as it did not meet with the applause that was expected, no one has adopted the bantling. The many are of opinion that Garrick had a hand in it, as it is got up to the best advantage, and a new dance is introduc'd between the acts to put the audience in a good humour for the succeeding scenes. Mrs Sutton is the principal dancer in the Irish Fair, in which she displayed great spirit and activity. The piece concludes with a song sung by Mrs Barry, which we think injudiciously alloted to her, as her forte does not consist in singing."] Receipts: #200 9s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: The Rose is a New Musical performance of Two Acts by Dr Arne a very dull insipid piece. Mr G. protested against its being perform'd its being perform'd it was hiss'd from the beginning & wd not Suffer it to be given out again, therefore Mr King went on & told them it Should not be perform'd again until it be alter'd (Hopkins Diary). [Macmillan's note from Kemble differs slightly. See critical damnation of The Rose in British Theatre Article in The London Magazine, Dec. 1772.] Book of the Entertainment to be had at the Theatre (playbill). Paid Mr Petit for men's cloaths, #8 8s. CTreasurer's Book). [Reviewer for Town and Country Magazine (Theatre, No. XLI) disappointed with the Rose: "We are told that this precious piece of stuff is the production of an Oxford student; it may be so, of this every auditor is certain, that the collegian who penned it was so entirely lost in the pursuit of some abstruse study, that he has totally forgot grammar, common sense, and even his mother tongue...it was unanimously damn'd."] Receipts: #172 6s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Never perform'd. New Scenes and Dresses (playbill). This Comedy was written by Mr Obrien. It was very much hiss'd from the 2d Act & with the greatest difficulty we got thro' the Play amidst Groans hisses &c. They would not Suffer it to be given out again. After many Altercations between the Audience Mr G. & Mr King by the Author's Consent the Play was withdrawn (Hopkins Diary). [Macmillan's note from Kemble briefer. See long review of The Duel in British Theatre article, London Magazine, Dec. 1772, and Town and Country same month.] Paid Mr Scott (c[opper] laceman) #83 9s.; Mr Waller (hosier) #17 18s. 6d.; Mr Hatsell (mercer) #80 19s.; Mr Barrow & Co. for oil, #45 13s.; Mr Cropley (linen draper) #73 14s.; Mr Cubitt (tinman) #15 19s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #241 4s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Eleventh and Last time of performing Mainpiece this season. Afterpiece: By Particular Desire. Othello and The Irish Widow, to have been performed this evening for Mr Barry's Benefit, oblig'd to be deferr'd till further notice (playbill). Mr Barry being Ill his Benefit which was to have been this Night is oblig'd to be deferr'd (Hopkins Diary). [So, according to Hopkins, the profits went to the house.] Receipts: #171 19s. 6d. To the Public Advertiser: Sir, I spent an agreeable evening lately with a Country Friend at the Primitive Puppet Show, and was not displeased at the ridicule pointed at the dull, spiritless stuff, which composes modern Sentimental Comedy. I was entertained too with the manner in which some of the Actors were taken off; But I cannot think mimicry worthy to furnish an Evening Entertainment for a Polite British Audience, or suited to the happy ridicule and pointed wit of Aristophanes. The old Roman comedy, as it was called, was designed for nobler purposes: it was directed to improve the head and mend the heart. The keen manly satire of that Comedy was pointed at Upstart, Braggart, Vice, and to expose the dangerous unfeeling craft of innocent Villainy, or to use the words of Mr Pope--Brand the bold front of shameless, guilty man. Such was, and such ought to be, the salutary Direction of Wit, and Satire by exhibiting characters in their genuine colours, when the mask, which disguises and conceals them from the eyes of the Weak the Credulous, and the Ignorant, is drawn off. The words of Horace are--Detrabere et pellam, mitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, introrsum turpis. Yours, Dramaticus. Poetry for the Public Advertiser. Epigram on the New Tragedy Alonzo. @No wonder that each female voice@Resounds Alonzo's praise;@A sure foundation of Applause,@The crafty Author lays.@ @Against the Virtue of his Wife@A Husband, if he's wise@According to the Gallant HOME,@Should not believe his eyes.

