Event Comment: Mainpiece: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. [This was
the version, altered probably by
Joseph George Holman, in which he appeared in
Dublin on 29 July 1794, on which occasion
the playbill reads, "Dressed in
the Habits of
the Times, and with o
ther Alterations, adopted in its Representations 19 [recte 11] Nights last Winter, at
the Theatre
Royal,
Covent Garden." It fur
ther states that
the part of
Ophelia would be performed "without
the Airs, and with a considerable Restoration of
the Text." No record of what
these alterations consisted of has come to light. In III.iv Hamlet's fa
ther was represented by a life-sized portrait that hung over
the chimney, and
the Queen wore a large miniature of
Claudius on her arm as a bracelet (
London Chronicle, 10 Oct.).
The words of
the Dirge are printed in
European Magazine, Nov. 1793, p. 393;
they are stanza X of
Shakespeare's
Passionate Pilgrim.
Miss Poole had appeared as a singer at
king's and at
Vauxhall in 1787 and at
the cg oratories in 1791.] Afterpiece: Not acted
these 2 years [and in place of
The Prisoner at Large, advertised on playbill of 8 Oct.]. Receipts: #332 4s. (330.3; 2.1)