Event Comment: This Comis Opera is Written by the Revd Mr Bate. It is very Pleasant & the Music pretty. It is admirably Perform'd & was receiv'd with very great Applause (Hopkins Diary). The Music of the Afterpiece by Mr Carter. New Scenes, Dresses, Decoartions for afterpiece. Paid for Licences of Matilda & Rival Candidates #4 4s.; Mr Baddeley on note #10 10s.; Miss Berkley #2 2s. on note (Treasurer's Book). [A long rewiew of the plot of the afterpiece appeared in the Feb. Westminster Magazine, concluding: "In point of dialogue, poetry or music, it is inferior to few, if any, of the modern attempts of a similar kind; amongst which number, however, we desire to be understood not to include the ribald, unmeaning, sing-song compilations of the monotonous Mr Dibdin. The Fable, indeed, is too light and trival to endure the severity of a critical analysis; but it is at least sufficiently important to serve as a vehicle for the music; and the catastrophe has peculiar vivacity and theatrical spirit. Upon the whole the author has fully answered the end he proposed of introducing a deserving young composer whose name, it seems is Carter, to the public and who more than promises to be a composer of taste and genius. In this his first performance he both received and deserved the greatest encouragement and applause. Mr Weston spoke a humorous Epilogue accompanied by a large dog named Dragon, which had a very good effect, but as it was poor Dragon's first time of appearing on the stage, he, like all young performers of true feeling, seemed a good deal frightened...but having conquored his fears, and recovered himself a little, he performed his part very chastely and to the entire satisfaction of all present." Epilogue ends with a satirical remark upon Sg Rossignol, the "bird imitator" at Covent Garden. See 6 Jan. cg.] Receipts: #204 17s. 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Music of Afterpiece entirely new Composed by Dibdin. [An adaptation of Goldoni's Il Filosofo di Campagna.] Book of Songs to be had at Theatre (playbill). The Wedg R. a Comic Opera of Two Acts wrote & composed by Mr Dibdin. The Music very pretty--as the Author was kept a Secret The Town fancy'd that is one of Mr Bickerstaff & call'd out to know who was the Author. Mr Garrick inform'd them that he had no power to declare who the Author was but he could assure them that it was not Mr Bickerstaffs this did not Satisfy them at last Mr Dibdin went on & declard himself to be the Author & made an Affidavit of it & then the Farce went on with Applause (Hopkins Diary). [Account of The Wedding Ring in Westminster Magazine for Feb. 1773.] Paid #4 4s. for licensing The Wedding Ring and Alonzo (Treasurer's Book). [Maria Macklin, in a MS letter to her father, 3 Feb. 1773, commented fully on this night's performance: "Written as it was suppos'd by Bickerstaffe. The music by Dibdin. I went with a party into the Gallery to see the event as there was a great riot expected, & indeed never did I see an audience more inflamed. They would not suffer them to begin the piece. At last Mr King came on with a written paper in his hand, which he said he was desir'd to read in the name of the managers. After a great noise they let him read it. He said just before the play began the managers had receiv'd a letter from Mr Dibdin in which he declared that Bickerstaff was not the author of that piece, that he had made oath of it, and was ready to do the same again, but that for very particular reasons the author could not be given up. Then they stopp'd him & roar'd out that the author should be given up then. He continued as loud as he possibly could, reading on that 'but that if Mr Dibdin did not very soon given up the author he never should be suffered to appear again on that stage or any other.' Very luckily that turn'd them as I believe the House would have come down. The piece then began. Before the end of the first act one of Bannister's songs were encor'd. The other party were against it and would not let it go on. They all stood up and insisted that the author should be known then. After some time the house being nothing but confusion, Dibdin was push'd upon the stage ready to drop with fright, and declared that he was the author himself. Then they were as noisy the other way. Made them finish the piece, but how you may guess in a storm. It is like the Padlock, but the songs not so good." (Brander Matthews, Actors and Actresses, extra illustrated, Vol. I. Harvard Theatre Collection.). Westminster Magazine this month included in parallel columns flattering "Characters of Mr Garrick and Mr Colman," the Rival managers. The article especially praised Garrick's acting.] Receipts: #252 3s. 6d

