Event Comment: Afterpiece: By Desire. [A full column, front-page letter to the Author of the General Advertiser from one purporting to live many miles from London, but whose curiosity about the New Tragedy Irene brought him to see it, details his experience in the theatre the night of Tues. 14 Feb. Seems to be an illconcealed "puff." The writer listens to three critics in the pit decry the performance, then after seeing it himself concludes: "It was receiv'd with universal approbation...Upon the whole I dare affirm that the Judgment of Posterity will concur with me in distinguishing Irene as the best tragedy which this age has produced, for Sublimity of thought, Harmony of numbers, strength of expression, a scrupulous observation of Dramatic Rules, the sudden Turn of events, the tender and generous distress, the unexpected catastrophe, and the extensive and important moral." He inquires why the play has not been so favorably received as others, and concludes it is too finely and artistically conceived to please the masses. He closes by complimenting the Ladies of Great Britain for he "scarce ever saw so shining an assembly in the Boxes. Their early approbation of a Tragedy in which not only the words but the ideas are entirely chaste; a tragedy filled with noble sentiment and poetic beauty is at once a proof of their delicacy and penetration."] Receipts. #100 (Cross); #101 (Powel)