Event Comment: Benefit for Ryder. 1st piece [1st time; F 1, ascribed to Thomas Ryder. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: Taken from Sir Courtly Nice [by John Crowne]. 3rd piece: Never [previously] acted here. [Miss R. Ryder's 1st appearance on the stage was at cg, 16 Apr. 1790.

Event Comment: Benefit for Munden. Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Thomas Hurlstone. Text (J. Debrett [1792]) gives cast for season of 1792-93. Poetical Sketch by John Wolcot (Morning Herald, 11 May)]: With new Scenery, Dresses, and other Decorations. The Overture and Music entirely new, composed by Carter. Morning Herald, 13 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Munden, No. 15, Catherine-street. Ibid, 1 Dec. 1792: This Day is published Just in Time (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #415 3s. (126.4.6; 4.9.6; tickets: 284.9.0) (charge: #105)

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: 3rd piece [1st time; MD 2, by John Rose; music by Thomas Attwood]: Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. Salary List (Enthoven Collection): Paid Rose for Caernarvon Castle #18 6s. Morning Herald, 16 Sept. 1793: This Day is published Caernarvon Castle (1s.). [This piece had reference to the birthday of the Prince of Wales, which was 12 Aug.

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Holcroft, adapted from Le Complaisant, by Antoine de Feriol comte de Pont-de-Veyle, and from Clavigo, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It has been attributed to John Fenwick (Genest, VII, 360-61; London Chronicle, 14 Feb. 1798). But for Holcroft's acknowledgment of authorship see his Life, ed. Elbridge Colby, 1925, II, 170. Author of Prologue unknown. Epilogue by the author (Knapp, p. 88)]. Times, 12 Apr. 1798: This Day will be published He's Much to Blame (2s.). "Mrs Mattocks has of late habituated herself to a constant titter, which destroys the effect of her best scenes" (Times, 14 Feb.). Receipts: #249 1s. (240.5; 8.16)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; P 2 (?), by John Cartwright Cross. MS of Songs only: Larpent MS 1203]: Partly New and Partly Selected. The Overture and Music by Reeve. The Scenery partly new & the rest completely repaired by Phillips, Lupino, Hollogan, Blackmore, &c. The Machinery by Cresswell, Sloper, Goostree, Goostree Jun., &c. Receipts: #195 9s. (193.2; 2.7)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hull, Mrs Litchfield & Waddy. 1st piece [1st time; C 5, by Thomas Hull. Larpent MS 1215; not published]: Altered from [The Bashful Lover, by] Massinger. [In it the playbill assigns Hortensio to Pope, but he was ill, and in his "stead Johnston read the part of Hortensio" (European Magazine, June 1798, p. 396). Prologue by John Taylor Poems (I, 60).] Morning Herald, 29 May: Tickets to be had of Hull, Duke's Court, Dean's-yard, Westminster; of Mrs Litchfield, James-street, Covent-Garden; of Waddy, No. 214, opposite Southampton-street, High Holborn. Receipts: #261 2s. 6d. (53.9.6; 4.16.6; tickets: 202.16.6; of which Hull took #72 7s.; Mrs Litchfield #60 17s., Waddy #69 12s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5, by Elizabeth Inchbald, adapted from Das Kind der Liebe, by August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue. Prologue by John Taylor; Epilogue by Thomas Palmer (see text)]. Afterpiece [1st time; MF 2, by Charles Smith]: The Music composed by Attwood. The Overture accompanied on the Harp by Weippert. Morning Herald, 28 Nov. 1798: This Day is published Lovers' Vows [sic] (2s.). Times, 26 Oct. 1798: This Day is published A Day at Rome (1s.). Receipts: #197 15s. 6d. (194.3.6; 3.12.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Humane Society. A new grand Commemorative Oratorio [1st time; in two parts], as originally performed by Busby, in aid of the Fund for the Naval Pillar, including the new Music [by Busby: Song and Chorus, From where the sun; Song, To thy brave sons; Recitative and Song, Peace to the soul, Around the ever-honoured urn], introduced in the Grand National Concert, performed the 28th of May, at the Opera House. Leader of the Band-Cramer. Organ-Russell. The performance to be conducted by Busby, who will preside at the Piano Forte. Tickets, at playhouse prices, to be had at all the principal music shops...and of Busby, No. 9, China Terrace, Vauxhall Road. The Doors to be opened at 6:00. To begin at 7:00. "The words [of Part I] are taken entirely from Gray's well-known Pindaric Ode, The Progress of Poesy," with six introductory lines written by John Gretton andthe concluding stanzas by Thomas Dutton; the text of Part II by Gretton (Dramatic Censor, II, 285-86)

Event Comment: [By Ebenezer Forrest.] By Command of His Royal Highness. After the Manner of the Beggar's Opera. All the Habits and Scenes entirely New. Receipts: #161 18s. 6d. [For a comment on this performance, see Thomas Edwards to John Clerke, "Unrecorded Comments on John Gay, Henry Travers, and Others", N & Q (August 1953), p. 338.

