Event Comment: Benefit for a Fund for the Relief of those whose Infirmities oblige them to retire from the Stage. The whole Pit will be laid into the Boxes. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who have seats in the Pit are earnestly requested to be early at the Theatre, and Servants are desired to attend at half past Four o'Clock to keep Places. "The fine tragic powers of [Mrs Siddons] and Kemble were but wasted on the turgid trumpery of the play...But Kemble in this scene [end of Act III] was so impassioned and transcendent that it killed all the rest of the piece. The scorn of Mrs Siddons at his dissimulation--her haughty bearing and marking emphasis, with the piercing powers of her eye, are all treasured where they should be" (Oracle, 16 May). Receipts: #117 14s. (107.11.0; 9.12.6; 0.10.6; tickets: none listed, but Oracle, 17 May, reports that tickets were purchased for as much as one guinea and a half) (charge: free)

Event Comment: [In 2nd piece the playbill assigns Orlando to Kemble, but "On account of indisposition, Barrymore last night performed Orlando for Kemble" (Oracle, 4 Oct.).] 3rd piece: To conclude with the Glorious Defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a Grand Procession. "Equal to any actor I ever saw, as far as his line extends, is Mr Parsons; his conception and expression of Sir Fretful Plagiary, in Mr Sheridan's Critic, are as strong and masterly as were Garrick's in Kitely [in Every Man in his Humour]; and his 'laughing without mirth' therein equally admirable" (Jonson, ed. Waldron, 171). Receipts: #251 4s. 6d. (213.6.6; 37.0.0; 0.18.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 3 years. With new Dresses and Decorations. The Characters dressed in the Habits of the Times. [Palmer Jun. was from the hay.] "It is necessary to remind both Macbeth and his Lady that there is a measured declamation, of which the natural utterance of passion knows nothing, and that words and syllables may be divided and subdivided till the fatigue of the ear overcome every other feeling...Between the first and second acts Ca ira was loudly called for from the pit and gallery. The clamour, after preventing the first part of the second act from being heard, subsided as unaccountably as it rose. The performers, in compliance with an admonition from the pit, began the act again, and proceeded without further interruption" (Morning Chronicle, 20 Feb.). "In Macbeth there was too much that was not Shakespeare, too much bad taste and shabbiness in the costumes of the witches, and all in all too much claptrap. He found it insufferable that Banquo should take the part of his own ghost and felt that the audience should behold the specter only in Macbeth's terror, as was the case with the banquet guests. 'Mr Kemble has desired on several occasions to suppress the ghost,' Meister says, 'but has never had the courage to do so.'" (J. H. Meister quoted in J. A. Kelly, 134). For Kemble's eventual courage in this matter see dl, 21 Apr. 1794.] Receipts: #425 6s. (383.2; 40.4; 2.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Author [of mainpiece, who is named in Kemble Mem., but not on the playbill. In mainpiece the playbill retains King, but "Mr King being ill I acted his Part to-night" (Kemble Mem.).]. Account-Book, 12 May: Author's Charge 3rd night of Fugitive enter'd short by error #12 16s. Receipts: #408 5s. (365.1; 41.0; 2.4; tickets: none listed) (charge: #147)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Kemble. Mainpiece: Never performed at this Theatre. Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years. Morning Herald, 28 July: Tickets to be had of Mrs Kemble at Adams's Masquerade Warehouse, Hay-market

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons. Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Arthur Murphy. Prologue by John Philip Kemble (see text). Author of Epilogue unknown; European Magazine, Apr. 1793, p. 306, prints two Epilogues: the one spoken by Mrs Siddons, and the one "as originally written by Thomas? Vaughan"]. Morning Herald, 20 Mar. 1793: This day is published The Rival Sisters (1s. 6d.). Morning Herald, 25 Feb.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. Receipts: #451 6s. 6d. (243.1.0; 21.18.0; 1.18.0; tickets: 184.9.6) (charge: #154 9s. 8d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Gibbs. Mainpiece: Not acted these 6 years [acted 22 June 1790. Miss Logan is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1795 season. Mrs Kemble's 1st recorded appearance as Portia was at Edinburgh, 26 Jan. 1795]

Event Comment: [Mainpiece altered by John Philip Kemble.] An Accurate Edition of King Lear to be had in the Theatre. Receipts: #214 19s. 6d. (159.2.6; 54.9.0; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Johnstone. 1st piece: The Overture, Chorusses and new Musick by Dr Arnold. The new Scenery by Rooker, Marinari, &c. 2nd [1st time; MF 1, author unknown. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Overture and new Music by Reeve, and selected Songs by Dibdin. [3rd piece in place of The Prize, advertised on playbill of 31 Aug. C. Kemble had 1st appeared as Zorinski at the hay on 31 Aug. and 7 Sept. 1795.] Morning Herald, 27 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Johnstone, No. 19, Piazza, Covent-Garden