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Altered from [The Relapse, by] Sir John Vanbrugh [1st time; C 5, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Prologue by David Garrick (see edition of 1781)]. The Characters new dressed. Receipts: #229 7s. 6d. (217.13.0; 10.8.0; 1.6.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 7 years. No joke ever raised such loud and repeated mirth, in the galleries, as Sir John 's labour in getting the body of Hotspur on his back...At length this upper-gallery merriment was done away [with] by the difficulties which Henderson encountered in getting Smith on his shoulders. So much time was consumed in this pick-a-pack business that the spectators grew tired, or rather, disgusted. It was thought best, for the future, that some of Falstaff 's ragamuffins should bear off the dead body" (Davies, I, 273-75). [For Henderson as Falstaff see hay, 24 July 1777.] Receipts: #207 10s. 6d. (185.6.0; 20.7.0; 1.17.6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by Hannah Cowley. Author of Prologue unknown. Epilogue by John O'Keeffe (O'KeefFe, II, 301); it included a song, music by Carter, When I was a little baby, written by Hannah Cowley]: New Scenes and Dresses. Public Advertiser, 26 Jan. 1784: This Day is published A Bold Stroke for A Husband (1s. 6d.). Receipts: #199 5s. 6d. (194/13/0; 4/12/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; D 5]: Altered from Massinger [by John Philip Kemble. Prologue by the Hon. Henry Phipps (London Chronicle, 28 Jan.). Epilogue by George Colman, the elder (ibid). MS: Larpent 687; not published]. "This piece is considerably altered from the original; passages are expunged, and others added, in every scene; and several incidents transposed from the order in which they formerly stood. Some scenes are also introduced from the Maid's Tragedy of Beaumont and Fletcher" (London Magazine, Feb. 1785, p. 137). Receipts: #269 9s. (240/10/0; 27/6/6; 1/12/6)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; C 5, by John Burgoyne, based in part on Le Pere de Famille, by Denis Diderot. Prologue by the Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick; Epilogue by the author (see text)]: With a Variety of new Scenes [by Greenwood (Daily Universal Register, 16 Jan.)], Dresses, and Decorations. Public Advertiser, 4 Feb. 1786: This Day is published The Heiress (1s. 6d.). "It rarely happens that all the characters of a piece are so well sustained" (Morning Chronicle, 16 Jan.). "We never saw a play more admirably performed in all its parts" (Gazetteer, 16 Jan.). "In point of performance the comedy had every advantage" (Morning Herald, 16 Jan.). Receipts: #226 2s. (205/10; 20/7; 0/5)

Event Comment: Benefit for Palmer and Meadows. Morning Chronicle, 20 May: Tickets to be had of Palmer, No. 36, Bow-street, Covent Garden; of Meadows, John-street, Golden-square. Receipts: #208 10s. (36/19/6; 9/11/6; tickets: 141/19/0) (charge: #105)

Event Comment: Mainpiece [1st time; CO 3, by Leonard Macnally, adapted from the same, by Michel Jean Sedaine. Not in Larpent MS; not published; synopsis of plot in Morning Chronicle, 17 Oct. For text of abridged version see 21 Oct.]: Taken from the celebrated French Opera of that Name. With the original Overture, Airs, Duetts, Trios, Chorusses and Finale, by the celebrated Gretry. To which are added Compositions by the following Masters; Anfossi, Bertoni, Duni, David, Rizzio, Carolan, Tenducci, and Shield. With new Dresses, Scenery and other Decorations. Books of the Songs to be had at the Theatre. [The printed score (Longman & Broderip, c. 1786) indicates that the music was adapted by Shield; it does not refer to Duni, Rizzio or Tenducci, but includes Philip Hayes and John Wilson. After the 1st 4 performances the mainpiece was reduced to an afterpiece of 3 short acts; see 21 Oct.] Account-Book, 28 Nov.: Paid Macnally in full for Coeur de Lion #121 18s. 6d. "Inchbald we thought [was] rather hardly dealt with. His voice happened to fail him in a particular turn of the tune he was singing, and some of the audience were ungenerous enough to disconcert him so far that he made a modest bow and retired [leaving his part unfinished. In consequence of this] a duet that was to have been sung by the King from the battlements of the castle, and Blondel without the walls, on which the turn of the fable hinged, was omitted; a circumstance that could not but materially affect the intrinterest, as it destroyed the connexion of the fable" (Morning Chronicle, 17 Oct.). [The following day Inchbald withdrew from his engagement at cg.] Receipts: #249 12s. 6d. (247.11.6; 2.1.0)