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 2 years. With a Procession and Sacrificev. [These were included in both subsequent performances.] Afterpiece [1st time; F 2, by Thomas Sheridan. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of plot in London Chronicle, 21 Dec.]: Taken from the comedy of that name by Sir John Vanburghi [sic]. Receipts: #151 2s. 6d. (115.4.0; 35.16.0; 0.2.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Martyr. 2nd piece [1st time; O 1, by John Wolcot. Larpent MS 770; not published]: Being a Translation from the French Opera of that name [Nina; ou, La Folle par Amour, by Benoit Joseph Marsollier des Vivetieres], now performing at Paris with universal applause. With the original Music [by Nicolas Dalayrac, adapted by William Shield and William Thomas Parke. Two other versions of this opera, both unacted, were published this year: one anonymous, and one by George Monck Berkeley]. Receipts: #300 8s. 6d. (150.0.0; 2.18.0; tickets: 147.10.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for King. 1st piece: Altered [by MacNamara Morgan] from The Winter's Tale. 2nd piece [1st time; C 3, by Thomas King. Not in Larpent MS; not published]: An Alteration, never yet performed, of Sir John Vanburgh's [sic] Mistake. Public Advertiser, 10 Feb.: Tickets to be had of King, at his house in Gerrard-street. Receipts: #321 2s. 6d. (249.14.0; 4.8:6; tickets: 67.0.0)

Event Comment: Edition of 1662: Being a True Relation of the Honourable the City of Londons Entertaining Their Sacred Majesties Upon the River of Thames, and Welcoming them from Hampton-Court to White-Hall. Expressed and set forth in several Shews and Pageants, the 23 day of August 1662. According to the printed version, the management of the pageant was under the care of Peter Mills, Surveyor; Malin, Water Bayliff; Thomas Whiting, Joyner; Richard Cleere, Carver. The songs were set by John Gamble, one of His Majesty's Servants. Evelyn, Diary: I this day was spectator of the most magnificent Triumph that certainly ever floted on the thames, considering the innumerable number of boates & Vessels, dressed and adorned with all imaginable Pomp: but above all, the Thrones, Arches, Pageants, & other representations, stately barges of the Lord Major, & Companies, with various Inventions, musique, & Peales of Ordnance both from the vessels & shore, going to meete & Conduct the new Queene from Hampton Court to White-hall, at the first time of her Coming to Towne.... his Majestie & the Queene, came in an antique-shaped open Vessell, convered with a State or Canopy of Cloth of Gold, made in forme of a Cupola, supported with high Corinthian Pillars, wreathd with flowers, festoones & Gyrlands: Pepys, Diary: We got into White Hall garden, and so to the Bowling-green, and up to the top of the new Banqueting House there, over the thames, which was a most pleasant place as any I could have got; and all the show consisted chiefly in the number of boats and barges; and two pageants, one of a King, and another of a Queen, with her Maydes of Honour sitting at her feet very prettily; and they tell me the Queen is Sir Richard Ford's daughter. Anon come the King and Queen in a barge under a canopy with 10,000 barges and boats, I think, for we could see no water for them, nor discern the King nor Queen. And so they landed at White Hall Bridge, and the great guns on the other side went off

Event Comment: Receipts: #170 9s. 6d. Probable attendance: boxes, 236 paid; stage, 44 paid; balcony, 2 paid; Pit, 290 Paid and 3 orders; slips, 47 paid and 1 order; first gallery, 419 paid and 1 order; second gallery, 189 paid. For a comment on the play by Thomas Edwards, see V. M. Gilbert, Unrecorded Comments on John Gay, Henry Travers, and Others, Notes and Queries, August 1953, pp. 337-38

Event Comment: Benefit for Reddish. Mainpiece: By Desire. Farce (adapted by Thomas Ryder from Vanbrugh's Mistake) never acted there

Event Comment: Paid Wm Gard for performing in the Lyon 12 Nights #1 10s. Paid Thomas Singleton for the same #1 10s.; Paid Henry Williams for performing the Bells 4 nights #1 10s. (Account Book). [Epilogue is Larpent MS 306.] Receipts: #194 2s

Event Comment: Benefit for Thomas? Sheridan. Mainpiece: Written by Congreve and now carefully revised, and corrected, by expunging the exceptionable passages, not acted these twenty years. [See 25 May 1758.

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; T 5, by John Delap. Prologue and Epilogue by Thomas Vaughan (see text)]. Morning Chronicle, 22 Mar. 1786: This Day is published The Captives (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #222 1s. (204/17; 14/16; 2/8)

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: 1st piece: Acted but Once [on 5 May 1790]. With new Scenes and Dresses. A Procession, representing the Ceremonies attending the Sacrifice of an Indian Woman on the Funeral Pile of her deceased Husband. [This was included in all subsequent performances.] The Music by Stevens. [Prologue by William Thomas Fitzgerald. Epilogue by Richard John Hughes Starke.] Receipts: #231 14s. 6d. (230.6.6; 1.8.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mr and Mrs Knight. 1st piece [1st time; C 3, by Thomas Holcroft, altered by author from his Duplicity. Larpent MS 1129; not published]. Oracle, 13 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mr and Mrs Knight, No. 47, Rathbone Place. Receipts: #331 5s. (159.7.0; 16.7.6; tickets: 155.10.6)

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. The Prologue, by John Dryden, is in Covent Garden Drollery (1672). Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's playhouse, and there saw Albumazar, an old play, this the second time of acting. It is said to have been the ground of B. Jonson's Alchymist: but, saving the ridiculousnesse of Angell's part, which is called Trinkilo, I do not see any thing extraordinary in it, but was indeed weary of it before it was done. The King here, and, indeed, all of us, pretty merry at the mimique tricks of Trinkilo

Event Comment: The King's Company. For this cast, see John Harold Wilson, Notes and Queries, 21 Feb. 1948, pp. 71-72. Pepys, Diary: My wide and Deb. to the King's House, to see The Virgin Martyr, the first time it hath been acted a great while: and it is mighty pleasant; not that the play is worth much, but it is finely acted by Becke Marshal. But that which did please me beyond any thing 1n the whole world was the wind-musique when the angel comes down, which is so sweet that it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife