Event Comment: Benefit for J. D'Egville. Ballet: As composed by Dauberval, and performed at the king's Theatre in the Hay-Market. To conclude with a Grand Display of the Manual Exercise. Morning Chronicle, 8 May: Tickets to be had of J. D'Egville, No. 29, Litchfield-street, Soho. Receipts: #376 9s. (151.16; 45.10; 6.14; tickets: 172.9) (charge: #247 12s. 9d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Leak. Morning Herald, 13 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Leak, Upper Mews Gate, Castle-street, Leicester-Fields. Receipts: #391 18s. (88.11.6; 60.0.0; 12.1.0; tickets: 231.5.6) (charge: #211 19s. 6d.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Miss Chapman. Morning Chronicle, 14 May: Tickets to be had of Miss Chapman, No. 33, Norfolk-street, Strand. Receipts: #176 12s. 6d. (59.5.6; 3.14.0; tickets: 113.13.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for a Fund, for the Relief of those whose Infirmities oblige them to retire from the Stage. Ballet: Manual Exercise as 20 May. Receipts: #253 4s. 6d. (105.3.0; 37.12.0; 15.1.6; tickets: 95.8.0) (charge: free)

Event Comment: [2nd piece in place of The Irish Mimick, advertised on playbill of 30 May.] Receipts: #186 18s. 6d. (178.3.0; 8.15.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Dignum. Morning Chronicle, 19 May: Tickets to be had of Dignum, No. 23, New North-street, Red Lion-square. Receipts: #667 14s. (127.2.6; 35.17.6; 7.16.0; tickets: 496.18.0) (charge: #222 0s. 8d.)

Event Comment: Books of New Hay at the Old Market are now published, and may be had at the Theatre

Event Comment: [Mrs Townsend's 1st appearance at cg was on 8 May 1795.] Receipts: #231 4s. 6d. (212.11.6; 18.13.0)

Event Comment: [As Miss P. Farren Mrs Knight had 1st appaared in London on 15 May 1777 at the hay.] "[Knight's] simplicity is the type of nature, untainted With buffoonery; and what we very rarely meet with, his attention was so wholly engrossed by the business of the scene as to make him appear unconscious of being before an audience" (Morning Chronicle, 26 Sept.). Receipts: #248 3s. 6d. (240.2.6; 8.1.0)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 4 years [acted 27 May 1794]. With the original Music, Dresses, Scenery, Machinery and Decorations. Receipts: #203 15s. (200.0; 3.15)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: In Act II a Masquerade Scene. "Neither in conception nor in power is [Mrs Jordan] adequate to the character...This play has not often been so ill performed in a London theatre as it was on this evening" (Monthly Mirror, May 1796, p. 50). Receipts: #231 8s. (162.14.6; 67.15.6; 0.18.0)

Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted these 8 years [acted 1 May 1792, Mme Mara had appeared in the oratorios at this theatre in the present season, as well as in 1792-93 and 1793-94]. Receipts: #216 11s. 6d. (210.8.0; 6.3.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Mrs Siddons, and the Last Night of her Engagement [see 6 and 16 May]. Mainpiece: Never acted here [1st acted at Bath, 1 Jan. 1788, as Such Things Were. Prologue by Richard Graves (Public Advertiser, 28 Jan. 1788)]. Oracle, 18 Apr.: Tickets to be had of Mrs Siddons, No. 49, Great Marlborough-street. Receipts: #590 14s. (292.16.0; 51.13.0; 4.10.0; tickets: 235.6.6; odd money: 6.8.6) (charge: #213 17s. 4d.)

Event Comment: 2nd piece: Books of the Opera to be had at the Theatre. [3rd piece in place of The Doldrum, advertised on playbill of 3 May.] Receipts: #195 15s. (194.2.6; 1.12.6)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Kemble, but "The Publick are respectfully informed that Kemble having been attacked in the course of Last Night with a violent Pleurisy, which confines him to his Bed, Charles Kemble has undertaken to read the part of Mahmoud, and hopes for your kind Indulgence" (printed slip attached to BM playbill (Harris, Vol. V)). Afterpiece in place of The First Floor advertised on playbill of 3 May.] Receipts: #315 4s. (252.6.6; 60.19.0; 1.9.6; tickets not come in: 0.9.0)