Event Comment: Afterpiece: A Comic Opera altered [by Colman] from Gay. The Music entirely new by Dr Arne. Now acted for the first time in 2 Acts. [The 1776 Edition in Bell's British Theatre lists: Achilles-Mattocks; Peripas-$Reinhold; Lycomedes-$DuBellamy; Diphilus-$Dyer; Ajax-$Dunstall; Ulysses-$Owenson; Diomedes-$Fox; Argytes-$Baker; Deidamia-$Mrs Mattocks; Artemona-$Miss Brown; Philoe-$Miss Valois; Thetis-$Miss Catley. [$Miss Pearce may have played Lesbia).] Paid Banks for the Head of a Figure used in The Fair #1 1s.; Paid Mr Gard for performing 5 nights in the Fair and 3 in the Sorcerer #1. Paid Joseph Besford for performing 5 nights in the Fair 12s. 6d. (Account Book). [Afterpiece unfavorably reviewed in the Westminster Magazine.] Receipts: #149 18s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs West. Tickets to be had of West, at the Ship, near the Seven Houses, Rotherhithe. Mainpiece: In Act II the triumphal entry of Alexander into Babylonv; In Act IV the grand Banquet where Alexander kills his faithful soldier, old Clytus. [The playbill contains a lengthy synopsis of the plot of the mainpiece; it concludes by noting that "the many flowery passages with which this tragedy abounds does honour to the pen of its author, N. Lee, Esqr., and we may justly say with Mr Pope, 'Such plays alone shou'd please a British ear, as Cato's self had not disdain'd to hear.'"]

Event Comment: Benefit for the British Lying-in-Hospital, for Married Women, in Brownlow-street, Long-acre. Receipts: #165 (98.5.6; 0.0.0; 1.8.6; tickets: 65.6.0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 12 years. [The playbill retains Wilson as Maclaymore, but "At the close of the Play Hull came forward and made an Apology for Wilson's not playing Maclaymore...on Account of his being taken suddenly ill with an Ague, and begged their Acceptance of Fearon in the Part, which was accepted with that good Nature which distinguishes a British Audience" (Morning Chronicle, 24 Oct.).] Receipts: #100 15s. 6d. (100.11.0; 0.4.6)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2]: Written by the Author of Tony Lumpkin in Town [John O'Keeffe. Text (1st authorized) published in Cumberland's British Theatre, Vol. XXXI]. The Music and Overture composed by Dr Arnold [with airs adapted from Philidor and Guglielmi (Public Advertiser, 17 Aug.)]. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 13 years [acted 5 May 1770]. With Alterations and 3 entire new Scenes [by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; and new music by Thomas Linley Sen.]. To conclude with a Representation of the Storming of Fort Omoa in the Bay of Hondurasv [when it was captured by the British from the Spaniards on 26 Oct. 1779. This scene was included in all subsequent performances]. The View and Machinery designed by DeLoutherbourg and executed under his direction. With New Dresses and Decorations. "The scenemen blundered egregiously all through the entertainment. During the siege of the fort so much gunpowder was fired off that the stage was so filled with smoke that the officers, men, were scarcely discernible from the boxes" (London Chronicle, 4 Jan.). Receipts: #203 2s. 6d. (154.7.0;47.17.0; 0.18.6)

Event Comment: [Mainpiece in place of The Separate Maintenance, announced on playbill of 3 Sept.] Afterpiece [1st time: MF 2]: Written by the Author of The Son-in-Law [John O'Keeffe]. The Overture and New Musick composed by Dr Arnold. The new Scenes painted by Rooker. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [Larpent MS 568; text 1st published (authorized), Cumberland's British Theatre, XXXI.

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by John O'Keeffe; text (1st authorized) published in Cumberland's British Theatre, xxxvii. Prologue and Epilogue by George Colman, the elder (Colman, Prose, iii, 244, 246, which give names of speakers)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. "It had four new scenes to decorate it, and those extremely well painted. In one of them a portrait of Captain Ambush is exhibited, which presented a very happy likeness of Williamson, by Alefounder" (Universal Magazine, Aug. 1783, p. 76)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by John O'Keeffe. Text (ist authorized) in Cumberland's British Theatre, Vol. xxxi]: Written by the Author of The Agreeable Surprise, Son-in-Law, &c. The Overture and new Airs composed by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: "The great powers of Mrs Jordan cannot be better displayed than in the wonderful contrast of her Country Girl and Viola. In one all archness and vivacity; in the other serious, gentle, tender and sentimental" (Public Advertiser, 16 Nov.). [In afterpiece the playbill retains Parsons as Sir Anthony Halfwit, but on the Kemble playbill his name is deleted and a MS annotation substitutes Wilson's. "Parsons was taken suddenly ill & J. Wilson read his part" (MS annotation on British Museum playbill, in Harris, 11).] Receipts: #108 12s. (79/11/0; 28/13/6; 0/7/6)

Event Comment: By Permission of the Lord Chamberlain. Benefit for Goodwin. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30. Tickets delivered for Yesterday the 28th will be admitted. [The Satiric print, The Prince's Bow, had 1st appeared on 17 Mar. 1788; it was not by Bunbury, but by Frederick George Byron (Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires...in the British Museum, 1938, VI, 557).

Event Comment: [Afterpiece in place of The Maid of the Oaks, advertised on playbill of 11 Sept. The dance, The British Soldier Triumphant, advertised on same, was not performed this night.

