Event Comment: [C+Chorus last performed 28 Dec. 1759.] Nightly expenses for the Coronation #5 3s. 6d. as follows: Extra Music #2 12s. 6d.; Chorus Singers #2 11s. (Account Book). Receipts: #189 4s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: The Tragedy of Tamerlane intended for this day and Saturday cannot be acted, on account of the Indisposition of a principal performer. Receipts: #157 12s. 6d. (Account Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Legg, Mrs Lampe, Mrs Jones. Charges #69 8s. Deficit to the beneficiaries: Legg #23 9s.; Mrs Lampe and Mrs Jones together #23 9s. Covered by income from tickets: Legg #68 7s. (Box 92; Pit 175; Gallery 191); The Actresses #52 15s. (Box 91; Pit 124; Gallery 114) (Account Book). Receipts: #22 10s

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. [See 11 April 1771.] Paid Mrs Rich the balance of the Benefit for the Dispensary #36 11s. 6d., and paid Garton the balance due the Theatrical Fund #143 3s. (Account Book). [The Westminster Magazine this month comments upon the revival of the pantomime and the new scene of the Pantheonv: "This thought evidently was borrowed from the ludicrous situations of the Macaroni in the pantomime of the Pigmy Revels at the other theatre; but no one in the world borrows with less ceremony than Mr Colman, especially from Mr Garrick."] Receipts: #126 2s. 6d

Event Comment: The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 19 Oct.]

Event Comment: Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. No Persons admitted behind the Scenes, nor any Money returned after the Curtain is drawn up. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage-Door. The Doors to be opened at 5:30. To begin at 6:30 [see 1 Nov.]. Receipts: #132 14s. (131.15.6; 0.18.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; HIST. D 5, by George Watson. Prologue and Address by the author (European Magazine, Apr. 1795, pp. 267, 268)]: With new Dresses and Decorations. Morning Chronicle, 11 May 1795: This Day is published England Preserved (2s.). Receipts: #209 0s. 6d. (199.13.0; 9.7.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Richard Cumberland. Prologue and Epilogue by the author (Collection...of English Prologues and Epilogues, II, 214; IV, 195)]: With new Scenes, Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 7 Feb. 1778: This Day is published The Battle of Hastings (1s. 6d.). "This piece was received with uncommon applause...[Palmer's] heroic exclamation-'all private feuds should cease when England's glory is at stake'-was so sensibly felt by the audience that a repetition was called for, but judiciously refused, as out of character in a tragedy" (London Magazine, Jan. 1778, p.37). Receipts: #243 15s. 6d. (235.0.0; 8.13.0; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 10 years [not acted since 2 Oct. 1780]. [As afterpiece the playbill announces The Sultan, but "On Account of the Sudden Indisposition of Barrymore [it] was put off and the Devil to Pay substituted in its stead" (MS annotation on Kemble playbill) "The Sultan was changed to The Devil to Pay, and as Jordan remained, the matter was rather mended" (Oracle, 8 Nov.).] Receipts: #195 14s. (168.1; 26.3; 1.10)

Event Comment: [Longley is identified in European Magazine, Dec. 1797, p. 410, but Monthly Visitor, Jan. 1798, p. 64, says that he was Clarke, "from the Shakesperian Theatre at Tottenham Court Road." Afterpiece in place of The Shipwreck, advertised on playbill of 24 Nov.] "[Longley] is not inferior to some Falstaffs we have seen upon the London stage, and he possesses all the traditionary shrugs, winks and bye-play usual in the representation of the part" (True Briton, 27 Nov.). Receipts: #140 18s. (101.15; 38.3; 1.0)

Event Comment: The King's Company. This performance is on the L. C. list, 5@141, p. 359. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. There is no certainty that this performance is the premiere, but as the play was licensed for printing on 9 Jan. 1676@7, this performance may well be the first one. Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, pp.9-10) lists the same cast except for the ommission of Letice. It is not certain which Mrs Knight played Letice. Possibly it was Frances Maria Knight (see Wilson, All the King's Ladies, where she is tentatively listed for that role), but the presence of Mrs Ursula Knight on an undated L. C. list, 3@24, with the date of her swearing into the company given as 12 March 1676@7, it is quite likely that she played this role. (I owe this reference to Ursula Knight to Professor John Harold Wilson.) John Dennis: And when upon the first representations of the Plain Dealer, the Town, as The Authour has often told me, appeard Doubtful what Judgment to Form of it; the foremention'd gentlemen [The Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Rochester, Earl of Dorset, Earl of Mulgrave, Savil, Buckly, Sir John Denham, Waller] by their loud aprobation of it, gave it both a sudden and a lasting reputation (Defense and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, 1725, in The Works of John Dennis, ed. Hooker, II, 277)

Event Comment: [By Nicholas Rowe.] Never Acted before. The Medley, 22 April: Whereas Nicodemus Somebody, Esq; alias The Merry Mr Pack, belonging to the Play-house in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, was on Wednesday Night last very noisy and troublesome in the first Gallery of Theatre-Royal in Drury-lane, he's desir'd hereby, when out of his own House, to behave himself with a little more Manners and Discretion, and not distinguish himself again by his ill-natur'd Gestures and frequent Hissings

Event Comment: [Written by Ambrose Philips.] Weekly Journal or Saturday's Post, 23 Feb.: If we consider the Performance of this Play, we shall find, that the Poet is not much beholding to the Actors; for, the two Women Parts excepted, the whole Play was but wretchedly perform'd

Event Comment: [By Richard Savage.] Edition of 1724: I think it my Duty also, to return Thanks to the Town, for their favourable Reception of this Play; and for the Applause their Indulgence bestow'd on the Performance of the Young Actors: Particularly for my own Success, in a double Capacity, as Actor and Author

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time, i.e. as an alteration of Richard Savage's play; T 5, by William Woodfall. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Epilogue by Richard Cumberland (see text)]: with New Scenes and Dresses. Public Advertiser, 13 Feb. 1777: Sir Thomas Overbury (the Publication of which was unavoidably postponed) will be ready this Morning, at Ten o'Clock (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #212 4s. 6d. (210.7.6; 1.17.0)