Event Comment: Account-Book, 11 May: Paid Hoare the author of Mahmoud 5 nights at #33 6s. 8d., #166 13s. 4d. Receipts: #227 14s. 6d. (181.5.6; 45.10.0; 0.19.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for Middleton. Morning Herald, 10 May: Tickets to be had of Middleton, No. 20, Great Russell-street, Covent-Garden. Receipts: #287 12s. (144.18.6; 2.15.0; tickets: 139.18.6)

Event Comment: Benefit for Barrymore. Mainpiece: In Act II a Masquerade Scene. Morning Herald, 16 May: Tickets to be had of Barrymore, No. 20, Judd-place West, New-road, St. Pancras. Receipts: #155 9s. (97.9.6; 51.12.6; 4.10.6; tickets: none listed; odd money: 1.16.6) (charge: #217 5s.)

Event Comment: Benefit for Townsend. Morning Herald, 13 May: Tickets to be had of Townsend, No. 153, Drury-lane. Receipts: #354 16s. 6d. (131.13.6; 13.7.0; tickets: 209.16.0)

Event Comment: Benefit for the Widow and Three Orphan Children of the late Mr Benson. [Address by John Taylor, Poems, I, 62.] "Benson [who committed suicide on 19 May] was remarkable for a very retentive memory, which enabled him on the slightest notice to become a substitute for almost any performer who might be suddenly disabled from appearing" (European Magazine, June 1796, p. 397). The house was a very good one, but it has been said that Sheridan went to the Treasury and carried off the money, so that Benson's widow and children never got a sixpence" (Genest, VII, 245). Receipts: #678 10s. 6d. (319.8.0; 66.3.6; 2.19.0; tickets: 276.6.0; odd money: 13.14.0) (charge: #212 15s.)

Event Comment: Afterpiece: Not acted these 7 years. [Bannister Jun.'s 1st appearance as Jobson was at dl, 21 May 1796.

Event Comment: "Nothing reduces acting to so miserable a show of mechanism as the constant applause at particular speeches...Mrs Siddons labours under a disadvantage [in dl theatre]. that she is not everywhere heard. To be so she would strain her voice unnaturally. She does not choose to make the sacrifice, and preserves her excellence with the near, whatever she may lose to the remote" (Oracle, 27 Sept.). Receipts: #372 0s. 6d. (280.13.0; 89.18.6; 1.9.0)

Event Comment: The high degree of Public favor bestowed on Mr Elliston has induced the Proprietors of the Theatre Royal Bath, obligingly to consent that he shall perform at this Theatre once in every Fortnight thro'out the Season (notice on playbill of 10 Oct.). [But, except for 19 May, Elliston did not act at cg after 24 Nov.] Receipts: #249 14s. (229.12; 20.2)

Event Comment: Gentlemen are particularly entreated to observe that in consequence of the displeasure expressed by the Subscribers, as well as the Public, at the frequent interruption of the business of the Representation, by the pressure of people on the Stage, the Company will hereafter be admitted behind the Scenes, before and after the Opera, and during the intervals between the Opera and Ballets only; but while the Curtain is up, Gentlemen are earnestly entreated to withdraw from the Stage; otherwise the request of the Nobility and Gentry, in conformity also to the public opinion, of shutting entirely the doors between the audience part of the Theatre and the Stage, must at last be compiled with. Those persons entitled to Admissions previous to the year 1789, who may not have an opportunity of sending their Securities to be registered before the opening of the Theatre, are requested to produce them at the Door, as they pass. The Public are entreated to observe that Ladies dressed in Bonnets, and Gentlemen in Boots, cannot be admitted into the Pit of the Opera. Pit 10s. 6d. Gallery 5s. No Money to be returned. The Doors to be opened at 6:30. To begin at 7:30 [same throughout opera season]. The Nobility are entreated to give direction to their Servants to set down and take up at the Theatre with the Horse's head toward Pall Mall. On account of the abuses practised in the names of the Subscribers, it is become necessary to require the production of the Subscription Ticket at the Doors and the Boxes. At the Chair-door in Market-Lane, Subscribers only will be admitted. "Braham sustained his part so well that we trust he will give us an example that shall induce us to chace from an English stage the degrading and distusting form of a Castrato" (Morning Chronicle, 28 Nov.). [The playbill omits Rovedino, but his performance is reviewed in True Briton, 28 Nov. The only other male part in the opera is that of Sandro. And see 14 Feb. 1797.