Event Comment: Notice on playbill of 22 May: The Necessity of using the Stage for the Scenery of the New Play of Pizarro will prevynt any Performance at this Theatre Tomorrow Evening

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, adapted from Die Spanier in Peru, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (consisting of the 1st 30 lines and the concluding couplet of his Prologue to The Miniature Picture); Epilogue by the Hon. William Lamb (see text). For publication see 1 July]: The Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations entirely new. The Musick, Airs and Chorusses incidental to the Piece composed and selected [from Gluck, Sacchini, &c. (Morning Chronicle, 25 May)] by Kelly. The Symphony preceding the Play, and those between the Acts, composed for the occasion by Dussek. The Scenery designed and executed by Marinari, Greenwood? Jun, Demaria, Banks, Blackmore, &c. [See Theatre Notebook, XX, 30-32, for suggestion that one scene was designed by DeLoutherbourg.] The Machinery, Decorations, and Dresses under the direction of Johnston, and executed by him, Underwood, and Gay. The Female Dresses designed and executed by Miss Rein. Account-Book, 14 May: Paid Miss Anne? Plumtree [i.e. Plumptree] for Spaniards in Peru #25. [It was this translation of Kotzebue's play that Sheridan adapted for the stage as Pizarro. For an account of the relationship between the translation and its adaptation see Marcella Gosch, "'Translators' of Kotzebue in England," Monatshefte fur deutschen Unterricht, XXXI, 178-83.] Paid Johnston [on this and other days] for sundries for Pizarro #135 14s. "It requires certainly more than English patience and spirits to sustain any Play of five hours in length. It is not one of the worst features of Pizarro that it contains a great deal which may be spared, without injury to the piece [see 25, 27 May]" (Morning Chronicle, 25 May). Receipts: #540 3s. 6d. (406.0.6; 17.5.0; 0.4.0; tickets sold by Fosbrook's Office: 116.14.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Waters. Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietors of the Theatre-Royal, Drury Lane. Morning Chronicle, 3 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Waters, No. 43, Conduit-street, Hanover-square. Receipts: #461 0s. 6d. (172.11.0; 5.1.0; tickets: 283.8.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Widow and Four Children of the late Mr Follett. [John Follett had died in Jan. 1799. Address by John Cartwright Cross (Monthly Mirror, June 1799, p. 367).] Receipts: #416 7s. 9d. (120.4.3; 4.1.0; tickets: 292.2.6)

Event Comment: On account of the multitude of applications for Places to see Pizarro, the Theatre will be continued open a few Nights longer than was proposed. Receipts: #375 10s. (335.13; 39.2; 0.15)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietor of the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden

Event Comment: Benefit for the Box and Box-door-keepers. The Last Time of the Company's Performing this Season. Receipts: #63 7s. 6d. (33.1.0; 19.7.0; 0.0.6; odd money: 10.19.0; tickets: none listed) (charge: #201 5s.)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; CO 2, by Henry Heartwell and George Colman, ynger, based on Le Prisonner; or, La Ressemblance, by Alexandre Vincent Pineu Duval]: With new Scenes, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed and selected by Attwood. Books of the Songs, &c. to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 9 Aug. 1799: This day is published The Castle of Sorrento (1s.)

Event Comment: [For Story see 28 June, 1 and 24 July.] 1st piece: The Overture and Musick by Dr Arnold. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [2nd piece in place of All in Good Humour, advertised on playbill of 15 July.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: The new Musick with an appropriate Overture by Dr Arnold. The Scenery by Marinari. Books of the Songs, &c., to he had at the Theatre

Event Comment: Benefit for C. Kemble. [Liston is identified in MS list, in hay playbills now at Harvard, of new performers for the 1799 season.] A Spurious Copy of Sighs having been advertized as performing at this Theatre, the Public is respectfully in formed that the True Copy is this day published by M. Stace, Princes-street, Leicester-square

Event Comment: 2nd piece [1st time; MD 5, by George Holman, based on Die Rauber, by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Prologue by John Taylor (Poems, I, 65)]: With new Scenery, Dresses and Decorations. The Musick composed by Attwood, and selected from Dr Arnold, Callcott, and Mozart. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Morning Chronicle, 4 Sept. 1799;: This day is published The Red Cross Knights (2s.). Ibid, 22 Aug.: It was remarked from its extreme length and the frequent fall of the drop scene that it was a play in ten acts instead of five--indeed this method of preparing for a new scene disjoints the business, and of course tends greatly to injure the effect