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 9 years. [Mrs Worthington is identified in MS list in Kemble playbills of new performers for this season.] Ballet: 1st time; composed by Giacomo? Gentili. Afterpiece [1st time: ENT 1, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; acted in place of The Prize, advertised on playbill of 4 Mar. Text (C. Lowndes, 1797)]: Altered from a Dramatick Entertainment performed 1794 [The Glorious First of June]. In the course of which will be introduced a representation of the late Glorious Engagement between the British and Spanish Fleets on the Fourteenth of February [1797, under Sir John Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent]. Receipts: #253 9s. (151.2.6; 100.17.0; 1.9.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns Cassio to Barrymore, but "Charles Kemble undertook Cassio at a short notice, and sustained it very creditably" (Monthly Mirror, Apr. 1797, p. 250).] Afterpiece: Engagement as 6 Mar. Receipts: #219 6s. 6d. (158.19.6; 59.6.6; 1.0.6)

Event Comment: Boxes 6s. Second Price 3s. Pit 3s. 6d. Second Price 2s. Gallery 2s. Second Price 1s. Upper Gallery 1s. Second Price 6d. No Money to be returned. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Fosbrook at the office in Russel Street. The Doors t be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 4 Dec.]. Printed by C. Lowndes next the Stage-door. The Public are respectfully informed that the Entrances to the Pit are now removed from Bridges Street to Russel Street and Wooburn Street. In Wooburn Street the Lower Saloon is opened for the accomodation of the Frequenters of the Pit, previous to Opening the office Doors of admission. Many complaints having been made by the Frequenters of this Theatre respecting the application of the Box and office keepers and other Servants of the Theatre for Benefit Tickets, Christmas Boxes, &c., the Public are respectfully informed that a full compensation being made by the Proprzetors to all the said Persons in lieu of all such emoluments, no Benefit, Gift, or Perquistite will in future be permitted to the servants of this Theatre on any pretence whatever. [On Kemble playbill Kemble has written, "See June 14th and 15th for the Benefit of the Boxkeepers, and the perpetuating of this Ruse, if it is one at all."] Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market. Receipts: #324 8s. 6d. (227.19.0; 94.13.6; 1.16.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; MD 5, by Matthew Gregory Lewis; incidental music by Michael Kelly (see 2 Feb. 1798), with one selection from Jomelli. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (Monthly Mirror, Dec. 1797, pp. 357-58)]: With new Dresses, Scenery, and Decorations. The Scenery designed by the late Mr Greenwood [who died on 1 Nov.], and executed by his Son, Pugh, and others. Times, 15 Jan. 1798: This day is published The Castle-Spectre (2s.). "There is a sufficient number of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, Cells and Trap-doors to serve for a pantomimical exhibition of the most extravagant nature, and the whole may, with no breach of propriety, be termed a Speaking Pantomime, of which Kemble is made the Harlequin and Mrs Jordan the Columbine" (Morning Herald, 16 Dec.). Receipts: #316 18s. 6d. (257.6.6; 58.17.0; 0.15.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Kemble as Faulkland, but "Charles acted Faulkland for me" (Kemble Mem.).] Receipts: #134 5s. (82.11.0; 50.10.6; 1.3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for C. Kemble. Mainpiece: By permission of the Proprietors of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Morning Chronicle, 8 Aug.: Tickets to be had of C. Kemble, No. 126, Great Russel-street, Bloomsbury

Event Comment: [Miss Kemble was from the York theatre.] Receipts: #277 11s. 6d. (271/4/0; 5/17/6; 0/10/0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill assigns the 1st Gravedigger to Parsons, but "an Apology was made for Parsons, and Suett went through his Part" (Public Advertiser, 2 Oct.). In afterpiece the playbill retains Parsons as Solomon; for Fawcett see 26 Nov.] "We have for so many years been accustomed to see Hamlet dressed in the Vandyke costume, that it may be material to state that Mr Kemble played the part in a modern court dress of rich black velvet, with a star on the breast, the garter and pendant ribbon of an order-the mourning sword and buckles, with deep ruffles: the hair in powder; which, in the scenes of feigned distraction, flowed dishevelled in front and over the shoulders" (Boaden, Kemble, I, 104). Receipts: #285 16s1. (265/14/0; 19/19/6; 0/2/6)