Event Comment: Benefit for Bannister. [Mrs Wells had 1st acted Macheath at the hay, 14 Sept. 1781; Bannister had acted Polly at the same theatre, 16 Sept. 1785.] Gazetteer, 3 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Bannister, No. 7, Suffolk-street, Haymarket. "There is now a most vehement rage of innovation in language, government, religion, and everything else...On the British stage, with infinite applause, young and beautiful actresses perform sometimes the Parts of highwaymen; and some singing actors squall in an affected voice resembling, and intended to imitate, that of women; the most humourous dramatic pieces are frittered away into songs; and I should not be surprised to hear that henceforth Miranda and Juliet are to be personated by grim-visaged grenadiers seven feet high, and Falstaff by a slender miss just entered her teens" (Universal Magazine, Mar. 1795, p. 171). Receipts: #285 14s. (162.4.6; 5.9.6; tickets: 118.0.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Brunton. 1st piece [1st time; T 3, by Mariana Starke, based on La Veuve du Malabar, by Antoine Marin LeMierre. Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald. Epilogue by Richard John Hughes Starke (see text)]: With new Scenes and Dresses. And a Procession representing the Ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her deceased Hqsband. 2nd piece: Not acted these 18 years [acted 4 May 1776. Miss E. Brunton was from the Norwich theatre]. Morning Chronicle, 1 Feb. 1791: This Day is published The Widow of Malabar (1s. 6d.). Public Advertiser, 21 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Miss Brunton, No. 35, Gerrard-street, Soho. [The mainpiece is sometimes stated to have been 1st acted at Mrs Crespigny's private@theatre@in@Camberwell, 1790, but "'The Widow of Malabar' was not first produced at Mrs Crespigny's Theatre. The Tragedy performed there is called 'The British Orphan' (also by Mariana Starke)" (Gazetteer, 24 Jan. 1791).] Receipts: #338 13s. (208.7; 2.8; tickets: 127.18)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In 5 Acts, altered from the Dramatic Romance by David Garrick, Esq. With a new Overture and new additional Musick by Storace [on 2 Jan. 1792 and thereafter, added: Shaw] and other Eminent Masters. Entirely new Scenery by Greenwood, and new Dresses, Decorations and Machinery. To conclude with a Grand Procession of the Hundred Knights of Chivalry, and the Representation of an Ancient Tournament. [These were included in all subsequent performances.] Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Post, 3 Jan. 1792, prints a full description of the Procession of over 100 persons: 1st, Anglo-Saxon Knights and banners; then ancient British knights, Norman knights, Indians, Turks, Scythians, Romans, a dwarf, a giant; at end, "soldiers drawing a superb picture of St. George, knights in chain mail, a cupid leading a knight covered with a silver net, Hymen, piping fauns, bands of cupids drawing an altar--flame burning, cupids hovering over it, and others feeding doves below, a troop of Arcadian shepherds drawing the car of Cymon and Sylvia, characters of the drama, and chorus." "At the conclusion of the procession, a tournament took place of both horse and foot, between several combatants in armour, who fought with lances, swords and battle-axes: three of Hughes' horses [from the Royal Circus] were introduced, and managed with much dexterity; the Prince of Wales' Highlander made one of the procession, and entered the lists as a champion, fighting with an enormous club; against him a small female warrior was opposed, by whom he was subdued. It was by far the grandest spectacle ever seen upon the stage. Many of the characters were taken from Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, in which the scene of the piece was laid; and the dresses of the knights, armour, &c. from the drawings and descriptions of the best antiquarians" (Oulton, 1796, II, 215). [This was Edmund Kean's 1st appearance on the stage; he was about four years old. He personated a cupid lying in Cymon and Sylvia's car (Kelly, Reminiscences, II, 21-22).] Account-Book, 13 Jan. 1792: Paid Hughes for his Horses #16 19s. 10d.; 23 Jan.: Paid Gough for his Greyhounds in Cymon #5 19s. 6d. Receipts: #420 6s. (385.0; 35.5; 0.1)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered from the Tragedy of Huniades. [Afterpiece in place of The Pannel, advertised on playbill of 1 Feb.] Morning Herald, 3 Feb., refers to the "new epilogue [probably written by Miss Brand]: a sort of dialogue between an undertaker and a brave British tar." Receipts: #141 12s. 6d. (105.2.6; 32.12.0; 3.18.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Bernard. 1st piece [1st time; M. PREL 1]: With the Storming of the Fort, and a View of the Fleet and Harbour. In which will be introduced the Grand Ceremony of the Enemy's Surrendering the Colours, and Marching out before the British Troops. The whole (including Dances) got up entirely under the direction of Byrn. Morning Herald, 13 May: Tickets to be had of Bernard at his house, No. 12, Kirby-street, Hatton Garden. Receipts: #249 8s. 6d. (83/9/6; 7/19/6; tickets: 157/19/6)