Event Comment: 3rd piece [1st time; F 2, by Charles Stuart, "from the Spanish"; on 2 Sept. reduced to 1 act. Prologue by the author (see text)]. "The Piece, we understand, was originally founded on some topics that have of late engrossed the conversation of much of the fashionable world...The Lord Chamberlain thought [it] too delicate a nature to appear with the allusions and title it then bore, She would be a Duchess. The consequence was that the offensive bits were expunged and the piece re-christened...It would be unfair to make any observations...in the mutilated stage it was presented" (Public Advertiser, 15 Aug.). "Some part of the plot was supposed to allude to the late occurrences in the family of General John? Gunning, who was indulged with the privilege of erasing [from the MS] that which he disliked, and who reduced it to its present feeble and unconnected form" (Gazetteer, 15 Aug.). [The reference in the original title is to the simultaneous flirtation of Miss Elizabeth Gunning, the General's daughter, with the eldest sons of the Dukes of Marlborough and Argyll (see dnb, under Susannah Gunning). She would be a Duchess: in Larpent MS 915.

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin. Paid Duke of Bedford half year's rent to Lady Day last (#182 10s. Taxes allowed #25 7s.) #157 3s.; Subscription to St George's Hospital 1 year to Lady Day, #10 10s.; Mr Calthorpe's 2nd and last payment #157 10s. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #134 2s. Charges: #68 15s. Profits to Dibdin: #65 12s. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin. Receipts: #134 9s. 6d. Charges: #64 9s. Profits to Dibdin: #74 6d. (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; CO I, by Charles Dibdin, based on Rose et Colas, by Michel Jean Sedaine]. 3rd piece [1st time; CO I, by Charles Dibdin, based on Les Femmes Vengees, by Michel Jean Sedaine]: With new Scenery [Public Advertiser, 19 Sept.: by Richards] and Decorations. Both the Musical Pieces, with new Overtures, composed by Dibdin. Books of the new Musical Pieces to be had at the Theatre. Places for the Boxes to be taken of Brandon (only) at the Stage Door. No Money to be taken at the Stage Door, nor any Money to be returned after the Curtain is drawn up. Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. 1st Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery 1s. The Doors to be opened at 5:15. To begin at 6:15 [see 21 Sept.]. Public Advertiser, 18 Sept.: This Afternoon at Three will be published Rose and Colin and The Wives Revenged (each 6d.). "At this season of the year the little company upon the Ton, who are in town, seldom rise from the table till after the beginning of the play; in order, therefore, to obviate the disturbance that the fracas in the boxes usually makes towards the close of the first act, or the beginning of the second, this comic opera [Rose and Colin] was prefaced. It at the same time affords these late comers an opportunity of seeing the play [i.e. the mainpiece] complete" (Town and Country Magazine, Sept. 1778, p.453)

Event Comment: Afterpiece [1st time; P 2 (?), by Charles Dibdin and James Messink; synopsis of plot in London Chronicle, 30 Dec.]: To conclude with a Procession of the principal Grand Masters, from the Creation to the present Century, dressed in the Habits of their respective Ages and Countries. With new Music [by Charles Dibdin], Scenes, Dresses, Pageants, and Decorations. The paintings executed by Richards, Carver, Hodgins, and assistants. Books of the Songs, with an Explanation of the Pageants, to be had at the Theatre. Nothing under full Price will be taken. "To give magnificence a meaning, and unite antiquarian knowledge with polite entertainment, was a task hitherto unattempted by the contrivers of our Pantomime exhibitions. Such praise, however, the acting manager of Covent Garden theatre may justly claim, on the score of Harlequin Free-Mason, which is now representing before greater crowds than perhaps were ever attracted by Perseus and Andromeda [in 1730], the Rape of Proserpine [in 1727], or the celebrated Sorcerer [i.e. The Magician, in 1721]. The beauty of the first scene, in which a setting sun is admirably contrived, the Dutch winter piece, with numberless skate[r]s moving in the most natural attitudes, and, above all, the imperfect building, finished in a moment at the command of Harlequin, can be exceeded only by the pomp of the historic procession which closes the whole, and offers the richest and most intelligent spectacle that ever yet appeared on an English stage" (Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1781, pp. 58-59, which also prints a detailed description of the pageant). Account-Book, 1 Feb.: Paid Dibdin for music of Harlequin Free-Mason #70. Receipts: #236 2s. (230.3; 5.19)

Event Comment: Benefit for Perry, Dibdin. Mainpiece: Acted but once these two years. Afterpiece: Perform'd but twice. None admitted behind Scenes. Books of the Afterpiece to be sold at Theatre

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin. Part of pit laid into boxes

Event Comment: Benefit for Dibdin