Event Comment: Benefit for Suett. [Faulkner's 1st appearance at this theatre was on 9 Feb. 1797.] Morning Chronicle, 20 Aug.: Tickets to be had of Suett, No. 21, King-street, Bloomsbury-square

Event Comment: [Mrs Dibdin was from the Rochester theatre.] Receipts: #263 19s. 6d. (256.4.6; 7.15.0)

Event Comment: [Miss Campbell was from the Newcastle theatre.] Receipts: #276 4s. 6d. (174.12.6; 100.12.0; 1.0.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; M. ENT 2, by Andrew Franklin. Larpent MS 1268; not published]: With appropriate Scenery, Dresses, &c. The Music entirely new, with a Naval and Military Medley Overture, composed by Reeve. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre. [European Magazine, Oct. 1799, p. 255, states that this was founded on the expedition to Holland which embarked at Deal from 7th to 11th September 1799.] Receipts: #340 14s. 6d. (225.17.0; 114.13.2; 0.4.0)

Event Comment: "...Richard III, which I saw performed at Drury-lane theatre at the beginning of the present season...The dresses of the characters which here make their appearance are in the usual half-and-half mode, made up from portraits of Charles I's reign, and from unrestrained fancy. Richard's habit, indeed, shews a faint hint, at the costume of his day; but how modernized! A fancy cap and feather,with a milliner's white-ribband rose, sewed thereon. A deep ruff, of that make not known until the reign of James I From the neck depends a ribband With the George: this decoration never seen in paintings till about the fashions of the abovementioned monarch's court. On his legs and feet, white silk stockings, white shoes, and red roses. These latter ornaments unknown before Elizabeth or James I's modes of dress prevailed; at any rate, they should have been white ones to have accorded with the party-badge in his cap." Writer signing himself "An Artist and an Antiquary" in Gentleman's Magazine, Apr. 1800, p. 319. Receipts: #225 16s. 6d. (178.3.6; 47.12.0; 0.1.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece:In I A Grand Masqueradev. Afterpiece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Thomas John Dibdin]: To conclude with a new Scenic Representation of Britannia Triumphantv. Interspersed With a Variety of favorite old Airs, popular Songs, Parodies, &c. The Overture and new Songs composed and the Music in general arranged by Moorehead. The Machinery invented and executed by Cresswell. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre, price Six-pence. Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1799: This day is published The Naval Pillar (price not listed). The afterpiece had reference to the contemplated erection of a "Naval Pillar" on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, in commemoration of the recent victbries of the English navy. A plain pillar is at the last introduced, with the names of the most celebrated admirals on a scroll, round which the sailors and their sweethearts dance with peculiar festivity. The pillar now flies open, and displays a most magnificent and appropriate spectacle--consisting of Britannia, personated by Mrs Chapman, under a rich canopy, with the figures of a sailor and a soldier for supporters, pointing to the letters G. R. over a brilliant sun, which turns on the center; shrouded in clouds above, and surrounded by angels, is a medallion of Lord Howe, and on columns on each side of the canopy are medallions of your great living naval commanders" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1799, p. 180). Receipts: #284 10s. 6d. (277.18.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: An accurate Edition of the [mainpiece] to be had in the Theatre. "The Prince, we observed, wore the regimentals of an English officer, and the star of a knight of the Bath or Garter. We know not well how this can be thought the costume of either Messina or Arragon" (Monthly Mirror, Oct. 1799, p. 237). Receipts: #252 16s. (151.11; 100.11; 0.14)

Event Comment: In II The Grand Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylonv. In IV a Grand Banquetv. [Macartney was from the Theatre Royal, Dublin.] Receipts: #222 18s. (218.2; 4.16)

Event Comment: The Naval Pillar [advertised on playbill of 14 Oct., is] obliged, on account of Incledon's severe Hoarseness, to be postponed till Next Week. Afterpiece: By permission of the Proprietors of Drury Lane Theatre. Receipts: #263 4s. 6d. (253.3.6; 10.1.0)

Event Comment: [Tomkins, who had 1st appeared at this theatre on 1 May 1799, is identified by MS annotation on Kemble playbill.] Receipts: #178 17s. (117.9; 60.1; 1.7)

Event Comment: Incledon continuing Hoarse, the new Comic Opera of The Turnpike Gate [advertised on playbill of 6 Nov.] is necessarily obliged to be postponed [see 14 Nov.]. "[Mrs Pope's] whole soul seems to be engrossed with the study of attitudes and postures; how to display to the best advantage a genteel shape...Her very looks are artificial, and betray an excess of female vanity" (Dramatic Censor I, 11). Receipts: #337 13s. (333.11.6; 4.1.6)